GameBoomers
Walkthroughs and Solutions Darkness Within 2: The Dark Lineage Walkthrough
by Becky Waxman
This is a lengthy, intricate game with dark, occult and violent themes. I was more comfortable playing it in daylight than at night -- of course, if you are braver than I am, the best way to play it is probably at night with headphones on (the sound and music are quite effective). The game has three difficulty levels. This walkthrough is written for the Standard difficulty level.
The game is more enjoyable initially if you go into the Options menu and set the gamma correction to a higher setting than the default setting. About midway along the slider bar should be good. If you find the environments are too light after you've become acquainted with the gameworld, it's easy to adjust the gamma correction back to the default setting.
Some people (myself included) with NVIDIA graphics cards have not been able to get the game to run without going to the NVIDIA website to download the latest version of the PhysX drivers.
It is helpful to read the manual for Darkness Within 2, because the interface is different than that of many adventure games.
Moving Around
Movement in this game requires you to press a key on the keyboard (usually the "W" key) while moving the mouse around in "mouse look" mode. This is easy to do, but it does require two hands all the time you're moving. Movement goes a bit faster if you hit the "Caps Lock" key. The inventory and much of the object interaction is point-and-click.
You can crouch down in the game (the "C" key), and sometimes this is necessary to find hotspots on the floor or under furniture. You can also walk while crouching. Note: it's easy to forget that you're crouching -- if you suddenly can't walk up stairs or can't reach things, try pressing the "C" key to see if you need to stand up again.
Using the spacebar, you can jump up on just about anything in the environment that's a couple of feet tall -- including many barrels and crates (and some of the beds). This does sometimes have a use, but often it's just to add to the feeling of "being there." I'll mention jumping on things only when it's essential or especially fun.
Object Interactions
Some inventory items can be "enabled" or "equipped" by right-clicking on them in inventory. This is true of the lantern, the flashlights, and the compass, for example. If after enabling an item, you want to get rid of it for awhile, go into the inventory and right-click on the item in inventory. It will then disappear from the main screen.
There are items in each environment that you can click on to have them identified that don't have a purpose other than to add "atmosphere" -- many of these I leave to you to find on your own.
Sometimes when you "take" items, they go into the inventory. To access the inventory, right-click to bring it up, left- click on the item you want, right-click to close the inventory screen, and then left-click the item on the appropriate hotspot in the gameworld. If you have an inventory item that you want to put back in the inventory, right-click to put it back. Inventory items can also be combined in the "Howard's Mind" feature.
Other times when you "take" things, the item attaches itself to the cursor, so you are walking around while carrying a pillow or a crate (for example). To drop the pillow or crate, you find an open spot (probably on the floor,) and left-click to drop the item. If the item is glowing red, it cannot be dropped where you are trying to drop it. Look for a more open space -- and sometimes it helps to drop the item if you raise it up before dropping it. A few of these "shiftable" items must be moved to see what's under them or to use them to gain access to something. But many of the items that can be moved around in this way are there just for... fun! These have no use in terms of getting the game to progress.
Some items can be either pulled or pushed (chairs, for instance). To do this, hold the left mouse button down over the "push/pull" icon and use the "W" key to push and the "S" key to pull.
Other Stuff
You will encounter many close-up screens -- usually after clicking on an "examine" hotspot. Once in a close-up, it will almost always be necessary to click on the yellow arrow "exit the close-up" icon before you can get back to the regular gameworld. If you can't get out of a screen, hitting the" Esc" key also will help.
Dialogs can be clicked through. The game contains 50 save game slots -- save often.
The game contains some unusual features, including underlining text and exploring ideas in "Howard's Mind." I talk about these features in the body of the walkthrough the first time that they occur in the game.
NOTE: This is just one pathway through the game. There are optional thought combinations and other intricacies that are not mentioned here, but that you can seek out on your own. (Even after finishing the game, I left doors that were unlocked, inventory items that were unused, and a box that I couldn't unlock. Also, from the final Game Results screen I could tell that I missed secrets, hidden clues and Easter Eggs. )
Now to begin --
The Cottage
In this game, you assume the role of Howard Loreid, detective. After the opening cut scene, you awaken in pain. As your head clears, the room comes into focus. You are in a cottage, not in a mental institution, which is where you last remember being. You don't know how you arrived at the cottage, or why you came (or were sent) here.
Upstairs
Take the envelope by the bed and click to put it in inventory. Right-click to bring up the inventory and right-click on the envelope to read the letter in it. (All texts that contain more than one page have tiny arrows at the bottom of the page to click on to see the later pages.) There's an underlining interface on the left. Click on the top icon (a pen) and use it to draw under certain words in the letter that seem important. Once the words have been underlined, click on the gears icon to check if that information is important.
Underline:
I gave you something to make you sleep. (Then click the gears icon.)
When you wake up, head straight to Arkhamend. (Then click the gears icon.)
Worm's Feast (Then click the gears icon.)
It is directly connected with us. (Then click the gears icon.)
Loath Nolder (Then click the gears icon.)
Click to put away the letter.
Open both drawers in the night table by the bed. Take the wallet and the flashlight.
Explore the upstairs room. Examine the idol. Ugly, isn't it? (Note -- you can back out of all close-ups by clicking on the yellow circular arrow icon.)
You can take the crates/boxes, which means that you can pick them up and carry them. To put them down, find an open spot on the floor and click to drop them (this may take some practice -- sometimes it helps to lift them up high before dropping them).
Take the lantern on the chest of drawers. Click to put it in inventory, and then right-click to bring up the inventory screen. Right-click on the lantern to "equip" it. You can now carry it around.
Open the doors of the wardrobe near the bed. Click to take the clothes.
Downstairs
Walk toward the stairs and, as you do so, you'll see a door to a walk-in closet to your right. Look up at the ceiling near the walk-in closet door and see a trap door leading into the attic.
You can take a side-tour into the walk-in-closet if you like. Once downstairs, enter the kitchen. Examine all the items. Go into the living room and examine the curtain and the window.
Take the crate/box that's downstairs by the chest of drawers and carry it upstairs. You want to use it upstairs to climb into the attic. Drop the box someplace where you can walk into it and walk/push it toward the wall under the trap door. While pressing the "W" key, use the spacebar to jump up on the box/crate. Click the "open" icon and you will automatically climb into the attic.
The Attic
Enable the lantern if you haven't already. Look around and examine everything. Click on the book on the floor. Yeeeesh!
Go downstairs and exit the front door.
Train Trip and Arkhamend Station
You'll find yourself on a train (yes, that's you sitting in the corner, looking stunned). You'll hear a bit of backstory from Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder (the first game in the series).
Once the cut scene ends you'll be at the train station for Arkhamend. Enable the lantern and walk around and examine everything, including the "graffiti" on the walls and at least one of the train schedules. Walk further into the station and you'll end up automatically at the entrance to the Arkhamend town square.
