Dot to Dot. With 85 minutes filled out of show. For everyone who's simply dotting it out, Alexa. Hey guys, Ron here.
Today we're going to look at quite a basic skill. It's a choose-your-own-adventure, sort of, and it's well-written, I think. Anyway, it's called Quest of Elements. Let's give it a go.
Alexa, open Quest of Elements. Welcome to Quest of Elements. A quest awaits on this fine day. So hurry, fly without delay.
For your help, I do implore. So when you're ready, just say explore. Explore. You find yourself outside a rustic little shop.
From the looks of the engraved book signs swinging by the door, just illuminated by flickering camels, you appear to have found yourself outside in the bookstore. Shall we enter? Yes. Say, enter.
Enter. You open the door carefully and peek inside. It is somehow much larger than it appeared from outside, yet still small enough to be cozy. A roaring fire has been tended at the side of the room, bringing light and walls to the space.
As you step in further, you see a vast network of branches tangled across the ceiling, sweeping down towards wooden bookshelves below. A fountain filled with water in the corner of the room. A light breeze draws your attention to the left, where you see an elderly man sitting at the counter. You can say, share conversation, or look around.
Share conversation. You move towards the shelves for a better look. Perhaps there would be something interesting to read. You wander up and down the rows, taking in the topics at hand.
However, all of the titles seem just a bit unfamiliar. Mastering fire. So enabling the sea. A rush of wind.
You can't quite tell if they're strange genres of fiction, but they're all quite old and you're afraid of ruining one and having to purchase it. You return to the middle of the room. Say, share conversation. Share conversation.
As you approach, the elderly man looks up from his book and gaze at you expect him to. It is almost as if he knew you would be coming. Greetings, young traveler. He says, I see you are looking to embark on a grand adventure.
Isn't that right? Say, yes. Yes. He nods his head stagely, breaking out in a grin.
Why, of course you are. Why else would you be here? The path to your adventure is just beyond the door behind me. But before you go, let me give you a gift.
Say, thank you. Thank you. You wonder what the gift could be. He calls out three small little books from beneath the counter, each with an emblem edge onto the front.
The first book features a small flame set onto a deep red background. The second illustrates the soft, twisting leaf connected to a vine wrapped around the light green binding. The third shows a shiny little droplet against a brilliant blue backdrop boundless as a sea. Which book would you like?
You can say, fire, earth, or water. Help. I understand you need some help. At any time you can issue the following commands.
To hear your options again, say repeat options. To hear the entire scene again, say repeat scene. In order to revisit the previous scene, say go back. To skip past the current scene description, say skip.
To start the game over, say start again. At any time, to hear these commands again, say help. Now, what would you like to do? You can say, fire, earth, or water.
Water. He smiles and hands you the book. Best of luck on your journey, he says gifly. He sets aside and opens the door behind him for you.
As you step through, you wonder if you should have asked for more details before jumping into a random door. The light fades away and you turn around to question the old man further, but suddenly find that the door is gone. Instead you find yourself on the white sands of the beach, overlooking a dazzling sapphire sea. How did you end up here?
You flip through the pages of the book you've received, but every page is blank. Seems like you'll be figuring this one out on your own. You stick the book into your pocket and look around your surroundings. The beach stretches out ahead, bordered by the soft lapping waves of the sea beside you.
A light sea breeze warts past as you watch sunlight dances across the surface of the water. There is an island with a lighthouse on it out in the water, a little beach hut bordered by some trees, and a rocky path leading inland right beside it. Where do you want to explore? You can say, check out the lighthouse.
Visit the beach hut, or follow rocky path. Check out the lighthouse. The lighthouse sits atop a tiny little island in the midst of the waters before you. You swim and can just make out the outline, but you can't see much else.
You walk along the pristine shores of the beach a little way in either direction, but you can't seem to find any sort of crossing. It's too bad you don't have a way to get to the water. You can say, visit the beach hut, or follow rocky path. Visit the beach hut.
