Azrael's Tear Walkthrough
By
Dan Kennedy
January 2002
Introduction
Although billed as an action-adventure, Azrael's Tear contains few of the elements traditionally associated with the action genre. True, there are many ways to die in the game, the most common involving falling off a narrow path into poisoned thorns / biting scorpions / gaping chasms / deep water, and there are a few instances when shooting is required. But really this is a pretty standard adventure game, with a few action elements.
The game is dark, both in mood and in colour, taking place in a giant underground complex. The game universe seems to go on and on from one amazing location to the next. The story, although confusing, is a quite engaging tale involving your quest to find the Holy Grail, which is guarded by a number of ancient Knights Templar. The game's secret weapon is its graphics, which manage to be simple (real-time rendered 3D on one CD!) and extremely evocative at the same time. Those looking for the clarity of a Cryo release should look elsewhere - the graphics are quite blocky and pixelated, but manage to really set the mood and capture the proper tone.
The interface is a little difficult to master; I found the easiest configuration was to use the four keyboard arrow keys for movement, with Page Up and Page Down to look up/down, and the left mouse button to pick-up/examine things.
As a mostly pure adventure fan who delights in exploring and solving every nook and cranny of a game, Azrael's Tear presents a few problems - occasionally there is more than one way of solving a puzzle, or getting around an obstacle. Even worse, choosing a particular path can sometimes prevent you from exploring some locations of the game. My approach with this walkthrough is to present a tour that gets you to all of the locations, with some alternative paths discussed at the end. I'll try to take care of some of you "action-avoiders" as well where appropriate.
The Story So Far….
Apparently its 2003, and everyone's sick - things are just not going well. [Note to developers - next time, set your game more than 7 years in the future!] Mankind has gone in the dumps for some reason, and somehow the Holy Grail has made a strong comeback as a potential saviour of the human race.
At the same time, sever tectonic upheaval (ooh, the geologist in me is getting excited) has unearthed many previously unreachable archaeological locations across the globe [thankfully for adventure players, Atlantis was not one of them!]. A new breed of thieving archaeologists known as Raptors with advanced technology have been scouring the planet using advanced technology, and competing with each other for old booty.
As a Raptor yourself (no, you're not Vince Carter), you have received a note from a competitor named Colin Scott that indicates he has potentially found the present location of the Grail in Scotland within an underground complex known as Aeternis. Apparently a dozen Knights Templar transported the grail from Jerusalem to Scotland in the 12th Century. He offers to split the profits with you, and naturally you high-tail it to Aeternis.
You watch a rather cryptic introduction that indicates that the knights have been waiting for almost 1000 years for you to show up and try to find the grail. The game then plops you directly into Aeternis. You find yourself in a northeast - southwest running corridor, with a couple of strange looking lizards running around. That greyed area (with the 2 scrolling buttons) on the left side of the bottom panel is your inventory. A local map can be seen by clicking on the lower of the 2 buttons next to the inventory (right-click to go back). The orange-y bar near the centre is your health-o-meter, and the button underneath it brings up an interface to load/save/quit etc. (hit the button a second time to remove the interface).
The writing on the right side of the screen is your automatic scanner, which spits out information whenever you are about to enter a new area, or when you click on something to scan it. The cross-hair cursor turns into a boxy-looking thing when you can scan something (like the lizards, or the big rock in the hallway).
Let's Move, Helmet-Head!
Proceed down the hallway towards the northeast door (a compass at the top of the screen tells you which direction you are moving). Grab the piece of paper on the floor half-way towards the door. This is a page from the Head Knight Tobias' journal - you'll find these pages spread all over the place in here. The pages give little snap-shots of the lives of the Templars over the last 1000 years. Right-click to end the page view (the page is now in your inventory).
Keep moving to the northeast door, and click to enter (note the arrow shaped cursor that turns yellow when you are close enough to open the door). Go through the short hallway, and read the scan for the next room (this is handy when men or beasts are about). The scan tells you that there are 3 exits to the room ahead, and "scalding" water present. Open the door and proceed in, but be careful about walking along the wooded walkway - if you fall off, you will drown and die!
As you move along the walkway, note the round valve to your right. Click on it once to turn on the water power to…something in the next room? The door straight ahead is locked (go check if you don't believe me), so turn to the right, and exit the doorway at the end of the walkway's right branch. Proceed down the short hallway and read the scan for the next room - lots of equipment here, 5 exits, and a human present (mutation?!??).
Enter the room and look about - almost immediately you should hear a voice calling out for help. Note the big doors to your left (locked), a funny looking metal car in the centre of the room, blocks of granite here and there, and the ramp along the far wall. Begin walking towards the mine car, keeping to the left of the holes in the floor. Pass to the right of the car, and creep up to the large crevice in the floor beyond the car. You will see a strange-looking person standing below. Look down, and inch up to the crevice until the creature addresses you. Ask him about his name, and the "tests" - if you want to hear the response again, hit the "R" button in the bottom right corner of the screen. "Lurka" is trapped down here - he will answer some of your questions before you help him, but he may get tired of you and tell you to buzz off.
After your conversation is completed, if you still want to help him (this is optional), press the grey patch on the top of the right-hand iron train rail, just as it starts to cross the crevice - the rail will fall into the hole, allowing Lurka to climb up and disappear. Now turn to your left, and head off towards the exit located south of where you stand.
Join the Baptist
This room is the Bapistry, and your scanner indicates there is complicated optical equipment in the floor. Walk in and examine the stone font in the centre of the room (stagnant water), and the stone bath in the corner (ignore the door to the west for now). Have a look at the mirrors along the south wall - the mirror on the far right is broken enough to allow passage to a room behind.
Step through the mirror into another room similar to the first. Walk around the stone font and examine it - here is your optical equipment, along with a stone bible and a pressure pad in the ground. Interesting - now walk over to the stone bath and look at the plaque on the wall behind the basin - better copy it down.
Now walk up the staircase (west wall) to the balcony above the room. There are 4 frames set up here, with the third occupied by a piece of a tapestry, and two additional pieces on the ground below the frames. Flip over the third frame (the one with the tapestry piece already attached) and read the message. Pick up the pieces and place them on the proper frames: the one with the red man in the foreground goes in the first position, while the one with the marching baldies goes in the second. We are still missing the fourth piece, so climb down the stairs and exit the room through the mirror. Exit the Bapistry, and re-enter the Mine Working Area.
Lift and Separate
Just after you re-enter the mine room, click on the large granite block closest to you - your scanner should indicate that this piece has a key inside it - but how do we get it out? Walk along the south wall of the room, and proceed up the ramp to the top. Grab the pair of rusty tongs on the floor here (for later), and then examine the lever control box (four top levers, with an additional one located on the front of the box), which controls the crane hanging to your right. Now look across the room at the two pieces of equipment on the far wall - on the left is a crusher, and on the right a giant saw. We'll want to saw the block in half to get the key (don't crush the block, or you'll wreck the key!).
Press the second lever to the right, and the crane will come towards you and stop. Now press the lever on the far right to lower the crane, and then press the front lever to close the claws. Press the far right lever again to raise the crane, and click on the block to confirm you've grabbed the one with the key in it. Now hit the second lever from the right (this puts the crane back in its original position), and then press the far left lever twice to bring the crane to the other side of the room right in front of the saw equipment. Finally, press the front lever once more to place the block in front of the saw.