Arkhamend Town
In lieu of a "founding fathers" statue, they have a howling wolf statue to represent the town. That's odd.
Enable the lantern if it isn't enabled already and explore the town square. In one dark corner you'll discover the Worm's Feast. Click on the door twice to learn that it's locked and to hear strange noises.
The Camphorwood Inn
After exploring the square, go into the Camphorwood Inn and look around at everything. Approach the inn keeper -- you need to have a conversation. If he walks around, follow him and talk to him. Agree to pay him for the room for 2 nights.
Go through the doors to the left of the bar. Go up to the second floor to your room. Go inside and examine everything.
Pick up the newspaper and underline:
The City used steam power to operate various mechanisms. (Remember to click on the gear icon after underlining.)
Open the drawer under the newspaper and take the flashlight.
Look in the bathroom.
Bed and Beyond
Examine the bed. Howard Loreid sleeps. And perhaps he dreams.
Enable the lantern if it isn't enabled already. Examine the eclipse paintings. Very strange.
Pull out the large chest of drawers near the bathroom. (To do this, click and hold down the left mouse button over the "push/pull" icon and use the "S" key to move the chest as far back as you can.) Examine the wall behind the chest to find a hole.
Talk to the prisoner through the hole. Take the key he offers.
Try to open the door - it IS locked from the outside. Right-click to bring up the inventory. Click on the key. Right-click to close the inventory. Click the key on the door.
Click to exit the room. You appear to be in an alternate reality, or in a dream. Walk around and look at everything.
Examine the area of nothingness/darkness where the stairs should be.
Most of the doors are locked or stuck.
Open the second door on the left and try to enter. Cut Scene -- then wake up.
Open your hotel room door and take the staircase down. You'll overhear an important conversation. When you try to go further downstairs you will automatically go back up to bed.
Morning (Such as it Is) In Arkhamend
Go downstairs and talk to the inn keeper. I'm not sure what reaction your lies will evoke -- I said that I was a writer researching the war, which seemed to go down all right.
The Worm's Feast
Recollections of the Past
Exit the hotel and go to the Worm's Feast (the local bookstore). Examine the stuff on the desk. Speak with the bookseller, Henry. (I told him I was a writer interested in the war.)
Open the counter flap to walk through and go down to the basement. Enable the lantern. Examine everything downstairs. Pick up the large metal lever (it looks like a crowbar) near the stuffed green dragon. Examine the stethoscope on the shelf under the green dragon. Examine the toy jeep and music box on the farthest bookcase from the door.
The book you are looking for, Recollections of the Past, is on the bottom shelf of the bookcase farthest from the door. It is slightly separate from the other books on that shelf and is in a silvery metallic container. It is on the bottom shelf below the toy jeep and just slightly to the left of the jeep's position. You can only see the book's spine (or really the spine of the case it's in). I could see the book but couldn't find the hotspot until I was standing between the two bookcases in just the right spot. You may have to move slightly forward or back or to the side to get in the right position to trigger the hotspot. Once you've found the hotspot, click to take the book.
Working Really Hard to Open the Book
Click to put the book into inventory. Right-click on the book in inventory, and then click on the bottom left corner of the book where a small "examine" icon can be triggered. This brings up the book container's locking mechanism. Click to use it and it separates. You'll see six metal bolt-like "wheels." These each have a rectangle etched on one side. Clicking on these "wheels" rotates them.
Clicking on the raised rectangle on the handle "sets" the mechanism -- if any of the rectangles etched on the "wheels" are visible when you click on the raised rectangle on the handle, you can see a tiny spike spring out of those particular "wheels. "
Clicking on the handle itself puts the two pieces of the mechanism back together (this only works if the lock is not in the "set" position, with spikes sticking out -- if you can't put the two pieces of the mechanism back together, click on the raised rectangle on the handle to "unset" it and click the handle to put the pieces together).
The idea is to set the "wheels" in the right alignment, put the device back together and then "set" it by clicking on the rectangle in the handle, which will unlock the device. When the device is put back together, the "wheel" that you worked with most recently when it was in two pieces glows red -- that is the active "wheel" when the device is together.
Experiment with moving the "wheels," putting the two pieces together and taking them apart, and hitting the raised rectangle on the handle. As you experiment with this mechanism, Loreid will comment that he can't hear the necessary sounds from the lock. Right-click to put the book back into inventory. Move to the bookcase that has the dragon. Below the dragon is a stethoscope (easier to see if you have the lantern or flashlight on). Until now you couldn't pick up the stethoscope, but now you can. Click it to pick it up.
Combining Items in Howard's Mind
Right-click to bring up the inventory. To the right is a brain icon -- it's probably glowing at this point. This is the "button" to bring up Howard's Mind, which allows you to combine thoughts and/or inventory items. Click on the brain icon.
(Note: You'll see a list of items along the left side of the Howard's Mind screen. These are Howard's thoughts and can be clicked on as a sort of review. At some point, some of these thoughts will also be combinable, just as the inventory items are combinable.)
In Howard's Mind, click to pick up the stethoscope and put it in a blank "combine" slot in Howard's Mind. (The tutorial will tell you to click and drag -- this is incorrect. Just click on the stethoscope and move the cursor to the blank slot and click to put the stethoscope in the blank slot.) Then click to pick up the book and put it into another blank "combine" slot in Howard's Mind. Then click the gears icon next to "Outcome."
You'll see the stethoscope attached to the book. Clicking again puts the book plus stethoscope back in inventory. Right-click to use the book again, and the locking device comes up.
Unlocking the Book
While the device is together, you can now hear the sound each "wheel" makes when you click the raised rectangle button to set the device. You know which wheel you are hearing because the most recently turned wheel glows red once the device is together. When each "wheel" is correctly aligned, it will give a low, satisfying clunk sound when you click on the raised rectangular button when the two pieces are together. When it's incorrectly aligned, you'll hear a higher, less final click sound when you click on the raised rectangular button when the two pieces are together.
If you want to figure out the book lock combination yourself:
With the lock in two pieces, click on one of the wheels, click on the handle to put the device together, click on the raised rectangular button, and listen to the click. Then click on the raised rectangular button (to "unset" the device) and click on the handle to separate the device (you know which "wheel" you're working with when the device is together because it glows red). Continue to do this over and over, figuring out by trial and error the correct alignment by the sound you receive when hitting the raised rectangular button when the device is together -- judging if you are getting a "clunk" sound or a "click" sound each time.
If you just want to get on with the proceedings and quickly open the book:
With the device in two pieces, click the "wheels" until all the etched rectangles are facing toward you (original default position). In my game, this was how the alignment worked:
Starting with all the "wheels" with the rectangular etching facing toward you in default position --
And starting left to right:
The first wheel will be rotated twice.
The second wheel will be rotated twice.
The third wheel shouldn't be rotated at all.
The fourth wheel should be rotated three times.
The fifth wheel should be rotated once.
