Hand of Fate - Circle in the Sand (or Volcanic Ash)

Written by Michael

That sandwich is well guarded.

So, after my last session, I took a break, had a sandwich (or two or three, it has been a few days since that last post) and I’m ready to hop back into the game.  When we last controlled the young mystic, I was wondering how to pay for my cruise trip and even how to spring my suitor stalker friend co-worker Marko from jail.

The first was surprisingly obvious to me on a good night’s sleep, and the second came just after!

First things first, I headed back into the meadow, and looked at the sheep when I walked by.  “What beautiful wool.”  Well, this seems like an opportunity, and using the scissors on the sheep shall shear something soft from the skin of the still subject.  I don’t know why I need the wool, I just do.  (Hey, it’s getting close to winter here, and I’m trying to stay warm!)

I’m coining my own money, and that’s the tooth truth.

I make my way back to the waterwheel, and crush the gold tooth in the mortar & pestle, and out comes a gold coin!  I repeat this two more times with the other teeth, and now I have a mint to pay for the voyage.  But I also notice another detail on the screen: the electric current that’s being generated by the waterwheel and not going anywhere, I wonder...

Well, the solution doesn’t really match science, but it’s inspired by the electromagnets we saw in elementary school.  In the game, I just used my magnet-shaped piece of metal (horseshoe) on the arcing power, and it magnetized it!

Of course, in true cartoon logic, it’s suddenly now red with a couple of white tips at the end.  Of course.

Just for fun, I try some other things, like crushing an unused horseshoe in the press (trying to make a coin less valuable than gold, of course) but no luck.  But now that I have no more shoes, I dip into the basement, and it seems a new one generated there (but not face up, so the game knows I don’t need any more lucky ones right now).

I could go and buy the ticket for the ship, but I decide to first go fishing.  I go back to the jail cell, and try using the magnet out the window, but no luck.  I go outside, and notice a gray discoloration in the water.  Using the magnet on that gets me a key.  Now, without even freeing Marko, I go to buy the ticket, since I’m already outside.

My money is good here, as the clerk doesn’t recognize the former molars.  I step back outside of the shipping office, and Zanthia decides it’s a good time to check in with Faun.

Of course not.

These brief cutscenes are cute, and I suppose just help to create a sense of urgency (more of Kyrandia is disappearing, hurry!) and even though I see right through them, I enjoy them.  This time: “The swamp looks like Swiss cheese, and I hear the Castle’s almost gone.  What’s taking you so long?”

So, I hurry -- and go to the boat without rescuing Marko.  I give my ticket, and go on my way.

But I soon feel some remorse for that, and restore my game.  I doubt it matters, but I’ll go and save the cad.

I take the key and start to unlock his cell, and of course, that’s the moment the sheriff walks in.  He throws me in the empty cell, and then hangs the key on the hook on the wall.

Again, obvious solution.  I use the magnet on the key.  But... the sheriff catches me AGAIN, and throws the key out the window.  And it gets caught by a fish that just HAPPENS to jump up at the right moment.  So, we need to go fishing.

After using the sewing kit I found in the bedside table, and throwing out the artichoke dip... oh, wait, wrong game.  No, I look around my cell, and there seems to be a loose thread on the bedding on the ground.  I unspin the thread, and it seems Marko conveniently has a hook, so I combine the two and go angling.

It does seem odd that this sheriff is bright enough to catch me using a magnet, but not to search his prisoners and lock up their loot across the room.  I don’t even see a space in the jail for a manilla envelope with a banana in it!

Fish caught, comically squeezed through iron bars, key extracted, and fish back in the water.  Job done.  I free myself and, I guess Marko as well.

“Am I helping so far?”  “As much as usual.”

He pledges to go find his hand and come back to help, but I’m not waiting around.  Instead, I’ll go hop on the boat.

On board, I try to interact with everyone and everything, but they are all too busy.  Eventually, we land on Mustard Island.

Practice safe lunch, always use condiments.

We watch as the  young shiphand quickly and nervously brings a barrel to the shore, and runs right back on the ship.  Not a good sign.  Wait, this isn’t where I wanted to go!  I asked for Volcania!  This is Mustard Island.

There’s a sign warning of cannibals, and a bunch of rotting skeletons, along with some rather large salt and pepper shakers.  And a Easter Island-esque statue that likes to lick its lips.  Still, I’ll proceed on, to see what’s going on.

Unsurprisingly, when I walk off the screen, I’m captured by some cannibals and they invite me to dinner.  As the stew.  So I need to try something different next time.

