Myst – Our Ancestors

Written by Vetinari

In this installment of the Adventurers' Guild Myst playthrough, we will be visiting our third age, the Stoneship age.

Nice flyover of the island as usual.

We find ourselves at the aft of the sailing ship, which is correlated with the location of the book on Myst island. Strangely enough, however, the room where the book was is now completely submerged by seawater.

So first the ship was all submerged, then not submerged, and now it's half-submerged?

In our immediate surroundings there is a lighthouse, a doorway which leads deep into the rocky island, and something which looks remarkably like a garden table under a parasol.

I guess it could be a nice place for a tea break.

When I approach it however, I see that it is instead a panel with three buttons. When I press one of those, it lights up and there is a rumbling noise.

Maybe this is just a theater lighting stage?

I decide to keep all the switches off for now and continue exploring this island.

Next up is the lighthouse.

Going inside the lighthouse, I notice that also here the bottom levels are submerged by seawater. Moreover, the trapdoor to the upper floor is locked, and a conspicuous key is chained to the wooden floor with a chain that is much too short to reach.

This is just mean.

Proceeding towards the fore part of the ship which is jutting out from the rocks, there is another doorway going into the island but nothing more of interest. If I try to enter one of these two doorways, the inside is much too dark to make something out.

But all those cables going into the rock give me the idea that there should be a generator somewhere.

Proceeding forward towards the top of the rocky island along the wooden gangway, I find a telescope, similar to the one that I have already seen in the Mechanical age treasure room.

A classic of the pirate swashbuckling genre.

This one however can be turned and pointed at various features of the island, each one characterized by a certain number of degrees.

Haven't we just had something similar in Sam & Max?

There is nothing more to be seen, so let's start checking what the buttons under the parasol do. When I push the first one of those, I quickly find out that the water inside the lighthouse has been drained.

What exciting surprises will be waiting for us down there?

If I follow the stairs down to the bottom, I find a chest which I cannot open, but which has a lever on one side that apparently opens a small drainage hole that lets out all of the water which was inside the chest.

Why would a chest have a contraption like that?

Hitting on the idea that a chest full of air should float on the water, I close the drainage hole again and go back to the parasol switches in order to put the water back again into the lighthouse. It works like a charm and the chest is now floating on top of the water, in reach of the key.

I unlock the chest with the key and open it. What wondrous treasure will there be inside this hidden treasure chest? Gems, coins, pieces o' eight?

First the matches, and now this.

As is typical for this game, the only things that are kept under lock are really disappointing common tools. In this case however, if the chest was full to the brim with hard metal it would not float as easily as it did, so good job on the realism.

Anyway, that key needs obviously to be used for the upper floor trapdoor of the lighthouse, so I unlock it and climb the ladder. On the top floor I find something interesting.

Apart from the view.

As expected, there is a generator, but instead of just having to press a button to activate it, this is actually a hand crank generator, so you have to rotate the crank again and again until the battery on the right side is full.

Still not enough.

The battery also slowly drains, so there is the problem that you must be quick to explore, or you will have to get back here to regenerate the battery power by turning the crank all over again.

Checking my hypothesis that the generator would be used to give light to the doorways inside the rock, I go there to have a look.

Okay, that was to be expected.

I try the other buttons under the parasol, and when the middle one is activated the water drains from the interior of the rock tunnels. So I quickly descend the first one and at the bottom I find a stone door.

Hopefully water-proofed.

Inside there is another one of Achenar's rooms, full of disquieting trophies, the most awful of which is a skeleton chest used as a lamp.

There's bad taste, and there's BAD taste.

There is also a blue page on the bed, and a chest drawer full of maps, on top of which sits a strange ornament which is a holographic representation of a rose which then turns into a skull.

I mean, what a skull is making you think of?

Inside one of the drawers I find an interesting looking letter, or at least part of a letter.

The most interesting word here is "vault".

I expect I will find the other part of this letter shortly, probably in the other tunnel which will obviously lead to Sirrus' room. I get back up, but in the middle of the staircase I find that there is a secret panel which I didn't notice and that leads to a central room in the middle of this rock.

This one actually blended really smoothly with the rocky walls.

In the circular room at the center, I find a compass rose, which is completely surrounded by buttons. The room has also another exit, which leads to what I can only surmise being the passage from the other doorway.

The nautical theme is strong in this age.

Unfortunately, as soon as I try to do anything, the light goes off. I stumble through dark screens to get back to the surface and check the generator.

Bloody hell.

After refilling the battery by turning again the hand crank generator, I proceed with my exploration of the other passage. Another door is at the end, and, as expected, Sirrus' room is there, awash with treasures and luxurious items.

I really hope that the door was water-proofed.

A chest of drawers is here, full of coins, jewelry, silverware, fine china, silk rolls, fine textiles.

And a red page.

There is also a desk whose drawer contains something really interesting (even if totally useless).

Is Sirrus a junkie?

Completing the decoration of the room there are various other ornaments, which when clicked provide some cool animations, but nothing decisive. There is also no second half of the torn letter, so apparently that is not needed for this part of the game.

Since I have still to get into the aft part of the ship, I try the last button under the parasol which in fact drains the seawater from the ship hold. I enter the door to the ship, but find that it is completely dark and so I cannot do anything there.

These windows must be really thick to be able to withstand the water pressure.

Having exhausted all the areas to be explored, the only mechanism left seems to be the compass rose in the secret room. It is surrounded by buttons, but which one to press? Since there is a telescope with a clear indication of degrees, I probably should check that first for some conspicuous sign of what is the correct heading.

 Is this conspicuous enough?

So it would seem that 135° is the correct heading. There is only one problem.

The buttons on the compass rose do not follow the same 5° spacing as the telescope.

In fact, there are only 32 buttons, so they are not spaced 5° or even 10° from each other. They are spaced 11.25° apart.

Fortunately, 135 divided by 11.25 is an integer, so the 12th button starting from the top should be the correct one. (Actually the 13th, because the first one at the top is the 0° heading).

When I press the correct button, a light comes up in the chamber, and a music filled with anticipation starts.

I try to go to the ship hull, and it is indeed now illuminated.

Reminds me a little bit of Twenty thousand leagues under the seas.

After going down some more stairs, I come to an empty onyx table where, if I click on it, the Myst linking book appears.

I don't know why they didn't just had it set down on the table.

I can then get back to Myst with the red and blue pages (making two trips, as always).

The two nincompoops continue asking for more pages, but this time between one discharge of static and the other they also manage to give me some additional information on the plot.

Apparently each one of them blame the other for what has happened to the library books and Atrus. Both of them say that they are innocent and that the other one is guilty, and that they have been wrongfully imprisoned inside their book.

Sirrus says that Achenar has destroyed all the other ages of Myst in his thirst of destruction, while he tried to warn his father about him. He also says that I will be "greatly rewarded" if I free him, another clue that he is only interested in material wealth.

From his side, Achenar says that Sirrus' greed is endless and that he tricked and murdered their father Atrus. His "unbridled lust for riches" apparently lead Sirrus to deliver a deadly blow to Atrus, while he was just an innocent bystander.

What I think is that each one of them is accusing the other of things that they themselves have done. I am more and more convinced that bringing them the final page to release them from their respective books will be a very bad idea.

Session Time: 1 hour 00 minutes
Total Time: 8 hours 40 minutes