The long night: timelines, the fuse, machines

The fixed timeline

A define sequence is a schedule. Fernhill's clock is the whole game's pressure:

define sequence the long night
  at turn 14
    phrase dusk-deepens
    change the story to midnight
  at turn 70
    phrase small-hours
  at turn 130
    lose dawn-comes
end sequence

at turn N steps fire on schedule; the last one is the losing ending: dawn comes, the auction party arrives, the game ends. Note the story-state flip at turn 14: header states: plus change the story to … is how the world knows what hour it is.

The fuse: a countdown with stakes

Entering the folly (once) lights an old blasting fuse. A second sequence anchors on that event rather than a turn number:

create the Folly
  a room

  after entering it, once
    change the fuse to lit
    phrase fuse-catches
  end after

define sequence the fuse burn
  when the fuse becomes lit
    phrase fuse-racing
  3 turns later
    kill the player fuse-blast when the fuse is lit
end sequence

when <entity> becomes <state> starts the clock; N turns later steps follow; kill the player is the hard ending, gated when the fuse is lit, so cutting the fuse (cuttable with the garden shears, Things) defuses the death. Both branches are real: the game will kill you.

Recurring events, gated on presence

create the Cellar
  on every turn
    phrase cellar-drip
  end on

  on every turn while the oil lamp is lit, once
    phrase lamplight-startle
  end on

An entity's on every turn clause fires only while the player is there to hear it. The , once modifier makes a beat that never repeats; a while gate makes one that tracks live state. (The fuse hisses the same way: on every turn while it is lit.)

The boiler: a state machine

The boiler is the estate's centerpiece. The brass plate says FILL. PRIME. LIGHT, and the machine enforces it. With use state-machines in the header:

define machine the boiler works
  role furnace is the boiler
  starts cold

  state cold
    when turning the stopcock: filled

  state filled
    on enter
      change the boiler to filled
      phrase water-gurgles
    end on
    when pushing the primer plunger: primed

  state primed
    on enter
      change the boiler to primed
      phrase primer-thumps
    end on
    when switching_on the furnace: running

  state running, terminal
    on enter
      change the boiler to running
      change the vine to flowering
      phrase pipes-warm
      phrase vine-stirs
      play sound boiler-thump when client has sound
    end on
end machine

Transitions are player actions on world entities (when turning the stopcock: filled); on enter bodies mirror machine truth onto the boiler's visible states, narrate, and (note the last line) reach into the greenhouse: the running state flowers the vine. The machine is the causal spine of the estate: the boiler runs, the frost seal opens (The world's live block), the vine flowers, and the silver locket appears in the next chapter.

Out-of-order attempts get their own voices, authored as refusals on the entities themselves (on pushing it while the boiler is cold → refuse primer-dry; the cold boiler answers switch on with a hollow CLANK).