Hand of Fate - In Your Head, They are Fighting

Written by Michael

We could call in Rosella, and the dwarves could give her gemstones as payment for cleaning.  Or, we could just play the first game in this series, and get as many gemstones as we want.

Last time, I had just gotten inside the city gates.  Now, it’s time to explore.

We start off in a bit of a courtyard.  There’s a house of sorts that’s built into a tree, in a way, and a fountain with a seahorse for spraying water.  It’s not spraying water, though, because it turns out there’s a stick stuck in the snout.  After removing that, I head into the building.

Do people under the age of 40 even know what “COD” even means anymore?  And no, I don’t mean a computer game.

Inside the building, it turns out it’s the mustard store that takes all the production from the farmer.  On the back wall is a map that apparently shows the shipping route from Highmoon to and from Mustard Island, and there’s apparently an active volcano on there as well.  Looking at it, Zanthis simply wonders, “What’s wrong with your map?”

The question, however, falls on deaf ears, because it seems that the man behind the counter is a Zombie.  I suspect this might become a puzzle, waking him from the trance, but for now, I have no proof of that.

Looking around the room, we learn a little about the business, such as how orders to Herb the Toad must be paid COD, but not much else of use in here right now.  Except for maybe the back door, leading us away.

We find ourselves in an alleyway, there’s a hanging sign near the door we are exiting, proclaiming this to be “The Merry Mercier Mustard Company”.  Zanthia muses how she needs to find a ship, but clicking on the ones you see in the background of this screen reveals they are just sticks, stuck in the mud.

A stone’s throw away is another establishment, labeled with a statue of a dragon holding a tankard, which Zanthia assumes is called “The Drunk Dragon”.  The door is locked. 

“What kind of idiot would keep a tavern’s doors locked?”  Adventure game designers, Zanthia.

To the left of the door are some loudspeakers.  Pressing one of them causes it to light up in a color and emit a tone.

Wow, Ralph Baer was the co-designer?  That’s an impressive name to have on the box.

I wonder... did the designers of this game play a lot of Simon as kids?

It should be no surprise to you, gentle readers, that I was able to use the same Konami Code from the Kyrandian fireflies once again, to get me access to this exclusive club.

“Here we go.  There’s probably a cover charge, too.”

The model for which all future pirate bars will be judged.

Seriously, pirates at tables with empty mugs laying around?  The game designers must have been checking out another game.

Inside we find the patrons of the bar checking out the stage with rapt attention, waiting for a performance.  There’s a couple of pirate-looking guys, including a dead ringer for Fester Shinetop, and a parrot.  Oh, and our friend, the ghost-infused scarecrow.  There’s an empty table with a beer mug, and another pirate on the stage.

Talking with the parrot, we learn that it’s Pirate Poetry Night, and nobody is permitted to leave without reciting a poem.

“There was a young man from Nantucket...”

But first, we have to endure the performance from the man already on stage.

Control of the game is given back to us, so I talk to the patrons.  (“So, where’s Farmer Greenberry?” “I lost him out in the wheat fields.”)  Thinking back to the map I saw in the mustard shoppe, I asked a pirate about getting to Volcania, and he says that no one goes there because it’s too dangerous.

Of course it is.  Pirates in bars are always scared wimps.

The dartboard is plastered with a picture of his royal majesty, Brandon.  Still, not much else to do in here, I don’t think, so maybe it’s time to become a wordsmith.

I’m a poet and didn’t even know it!

I go on stage and perform. With not too much fanfare.  But now I can exit, and I do.

When I step back into the fresh air, I find that an octopus is making use of at least one of his extra hands by playing a shell game.  Zanthia asks him if he knows anything about trances, so that definitely means that waking up zombie Colonel Mustard is a task to perform.

He says that someone in a trance is his favorite type of customer (“Gamblers who disregard actual statistics”), which already tells me how dishonest he’s going to be.  I can’t win with him.  So I go back into the bar, where I find a brawl underway.

He didn’t follow this sage advice?

