Fascination - Tramp Stamp on a Bare Buttock (Request for Assistance)

Written by Ilmari

Happened in the previous episode: While Doralice had thought that ice cubes were a great hiding place for an inhibition lowering drug, he hadn’t foreseen that his fling, Robaire de la Cafetiere, would consume the ice cubes, together with the dangerous substance, becoming then a mindless rapist. And although she had been clever enough not to hand out the other two vials of the same drug to a suspicious inspector in a wheelchair, she had been careless enough to contact Lou Dale, an erotic photographer, who had just took some photos of Kenneth Miller, son of Jeffrey Miller, the inventor of the dangerous drug. Gangsters hired by a crooked plastic surgeon, Peter “Doc” Hillgate”, had planted a bug on Lou’s phone and had at once captured Lou after Doralice made her phone call. And although Doralice was able to knock out Lou’s guard with a homemade gas bomb, she still hadn’t figured out that Doc had used Lou’s photos to switch Kenneth with a completely different guy

...and now she’s about to meet Kenneth Miller

Searching trash cans is always a wise course of action in an adventure game and I managed to find a fifth newspaper in it. The paper contained yet another story about poor Robaire.

Does he have some sort of radar for single women?
And why would she attack accompanied women?

The bouncer of the club wouldn’t let me in, because I wasn’t a member, and even if I showed the club pin to him, he wasn’t convinced. Luckily, my good old friend Andrew Jackson was able to help me.

Bribing myself in

Dialogue with the faux Kenneth Miller was quite similar to an earlier dialogue with the inspector in a wheelchair - one false sentence and I was dead. After a couple of tries, he invited me to his home, Villa Moliére at Coconut Grove.

I got him eating right out of my hand...

...except I still had to get out of this situation

I couldn’t really let Doralice do anything with the man, since she was already filled by the two vials, hidden in a love egg (if you haven’t been paying attention to the plot, don’t ask). Doralice survived for a while by saying that he wanted to show something to the man. If I tried to give him the signet ring owned by Kenneth Miller, he instantly killed me. But I could also give him one of the spiked chocolates, which had an expected effect.

I bet you didn’t expect this when you saw the title of the post

Searching the guy quickly convinced Doralice that he wasn’t Kenneth Miller: a tattoo on his nether regions named him Archie, and he had a radio transmitter called “Eve”, which instantly connected him with the mysterious inspector. I also found on Archie’s hand a signet ring with a picture of a skull. Archie talked in his sleep and mentioned something about a secret passage, which I might find elsewhere in Miller’s house. I moved on to a fish-themed room, hoping to find that passage.

It really is fish-themed

The aquarium room was full of gadgets that the Miller family appeared to love. By clicking the parrot, it picked up a cigar, which I could take and put in the mouth of the pirate statue. On the floor below the swordfish I found a landing net. Turning on the light in the aquarium, I could take a closer look of it. It contained a shellfish, but I couldn’t directly take it

...because of biting piranhas!

Amusingly, my finger has now a bandage

On top of the aquarium was a jar containing fish food. Dropping some of that in the fish tank opened the shellfish, which revealed a pearl. I couldn’t take it directly, because of the piranhas, but I could use the net to retrieve the pearl. The pearl fit perfectly into the eye of the pirate statue, which then sent a laser beam towards a statuette on the right side of the screen.

This is getting high-tech

The statuette had now a panel I could interact with. The panel was shaped like a skull, and I had just found a ring shaped like a skull. Seconds later I had opened up a secret passage.

I’ve been here before! It’s Doc’s hideout

This is not nice

And where am I now?

When I woke up, I found myself face to face with the inspector in the wheelchair, who had apparently rescued me from Doc. The inspector asked if I knew about the stolen vials, and Doralice told him she had them with her (or IN her), but to get them out, she just had to freshen up in a bathroom first. Of course, this supposed inspector was all along in cahoots with the criminals, so giving the vials to him would have been a bad option leading to a game over. So, I just had to use the few minutes available to me in the bathroom and find something to help Doralice.

I feel like someone is watching me…

I found a bottle of shaving cream, which was of no use against the inspector. I also found an empty syringe, which I could fill with formalin from the tank with eyes. So, then I just sprayed inspector with my formalin syringe and it was all over, right?

Wrong

Back to the bathroom then. This time I managed to find a secret mechanism that opened up a hideout in the wall.

I think these days it’s perfectly acceptable to have a closet full of women’s underwear

Looking through the lingerie, I found an empty perfume spray, which I could fill with the formalin in the syringe. Now I had something, with which to fight the inspector!

 “Eyes: Formalin solutions splashed in the eyes can cause
transient discomfort to severe, permanent corneal
clouding and loss of vision. Exposure to vapors may
cause irritation. Symptoms of exposure may include:
eye irritation, burning sensation, pain,
watering and/or change of vision.”

When Doralice saw the inspector moving with his legs instead of the wheel chair, she instantly deduced that he was actually the notorious Doc Hillgate. With him out of the way, I could move to another room.

 A private museum?

The place was again full of things to look and to collect and to interact with:

• Another newspaper, which continued the story of the unwilling rapist, Robaire de la Cafetiere

This plot line has ceased to be amusing a long time ago

• Lot of paintings with names like “The sheperdess and seven hands”. Could they be jokes on some famous paintings?
• A microscope
• Organ that didn’t work
• Three cats with letters G, E and F on them

The first thing I noticed was that only one of the painting, Nudity’s Dream, had a close-up. Carefully checking the close-up, I found a button I could push on the upper left corner. The button opened a panel above the organ. Behind the panel, I found a wheel showing signs of zodiac. The game hinted that I should probably try to use someone’s birthday for the wheel. I also managed to turn the organ on. I now had the possibility to play something. This seemed like another obvious hint.

I was a bit stumped with this section for a while, until I started clicking things on things. I discovered two things I could do with the microscope. Firstly, by using signet ring of Kenneth Miller with it, I found out the date 28-11-68. As 28th of November is a time of Sagittarius, I tried that with the wheel.

Secondly, when I used the flashlight of inspector/Doc with the microscope, I found an interesting inscription: B A+ D G E. Now, I know next to nothing about the theory of music, but I did recognise these as notes - and the + with the A probably referred to a sharp note. After a quick googling, I found myself a simple piano key chart, pressed the code on the organ and…

...nothing happened.

Now, I could probably try all kinds of variations of BADGE, but I am dreading the thought I am about to face a puzzle similar to the jewel box in Maupiti Island. So, just to get this game quickly finished, this is an official request for assistance: what do I need to do with the Zodiac wheel and the organ? Even if no one hasn’t played the game, there must be some walkthrough out there in the internet, where you can check the correct solution. And remember, use ROT13, first light hints only and complete spoiler only as the final choice.

Session time: 3 hours
Total time:  9 hours