THE TILLAMORE TALES 1

  Just so everyone knows what we're  talking  about,  the line above is the
title of the series and the  number  of  the  first chapter (really?). As I
have mentioned earlier, the hero's name is William Tillamore, which is sup-
posed to be a Norwegian pun - it  sounds  like "Vil hjem til a' mor" (wanna
go home to mum), which is supposed to suggest - at least to Norwegian play-
ers - that he's a bit of a wimp. (Relax, most other characters have English
pun names or even punless ones!) The  family  name  starting with a T makes
the series title a nice  alliteration.  (We usually abbreviate it to 3T, or
3T1 for this first chapter.)
  The title of the first chapter is a  bit  more indefinite at the time be-
ing. For reasons too lenghtly to go  into  here, I have suggested calling a
later chapter "The fat lady sings", which  gave me the idea to name all the
chapters after different  "it's  over"  or  "never" expressions. The best I
have come up with for part one is "All he wrote", which doesn't really have
anything to do with the plot, just that  this is the part of William's life
where he gives up writing. (I have  some  ideas for other chapters, but not
really any that fit titles like "The  cows  come  home" or "Hell freezes o-
ver", so maybe I should just drop the idea.)

  [A later idea: I just got  the  absurd  idea  to make a game called Bob's
Your Uncle. It's particularly absurd  because  all  I know about it at this
time is that it's going to be about  Bob's  nephew... Maybe I could use the
expression at a title for 3T1 if I call William's uncle (see below) Bob?]
  [Still later - If you are at all  interested  in detective literature (?)
you have probably  heard  about  the  classic  "Murder  in  the  Mews".  By
twisting that title a bit I got  something  that  may be suitable for title
for this adventure: Murderin' the Muse.  (The idea is the same as in All He
Wrote: That this is the part of William's life where he gives up writing.)]

  Let's start at the beginning, which is not the beginning of the game. But
I need to get this at  least  slightly  organized,  and  the best way I can
think of right now is to do  it  chronologically.  So  let's start with the
city, which is what came first (and long before our hero).
  The name of our hero's home town actually has a story behind it (which is
entirely made up, but based on the  ways  some real names came into being).
The city, which lies at the banks of  a  navigable  river and has a harbour
that does not necessarily play a part in  this first adventure, was founded
by vikings who didn't bother to name it  (a practice which was quite common
when there was only one  of  something  -  why name the river when there is
only one river? This, incidentally,  is  how  the river Avon (actually "the
river The River") got its name). They just called it "ladestedet", which is
Norwegian for "the loading  place".  This  got  gradually  corrupted (some-
thing else that often happens with names  in a foreign language) into Lady-
stead, and one fine day the Christians  got the idea that the imagined lady
had to be a pagan goddess, so  to  put  an  end to "her influence" they re-
placed her with the most  Christian  lady  of  them  all and named the city
Marystead. And that is the name  it  has  kept  to this day, along with the
popular legend that it really got that name because a certain lady has made  
quite a few appearences in the neighbourhood...
  The origin of the city's name  is  something  the  player has a chance to
learn about by talking to a  character  who is interested in local history,
but it is not really necessary for  solving  the game. (However, the histo-
rian has some  other information  about  old times that may prove more use-
ful.)
  Another placename in the area that will  prove to be of some significance
is Pandip Brook. This place, which  lies  a  handful of miles from the city
and does not play a very active role  in  3T1 (but may in later adventures)
got its strange name during a gold  rush  in  the 1860's (when miners would
dip their pans in the brook to wash out  the gold). Quite a few people made
their fortune at Pandip Brook, and two families - the Harfolds and the Mor-
leys - settled in the nearby city.  Later  the area got abandoned, and "to-
day" (in 1929 when the game starts)  the  place  is mostly abandoned except
for a chapel that was built to  commemorate  a  supposed revelation (see a-
bove) and a stud farm that is the birthplace  of a race horse called Pandip
King, who will also play a minor part in the plot of the game. [I original-
ly invented this place - and thought up the gold rush to explain the name -
as an excuse for giving the horse  that  name. It is an anagram of "kidnap-
ping", just like Red Rum's name was "murder" backwards.]
  Next a brief history of the  Tillamore  family  (and one member in parti-
cular). They were a reasonably well-to-do  family (William went to the same
private school as Alice Harfold, but  not  at the same time) until the war.
When William's father got killed in the  war, he (William) continued living
with his mother for as long as she could support the two of them and a cou-
ple of servants, but when she  eventually  moved  to a resting home William
found that their mansion was too big for just him, so he sold it, fired the
servants and moved into a far more modest  bedsitter/office in a quiet side
street (where he still  lives  today),  where  he  for lack of better ideas
started working on his great ambition to become a famous crime writer.

  The introduction to the game starts on the day William recieves his 200th
rejection letter. [A little  side  note:  The  publishing house he has been
sending most of his numerous manuscripts  to was founded by a couple of im-
migrants - a Russian called Ivan  Runnoff  and  a Frenchman called Francois
deMille. Guess what the firm is  called!]  The prime reason for his despair
is not just that it's a  printed  form  letter  -  they started sending him
those years ago - but this  time  it's  a  specially made one with his name
printed on!!
  Finally realizing he's a  total  failure  [at  least as far as writing is
concerned] (and besides he hasn't got much  money left either), William de-
cides to end it all. At this point  we  have two possibilities depending on
how much space we can use on the intro.
  The short version: William starts searching  for his father's army pistol
(to shoot himself), but finds some old letters instead.
  The long version: He tries to hang  himself,  but the rope breaks, and in
the fall he knocks over a box full of old papers. As he starts picking them
up, he finds the old letters.
  Well, that wasn't much of a  difference  on  paper, but the second alter-
native involves far more animation... Anyway the old letters turn out ot be
the first harvest of rejections from  Runnoff  &  deMille Ltd. This was way
before the printed form letters, and  he  starts  reading one of them (per-
haps as an attempt to get into an  even  more suicidal mood) and finds that
Mr. Runnoff was actually trying to give  him some good advice back then (as
opposed to the present, where apparently only his manners (and perhaps lack
of familiarity with English clichés) keep  him from telling William to drop
dead). One of the publisher's  suggestions  is that William should get more
experience to help him with his  work.  The meaning of this is of course to
get more experience as a writer, or  perhaps  experience with people to im-
prove his characters, but William  gets  the impression that he needs expe-
rience with crime to write about it!
  There are two obvious ways of  getting  experience with crime, and fortu-
nately William decides to try the  legal  one  first. He goes to the police
station and asks for a dotted line to sign,  but they just laugh at him and
finally (after they manage to stop laughing)  tell him he couldn't become a
policeman if he lied about his height, so he can just forget about it. Here
the possible plot splits into a long and a short version depending on space
again (We're still in the introduction, remember?).
  The long version: William decides that  if the law doesn't want him he'll
have to try the other side (which,  among  other  things, does not have any
height requirements!). In short, he  tries  to become a criminal, but fails
miserably at that too. Not only  is  his  first  crime a total flop, but he
doesn't even get arrested for it! All he  gets for a night's work is a fine
for littering or something like that. But  at least this brings him back to
the police station, where he meets his uncle.
  The short version: William never  gets  as  far as trying the wide path -
his uncle, who is an officer on the local  police force (in both versions),
comes into the guard room (or whatever  it's called) to see what the others
are laughing at and finds that the object of ridicule is his nephew.
  William tells him that he wanted to become a policeman to get some crimi-
nal experience¹ (?), but now it looks like  he has to become a criminal in-
stead. The uncle tries to talk him  out  of it, but when he finds that Wil-
liam is determined to get SOME kind  of  experience he suggests a third al-
ternative: How about becoming a  private  detective?  [Dialog idea: William
asks "You mean like Sherlock Holmes?" and  the uncle answers "Not exactly -
Holmes was intelligent..."]
[¹Important:  William just says he wants  the experience, not what he wants
it for. If he started  explaining,  his  uncle  would  realize what Runnoff
really meant and tell him to start studying people or something...]