The controls for both the crusher and the saw are located just to the left of the door you first entered the room by in the northeast corner. There are two levers on the wall here - press the right one to activate the saw…..uh-oh, nothing happened. Try the crusher - well, it seems to work. You will have to exit the room, and go back into the wooden walkway room to change the valve setting to operate the saw. Exit the door, enter the wood walkway room, walk to the circular valve, and click it twice to switch the power to the saw. Now re-enter the mine area, and press the saw lever to operate it. Walk to your left to the spot under the saw, and pick up the rather large key now on the ground here.
Making Water
Proceed over to the door in the southeastern corner of the room, open the door, and go down the hall to the next room, which our scanner says is "moist". Enter the room, and go to the right to the large piping panel on the wall. Does it look familiar ? It should - our sketch from the Bapistry! We can see the five holes, the two pipes leaving the holes, and the four surrounding valves, but the configuration seems wrong. Specifically, the pipe leaving the 3rd (middle) hole - down and to the left - appears to be in the right position, but the pipe that should be leaving the 2nd hole from the bottom (up and to the right) is attached to the 2nd hole from the top.
Pull on the straight lever on the very right side of the panel to unlock the right-side pipe, and press on the lower right valve to position the right-side pipe in the proper configuration. Finally, press the lever to lock the pipe back into place. You should hear the water start to flow.
Now approach the well on the other side of the room - once you get close enough, a ghost rises out of the well and asks you about Oisin her beloved. Apparently this lady doesn't know she's dead (this happens a lot in Aeternis). Try talking to her, but she'll get upset once she realizes she is dead. Once she goes back into the well, have a look at the corpse, and note the key here. The water is too hot to grab the key, so use the rusty tongs to grab it. Once you've got the key, leave the moist room, and proceed back to the Bapistry.
Go through the mirror again and approach the stone bath - the water has caused a glass brick to become dislodged, and it is now sitting on the bottom of the bath. Grab the brick and place it on the stone bible on top of the stone font. It fits into place, but you cannot look through the glass as the tapestry above has not been completed. Exit the room through the mirror, and proceed through the doorway in the northwest corner of the Bapistry.
What a Sorrry Orrery
According to your scanner, the room ahead contains complex machinery, including a large model of the solar system. Enter the Orrery, and note the sorry state of the model, lying about on the floor.
Your first task is to raise the central turning mechanism of the model. Approach the control panel in the northwest corner of the room and click on it for access. The screen displays a series of circles with a small dot at the top of the panel. You control the downward progress of this dot using the button in the top left corner of the panel. Hit the button once to move the dot down one position, and now rotate the 2nd interior circle (by clicking on it) so that the opening will allow the dot to progress further downward. Move the dot down two more spots, and now rotate the two smaller interior circles so the gap in the upper one will allow the dot to progress downward even further. Again move the dot downward until it reaches the centre of the diagram, and the mechanism kicks into gear.
The central post has now been raised and is turning, but you'll have to leave the room to get the whole thing up and running. Leave the Orrery via the north door, and proceed up the hallway. Your scanner warns of a large Saurian beast up ahead in the next room, but the animal is actually trapped in the central portion of the room - so go ahead and enter.
The Saurian is held behind iron posts located between the 4 main pillars of the room. If you look closely, there are some levers and pictures in the inside surface of the north and south pillars - but access is blocked by the beast. Circle around the cage to the north pillar, and pull on the lever. Duck your head around the pillar to see the beast cruelly crushed by the cage bars (well, at least you didn't have to shoot it in the cage!).
Move around to the inside of the north pillar and examine the two plaques here - the lower one shows a set of open doors. Pull the lever to the right of the upper plaque, and a set of doors somewhere off to the north opens. Now move over to the south pillar and examine the plaques - the lower one shows the Orrery model. Pull the lever to get that baby swingin'. Just to make sure everything is peachy, return to the Orrery (via the south door) to view the model in action. Note the ceremonial shield-shaped hole in the floor in front of you (at the base of the model) as you enter the room.
Return to the dead beastie's room, and exit via the east door. Move along the hallway until you come to a wooden platform to your left. Your scanner will tell you that there is another Raptor about (Lincoln), and a violent one at that. This wood platform actually conceals a passageway below, but there is no way of opening it from this end. Continue along the hallway and enter the door at the end - you are back in the main mine area, one the far side of Lurka's crevice. Nothing to do here, so proceed back to the dead beastie's room.
Lincoln Assassination
Proceed to the north, and approach the set of doors you opened remotely earlier. This is an unfinished room with several doors. Once you step into the room, a motion detector seals the doors, but since you unlocked the double doors behind you, they stay open. The now-sealed doorway in the northwestern corner of the room actually leads out into that first hallway you arrived in - we've almost come full circle.
A mirror is propped up in the southwestern corner of the room. You need to move it to light a patch on the eastern wall, but the mirror is booby-trapped with poisoned gas. Move the mirror, and quickly leave the room, retreating to the beastie's lair for a few minutes to let the gas dissipate. Go back to the room, and check out the wall panel the mirror is now directing sunlight to on the eastern wall. The panel is locked, but can be easily opened with the key you got from inside the granite block. Inside you find a shield, which will be useful back at the Orrery.
Head over to the door in the northwestern corner, and try to step through - instead you find yourself falling through the floor into an underground passageway. The decidedly unfriendly Lincoln is up ahead. Before moving, hit the space bar to toggle into shooting mode (you'll get a set of cross hairs on the screen - fire with the left mouse button). Move along the passage - Lincoln will appear to the right, down a branch tunnel, with his back to you. One shot in the back (how honourable) will bring him down - he will turn and fire if he notices you.
Approach Lincoln's body, and pick up the extra ammunition lying on the ground here. Proceed along the passage past Lincoln's body until you come to a T intersection. If you look to the left, you'll see some coloured material on the ground - this is the last part of the Bapistry tapestry. Pick it up, and look for a narrow, dark passageway leading off the main one very close to where the tapestry lay on the ground. Follow this narrow passage until you spot several objects on the ground. One is an elephant gun that you may need later (with only one bullet though). The other object is a locked chest - use the well key to open the chest and retrieve the amulet with Oisin's name marked on it.
Continue to follow the narrow passage until it ends - you are now back in the main passage. Going left, you will soon be back in the location where you picked up the tapestry (you'll see passages leaving to the left and right). This time, keep going straight until you spot another passage leading off to the left. You can duck your head down this passage, but it ends in a chasm that cannot be crossed. Return to the main passageway and go left. You will soon come to some shoring on the wall, and a rope hanging from the ceiling. Pull the rope to lower a ramp that takes you out of this area.
You are back in one of the hallways above (remember that wooden platform you couldn't get by before? That was the ramp!) Turning right and travelling west will return you to the beastie's room, and heading south from there will take you to the Orrery. Head out of the Orrery to the east and re-enter the Bapistry. Proceed into the back of the room, up the stairs, and place the last piece of the tapestry on the fourth frame. Now return to the ground level and look into the crystal block on the font to view a message from Baphomet, the "bearded face of god". He gives you some clap-trap about a "holy thief", and afterwards a door opens in the southeastern corner of the room.
The door reveals a small alcove containing another Shield 1 (the same one you found previously). Return to the Orrery, grab one of the Shield 1's from your inventory and place it in the hole near the base of the model by the north door. The screens blocking doorways to the south and west are removed, although the door to the west is still locked. Be sure to grab the pages located in the south side of the model, where a new shield-shaped hole has been uncovered.
