A Winters Tale

[Dr Iguana]

The Winters Tale. Act 1. Scene1. A road close to the public forum.

With the black dog of the darker months following only at a distance now, Doc, bent by the weight of years and wearying of the barren life at the Puzz Towers retirement home, turns his declining greys to the happier times of days of yore. He remembers a forum bright with the sunlight of a lofty atrium and with tempting facades offering the pleasures within, the sharing of tidings, the earnest debate, the jocularity and the light banter, perhaps the joining of a game or the solving of a riddle, but above all the friendly repartee of his fellows, the eager hunter, the seasoned solver, the intrigued tyro, the finder, the helper, the curious, the lost, and the occasional village idiot.

“Think I’ll take a stroll around the forum again; it’ll be just like old times.”

But the bright expectation of his approach clouds a touch as he draws nigh the portal.

“This door looks like it could do with a coat of paint though. Good grief, it’s a bit stiff.”

He gives the door as hard a shove as his ancient frame can muster. Creaks and Groans (not all of them from the door.) With some effort it opens slightly.

“I can just about squeeze in now. Grief, it’s dark in ‘ere, where’s the light switch? Has the fuse blown?”

He fumbles a ragged pocket for the candle stub worn low by the warming of his hands at the retirement home. With difficulty the candle lives but it burns low and the flame sputters.

“Oxygen must be low in here. Cough Cough. Where’s all this dust coming from? Smells a bit musty too, and look at all those cobwebs!”

“Hello! Anybody there?”

“Hello! Anybody there?” ...........there?............there?............there?...........there?

“Just echoes. Eh?”

Doc listens but hears nothing. Nothing but skin-crawling cold, nothing but throat-filling dust, nothing but clinging cobwebs, and nothing but an eerie, tangible silence. Not a flicker of light to prick the shadowed gloom until, asudden and adistant , the blue evanescent gleam of a dancing jack-o-lantern.

“Marsh gas?”

Doc sharp snuffs the candle and pinches the wick. A sudden breeze from the open door clouds the dust and eddies a layer of long-dead leaves into uncertain whirls, a rat scuttles over his foot. He pockets the candle and shudders; with trudging tread, moist of eye and heavy of heart, he departs in sorrow. He forgets to close the door.

Exit pursued by a black dog.

[jazz]

As the light from outside entres the room, in a far away corner there is a stirring a rustle to slow to act as some one leaves the room. Throat to dry to shout out, but strong enough to finally get to his feet. I've been looking for that door for ages now must get some fresh air my mum will wonder where I have gotten too. Maybe just maybe there is some new energy about to engulf this darkened room of puzzles? May be the lost have been found, maybe some news from outside on the next chapter of this journey, Hello!!!!!!! Hello!!!!!!! come back we are still here we need your news dark stranger the adventures will come and hear your story they will, I will shout it from the roof and from the street corners I will I will. I have to go see me mum first me socks need changing..........

[Dr Iguana]

The Winters Tale. Act 1. Scene1. A road close to the public forum. Later

As Doc treads wearily in the direction his whole being repulsed at calling “homeward”, to the jaded colourless life at the Puzz Towers Sunshine Nursing Home for Retired Pyramid Keepers he mused balefully on what future Lady Fate had in store for him. The central heating was down to the last candle, the gruel had run out weeks before, yes, it got to it’s feet and ran out, never to be seen again. The once-exciting games of squash were no more; there was no coal to fire up the steam-roller. His going awol for an illicit visit to the forum would mean a month in the cooler for sure, and grief, the rest of the place was cool enough.....

But his good ear catches a distant call “Hello,, hello, come back.” Doc’s muddled brain struggles to make sense of this.

“Did that come from that door? Never, it couldn’t have.” But as he slowly turns his mind revives a little. “I thought I knew the voice. It can’t be, it must have been from far away down by the Jack-o-lantern. Was it really a Jack-o-lantern, Fool’s lantern, Flame-o-the-bog, Will-o-the-wisp, Ignis Fatuus? But wait, Ignis Fatuus is the modern latin phrase for polite use, in older Latin it would be Ignis Flatus. Ignis Flatus? It’s Jazz! It’s Jazz! He’s up to his old tricks again!