  To make a long intro short, William's uncle (No, he hasn't got a name yet
(unless it's Bob...)) helps William get  a licence and set up office in his
old room. He (the uncle) has also  decided  to  help William get started by
sending him some pretty harmless  cases  to  warm up with (runaway poodles,
that sort of thing), but before it  gets  that far William gets a client on
his own and what turns out to be  a  far  more  serious case than his uncle
would have liked...
  William still hasn't finished  swearing  and  sucking his thumb (which he
hit while hammering a nail into the wall to hang his licence on) when there
is a knock on the door and a vaguely familiar (all millionaires are famous,
of course...) gentleman enters the office. [I had an idea here that William
hasn't put a sign on the door yet,  so  he doesn't think this can be a cli-
ent, and there's a lot  of  misunderstandings  because  he assumes it's the
landlord who has come to  gripe  about  the  rent!  However,the dialog just
didn't work, so I dropped the idea. New dialog follows:]
W: "Can I help you?" (or perhaps "be of assistance"?)
H: "That depends... I am Ebenezer (?) Harfold."
W: "Well, I'm sorry, but I can't help you  with that! If you want to change
your name you should go to [wherever Englishmen  go to change their names].
It's in the city hall at the east end of Dime Street..."
[Dime Street is the main street of  Marystead.  It's  a sort of wordplay on
Penny Lane, one of a couple of Beatles references I have come up with. More
about this later.]
H: "I don't want to change my name!"
W: "Why are you here then?"
H: "I have come about this."
  He hands William a note which turns  out  to be made up of words and syl-
lables clipped from a newspaper. It reads:  "We have you daughter No police
or she dead [apparently  the  kidnapper  couldn't  find "dies" anywhere] We
want one mill pnd" (The last line is  very  close to the edge of the paper,
so either the kidnapper couldn't find "ion" or "oun" either, or he just ran
out of space. This is actually the setup for a little gag. (see below))
W: "This must be a mistake - I don't have a daughter!"
H: "Of course not! The letter was  delivered  to me - it is my daughter who
has been kidnapped!"
W: "Good!" [What he means is that it's  good that it isn't his daughter be-
cause then it can't be his mill pnd either,  but he's got just enough sense
not to say that!]
H: "What do you mean, it's good that my daughter has been kidnapped?!"
W: (trying to cover up his blunder) "Uh... Of course not! I just meant that
it's good to get the facts straight. Your  daughter has been kidnapped, and
the kidnappers want your mill pond."
H: "What mill pond?"
W: (confused) "Do you have more than one?"
H: "I am not sure. There are two  rivers  running through my... Why are you
talking about mill ponds??"
W: "Because the kidnappers do. They  want  a mill pond, presumably in small
unmarked buckets. Goodness knows what for..."
H: (ironically) "That's funny,  I  thought  they  were asking for a million
pounds!"
W: "Yes, of course! That makes much  more  sense. You can buy a lot of mill
ponds for a million pounds, can't you?"
H: "I wouldn't know - I never bought  one.  The  ones I have were inherited
from my father... But forget the sodding mill ponds! Can you find my daugh-
ter?"
W: "I never make promises I am not sure  I can keep, but I shall give it my
best try."
H: (Produces a checkbook) "Very  well.  And how much is that best try going
to  cost me?"
W: (obviously confused at being offered  money for a change!) "One... uh...
million..."
H: "One million pounds!? Then I might as well pay the ransom!"
W: (cover-up time again...) "No, I mean one... million baht."
H: "One million baht? So when did you come home from Siam, last night?" (He
picks up a notepad and starts calculating  the fee in pounds. Note: He does
not have to look up the exchange  course  - he knows that kind of things by
heart!)
W: "No, twelve years ago - I was there  during the war. I got a good friend
there, one of the natives. He saved my life once, and in memory of that oc-
casion I have developed the habit of quoting my fees in bahts."
H: "What a strange story. How did he save your life?"
[Interior detail: One of the walls  is  adorned by a horrid-looking stuffed
crocodile head which William "inherited" from the previous tenant. He never
found anyone mad enough to buy it,  and  does  not want to give the garbage
man a heart attack, so he has just left  it hanging where he found it. (The
details could be included in the  description  when the player examines it,
or some later dialog.)]
W: "From that one!" (he indicates the crocodile head)
H: "That one, still attached to a living body?"
W: "Yes - mine! (He thinks about it  and  realizes  what Harfold means) And
its own, of course."
H: "He must have been a brave man!"
W: "He was. (He walks over to  the  crocodile  and  puts his hand under its
chin) Alas, poor Rashid, I knew him well..."
H: "Rashid? Isn't that an Arabic name?"
W: "That's right - he was an Arab."
H: "I thought he said he was a native?"
W: "Yes - a native Arab."
H: "In Siam?"
W: "Uh... yes, that's the way  he  was.  You  think  YOU are confused - you
should try living with him for a while!"
H: "Never mind! Enough with Rashid! I..."
W: "That's what the crocodile said too."
H: "Look, can we forget the bloody crocodile  for a moment? I make that 243
pounds, four shillings, three pence, two  turtle doves and a partridge in a
pear tree.  Is that per day or  total?"  [Note:  If we want this part to be
realistic someone should check the baht/pound exchange course in 1929!]
W: "Neither - it's the standard fee for three days. Not including expenses,
of course. And never mind the poultry..."
  Harfold starts filling out a  check,  and  William  picks  up the pad and
makes a note which he first puts on his  desk, then he changes his mind and
puts it on a nail next to the door.  If  the  player checks this note after
the game starts, he will  find  that  it  says  "Things  to  do: Learn some
Siamese names!"  [The  reason  for  handling  the  note  this  way  will be
explained later.] He then starts questioning his first client:
W: "Do you have any enemies?"
H: "Do I have any enemies?? Didn't I tell you I am a Harfold?"
W: "Harfold? Oh yes, the feud..."
H: "The Morleys and the  Harfolds  have  been  at  each others' throats for
ages. Well, for 65 years, six months  and...  seventeen  days actually, but
who's counting?"
W: "I'm not! Except for money (when I have it), of course..."

  Well, that's more or less the intro, at  the end of which the player gets
to explore William's office for a while  before he goes out to start gathe-
ring clues.  Magnus did a small demo of this part once, and in that version
he had included a little problem by placing the key to William's desk draw-
er behind a note on a nail on the  wall.  To  explain why it wound up there
without William knowing about it I  thought  up  that little scene with the
note. What happened was that when he  put  the note on the desk the key was
lying under it, and when he picked it up  and put it on the wall (maybe be-
cause Harfold was trying to read  it?),  he inadvertently picked up the key
as well! In the final version of the adventure  the drawer will probably be
unlocked, or William will have all  his  keys  in a pocket, so I don't know
why I bother with explaining this... :-)

  Anyway, the game has started, and  before  we  get bogged down in details
let's start with a brief overview of  what  the  game is all about and what
must be done to win.
  Apparently it's just a question of  finding  a kidnapped girl and getting
her safely home. It's not. The truth is that Harfold's daughter is not kid-
napped at all! She has eloped with a  young  man who just happens to be the
son of her father's  archenemy  Morley.  The  son's name is Irving - no pun
there (Magnus thought up  the  Morleys  before  we got started on the punny
stuff), except that his first  initial  reflects their interdependence (!).
At least to Norwegians and others  who  are  familiar with nonsense phrases
like "tra la la", sha-la-la-la-lee"  and  "falleri  fallera". The last one,
foundin some Norwegian songs, can be read  as "Faller I, faller A." meaning
that if I falls, then A falls as well... [Before I (that's me, not Irving!)
go on, I'd better explain to those who weren't around last time and haven't
caught on yet, that Alice got her name because "All-is Her-fault".]
  Anyway, to get back to the  plot,  Irving  is  the one who sent Harfold a
fake ransom note to get the nearest thing he could get to a dowry. However,
the plot sickens (or thickens, if  you  insist)  when he gets cold feet and
doesn't turn up to collect  the  ransom.  At  this point Harfold has made a
couple of interesting discoveries: Alice  has a special life insurance that
covers not only death  and  dismemberment,  but  kidnapping as well! If she
gets kidnapped and he pays the ransom and the kidnapper doesn't get caught,
he will get the money back from the insurance  company. And furthermore, he
has found that for tax reasons  it's  actually  more  profitable to pay the
ransom and get it back later (maybe  next  year) than to keep the money! So
of course he gets very annoyed when the  kidnapper does not turn up to take
the money off his hands after all the trouble he had with raising that much
cash, losing a whole day's interest  and  all that. In fact, he gets so an-
noyed he decides to take over the  whole  game  and play both sides. Now it
has already been proved that the kidnapping  is for real, it should be pos-
sible to get away with a bit of  insurance  fraud, showing that you can in-
deed have your cake (or  mill  pond...  sorry!)  and eat it too. (Få både i
poseog sekk, som det heter på norsk...)
  This second mystery - who is the NEW kidnapper? - was something I thought
up when the original mystery threatened  to become too easy, and one little
hitch with it is that if Harfold  gets  busted  for insurance fraud William
won't get paid, so that isn't  a  particularly  happy  ending.  Besides the
mystery should be easy to solve when  you  know  that only Harfold, William
and the original kidnapper know about the  "kidnapping"! To provide a happy
ending for everyone (?)  and more of a challenge to the player I decided to
include a third  mystery.  But  before  that  let's  wrap  up the first and
second.
  William must find out that  Alice  has  eloped,  with whom, and to where.
Then it's time to tie a subplot into the  main web. We had decided that the
whole game should take place inside the  old town of Marystead, which means
William can't just go after the young lovers,  wherever they are. So I came
up with this subplot in which William's uncle tells him that a detective in
some other town (which happens to be  the  one  Alice and Irving have moved
to!) has asked him (the uncle) to find  a detective in Marystead who can do
a couple of things for him. He tells William  that he chose him for the job
because he is the best detective he  knows  in town, and adds "Please don't
ask how many there are of you!" (Suggesting  that he is the only one, so he
is the best - and the worst, the  youngest,  the  oldest, the smartest, the
stupidest and so on.) After William has  done this job (which should not be
complicated enough to distract the  player  from  the main plot), the other
detective owes him a facour,  so  when  William  finds  out where Alice and
Irving have gone, he asks his colleague  to look for them¹ - which wraps up
the case as far as the player is concerned, because the rest happens all by
itself. The detective not only finds A&I  and verifies William's theory, he
also tells Alice about the fake  kidnapping  and  surprises Irving with the
fact that someone is STILL trying to collect  the ransom for his unofficial
fiancee. So they naturally  decide  to  come  home and put things straight,
which means William does get  paid  for  finding  Alice  and "bringing" her
safely home.
[¹Of course the other  detective  needs  a  photo of at least Alice to find
them. I mention this just because I got  a little dialog idea. When William
asks Harfold for a photo of his missing daughter, the latter asks sarcasti-
cally what he wants it for -  there  aren't  that  many  kidnapped girls in
town! William replies: "Well, suppose Morley's daughter got kidnapped too -
you wouldn't want me to rescue HER, would you?"]
  The player finds to his surprise (unless someone has sent in the complete
solution to a magazine and had it  printed  there  by then of course!) that
this is only the first part of the  story.  When  everyone starts comparing
notes it soon becomes evident that  the  source of all the trouble is what-
ever happened between Harfold's and  Morley's  grandfathers during the gold
rush - which the current patresfamilias  still haven't forgiven each other,
and it looks like there won't be anything  remotely resembling a happy end-
ing until someone (nudge nudge wink  wink)  finds  out what really happened
that day and proves that the feud is  totally  groundless. I haven't worked
so much on this part yet, but it involves  delving into local history and a
helping paw from some unusual  assistants.  But  I have thought up a snappy
(?) happy ending. After William has solved the old mystery and the families
embraced each other  (metaphorically),  Alice comes to see William one last
time - she and Irving  are  moving  to  Australia  to  take over one of her
father's factories.  He asks  her  what  kind  of factory, and she explains
that it's a mattress spring factory  called  Harfold  Springs, but they are
going to rename it after her...