Goin' To the Chapel
Open the door to the south and exit the Orrery. You step into a corridor with a door at the other end (this door is blocked), and two different pages on the floor here. There are 2 side passages off to the left, but both corridors lead to yet another north-south hallway. In the second hallway, the north door is also blocked, but the south door leads to the chapel. Proceed into the chapel, and head directly to the altar straight ahead. Your scanner detects lots of gears and levers behind the altar, but no way to access them.
There is a door located to the left of the altar (in the southeastern corner of the room) but it is blocked. Now check out the pianola located in the southwestern corner. A note on the keyboard is from Cobweb, a secret ally (?) who has been leaving the diary pages for you to find, and suggests that you check the confessional. You can try and play the keyboard, but the pianola is missing its roll. Head over to the confessional booth in the northeastern corner of the room - open the curtain and click on the keyhole.
We watch a lengthy movie of Lurka speaking with Tobias (the head knight). Tobias is incensed that Cobweb has stolen pages from his diary and left them about Aeternis. Cobweb is apparently trying to sabotage this "test" that we spoke to Lurka about earlier.
The door along the eastern wall is locked, so move over to the western wall and proceed through the door here. This leads into another short hallway. Your scanner should warn you that there is a human present in the next room - the Vestry. Go ahead and enter - Philip the knight has been waiting to speak to you through a grill off to the right. Philip has no love of the grail, and wants you to take it away from Aeternis. He does not care for Tobias, and tells us that Edgar is the only other knight that we can trust - we must mention a chest to Edgar when we see him.
Philip departs, and we cannot follow him as the grill is locked. Turn back to the west, and go through the next door into a short hallway. The room ahead is the Cloisters, and contains an entrance to a drain, as well as a mouse. Walk around to the far side of the drain, and go down the ladder. Unfortunately, you have a nasty surprise waiting for you at the bottom. Tallum, an oversized knight with a bone to pick with thieves is waiting for you. You may be able to ask a few questions, but he comes after you eventually. Your only way of defeating him is to grab the elephant gun, switch over to shooting mode, and shoot Tallum before he chops you.
In the Liberry
However, all is not lost if he gets you. Tobias saves your hide in time, and you wake up in Tobias' library. Feel free to ask him some questions, but don't ask about the elephant gun that he is holding in his hands (he will shoot you by mistake). Eventually Tobias rushed away, leaving you free to search the Library.
Meanwhile, if you managed to off Tallum, step over him and open the grate that blocks the sewer drain. Travel straight north along this drain until you reach the end of the hall, where a ladder leads upward. Travel up the ladder into the Library's outer room. Open the double doors, and walk into the Library.
Begin by going to the centre of the room and click on one of the listening tubes to hear Tobias discussing hiding a "roll" with Lurka - could this be the pianola roll? The object will be placed somewhere beyond the Docks area. Tobias doesn't seem to think much of the thieves who have arrived thus far. Move over to the west side of the room and pick up the diary pages located here (note the latest one). Have a look at the vision book over on the east side of the room, and be sure to pick up the key underneath. Finally, proceed to the north side of the room, pick up the page lying in the corner, and open the curtains located here.
The curtain reveals some sort of viewer - click on the eyepiece to view a big beast from above (make sure you are standing right in front of the viewer to make it work). Walk around the viewer and click on the centre mirror hanging above to change its position, and return to the viewer. This new view shows another big beast in what looks like a large church or throne room. Return to the mirror, click on it twice to move it to a third position, and go back to the viewer. The third view shows a knight walking along what appears to be a giant plant stalk - he moves off to the right, and then jumps out of view.
The door just west of the curtain is blocked, and the small room just right of the curtain contains nothing, so proceed out the southern doors of the Library and descend the ladder. You are back in the sewer drains. Move south along the hallway, and turn left at another hallway. Follow this hall along until you get to Lurka's bedroom. There is a broken quill located on the floor in here, just under the window next to the bed. Pick it up, and return to the main drain. Turning south again, open up the grate blocking your progress if you haven't already opened it. Pass by the ladder back up to the Cloisters, and Tallum's body (if you shot him) and proceed to the end of the corridor.
Dealing With Ed
The way west is a dead end, so turn east towards an open door. On your right, note a shield recessed into the wall; unfortunately the grill is locked, and the mechanism needs a winch handle for it to open. Continue on to the room (there's a human present), and step in to meet Edgar. He seems friendly; be sure to mention Philip and agree to everything he says - this way you'll be able to ask him some questions after you agree to find his chest. He also gets angry and kills you if you don't agree. Once he leaves you are free to look around the Court Room.
There are 12 seats located around the room - one for each knight. The knight's crests become important later so you may want to jot them down:
In addition, many of the benches of the knights open to reveal items to grab. Edgar's bench contains mouldy cornmeal, Philip's bench has a key to take, Guy's bench contains a confessional note from Tallum, Geffrye's bench has gloves that cannot be taken, Malik's bench has a pagan item, and Tallum's bench contains an inkwell. The other benches are locked.
Docks of the Bay
Leave the room and travel along the drains until you reach the ladder to the Cloisters. Go up the ladder, and return to the Vestry where you met Philip. Unlock the barred door using Philip'' key from the Court Room, and step into the room. There are two pages to be picked up in here - one along the floor to the east, and one on the western wall bookcase. Open the door to the north, enter another short hallway, and proceed to the next door ahead. This leads to a short spiral staircase.
Descend the stairs (the first door is blocked) and exit using the bottom door. You hear a beastie roar, and the sound of gunshots - probably another Raptor about. Proceed down this new hallway until you come to a locked gate with Tobias' initials on it. Use the library key to open the gate, and travel along the hall until it ends. The door here is blocked, so go up the ladder to the Docks.
Note the warning on your scanner - there is a biggie beastie in the water here, but its not going to jump out at you…yet. Note the ships off to the north, and the large stone bridge to the northwest. Walk towards the stone bridge - note the hallway leading off to the left - and located the lever attached to the wall just before the bridge. Pull the lever, and listen to something shifting and grinding. Now return to the hallway and go west.
Your scanner indicates there is a Raptor and a beastie in the next room. Open the door and walk in - Kurt will address you from the window in the far wall. Use one of the first two answers for him (the third will get you shot). After he replies, a Saurian comes up behind him - you can either warn him (you can ask questions afterward) or let the beast kill him. Make sure that you give him some of your own information at the end of the conversation, or he will shoot you for lying.
After either Kurt or the beastie leaves, unlatch and unlock the door in the far wall and enter the next room. Go to the box in the northeastern corner and open it to reveal another page. Leave via the western door, and travel along the hallway until you reach another door (another beastie screams loudly as you travel down the hall). You enter another stairway - go up to the very top to see why the Saurian screamed. Now return to the middle doorway and exit the stairway.
The next hall takes you to another door, with a hot steamy watery room behind. Unlatch the door and then open it to reveal….the old wooden walkway room! Proceed directly to the main min area to see that the big double doors are now open (this is what that lever at the docks did!).
The Shipping News
With the doors open, you can now drive the mine car to the deserted ship. Go over to the car, walk in, and close the side-doors using the right lever. Now pull the central lever to start your journey through the tunnel and over the stone bridge to the ship.
Once the car stops, open the side doors and get out to the north. Walk up the plank onto the ship's deck. Make your way over to the southeastern corner of the deck, where you'll see a body hanging from the mast - approach the body (look out for the hole in the deck!) to initiate a conversation. The man was a member of the unsuccessful assassins of the Prieure (the Templars' treacherous sister order) sent to kill the Guardians. You have the opportunity to ask him questions until he grows tired of you and tells you to get lost.
