THE SERF'S TALE
Players Software, 1986
======================
Solution by Exemptus - February 2026
Overview and general hints:
---------------------------
This game is BRHA0017 in the Adventure Family Tree, so it's a version of the
Colossal Caves adventure, with some expansions, changed puzzles, and a new
ending. There are many changes, a summary of which is:
* There are many new locations at the beginning, where the player can find the
initial objects (container, lamp, keys and food).
* Many texts and descriptions are changed, but most retain features of the
originals.
* Magic words are based on teleporting discs, one of which is portable, so not
necessarily tied to a particular location.
* One magic word is also changed.
* Mazes have a completely different layout.
* The endgame (and endgame condition) has totally changed.
* The lamp recharge does not require loss of a treasure.
* Some treasures are slightly different or are in another location.
* There is no score, or else the score is just the number of treasures stored.
* There are two new sections with corresponding treasures to find.
* There is an additional object (the grimoire) that allows to ram-save and
ram-restore as long as we carry it.
* Witt's End is present, but serves no purpose.
* The bear is absent.
* The troll's puzzle has a different solution.
* The emerald in the Plover Room can be taken out by teleporting.
* The Pirate's chest can be collected *before* the Pirate has appeared. This
also prevents him from showing up at all.
* Several locations are new or have different connections, and a few are
missing. All in all, the cave map layout is very similar to the original, with
some subtle differences (apart from the mazes).
* The player can stash some small objects within clothing which do not count as
part of the inventory (limited to small objects like keys, map, and coin and
others).
* There are some additional interactions between NPCs (typically when the dwarf
appears along with the dragon, the troll, or the pirate).
* Some actions require verbs specific to this version.
Most of the content of WOOD0350 is intact or only slightly changed, so most of
the players will be familiar with the solution, but probably bemused by the
beginning, which feels different. It needs a bit of exploring of the outside
locations first and something to happen. Once in possession of the keys, we can
enter the caves and things are again on familiar territory.
The vocabulary requires some warnings. We can stash some things on our clothing
by using PUT and hold them again with RETRIEVE. Some actions also expect us to
PLACE things on something. The clam uses PRISE. INFO does not exist and HELP is
snarky and provides a way to see an amusing Easter Egg. Things can be EXAMINEd
and should, as some of them provide clues that are needed to locate the endgame.
The game also has a backstory: you are a lowly farmhand who finds the journal of
an adventurer, sets out on a quest for treasure, and end up waylaid by bandits
who rob you of your objects like the keys, food, and money. You then come to in
a clearing beside a well house, and the rest is up to you.
The outside contains a bit of a maze (or at least some locations with identical
descriptions and confusing connections), some traps for the unwary, and a way to
regain your possessions. Until this has happened, there is no way to get past
the grating and access the caves.
One of the puzzles is totally unfair and a bit of a design pain. In order to get
past a certain location, you need an object, which is present but not described.
The only way to find about its existence is to advance the game to a point where
you are told about the object but it is lost forever, so you need to softlock
the game in order to get the clue.
The dwarf is not to be ignored. It can be in some Cave Adventure variants, as
nothing ill happens, but here the dwarf will follow you and there's a non-zero,
cumulative probability of being killed, so carrying the axe is more or less a
necessity. Fortunately it can fit in our pockets, but it takes one turn to
RETRIEVE it and the dwarf can kill us then if unlucky, so we'll be conservative
and hold it in hand.
As in the original, we can fill the flask with water in either of several
locations. Normally any body of water will do the trick.
There are some cute touches: HELP will be answered with "First say the magic
word!". The magic word is, of course, PLEASE. After that, the game will tell us
to bring the nugget to the location beneath the grating if we have a 'pirate'
copy of the game. If we do so, the Pirate will show up and give us a leaflet
explaining how to order a genuine copy. Also, in the best Fergus McNeill
tradition, uttering the names of the authors, NIGEL or SAID, will challenge us
to take the timber prop to the room with the pedestal. This is apparently
impossible to do in a normal fashion, as the teleportation disc cannot be taken
into the pedestal room. Just once while monkeying around with the game I managed
to create an apparent copy of an object, which I suspect is possible due to a
quirk/bug of the game, but I never was able to reproduce this effect, so it
remains a bit of a mystery.