The sixth wheel should be rotated once.
Click on the handle to put the device together. Click on the raised rectangle and the device "sets." The book is now unlocked. Open the metal case and take the book. It goes into inventory. Right-click to bring up the inventory and right-click on the book to examine it. Page through the book to satisfy your curiosity (there are small arrows at the bottom of the pages to click on to read the next page). Right-click to put it away in inventory.
Regarding Henry's Deciphering Abilities
Go upstairs and talk to Henry. He needs another book. Go downstairs (enable lantern) and find a book called The War of Northbridge. This book is easy to see -- it's on the second shelf of the other bookcase (not the one that contained the first book) and the book is a greenish color. Go back upstairs and talk to Henry completely. Buy the camera, the map, the music box, and the jeep.
Leave the store and then return. Henry will give you an Index of what's in the book. It goes into inventory. Right-click to examine it. It seems as though you should be able to combine the index with some of the thoughts in Howard's Mind, but I never did manage to get that to work.
Messing with the Inventory
Now that you have new loot, you might want to examine it further. Right-click on the music box and click to open it. Use the knob on the bottom right to play the music. Right-click to put it away.
Now right-click on the camera. This puts you into the "Examine item" screen where you can rotate items to see them from all angles. Arrows near the bottom of the screen allow you to scroll through the inventory while in this screen to get a better look at things (you'll notice, for instance, that the lever is pronged at one end). You can also zoom out and see how things look when they're tiny.
The Old Building (Hovel) Exterior
Right-click on the map in inventory and click on The Old Building (has a red X) on the map.
Field of Dreams
Go through the gate into a field with a cart. There's a book on the ground near the cart. Examine it.
Underline: (Remember to click on the gears icon after underlining)
the notorious cult Children of Dis
There is a shack out in the forest and I believe the building is one of them.
very loud buzzing sounds
a particular visitor with a fake-looking, short coal-black beard who seems superior to the others
Leave the field and walk around the building/hovel. There are stones at certain intervals on the ground, and fires are burning nearby -- I wonder what that's all about?
The Old Building (Hovel) Interior
The Desk with the Jigsaw Paper
Enter the building. You will automatically use the lantern or flashlight. (I prefer the lantern, as it makes me nervous to see the flashlight battery running down.) Look at the items in the room.
Examine the torn papers on the desk. This is a jigsaw puzzle-like challenge. Put the pieces together. The pieces can be rotated by right-clicking. They "spring" slightly together to join two correct pieces that are placed near one another.
HINT: In my game the two largest pieces of the left part of the puzzle (you can see the left part of the circle in them) do NOT need to be rotated. When the puzzle is assembled, take a good look at the black pattern/path drawn along the lines in the center of the diagram. This will be much less noticeable once the diagram goes into inventory.
When the pieces are assembled correctly, Loreid won't pick them up because they'll fall apart. You'll need to find something that can be used to glue or to stick it together, before he'll take it.
More Exploration in the Old Building/Hovel
Examine the tombstone next to the desk and the radio-thing on the desk. Pull the chair away from the desk. (To do this, stand by the chair and hold down the left mouse button over the "push/pull" icon while pressing the "S" key to pull or the "W" key to push.) There are several items on the desk that are wallets or books that can be "taken," lifted and dropped down -- I couldn't find any real use for them, though. Examine the papers/book on the desk.
Underline: (Remember to click on the gears icon after underlining)
placed the suits inside the locked cabinet in the bedroom
Take the sprayer on the window ledge near the desk.
Open all the desk drawers. Take the flashlight and the roll of tape. Use the roll of tape on the paper/jigsaw puzzle to tape it together. Then click on the paper to put it in inventory, where you can right-click on it to examine it.
In the far right desk drawer, examine the paper.
Underline: (Remember to click on the gears icon after underlining)
Dversahe mixture
These insects are the same as the dead ones found in the strange wooden sculptures.
They killed one of my assistants and another is in a coma
A single bite doesn't kill anyone except possibly those allergic to their venom, but a high dose of venom causes delirium, severe muscle spasms, and even death.
I pounded henbit, rue, heath aster, basil, and geranium plants inside the mortar and pestle and added water, alcohol and neem oil to the mixture
While in front of the desk, couch down by hitting the "C" key and pull the chest out (hold the left mouse button down on the "pull/push" symbol and then hit the "S" key until the chest is out as far as you want). You may need to push it into the middle of the room (using the "W" key while holding the mouse button down on the "pull/push" symbol).
Open the chest. Examine the book.
Underline: (Remember to click on the gears icon after underlining)
This jar was placed in a metallic box.
Press the "C" key to stand up from the crouching position.
This Stinks
Enter the room with the table -- encounter a very bad smell. A cut scene ensues. That got the heart pumping!
Examine the corpse -- take the capsule and letter. Right-click on the letter to read it.
Underline: (Remember to click on the gears icon after underlining)
machines, mentioned in the 'Voco Apparatus' may still exist, though the Inquisition frantically sought to destroy them all
It consists of the ashes of Wolfgang Shneidder.
Ivar and Toth were killed horribly by one of the embodied ones.
Borellus' Way
Immediately report back when you find anything useful. Then PV and TWB will be on their way to you.
Click on the body again at least twice. This will give you a metallic stick and will identify the body. (Staying in the room with the corpse creates an interesting mental/visual effect.)
Back to the, um, Dining Room
Leave the corpse and cross the room with the table and look up at the hanging lamp above the table. It has a fire icon. If you like, click on the fire icon to light the lamp.
Move over to the hutch/cupboard next to the bunkbed. Open the doors of the hutch and take the mortar & pestle. Examine other bottles on the shelves -- you can identify
Neem oil
Alcohol
Hydrochloric Acid
Sulfuric Acid
Water
Open the top drawer under the shelves and examine:
Basil
Hanbit/Henbit
Garlic
Heath Aster
Fennel
Harmal
Exit the close-up screen. Close the first drawer.
Open the second drawer under the shelves and examine:
Geranium
Rue
Concocting Bug Spray
Take the mortar and pestle out of inventory. Place it over the ingredients you need (you can select the ingredients in any order.
If you don't already have the second drawer open, then open it. Once you are in the second drawer close-up (examine) screen, click the mortar and pestle on the geranium and rue. Exit the close-up screen. Close the second drawer.
Open the first drawer. Examine. Click the mortar and pestle on the basil, the hanbit and the heath aster. Exit the close-up screen. Close the first drawer.
You should now have a mortar and pestle in inventory containing geranium, rue, basil, hanbit and heath aster.
Move closer to the hutch/cupboard if necessary and look at the bottles with large labels. Identify which bottles have the alcohol, neem oil and water. In inventory, take the sprayer. Click the sprayer on the bottle of alcohol, the bottle of neem oil, and the bottle of water.
You should now have a sprayer in inventory containing neem oil, alcohol, and water.