Happier now, Doc steps more lightly towards the door. “That smell must’ve been his socks.”

[evilkeen]

The keen evil one does his nightly tour of duty around the forum. It's been an interesting, but somewhat spooky duty lately.

There have been times when he could have been forgiven for thinking that this place was a long forsaken vestige of a puzzling world long since past. But there have been other times when the old well-trodden paths have come alive with the patter of excited feet as the beautiful sphericalness and enigmatic cunningness of the Isis entrances another new puzzler, or the seemingly simple but internally-more-complex-than-the-egyptian-pyramids-themselves Ramisis draws in another unwary venturer, or indeed the wonders of the solar system itself cause others to engage in flights of fancy over the spinning Copernisis. Indeed, these new boots have definitely been on the increase since old Father Christmas himself must have delivered many spherical/pyramid/cylindrical shaped presents this year!

But tonight is different. As evil reaches the depths of the general chat corridor he notices a distant light. Has someone crept in and left the door ajar? He can't quite make out the nature of the light, but suddenly he notices the new writing on the wall. All at once he feels a strange connection with the past, an inexplicable sense of the presence of one who has been no less than the guardian of one of the sacred pyramids themselves.

Evil treads carefully. As he comtemplates the strange goings-on, he is overcome by a mixture of feelings. What is it they say? 'Make new friends and keep the old, one is silver and the other gold'... Gold, silver, copper, so many possibilities when they get mixed up!

Evil has a smile on his face as he carries on with the nightly round. He has the distinct feeling that things will not look the same next time he is in this neck of the forum.

[jazz]

Doc come back here, you must see this I had a glimse of the future, a machine in the corner of the room. It needs some work on it but the lights went out. You have a candle it might help 3 wires in but 7 going out if only I had some light I might work out the system. I have only been living on choclate bars from this vending machine. I think Walther was the last person here but he seems to have gone. I'm sure there are others but we need to get the machine running again. The light from the door only enters the room so far and it is not enough to light up the wiring.

There are so many missing but I'm sure they can find us we just need to send some sort of signal a message. Ever since the orbs fell to earth we have lost our way then the strange shapes appeared and filled our minds with strange storys of wonder from earth and to the stars secret locations where no one has been. Doc please Doc bring the light we need it to carry on our quest only the best will survive.

The master is calling us but is lost in some strange journey we must free him we need all of our power to help him. P.s. please fetch some ham sandwiches as I need a change of food.

[Dr Iguana]

The Doc is on a hurry now, he hasn't much time but he can come back on Friday. He sees a request for help with a machine and he remembers how good he is with machines. He remembers the time, decades before, when the video recorder was coming into popular use. There were several different rival systems and the experts said only one of them would find true acceptance. Doc's agile electronic mind sized up each system, it's virtues and it's faults and he knew instinctively which machine would carry the future forward. He made his decision and, certain of his rectitude, he went out and bought a Betamax. Yes! He was the one. The only one as it turned out.

[LouIsis]

Days pass, Friday passes, another Friday passes, and another one ...
The door does not creack and groan again, no more distant calls are heard, no more old men pass by... or do they?

One day, a man from across the river walks that same old road near the portal where he spent a lot of his youth. Every now and then he walks that road again, just to have another look at the dusty portal, to revive his memory about those happy days which he will always remember, he will never forget. He smiles again as he thinks of the great adventures he lived long ago in that portal. The magical orb he found in there, the silver key he found inside the orb, the golden pyramid he found with the key, and the magical golden coin he found inside that pyramid. That golden coin he still cherishes, as it is told to have a magical power that will reveil itself one day, one day worth waiting for...