The walkthrough below is not optimal by a huge margin, but I think it's easier
to follow in this way. Optimizing the treasure collection requires careful
fiddling with the pockets' storage, carrying the teleportation disc around, and
taking the whirlpool shortcut.
Walkthrough:
------------
[The approach to the game invites a bit of tactical planning. The first part
requires getting the keys (and other objects) on the surface. Once that is done,
we can enter the caves. The treasure chest should be done first, as it prevents
the pirate from ever appearing. We will be attacked early and have to carry the
axe (see rationale above), which limits our effective inventory to two
additional objects, so treasures will be gathered by pairs where possible. It is
feasible to lug the Y2 disc around, but this limits the inventory even further,
so I won't do that. The game does not require it, and logistics are more
complicated.]
[We start at the clearing by a well house, where there's a stream flowing out of
the latter.]
I [We carry only a pair of breeches and a jerkin]
EXAMINE JERKIN
[We can remove the jerkin but not the breeches, although there is no reason to.
The description tells us to use PUT and RETRIEVE to handle objects in pockets.]
N
E
E
E [In the woods; there are some locations with the same description here]
S
SE
SE [We hear sounds of a fight and find a dead man]
[The dead man turns out to be one of our assailants and has a piece of map and
our keys, which we automatically take and move on. The map piece is in our
pockets, so it is not immediately available and we cannot interact with it
unless we retrieve it.]
RETRIEVE MAP
READ MAP [We trace a route NW over the moor]
[This creates a connection on the Moorland; until we read the map, this does not
exist, so we cannot reach a required location.]
PUT MAP
N [On a valley]
N
N
N
N
N [Moorland]
NW [We find our way to the waystation]
[Here we find our lamp, sandwiches and flask.]
GET LAMP
GET SANDWICHES
GET FLASK
S
S
S [Clearing again]
[It's not necessary to explore more of the locations north of the clearing.
There is a deadly marsh which we can't escape, a volcano, and a few other
places.]
FILL FLASK [On the stream]
E [There's a trapdoor on the ceiling]
U [At the loft, covered with straw]
EXAMINE STRAW [We find a coin]
GET COIN
PUT COIN [Another object that fits in our pockets]
[The coin can be used to recharge the lamp, and unlike the original, it's not a
treasure. In fact it will be needed because the allocation of battery power is
more meagre and we are not trying to save turns, but we will have plenty of
advance notice.]
D
DROP SANDWICHES
DROP FLASK [We won't need these things until later]
W
S
S
S [The grating is here]
RETRIEVE KEYS
UNLOCK GRATING
OPEN GRATING
PUT KEYS
D
W [The wicker cage is here; unlike the original, this room is still lighted]
GET CAGE
W [Dark now]
ON LAMP [We are at the XYZZY room]
[Magic words activate teleporters in the form of silvery discs on the ground,
but we must STAND ON DISC immediately before activation, or they will not work.
Also, the rod is here, but we won't take it as it scares the bird.]
W
W [The bird is here]
GET BIRD
E
E
GET ROD
EXAMINE ROD ["Property of I.K. Brunel * 1 N"]
[This inscription has two separate clues, although it's not evident at first
sight. The reference to Brunel is a nod to the creation of bridges, which we
assume this does (as it did in the original adventure). The "* 1 N" part is a
separate clue about something that will be clearer later.]
W
W
W
D [E end of Hall of Mists]
[From this point on, you may be attacked at random by a dwarf, who will chuck an
axe at you (and miss). The axe will allow you to defend against later attacks
using THROW AXE, so GET AXE the moment this happens. I will assume that this
already has taken place and not use the inventory slot taken by the axe. You may
want to PUT AXE in pocket in order to carry one more object; be my guest.]
W [E bank of fissure]
WAVE ROD [A bridge appears]
DROP ROD [Not needed anymore]
W [W bank of fissure]
W [W end of Hall of Mists; there is a diamond here]
[In WOOD0350 the diamonds are one location east and there are several of them.
The change is otherwise irrelevant. This location is also the entrance to the
Pirate's maze, which we'll do first before any other treasures, in order to
prevent the Pirate from bothering us later on.]
S [Maze of twisty passages, all alike]
E
S
SW
N
S [A huge star has been carved on the floor, and The Pirate's chest is here]
GET CHEST
[The chest does not open, it counts as a treasure by itself.]
