Okay, went back in the game and read the letters. Why is it that every time I go back in this game I get creeped out a bit more?

The letter in the desk in the study -- the doctor says: "what we all did two years ago," so the decision to hide Robin away was made by "us all" i.e., James knew that Robin was alive and was in on the decision to hide the family "shame."

The doctor's mention of the "other issue" and James's mention in the letter in the chapel that Catherine was thinking of having him committed as insane -- I think what was happening -- okay, this IS creepy -- is that James wanted to complete the ritual, and to do that you needed the remains of a victim. Okay, who was an obvious victim? Robin. I think James was trying to convince Catherine and the doctor to kill Robin and use him as part of the ritual to control the spirit in the mask, and that's why Catherine and the doctor were certain he had lost his mind. Later in the letter he tells the doctor that he must complete the ritual if James can't, even though it would make the doctor a cold blooded murderer.

I suspect the night of Catherine's death, matters came to a head as James tried to kill Robin. I still don't know who killed Catherine though, or once she was dead, why James didn't simply go ahead and finish his plan to kill Robin and carry out the ritual.

The doctor later expresses regret that he did't believe James and carry out the ritual, as he is beginning to believe that the mask DOES have supernatural powers.

EDIT: Winkie -- the writer has explained things a little! (Not sure we've understood the explanation though.)

Take a look at Rael's posts on pages 5, 7, and 8 of this thread.

Hi all you guys! I am reading now more posts on this wonderful, delicious thread! and enjoying it so much. I just had another thought - I do get a few now and then - If either Robin, James or the doctor had been Catherine's killer, and there is a coffin for Catherine in the crypt then why was Catherine buried in the garden in the ground like that? Except for the purpose of us finding her grave, digging her up and taking one of her teeth, I don't understand this. It would have been just as easy to open her coffin in the crypt and take a tooth.....was its only purpose just to make it harder for us to find her? And it is not as if her death was a big secret from the authorities, since James was being investigated in the death of his wife......so ???
Love, Betty Lou :kiss:

This is a really great game, with lots of story and mystery to it. And very creepy. I know my hair was standing up a few times, especially during the midnight sequences.
I also appreciated that the system requirements were kept low so that I could play it.
I would love more games like this.

Paul

Betty Lou --

Catherine was buried in the "garden" because James and the doctor were trying to hide her death from the authorities. They told everyone else that she was traveling. The only reason the authorities found out is that the maid happened to see the body being buried.

I suppose that once James had to admit she was dead, he acquired a coffin to make it look as though her body were in the crypt, but he didn't bother to dig her back up and put her in it!

He managed to keep the autorities at bay so that he never had to actually produce a body.

Becky, I was thinking that letter in the study was addressed to Catherine, not James. I got the impression James found the letter and made the discovery Robin was still alive. I'm going to have to reload this game and replay sooner than I intended!

And I had seen Rael's posts-would be even more confused without them, I think!

Also, the notes by the typewriter about the events not being supernatural after all or something made me try to find a "reasonable" explaination for this saga. After all, truth is often much stranger than fiction/supernatural!

Winkie

Winkie -- yes, the letter in the study was written to Catherine -- James must have found it at some point and hidden it in the desk.

My comment about "what we all did" is that if it had just been the doctor and Catherine who had hidden Robin, he would have said "what we both did" or "what we did." The inclusion of "all" implies that there were more than two people who did this thing.

A reasonable explanation -- yes, I think you can interpret events both ways, especially after Betty Lou's thalidimide discovery.

I am coming to the conclusion that the doctor has abandoned the house (for awhile I was certain he was dead) and has left a means for somebody to always automatically feed Robin.

A question -- at the end of day 2, when you go down inside the burner and see someone walking across through the grate -- could that be Robin? Or was that someone else?

I assumed that was Robin/whatever it was locked up in the basement. Did you find it odd that you could go through the furnace in the dead of night but no other time? Maybe should go have another look at that floor plan to get an idea of where that locked room might be in relation to the furnace...hmmm. I'm awful with directions and have a hard time with those types of things. It seems to me the locked room should be under the study and dining room, but where does that leave the grate in the furnace? It seemed to go in the opposite direction.

Apparently, I'm just thinking about this game too much!

Winkie; Don't feel bad about thinking about this game. Notice that you're on page 14 of this thread. A great many of us cussed, discussed, replayed, and then re-explained what happened. I don't know if we really solved anything, but the whole process sure was fun. Maybe that's why a bunch of us consider it a fine game.

Winkie -- I don't have much sense of direction (often a drawback in adventure games!) but I think the furnace would start out under the kitchen and then head back toward the house under the dining room.

If it was Robin we saw, there should be a grate like that somewhere in the wall in Robin's prison (don't remember if there was, and don't really want to go back in there). Wasn't there also a light on somewhere when we got to the end of the furnace? Where would the light be coming from?

I never tried to go through the furnace a second time--I was too scared! Besides, you ran out of lamp oil and your matches were limited. Didn't fancy crawling through a dark tube, even during the day!

WW

Wasn't there a grate in/under the fireplace in the parlor?

You couldn't back into the furnace in the morning. I tried. I wanted desperately to know who was there, but my character didn't!

Paul

Bella -- yes, interesting -- somebody walks around the parlor during the one moment you are in the furnace!

But the grate was covered with wood at that point, and I don't think we looked up, we just looked straight ahead to see the person -- or am I remembering incorrectly?

If you go down the grate in the fireplace you come to a room that has a closed door: the door behind which Robin is locked in. In this room under the grate, just at the opposite side of the closed door, there is a hole in the wall. Looking through this hole, Michaels says, that here ends the furnace and here it is where he looked through last night (or something with this meaning).

Hello seagul -- and welcome to GameBoomers! I obviously have to replay this part, but frankly, I'm not sure I have sufficient courage.

Welcome seagul!

Ah, so what Michael saw was someone (not Robin) actually walking around in the cellar?

And you're right, Becky, the grate was covered with wood at that point, so that couldn't have been the light source anyway.

We are again seeing the beauty of Scratches. There's always a reasonable but not necessarily correct answer. The light source was in the basement, which is why we saw a silhouette. Perhaps that is where all the candles went, which would mean who we saw from the furnace is not what we saw at the end.....AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

I ditto the AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

P.S. Has Robin grown claws, or just really long finger nails?