This angered a local resident of Fublio Valley (where the statue was built), Megaboz the Magnificent, who cast a deadly curse over Dimwit, the royal family, and the entire Empire before disappearing.

The king's conjurers employed their most powerful magic in an effort to counteract the curse, but they were unable to save Dimwit and his eleven siblings; they only managed to delay the kingdom's destruction temporarily.

Present when Megaboz appears and casts his fateful curse, the player manages to grab a small piece of parchment left behind in the chaos.

To accomplish this, the player will play the legendary game of Double Fanucci, travel to every corner of the Empire, solve a collection of riddles and logic puzzles, and visit the enormous statue that started all this trouble.

As the in-game Encyclopedia Frobozzica describes it, Legend has it that Double Fanucci (or Fannucci) was invented by the deposed Zilbo III in the late seventh century.

The annual Double Fanucci Championships, held in Borphee during early autumn, frequently leave thousands homeless.It is immensely complicated, parodying card games with complex rules in a manner similar to Fizzbin or Mornington Crescent.

As played in Zork Zero,[note 2] cards appear in 15 numbered suits (Books, Bugs, Ears, Faces, Fromps, Hives, Inkblots, Lamps, Mazes, Plungers, Rain, Scythes, Time, Tops and Zurfs) with ranks from 0 (called "Naught"), 1 ("Singled"), 2 ("Doubled"), 3 ("Trebled"), up to 9, and infinity ("Infinite").

There are nine additional cards, like Major Arcana or "Trumps" in Tarot, which are unranked: Granola, the Lobster, the Snail, the Jester, Time, Light, Beauty, Death, and the Grue.

Double Fanucci cards were featured prominently in the browser-based game Legends of Zork, drawn by artist Greg Brown and colored by Jim "Zubby" Zubkavich.

The jester in Zork Zero will sometimes say So long, and thanks for all the fish, a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which was also adapted as an eponymous Infocom video game.