  Okay, time to get bogged down into detail!! Alice got her first name (and
age) before her last. I first  decided  to call her Alice just to make some
jokes.
1) When William first arrives  at  Harfold's  mansion,  he tells the butler
that  he has come "about miss  Alice".  The  butler informs him that "Alice
doesn't live here any longer" and  William  remarks  that that would make a
great movie title! (Actually it IS a movie  title...) - to which the butler
remarks that he is ahead of his time...  Getting back on the track, William
tells the butler that he knows Alice isn't  home - in fact, he knows she is
kidnapped, and that's why he is  here!  At which point the butler misunder-
stands and goes to tell his master  that  the kidnapper has come to discuss
the ransom!
2) Harfold's neighbour (who  we'll  get  back  to later) quotes from a song
about a third Alice a couple of times.  He first tells William that "for 24
years I've been living next door to Alice".  [So she's 24 years old - inci-
dentally this was where I got the  elopment  idea¹ when I "realized" she is
an adult. Up to this point we had not even  thought about how old she was!]
Later (after she has left for  Australia?)  he remarks that "I'll never get
used to not living next door to Alice".
[¹Actually the first idea I got was a bit  different, and Magnus thought it
was TOO original, so I invented Irving  Morley instead. But now he's out of
the project it may be worthwhile to waste  a few lines on my original idea.
Maybe someone likes this  one  better?  Anyway,  the original idea was that
Alice is lesbian and has run away  with  another woman... Of course in that
case I would not get to use the word  "elope"  (?). Actually the most inte-
resting thing about this woman  was  her  name  - after I got the "A and I"
idea I decided to call her Irene  West  ("I reinvest" - suggesting that she
is about to start a new life. I may  still  find some use for that name one
day...)]

  There's a whole lot of people in Marystead  by now, and many of them hold
a piece of the plot, and it's not  easy  to  know where to begin. But let's
start geographically nearest to William's humble abode by going downstairs.
On the ground floor on the building  he  lives  in is a shop run by a woman
named Shirley. (Note: try to  avoid  the  far  too obvious "surely"-jokes!)
This is really Magnus' character, as  she  was  in place already when I got
involved in the project, but he has practically disowned her and says I can
do anything I like with her design.  Unfortunately  my imagination seems to
have a blind spot as far as Shirley  is  concerned,  because I haven't been
able to think up  very much interesting  about her. There is one exception,
though: She has an unusual hobby -  she  builds small model houses. And not
only that, she likes to  pretend  that  the  small village she has built by
"now" is inhabited by a tribe of small people. Now she is building a temple
where she assumes (!) they are going  to  worship her as their creator - in
other words, it's a Shirley Temple!  (I  have  written this dialog already,
but feel free to try to make a better version.) (At the time I write this I
do not know who I'm writing it for. You  ARE going to help with the dialog,
aren't you?)

  Shirley's shop is also the place  where  William meets another more inte-
resting character, so it's a good idea to hang around here for a while. Now
that I've mentioned it, I might as  well  start telling you about one of my
own creations. In fact this  character  was  invented (but never put into a
finished story) by me several years ago, and in the middle of the work with
3T1 I realised that there is a place for her here...
  The original story (opening)  involved  a young journalist suffering from
writer's block who goes for a long walk  in search of inspiration. (The new
version, of course, involves William going to Shirley's shop downstairs for
some other reason!)  Just  like  William,  the  original hero winds up in a
small shop at the edge of the town,  where  he stays for a while to discuss
the weather and other interesting subjects with the shopkeeper. While he is
there a cat walks in, and to his  surprise  the shopkeeper (Shirley in this
case) treats it like a customer!  Which,  it  turns out, is exactly what it
is. The cat carries a  small  pouch  around  it  neck,  which  turns out to
contain (the pouch, not the neck...)  some  money  and a shopping list. The
shopkeeper (Shirley in this case)  starts   picking  together the things on
the list ands putting them in  a  box,  and  after she has done some arith-
metics, counted out some money from the pouch and put some change back, she
tells the cat that this is too much  for  a cat to carry, so they will have
to wait until she finds someone to help with the carrying. And, by the way,
she has run out of sardines, but expects a new shipment on Friday.
  This, of course, is a cue for the player to do what the journalist in the
original story did, which is (in case you haven't guessed yet) to offer the
cat (and whoever he assumes owns it) his  help. After a brief discussion he
picks up the box and asks for directions, and Shirley explains that the cat
is one of Pooshka Babooshka's pack. When  William admits never having heard
the name before (and much less  knowing  where  a person of that name would
live!), Shirley tells him to just follow the cat.
  William is a bit sceptical about  trusting  (what he thinks of as) a dumb
beast to show him the way anywhere,  but  he  soon finds that this cat is a
special one. It keeps stopping to  wait  for him, and continously checks to
see if he's following it closely  enough.  After a bewildering walk through
the underbrush - the route is  too  complicated  to  memorize, so noone but
those who live there (and a  few  regular  visitors,  like the milkman) can
find the way without help - they  arrive  outside a large, old but wellkept
house inhabited by a feline-featured old  woman - who introduces herself as
Pooshka Babooshka - and (to make an understatement)  more cats than you can
count.
  We all know the cliches about old women living alone with oodles of cats,
but PB and her charges are somewhat different - the place is clean and well
kept, and everyone looks healthy and happy.  William soon discovers (as did
the original hero) that these are special  cats. I never got as far as com-
ing up with something truly original  and  inventive for the origin and na-
ture of this unusual household, but all  we and William really need to know
is that these cats are intelligent creatures.  [One possible explanation is
that PB is a (retired) were-cat and  the  cats  her offspring and grandkit-
tens, but that sounds a bit too unoriginal...]
  The name Pooshka Babooshka  is  supposed  to  be Russian or something for
"pussycat grandmother". As far as I remember  I came up with the name first
and them tried to build a character  around  it,  which may explain why the
original story didn't work. :-) Anyway, PB is naturally a bit sceptical to-
wards strangers, and  to  get  admitted  into  her  house William must have
proved himself as an animal friend earlier.  We have to return to ways this
can be done later  because  it  involves  some  other  characters I haven't
described yet. But whatever  William  does  in  connection with animals, he
will not have to worry about whether PB  gets to know about it - one rather
significant feature of the Marystead  cityscape  is that there are cats al-
most everywhere, and several  of  them  are  either PB's cats or friends of
theirs, and everything they see or  hear  gets reported to the big house in
the forest (or wherever it is).  [This,  of  course, means that PB probably
knows something that can help William with whatever case he is working on!]
   Oh, by the way, the first hint  William  gets about the cats' command of
the English language (albeit  one-way)  is when the cat he followed mews at
PB while she's unpacking its purchases,  ands she answers "No sardines, eh?
Well, we'll have to wait until  Friday  then! Or maybe we should wait until
the next regular shopping round - you're not going to die without them, are
you?" [This, of course, is also  another  hint  for the player about how to
befriend the cats even better. If  William  buys some sardines when Shirley
gets them (she may get some before  Friday  too...) and then brings them to
the cats he'll be very popular! Of  course  the  "spies" in the street will
see what he's doing and understand why,  and so he'll have no problems with
finding a guide...]

  This is getting long, but the  next  logical  thing  to  do at this point
would be to mention another of my  old  (i.e. older than 3T) creations from
an unfinished scenario,  because  William  meets  him at PB's place. It's a
quite logical place for them to  meet,  because  the character I'm about to
introduce is a cat - a young black tomcat  known as Bingo, a name PB claims
that he got by accident. She  used  to  have  the annoying habit  of saying
"Bingo!" to tell people they were  right  about something, and at that time
the black kitten had no better name than Blackie (or should that be Blacky?
Never mind, he's about to lose it!)  :-)  One  fine day she was introducing
some of the cats to a visitor  when  he  (the  visitor) picked up the black
kitten and said "And this  is  Blackie,  right?"  PB said "Bingo!", and the
visitor, who was a bit of a wag (or  whatever  a  cat would call it!), said
"Oh! Sorry, Bingo!" The name stuck, and  even though they have never really
discussed it, PB does get the impression that Bingo likes his new name bet-
ter than the old one!
  So where does Bingo fit into the main story? Well, it transpires that one
of his hobbies is eavesdropping on people  who read aloud to themselves. He
has "read" several detective stories this way and found the genre very fas-
cinating, so of course he is absolutely thrilled to be in the presence of a
real detective! So thrilled in fact,  that  he  later moves in with William
and becomes his self-appointed  assistant.  Depending on how the plot turns
out in detail, he may actually be of assistance in several cases - but only
in the first adventure. I have this idea  for writing Bingo out of the plot
for good near the end of the game, which started as a gag and an excuse for
not repeating myself too much  in  3T2,  but  turned out to have unforeseen
consequences.... What happens is that Bingo disappears one day, and a while
later one of PB's cats brings  William  a note from "grandma". She explains
that Bingo has gone exploring because he craves a new and different kind of
excitement, and that he told her to  say  "Farewell, and thanks for all the
fish!" (The title of a book by  Douglas  Adams,  in case you didn't know...
Also part of a rather deep message. You  see, the dolphins... What am I do-
ing? You can go read the book if you have to know!)
  That was the gag and write-out, here  is  the unforeseen consequence: Now
we have a young intelligent feline at large in the world, the obvious thing
would be... Right! Some time ago I  started  getting ideas for a Bingo solo
adventure which may or may not  be  published  between  3T1 and 3T2 - if we
ever get that far, and if I get more  ideas.  Many  more ideas! The plot so
far is about 85% based on a comic album I read once...

