spellbreaker/z6.txt

			     Thoughts on Z6

Z6 opens during a meeting of the Guild Masters in the ancient Guild Hall
at Borphee.  The meeting has been called to discuss the problem of the
deterioration of magic.  As magic is widely used in "mundane" industries
and applications, this threatens the very fabric of civilization.
Master after master details in a heart-rending way how the magic method
of (for example) dry cleaning clothes no longer works or is unreliable. 
In a less-and-less subtle way, the Masters begin to accuse the Guild of
Enchanters of not "holding up their end."  Anger begins to rise among
the Enchanters.

Suddenly, without any warning, all the masters saving only yourself are
CLEESHed.
				 * * *

You notice a sinister cloaked figure scurrying suspiciously out of the
hall, and follow.  In Belwit Square the figure disappears in a puff of
orange smoke, leaving behind only a pure-white cube with nothing written
on it.

You decide to consult Belboz, who has retired to the Enchanter's
equivalent of a monastery, so you AIMFIZ yourself to him.  He recalls a
legend that the universe was constructed of such blocks, not materially
but conceptually, and each block represented a concept.  (Various
funny/serious analogies with sub-atomic physics and ZIL can be made
here).  But he remembers that the process involved writing mystic runes
representing the concept on the block, and this one is blank.  This is
especially disturbing because that means that someone may be trying to
introduce new concepts by creating new blocks, or worse yet, erasing
concepts by erasing the letters from existing blocks!

By a whizz-bang new spell that uses the Law of Contagion and the Law of
Similarity, it is be possible to find out where the other blocks are if
this one has touched them recently, and sure enough, you can reach their
locales quite easily.  These are the locations of the problems, and each
problem rewards you with a block.

This is done by BLORPLEing a cube.  It produces a room with you inside it
whose doors open to the locations of things that have recently touched the
object you BLORPLE.  (How's that for advanced magical technology, sports
fans?)  Some of the doors may be locked, even.  When you go through a door
the BLORPLEd object (usually a cube) goes with you.

				 * * *

Possible problems:

1) The Worm Ouroboros.  In this problem a giant serpent (we're talking
circa 200 feet long and maybe 15 feet thick) guards a block.  You can't
get by the serpent, but you can convince him to eat his own tail.  This
is done by creating and then enticing him through a dimensional gate
that warps back around to where his tail is.  Making this a
possible-to-solve problem is the big challenge.  The gate must be made
plausible, not to mention understandable, etc.

2) Oubliette.  An oubliette is a cell-like pit in which prisoners are
dropped whom you wish to basically ignore.  The only way out is at the
top.  Has a water channel for sanitation or something.  Idea is to
freeze the water over the outlet and float out.  Above the cell is a
cube.

3) Self-built Maze.  This starts as a solid rock cell, no doors, no
windows.  You have a spell that detects secret doors.  Here, however,
every wall actually has one potentially, so the first wall you use it on
always has one.  It leads into another similar cell.  Etc.  The idea
here is that the last cell of six (?) has the cube in it, and the exit
out.  Is this too repetitious and silly?

4) Nowhere.  This is a featureless plain in another dimension, inhabited
by large flat-bottomed boulders which you can push around because they
float frictionlessly on the mirror-smooth surface.  The idea would be to
use some mechanism (perhaps billiards-like) to push a boulder over to a
cube which you can then grab.  Alternately you would have to ride a
boulder and induce it somehow to do what you want.

5) Grue Heaven.  This takes place in a dimension inhabited entirely by
Grues, and in fact is favored by them since, although the supply of
adventurers is chancy at best, there is never any light there, because
the physical laws are different and a photon is a big fuzzy thing about
the size of a tennis ball.  (Could be amusing if you have a light
source).  Idea here is to shape-shift into a Grue, enabling you to (a)
see in the dark and (b) not look conspicuously adventurer-like and thus
be invited to lunch.  The Grues have a cube in the grue temple, which
you can steal.

6) Flying Carpet.  Trick here is to learn how to operate it, find a cube
in a roc's nest, evade the roc, etc.

7) Appointment in Samarra.  Not sure what to do with this, but some
dangerous being (perhaps Death, perhaps someone less lofty) sees you at
some point in the game and looks startled.  Later, in a different point
in the game, he encounters you with much more aplomb.  He was startled
because he saw you in the first place and knew you had an appointment
with him in the second place, and you weren't there.

8) Scales.  There is a standard old brain-teaser involving how to find
one non-canonical coin (in this it would be a cube) in a pile of N given
only M chances to weigh them.  This could be hoked up into cubes and
charges of some magical item, for example.  The prize would be the
non-canonical cube (the only real one).

9) Labyrinth.  This is an alternative to the Self-made Maze idea.  Here
you have concentric circles which you can push (physically or magically)
to line up entrances and exits.  There used to be a kid's game like
this, and the idea was get your marbles to the center before your
opponent.  Here the idea is to get you to the center before ... what?

10) Another Silly Maze.  This one can't be mapped by the usual
techniques because it consists of only one room and each wall has a
door.  It is the sequence of directions that's important.  Not sure what
clues if any you get as to what virtual room you are in.  Not sure if
the world could stand another *^%&*^ maze problem anyway.

				 * * *

What's Really Going On?:

The theory is that actually you, and not some other force, are
responsible for collecting the cubes and banishing them to other
dimensions, planes, etc.  This is being done by a creature analogous to
the Shadow in Z3, which is working to create an environment it will find
more to its liking.  This would include, for example, god-like powers
for Enchanters, no distinction between creatures such as itself (spirits
and the like) and material beings, instant correspondance between
thought and deed, and so on.  We're talking a real power-trip here.

The catch is that after all this is revealed during the final climactic
battle with the creature, it also becomes clear that such a development
(both the bringing to life of the dark side of the Enchanter's power and
the realignment of the universe) is inherent in the idea of magic, and
eventually some other Enchanter will get into the same situation.  The
only solution is to destroy the magic-related cubes, which destroys
magic and perhaps plunges the world into a dark age, but saves it from
that form of evil forever (or at least until Z7).

				 * * *

The Cubes:

They represent concepts in the physical universe, and possessing them
gives you power over that aspect of the universe.

Possible cubes include

	Earth, Air, Fire, Water: the elements
	Existence, Length, Breadth, Volume, Time: the dimensions
	Animation, Transformation, Creation: the actions
	Mind, Essence, Lightning, Mass, Magic: the forces

There could also be others, of course.  For example, there might be lesser
cubes that embody adjectives and nouns.  Arranging (joining?) them properly
would produce (e.g.) a dog house or a house dog.