In Howard's Mind combine the mortar and pestle with the sprayer -- all the ingredients go into the sprayer to provide the complete insecticide.
The Pillow, the Book and the Wardrobe
Walk into the bedroom. Look up at the hanging lamp -- it has a fire icon to click on if you wish. Take the pillow on the non-bunkbed and drop it elsewhere to uncover a book. Examine the book.
Underline: (Remember to click on the gears icon after underlining)
They've killed eight of our brothers to this point.
Prof. Jacob
they live their whole lives in the deepest parts of caves far from the reach of sunlight, so they are blind
We tried to go down, but realized the handle was gone.
And there were some big archways along the way that had SPQR carved on them.
Fierce ghouls gather, and pale shades form. And together this damned crowd, Howl the chant of the worm.
Try to open the right wardrobe door -- it's locked. Observe the bare footprints on the floor (there isn't a hotspot, but you can see where they are leading). The barefoot footprints end shortly before this door.
Examine the rectangular metal above the wardrobe door knob. Use the three metal sticks from inventory in the rectangular metal lock above the closet's knob. Examine it. You'll see a close-up of the lock with slider knobs. The goal is to click until the slider knobs all line up with the yellow line to the right (note, the knobs will not be pointing straight up, but will be slightly tilted). If you want to reset this puzzle, right-click to exit the close-up. When the sliders are aligned correctly, you'll hear a click. (One sequence that works -- clicking on the knobs in this order: Top, top, middle, bottom, middle, top, middle, bottom, top, top, middle.) Right-click to exit the lock screen and lick on the "Open" icon on the door.
Take the suit, which goes into inventory.
Up to a Different Attic
Go into the room with the corpse. Climb the ladder on the wall (looking up as you press "W" to climb makes you climb much faster). Open up the trap door overhead.
Examine the telescope. Open the drawer by the telescope.
Underline: (Remember to click on the gears icon after underlining)
alternatively placed in a proper arrangement outside to prevent any evil from coming closer
It consists of sixteen different magical symbols drawn over a circle, resembling the compass rose.
East = Red, North = White, West = Black, South =Yellow
If the signs need to be invisible, they may be painted with luminescent matter.
From the other drawer, take the handle and the compass.
Examine the books on the shelves. (So nice to know these guys are avid readers.)
Footprints, Sherlock! And a Suspicious Flap/Door in the Floor!
Go down the ladder to the room with the table in it.
Walk to the bunkbed (we're now in the room with the table). Move the stool and chair away from the muddy footprints on the floor.
If you haven't already, enable either the lantern or the flashlight. Follow the muddy footsteps until they reach the table. Hit the "C" key to crouch down and examine the footprints more closely. Exit the close-up. Then turn and click the "examine" hotspot on the top or side of the table. You'll see a close-up of the underside of the table with an odd hole in the center support. From inventory, use the handle with the hole. Then use the handle in the hole to open a drawer. Take the key. Exit the close-up screen.
While still crouching, walk over just outside the door of the room with the corpse. Examine the barefoot footprints -- tracked in blood? Exit the close-up.
Hit the "C" key to stand.
Walk over between the window and the hutch/cupboard. Examine the rectangle on the floor. Open the wooden flap. Click to find that the metal part under the floor is locked. From inventory, take the key and use it on the metal cover and click to open it.
There's a code mechanism with symbols, pointers, and a knob. We need more information before we can figure it out. Exit the close-up.
The Old Building (Hovel) Exterior
Symbols and the Rock Garden -- Or Opening that Thing in the Floor
Walk outside the hovel/old building and note the stones on the ground. There are sixteen of them. Use the camera from inventory on each one of them -- this reveals a symbol on each rock, and they match the symbols on the code mechanism in the floor back in the room with the table.
Note: one stone is particularly difficult to find. It's in a crook of the fence next to the field. It's between the stone with the symbol that looks like an "S" and the stone with a symbol that looks like it has rabbit ears.
Once you've used the camera to flash each of the stones, get out the compass and note which stones are farthest out in each cardinal direction.
The stone that's farthest East looks like a stick figure of a human with arms up and a circle and a handle under its arms. The stone that's farthest North looks like a bent letter "X" with a circle next to it. The stone that's farthest West looks like a letter "Y" with a dot in the middle. The stone that's farthest South has a bar on the top, and a curlicue on the bottom which is attached to an angle.
Right click in inventory on the paper/diagram that you put together from torn jigsaw-like pieces to observe it more closely. It looks like a compass rose, and each cardinal direction can be associated with a colored "jewel" on the paper/diagram/compass rose. From the book up in the attic room, you get this information. East = red, North = white, West = black, South = yellow. Obviously some of these colors are wrong. Whoever put the paper together must have torn it apart when he realized he had gotten it wrong.
Assume that East = black, North = white, West = Red, South = Yellow. This makes things a whole lot easier, and you might actually then solve the puzzle.
Look at the paper/diagram/compass rose again. Note that there are grey circular, web-like lines. There's one dark, rather smudgy line through the middle of the diagram. And, very faintly darker than the grey circular lines, is a pattern/path that starts/ends with the Black "jewel." The other end (from what I can tell) is in the middle of the diagram. This faintly darker pattern/path is what's important. We will assume this pattern/path starts with the Black jewel and not in the middle of the diagram (though that's just a "trial and error" assumption).
So, outside of the hovel, walk over to the stone that is farthest East and note its shape (as I've described earlier, it's looks like a stick figure of a human with arms raised and a circle and a handle under its arms). The pattern/path on the paper heads south (toward the yellow "jewel," so use your compass to head in a southerly direction. You will continue in this direction, without reversing your orientation for the entire pattern.
On the diagram/compass rose, the pattern goes forward through 3 lines and then jogs down in another direction. The jog signifies that that's the next stone in the path that you must note. So go forward 3 stones and note the symbol that looks like two arcs. Go forward 3 more stones and note the stone that looks like a stick-figure acrobat. Go forward 6 stones and note the stone that is the farthest North stone (it looks like a bent letter "X" with a circle next to it). Go forward 1 stone -- it looks like two circles with rabbit ears. Go forward 5 stones and note the stone that looks like a rectangle with a line/cross through it. Go forward 3 more stones and note the stone that looks like a bug with four legs coming out of it.
You now have the sequence for the code mechanism with symbols and pointers that's housed in the floor of the room with the table. (The Hint system refers to this as the "elevator code" but of course you have no idea what it actually is at this point.)
The Old Building (Hovel) Interior
Return to the flap in the floor in the room with the table. Input the sequence you've just written down into the code mechanism in the floor (lined up with the two pointers). Note: Symbol 5, the one with rabbit ears is very easily confused with another symbol that also has two lines coming out of it. If the sequence doesn't work, mess around with symbol 5 first to see if you have the right symbol.
When the symbols are all in line with the pointers, click on the "knob" thing on the right.
