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 the player entering, 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
  a thing
  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 the fuse 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. State machines are core vocabulary, so no header line opens them:

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 the player pushing while the boiler is cold → refuse primer-dry; the cold boiler answers switch on with a hollow CLANK).