Pick up the page on the deck here, and proceed up the wooden ramp to the top of the ship, where the ship's manifest can be retrieved in the northeastern corner of the upper deck. Return to the main deck and enter the ship via the door to the north. The hall bends to the right, and descends via a ramp. A door to the south leads to the ship's hold. Inside you will find a large chest (conveniently under the hole in the deck above), a smaller box and a barrel. Pick up the bottle of Aqua Fortis located on the floor between the hold's items, and step up on the smaller box to grab a lever from the top of the barrel.
Return to the main deck of the ship, and approach the control until to the east - this controls the ship's crane, which is currently situated directly above the hole in the deck. Pull the right lever to lower the crane into the hold, and then pull it again to raise it - the chest will be in the grips of the crane. Pull the left lever to move the crane over to the mine car, and pull the right lever to lower the chest to the car. Finally, pull the right lever once more to lift the claws away from the chest.
Return to the mine car, get in, and close the side doors with the right lever. Now pull the left lever to close the car's claws onto the chest. Pull the central lever to return - oops, its been damaged. Pour some Aqua Fortis on the lever to get it working again, and pull the lever to return to the main mine area.
Your buddy Edgar is waiting for you at the crusher / saw control panel when you return. He's actually a crazed animal just waiting to slice and dice you. Get out of the mine car and leave the mine area via the northeastern door without following his instructions. Return to the docks area by going through the north door of the wooden walkway room, down the stairs, and through the two rooms where you met Kurt the Raptor.
On the Waterfront
Your next task is to get by the great beastie that is swimming around the docks area. There are a number of ways to temporarily dissuade the monster from attacking you, but there is one way of permanently banishing the beastie from the docks area. Back at the docks area, move to the north, under the stone bridge, and go down the ladder into the drain found here.
You will find yourself on a narrow ledge - don't move around, or you will fall in the water and drown. You see a large metal gate off to your right, with a wheel valve beside it. Click on the door to open the gate - the area immediately below fills with water. Once your scanner picks up that the beastie is below (you will see its tentacles sticking out of the water), click on the valve to shoot some hot water on the beast. It will leave the area forever.
Return to the surface and travel south past the bridge and the other ladder. Enter the passage in the south wall, and proceed into the tunnel. (The plaque on the wall above the tunnel shows another way of getting rid of the beast by resetting the water connections in the room off of the main mine area, and using the hose found in the boat). Travel along the dock to the boat, get in, and pull the lever to the south - this sets the boat in motion to the east. The boat eventually stops at another dock to the south. Get out of the boat and walk along the dock, up the ramp, and off to the east to the large door in the wall.
[The other ways of ridding yourself of the nasty beast in the water include the following:
All Mixed Up
Open the door and enter the hallway ahead. Your scanner tells you that a Laboratory is ahead, along with a live person, and a corpse. Enter the room and speak to Philip - he is more than willing to answer all of your various questions. Once Philip leaves the room, pick up all of the items on the table in front of you, including a flask, 3 bottles and a book.
As Philip may have mentioned, the corpse is covered with a hearty poison that will degrade your health bar if you get too close. The mixture that will neutralize the poison in order for you to grab the corpse's key ring is found in the book: Decoction of Moon, Earth's Blood, and Aqua Fortis. To make up the mixture, turn around and face the chemical mixing machine behind you (to the south). Place the flask on the flask holder below the mixer, and then add each of the three ingredients in order to the mixer. If you mess things up, grab the flask and empty it into the sink to your left. Don't use the Red Salt for anything - the mixture will explode and hurt you badly.
Once your mixture is complete, grab the flask and click on the corpse's keys to neutralize that part of the corpse. Take the keys and use them to open the door to the west. Before you leave, peek behind the chemical mixer - hey, there's a shield back here, but its covered in crud. Apply some Aqua Fortis to the shield to get it sparkling new, and put it into your inventory.
The Trouble with Edgar
Proceed through the west door of the lab, and down the hallway. Your scanner reveals that another live body is in the next corridor. Peek your head around to see Edgar waiting for you. Good news: he's forgotten all about that chest you were supposed to get for him. Bad news: he's aligned himself with another Raptor named Warren, and is ready to do some chopping on your head.
You wake up inside a gibbet in the Torture Room - but with a friendly face in front of you. The mysterious man seems to want to help you, but is chased away by Lurka who comes into the room. Speak to Lurka - once he leaves, the stranger comes back in. Be honest with the man, and don't try to cut any deals with him, and he will let you out of the gibbet. Follow Jack to his hideout down the hall, and ask lots of questions until he decides to sleep.
Leave Jack's home via the door and go straight to return to the Torture Room. There's another Raptor in the other gibbet, but he or she is dead. Return to the hallway outside (the door Lurka came through is locked), and take the passageway going north. Eventually you will find another hallway going west - take this route to the other portion of Lurka's room. You will find some wax, the pianola roll, and a plaque with three crests on Lurka's desk in here. Return to the north-south hallway, and continue to travel north.
This hallway ends in a T-intersection. The way to the east is blocked. Heading west, you come to another T-intersection. The hallway to the north ends at a blocked door. A passage open to the east here leads back to the Laboratory. Returning to the T-intersection, proceed to the south. The door at the end of this hallway is also blocked, but follow another passageway going off to the west. The door at the end of this hallway leads out into a spiral staircase. The door at the bottom is blocked, so go up the stairs and exit the door at the top. This next hallway ends at a latched door. Unlatch the door, and enter the Chapel again (you enter from the east wall of the Chapel).
More Trouble with Tallum
What's that big lumpy shape praying by the altar? Tallum? Didn't we shoot him with the elephant gun? (It doesn't matter). Travel to the northeastern corner of the room and look into the keyhole in the confessional booth. We see Tobias pretending to be Baphomet, probably for the local yokels. He doesn't seem too trustworthy, does he?
Walk around the outside wall of the Chapel to the pianola in the southwestern corner (so as to not disturb Tallum). Place the pianola roll in the recessed area on the north side of the pianola - we get a pre-recorded message from Tobias congratulating us on our progress, but warning that it will get even more difficult to get the grail. Have a look at the altar now (from afar, of course) - it has split open, obviously revealing a new passageway.
Unfortunately, we've got to engage Tallum in conversation to get rid of him. Make sure you save your game, and approach him to get his attention. There is a way that you can calm him down and convince him to leave - use the following conversation choices:
Paranoid (3) - No Offence (3) - Sir
Guy (2) - Corinth (2) - Guard the Grail(2) -
Time to Go (1) - don't ask him any other questions at the end - he flies off the
handle at a moment's notice.
If Tallum does come after you, be ready to back away as fast as you can, and leave the Chapel to the north (believe it or not, he will be gone by the time you get back).
Return to the Orrery, and place the Shield 2 in the hole in the floor to the south of the model. Something moves to the south. Now return to the Chapel - the bars blocking the new passageway behind the altar have been removed. For you completists out there, you can go back to the hallway outside of the Throne Room to retrieve the other copy of Shield 2 (using the ship's lever to winch the grill open), and then return to the Chapel. Move to the altar, and drop through the new opening.
Down the Drain
You drop into a northwest - southeast running drain, with a booming sound coming from the north. Take a guess as to what 's making that noise. The way to the southeast is blocked by a door with water behind it, so proceed to the northwest to the big stone wheel. The wheel is lying up against the wall with a rope pinned underneath; neither the rope nor the wheel can be moved. There is also a ladder leading upward behind the wheel.
