Written by Michael
Now, onto the most tedious part of the game so far. More tedious than a lazy George Harrison song (although it DID inspire a great parody by Weird Al).
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| We use a lute, rather than a whistle, but the concept holds. |
We landed on what ends up being the Grand Central Station of Etheria, a floating island with four rainbows positioned around it at the corners. If you click on one of them, it will transport you to various places we've already been to, like the desert and the haunted forest, and we can get back by playing the lute we were given by the count. It brings the horse back to us, and the horse re-deposits us back at this travel hub.
We don’t really want to leave here right now... after all, we just got here. So where can we go? Through the archway to the east.
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| This flock of seagulls makes me want to run so far away. |
As soon as we enter the next screen, we are surrounded by birds flying around us, delaying our progress to make sure we notice them. Spoiler: EVERY single time we enter this screen, from either direction. Thankfully, you can press the fast-forward button to skip this. It’s almost as annoying as the jungle screen in Leisure Suit Larry 2, but not quite as funny.
The reason the game makes us suffer through this every time is so that we know the hummingbirds exist, so we will interact with them. But first, we need to explore some more.
There’s a vaguely visible path to the right, and later I discovered there’s a path to the north as well. Look at that screenshot above and tell me if you’d guess that without the helpful navigation arrows?
Regardless, I head east first.
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| Coast to coast. |
Hey, a windy passage to climb up in a King’s Quest game! Something new, I suppose. Well, in this installment, you cannot fall to your death, but the climbing isn’t obvious. If you hover the mouse at the top of the screen (like in my last screenshot) it does not indicate it as an exit. You need to click on the first level of the spiral, climb up, then repeat in order to get the coveted exit arrow.
Also, on this screen and the next, there are flying creatures that can knock you off to your death. So, don’t stand in one spot very long, and find the safe spots.
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| I’ll go out on a limb and say they need to rework this section. |
On the next screen is a cave entrance and a horizontal tree, along with some plant life. There are only two things you can click on here: the cave, and some flowers. The flowers are ambrosia, and quickly added to my inventory. Entering the cave isn’t possible, because some scary squid monster-looking thing comes out and wants to eat you. So, flowers, and back down the mountain.
After a couple of times being knocked down to my death by flying black and white things, I get back to the garden with those damn hummingbirds. Trying to get them off my damn back, I try giving them the ambrosia. While it doesn’t make them disappear, it does give me a clue to what will be a very non-ADA friendly puzzle.
See, the birds play a song. But, unlike in previous games I’ve played, like Kyrandia 2, it is sound ONLY. No colors or another visual clue to help guide us. It tests your memory and musical skill.
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| I don’t mean to harp on this puzzle, but it’s rather note-worthy. |
Taking the hidden path north, we come across a harp with a sphere of some sort on top. Using the harp, you need to play the first few notes of the song the birds sang. The only good part about this, if there is one, is that you can feed them more ambrosia and suffer through an encore performance of the song as much as you’d like.
After successfully playing the first four notes of the song, the harp takes over and plays the rest. Touching the globe then teleports us to the three fates.
Another tedium note: we will have to visit the fates multiple times, and have to play the song on the harp each and every time.
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| I prefer the Three Fates as I met them in the modern adventure game Prim. |
Clotho spins the fates of women and men, Lachesis measures the fates of women and men, and Atropos severs those said fates.
When they ask what we seek, we tell them about Rosella needing rescue, and how we need to see Oberon and Titania immediately. They tell us to go seek out Maab, who lives on an island of dreams and nightmares. But she cannot be reached in the waking reality.
Well, I guess that means we need to find a place to take a nap. It ends up the right spot is with Dr. Cadaver, because, you may recall he has a coffin in his waiting room that he says he sometimes uses for sleep.
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| Hopefully I don’t end up in the cardboard box. |
By taking this nap, we visit some screens that we saw previously in the introduction video.
First, a broken clock, and the screen gets darker and something chases us (a nightmare perhaps?) so we run off to another screen.
We land in the water we saw earlier, and swim.
After extracting ourselves from the whale... oh, wait, wrong game. Once we hit shore, we have exactly one place to go, so let’s go in.
She’s frozen in a block of ice, however, which is not what we hoped for.
So, we wake up and thank the good doctor for his hospitality, who promptly closes up shop as soon as we leave. and go back to the fates, which involves going outside, calling the horse, getting back to the rainbow slides, going past those damn hummingbirds that love to assault us, playing their song on the harp, and so on.
The fates tell us that ice melts in the spring, so maybe we should talk to the spring lady.
That’s Attis’s lady, right? The one who is currently a tree?