N
N
N [Brink of a 30 foot pit]
D [To Splendid chamber]
W
D
N [Hall of Mountain King; the snake is here]
FREE BIRD [The snake eats the bird and goes away contentedly]
DROP CAGE
[Here is the grimoire as well. If we READ it we'll find it has two spells called
EVAS MAR and EROTSER MAR, which of course allow to save and restore the game
state from memory. So this is not a feature of the game engine, but one gained
through an object. The inventory slot this takes is, alas, too high a price.]
N [There is a silver bar here]
GET BAR
N [Y2, where there is another silvery disc and a voice says PLUGH.]
[This disc is another teleporter activated by magic word, but it can be carried
around, which we won't do, just for eccentricity's sake. By the way, the word in
question turns out not to be PLUGH, but GLUPH, as the game will tell you if you
try to use it.]
OFF LAMP
STAND ON DISC
GLUPH [To well house]
DROP CHEST
DROP BAR [2 treasures stored]
STAND ON DISC
GLUPH
ON LAMP [Back to Y2]
S
S
E
S [The nugget is here]
[The nugget works the same as in the original game: it can't be taken up the
stairs. However, there's another difference: it is heavy and takes two inventory
slots instead of one. so we have to carry it on its own.]
GET NUGGET
N
N
N
N [At Y2]
OFF LAMP
STAND ON DISC
GLUPH [To well house]
DROP NUGGET [3 treasures stored]
STAND ON DISC
GLUPH
ON LAMP [Back to Y2]
S
S
S [S side chamber, there is some jewelry here]
GET JEWELRY
N
E
W
W
W
GET DIAMOND [The one we saw earlier]
W
N
E
E
N
N
OFF LAMP
STAND ON DISC
GLUPH [To well house]
DROP JEWELRY
DROP DIAMOND [5 treasures stored]
GET FLASK
GET SANDWICHES
STAND ON DISC
GLUPH
ON LAMP [Back to Y2]
[We have taken the flask and sandwiches because we will go for the treasures
beyond the bridge now. We have to be careful with inventory slots and this
requires doing things in a certain order.]
S
S
SW [Secret E/W canyon]
W
N
D [Slab room]
S
D [Bottom of W pit; a plant seedling is here]
WATER PLANT [This puzzle works as in the original]
[We need to refill the flask at the reservoir, and deal with the dragon on our
way there.]
U
W
U
N [There is a dragon sleeping on a valuable Persian rug here]
KILL DRAGON [What with? Your bare hands?]
YES [The dragon scorches its tail and flees]
[We'll leave the rug here for the time being.]
N
N [Edge of reservoir]
[It is possible to go further north into the reservoir, which we'll do later.]
FILL FLASK
S
S
S
D
S
D
WATER PLANT [The beanstalk reaches the upper hole now]
U
E
D [There is a pool of oil here]
FILL FLASK [With oil]
U
W
D
CLIMB PLANT [Long narrow corridor]
W [The Giant room; the golden eggs are here, but we'll ignore them for now]
N [Massive rusty iron door]
OIL DOOR
OPEN DOOR
DROP FLASK
N [A jewelled trident is here, but we'll ignore it too]
[Unlike the original game, it's also possible to walk N here over the edge of
the whirlpool, which takes us to the reservoir below. It's a shortcut route, but
it has the drawback that you lose any object you hold, including the lamp. So
it's not recommended.]
W
D [Large low room]
[The teleport disc cannot go further towards the bridge than here, to avoid
abusing the game mechanics. There are other places the disc can't go, as you
will find if you experiment. Not something that bothers us.]
SW
U [The edge of chasm, with the Troll bridge]
[Now. My blood pressure spikes a bit when I recount the facts of this puzzle,
but it needs telling. There is a necessary object here that is not shown in the
room description, on purpose. It's a timber prop, and it's needed to pass a new
area below the Y2 room, but you have no way to know it's here unless you have
been told before, and on your first playthrough you won't. Not until you have
passed the bridge, been to the other side and come back, at which moment, in the
middle of the bridge, you will be told that a piece of timber falls due to your
rocking the bridge and is lost down the chasm. Forever. There's no way to get it
back, so the game gets softlocked. The only purpose of that is to inform you
of the existence of the prop, but you need to come to the conclusion that on a
new playthrough you are able to take the prop before crossing the bridge, as you
know it's there (instead of, say, conjecturing that you may be able to reach the
bottom of the chasm or a ledge below the bridge, as is the case in some other
Colossal Cave variants such as GIBI0375). So the puzzle can hardly be more
unfair, but hey, who you gonna call.]