  Okay, back to 3T1. First I should assure  everyone that PB and Bingo (and
possibly other cats) are the closest thing  this scenario has to supernatu-
ral/supernormal characters, and they are  the only ones of that kind. Well,
maybe with one little exception. The next character I have decided to write
about has a rather strange origin.  Magnus  wanted to put Hercule Poirot in
the game somewhere (though he never said  why), and I tried to come up with
a character with a similar-sounding  name.  The result was Argyle Pirate, a
young, enigmatic beggar who is the  nearest  thing  Marystead has to a town
character. As you may have guessed,  AP  is not his real name. Nobody knows
what his real name is, or anything  else  about  him for that matter. Well,
except for the fact that he is "some  kind  of  foreigner" who occasionally
talks with a funny  accent  (Belgian??).  And  of course they know why they
call him AP. He got his "first name" because  he always wears argyle¹ socks
- and not just on  his  feet!  He  also  wears  them  on  his hands in cold
weather, and when they become too worn for hands or feet (or as he puts it,
the holes in both ends become  the  same  size!)  he stitches them together
into crude scarves. (Nobody knows  where  he gets all those socks from, but
somewhere in town there must  be  someone  who  loves making the things and
doesn't know what else to do  with  them...)  [¹Actually  I'm not sure what
"argyle" is, and my dictionary does not  list the word, but I have heard it
used in connection with socks. Can someone enlighten me?]
  Argyle got his "last name" for a far  simpler  reason that may hide some-
thing more complex than the mystery of  where all those socks come from. If
you're still with me, the simple part is that he's called Pirate because he
wears an eyepatch. (Well, that's  better  than the original idea, which was
that he is called Pierat because he steals pies when he's hungry and nobody
feeds him...) The complex part is  that  nobody is quite sure what, if any-
thing, is wrong with AP's eye. Some  people  claim  that they have seen him
wearing the patch on the "wrong" eye, but   very few people believe this...
If William asks him "what happened to his eye", he'll just smile enigmatic-
ally and say that "I put a patch over it!"
  Okay, time for the truth. Or at least something  along those lines. After
a bit of thinking I came up with  no  less  than  two  explanations to AP's
patch. After a bit more thinking I  found  out that one is his official ex-
planation and the other may be the real one.
1) In addition to  being  enigmatic,  he  is  also  very philosophical, and
claims that there is so much strange  to  see  in the world that half of it
would be enough (A common Norwegian  expression,  in case you haven't heard
it before - "so much that half of it would  be enough",that is...), so he's
waring the patch to block out half of what there is to see.
2) He's psychic, and has found that  he  sees more with both eyes open than
ordinary people do, so he's using the patch to block (most of) his visions.
If William starts digging through old newspapers he may find a note about a
famous psychic boy who disappeared from  a neighbour town a couple of years
back - right before Argyle came to  Marystead!  So  it looks like Argyle is
really this boy who got fed up  with  fame  and  fortune and decided to get
away from it all by running away and  changing  his identity. Nowadays he's
only using his powers to  avoid  meeting  people  who want him to use them!
This means that as soon as William figures  out Argyle's identity they will
never meet again - Argyle  knows  that  William  knows and won't give him a
chance to do something about it...

  Short interlude: I mentioned  that  William  has  to prove he's an animal
friend before PB and the cats  will  have  anything  to do with him, right?
Well, something like that anyway! One idea  I got about this is the follow-
ing: One day William meets Argyle down by the river, where he is busy pick-
ing up rocks and putting them into a sack. To make sure the player gets cu-
rious enough, William notices  that  there  is  something moving inside the
sack. Now the player has  two  options:  To  ask Argyle what he's doing, or
leave him alone. The second option has  no effect as far as being an animal
friend is concerned - what you don't  know  can't hurt your reputation, but
if William asks the mendicant  he'll  tell  him  that  he (Argyle) has been
offered five pounds to drown some kittens.  If the player drops the subject
here, he gets a minus point in the  cats'  book. (There is at least one cat
nearby; they are all curious about what  will happen to their friend's kit-
tens!) To get a plus instead he must save  the kittens somehow. The easiest
way to do this is to offer Argyle  ten  pounds  to not drown them. Unfortu-
nately he is a man (boy) of honour  who  always keeps a promise - if he has
said he will drown the  kittens,  then  he  must  do just that. Besides the
cat's owner is watching him from his balcony in the background...
  What William must do at this point is to  ask Argyle for details and find
out exactly what he has promised (and been  paid for), and then try to find
a loophole. For instance, if he was told  to put the kittens in a sack with
some rocks and toss IT in the river,  he  only  needs  to throw the sack in
the river, and nobody said anything about not taking the kittens out first!
There is still the little problem that  the owner is watching them, though,
but to get around that all they need to do is get out of view for a moment.
And of course, because Argyle has to  "drown"  the sack William has nothing
to carry the kittens in! When he tries  putting them in his pockets, Argyle
warns him that they are too young to be housebroken, and much less "pocket-
broken" - "You're not home and dry  yet,"  he points out - "In fact, if you
don't find something else to put them in you may very well soon be home and
wet!"
  Did I say short interlude? Of course it doesn't end with just getting the
kittens away from the river either - now William must either look after the
kittens himself (and feed them quite frequently)  or find them a new mother
(with or without quotemarks). The easiest way would be to find a human with
a heart of gold and a talent for  bottle-feeding  (Shirley perhaps?), but I
have thought of something more interesting  (?). William goes to Shirley to
ask her advice, and while they are talking a cat comes into the shop, jumps
up on a shelf and knocks down an empty jar. When one of the humans picks it
up, it is noticed that it both looks and smells like it has contained dried
herbs, and according to the label it  has  contained something called milk-
plant. When Shirley gets curious and looks  it up, she finds that milkplant
is a herb that (according to  folklore)  stimulates  lactation. That is, it
makes female mammals produce milk. Hopefully the player understands that if
he can find a plant like that  (there's  a picture of it in the book) and a
shecat to feed it to, that cat can then adopt the kittens...

  Okay, back to the plot! I haven't really  figured out how PB and her cats
(particuarly Bingo) can help William with  case one (unless one of them has
seen something interesting),  but  it's  possible  that they may be able to
help him with case three! I.e. they  may  be  able to literally dig up some
old clues about the origin of the  feud.  Depends  on what that origin is -
I've got a slightly unoriginal idea that I may return to later.
  Someone who (I found out after a while)  definitely has seen something is
another small character,  but  I  just  decided  to  write  about Harfold's
neighbour instead. [Well, actually he has  seen something interesting too.]
He is, to make an understatement, interested in horses, and even the name I
made up for him reflects this -  Orson  Ryder ("horse 'n' rider"). Further-
more, his wife is called Hester, which happens to be Norwegian for "horses"
- so he's got two great passions in  life:  Hester  and  "hester". To break
the ice with him William must not only talk about horses but actually sound
like he knows what he's talking about!  This is where Pandip King comes in.
William must somehow find out that the  local equine hero is entered in the
Grand National (the only idea I got so far is that he reads about it in the
paper or perhaps a special racing magazine - I don't know the titles of any
English ones...), then he  can  mention  this  and ask Orson what he thinks
about the King's chances.
  I have an idea for the opening  conversation:  William finds Orson in the
garden where he is busy trimming the hedge  (so it looks like he's at least
a little interested in gardening as  well!),  and they stand at either side
of the hedge while Orson keeps  working  closer and closer to where William
is standing. Finally (if  William  hasn't  found  the  magic word) he tells
William that unless he wants a fancy haircut or worse, he'd better move out
of the way!
  Anyway, Orson has a couple of  observations  about the case once they get
around to discussing other things than horses, but the real (well, at least
the first) purpose with getting William  inside the Ryder residence is that
this is the only place he can meet Orson's nephew Steve Eskill-Durand. This
name is another Norwegian  pun,  "stiv  i  skulderen"  means  "stiff in the
shoulder", and Steve has indeed had a little accident which left him with a
bad shoulder. (This is if course why  he  never  goes outside, he's conval-
escing.) If William asks him  about  it,  he  will explain that he hurt his
shoulder falling of his horse. As you probably have guessed, there is some-
thing more behind this, but William  needs  more  information before he can
ask the right question.

