Turbo Pudding
Panemonium has twenty levels in four corners of Vitrea. This Saturday, six snapshots from the second half of town: the Glasshouse, a huge greenhouse of glass with curved iron ribs, and the Moon Dome, the observatory at the very top of town, where Duchess Dusk keeps her palace. When Mira first walks into the Glasshouse, she whispers, “Gaffer, it’s beautiful. Even asleep.”
The picture at the top is the boss of the Glasshouse, the Looking-Glass, napping in her stone niche. The only ways in are mirrors. The Spark flies into one outside and comes out of its twin inside, crosswise, like a reflection. Six small dark frames circle her, and Gaffer has a tip: “Her heart hides in the frames. Watch which frame glows, then send the Spark there.” She has her own opinion: “Who’s the fairest of them all? Me. Obviously. Now hush.” Mira: “She’s talking to herself.”
Spring Bells
Two big flowers of pink glass hang on either side of a lime stem, and under each one sits a spring bell, like a clapper. A third waits in the middle, right where the Spark goes on its first launch. Spring bells never break. They just kick the Spark away faster. Gaffer: “Spring bells kick the Spark faster. Don’t blink.”
Lower down, more flowers grow in stone pots. One chime hides in the cup of the left flower, and another sits in the top left corner.
Overgrown
The biggest rose in the Glasshouse grows on a lime stem, pink outside and gold at its heart, with a chime hidden in the middle. Below it hang two curtains of vine. Vines don’t count toward clearing the level, but they grow back six seconds after you cut them, so the trick is to cut a gap and hit the rose before it closes. Mira gives up on them fast: “It grew back! Fine, I’ll ignore you, vine.”
At the bottom glows the Glasshouse stove, four panes of hot glass. Each one bursts and takes its neighbors with it, and one good chain opens the whole bottom. The lowest pane always holds a Spare Spark.
Clear as Glass
At first you see a palm tree growing in empty air. Then the Spark bounces off nothing at all, and a pale pane lights up where it hit. The dome over the palm is made entirely of clear glass. Each pane stays invisible until the Spark touches it, then takes one more hit. Gaffer: “Clear glass. You’ll see it once you touch it. Listen for the ting.”
The gift pane at the bottom holds a Glass Floor, which catches one Spark that would have fallen past the Prism.
Moondust
The Moon Dome starts with a big Moon made of glass, lit cream on the left and in lilac shadow on the right. The craters are panes in brass bars, and Gaffer knows them well: “Barred glass. Brass bars, three good hits.”
Then it starts to snow. Mira: “It’s so quiet up here. And it’s snowing… silver?” Gaffer: “Moondust. It doesn’t hurt, but it dulls the Prism. Dodge it.” Each silver flake glints for a moment, then falls, swaying. If one lands on the Prism, the Prism shrinks for three seconds. The Spark can break flakes on its way past. Somewhere above, Duchess Dusk sounds sleepy: “Darling, it’s four hundred o’clock. Go to bed.” Mira: “I will. Right after sunrise.”
The Last Stair
Gaffer: “Last stairs, apprentice. Everything you’ve learned, all at once.” He means it. Five steps narrow up toward the Duchess’s door, with vines running along them like railings. Two lanterns of hot glass glow on the landing, with spring bells under them. A few panes look missing from the steps, because they’re clear glass. The top step rides a rope lift, one row up and down, so another tip from Gaffer comes in handy: “A rope lift. Strike when it comes down to meet you.”
The door is a gate with a lever on each side. Hit a lever and the gate opens, or break in from above. Behind it, in a little room of silver panes, a Spark sleeps in a bubble next to a chime. A Flares capsule always waits in the middle of the bottom step, and its beams reach the levers and the door from below.
The first five levels and the first boss are free to play in your browser at panemonium.com. The Glasshouse, the Moon Dome and the rest of town come with the full game, all twenty levels, $4.99, paid once. More about the game is on the Panemonium page.