Continue along the hall towards the opening to the northwest, but keep a close watch on the floor - there's a patch of oil here that will whisk you out into the gain silo beyond (complete with giant beastie). You can trace the extent of the oil slick with your mouse. Keep to the extreme left of the hallway to proceed farther. Your goal here is to grab the pin lying on the ground near the end of the hall. Once you grab the pin, go back to the ladder, and proceed up. You enter a room with a table in the centre, and some ropes and pullies along the southwestern wall.
First grab the bag of flour lying on the floor along the southwestern wall. Now find the rusted lever panel on the same wall (just up and to the left of the flour). Take the pin from the hallway below and attach it to the panel. Now pull the pin to winch up the rope. Go back down the ladder and examine the stone wheel - our meddling upstairs has managed to push the wheel to an upright position. Give the wheel a tap to start it rolling down the hall. The wheel heads out the end of the hallway, and evidently does some damage below.
Proceed back down the hallway to the northwest, and jump off the end down to the floor of the grain silo. The wheel has done a number on the beast living in here. Have a look around, but there isn't much down here except for a dead Saurian. Proceed over to the winch elevator lift, and examine the shards of the beasts egg. The lever on the wall just above the egg shell is used to return the lift to this bottom level (useful if you fall down here again).
C is for Cookie
Get in the lift and press on the interior handle to go upwards. The lift arrives at a catwalk level. Climb out of the lift onto the stone walkway (but be careful while doing so, or you will fall back down into the silo). Proceed straight northeast, and go through the open doorway and up the long ramp. The room ahead appears to be a kitchen. Enter the room, and take a close look at the kitchen's oven, located on your left as you walk into the room.
The oven door opens, but the tray inside is locked in place. Walk along the side of the oven (to the northwest) and pull the lever found here to unlock the tray. Return to the tray - it displays biscuit moulds in the shapes of the 12 knight's crests. We do have some flour, but which of the biscuits should we make?
Anything in your inventory with knights' crests on it? Try the plaque you found in Lurka's "office" with the pianola roll and the wax. You should be able to find the three crests on the tray that match those on the plaque - in the back row it's the third and the fifth from the left, and in the front row it's the fourth from the left. These three crests correspond to Tallum (spear in shield), Tobias (feathered crown) and Malik (Lion). Place flour on all three of the crests (you can also use wax, although there are limited amounts of each). Close the lid of the tray to press the wafers into shape, and then open it again. Put the three wafers into your inventory for later use.
Move off to the northwest again, and approach the dumbwaiter on the west wall of the room. Climb in, and pull on one of the ropes to raise the contraption. The dumbwaiter stops moving, and you enter an abattoir (a slaughtering room) complete with hanging mystery meat. There isn't much to see in here, and the door to the south is locked, so climb back into your personal elevator, and pull on the other rope to return to the kitchen.
Veg-o-matic
Open the door to the northeast and enter a sickly green looking corridor that sounds alive. Very creepy! Proceed up the corridor until your scanner kicks into gear - you are inside a giant cavern almost completely filled with an oak-like vegetation. You may want to have a quick look at the map here - we have entered the area near the top-left (note that the room with the flour and the table connects to the vegetation cavern in the bottom part of the map). We will move towards the cavern's two other exits.
Proceed along the corridor past the first intersection, and continue up to the cavern in the centre - this holds the main truck of the plant. Don't bother going this way though - you almost certainly be killed by the vegetation or the scorpions. Backtrack to the last intersection, and head to the north. Follow this corridor, and go straight through the first intersection you see. Keep going until your scanner indicates you are coming to the next room.
The room up ahead contains fewer plants, but these are a little more dangerous. Enter the room - does it look familiar? This room was the setting for one of the viewings we witnessed in the Library. Do you remember where to go? Proceed along the central path until you get to the second pink-coloured plant to your right. Be careful - if you go off the path, you are plant fodder. Just as the knight did, walk to the southwest on top of the pink plant, and walk off the far edge - you will land on another stem. Walk straight forward (southwest) to the green coloured plant with the blue and red coloured spikes, and click on it to reveal a secret hiding place.
Pick up the sword hilt, and the set of notes found here. These documents include some notes about Cobweb and Spider, some of Tobias' diary entries, and a picture of a statue. Turn around, walk to the northeast back onto the pink plant, return to the main path, and leave the room. Return to the last intersection, and head off to the north-northeast. Follow this path until it exits the veggie cavern via a narrow bridge.
Tickety-Tock The Killer Clock
The next area seems to resemble a giant clock. Get off of the bridge and walk northeast to the door in the stone wall. Enter the empty chamber beyond. The way forward is blocked with a number of hanging pendulums wrapped with poisonous barbs. Walk to the southwestern corner of the room and pull the lever on the wall to start the first pendulum. Now walk to the entrance to Pendulum Alley. This is a great place to save your game.
The first pendulum seems fairly easy to get by - just wait for the pendulum to swing by, and then rush through to the other side (hit Shift+arrow to run). Pull the lever on the wall here to get the second pendulum swinging like the first. There's a problem though - if you rush across to the other side, you will discover that the next lever does not activate the third pendulum. Instead of zipping past the second pendulum, wait for it to swing to the left, and then run to the right (northeast) - at the end of this corridor you will find an alcove to the right (southeast) that contains the lever which will activate the third pendulum.
Now turn around - you should see a short cut passage to the northwest. Take it and wait for the third pendulum to swing away from you - now run like the dickens back to the centre of the clock. Unfortunately there's something down the other side of the third pendulum that you need to pick up. Wait for the pendulum to swing to the left (northeast), and take off to the right (southwest). You will find a shoulder-piece located in a small alcove to the northwest. Once you grab it, return to the centre of the clock. Pull the lever here to activate the fourth pendulum, and race past it into the empty room beyond.
Zmoking the Ziggurat
Leave the room via the door in the northwestern wall. Enter the hallway, and open the door at the far end. You enter a large room containing a hollow tower dating back to the Byzantine ages - a Ziggurat. Feel free to go look to the left and right of the big ramp in front of you, but there isn't anything there. Proceed up the long ramp until you get to the doorway into the tower. The route to your right (northeast) is a dead end. The stairs to your southwest lead up to a small alcove containing the outline of a shield embedded in the wall. There's not much to do here yet, so return to the entrance to the tower.
Enter the tower room, walk towards the door, but take the path to the left (northwest) - we'll save the door and what's behind it for later. Follow the path but be careful - it turns into a very narrow ledge that hugs the side of the cavern wall until reaching its end at an open doorway to the south. Go through the doorway and proceed down the hall until the next room is reached. Open the door and go in - welcome to Geffrye's studio. The Architect of Aeternis is over on the west side of the room, so walk over and approach him to start a conversation.
Geffrye is a friendly chap - he will answer most of your questions. After finishing with him, pick up the book on the table to the southeast - it's a travelogue of Geffrye and Malik's adventures in the depths of their new home. Afterwards, approach the door in the southeast corner of the room, open it, and march down the hallway. The double doors lead back out into the large grain silo. Walk back over to the elevator lift (its over to your right), get in (careful!), and click on the winch to take you up to the next floor.