If you're still confused, this is what worked for me:
Looking at the mechanism in the floor when it is at its default setting (all the "wheels" look like the stick-figure acrobat). Going from left to right and clicking on each wheel:
Wheel 1 -- click 2 times
Wheel 2 -- click 13 times
Wheel 3 -- leave it just like it is
Wheel 4 -- click 15 times
Wheel 5 -- click 12 times
Wheel 6 -- click 1 time
Wheel 7 -- click 14 times
If you're correct, there's a click and you draw slightly away from the mechanism. Click on the floor near the mechanism to use the floor as an elevator.
What morbid thoughts are buzzing through Howard Loreid's head as he sinks slowly into the depths of the earth?
The Old Building (Hovel) -- The Underground Galleries
Get Me Out of Here -- Bugs and the Basement
Enable the lantern if it isn't already enabled. Walk forward and note that there are doors to your right and left, and stairs in front of you. Turn right and go through the door. You'll find two desks and some odd machinery. Examine the machinery -- click on the window of the large center piece of machinery, and on the generator to the left of the center piece of machinery and on the phonograph and machine with dials to the right.
Examine the items on the desk closest to the machinery. In the farthest right desk drawer you'll find an arm bone, but you can't take it with you.
Look at the other desk with lab equipment on it. You can pull the chair away from the desk if you like. Search the drawers. You'll find a key in the farthest right desk drawer.
Right-click on the map in inventory and use it to travel to the bookstore (Worm's Feast).
The Worm's Feast
Back at the Worm's Feast
Talk to Henry about translating the part of the book about the speaking machine.
Right-click on the map in inventory to return to the Old Building (hovel), in the Underground Galleries. You'll be returned to the "elevator."
The Old Building (Hovel) -- The Underground Galleries
Basement Blues
Walk forward again, and this time turn left. The door at the end is locked. Use the key from the desk on the padlock. Open the door. There's nothing useful in the desk drawers. Examine the document on the desk. It's a Morse Code Alphabet. Examine the box/cabinet on the desk -- it's locked. Open the wardrobe doors. Behind the left one is a gas container. Click to take it. Leave the room.
Turn left and walk forward a bit more and find another door on the left. This one isn't locked. Enter and examine the microscope if you like.
There are two wardrobes at the end of the room, both covered with bugs. You can right-click on your handy-dandy bug sprayer in inventory if you like. This will enable the sprayer and you can spray the bugs on the wardrobe, though you must be thorough. If you're not thorough enough and you try to open the wardrobe door, you will have a "seeing scarlet" moment. You can't (apparently) die, however.
The easier method is to right-click on the protective suit in inventory. This means you can only see through the mask, but you don't have to rid the wardrobe of every single bug either.
Open the right wardrobe, left door and take the two cylinders in the box. Open the right wardrobe, right door and take the empty metallic capsule (the one that smells eerily). You can open the left wardrobe doors, but there's nothing worth seeing.
Leave the room. Remove the protective suit if you're wearing it.
Listening to the Phonograph
Go back to the room with the phonograph. Examine the phonograph and place a cylinder from inventory on it. (Remember whether you've just placed the sideways cylinder or the straight up cylinder so you won't listen to the same one twice.) Then click the small red lever at the front corner of the phonograph. You can hear sound, but nothing intelligible.
Click on the machine to the right of the phonograph and note that the dials are now working. There are three bars with knobs under the dials. There's a "use" icon for each knob, which is on the lowest setting. Clicking on the knobs pushes the bars all the way up or (if they're in the up position) all the way down.
The goal is to get the arrows on both dials into the "green" area on the dial. Start by playing around with the dials a bit.
Hint 1: You'll note that all the knobs cause the arrows on the two dials to go in the opposite direction from one another. The Middle knob causes the arrows to go in the opposite direction of that triggered by the Left knob and the Right knob.
Hint 2: It's a good idea to start with the Middle knob.
Hint 3: You'll probably use the Middle knob more than the others.
Note: If the arrows stop registering sound altogether, back out of the close-up and touch the red lever by the phonograph again to get the cylinder moving again.
When you have set the device correctly, the red knob at the right of the machine lights up -- when this happens the voice on the phonograph can be heard.
After listening to one cylinder, use the same procedure with the second cylinder.
Learn from the phonograph that the large speaker machine in this room is number 51637. Also learn NOT to look in the window of the large central machine when bringing back a soul from the dead. (This knowledge may make you want to look in the window even more than before, but deal with it.)
Look down near the base of the large central machine and examine the rectangular area. Input the number from the phonograph by clicking on the buttons beneath the numbers: 51637. Click out of the close-up.
Examine the same part of the machine -- there's now a hole where something can be inserted. You can try inserting everything in inventory that's round, but you aren't ready yet.
More Fun Underground
Leave the room. Go out and around to the silver double doors. Try to open them -- they're locked. Examine the panel in the door with letters on it. Not enough information yet to enter the right word.
Go downstairs and walk around the side of the pit. If you want to see what it's like to fall in, you have to be very persistent -- and perhaps lucky. I only managed it once. (Save your game first if you want to try to fall into the pit, because you can't get out once you're in it.) Open the double doors on this lower level. Walk further in and move the sack. What is THAT?
Examine the remains in the mud.
Time to see how Henry is getting along.
The Worm's Feast
Right-click on the map in inventory to go back to the bookstore. Talk to Henry to see how things are going and if he's made progress with the cipher translation. Henry gives you a translation of the information about the speaking machine.
How to Work the Speaking Machine (Don't Look in the Window!)
Click to put the translated paper in inventory. Right-click on it in inventory to read it.
Underline: (Remember to click on the gears icon after underlining)
It works with special remnants
metallic capsule hidden in a secret compartment on the machine
code to reach the capsule itself
Turn the device on and try to decrease the level of background noise as much as possible
You should provide electricity only after you have done the previous steps, or else the séance will be a failure
The Old Building (Hovel) -- The Underground Galleries
Right-click on the map in inventory and return to the Old Building, Underground Galleries. Return to the room with what we now know is the speaking machine.
Examine the generator machine to the left of the large central piece with the window. Click the gas container on the top left portion of this machine, and gas is poured in.
In Howard's Mind, combine the metallic capsule from inventory with the container of ashes from Wolfgang Shneidder taken from the corpse of Dreaden. Insert this capsule (supposedly containing the ashes of Mr. Schneidder) into the hole of the central machine near the bottom.
Approach the phonograph and use one of the cylinders from inventory on the phonograph machine (it doesn't matter which one -- if you've left one in there, just keep it there). Touch the red switch. Adjust the dials to the green zone just as you did before in order to listen to what was on the cylinders.
Return to the generator portion of the machine into which you just poured gas. Press the green button on this machine. A cut scene follows.
The Old Building (Hovel) Interior
You wake up back upstairs, with no recollection as to how you got there. A note is stuck to the top of the bunkbed. Take the note, which goes into inventory. Right-click on it to read it, but it's in German. If you're curious, you can go back down to the basement underground galleries to see if the resurrected creature is still around, or if anything was recorded on the cylinder. If only you hadn't looked in the window!