  Before I go on, I must explain that there are two things that can provide
clues to the truth about the "kidnapping". The first is that Alice and Irv-
ing used to meet in secret quite  frequently  when  Irving was in town, and
whenever he was away (he travelled a lot  for some reason) he used to write
her quite often. Orson has often  seen  Alice ride out in the afternoon and
come back several hours later, but he was surprised to see that neither she
nor the horse looked like she had been  riding all that time! The reason is
of course that all she did was ride somewhere  to meet Irving, and then the
horse got a good long rest while  they  were together. Another clue lies at
the end of a long chain of events  that  involves  both Steve Eskill-Durand
and a couple of characters I haven't mentioned  yet. One of them also has a
clue that leads to the discovery of  the  letters  I mentioned, so it looks
like time to  introduce  the  character  I  started  writing about before I
changed my mind above. (Are you still with me???)
  This started when Magnus and I were discussing the use of music in games,
and I came up with the idea of having a busker somewhere (In addition to at
least one other musician I will  return  to later). [This was also meant as
an excuse for using the word, I think!  :-)] I also had some ideas for gags
concerning a writer, and we finally  decided  to combine the two characters
in a young man  called  Spillane  Tell  ("spill  ein  tel"  = "play another
one"!). I am not  sure  if  Spillane  can  be  a  first  name,  if not then
Spillane-Tell must be his last name and  he needs a first name that is part
of the pun. The best I have come up  with  so far is that he uses the stage
name (?) Duke Anvil ("du kan vel"  =approx.  "sure  you can", so Duke Anvil
Spillane-Tell = "du kan vel spill'  ein  tel"  = "sure you can play another
one"!!). Anyway, Duke (or  whatever  his  name  is)  is busy trying to earn
money and won't talk to William at all  until he gives him some money (This
again may require cashing Harfold's  check  and buying something - in Shir-
ley's shop perhaps - to get some  change.),  and  he won't talk about Alice
before he knows William  is  interested  in her - all this requires is that
he asks someone (outside the Harfold  household)  about  her and then gives
the rumour time to spread.
  To start with the pointless opening lines (accessible after Duke gets the
money), William can ask him where they have met before - there is something
familiar about his face... After a bit  of discussion they finally find out
that they have met at the Runnoff-deMille office back in the time they were
both optimistic enough to  hand-deliver  their manuscripts. This leads to a
bit of talk about Duke's  failed  authorship,  and  he mentions that unlike
William he has only written one  novel.  William  asks him what the book is
about, and Duke answers by quoting  most of  the second verse of "Paperback
writer": "It's a dirty story 'bout a dirty  man..." etc. up to the penulti-
mate line:
"It's a steady job, but he wants to be...
W: "A paperback writer?"
D: "What? Don't be stupid! Nobody  wants  to  be a paperback writer! No, he
wants to be a computer game designer, whatever  that is!" (Remember this is
supposed to be 1929 or something like that!)
  Well, anyway Duke explains that  he  hasn't  written  a syllable since he
moved, and when William asks him where  he lives now (to see if he can spot
anything wrong with  the  location)  he  gives  his  address as 15 Writer's
Block. (It's  possible  that  he  invites  William  home  to  check out the
environment.) I also had a rather dubious  idea that starts with this being
the point where Duke gets to tell us his name. He explains that the address
may be a bit hard to find, but he  (William)  can  just ask for Duke Anvil,
everyone there knows where to find him.  He explains that this is his stage
name, and his real name is Spillane Tell, and when William repeats the full
name to see if he got it right, Duke thinks he's asking him in Norwegian to
play another one, and  does  so  (after  they  have  swapped a few lines in
Norwegian to check the nationality of the player!).
  But let's get down to business. When Duke  knows that William is interes-
ted in Alice, he will indicate  that  he  knows  something by playing a few
lines of "Do you want to know a secret?" or whatever the title of that song
is. If the player tries talking to Duke  now he'll find that he has two new
opening lines, one for players  who  know  the  song  and one for those who
don't.
1) W: "What song is that?"
D: "'Do you want to know a secret?'"
W: "Well, maybe, but first I want to know the title of that song!"
D: "The title is 'Do you want to know a secret?'!"
W: "Oh, I see. I thought you were asking me a question."
D: "I did! So, do you?"
W: "Ask you a question?"
D: "Want to know a secret!"
 ...and so on. Finally the misunderstandings  are cleared up, and Duke gets
to tell his secret (see below).
2) D: "So, you recognized the song, eh?"
W: "Yes - 'Do you want to know a secret?'"
D: "No thanks, I already know one!"
W: "I mean that's the title of the song!"
D: "'No thanks, I already know one'?"
W: "'Do you want to know a secret?'"
D: "That's the one! So, do you?"
 ...and so on! Before I tell you Duke's  secret I must say a bit more about
the letters Irving used to write. To avoid  discovery and perhaps make it a
bit more romantic, he used  to  send  his  letters  to  a fictive name (see
below) at  a poste  restante  address,  and  Alice  used to go to the PO in
disguise to pick up the letters. Duke, who usually works the streets in the
area where the Harfolds  live,  has  noticed  that  Alice  makes a habit of
roaming the streets incognito. Well, not  exactly roaming - she seems to go
to a particular place and come back  a  little later. To hazard a guess, he
would say that she goes to the post office because she some times carries a
letter when she comes back.
  I originally had an idea that one of Irving's  letters was delayed and is
still lying at the PO (and Magnus  had  a  rather dubious idea that William
would have to dress up as a woman to collect the letter which contains some
clues to the couple's current  whereabouts),  but we dropped this because I
couldn't think of  any  brilliant  ideas  for  the  letter's  contents that
wouldn't make the case too easy! Before  we leave Duke (for now at least) I
must explain how he recognized Alice in disguise - he knew her by the sound
of her footsteps! As for why he would possess such a useful skill, my first
idea was that he had taught himself  this  and  other tricks because he was
blind, but the catch was that if he was  blind he couldn't see that she was
disguised! (He couldn't be a  failed  writer  either,  not  that it matters
though...) My second idea was  that  he  had  picked up this skill from his
blind father, who either thought his  son  was  blind too, or had the fore-
sight to teach him a few tricks of  the  trade in case his blindness should
be hereditary.

  Okay, how is the plot  unfolding?  Duke's  information  and various other
things may give William/the  player  the  idea  to  search Alice's room for
leftbehind correspondence and  possible  other  clues to an alternative ex-
planation to Alice's disappearance. Of  course he must come up with a plau-
sible excuse to persuade  his  client,  who  is  still convinced that Alice
really is kidnapped and that Morley is behind it! Once that is over with, a
servant shows William the way to  Alice's  room, and it's time for a little
Beatles joke again! If William  starts  examining  the furniture before the
servant leaves, the latter will inform him that it's made of Norwegian wood
and perhaps add "Isn't it good?"
  Well, William  finds  some  interesting  letters  which  are particularly
interesting as they do not seem to be addressed  to the owner of the drawer
they were found in! Not only that, but  most of them open with a variant of
the greeting "My dear R.T.!" - which is  particularly curious because those
initials match neither "Alice  Harfold"  nor  the pseudonym on the envelope
(Irene West? I suggested recycling  the  name  after the original character
got written out, but I'm not quite sure... Maybe I want to use the name for
something better!). To add to the  mystery,  the letters are signed "Mungo-
jerrie", which is neither here nor there.  Actually, as you may know if you
have seen "Cats" or read the book,  Mungojerrie  is one of two "havoc cats"
whose partner is called Rumpelteazer  -  which  does match the opening ini-
tials!
  Asking around a bit, William  eventually  learns  that Alice used to hang
around with some other kid at school, and  they were called Mungojerrie and
Rumpelteazer because of all the  trouble  they  were causing. Unfortunately
noone seems to remember the real  name  of  the other kid, which means it's
time for a trip into William's  past  -  back  to  school! This is where we
finally get to the point with  William  coming  from a well-to-do family: I
think it was Magnus' idea that he  runs  into  his old teacher there, but I
realised that it would have to be a  private  school  if the rich kids went
there, which meant that William's  family  had  to be (sort of) rich too...
Talk about long chains of thought! (Just wait, it gets worse!)
  Getting into the school isn't so easy. William tries the obvious approach
of trying the front door first, and  finds  it  locked. The noises he makes
while establishing this fact  attracts  the  attention of a guard (or some-
thing) inside.
Guard (through a window):  "You  are  too  early!  School  isn't over until
three."
Willam: "But I am not here to pick up a kid. I come to see a teacher!"
"The parent-teacher conference is next week!"
"I am not a parent..."
"What do you mean you're not apparent? I can see you clearly!"
"No, I mean I'm not a father!"
"What are you then, an uncle? Or are you  one of those perverts? I knew it!
Get out of here before I call the police!"
  The guard slams the window shut and leaves the player to ponder William's
next move. Trying the door again  is  not  a  good idea - that was no empty
threat! [The school is just far  enough  from the police station where Wil-
liam's uncle works to be in a  different  precinct  or whatever the British
term is.] 
  So what do we do? Or rather what does William do? Walking around a bit he
comes to the fence around  the  schoolyard,  which  he remembers he used to
climb over to get a little extra  freedom.  Maybe  he can still do it, this
time for the opposite purpose? Well, he  finds that he can - just barely. A
rather ungracious ascent  followed  by  an  even less elegant descent and a
totally rotten landing brings our hero  into the schoolyard, where he finds
another locked door and an open window (plus a few closed windows that have
no part in the following).
  About the only thing William can do in  the schoolyard is look in through
the window, and when he does that he  is  surprised to find his old teacher
Juanita (Jua for short) Binnotti  (Jua  Binnotti = "You 'a' been naughty"!)
and her current class in the  middle  of  the  day's  third roll call. (The
pupils are so unruly she must check several times each day to see if all of
them are still there - or at least that's what she says!)
  I had a rather weak idea about someone calling "ROLL!" (it's a roll call,
right?), but got a better one. Each  time  a  name is called out, its owner
answers "Present!" - until Jua reaches a name that ends with "-ing".
-ing: "Present... participle!"
Jua: "Smartass!"
"Absent!"
"I beg your pardon!"
"I'm just saying Smartass isn't here today, miss..."
"The same can be said about your sense of humour, young man!"
  This scene continues a  little  longer  without  player  interaction, but
first I'd better mention that in a  part  of the plot that was written out,
William once needed a bit  of  assistance  from  someone who is good with a
slingshot (I mean catapult...).  We  agreed  to  use Argyle for this, and I
think Magnus had an idea to let  him  show  off  his skill in the following
scene (which is now rather pointless except  for that it leads to some amu-
sing (?) mix-ups).
  The camera angle changes to a tree  outside  the schoolyard, where we see
Argyle sitting on a branch as he loads  his weapon with a nut and takes aim
at the back of William's head. The  projectile  strikes  true,  bounces off
our hero's head, hits the  map  holder  (?)  above the blackboard and dives
into the inkwell with a big black  splash,  which  totally obliterates last
week's absence records.
  Jua hisses without  looking  up:  "Who...  did...  THAT?!"  She looks up,
trying to spot the perpetrator, and the following silence is broken by Wil-
liam who stutters: "Uh...Excuse me!"  (He  still  hasn't gotten over seeing
his old school tyrant "still going strong"...)
  Turning towards the window, Jua  spots  the young detective and misunder-
stands his interjection (she  probably  thinks he's confessing and apologi-
zing at the same time...). She barks: "You!  In here! Right now!", and Wil-
liam takes her literally and climbs  straight  in through the window, which
leads to more misunderstandings.
Jua: "Aren't you a bit too old  for  this  kind  of  thing?" (She refers to
shooting at unsuspecting teachers.)
W (After catching his  breath):  "Yes,  I  guess so, but you did tell me to
come in at once!" (He thinks she's talking about climbing through windows!)
  The conversation may continue with more  misunderstandings - for example,
when William finally gets around to  telling  Jua that he's looking for one
of her pupils (he means a former pupil,  of course), she misunderstands and
assures him they're all present - in  fact  she  just finished a roll call!
Maybe she thinks he's a truant officer  and wonders what he's doing looking
for truants in the classroom!
  We finally get to the point,  and  William  either  finds out who "Mungo-
jerrie" really is, or he finds  that  Jua  can't  remember either - but she
does remember that the two  troublemakers  used  to get detention together,
and so he must try to track down the old protocols from that time...
  A little side note about Jua:  William  once  wrote a lot of  notes about
people he knew - he was planning  to  write  a  book about the city and its
people from the viewpoint of one of  them,  but  gave up. (The purpose with
putting the notes in the game is of course  to tell the player about people
he meets.) According to his notes about  Juanita Binnotti, both her friends
call her Jua...

