Five-minute primer · 1936 · you are Dr. Cass Marlowe · back to the game
Type what you want to do, or press the matching button under the terminal — they are the same thing. Movement is compass-style: N S E W U D (or GO NORTH).
The classic verbs: LOOK EXAMINE TAKE DROP USE OPEN SEARCH READ TALK WAIT INVENTORY.
This expedition has moments no ordinary verb covers. When one matters, the prose tells you — and the amber buttons are always visible:
WEDGEPUNCHMOUNTDIG LIGHTPHOTOGRAPHSAILKNEEL
READ is not decoration in this game. Every deadly place in the story carries a carved warning, and every warning is literal:
SEARCH furniture, walls and crates: the three optional 5-point finds are all hidden. EXAMINE and LOOK are always free — they never consume a move.
TALK JUNO, TALK KIT, and so on — and talk more than once; people warm up. Your pilot, your quartermaster and your patrons carry the plot forward, and one conversation at each act boundary is what moves the expedition to its next region.
There are exactly three ways to die, and the game warns you in writing before each: a balanced idol, a lightless stair, and a ceremony that spares only the humble. If the terminal starts shouting a verb at you in capital letters, do that verb.
SAVE anytime (SAVE ridge names a slot), RESTORE ridge to return — even after death. RESTART begins anew. Saves, hints and restores never cost a move.
| Panel | What it shows |
|---|---|
| WORLD MAP | An expedition chart of the current region — visited halls named, your position bracketed. |
| QUEST LOG | The nine objectives and their progress. |
| JOURNAL | Dr. Marlowe's field notes, written as you go. |
| HINT | Context-aware, graded nudges — gentle first, explicit if you ask again. |
That's everything. The river is waiting. Begin the expedition →