Bombow's 5th Challenge
Contest

I, Admiral Bombow, challenge you to demonstrate your navigational prowess by finding routes between various of the Land's locale's described below.

I was having a decent chinwag with a wizard recently: we were musing the necessity of drawing up detailed maps when exploring The Land. It turns out that he has quite a collection, and will shortly be publishing a guide for novice navigators. Being a seasoned sea-dog I never relied on such niceties, preferring to chart may way with little more to guide me than the salty pungence of brine, and the call of the gulls. Despite this, before he disappeared in his customary puff of smoke, he managed to convince me that a close knowledge of the Land's terrain was of great use; whether plotting a quick path to evade your foe, or giving chase to your chosen victim.

As he had kindly left me a draft copy of his guide, I devised this Challenge based on its contents.

For each of the five tours below, find the shortest route visiting each of the locations, where the quoted experiences are given in the verbose description. Type LOOK to see a room's verbose description. NOTE: within each tour the locations aren't necessarily given in the order which would give the shortest route if they were simply visited in turn.

Your routes should only consist of compass directions and UP and DOWN; ie, not include directions such as IN, OUT, JUMP and SWAMP. You can assume that any gates, doors or other barriers that would otherwise impede your progress have somehow been magically removed.

Once you're satisfied that you've done your best, email your answers to bombow@mud2.com, mentioning your persona name in the subject line. To stand a chance of winning I must have received your entries by the end of Sunday, 20th June 1999. The victorious player, who will be presented with a suitable reward, shall be the person to have submitted the shortest route to encompass each tour's way points, and identified those way-points from the verbose description excerpts given.

When I next see Tethys or Viktor after the closing date, I'll ask either of them to issue an open invitation to the Prize Giving Ceremony. Naturally, as in all my previous Challenges, a variety of generous Runners Up prizes will be also be awarded...

Good Luck!

Challenge summary: for each tour, find the shortest route that visits all of the locations for which an excerpt from a verbose description is given.

TOUR 1.

"To the northeast through the trees can be made out a wooden building";

"This is a wooden jetty, which forces itself out into the sea";

"eastwards the overgrown grounds of a mausoleum, dwarfed by an enormous mountain which stands high above";

"A sense of deep respectfulness fills this modest room";

"yearn to be able to" ... "lie eternally in dew-drenched grass, with an air of inner peace and total tranquillity".

TOUR 2.

"You are standing on top of a great hillside in front of a massive gateway, set into an enormous wall which runs around the top of a hill";

"you can imagine how it would have looked when it was stocked with rare and exotic species";

"You are in a square garden, surrounded by a wall of soft brownstone, buttressed and capped with tall, elegant finials";

"You are inside an oriental-looking building";

"To the west, the ford continues; east, it reaches dry land at the bottom of a sun-kissed hillside".

TOUR 3.

"The walls are smooth, and shaped into grotesque forms, with half-human faces seemingly leering from the shadows";

"they form an awesome sight in the half shadows, and the steady PLINK PLINK of dripping water gives testimony to the fact that they are still growing";

"Words cannot do justice to the feeling of awe and astonishment which overcomes you when presented with this imposing spectacle";

"all you can see in that direction is a thick blackness, as if the top were cloaked in a velvet cloth".

TOUR 4.

"This is a delightful spinney of smaller trees growing at the edge of a larger forest";

"Eastwards is an oddly-decorated wall, set into which is a large, oriental-style gate";

"this is perhaps the most voluminous man-made room that you have ever witnessed";

"Deep gouges in the trunk expose the living wood beneath the bark, and branches hang split and twisted in the breeze".

TOUR 5.

"The walls are stained black with the pitch used for waterproofing";

"a headland with rough seas swirling about it, its granite rocks unfortunately precluding any attempt at landing";

"This is the nest of an eagle, stuck firmly to the cliff overlooking the sea";

"The beach upon which you are standing is covered in stones".