GET TIMBER [Since we know it's there from a former playthrough]
DROP TIMBER [Once taken, it won't disappear and we can retrieve it later]
NE [We try to cross the bridge, but the troll appears]
FEED TROLL [He takes the sandwiches and scurries away]
NE
NE
E [Fork]
NE [Here it's possible to go E in the original game, but not here]
N [Volcano view, which oddly is an unlighted location; there is a ledge E]
E [The spices are here, as well as a brass-bound oak door]
GET SPICES
[The door looks like a puzzle, but is no, as it can't be opened no matter what
you do. It's here to mislead the adventurer and to be examined for a clue.]
EXAMINE DOOR ["* 3 W" is carved on it]
W
S
S
SE
S
E [Bear room]
[There is no bear in this game, which is just as well because we have no food to
give him. Instead, the golden chain is just open and left dangling from a
stanchion high up the wall.]
RETRIEVE KEYS
CLIMB CHAIN
UNLOCK CHAIN [We tumble to the floor along with the chain]
DROP KEYS
GET CHAIN
W
W
N
W
W
SW [The troll blocks us again, sees the chain and runs off to look for the bear]
SW [Back on the other side, where we left the timber]
[The hard part is done. Now to deposit these treasures and we'll be back. Note
that we did not use the eggs at any point. If you happen not to be carrying the
chain when you get back from the bridge, the troll will block you, but he can be
paid with the spices to let you pass. Of course, this loses a treasure and the
game can't be completed, as there is no way to make them appear again. The eggs
have no such effect here, but they are used for a different purpose.]
SW
D
SE [Oriental room]
SE
NE [Bedquilt]
E
U
E
U
N [At Y2 again]
OFF LAMP
STAND ON DISC
GLUPH [To well house]
DROP CHAIN
DROP SPICES [7 treasures stored]
STAND ON DISC
GLUPH
ON LAMP [Back to Y2]
[We can get the timber and eggs now, which we'll use for a new puzzle.]
S
S
SW
W
N
D
S
D [Bottom of E pit]
CLIMB PLANT
W
GET EGGS
N
N
W [We ignore the trident again]
D
SW
U
GET TIMBER
[Right, now what? Let's get back to Y2 first and we'll see.]
SW
D
SE
SE
NE
E
U
E
U
N
E [Jumble of soft earth]
DIG [A new passage is revealed]
[This is new in this game; this passage does not appear in the original.]
D [Earthen tunnel supported by wooden props]
W
NW [A smell of decaying timber fills this tunnel]
[If we go further NW here, the tunnel will collapse. This is what the timber is
for.]
PROP ROOF [It's wedged against the wall and helps support the ceiling]
NW [Ancient vaulted chamber, with a scarab on a pedestal]
[The scarab is, as you imagine, a new treasure, but the pedestal works like the
Indiana Jones trap: without an equivalent weight, it will trigger a mechanism
that will make the walls collapse and kill us. You can imagine what weighs
exactly the same as the scarab (it must be a very heavy one).]
GET SCARAB
PLACE EGGS [You must execute the action immediately]
[Now we can take the scarab. Although it is a treasure, it's the only one we
don't need to take back to the well house, because it triggers the endgame
instead. We'll make use of it later. For the time being, we can just take it
back to Y2.]
SE
SE
E
U
SW [At Y2 again]
DROP SCARAB
[More or less at this point you will probably see a message saying that your
lamp is flickering. This is the advance warning that the batteries are waning
and you need to recharge it. We'll do it right now because it's just
convenient to do so.]
S
S
W
W
S [W end of hall, where the entrance to the other maze is]
S
U
U
S [Dead end, with the vending machine]
RETRIEVE COIN
INSERT COIN [The machine says "place lamp in recess"]
PLACE LAMP [It is now recharged]
GET LAMP
N
E
U
D [W end of hall again]
[OK, that's done. Now for more treasures.]
E
N
E
E
SW
W
N
D
S
D
CLIMB PLANT
W
FEE
FIE
FOE FOO [The eggs are back]
GET EGGS
N
N
GET TRIDENT
[The trident, as in the original, is needed to open the clam/oyster north of
Complex Junction, so we'll go there now.]