Restoring back, I check out the ship more carefully.  The ship is being steered by an automatic compass.  Well, what could change that?  Maybe that big magnet I’m carrying around?  But the captain see what I’m trying to do, and stops me.  I need to hide it.  The obvious spot doesn’t work, the chamber pot-looking thing near the captain.  Again, he spots it.  But the coil of rope on the other side of the steering wheel is a perfect choice.  Suddenly,the ship starts to veer off course.

At which point, they blame the passenger, and heave me overboard.

And I land upon the shores of Volcania.  After a couple more wardrobe changes, we’re free to explore.  Oh, and we seem to have lost all of our stuff in the ocean, except for the alchemist’s magnet.  Yet another cleaning of the inventory.

That means that I sheared the sheep for selfish satisfaction, and nothing else?  That must have been an alternate solution to a puzzle, I’m guessing.

So, there’s a starfish and a pair of seashells on the screen.  I grab them both, and then head west.  Another screen, and more stuff.  My stick, a starfish, and a rock.  I grab those.  And I continue around in a circle, grabbing more shells, fish, and sand dollars.

Eventually, I come upon a would-be ladies’ man in front of an elevator that presumably leads down to the center of the world, the altar in which I need to travel to get an anchor stone.  He offers me a brochure of guidance (in a fancy red leather folio) and wants just two starfish as payment for this.  I pay up, and then read the brochure: “Full guide services: Six starfish.”

Since I’m broke, I continue around the island beach, collecting more “currency” along the way.

I also look in my spell book, and see a spell that I may end up needing.  Flying Shoes, using hot air, feather of snipe, and red leather.  I have one of those already, and hot air escapes from many vents along the way.  So I need a flask to both capture some air and for the resulting outcome, and a feather.

English language lesson for me today:  I did not know that snipe was a term for a bird.  I was only familiar with the term in relation to a “snipe hunt”, which has absolutely nothing to do with birds.  Since I went to summer camp as a youth, I certainly partook in at least one such hunt, and then sent younger campers in later years.

A few screens further, and I come across the desk at the “Department of Anchor Guidance.”  There’s some lines painted on the floor, like an old-school hospital, directing people where to go, with one of the lines leading into lava, so I probably won’t be heading that way.  Behind the desk is a man that seems familiar, a reference to something I suspect, but I can’t place him (at first I was thinking of Edvard Munch, but that was completely wrong.  And no, not Detective Munch either, that’s also not right).  This very droll man wants four seashells for a “pamphlet describing The Altar at the Center of the World.”  I make the payment, and then he tells me to actually REGISTER for an Anchor Stone, it will cost four sand dollars.  Of course, he’s the gentleman at the green line, I need to see the registration clerk at the yellow line.  When I try to pay, he tells me that she’s on a break, and will be back in two minutes.  “It’s been three minutes.”  “She must be running late.”

The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only.

An older lady, carrying her purse and sporting a beehive hairdo, probably white hair but looks purple because of the atmosphere, strolls to the desk from the opposite direction.  I make my payment to her, and as I pay the final token, the other clerk goes off on his break.  She then tells me, “All that remains is for you to pay the four starfish for the required insurance.”

That, of course, goes to the other clerk, who will return from his break in three minutes.  Click again, and it’s two minutes.  And so on.

Finally, we get some useful information from him after this back and forth:  “For the actual trip down to the center of the world, most people just jump down one of the hot air vents.”

So much for him.  Let’s keep exploring.  A few more screens of walking and picking up the local currency, and we come across more enterprising vendors hawking their knowledge for the bounties of the sea.  This one gives me a promotional pen (a quill pen, no less) and I find one of my lost flasks on this screen as well.  So, I have the fixings for a spell, for the flying shoes.  I mix it up, and have it ready in the beaker for when I need it.  But for now, I’ll go collect more money for his booklet.

Walking along, I come across a young lady in green, named Jessica, who is an apprentice wizard from Miltonia.  She’s doing the same as me, but I keep running into her every now and then.  I suspect she shows up after you’ve traveled a certain number of screens here.  On one screen, she makes comments about the vents and rocks I’ve been noticing.  “The head mystic back home said I was supposed to do something with rocks and vents...”

Perhaps a hint for progressing?

On another screen, she asks me about my love life.  Zanthia has trouble categorizing her relationship with Marko, but I guess she’s taken at least a little bit of a liking to him.

I continue to collect shells and pay the various merchants, each asking for escalating amounts in exchange for seemingly more useful information that turns out to be mostly useless.  The droll man, when I exhaust all the purchases with him, he says “Have a nice day” and Zanthia loses her cool.  She suckerpunches him, and from that point on he remains behind the desk, feet in the air, knocked out cold.

