By Garry Francis
Frederick H Winchester III was a rich man who lived in the city of Dunedin in New Zealand. Winchester's grandfather was an Englishman who emigrated to New Zealand in the early 1800s and became very wealthy as an importer/exporter. The grandfather's business was passed down the family line to Winchester's father, then to Winchester himself, along with the company's wealth.
Winchester's wife was Scottish, as were most of the immigrants in Dunedin, but she died of consumption (known nowadays as tuberculosis) at an early age, and the couple never had any children. Winchester never remarried and regretted having no children of his own. As a consequence, when he retired, he became a philanthropist and donated thousands of pounds to children's charities, particularly those that supported the education of Maori children, as he had great admiration for the Maori people and their culture.
Frederick H Winchester III died on 30 April 1932. His mansion was willed to the city of Dunedin to be turned into a high school. The school was named Winchester High in honour of its benefactor. Apart from the mansion, the remainder of Winchester's vast fortune was never found and its whereabouts became known as The Mystery of Winchester High.
Years have passed and the school is now running into financial difficulties. If the school's principal cannot obtain funding, she will have to close the school.
As a student at the school, you didn't really care about the school closing, until your teacher happened to mention that all the students will be transferred to a worse school if funding is not found. With that revelation, you decide to solve the mystery and find Winchester's lost fortune.
It's rumoured that when the mansion was converted into a school, some parts of the former mansion were not used. You wonder whether the fortune could be found there...
This is a traditional text adventure that was written for Text Adventure Literacy Jam 2023, 12 April to 31 May 2023.
Release 1 was compiled with Inform 6 version 6.41 and the PunyInform library version 4.6. You may need to make changes if using later versions.