UPDATEDStory
SPOOL DECK
Type your way through a backbone decommissioned on paper in 1994: copy the file, then disconnect before the heat meter hits 100.
What it is
a leased amber terminal
A story you play by typing commands into a leased amber-phosphor terminal. A fixer named Moth mails you jobs on a backbone that was decommissioned on paper in 1994 and never went dark: connect to a host, read its files, get past its lock (a password, a sequence, a shifted cipher, a word lock), and pull the file home packet by packet, typing each packet before its bar empties. Every second you are linked the trace climbs, and at 100 heat the carrier dumps you, fines you and marks your name. The first four jobs are training and put the next command on the glass; after them the letters only brief you and the files hold what the locks want. Moth's line runs to a switch on the core with two endings, and beside it are ten side letters, an exchange that posts seeded contracts (and, once training is done and the exchange has your number, one night posting a day that is the same job on every deck), and a previous tenant's unfinished business.
How to play
Controls, then the numbers that matter
Start with mail, then mail read 1. Through the first four jobs (the badge, the ledger, the harbour and the grey drop) the JOB line is the next command to type. After the grey drop the guide steps back: guide on brings it back, hint repeats the job without the answer, and case lists every open thread and the lines that mattered from what you have read.
A download comes in packets: type each packet's symbols before its bar empties. Three misses on one channel drop it, and abort drops it yourself. Moth pays when the file is in your loot, not when you have only read it.
At 100 heat the carrier dumps you, skims 8% of your credits and adds 22 suspicion (12 with the carrier veil). Suspicion makes later traces meaner; launder at home burns credits to wash it, and a burner line (650 cr, up to three) eats one dump whole.
ps lists a host's daemons. Kill the low pid to sag the trace; the high one is a decoy and scars you. spoof stalls a trace once per link, twice with the second fork (1,800 cr), and route add bounces you through up to three hosts you have opened.
A word lock gives four guesses. Each miss prints how many letters sit in the right place, and the fourth seizes the lock and reshuffles the dump.
Exchange contracts pay 20% more if the carrier never dumps you on the job. Two-star offers post at rep 2, three-star at 6, and four-star big scores that span two hosts at 14; the board says which comes next and keeps a book of the jobs done at each star, with your fastest.
After either ending, renew confirm starts the story again on the same hands: your name, gear, burners and rep stay, the exchange keeps your number, you start with 500 more credits per renewal, and every renewed lease traces a little hotter. whoami then reads the carrier's file: eleven marks for the endings and outcomes you have reached on any lease, a hint for each blank, and your fastest lease to an ending.
The lease saves after every command. export downloads it as a JSON file and import reads one back; one tab holds the lease, and an older tab stops saving when another writes it.
Once training is done and the exchange has your number (Halloran's courtesy), contracts shows the night posting: one job a night, the same on every deck, two stars on weekdays and three at weekends, changing at midnight UTC+8, with no rush and no door window. contracts take night takes it; it is timed on the lease clock from your first take to done, and contracts night keeps your nights worked, your longest run and your fastest night at each star. A missed night takes nothing away.
Trophies
17 trophies
Sign in and the ones you earn light up here and on your account.
The spool
- Paid for the grey drop
- One of two endings (hidden until you find it)
- The other ending (hidden until you find it)
- Both endings, across leases
- Moth notices how a cut was done (hidden until you find it)
The tenant
- The previous tenant's business (hidden until you find it)
- Another way to settle her account (hidden until you find it)
The wire
- Somebody testifies at nine (hidden until you find it)
- A friend on the harbour (hidden until you find it)
- All ten side letters in one lease
- All eleven marks in the carrier's file
The exchange
- First exchange contract paid
- Rep enough for four-star work
- Pulled a four-star big score
The night posting
- Worked a night posting
- Seven night postings worked
- Thirty night postings worked
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From the changelog
What changed
StuStudios 2.2
- After training, SPOOL DECK’s exchange posts one night job a day, the same on every deck: two stars on weekdays, three at weekends.
SPOOL DECK went up on the arcade
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