W
D
SE
SE
NE
E
N [The clam is here]
PRISE CLAM [A pearl rolls out and down the corridor]
DROP TRIDENT [We'll come for it and the pearl later]
S
[Now that we are here and with a free inventory slot, we'll pay a brief visit to
the antechamber for some light reading.]
E [Anteroom, a copy of "Spelunker Today" is here]
GET SPELUNKER
READ SPELUNKER [The clue "* 2 SW" shows on it]
[We can even visit Witt's End to the E, but there is no need to do anything else
around.]
DROP SPELUNKER
W
W
W
E [Soft room, where there's a pillow]
GET PILLOW
[The puzzle with the Oriental room's treasure (which is a delicate figurine here
instead of a Ming vase) is the same: we need to drop the pillow first before we
can store the figurine. Back to the building now.]
W
NE
E
U
E
U
N
OFF LAMP
STAND ON DISC
GLUPH [To well house]
DROP PILLOW
DROP EGGS [8 treasures stored]
STAND ON DISC
GLUPH
ON LAMP [Back to Y2]
S
S
SW
W
N
N [Yes, I know we are ignoring the rug; don't worry, it will be picked up]
N
N [Edge of reservoir]
N [Standing on water; something glimmers below]
OFF LAMP [The locations around are lighted]
N [We swim out to the middle of the reservoir]
D [Following a submerged passage to a secret grotto with a golden conch]
GET CONCH
W [It's dark again, where are we?]
ON LAMP [It's the cul-de-sac where the pearl went to, convenient]
GET PEARL
U
U [The trident is still here, but we have our hands full]
S
U
E
U
N
OFF LAMP
STAND ON DISC
GLUPH [To well house]
DROP CONCH
DROP PEARL [10 treasures stored]
STAND ON DISC
GLUPH
ON LAMP [Back to Y2]
[Now we'll do exactly the same route as just now and pick up the rug and
trident.]
S
S
SW
W
N
N
GET RUG
N
N
N
N [Don't bother turning the lamp off now]
D
W
U
U
GET TRIDENT
S
U
E
U
N
OFF LAMP
STAND ON DISC
GLUPH [To well house]
DROP RUG
DROP TRIDENT [12 treasures stored]
STAND ON DISC
GLUPH
[Now we'll go for the Plover Room. This puzzle works exactly the same way as in
WOOD0350, the only difference being that the emerald does not disappear if we
teleport from the Plover room holding it. In the original this required the
player to go back the long way around through the Alcove, but here there is no
such restriction, which makes things so much easier. This might be a coding
oversight.]
PLOVER [The emerald is here; this teleport does not require a disc]
E [Pitch black again]
ON LAMP [The Dark Room, with its mandatory platinum pyramid and a plaque]
GET PYRAMID
READ PLAQUE [Congratulations and "* 4 SE"]
S
GET EMERALD
PLOVER
OFF LAMP
STAND ON DISC
GLUPH [To well house]
DROP EMERALD
DROP PYRAMID [14 treasures stored]
STAND ON DISC
GLUPH
ON LAMP [Back to Y2]
[And just one treasure to go, apart from the scarab: the figurine. Let's go get
it.]
S
D
W
D
W
W
NW
GET FIGURINE
SE
NE
E
U
E
U
N
OFF LAMP
STAND ON DISC
GLUPH [To well house]
DROP FIGURINE [15 treasures stored]
STAND ON DISC
GLUPH
ON LAMP [Back to Y2]
[And only the scarab is left. Time to examine it more closely.]
GET SCARAB
EXAMINE SCARAB ["* 5 MAGE DEN"]
[By now you should have noticed that these cryptic inscriptions all have a star,
a number, and a command. If we lay the numbers in order, it reads "N, SW, W, SE,
MAGE DEN". These are directions, but where from? This is where the star comes
in. Where have we seen a star? Right, on the floor of the Pirate's hideout. So
that is the starting point: we need to go there, issue the commands sequentially
and the endgame will trigger. Far less obvious is the fact that nothing of the
kind will happen unless we are carrying the scarab. This was found by trial and
error (although the fact that the last inscription is on the scarab might have
suggested it).]
S
S
E
W
W
W [Entrance to the maze]
S
E
S
SW
N
S [Pirate's hideout; now we follow the directions]
N
SW
W
SE [Incidentally, the directions "N, NW, SE, N" also work]
MAGE DEN [We are teleported to the Wizard, congratulated, and caves closed.]
[End of game.]