I continue around the path, and I accidentally progress at one point.  While picking up a shell, I accidentally clicked on a larger air vent, and I hadn’t realized this was clickable before.  Maybe I tried it before the droll man told me about it, and the game didn’t let me progress until I learned that?

Regardless, I freefall into the caverns below, and feel the need to change my wardrobe again.  Also, I seem to have lost everything except the alchemist’s magnet again.

Wait.  All that trading of starfish? Was it for nothing? Or did I stumble on one alternate solution while completing another? And what happened to my fancy shoes?  Damn, a spell for nothing?  They’d help me get out of here, that’s for sure.  But I suppose there’s another way. 

On this screen, I can pick up a heavy rock, and I can place it in an air vent, just like Jessica hinted, so I’m thinking I need to plug up a bunch of vents to build up pressure somewhere else.  There’s one of my starfish here too, so I grab that.

Off to the left is a platform in a basin of lava, and a yellow & black dinosaur of some kind.  I try to get past it, push it out of the way, but no luck.  There’s another vent, and another rock.  When I put the two together, I can see the platform start to jiggle a little more, so I suspect that’s the way out when I finish my tasks here.  Oh, and there’s one of my flasks!

More exploring, and a screen with a big dinosaur under a ledge, a hunk of lead on the ground, and a palm tree that’s lined with some kind of a crystal fuzz, which I grab.

Fuzz is an ingredient for a spell, and I have a flask, so it looks like I’ll be making a teddy bear soon.  

If I enter this screen from a different angle, I’m end up at the ledge overlooking the dinosaur.  “I’ll bet I could jump on his back... but I wish I had something to use for bait.”  Like a teddy bear, maybe?

Remember: stalactites cling tight to the ceiling, and stalagmites “might” grow up to meet them.

Another ingredient is on the next screen, the two black pebbles I’ll be needing, likely for the eyes of the bear.  There’s another Jurrasic creature here as well.  Looking at him, the game hints that he is like a puppy.  Hmmm.

I had picked up my trusty stick down here again, so I threw it to the puppy, who enjoys playing fetch.  But he’s a big puppy, and his bouncing around causes a stalactite to fall into a water spray from the stone head, causing the pressure to double in the other one.

I jump into the extreme water flow, and am lifted up to meet the pebbles on the ceiling.  And just in case I wasn’t sure what to do, Zanthia comments, “These rocks should work for the Teddy Bear.”

Also on this screen was another lump of lead, but this one seems a little bit different, because it is shaped like a valentine... well, like a heart!  So, I use my trusty alchemist’s magnet, that seems to never fall out of my pocket, and much like Sonny Bonds talking to his prostitute high school sweetheart, I’m now blessed with a heart of gold!

I bring it back to the dino beneath the ledge, and using it in conjunction with the stick, I get him to follow it much like the fish with the worms on the boat earlier.  He takes me for a stroll around the caverns, including picking up a square from my red dress that tore on the way down.  I hadn’t noticed it, because I thought it was lava, it blended in the background too well.  So, after my theme park ride, I’m now blessed with a red cloth.  

Speaking of blessings, there’s a door to the altar I need to get past.  Each time I’ve visited the screen, the dino there has moved, so this time, I’m able to walk past him to the door, but alas, it is locked.  Zanthia hints about the horned beast, “I bet he could open that door...”

So, I try to use the cloth on him like a bull, to charge down the door.  But it turns out he wasn’t facing the door, so he charges in the direction he was already standing, and I end up flying into lava.

Let’s restore and try again.  I return to the screen, and return again, until he is facing the door.  Then I use the cloth again.

I get in, and Jessica rushes in behind me, pushes me to the side, and grabs an anchor stone from the pile before me.  Seems she was just waiting for me to succeed so she could save her kingdom with my sweat.

Just as we’re about to throw down, Marko appears in a portal, trying to get me to change my goal (“The real problem has nothing to do with these foolish anchor stones”) and come with him.  But then, suddenly, the giant hand grabs him back from the portal and it closes, right after he tells me we need to go to the Wheels of Fate.  

He drops a scroll (another page from my childhood spellbook), and Jessica is kind of impressed with our man. 

We reach out to Faun, who tells us that the Wheels of Fate are up in the clouds, past the Enchanted Forest.

“I’ll start heading that way, but you go look for more blueberries so you can open another portal.  I don’t want to have to walk the whole way.”

Well, we won’t have to.  Remember how I put rocks on those vents?  The platform is practically bubbling over now.  I step onto it, and...

...oh, no, Patti, your safety harness broke!

So after Zanthia changes to a Jill of the Jungle outfit, I’ll take a break and rejoin you again next time.

Progress so far.

Session Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Total Time: 4 hours, 15 minutes