The Worm's Feast
Who is likely to know German around here? Right-click on the map in inventory to see if Henry can do more translating for you.
Talk to Henry about everything. The note refers to someplace called "The Gate." You can talk to someone whose father used to work there.
The White House on the Square in Arkhamend
Exit the Worm's Feast and walk around the square until you see a shorter building in which the upper part is made of white stone (vaguely Tudor-looking). Click to use the door.
Talk to Jacob, who is quite informative.
The Camphorwood Inn
Walk back to the Inn and talk to the inn keeper about The Gate and the lady who tried to escape. Automatically be sent to The Gate.
The Gate Exterior
You have entered a portion of the game where there is a lot of exploration and the puzzle-solving is not as intense as in the first part of the game. You can wander around yourself, which is fun to do, and I'll mention the stuff that has to be done to get you to progress.
You find yourself looking at a mansion cloaked in snow. Howard is beginning to remember this place.
Right-click on the map in inventory and this new location will be added to the map. Right-click to exit the map.
Explore the grounds -- there's a well and an outbuilding that might be a guest house or a crypt. (Or perhaps at The Gate, the guest house is the crypt.) Pick up the shovel next to the door at the "guest house."
Try to enter through the front door of the mansion and it is locked. Enable the lantern if you haven't already. The back door -- up a set of stairs in the back -- is also locked. While standing facing the back door, turn left and note the cellar chute on the ground below.
Go down the stairs and over to the cellar chute, which has a padlocked cover. Examine it. From inventory, use the shovel on the padlock on the chute cover. (The shovel can be hard to see in inventory. If you see a blank slot with a small white thing at the bottom, that's the shovel.) Click to enter.
The Cellar of The Gate
Examine everything in the cellar. (Enable the lantern if you haven't already.) Click on the lit lantern on the newspapers.
The unblocked door has a broken lock and can't be opened. You'll need to free up the other door. (Note, it is much easier to get behind the table and push it than it is to stand in front of the table and pull it. So try not to do anything that accidentally shoves the table back against the wall. If you do have to pull the table, just be patient -- it does move eventually.)
Pull and push everything away from the door. Hold down the "push/pull" icon with the left mouse button and press the "W" key to push things, and the "S" key to pull things.
Once all the furniture is away from the door, click to open the door. This simple action was very difficult for some reason -- partly perhaps because the door will slowly close once you get it partially open. I finally got the door open by holding down the left mouse button on the "open" hotspot and pressing the "S" key. Another way to open it is through repeated clicking, though I'm not sure quite why that finally triggered it.
From the cellar room with the chute, you've entered another cellar room that has bed frames in it. Take the gas container. You'll see a machine/generator just like the one in the underground galleries at the Old Building (Hovel). Click on the "examine" button on the floor near the machine and Loreid will mention that the generator will work if you have gas for it. Click on the top left of the machine to see where you can pour the gas. In inventory, take out the gas container and pour gas in the machine. You can try to pour in more gas, but Loreid mentions that the tank is nearly full. Click on the "examine" hotspot on the floor again, and the generator starts up.
You can jump on top of the generator to try to access the fuse box on the wall, but I couldn't get it to open.
Go through the next room and into a room with an oriental carpet. You will eventually reach what looks like a wine cellar. Examine the bottles and Loreid mentions that these are chemical solutions, not wine. Go out the door, walk forward and then look to the left to see the stairs. Walk up the stairs into the kitchen and encounter another intriguing odor.
Main Floor of The Gate
Enter the kitchen. Examine the harmal incense sticks on the counter -- these will be showing up in nearly every room. Across from the counter is a small key cabinet -- open it and take the key. Head down the short hallway to the dining room/parlor.
Walk around this area to the glass double doors that lead to the study. There's a locking device on a side table in the study -- but the key doesn't work in it.
Go back into the kitchen. There are several doors leading out of it. One of these leads back into the cellar, two lead to the dining room/parlor, and one is locked. The last one leads to a short hallway that opens up to the garage, and one more door off this hallway is locked (apparently this is the back door). While exploring the garage, take the sledgehammer. Examine the car. You can put gas in the car also by taking the gas can out of inventory and clicking it on the car. Exit the garage and go out through the kitchen into the dining room/parlor area and go upstairs.
Second Floor of The Gate
Another hallway at the top of the stairs. Click on the first door on the left and Loreid enters the room he stayed in on visits to his grandparents as a child. Explore the room and click on the bed. Loreid falls asleep.
A Return to Childhood
Loreid wakes up in a vision of The Gate when he was a young child. (You'll note that you now have nothing in inventory.) Examine the cube on the nightstand, the drawings on the table and the teddy bear. Take the candle on the table.
In inventory, right-click on the candle to enable it. Examine the toy tank on the shelf. Go down to the kitchen and open up the key cabinet and take the key.
The Gate Exterior
Exit the house and go to the well. (Remember, the well is at the end of the pathway to the right as you stand at the entrance looking toward the mansion). Use the key on the well cover. Examine it.
Second Floor of the Gate
The night has passed. Get up and search the other rooms in the second floor of The Gate.
Grandmother Ingrid's Rooms
The bedroom and sitting room on the right side of the hallway belonged to Loreid's grandmother. The bedroom has a beautifully carved wooden screen. Go into the sitting room and observe the bureau with the broken mirror (I wonder why it's broken). Examine the jewelry box on the bureau. Keep clicking on it until the false bottom is revealed. Click to take the envelope. Right-click on the envelope in inventory to read Ingrid's words.
Underline: (Remember to click on the gears icon after underlining)
Nathaniel started to change
Around that time, our son Williams was born.
a stranger with a little boy shows up here
He brought his wife and child, Howard, with him.
I was forced to send him to a school in Wellsmoth at such a very young age.
I will also take that shiny metallic thing that Nathaniel always wears hanging around his neck.
Examine the book in the bureau. Preface by Edwin Pickman.
The Back Bedroom
Exit to the hallway and go to the bedroom to the left of the staircase at the end. The mirror here is also destroyed. (I can't remember seeing Loreid's reflection anywhere, now that I think about it.)
Open the top bureau drawer and take a ring. This ring with the Loreid coat of arms -- an eye, with three circles above and seven below, will be familiar if you've played Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder. (Side note: this room is the best place to use the spacebar to jump on the beds -- you can jump back and forth between the two.)
Examine the book on one of the beds. Turn to leave.
As you are leaving, click on the side door. Enable the lantern. Examine the bathtub. Take the hairpin.
Exit this bedroom and go down the hall to the last door on the left. Enter Loreid's grandfather's library.
The Library -- Or Grandfather, What Strange Objects you Have!
Examine the books on the shelves of the left bookcase. Pretty turgid reading. Maybe the family would have been better off if Loreid's grandfather had stuck to mystery novels?