Vincent's Torment
Once the lift stops get out to the southwest, and follow the hallway to the door with the face built into it. The plaque read some message from Jacque de Molay. Once you get close the spectre of Vincent, a long-dead knight appears, begging you to help him end his torment. Choose the option that asks Vincent how to get through the door - he explains that biscuits with the crests of the three most senior knights can be fed to the mouth on the door to gain entrance.
You now have the option of asking him a bunch of questions (conversation choice 1), or letting him tell the story of his murder (choice 2). Since the questions are the same stupid ones you ask everyone, take the second option and learn why and how Vincent was brutally murdered. After, you can tell him about the note that Tallum left in his locker in the Court Room and let him rest for eternally, or you can try to lie to him and watch him disappear in a huff. He also may tell you about the second way of opening the door behind him - by using the "shoulder-piece" that you found inside the big clock (you don't want to do this though because you need it to solve another puzzle later!).
Either way, take the three biscuits out of your inventory and feed them to the mouth on the door. The door opens - walk in and approach the door on the far wall. Clicking on it sets off a message from Tobias, and causes an ornate key to stick out of the wall. When you grab the key, Geffrye appears behind you. He tells you that he has hidden the Third Shield in the Abattoir - he was worried about it disappearing - and suggests you go and get it as soon as possible.
After Geffrye leaves, return to the lift, get in (careful!), and click on the winch to return to the second level. Go back to the double doors on the northwest side of the silo, and return to Geffrye's studio. Now go to the door facing east, open it, walk along the hallway, and unlatch/open the door to the Abattoir. Move to the right, towards the east wall, and click on the carcass hanging closest to the east side of the room - it will open to reveal the shield. Place it in inventory, leave the Abattoir, and return to the Studio.
Return into the Ziggurat via the door to the north, and creep along the narrow ledge until you are back within the tower room. Follow the wooden walkway to the southeast, and go back up the staircase on the outside of the tower (to the southwest) to the shield alcove. Place the Shield 3 on the shield outline on the wall, and the alcove will shift around. Pick up the shield again, and leave the alcove to the west. Turn to the north, walk to the end of the hallway, and open the door to the east - you are back in the beastie's lair!
Supermodels
Proceed south to the Orrery, and place the Shield 3 in the hole on the west side of the model. The door behind you (to the west) is now unlocked - open it and walk into a small chamber. Go up to the 2 triangular doors and click to open them. Move into the small 8-sided room with maps of different Aeternis areas on the walls. Face the wall to the south, take out the ornate key (from Vincent's room) and stick it into the hole in the centre of the crest. Six models of Aeternis areas appear on the floor in the room. As Tobias said, you now have a God's eye view of Aeternis.
Be careful of the three models closest to the room's exit: the grain silo (to the northeast), the Aqueduct (east - you haven't been here yet), and the Ziggurat (southeast). These models should not be touched; clicking on them fills the models with water, thereby filling the actual rooms with water as well. Do however pick up and read the note from Cobweb that is inside the Aqueduct model to the east.
The models to the southwest (the Cathedral Vestry), west (the Waterwheel) and northwest (the Chimney) are a little friendlier. There are orange coloured doors somewhere on each of these models that you should click on to unlock the real doors at these locations. The Vestry and Waterwheel models each have one locked door to unlock, while the Chimney has 2 doors to unlock.
When finished, walk east out of the 8 sided room to the shield outline on the wall and click on it - the alcove spins, and you find yourself back at the shield outline alcove on the outside wall of the Ziggurat. Walk down the stairs, enter the tower room, and go straight to the door we skipped earlier. Open the door and proceed along the hallway ahead - the hall ends at a T intersection. The way west is blocked by a inaccessible door, so proceed to the east.
Soothing the Savage Beast
Make your way along the corridor to the east - you'll pass by an intersecting corridor to the south - and walk up to the doorway. Your scanner will tell you several things: the room ahead is the Cathedral, there's a large beastie in here, and you've got a distress signal from Colin the Raptor (he was the one who sent the letter to you telling you to come to Aeternis).
Open the door and take a peek inside - you should see a very large Saurian walking about (remember the viewing from the Library?). Note the layout of the room - there is a smaller walled room (the Vestry) completely inside the Cathedral. You want to make a run for the door to the Vestry and get inside before the Saurian eats you. You know from before that these beasts can be pretty slow, so this can be done fairly easily. The location of the door is pictured below. You must run a bit to the left, and then find the door in the wall of the Vestry.
Once you find the door, open it and go in. Walk to the southwestern corner of the room, and spot the chain hanging on the wall (left of the organ). Unlatch the pin at the bottom end of the chain…and listen as all of the organ pipes fall into the outer chamber (the Saurian doesn't sound too happy about it either). Now walk back to the northeast, and enter the door on the east wall to the other part of the vestry. Turn to your left and pick up the page on the table. Now click on the box to open it and take the medallion key inside the box. But wait - click on the box a second time to open a false bottom, and pick up the brooch as well.
Before you return to the outer Cathedral, note the staircase leading down to the south in here. Return to the main Vestry room, and go out the north door. Once you are back in the Cathedral, go east, and then south - the beast has been trapped between a large hole in the floor in the southeastern part of this room, and the large organ pipes that have fallen to the floor behind it. Carefully take a look into the hole - it appears that there is another room down there.
There is a large mosaic on the floor of the Cathedral at its eastern end - click to view it. Hmm, maybe there is something to this holy thief business, as the people reaching for the grail in the picture look like Raptors. Note the set of 12 crests along the east wall of the room. Finally, look at the stained glass picture of a group of 4 Templars enjoying some biscuits - Malik, Tobias, Jacques (de Molay), and a knight whose name is obscured (although comparing the crests indicates that this is Tallum). This picture is obviously a further clue for the door mouth puzzle that you already solved.
Now walk all the way around the Vestry to the southwestern corner of the Cathedral where the organ pipes lay on the ground. There is a brass lever lying up against the first pipe here, quite close to the Vestry wall. Grab this lever, go back to the door in the west wall of the room, and leave the Cathedral.
Odde Claude
Walk up the corridor, and when you get to the intersecting corridor going south, take it. Walk to the door and enter another spiral staircase. Open the door at the bottom and walk down the hall to the next door. The next room is the Crypt - open the door and come in. If you look up, you should be able to see the head of the Saurian looking around - you'll certainly be able to hear it. The blocked doors here in the north and south walls actually lead to inaccessible burial chambers.
Have a look at the stone coffin on the floor closest to you - the plaque reads "Claude", the knight that Malik's experiments were conducted on. Look into the crack to see the hideous beast that they created. The coffin is locked, and thank goodness! The other coffin is uninteresting, so walk to the southeastern corner of the room - there is a narrow corridor you can walk along that will take you behind the bars along the eastern wall of the room.
Once you get to the northeastern corner of the room, turn around and watch the beast, who can finally see you from its perch above. Unfortunately, it very slowly topples into the Crypt, and crushes its head below. Carefully watch Claude's coffin area - the beast's tail knocks the lid off the coffin, and the Claude-creature is let loose. Don't worry though, it sort of staggers around a bit, and then disappears into the wall.
If you want, go check out the dead beast and Claude's now-empty coffin, but return to the northeastern corner of the room and look up at the statue against the east wall. Does it look familiar? It should - you have a picture of it in the Flytrap papers you got hidden inside the plant. The statue in the picture has four items that are not present now - a knife, a hilt for the knight's sword, a ring, and a shoulder-piece. You already have the hilt and the shoulder-piece, so place them on the statue in their proper positions. Keep an eye out for the ring and the knife as you progress through the game.