  Okay, another idea I got was that once  William finds that Alice has been
receiving mysterious letters in an even more mysterious way, he may get the
idea of asking the servants if she also  used to receive other strange mes-
sages. The answer to this question turns out to be positive, which leads to
a long string of weird ideas, a  couple  of  new characters and a whole new
part of the scenario.
  This all started because I wanted to do  something with a quaint phrase I
came across once, and that I will return  to when the right time comes. One
of the servants claims to have  received  a phone message for Alice (from a
young man), which strangely enough caused her to leave the house (on horse-
back) soon after and stay away for a  couple  of  hours. The message? "Said
the clown"!!
  It doesn't take long for William  to  find  out  (in  fact he may already
know) that there's a circus in town, so his first idea is to go and ask the
clown he assumes to be there, about "what he said". This clown turns out to
be quite a complicated case, so I'll return to him below.
  The clown finally tells our  friend  that  he  can't  help him - he never
"said" anything special, in fact his specialty  is/was pantomime! Obviously
a red herring, but the clown gives  the  player a hint: He thinks "said the
clown" sounds like a line from a  song,  and after a little discussion with
either Spillane Tell or some other  musician  I haven't mentioned yet, Wil-
liam finds out what the player may know already: There is a song called "Ha
ha said the clown".  William  remembers  vaguely  that the interjection can
also be a noun, so he goes to the  library  (another part I haven't written
about yet) and looks it up.  He's  right  -  a "ha-ha" is a hidden obstacle
(usually a concealed fence) the  sudden  appearance of which causes a horse
to refuse and throw its rider, which in  turn may cause possible spectators
to laugh, thence the name.
  The phone message was obviously a  reference  to a particular ha-ha where
Alice was supposed to meet her lover, but  how does a non-rider find such a
place? By asking someone who  fell  off  his  horse  recently, perhaps? I'm
talking about Steve Eskill-Durand,  of  course. When William asks him about
the site of his accident, he answers something  to the effect that while he
himself did not find it particularly  amusing,  a  (thankfully nonexistent)
spectator might have been of a  different  opinion, and yes, the fence that
caused his downfall could be described as a ha-ha. After getting directions
to the place, William goes there and  finds...  Well, I haven't really come
up  with a clue that would be worth all  this trudging around yet, so let's
turn our attention to the clown instead...

  The clown. More precisely, the old retired (?) clown who still lives near
the circus. His name is Fisherman,  and  there's  a very special reason for
that. One of the other performers at  the  circus  is a strong man who is a
close friend of the  clown  (Fisherman's  Friend  is strong - get it?). The
trouble with Fisherman is that he is a  kind of reversed drunkard - he only
talks nonsense when he is sober; to  get  any sense out of him you must get
him drunk! The problem is that  Fisherman's  friend  (who hasn't got a name
yet - calling him Lofthouse would be  a  bit too much) is a tee-totaler who
wouldn't touch strong beverages with  a  circus  tent pole - and he doesn't
want his friend to drink either. Since  they're almost always together, the
trick is to get rid of the strong man for  a while. This is also rather in-
volved and requires introducing another  character I haven't mentioned yet.
It also requires a bottle of whisky or  something like that, of course, but
that is the easy part...
  Another little joke about  Fisherman's  friend:  He's got a big macintosh
that hangs on a peg  in  Fisherman's  room  just  to  provide an excuse for
starting to talk about  it.  When  prompted,  he  will  explain that it was
specially made for him in  his  hometown  of  Fleetwood (where the lozenges
come from) - in other words it's  a  Fleetwood Mac.  [There  are two dialog
paths leading to this joke:  The  player  may  choose to ask the strong man
where he comes from - the answer is Fleetwood  - or talk about the mac - in
which case he learns that it was specially  made for its owner in his home-
town. Once both pieces  of  information  have  been provided, everything is
ready for the punch line...]

  Okay, let's make a little sidetrack  about  something  I thought of above
before I forget  again.  (Just  realised  I  must  introduce a new location
before I can introduce the character William  meets there.) This is another
detail that started as a joke but actually got woven into the plot.
  When William goes to see Morley, the millionaire  takes him for a walk in
his private park (Well, it's too big  to  be called a garden...) where they
soon find that they are not alone. A  beautiful  hart  is grazing among the
trees on the other side of a small  brook,  and  a man seems to be stalking
the deer. This man is either a  servant  of neighbour, and his name is Wat-
son.
Morley says: "Stop bothering my deer, Watson!" or something like that. (The
idea is that the line contains the words "my deer, Watson" - it's a kind of
Holmes/Watson pun.) Watson looks  around,  spots the two men and comes over
to them. This takes just long enugh for Morley to get in another pun - when
William asks him about the deer, he  confirms  that  it is indeed his - and
unfortunately the only one he's got.  He's  been  trying to find it a mate,
but had no success so far, so he  is  still  the  owner of a lonely hart...
("Owner of a lonely hEart" is a Yes title.)
  In another part I haven't written yet I make a couple of "Sound of Music"
jokes, and here's another one, or  rather  the first. When the conversation
later drifts back to the subject of the lonely hart, Morley elaborates that
he is looking for a doe, a deer, a  female  deer...  This could be split up
over a couple of lines: "(I need) a doe!" - "A deer?" - "A female deer!"
  By this time Watson has arrived  to  explain  that  he  was trying to get
close to the deer because he had  noticed  that  there is something hanging
from its horns. Morley explains that the deer is very shy and will only let
a few selected people - not including himself, Watson or William - get near
it. Being a patient man, he suggests  waiting  until  the hart's horns fall
off by themselves, but William smells a clue and starts looking for a loop-
hole.
  Well, what do you know! It's time  for  the second SoM joke already. When
William stars exploring Morley's  mansion  he  finds that there are so many
rooms they don't have to be "recycled", so many of the rooms have been left
the way they were when they were  last  in  use - including the old nursery
where, presumably, Irving grew up. On the  wall is an old cuckoo clock that
looks like it stopped halfway through its last "coo" - the little doors are
open, and the bird is hanging out. If the player tries examining this arti-
fact, William will look at  it  once  and  exclaim  "what  an absurd little
bird!" [One of the songs from  SoM  opens  with  a description of different
clocks striking the hours, and "up in the  nursery an absurd little bird is
popping out to say «cuckoo»..."] Somewhere  in the nursery - perhaps hidden
in the clock and being what caused  it  to stop - William finds a small bag
of itching powder (Probably hidden  by  a  certain little boy who wasn't as
nice as his family wishes to give the impression  of). If he can find a way
to drop this on the deer - perhaps by climbing its favourite tree - it will
start scratching itself against the trees, causing the mysterious object to
be torn off its horn.
  The object turns out to be a small  pendant  on  a golden chain. It turns
out to belong to Alice - suggesting strongly  that she has been in the park
at least once. The peculiar thing is  that  the  chain was wound around the
horns and secured in a way that just  can't  have happened by accident! The
only plausible explanation is that  Alice  must have visited the park often
enough to thoroughly befriend the  deer,  and that she for some reason best
known to herself wanted it to keep the pendant.
  When he starts questioning people  about  Alice's  habits, William learns
that whenever she was going to leave some place for good (or at least for a
long time) she would give some  of  her  best  friends  in the area a small
thing "to remember her by". But if the  pendant was her "forget-me-not" for
the deer, that suggests that she  knew  she  was going away and wasn't kid-
napped at all!
  Once he gets that  part  figured  out,  William  may  notice that Alice's
handmaid is wearing a ring that seems a  bit too expensive for a mere serv-
ant. When asked about this, she will verify  that the ring is indeed a gift
from Alice - given a few  days  before  she  disappeared. If she (the maid)
didn't know better, she would have  thought  it  was a going-away gift, but
then Alice must have  known  that  she  was  going  to  be kidnapped, which
doesn't make  any sense at all... (At least that's what the maid thinks.)
  A few more details I recently  thought  up about the maid: The first time
William comes to see her, he doesn't  quite  recall the title of the person
he's looking for, so he tells the butler he wants a word with Alice's "per-
sonal servant."
"You mean her handmaid?"
"Handmade? Aren't we all handmade?  After  all  the test tube method hasn't
been invented yet!"
"You're ahead of your time, mister!"
"No, I'm psychic!"
  Enough of that. The maid's name is Evans, and the first time William asks
her about something she is totally perplexed  to find that someone actually
wants information from her - nobody  has  ever asked her about anything be-
fore! This, of course, is a  little  reference  to  the  mystery novel "Why
didn't they ask Evans?" and can be  emphasized  by  having William ask e.g.
the butler a question, and get the answer: "I don't know. Why don't you ask
Evans?"