Open the door at the far end of the left bookcase. Take the black mirror prepared in a human head shape. Right-click on it in inventory -- it looks unusually creepy. (I tried combining the black mirror prepared in a human head shape with the sledgehammer in Howard's Mind, but Howard wouldn't perform an action that would, I am convinced, save everyone a lot of trouble. By game's end, I still hadn't figured out what to do with the black mirror.)
Approach the desk and examine the skull and the map. The map has arrows, a target symbol, and slash marks twice that add up to 10. It also contains interesting numbers and words, though some of these are illegible. What I could see:
22 degrees 3' 14" S 125" 0' 39" E
In the map close-up you can also get a better look at the skull and the rope that extends from the jaw to the nose.
Examine the paper on the left of the desk.
Underline: (Remember to click on the gears icon after underlining)
They called him Nyarlathotep, and he came through the big, shining, evenly-cut crystal stone with many faces in exchange for human sacrifices!
Examine the paper/book on the right part of the desk -- why might it be important to consult an almanac?
Open the left drawer and examine the paper.
Underline: (Remember to click on the gears icon after underlining)
I think I shall have to lock him up somewhere he can't get out of.
Nevertheless, he is a semi-human. In essence, he is one of them, an offspring of the ancient race.
Walk around and examine the table by the window with the tipped-over vase -- see the underside of the table.
Admiring the Library Floor
Walk around and observe the parquet design in the middle of the floor. A chair has fallen on its side over one of the corner parquet tiles. Push it out of the way. Press the "C" key to crouch down. Then move until you see an "open" icon on the parquet tile that was covered by the chair.
Click to pull up the tile. Take the key with the skeleton shape. Take the envelope. (In my game, I had to press the "S" key to back up slightly before I got an "examine" hotspot for the envelope.)
In inventory, right-click to open the envelope. Read the book.
Underline: (Remember to click on the gears icon after underlining)
My name is Nathaniel, your grandfather.
There is an object which acts as a key.
The other two will be safe with me.
Use the carrier to reach your destination.
Press the "C" key to stand back up.
Main Floor of The Gate
Go downstairs to the study. Examine the side table. From inventory, use the hairpin in the lock. Click to open the box. Read the note and examine the item.
Exterior of The Gate
From inventory, use the key (general purpose) on the front door. Exit and go outside. You can try to leave through the entrance gates at the end of the driveway, but Loreid feels it's too dangerous. (Packs of wolves roam the area -- though wolves might be kinder than Loreid's grandfather was).
Walk to the "guest house" and use the key with a skeleton in inventory on the door. Click to open.
The Crypt
So this is a crypt, and not an ordinary one either. You can walk around and read the names of dead (and soon-to-be-dead?) Loreids. You can examine both Williams' coffin and Nathaniel's coffin, and when you click the "examine" hotspots for each, each coffin will be set down on the floor. You can open these coffins on the floor and examine the contents.
When Williams' coffin is open, click on the bottle between Williams' skull and shoulder bone.
When Nathaniel's coffin is open, examine it and keep clicking until you get a key.
(If you feel like desecrating the remains of this horrible man who was your grandfather, you will be disappointed. Loreid doesn't seem to be the vengeful type. I tried the lever, the sledgehammer and the heavy music box on Nathaniel's skeleton, but nothing worked. The closest I got to "airing" my feelings was when I enabled the bug sprayer and sprayed it near his head in the coffin. I then fumigated the rest of the crypt, which was strangely satisfying.)
You can try to open the door at the back of the crypt, but it's stuck. The sledgehammer doesn't work here either, nor does the lever.
Exit the crypt. A storm has begun. Enable the lantern. Return to the house.
Main Floor of The Gate
You can try to take the car if you like, but Loreid won't leave because the storm is too severe.
Return to the kitchen and use the key from inventory on the locked door near the refrigerator. Examine everything inside.
All over The Gate
Go back to Loreid's bedroom. Examine the bed to sleep.
Loreid wakes up to sounds in the walls -- or is this another dream/vision? Go downstairs and open the kitchen door. A cut scene occurs.
Follow the rats down into the cellar. Go to the right to the room with the bottles. How'd we miss that when we first explored the cellar?
A Guest Above- and Below- Ground at The Gate
Loreid wakes up again. Go downstairs to something unexpected.
Enable the lantern if it isn't enabled already. Loreid needs to go back to the cellar. (Note the words scrawled on the wall as you go down the stairs). Turn right and continue through to where you saw rats pouring through an opening in the floor (it's the room with bottles). Examine the floor. From inventory, use the sledgehammer on the floor.
Step down into the subterranean area beneath the cellar. Click to open the gate.
Wake up with no memory of how you made it back to bed. Enable the lantern if necessary.
Go back to the cellar and re-enter the hole in the floor. Explore the subterranean area. Note the cave-in. Go forward into the only available tunnel. Open the door on the left. Take the dagger. Speak to the hooded figure.
Leave the subterranean area and return to the house. (You may need to enable the lantern again and click to get up the stairs.)
Leaving Home
Go to the kitchen and then to the garage. Examine the car. From inventory, use the gas container on the car. Examine the car again.
Arkhamend Town
Enable the lantern. Return to the Worm's Feast. Henry isn't there. Click on the new book on the counter. When you walk downstairs searching for Henry (he isn't there either) walk into the crate near the bottom of the stairs, and it moves. Crouch down ("C" key) to examine the floor where the crate used to be and see a trap door. Examine the trap door and examine what's beneath it. Take the two items, which go into inventory (you can examine them further there by right-clicking on them). Press "C" to stand back up. Exit the Worm's Feast and enter the square.
Walk to the alley in which stairs go down between buildings. Examine the manhole on the ground -- it leads to the sewers.
Note: If you talk to Jacob again at the white house, he'll run through the same conversation -- this can get a bit long, but what he says will now make more sense, so if you're seriously "into" the story, you might want to talk to him and hear what he says again.
Enter the Camphorwood Inn.
The men you suspect of robbing your grandfather's tomb are here! Loreid wishes to follow them. Go out of the inn -- the game will only let you walk so far before the men begin to move again. Go down to the manhole in the alleyway down the stairs and click to enter the sewers.
The Sewers
Note visual cues to finding this particular ladder again when you return. With your back to the ladder, across from you and to the left is a leaky pipe, and an odd bit of graffiti on the wall -- almost a partial painting.
Enable the lantern. This part of the game is maze-like. You can explore on your own, or follow the directions below.
Stand with your back to the ladder you just came down, and face the "water" in front of you.
Turn left and walk around a bend to the left. Eventually you will come to a short bridge. Cross it and turn right. Keep going, and note that as you go around another left bend, there's a large black symbol on the wall to your left. Keep going until you hit a metal fence/grate. The gate is on the other side, so turn around and take the short metal bridge behind you to get to the side with the gate.
