Missed Classic: The Hound of Shadow – Appointment with Death

Written by Vetinari

Last time we were asked by Father Paul Mason to find out the nature of the beast that killed Matthew Talbot. A good place to search for that would be the Reading Room at the British Museum, but obviously without knowing the name of a book to retrieve, the library is almost useless. I do not know of any other source of knowledge (except for Marcus, who is characteristically close-mouthed about any topic of which I ask), so I am a little bit lost here.

The list of verbs does not give any particular hint (I already tried searching almost everywhere I thought there could possibly be something hidden), so I resort to checking back my screenshots and notes. And I find out that when Marcus gave me the Gascoigne Journal to read, he took it back but said that I could read it as long as it would not leave the shop.

Marcus drops a hint.

So I immediately ask him to show me the Gascoigne Journal, and he reluctantly does so. Apparently, Gascoigne talks about the Plateau of Leng and some of the terrible creatures that reside there, saying that Von Juntz's book has more details. But... I already read Von Juntz's book...

Anyway, I go back to the Reading Room and request “Nameless Cults” again. There I finally find a mention of the Plateau of Leng and of the Hound itself.

blahblahblah nonsense blather Hound gibberish hogwash gobbledygook.

I share this new swath of information with John, who tries to summarize the situation and then asks me to formulate a plan with the data at our disposal.

John gives his own take on this whole mess.

First I say that we must kill Magda Bathory, and he replies that this would be extremely difficult, and even that would not stop the Hound. I then suggest to kill the Hound itself. And this is what John has to say about it.

I don't think we are talking about the same thing, here.

I reload to just before this discussion, and instead of telling him to “kill the hound”, I talk to him about Worlsman instead. Lo and behold, the same response as before comes up.

In any case, the course of action seems clear. We must create an homunculus ourselves in order to protect the prey of the hound (that is, me) from its fury. John agrees, and since this is as good a plan as any, I decide to contact Father Paul by letter to see what he thinks about it.

Remembering the times when we still wrote letters qualifies you as old, but so does playing computer games from three decades ago.

And then I just... wait? I would expect the reply from Father Paul to get here on the next day, but nothing arrives. I try various escapades, none the least going back to Blythburgh via Gate and exploring to see if anything has changed, but there is nothing interesting there, too.

Apart from this marvelous sight of Blythburgh station.

It is only on the next day that the reply from Father Paul is delivered.

This is not what I expected.

John calls bullshit, and I for once agree with him. We are going to Blythburgh and we are going to “persuade” Father Paul to help us.

No, no, I really mean persuade. With my Persuasion skill. Look, even John says it.

But we are going there by train, even just for the fact that I never used the Liverpool Street railway station. It takes longer than I expected. We have to go to the underground station, buy a ticket, board the tube, exit at Liverpool Street, buy a train ticket, go to the platform, wait for 15.20 which is the time when the train for East Anglia departs, board the train, wait, and then wait, and then wait again until we are at Blythburgh.

Once there, I find that no-one is at the church, and so I decide to ask around for Father Paul's whereabouts. The first stop is at the local pub (which doubles as an inn).

Fancy.

There they say that if I want to know where Father Paul lives I should ask at the Post Office. Since I am here, I might as well get a room for the night, which the landlord helpfully provides.

At the Post Office, the postmistress is reluctant to share information about Father Paul, but (finally!) I manage to persuade her that I have good reasons to search for him. She gives me directions to the priest's cottage. So I go there and knock on the door.

Is this game finally acknowledging my character's skills?

I manage to persuade the Father to help me without any effort, and he gives me a text from when he was a missionary in Haiti, which details how to create an homunculus.

Will this be the first real combinatory puzzle in the game?

Father Paul tells me to come back to him when I have prepared my homunculus, so I scour the village in search of the right ingredients.

While I was there, I already saw that there is a mercury barometer outside my room at the inn, so that is as good a start as any. Inside the room I see a jug full of water, and when I take it the game lets me know that it is not a suitable recipient to mix the ingredients. I would need a pot of some kind for that purpose.

I then strike on the idea to ask the pub owner for some salt, and after trying to “ask for salt”, “ask about salt”, “order salt”, “request salt” (these last two after checking the list of available commands, which is proving less useful with each passing day), I stumble on the fact that just typing “get salt” is enough to obtain it. I try to do the same with the other ingredients, with mixed results.

Apparently they do not use pots in this pub.

I am still missing a pot, some clay, nails, blood and hair. Thinking that probably I can find some clay outside, I try going to the village green. Even if nothing suggests that there is clay nearby, just typing “get clay” proceeds to take some soil of the right consistency from the ground.

I am not very happy with how this puzzle is unfolding. The descriptions of the various locations do not give any indication of what could or could not be present there, so I resort to try to “get” the various ingredients (and a pot) in all places.

Nails, hair and blood I can just get from everywhere, since I cut my nails and my hair with some nail scissors (which apparently I have at my disposal even if they are not present in the inventory), and the blood can be taken from the wounds on my arms. The pot is a little more complicated. I finally try to “get pot” in my room, and this happens.

Really?

At last I should have all of the ingredients. I double check my possessions to be sure.

Now it finally begins to resemble the inventory of an adventure game protagonist.

After trying in vain to “put mercury into pot”, “put sulphur into pot”, and so on, I try simply to “create homunculus”, and it works!

Probably it is not this Homunculus.

I go back to Father Paul and show him my creation, and he says that even if the homunculus is made as an image of my own soul, it is weaker than that, and so I need to use some techniques to calm my soul in order to shield it from detection.

Father Paul then says that we must make the last stand against the Hound in the village church, and so there we go, together with John.

The final level.

When we get there, we see that an unnatural storm has been building. There are bolts of lightning overhead and the thunder is deafening. Then, in the distance, we can hear the Hound approaching. I do nothing, wait for the Hound to get inside, and then...

Crap.

That didn't go very well. But I know what went wrong. I saw the verbs “relax” and “meditate” in the available commands list, so now I understand what I have to do. I will just load the last savefile again and...

The game won't let me do it.

I go back to the main menu and check again the character file that I am using.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Sorry, I think I might have to go lay down for a while.

Session Time: 2 hours 45 minutes
Total Time: 9 hours 45 minutes

> What Do I Know

Harry Pelham and Vivienne Powers were frauds, Matthew Talbot was told he bore the Hound of Shadow's mark, seemingly as the result of genuine possession, your friend recognised the voice used as that of Magda Bathory, immortal descendant of the infamous Blood Countess, in 1577 a black dog attacked churches at Bungay and Blythburgh in Suffolk, Matthew Talbot was horribly killed simply to show your friend what was in store for them, having unwittingly interfered with Magda's plans you are to provide another demonstration of the Hound's power, the Hound is an unstoppable destructive force, but might be decoyed by an homunculus with the same aura as the victim, this can be made by mixing hair, nails, blood, clay, salt, water, sulphur and mercury and forming a crude figure and you must do nothing once you have prepared for its arrival and ensured that your aura is dimmer than that of the homunculus.