  Time to distract Fisherman's friend, I  guess. One of the places that was
in Magnus' original draft was a  "topless  bar"  where the entire personell
turns out to be normally dressed. When  he asks one of them about what this
is supposed to mean, the person he asks  answers by pointing skywards. When
William looks up, he realizes that the room hasn't got a ceiling... There's
a lot of things going on in this bar, but  right now we must concentrate on
one. There is a pianist here  who  may  be  able  to answer questions about
music (such as what the clown said),  and  has  also been given the task of
introducing another character.
  When a young woman walks into the  room,  the pianist reacts with a short
burst of music. She makes a rude gesture at him, and he chuckles and starts
playing something else.  Hopefully  this  is  enough to arouse the player's
curiosity. If he lets William inquire about either the girl or the song, he
is told that her name is Maria,  and  that  is  also  the title of the song
(from Sound of Music again). The  pianist  explains that he plays that song
to tease her, and recites a few  lines:  "She can pester any pest / drive a
hornet from its nest / She can drive a whirling dervish out of whirl..."
  This gives William a couple of opening  lines for a conversation with the
newcomer. To take the most interesting branch:
"Is your name really Maria?"
"No, it's Arya. But when I say "I'm  Arya"  it  sounds like "I'm Maria", so
everyone thinks that is my name."
"That sounds awkward!"
"It gets worse. Ask me what my full name is."
"Okay, what is it?"
"Arya Maninoff." (Are you man enough?)
"Maninoff for what?"
"See what I mean?" (C-vitamine... Sorry, got a bit carried away there...)
And so on. He may also ask if it's true about the pest ("I don't know - try
being one!" - "How do I  do  that?"  -  "You're  doing  fine so far!"), the
hornet or the dervish, but no great responses there yet.
  Another possible opening line that  can  be  used even without talking to
the pianist first is "Haven't I seen  you  somewhere  before?" to which Ma-
ria... sorry, Arya answers that they may  have met by the stone circle out-
side town once. (This is a sneaky introduction of a feature that may play a
central role in a later adventure!) When William asks if she goes there of-
ten, she answers "I go to the hills  when  my  heart is lonely..." (another
Sound of Music line, this time from the title song.) [If he has already met
Morley and his lonely hart,  William  may  remark  that  "You've got one of
those too?"]
  Alright, you say, but what is the POINT with this character? The point is
that even though she doesn't  know  yet  (having  never met one) it IS true
about the dervish. There is a  dervish  (non-religious variant) at the cir-
cus, and if William can persuade Arya to accompany him there, they will ar-
rive in the middle of a training  session,  and the dervish will be so dis-
tracted by the sight of Arya that he is literally driven out of whirl. This
sets off a series of Rube Goldberg  effects  which  somehow ends with some-
thing heavy falling over, requiring  the  assistance of the man from Fleet-
wood to get it back up again. This  means  Fisherman will be left alone for
several minutes, and if William  has  remembered  to  bring a bottle or two
from the bar he'll soon get the answers he needs from the old clown...

  Let's stay in the bar for a while.  Another  character who has nothing to
do with the plot - just a few jokes  -  is a mysterious stranger who may or
may not be identical to James Bond. One  of Magnus' original ideas seems to
be a murder taking place in the bar.  When  Bond  hears what has just taken
place behind his back (He's standing  at  the  counter with his back to the
camera to avoid copyright breach) he  remarks  that he can't take it perso-
nally - he is shaken, but not stirred!
  Not too much of a joke, so  let's  take  the  one Magnus started on and I
wrapped up. After he has been in the  bar  for a while, Bond asks about the
time, and when told it's seven  already,  he  says "Oh-oh... Seven? (007) I
just remembered I have an appointment. I'd better go and see'm (See M)."
  Another joke that is  older  than  this  scenario  for  a  change: A girl
(Arya?) walks up to James and asks  him  if "it's true that Bonds have more
fun."
  Finally one I should have put at the  start  -  the first thing Bond does
when he comes into the bar is to order a dry martini. The barkeeper, who is
of German descent, misunderstands and serves him "drei" (three) martinis...
(When he gets the three glasses, Bond sighs and declares that "This kind of
thing never happened with Mr. Fleming!")

  There's a bit more to the bar. Its  name  is  The Bell And Anthem (a name
from Old Possum), but someone  has  been  fooling  around with the sign and
added two A's so that it  reads  "Bell  And  An(a)them(a)"  which of course
gives a whole new meaning to the  name...  Anyway,  the B&A is a relatively
new establishment (This explains the open ceiling - it isn't finished yet),
and while most of the patrons  think  the  new  place  is okay, one of them
seems to prefer the old pub  that  was  here  before.  At least he is heard
muttering something about "how well he  remembers the Old Bull And Bush" (a
line from "Cats"). If William asks  him  about  the old pub the fellow will
tell him it was "a very nice house  from  basement  to garret", look up and
add that this new house doesn't even HAVE a garret yet!.

  Another pun character who hasn't  quite  been  written into the main plot
yet is a young hooligan (?) called Juan Husami ("You and whose Army?" - one
of his favourite lines on his way into trouble). The first time we meet him
he is hanging around with a couple  of  friends  on a corner. When they see
William approaching, one of them  remarks:  "Here is a madman coming along.
It seems  rather sad  that  his  relatives  should  allow  him  to come out
alone!" (Watson's opening line from "The Beryl Coronet").
  I'm not so sure about Juan's appearance yet, but have decided that he has
an ugly scar on one side of his face and  wears a silly hat. The hat is ac-
tually a kind of test - he wants to see  if people respect him enough to a-
void commenting it! Anyway, these two details provide two dialog openings:

1) "How did you get that scar?"
"Some son of a bitch tried to cut my ear off!"
"So what did you do?"
"I beat him to within an inch of his life, that's what I did!"
"Then what would you have done if he had been successful?"
"Then I would have beat him another inch!"
"Goodness! But what if he had cut both your ears off?"
"Nothing. What could I have done?  I  wouldn't  have  been able to see any-
thing!"
(Possible branch point here.  The  player  can  let William say "Yeah, I've
heard that joke before too!" and change the subject, or continue:)
"What do you mean? You don't see with your ears!"
"No, but if he cut my ears off my hat would  fall down on my nose, and then
I wouldn't be able to see anything!"

  This little dialog made it necessary for Juan to wear a hat, so I thought
up the silly hat and this twist  on  a  classical  joke  last seen in  "Who
framed Roger Rabbit":

2) "I like your hat."
"No you don't."
"Yes I do."
"No you don't."
"Yes I do."
(pause) "Yes you do."
"No I don't!"
"So you don't like my hat, eh?"
"I didn't say that."
"Yes you did."
"Well I didn't mean to."
"Listen, how'd you like me to beat you to a pulp?"
"I wouldn't."
"Yes you would."
"No I wouldn't."
"Yes you would."
"No I wouldn't."
(pause) "No you wouldn't."
(long pause) "Oh no, I'm not falling for that one again!"

  Not a lot of laughs there, so let's  have  a  look at another extra. This
one is even more nondescript than the previous, all I know is that some way
or another William  gets  involved  in  a  conversation  with someone whose
grandfather also made his fortune in a  gold rush - not (as William has be-
lieved so far) at Pandip Brook in the sixties, but in California in -49...
"Wait a minute! Didn't you once tell me your grandfather was born in 1837?"
"So I did. How about it?"
"But then he was only twelve when the gold rush started!"
"That's right - he was a minor forty-niner!"
(Cue music: "Dwelt a MINER / forty-niner / and his daughter Clementine...")

  A less well known part of Marystead's history is about the time when some
foreign power tried to invade the city,  but the plan failed because one of
the soldiers slipped on something  and  cried out in pain as he fell, which
woke the defenders and led to  the  invasion  being  repulsed.  When it was
found that he had slipped  on  some  marbles  a  child  had  forgotten, the
citizens decided to erect  a  monument  in  the form of an arch (whatever a
"triumfbue" is called in English) to commemorate  the event. It is not very
big - about five feet  at the highest -  but it is the only monument of its
kind that is built entirely of - marbles! In other words, it is Marystead's
"Marble Arch"...

  If the last parts seem a bit jumpy  it's  partly  because they consist of
some bits and pieces I cut from old letters  while I was looking for what I
had written about Juan Husami. To  return  to  characters etc, more or less
related to the plot, I mentioned the library some time back. The library is
closed for renovation (?) (that was  Magnus'  idea; I suspect him of trying
to save a location), but the old librarian is sitting on a bench outside to
be as close to his beloved books as possible while he's waiting for the li-
brary to reopen. This character has a very  special job in the game: To ex-
plain all the literary references I  have  put  in the game, to players who
aren't as well-read as I...  William  can  ask  him what he's doing and get
this explanation, or he can ask about something he has heard and read. This
can be done in two ways: If he  asks  "Tell  me  about..." and then picks a
word from the ever-growing list, the  librarian  will tell the player where
he can read about the subject. If he asks  "Tell me all about...", the lib-
rarian will explain the  subject  as  throughly  as  it's  possible without
stepping on someone's  copyright.  (Obviously  we  can't just start quoting
copyrighted material at length!)
  The librarian can also help figure out the meaning of obscure words (like
"ha-ha") and may be of even  more  help  when  William  starts delving into
local history in "part 3".