After going through the gate, cross the next short metal bridge, turn right, and go forward to the hole in the wall.
The Rokland Nursing Home (Est. 1826)
You are in an abandoned nursing home. You can walk around and examine things if you like.
Walk upstairs to the left and hear voices behind a door -- those must be the thieves.
Turn around and go back over to the hole and look behind you at the downstairs steps. Go down the stairs and go through the door at the bottom. In the distance is an odd blue light. You can explore all the rooms (and push some bed frames around if you like), but the important room is the one with the colonial portrait on the wall as you look through the doorway (second door on the left). There are file cabinets whose drawers you can open, but I couldn't find anything in any of them. Near the file cabinets are a set of display cases.
Examine the display case with the gorilla, and click to pick up the object at the end of the necklace the gorilla is wearing. Now that you have the item you were looking for, go back into the hallway and head in the direction opposite the blue light. Go through the door and upstairs toward the hole that leads back into the sewers.
Ouch!
Wake up upside down. Listen to the conversation. Walk forward and click on the door. Wait a bit and click on the door again.
Examine what's on the floor as you exit. Pause long enough to "contemplate your own mortality" (this may bring up an intriguing visual effect).
Head in the direction opposite to that of the blue light. Open the door. Before starting up the stairs, examine the second thief. Step over him and crouch down ("C" key) to observe something on the floor. (Enable the lantern and you'll see an intriguing knot in the wood floor that looks like someone wearing glasses, but it isn't "hot.") Take the metal object with a handle on the floor, between the body and the wall. Stand back up ("C" key). Go back to the sewers and click to go through the hole.
Returning Through the Sewers
To return -- cross over the first small metal bridge and walk through the metal gate. Cross the next short metal bridge. Turn left. Keep going, looking at the wall on your right, until you get to the bend where the large black symbol is on the wall to your right. Cross the next short metal bridge. Turn left. Keep going until you see a ladder -- this should be the ladder you came down in the first place (it's across from and a short ways down from the leaky pipe and the odd graffiti). (Press "W" to climb up the ladder.)
Revisiting The Camphorwood Inn
Return to the Camphorwood Inn.
The inn keeper has stepped out. Go behind the bar and take the two keys hanging in a wooden key cabinet.
Go toward the first floor rooms through the double doors. On the left is a bureau. Open the drawer and examine the newspaper clipping.
Underline: (Remember to click on the gears icon after underlining)
Two cruelly butchered human corpses were found in the Northwood forest
Walk down the hall to the first room on the left. From inventory, use the key for the 1st floor room on the first door on the left. Click to open.
Ingrid's Room at the Camphorwood
The challenge here is to move the bed into the right place and then search the floor. (Note, there is a glitch here that can turn the bed completely around -- when that happens it may be impossible to find the right hotspot on the floor. If, as you are pushing it, the bed goes crazy and finally flips around into a different position, and if you then can't find an "examine" hotspot anywhere on the floor, go back to a previous save and start again.)
Push or pull the chair near the bed over toward the door. Pull the bed out as far as you can. Jump (spacebar) to get over the bed.
Enable the lantern. As you stand facing the window, turn slightly to the right toward the right corner. Press the "C" key to crouch down. Walk toward the right corner, searching the floor as you go. Click to examine -- you may need to click twice.
From inventory, remove the lever and use it on the floor. (Note -- the lever can be difficult to see in inventory -- it is most likely located in a slot in inventory near that of the lantern, and it may look like a blank slot with a faint line in it.) Take the last metal piece of the artifact from its hiding place beneath the floorboards. Click out of the close-up.
In Howard's Mind, combine the 3 pieces of the metal artifact to get something that Loreid calls a "sign of soul metamorphosis". Right-click on the completed artifact in inventory to examine it further. It bears a striking resemblance to the Loreid coat-of-arms on the ring: an eye with three marks above it and seven marks below it.
At this point, it may be necessary to press "C" to stand up from a crouching position.
The Second Floor Room Next Door
Leave the room, turn left and go up to the second floor. From inventory, use the key for the 2nd door on the right -- that's the door next to Loreid's room. Search the room. It smells horrible, and the bathroom is locked. I did not figure out how to get the bathroom door open.
Use the map in inventory to go to The Gate. (You could also probably go back to the car in the square and click on it to return to The Gate.)
Reopening The Gate
Back to the mansion. You can putter around inside the mansion to see if anything has changed since you left (I noted a couple of changes). If you want to put off the final confrontation, you can find a nice place to hide by hopping on the hedge near the cellar chute at the back door, and then getting under the porch in the farthest corner. However, sooner or later Loreid must face his destiny. Mustn't he?
There's no way to avoid it -- sooner or later Loreid has to go down that well. (Remember, it's at the end of the pathway to the right as you stand at the entrance looking toward the mansion). Loreid should now unlock the cover over the well. From inventory, use the strange metallic object with the wooden handle on the well cover. Click to enter.
After the Fall -- the Subterranean Area
Walk forward down a strange hallway. Walk into the elevator, turn around and examine the "X" on the floor. Click to open the panel. Going from left to right, click the first wheel twice, the second wheel twice, the third wheel twice and the fourth wheel once or twice (it differed in different playthroughs). Steam begins to issue from the mechanism -- which is what you want. Once you see the steam, click out of the close-up. Click on the floor to use the elevator.
You can move around while the elevator is moving -- be sure to look out the window. When it stops, open the door.
Spend some time looking out the windows and up at the ceiling. Go back and try the elevator door -- it looks like you'll be going forward from here, not back.
Walk forward, click on the door, and enable the lantern.
Click on the door again and walk forward through the gate. Turn left and speak to the man on the other side of the pit. Retrace your steps. The way is blocked in one direction, so go down the center hallway to the gate and keep going until you reach the ornate door. Click on it.
From inventory, use the metal artifact (sign of a soul metamorphosis) on the door. Click to open the door.
The Final Scene
Examine what's behind you. You can also examine the statues.
SAVE YOUR GAME HERE!
Walk forward into these nightmarish environs. You can walk around and look at everything, and you also can examine the well/pit.
At the center of all the drama is a creature with strange facial features. Before him is a large, glowing, red crystal.
Examine the crystal. In a final conversation, you are given two dialog choices.
With one of the dialog choices -- where you assert your independence -- you will then find yourself rooted to the spot, and (ironically) only one of the inventory items can still be used on only one hotspot.
With the other dialog choice, you'll also find yourself rooted to the spot, but you have a choice as to what to do with the inventory item (it will work on two different hotspots). What you choose to do with the inventory item will trigger one of two different endings.
A Game Results screen appears, and indicates your final disposition/location.
It pays to sit through the credits (or, actually you can click through the credits or even hit Esc to skip them, which will bring you directly to the last cut scene) to see the possible implications of Loreid's final disposition/location.
This document was provided to GameBoomers.com and may not be distributed without express written permission of the author and GameBoomers and the content may not be altered in any way.