Whenever the man from across the river walks by the portal he peeks inside, only to read the same old scribblings on the wall, some of which he scribbled himself in those good old days of glory and golden prophecies. Those prophecies told of an adventure that would grow and come to a climax, or so the prophecy told. From a magical orb attracting anyones attention, to a revolving pyramid more adventurous than most souls could comprehend. After a very long time followed by another complex creation which would only reveil its secret when the planets of our solar system aligned themselves in that one magical geometry. This left many adventurers wondering what would be next, what on earth (or far beyond it) could be another step up from manipulating a solar system? They could only find out by going through the hardest and darkest part of their journey: the black hole. In the black hole there was no sight of a path ahead, no sound from anywhere around, time seemed to stand still. Good old friends might still be there, but could barely see or hear each other. It was very hard to keep going without a reliable path forward, which made some adventurers decided to escape the black hole, and enter a different portal with a different adventure that involved revolving traps and mazes.
Some others kept going strong within this dusty old portal, refusing to give up hope and steadily marching, slowly walking, or barely crawling forward. One of them was the gatekeeper, the evil keen, the ever so friendly and helpful man who was always willing to assist newcomers and strangers walking into the portal. Another one was the man who went the furthest into the corridors and hallways of the darkest of pyramids, the always cheerful Jazz who discovered the deepest secrets of the revolving pyramis, only to find himself stuck for months with nothing but an aparently broken vending machine and something that looks like a sophisticated locking mechanism. Until one lucky day he crunched the locking mechanism and escaped from the darkest of pyramids into the... the... well, back into the black hole basically.
These men rarely saw a new note scribbled by a fellow of the old days. Was this the way to live an exciting adventure? Was this adventure going ahead at all? Was the leader still working on the realisation of his own dream of five elements, or did he step aside and leave his own adventure in the black hole for eternity?

The man from across the river refused to believe in a dark ending, as he kept feeling the magical power of the golden coin that he cherished. However little news was found in the portal, the portal was still there, and it was still worth a visit in the hope of discovering any news. That day the portal was right where it was before, but something was different... Not only the light footsteps of strangers who recently found the portal were noticable near the entrance, but there were also some deeper impressions in the soil. Those deeper impressions were the unmistakable footsteps of a man with a very special role in the adventure, a man of interesting stories, a man who once guarded one of the very physical golden pyramids, a man known to the early adventurers as the Doc. The Doc was here? Did he come to bring news, or come to find old fellowes? Would he have noticed good old Jazz sitting in his corner, or did he walk away before Jazz could call his name to make him return? And would the evil keen have noticed the door of the general chat corridor being left ajar?

The man from across the river has a smile on his face as he continues his walk along the road of portals. He has mixed feelings, he has not felt like this for a long time, a little exitement starts to grow, is this a sign of approaching the end of the black hole?

[steve]

Less than a quadweek has past, the snow and rainologists are scratching their heads,
The shire temperatures break all the records two days in a row!
Some of the weather prophets spoke of air smelling of camels, whilst the puzzling elders know
that if warm camel scented air were to be blown from a dry southern continent, it would be our
southern shores that would experience record temperatures and dust storms, not the northern shires.

There must be another reason for this bright dusty warm draft, one elder thought.
Most unanswerable quests and quandaries can be eased along by paying homage to the oracle that is Google.
Whilst leafing through the pages of clues and gibberish provided by the oracle, whispers of
a great door standing ajar filtered through to the shire.

Not believing that it could possibly be true, it needed investigation.
It is true, the Doc had left the door open, letting all the dry dust escape.
Alas it would appear that the door could have been closed for now,
the temperatures have plummeted and the snow has returned to the land of always soggy.

Is this short glimpse of brightosity a sign of exiting things to come??

[jazz]

Doc, It took me awhile but I found the cricuit board again, it was under a lot of chocolate rappers any way if we can get the lights on we can guide the others. We have three wires connected to the board they are Yellow, Magenta and White. There are seven lose wires 3 red, 2 green and 2 blue I think you have to connect all 7 wires in the correct order to get the lights on?

[jazz]

Cum on someone must know how to get the lights on around here.

[Dr Iguana]

Listen Jazz - (Says Doc, speaking slowly but with emphasis) I'm connecting all the right wires, but not necessarily in the right order. You'll find that's a Wise thing to do when you're in Morecambe.

Now I'll be back to help with the lights as soon as I can but I've got some of my own wires crossed at the moment. That's why I'm typing this in Harrogate Hospital.

[jazz]

hahahaha hello Doc you must know morecambe very well. I have left plenty of clues for you to follow, sad to hear you are in hospital hope everything is ok I will keep a candle burning for you we all wish you well do they have good fish an chips in Harrogate? Keep the lights on you will get the answear.

[evilkeen]

Sorry too to hear of your hospitalisation, hope all is well.