  Local history reminded me that there is  another character I haven't men-
tioned yet. He started as a  small  Beatles  joke  but  gradually grew into
something more important. I'm  talking  about the priest - his name is Mac-
Kenzie, which of course (?) means he is more or less identical with "Father
MacKenzie" from the song about Eleanor Rigby.
  To take the important parts of him  first,  he  is the one I mentioned at
the beginning who is interested in  local  history and tells William (if he
cares to listen) about the origin of  the  city's name. The first time Wil-
liam walks past the church he sees MacK hanging a note on the billboard (?)
next to the church door, and if he reads it he will find out that next Sun-
day the service will be held in the  chapel  at Pandip Brook in observation
(?) of the anniversary of "the  revelation".  If he reads this while Mac is
still present, the priest will then  inform  him that he feels rather hypo-
critical (?) writing notes  like  that,  but  tradition is tradition. A few
questions from William prompt  him  to  tell  the whole story of the place-
names and why this means there probably  never was a revelation of any kind
in the area.
  Because MacKenzie knows a bit about local  history he may also be able to
help William with information he needs  to solve the final case, but I have
not planned that far yet. Time to get silly, I guess...
  If William goes to see MacKenzie at  night  (which is unlikely as walking
through the streets at night would require a whole new set of graphics, un-
less the artist is a master of  palette  manipulation,  of course) he finds
the priest "darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there" [May-
be Mac wants to tell William about something  that happened at night and he
starts with telling about how busy  he  was  with the socks..?]. If he goes
into the church he'll find a chalk outline on the floor. MacKenzie explains
that someone did indeed die in here  last  week, but it was a natural death
totally devoid of mysterious  details,  that outline is just someone's idea
of a sick joke, and he'll get it erased as soon as he can.
  If William wants to know more  about  the  dead  woman MacKenzie probably
won't tell him her name was Eleanor Rigby, but he'll drop a lot of clues by
describing her as one of "the lonely people", God knows where they all come
from, who live and die  without  leaving  a  trace, taking their names with
them in their graves. ("Eleanor  Rigby  / died in the church and was buried
along with her name ... All  the  lonely  people  /  Where do they all come
from?")  When they get to know  each  other  MacKenzie  may confess that he
feels like he's one of "the lonely people"  himself - he has lived and will
die without a trace; he hasn't  even  saved  anyone!  ("Father  MacKenzie /
wiping the dirt from his hands  and  he  walks  from  the grave / Noone was
saved...") Oh yes, and if the cemetery  is part of the game Mac may be seen
"wiping the dirt from his hands etc...")
  Another possible way of fitting the  priest  into the plot: Alice came to
see him a couple of weeks before the "kidnapping". He can't really say much
about it because she consulted him as a  professional (meaning he's under a
vow of silence), but hints that she  wanted  to discuss one of the command-
ments. I'm too heathen to  remember  its  number  or know its exact text in
English, but it's the one about  honoring  one's  parents or something like
that. She wanted to know how one  best  honors one's father in particular -
bu obeying him blindly or by following  one's heart and doing what he would
have let you do if he had any sense (something like that).

  Talking of graves, another stray  idea  I  got is that if the cemetery is
one of the locations in the game, William  may come across some interesting
epitaphs. For instance, I once made  a  limerick (in Norwegian) based on an
alleged epitaph from Readers'  Digest,  and  after I got this idea I trans-
lated it to English:

         Here lieth a gambler named Hayes
         who lost both his life and his face
           playing poker with Butch
           with two aces too much
         and now it's a harp that he plays!

  There's a lot of  different  activities  in  Marystead; one of them is an
amateur painter club that happens to  have  opened an exhibition in a local
gallery. If William goes there the player may get to see many different pic-
tures by different Amiga graphic  artists  (i.e.  they are not all drawn by
the artist/s handling the graphics for  the rest of the game), depending on
available disk space of course. But there is also a clue hidden in the gal-
lery. One of the pictures displayed is of a young woman in her twenties. If
William looks at it before Harfold  gives  him  a photo of his daughter, he
won't notice anything special about it, but if he looks at the painting af-
ter he has seen the photo he'll  recognize  the young lady as the girl he's
looking for.
  Well, someone made a painting of Alice - what kind of clue is that? There
is something special about  the  picture  that  is  so obscure that William
needs a bit of help from his  subconscious  to figure it out. That night he
has a strange dream. (I originally suggested having a dream sequence in the
game before I knew what it was going to  be about...) I haven't got all the
details figured out yet, but  after  several  strange  experiences  William
encounters a one-eyed man who is painting  a portrait of an ugly woman - or
at least that is what he seems  to  be  doing.  When William peeks over his
shoulder he finds that the  picture  on  the  canvas is much more beautiful
that the actual model. When he  points  this  out, the man looks at him and
says: "Beauty, my young friend, is in the eye of the beholder. And this eye
of mine beholds the woman I love!"  [I  decided  that he's one-eyed because
the proverb does not say "the eyes of the beholder"...]
  William wakes abruptly with a  remarkably  clear  insight: The picture in
the gallery shows Alice as much more beautiful  than she really is - can it
have been painted by a lover who sees her that way? The answer is of course
yes - the painter is Irving Morley.  Unfortunately  the people in charge of
the exhibition can not tell him that  -  all  they know is that the picture
was left behind by an old member who left the club all of a sudden a couple
of years back. The signature remains  illegible  until William has seen the
letters - then he realizes that it says  "Mungojerrie". If William can find
another picture in the same style with  the same signature and an owner who
remembers where it came from, he will have found yet another way of identi-
fying Alice's lover...

  A few word about Dime Street, which I mentioned briefly in the beginning.
As you may have guessed, the street has  both a barber shop, a bank and the
local fire station, and it ends in a roundabout.  That does not necessarily
mean that all the characters from  the  song are there! However, if William
goes into the barber shop, something  happens:  Suddenly it starts to rain,
and a fireman comes rushing in through  the door.  William takes one look at
the newcomer and  exclaims:  "Very  strange!"  ("In  Penny  Lane the barber
shaves another customer / We see the banker  (?) sitting waiting for a trim
(?) / And the fireman rushes in /  from  the pouring rain / Very strange!")
[The rain has ended before William goes out again.]

  Even fewer words about another street that hasn't been named yet: In this
street we find  a  small  old-fashioned  cinema  owned  and run by a fellow
called Whitley. The point with this name is that the cinema is called Whit-
ley's, which sounds like  "hvitt  lys"  ("white  light"  in Norwegian). Mr.
Whitley is a bit old-fashioned too - in an age where everyone else is show-
ing new movies "in glorious Technicolour" (Note: The slogan is authentic!),
Whitley sticks to showing the old classics "in glorious Monochrome".
  Talking of movies: A stray idea I  got  once  is that there is an Italian
restaurant called Tony's somewhere  in  the city, and if William goes there
he meets a waitress who tells him that  if he wants food he'll have to wait
for a while because Tony and  the  cook  are  out in the alley serenading a
couple of dogs! When the  waitress  passes  through  the kitchen door a few
moments later, all  players  who  have  turned  up  the  volume catch a few
strains  of "La Bella Notte" - in other  words we're on the flipside (Hello
Ian!) of one of the more  famous  scenes  from  "Lady  and the Tramp"... (I
haven't figured out anything for  William  to do in the restaurant, so this
is just filler material that will have to go if there isn't room.)
  To combine another loose idea with this  one: While William is talking to
the waitress a spotted dog comes slinking  in from the street. The waitress
throws something at it to chase  it  off  and  shouts : "Out, damned Spot!"
[For those not versed in the classics, that is a line from "McBeth", and to
pound it in we could perhaps call the waitress  Beth and have a scene where
another  member of the staff comes in and asks her if she has seen his mac.
("Have you seen my...")]

  At the circus we may also meet a  palm  reader who is a bit special - she
doesn't want to look at your hands  because  she   reads the future in palm
TREES! A rather absurd attempt at  writing  her into the main plot: William
decides to question the palm reader to  see if she had foreseen the kidnap-
ping, and discovers that Alice came to  see her once. But the millionaire's
daughter was not too generous with her  small change, so the fortune teller
just gave her the usual routine about a long journey and a tall dark stran-
ger. The interesting thing is  Alice's  reactions to these predictions. She
nodded approvingly to the long  journey,  but seemed to be a bit more scep-
tical about the tall dark stranger (Irving is a medium tall redhead, and he
certainly isn't a stranger!)

  Another loose idea: At some time  or  another  William  goes to the local
police station (The reason  Magnus  sent  him  there in the first place has
been written out!) where he finds an unusual poster. You have probably seen
posters warning people not to drink and drive, but in Marystead (which, you
may recall, lies close to  a  navigable  river)  it's  a bit different. The
poster William finds has been  produced  by the local police in cooperation
with a diving club - it shows a  diver  (oldfashioned  suit with lead boots
and a metal helmet with a long rubber hose for air) pouring out a bottle of
beer, and the caption reads DON'T DRINK AND DIVE.

  A character who hasn't been written into the plot at all yet (but is pro-
bably very impatient to get in...)  is  a  very impatient lady called Annie
Minnow ("And I mean now!"). It's been said  that she was born  three months
early and spent most of the time in the  incubator complaining loudly about
the wasted time...

(later) Just realized while editing part 2 that I have left out one intere-
sting character here. At one point in an early version of the plot, William
needed an empty bottle, and I decided to  make this another puzzle. The ob-
vious question is of course why it's so hard to find empty bottles lying a-
round in Marystead. The far from obvious  answer I came up with is that the
renowned tooth fairy has a far less  wellknown  but much more active cousin
who lives and works (?) in and  around  Marystead  - the Bottle Fairy! This
enigmatic creature spends most of her time roaming around in search of emp-
ty bottles, and she doesn't just  spirit  away  the unattended ones either!
The only difference is that whenever  she  finds a bottle in someone's pos-
session she leaves a coin (to  cover  the  deposit).  Even if you decide to
carry a bottle with you, you will sooner or later (usually right before you
come to the place where  you  need  to  use  the  bottle) bump into a gray-
cloaked stranger, and as  soon  as  she  has  muttered  an apology and dis-
appeared down the road, you will  find  that  the bottle is gone and you're
15p (?) richer. (And  when  Guybrush  looks  at  the  coin he exclaims "I'm
rich!"... Sorry, wrong game!)
  Of course, now that William doesn't  need  a  bottle we don't really need
the BF to make it difficult to get one, but there is nothing wrong with in-
troducing characters in part one and using them in a later part, is there?

            [Continued in the next file as this is getting big]