You visit the beach hut and peek inside the door. It is sparsely decorated inside, with only a single chair and table, and the various clippings and maps hung on the walls. There is a door out to the back, but you're not sure you want to go there just yet. Perhaps you could come back later.
You can say, check out the lighthouse, or follow rocky path. Follow rocky path. You decide to follow the rocky path further inland. The lofty palm fronts start getting clustered closer and closer together, but the rocks continue to mountain height.
Say, continue along shore. Continue along shore. You choose to continue, and make slow but steady progress, getting the rocky sandy path before you. Finally, after what feels like forever, you reach the top of the cliff and what seems to be the end of the trail.
Ahead of you is a small sandy clearing, lined with rocks. In the middle is what seems to be a fountain, carved out of rock with a droplet emblem etched into the front. Water bubbles up out of the center and spills into the sand nearby. You can say, look around, or rest by fountain.
Look around. You peer out past the clearing to the sea below. You can see the lighthouse from here too, but it's still quite a decent bit away. You peer down at the path you came from in dismay.
It could take twice as long to get back down if you're staying safe enough to avoid dripping on those rocks. Say, rest by fountain. Rest by fountain. You sit down by the fountain and enjoy the fresh salty sea breeze.
You even take a sip of the fountain water, which luckily must be supplied by an spring of fresh water on the island. The crisp taste of cool water is refreshing, but you realize in the process you've managed to soak your shirt with a spray. Oh well. You also notice your pocket feels wet.
That's strange. You're pretty sure you didn't get fountain water over there. Say, check pocket. Check pocket.
You reach into your pocket and there's no question that it is soaked through. You pull out the book you were keeping in there, which for some reason still looks just fine despite the water. In fact, now that you look closely, it seems that the water might actually be leaking from the book itself. How peculiar.
You open the book and rifle through the pages, only to find that each page now dislays a single word, drawn in an elegant ancient swall. Flo. You turn to the next page and the next and keep seeing the same word. Flo.
How curious. Wow. As you flip through the pages, you wonder what it could mean. Perhaps it is a spell book of sorts.
Intrigued, you look at the water in front of you. The water is already flowing pretty well out of the fountain, but perhaps it could be directed to flow elsewhere too. Oh, down the rocky path. Say, check out the path.
Check out the path. You get up and look back down the rocky path you just climbed up. It's going to take quite a while to get down safely. You look back curiously at the fountain just behind you.
Maybe you could wash away the loose rocks with some of the water. You don't have anything with you to redirect the fountain stream, but perhaps there's another way to make the water move. Maybe saying the word from the book will do something. Why don't you give it a try?
Flo. The water behind you suddenly bursts from the fountain, parking forward to splash against the rocky path you came up. Wow. Not bad.
It actually worked. As you watch, the watch wiggles loose most of the rocks and washes them down the hill, leaving behind a smooth sandy incline ahead. Say, go down the path. Go down the path.
You shake your head in a mason and pocket the book once again into your soggy pocket before heading back down the path. You come out to the same spot on the beach. What do I tell you about? Where do you want to go?
You can say, visit the beach hut, or check out the lighthouse. Visit the beach hut. You visit the beach hut and peek inside the door. It is vastly decorated inside, with only a single chair and table, and are various clippings and maps hung on the walls.
There is a door at the other end that leads to the back. Say, head to the back. Stop. Thank you for using my Alexa skill.
Goodbye. I'm going to leave it there, guys. I know, I know. It's not a choose your own adventure story.
It's just a story with minimal choices. But, you know, it gives that bit of interaction, and I like it. I'm going to carry on. I think it's well written, with the odd strange...
Is that a pronoun, is it, eh, man? I'm not sure. But yeah, apart from that, well written. And obviously there are three adventures, I would say, in this story, in this skill.
Cool. There you go, guys. Quest of Elements. I wonder how long it will go on.
You know, how far it takes you in each quest. Don't know. If this sounds like your thing, you're going to go. This is Robin signing off, and we'll see you again tomorrow.
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