On the way to the tree, I pass by the horn of plenty and have an inspiration. Isn’t ambrosia referred to as the nectar of the gods? I shove it in the horn, and I’m rewarded with a... pomegranate?
Well, if I know my mythology, the cornucopia is a spring-lady thing. Thanks, Terry Pratchett! So, I try using the pomegranate on the tree, and some lizard-like growth takes it from me and the tree transforms into the Chiquita Banana lady.
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| No, really. |
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| John! Marsha! |
As soon as Ceres is restored, Attis heads off to Etheria to stop the volcano, and Cerus starts to restore the land around us with flowers and leaves and color, undoing the damage caused by Malicia. Asking her about the frozen Maab, she comes up with an idea: take a crystal filled with light there to restore her. But, you cannot enter the land of dreams with any objects, so you’ll have to go there awake.
How to go to dreamland awake? You could play the 1999 game Faust, a personal favorite we will hopefully get to one day on the blog. Or, we could wake up Maab and see what help she is.
Thinking back and looking at my screenshots, there’s probably a crystal in Malicia’s bedroom, hanging off the lamp. Thankfully, Rosella dug us a hole to get in through the basement.
But sadly, it seems Malicia is there! And we are caught and killed!
As is the theme for this chapter: tedium and repetition. The solution is to leave and come back until you do not hear the sound of barking coming from inside the house. That means Malicia took the dog somewhere.
I had to leave to the garden and return about a dozen times. I was growling more than that dog.
Finally, I was able to enter, but had to quickly hide underneath the floorboards because they were returning. The mutt was sniffing at me through the hole, just like it did for Rosella previously. But I’m saved as Malicia takes the pooch away to watch the “fireworks” of the volcano.
So, I’m free to get in, steal a crystal, and get out.
And now, I need to fill it with light. Where did I previously use crystals and light together?
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| I think I watched this game as a kid, before it was even designed. |
Off to the spider temple, which the fastest route might be taking the rainbow slide that lands in the desert, but unless you know the path from there quickly, you die of thirst. So, it took me multiple tries. I really should have just teleported somewhere else and walked.
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| At least it wasn’t broken. No flag poles in this game so far. |
But I finally get there, hold up the crystal, and charge it.
Back to the outside, back to the horse, back to the rainbow warp room, and so on, and so on... getting us back to the fates once again to find out what the heck to do. I tell them about how I need to enter dreamland while awake, and they tell me to cheat the fabric of reality. You must ride on the wings of a dream.
“There is only one who can do such a thing.”
“Our nephew, the weaver of dreams.”
They give me a dreamcatcher because he tends to surround himself with the darkest terrors of night.
Hmmm. Do you think their nephew lives at the top of the winding mountain path?
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| I need to check if the ghost dream trap hanging from my front porch is full. |
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| Of course I can only think of this song right now. |
He’s a little surprised we were able to get past his watchdog, but he’s not very helpful. He threatens to weave us a nightmare that would turn my hair white. Once we told him about his aunts helping me catch the nightmare, he becomes a little more talkative, but still a jerk.
But he does tell us something that will be useful almost immediately: you can set one nightmare against another, and then they will cancel each other out.
Once we explain all the nonsense going on, he changes his tune, because apparently one of the missing gods/whatever is his sister. Now he’ll help us get to Maab. “When you ride this magical tapestry, you can travel through dreams in the flesh. But be warned, you’ll be vulnerable. Now hurry.”
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| Two wrongs making a right? |
So, riding the magic carpet brings me back to the clock screen, and instantly I’m attacked by a nightmare, so I click the dreamcatcher on it to release my captive. They duke it out and leave me be.
Back to the water, back to the palace, back to the frozen Maab. I use the crystal on her, and the ice melts. I tell her what’s happening, and she tells me that I must send the winds to find the king and queen. She gives me a bridle to use on one of them.
It seems those black and white things that like to push me off ledges are the winds. Uh huh.
Keeping the story short, I’ll say that there is only one spot you can catch one of them to bridle it. Outside of the dream weaver’s cave, you can click on a spot that will hide you, and when it comes by, click the bridle on it and ride it.
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| Ride, sally, ride. |
We ride the white wind up the mountain until the grey wind knocks us down. Turns out they’re both kids, and mom & dad (Lavanta, King of the Wind, and his wife) yell at them for their horseplay. The king sends the winds out to go find Oberon and Titania. A short wait later, they return with the passengers.
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| Maybe the ladies should swap outfits? |
Once they realize what Malicia is doing, they skirt away to try and stop the volcano.
“But wait! What about my daughter? My daughter!”
I suppose we’ll worry about her in the final chapter.
Session Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time: 9 hours
