Game 28: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - Maze of Torment

Indiana Jones Journal Entry 2: “I’ve managed to get hold of dad’s diary and then figure out how to gain access to the underground tunnels beneath the library. I find it difficult to believe that my father wouldn’t have found the solution, so I can only assume that I am somehow following in his footsteps. Either that or foul play was involved, but I refuse to believe that without evidence. Navigating the tunnels has been somewhat challenging, and there are quite a few obstacles that I will need to figure out how to get past. Frustratingly, I think I can see the knight’s tomb that holds the second marker, but it remains out of reach until I can work things out. It’s only a matter of time now!”

  

If dad couldn't find them, they must be really well hidden

I ended my last post having just entered the library in Venice. Dr. Schneider had told me that my father had been looking for Roman numerals in the library when he simply vanished, so I was about to set off and start looking for them. As expected, the library has rows and rows of books, and each row has a plaque at the end of it with funny little snippets from famous people. At first I thought one of these plaques might give me a hint as to where I might find a certain book (maybe even my father’s diary), but after checking them all out, I was convinced that they were there for humour’s sake alone. Intriguingly, the openings after each section of books has massive Roman numerals all over the floor, which makes my father’s comment about not being able to find them rather odd.

 

Yeah, really difficult!

Each of these openings also contained two pillars with lions on top and a stained glass window with obvious religious symbols. All of the pillars had inscriptions on them, all of which had three separate Roman numerals (for example: IV III IX). I checked a few of them out and looked at the numbers on the floor, but couldn’t find any relation or logical deduce anything from it. I did notice that one room had something none of the others had...a cordoned off window. I was not only able to pick up the red cordon, but I was also able to pick up one of the metal posts. I can’t really say why, but the first thing I thought to try was to use the metal post to crack open one of the squares on the floor. Indy responded to my request with “Even if there’s something down there, I have no idea which slab to break open. If only I had Dad’s notes!”

 

You and me both!

This made me think that using the post on one of the squares was exactly what I needed to do, but I was going to have to find my father’s diary to figure out which piece of floor. I thoroughly looked through the library for any other items or hints, but came up empty handed. All I could think to do was to head back to the United States to try to find the key for the chest in dad’s house. Surely the diary was in there! On my way out of the library, I took a bit of time to explore the Italian plaza. I didn’t seem to be able to talk to any of the people there, but interestingly, when I tried to pick up a wine bottle on the table of two lovers, Indy said “Mind if I take this?” The man’s response was “Indeed I do!! We’re not done with our fine wine yet”, but it hinted that I might need that bottle at some point. I tried a few things at the time, but couldn’t get them to relinquish it.

 

 Did you notice the whip? Just sayin!

Determined to find the diary, I flew back to the U.S. and entered the college. I entered the gymnasium change rooms and re-emerged in more casual attire. I was then able to enter the boxing ring and practice fighting. Fighting involves using the number pad, with each button having a different action depending on which way Indy is facing. Since I was facing to the right, numbers 7, 4 and 1 all made me take a step back, numbers 8, 5 and 2 blocked high, middle and low, and numbers 9, 6 and 3 punched high, middle or low. I was able to choose from three different levels of sparring, but managed to knock the boxing coach out on all three (although I had only a tiny amount of health left on the hardest level). Fighting feels fairly intuitive, although if I come up against someone that throws punches up, middle and down, I’m not sure I’ll be able to re-actively block. We’ll find out eventually.

 

The spectators act like they're not watching, but they know a God when they see one.

After changing back into my more formal attire, I went out of the college and climbed back in the window of my office (I didn’t want to face off against those angry students again). I felt like there must be something in there that I could pick up or use in some way. I looked at what I had gained since the last time I was in the office, and then started using them with some of the items. For some reason I thought I would try using the sticky tape with the jar of cleaning solvent and it worked! Not only that, there was a key in there!!! Now, there’s probably some scientific reason why putting the sticky tape in the solvent achieved something. Perhaps it simply allowed me to unravel the balled up tape and reveal that there was a key inside? Still, I solved this puzzle pretty much through trial and error, so I’d be interested to hear what others think about it. Anyway, now I had the key to the chest, and I was one step closer to getting the diary!

 

There is? In the jar? Yes...of course...I knew there would be!

I rushed back to Henry’s house and unlocked the chest, removing the diary that I knew would be there. Only it wasn’t my father’s diary!!! “This is the diary I made when I was a little boy. It was supposed to look like my father’s Grail Diary.” What? I found a replica of my father’s diary when all I needed was my father’s diary itself!? Harsh! What to do now? Well, since I hadn’t finished going through every item in my office on my recent visit, all I could do was go back there and hope for the best. There seemed no way to make use of the diary I made in my youth and I could only think it might be useful later on to trick someone trying to take the diary from me. I went back to the office and continued to use everything with everything.

