Lost Secret of the Rainforest - Determined

Written by Reiko

Adam’s Journal #4: "I’m not going to be able to meet the shaman until I’ve helped everyone, am I? But the shaman is the only one who can help me. So I still have to get this poultice made for the poor baby, and then Sinchi wants a butterfly. I hope I can do everything. I’ve got to keep trying!"

I totally didn't notice this pool initially.

Last time, I had ended up quite stuck, but thanks to Leo Velles, I was able to get back on track. Apparently I had completely overlooked the existence of a pool inside the tree where I'd found the bark cup. I had no idea there was anything else useful in the tree, since I had acquired one object each time I had entered one of the three entrances. This pool contained sap, which I could use to fill the cup [5]. Then when I took the cup back over to the shaman's hut and placed it on the bench [1], Sinchi says he'll ask the shaman to make the poultice, since that's everything that's needed for it.

Picky, picky!

I briefly wonder if I've missed something else, as I now have one fewer item, but nothing else seems to have changed. Apparently I just have to leave the screen and come back, though, and then the poultice is available. I take it from the bench [5] and rush it back over to Musqui and her baby [5]. She is very grateful and gives me a nice clay cup in return. Now I can get the drink from the old women's pot. I can't just take it directly, though. I have to hand the cup to Alichina for her to fill it for me [5].

The butterfly is happy to stay on the cup while I carry it around from screen to screen.

The bugs love the sweet drink, so I go back over to the first screen and try using the filled cup on the butterfly [5]. Adam places the cup in a flat area and waits for the butterfly to perch on it. When it does, I can grab the whole thing [5] and somehow now I have a cup with a butterfly perched on it in my inventory. Finally I can take the butterfly all the way back over to Sinchi [10], where he smiles, pleased, and says, "Fly free, my friend. I wished only to look on your beauty for a moment." Then he invites me inside the hut to meet the shaman.

Surprise! (I'm not surprised.)

This sounds complicated.

Inside the hut, I find... Sinchi! Now he's adorned with a feathery headdress and facepaint (when did he have time to paint himself in the thirty seconds before I walked in?). So he was the shaman all along, which is what I suspected. He thanks me for my help, but wishes there were a seedling of the great tree. In order to help further, Adam must become part of the tribe, which seems like it will involve a great deal of paint and ritual.

The shaman tries to move his spider...

...but the spider doesn't want to move.

I look around the hut a little and then sit down by the paint pot. Suddenly, a downpour begins outside. I'm very glad to be inside now! Unfortunately, there's still a leak in the roof, which starts dripping onto the shaman's pet spider, Quiri. It scuttles over and settles down right on the paint pot. So I'm going to have to get it to move before I can continue with the paint ritual.

Adam is pretty good at climbing.

If I can do something about the leak, the spider should go back to munching on its fruit instead of getting in the way. I try a couple of things before discovering that the sticky leaf will block the leak. Adam climbs the center pole of the hut, applies the leaf [5], and slides back down like on a fireman's pole.

Now I can sit down again and the spider doesn't move. I talk to the shaman to find out what I should be doing, and he says it's time to mix the paint. Now I can use the berries I've been carrying around for a while and put them in the paint pot [5].

Eight paint patterns are available.

The view shifts to a picture of Adam's face, along with several different paint patterns. The shaman tells me, "You must be like the Happy Otters!" This part is more or less trial and error as far as I can tell, but there aren't that many patterns, so for this one, I had to drag a sort of mask pattern over Adam's eyes [10]. This makes Adam part of the tribe, so now they will help Adam with the original problem of finding a daughter-seed from the Forest Heart.

We reconvene inside the hollow of Forest Heart herself. There the shaman begins a ceremony of remembering, to find out where Forest Heart came from. The shaman looks at me expectantly, and for a minute I don't know what he wants, but eventually I figure out he wants the branch that Forest Heart gave me before [5]. He starts waving it around, instructing everyone to "Dream with me."

Each person thinks about his own ancestors.

The image of Cibola.

Everyone gathered remembers their ancestors, who lived in another place a long time ago and were driven into the forest by the encroachment of other peoples, taking Forest Heart with them as a seedling. Where they lived before was Cibola, the City of Gold, and we get an image of it.

Another sign that Forest Heart is dying.

Adam asks how he's supposed to find it, and Forest Heart herself responds by growing blossoms that drift through the air. One lands on the path for Adam to take with him [5]. The shaman says this is a great gift, that the petals hold the magic of Forest Heart, but legend says that she only blooms when her end is near. Forest Heart whispers, "Remember me..." (This line is also voiced.)

Paquita is a cute and very determined bat.

Suddenly, we get a brief view of a man with a match and then an external glimpse of the forest in flames. Then all is confusion and darkness, people shouting "Run to the river!" Adam gets quite lost in the middle of this. The next view is a closeup of Adam with a bat caught in a trap, a bat that talks to him, asking him to free her. If I touch her, she gets upset (don't touch wild animals, duh), but hints that "the boy I can trust carries a token." So she, too, knows about Adam and Forest Heart's amulet. She, along with many other bats, lived within Forest Heart's branches, but now she has no home. I show her the amulet [5], and she relaxes. Her name is Paquita, and she wants to come with him and help him find the seedling. She's probably one of the bats from the intro scene.

That's never a good sign...

However, when I reach out to free her from the net [5], a hand grabs Adam from behind! He's taken to a room and tied to a chair. Finally we see that it's the sleazy surveyor and his goon that have captured Adam. They start interrogating Adam, asking him about gold. Maybe they heard some of the conversation about the City of Gold, but it doesn't mean there's any actual gold. Adam has nothing to tell him, so he decides to leave Adam tied up there for the day. He storms out, saying he'll be back that night.

Nice try, Adam.

Meanwhile, Adam first tries bribing the goon to let him go, but that doesn't work. He can't really be specific about an amount when it's his dad's money at stake, and anyway it's hard for an honest man to be able to offer more than a lackey will believe their leader's get-rich-quick scheme will give them. Then the goon goes over to a cage in the corner, where they've also captured Paquita, and starts salivating. Instead of watching Adam like he's supposed to, he announces he's going to go sharpen his knives so he can make Bat Stir-fry. As soon as he's gone, Paquita begs Adam to save her again.

Paquita is already proving to be very helpful.

I look around and see nothing useful in the room, but Adam seems to be able to turn the chair around pretty well. The cage is just jammed shut with a carrot, of all things, so when I select it, Adam scoots his chair over and nibbles the carrot away until the cage door falls open [5]. Paquita happily flies out and then comes over and nibbles apart the ropes binding Adam. We're both free! But we have nothing in inventory now, so we've got to find our stuff on the way out of here too. I hope those goon's knives started out very dull.

Next time we'll find out how Adam is going to get out of here and get to Cibola.

Score: 438/1000
Scanned items: 42/82
Inventory: None (Before capture: passport, Ecorder, Forest Heart amulet, carved necklace, golden blossom)

Session Time: 2 hour 30 min
Total Time: 8 hours

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