Open the door to the north here, and walk along the corridor to the bottom if a staircase with pictures on the walls. There will be a door about half-way up, but continue all the way up to the top. Open the gate here with the medallion key, and walk out onto the balcony. Read through the book on the lectern for a summary of Tobias' thief vision. Return to the stairs, and now open the door half-way up. Follow the golden corridor, and unlatch/open the door that leads out into the cathedral again.
Spin The Wheel
Return to the Vestry and go through the door to the east. Note the locked lever on the floor to the northeast. Attach the brass lever to gain more leverage, and click - still jammed. Descend the stairs to the south, and follow this hallway along until you reach a water wheel room. The lever to the left stops and starts the wheel. Click to stop it so that the edge between two of the flat sides of the wheel sits right at the top of the wheel when stopped.
Walk out on the wood walkway, get onto the wheel, and climb down to the wooden platform in the southeastern corner of this room. Exit though the door, and walk over to the eastern wall of this oddly-shaped room. The door to the north here is locked, and a strange looking barrier with a familiar symbol in its centre is found to the south. The symbol matches that on the brooch, so grab the brooch and click on the barrier to send it flying backwards into the water to the south.
Proceed down this corridor, and scan the door to your left - a chamber of unknown use filled with poisoned gas. Instead of opening the whole door, just click on the panel on the bottom part of the door - the heavier-than-air gas will run out and into the grate on the floor here. Once your scanner says it's safe to go in, open the door and do so.
Inside you will find a round room with a locked door to the east, a ramp leaving to the south, and a mummified body to the north. Walk up to the body, and have a close look at its left hand (that's his left, not your left). Grab the ring on his finger, and proceed up the ramp to the south. At the top you find an odd room with ramps running up either side to the south. Go up to the top of the ramps and examine the symbol at the top - its got the grail in there, but the mechanism behind it is locked. Return to the round room, exit to the hallway, climb back up the water wheel, and walk back up to the Vestry.
Now try pulling on the brass lever again - something happens this time, but a trip out into the main part of the Cathedral reveals nothing new. Evidently the moving water wheel jammed the lever from working - but perhaps the wheel has to be turned on again to make the mechanism work (wherever it is!). Walk back down the staircase to the water wheel, turn it back on, and return to the surface. Now walk out into the main Cathedral room to the eastern wall - the crests have been removed to reveal a shiny symbol and a stone triangle.
Coolin' with Colin
Walk up to the stone triangle and click on it to shift it towards you. Move around to the back of the triangle to reveal a narrow passageway leading west under the stone. Proceed down this twisty passage to a staircase - go to the bottom and enter a similar hallway. This hall ends at a round, decorative room - your scanner should indicate that Colin's helmet is in here (he is actually dead), and that there is a Saurian present as well.
Peek in - the beastie is asleep on the right side of the room, and the only other exit leads to the south. You can either wake the beast up and then blast it with your gun, or just walk along the opposite (left) side of the room to the south exit. Once you get there, note Colin's very dead body impaled under the grate. Click on the grate to open it, but before proceeding through, click on the lever on the right side of the doorframe. This activates a piece of metal that will catch the grate when it tries to fall on top of you.
Inside this next room, find a diary page and the 4th Shield on the ground here. When you touch the shield, the grate comes down fully blocking your retreat, and the long dead Colin tries to talk to you. Evidently he doesn't realize he's been cut in two - if you want to keep speaking to him and asking him questions, don't let him know he's dead. Apparently he wasn't the one that sent the letters that brought all of the other thieves to Aeternis.
Decisions, Decisions
Once Colin zaps out, leave the room via the corridor to the southeast. The room ahead has a large stone statue, and a human is present. Open the door and walk into the room - note the large stone head to your right. Once you get far enough in, the mouth of the statue opens and Tobias speaks. He tells you to choose the door to the right, and warns that others are trying to sabotage the test - you can only trust him.
When the message ends, and you progress farther into the room, Geffrye hails you from the window of the door on the left. He indicates that Tobias is planning to betray you and the test, and that he cannot be trusted. Tobias wants to use the grail to become supreme leader of the world. Geffrye can help us get back to the Orrery, but we will have to go through Malik's old area, which has been sealed for centuries. He will meet us at the exit to Aeternis after we get the grail. When finished, Geffrye walks down the corridor behind him, leaving you to decide which path to follow.
You will definitely want to save here, since following either knight will lead you into new, different parts of Aeternis - when finished, you can come back and play the other choice (it is possible to win by following either path).
Followyng Geffrye….
Walk into the corridor after Geffrye, and follow it to the west. Geffrye opens a door here and beckons you to enter. Start proceeding down this chute - it isn't long before you are sliding uncontrollably down the passageway. You end up in a bright, swirling room with no discernible exit, and poison gas (courtesy of a glowing fungus) eating away at your health bar. The trick here is to move to the west wall of the room - clicking on the vague outlines of a door in the centre of the wall will expose a doorway (4 clicks should clear the fungus away). Immediately open the doors and go through them.
You immediately have a choice of direction: go left / downstairs, or right / upstairs. Do not go to the left - this leads to a locked door and certain death (interestingly, the locked door is the same one that you saw in the round room with the mummified corpse). Turn to your right, go up the staircase, along the hallway, and open the door before you. Enter Malik's lab of unspeakable acts.
Inside, you'll see a table with a piece of meat on it - of unknown origin. The door on far side of the room (north) is locked. There is a small empty alcove along the east wall of the room. Standing by the door you came in through, you should see a scorpion tail blocking a narrow hallway to the south. In the southern part of the room, some kind of strange creature attached to wires lies dormant surrounded by bookcases. Walk past the creature to the southwest corner of the room and click on the bookcase here - the way forward is evidently locked.
A central pillar has three levers sticking out of it on its east side. Click on the right lever first - this raises the previously dormant creature up via wires. Click on the centre lever, and the beast awakens. The left lever frees the creature, which promptly runs forward and circles the table in a clockwise direction (meaning that it runs past you and around the other side of the table). It will circle the entire table and then eat you, so as soon as it passes by you the first time, follow the creature around the table and dive into the east wall alcove. The creature will lose you, and then bust through the door to the north.
Come out of the alcove, and go back to the southwestern corner of the room. Click on the bookcase again to open a secret door, and pick up the book on the stand. The book lists the followers of Malik. Now pick up the papers hidden under the book. These are Malik's journal entries; a window into his developing madness.
Exit the room to the north, and
follow the corridor until it ends - you find yourself at an opening overlooking
the wall of the Ziggurat. Take a deep breath and walk straight out the opening -
you will fall onto a ledge on the outside of the Ziggurat wall. Walk along the
edge until you reach the opening to the tower room, and then proceed up the
stairs to the Shield alcove.
Skip ahead to the section titled "The Downward Spiral".
Following Tobias…
Open the right door and enter the ornate-looking hallway. The door behind you closes and locks. Open the door at the end of the corridor to enter a maze room. You begin atop a small platform with the maze below - walk to the edge of the platform and look to the northwest - that doorway you see in the northwest corner of the maze is your required destination.
Jump down and enter the maze. Immediately turn to your right and proceed to the northwest. That crackling sound you hear is the sound of scorpions running around the maze. Take a short jog to the southwest, and again turn to your right to continue. Keep going to the northwest until you enter an open area - now turn to the south and go straight, making your way to the maze's southwestern corner. Run up the wooden staircase, and go through the door at the top.
