We Descend

Author: Bill Bly

Web URL or medium: CD-ROM available for purchase: contact Eastgate Systems, 134 Main St., Watertown, MA 02472 USA. 800/562-1638, orders@eastgate.com, http://www.eastgate.com. If ordering for a newer Macintosh, be sure to specify CD-ROM version. $19.95. Excerpts are available online at Word Circuits.

Description: A story of our far future, unearthed by a Scholar to whom it is the distant past. But for that far-off scholar, as for every reader, the paths followed and the connections forged among the diaries, letters, confessions, and artifacts lead only to further questions. Some documents speak to us of Egderus, a young boy at the isolated Mountain House. What -- or who -- lives in the rocky hills around him? What secrets bind his superiors in fear and silence? What is it that creeps out, undetected, to drive a man mad, or to tear him limb from limb? Why must Egderus later leave the Mountain House as amanuensis to the Good Doctor, interrogator and torturer? What intrigue surrounds one prisoner, the Historian, that makes the Good Doctor so relentless in his attack? Why, ultimately, is this Historian the one victim that Egderus attempts to rescue? Years later, as an old man at the Mountain House, Egderus uncovers only more mysteries. What did the Historian learn that drove him to his death? Does something live, still, in the rocks around him? And how shall Egderus pursue this disturbing legacy that could shake the foundations of his darkening world?

Start/re-start instructions:
TO START: Double-click the We Descend icon on the desktop. NOTE: it *may* be necessary to copy the file to the hard disk of the machine on which it will be presented. I know that it can't be run from a floppy, but don't have a CD version to try it with.

In the dialog that appears, choose Begin a new reading. Watch the document loading progress. When the opening graphic appears, click the arrow on the small tool palette to follow the default path. Hold down command-option to outline text links, then double-click or drag through linked text. (If you've got the time, the Directions tell you how to do *everything*.)

For (ahem) maximum visual impact, once the document loads, click once on the map (behind the graphic) to bring it to the front, and maximize the window by clicking the zoom box, second from the right in the window's title bar. Then scroll the map view until the little green (or blue) boxes are in the lower right hand corner. To bring the text window back to the front, click in the very center of the tool palette (the square box with three dots inside). This way, as you click the arrow button or follow a text link, the map will change to illustrate the structure of the hypertext.

TO QUIT: Choose Quit reading... from the Reader menu. A dialog will ask if you wish to save the current place in the reading... It's your choice at this point.

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