 

Now that's just mean!

Those of you that have played the game will know where I eventually found the diary. You might remember that I picked up the junk mail that was sitting on my desk when I first started playing the game. What I didn’t do was continue to pick up more junk mail until there was none left! It didn’t even cross my mind that I might be able to pick up more junk mail after adding the first lot to my inventory. Underneath it all was a package from my father, which of course was the real diary! After picking it up, Indy put all the other useless mail back on the desk, answering my question about what on Earth any of it wasn’t going to be useful for. I tried looking at the diary but was informed that “I don’t see anything pertinent right now”. I figured it must only be of use when the time is right.

 

I guess I could call this a "face-palm" moment, although I'm sure I'm not alone

Now that I had my father’s notes, I made my way back to Venice and into the library. As soon as I was there, I tried using the diary again. This time a section of it was displayed that showed an image of one of the stained glass windows along with a cryptic message. “If ye would enter, follow the third on the left.” I walked through each of the library rooms until I found the stained glass window that matched the one in the diary. I then looked at the inscription on the left pillar in that room and found that the third Roman numeral on there was IV. It made sense to me then that I should use the metal post on the square with IV on it in that room. When I tried that, Indy took out the post and knocked the tile out, then jumped into the hole before a Nazi uniformed guard with a machine gun could apprehend him. Excellent progress!

 

You can't stop gravity mate!

Beneath the library, I found myself in an underground catacomb of sorts. There were skulls all over the wall, and three doorways out of my current room. I chose the left hand door and then found myself given a top down view of what was clearly going to be a maze. I opened up an Excel spreadsheet in preparation to map out my progress, only to find that the application was going to be completely useless. The tunnels went in all different directions, twisting off on all sorts of degrees. I considered getting a pen and paper and trying to draw the maze, but that plan wasn’t ideal given my wife was asleep in the bed no more than two metres away from me (meaning I couldn’t turn the light on). I decided to see how I went, and if things got nasty, I’d stop for the night and map it out on paper in the daylight of the next day. I won’t describe all of my movements in this post, as the maze took me all over the place, including back to my starting position.

 

My Baldur's Gate skills really kicked into gear while navigating down here

The first place of interest that I came across was a room with two skeletons in it. I was able to remove the hook from the end of one of the skeleton’s arms, but couldn’t find anything else to do there. The second place of interest was a room with a torch on the wall. I tried picking it up and manipulating it in every way possible, but was continually informed that “it’s held in place by hard, dry mud”. The third place of interest was a room with a concrete slab in the middle of it. I tried interacting with it, but was continually told that I couldn’t get a good grip on it. I didn’t have anything in my inventory that would make gripping the slab any easier, and using my items on it didn’t work (including the hook). The fourth room of interest was one half full of water, with a large plug at the bottom. Indy refused to enter the water, and none of my attempts to manufacture a device that would pull the plug out from a distance worked (I thought using the red cordon with the hook would have done the trick).

 

 Room 1: Skeleton Pirates

 

Room 2: Torch Stuck in the Mud

 Room 3: Concrete Slab on the Floor

Room 4: Flooded Cavern

The fifth place of interest had an opening to a sewer and a manhole cover in the ceiling. I’d seen a manhole in the plaza near the library, so figured that was the exit out of the maze. I wasn’t ready to leave yet, so I entered the sewer. This took me to a gate, through which I could see a casket sitting in the middle of a room. I couldn’t get through the gate no matter what I tried, and figured opening the casket would be the reward for solving the other puzzles I’d come across in the tunnels so far. Surely it held the knight that contained the second marker! At this point I gave the maze a thorough going over until I was confident that I’d found all the rooms of interest, then put my thinking cap on to try to figure out how I was going to get through this. I was going to have to figure out how to get the torch, remove the concrete slab, or unplug the plug, before opening the gate.

So close yet so far! 

I decided to focus on the torch, as that was the first room after the skeleton pirates, and my first thought was that I needed some water. Why else would the game make a point of telling me that the torch was “held in place by hard, dry mud”? Of course there was plenty of water in the room with the plug in the floor, but I had nothing to hold it in. I went through all my screenshots looking for something I might be able to collect some water in. I found two items, being the jar in the office and the bottle of wine on the table in the plaza. You’ll have to wait for my next post to see which one worked, if any. Well, I’m still describing my first three hour session, with this post covering an hour and a half of it, mostly spent navigating the underground tunnels. Obviously my feelings about the game haven’t changed since the last post, so I’ll finish up here. I’m off to play some more of the game now, so wish me luck!

Well at least I'll get some daylight for a while

Session Time: 1 hours 35 minutes 

Total Time: 2 hours 20 minutes 

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: I've written a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no points will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. Please...try not to spoil any part of the game for me...unless I really obviously need the help...or I specifically request assistance. In this instance, I've not made any requests for assistance. Thanks!