The next corridor takes you to a spiral staircase - leave via the middle exit, follow the next hallway, and unlatch/open the door at the end. You find yourself back in the flooded grain silo with a human and the water monster present. Proceed inward a few steps, and Jack hails you from atop his beastie boat. A number of the paths in here have been damaged - Jack is floating over to lend you a hand. All of a sudden, the water monster reaches out and grabs Jack for some lunch.
Walk across the Saurian's body to the other side of the path. Continue in a southwestern direction past the first intersecting path, and turn to the northwest at the next path. Walk northwest to the next intersecting path. Look to the left - you will see part of the water monster's body sticking out of the water here. As at the Docks, any of several items applied to the water - Oisin's amulet, Aqua Fortis, Inkwell - will get rid of the monster.
Continue travelling northwest, and enter the double doors on the northwestern wall. Proceed through Geffrye's Studio and leave via the north door. Take the narrow ledge back to the tower room, and go up the stairs to the shield outline alcove.
The Downward Spiral
As before, click on the shield to bring you back to the 8 sided room with the models. Walk into the centre of the room, grab Shield 4 from inventory, and place it on the shield outline on the north wall. The room returns to its position just outside the Orrery. Pick up the shield again, and go out to the east. Open the door to the Orrery, and step through.
Now walk over to the east side of the room, and step on the stone step that is sticking out of the floor on this side of the planet model. The hole that accepts Shield 4 is uncovered. Place the shield in the hole, and the entire model lifts up to reveal a pit with a spiral path leading downward. Grab the note lying near the start of the path. This is a map showing the proper way to leave Aeternis, but who left it here, and is it a trap?
The object here is to navigate along the narrow boards to the bottom of the pit without falling off onto the sharp spikes below. You will probably need a bit of luck to get to the bottom - if you do fall, hopefully you will land on another board below. Judicious use of your save game function can also be useful. Be sure to grab the knife lying at the beginning of the second board.
How do you get down this pit of despair? Keep trying! You can try the following path, but I make no guarantees as to your success with it. Carefully make your way along the first 3 boards in succession. Now walk onto the next board that crosses across the centre of the pit. Staring straight down, walk along this board until all you can see is the wall ahead. Take two steps backward, turn 90 degrees to your left, and jump off - hopefully you will end up on one of the lower boards below, and can walk to the bottom of the pit. If not, try jumping off from various points on this board.
Once you've successfully arrived at the pit's bottom, make your way to the centre of the spikes to the hole in the floor and jump through. You land onto a flat, wide surface as your precious lifeblood drains away…but wait - something has pulled you back from the brink of death! It's the grail - resting on a raised pillar in the centre of this big cavern.
All Hail the Grail
Walk up the ramp, and face the grail looking to the east. The pattern design underneath the grail describes the path one must take to get out alive. You are currently standing on the white square in the bottom left part of the diagram. The correct sequence is to go east two nodes, northwest one node, south two nodes, southwest one node, east two nodes, southwest one node, and northwest one node. This takes you to the second white square, and freedom. Don't walk off this exact path, or the ceiling of the room will come down and crush you.
Grab the grail as the floor falls away, and begin running along the correct path to the exit.. Once you get to the final node, the square of stone rises up through the roof of the cavern, and places you into a small room with a door to the north. Open the door, and exit the room. You are suddenly standing on a rock platform rising through a deep cavern. The platform finally stops, and you find yourself standing inside the Ziggurat tower room. Open the door to the northwest, and enter the hallway to the Cathedral.
Its almost time to depart dark Aeternis, but before you go, finish off the Statue puzzle from the Crypt. Go to the door in the southeastern corner of the Cathedral, walk along the golden hallway, walk down the staircase, proceed along another corridor and enter the Crypt. Place the ring (from the mummy) and the knife (from the spiked pit) on the statue, and a small shelf will emerge from the left side of the statue. Pick up the papers from the shelf and read them. Evidently Malik (Spider) and Philip (Cobweb) were the two spies placed by the Prieure in Aeternis.
Return to the Cathedral and approach the door in the north wall. This door has been unlocked by the placement of the 4th Shield in the Orrery. Enter the door and walk along the hallway into the next labyrinth room. You will spot Tallum standing in the centre of the room waiting for grail thieves. As you begin your descent down the ramp towards him, the grisly figure of Claude comes out of a door below and advances on Tallum. They wrestle about, and eventually fall into the depths.
You are now free to walk through the room to the door on the far (east) side. Open this door and enter the small chamber beyond.
Up or Out
Your choice of ending is in part dependent on the path you took through the game. If you followed Geffrye's path, he will be waiting for you beyond the next bend. If you instead followed Tobias, Geffrye will not be present, and thus that ending will not be available to you. Whatever your path, there is always a way to win your freedom and end the game alive. There are also some ways to die. Save your game and be sure to try them all.
Geffrye's Path
Enter the corridor to the east - as you come around the bend, Geffrye will emerge and encourage you to follow him. He has secured Tobias' grailstone so that he might leave Aeternis with you. After he disappears, walk forward until you reach the corridor to the west and follow Geffrye. The next room is a foyer in front of the exit door. Walk towards Geffrye - the rumbling sound signals that the corridor has collapsed behind you. All of a sudden Tobias emerges from the south, steals the grailstone back, and breaks Geffrye's neck. He gives you a mean stare, and leaves. Has he conceded defeat? Walk up to Geffrye and listen to his last words before shrivelling up into a 1000-year old man.
Skip to the "Blow This Joint" section.
Tobias' Path
Proceed down the corridor to the east - when you get to another corridor leaving to the northeast, take it. Proceed to the next door, and enter the Aqueduct area. There is a Saurian beast in a cage immediately to your right. Click on the cage to let the beast out, and stay behind the open door of the cage. The beast will eventually take off to the north away from you. It keeps going until it gets caught in the booby trap that was waiting for you.
Cross the bridge and approach the dead beastie and the killer statue. Walk into the small alcove to the east, and proceed around the statue to continue north. Open the door at the end of the hall, and follow the next corridor. The door ahead of you is the way out of Aeternis.
Skip to the "Blow This Joint" section
The Beast is Dead
If you've killed the Saurian beast on the Aqueduct by flooding this area of Aeternis from the model room (I told you not to do this!), you still have a way out. Backtrack all the way back to the Cathedral, enter the Vestry, and descend the stairs to the water wheel. Stop the wheel and cross it to the room to the southeast.
For a laugh, go to the small alcove to the left of the north door in this room, and open the door from your position in the alcove. The monster from Mailk's Lab comes tearing through, and then runs straight into the water to the south. Stupid monster. Proceed into the circular room with the mummified knight, and go up the chimney ramp to the south. Go up one of the side ramps, and face the crest at the top. Grab the grail and click on the crest to open a trap door below your feet. Move forward and drop into a maze.
That sound you hear are scorpions looking to bite you. Head south past the first intersection, and turn right (west) at the next intersection. Now go straight until you come to a door with a grail crest on it. Use the grail to open the door, and walk into the exit chamber towards the big door.
Blow this Joint
Approach the door, grab the grail and press on the lower crest to unlock the portal. Your scanner indicates that more than 3 years have passed in the outside world. Open the door with a click, and proceed outside.
The final movie of the game plays - the Prieure descend on you as you step out into the fresh air again. You eventually become a super important knight along with Tobias's brother Cesar. Only the very best of humanity will be saved. Who wrote this game anyway, Ayn Rand?
Other Endings
There are two ways to come to a bad ending for in the game (other than dying!):