I try to click on the brawlers, and they aren’t keen on me interrupting.  But, sometimes, the man on the left gets his gold tooth knocked out.  I try to grab it, but when I do, he spots me and says it’s his, and grabs it right back up.  I’ll need to try something else.

There’s a barrel in the foreground I hadn’t clicked on before, so I do this time, and find some taffy.  The next bit was an accident, but useful: I tried to click it on the barroom brawler, thinking maybe his tooth would get stuck in it or something, and I accidentally clicked on myself instead.  So I ate it, which confirmed that the taffy was ultra sticky.  (I wonder if it tastes as good as the stuff on the Jersey Shore?  Time for a road trip...)  Luckily,  as I expect in this game, the barrel seems bottomless and I was able to grab another, which didn’t work with the pirate, so I’ll save it for something else.

I can’t figure this one out yet, so I’ll come back to it.

Back outside with the 8-legged huckster, I try some of my inventory, wondering if something will get me around his need for gold, although I know darn well the gold tooth is going to be what I need.  I try clicking the alchemist’s magnet on a horseshoe to turn it to gold, and the game does nothing.  But I still try to click the horseshoe on the pit boss anyways, and he says, “If you think it will help, you can put your little lucky charm anywhere you want.” but he only plays for gold.  This will become helpful later.

(I suppose that the horseshoe isn’t made of lead, since that would weigh a horse down, but still, I’m surprised the game didn’t react to me trying it.  You’d think they would anticipate that.)

Still, I don’t have the tooth yet.  So I’ll come back to this.  Let me explore the town some more.  East of the mustard shoppe is a street that passes by the jail.  The sheriff is blocking the front door, and he also seems to be a zombie.  On the way there, I pass a few discarded items: an orange peel, an empty flask, and a sheet of parchment.  All which looks familiar to Zanthia as being her own.  More items from the 459 at the laboratory.

The parchment contains two spells that were previously torn from my spellbook, a Teddy Bear potion and a Trance potion.  I wonder, did someone use the trance potion on these people?  Is there a way to do it in reverse?

As I leave the screen, though, the game perhaps foreshadows something?  Just after I leave, the giant Hand walks over to where I picked up the discarded leftovers.  Perhaps he was the one who stole the items in the first place?  It seems that’s what the game is hinting at.  It would explain why Marko found some of my things in his room, and why he was near this used sheet from the trance potion... but what would be the motive?

I know I’ve seen a boat powered this way in another game, but I can’t remember where.  It seems so obvious.

I walk along the plank road out to the wharf.  There’a a boat there that is powered in a rather ingenious way. Zanthia muses out loud a plan for when she gets on the boat; I don’t know if we’ll need to do that, or if it’s just a red herring.  The boat captain blocks the way, and “he seems to be in some kind of trance.”

Well, my thought about the spells... maybe it applies to teeth also?  I had a moment of inspiration.  If the magnet turns lead to gold, does it do the reverse also?  Yes, indeed.  When the tooth is on the floor, I click the magnet on it, and it’s now a lead tooth.  He doesn’t notice or care about me taking a gray, lead thing off the ground, so I do so, and then use the magnet to change it back in my inventory as soon as I step outside to the croupier.

I drop the facing-up horseshoe on the ground so it can catch all my good luck, and bet a gold tooth.  He shuffles the shells, and asks me to choose, and under the middle, I find the pea.  I’m not sure he expected that.  “You lucky scumbag!  Here’s your stinkin’ money!”

Now I have two gold teeth.  Let’s try to make it three.  I wager again.  And I won again.  “Just take your cash and go!  I’ll go broke with you around!”

He won’t let me gamble any more, so I’ll just have to settle for my three gold teeth.

Some more exploring brings me to the northeast of the jail, to a gorge.

Let’s see, where am I?  I need to figure out a way to undo the trance on these people.  Another look in the spellbook, and there’s one recipe that I might be able to make.  But I’m not sure I’m making the connection.  

To me, a skeptic is a non-believer.  So I suppose this makes sense if someone in a trance is someone who has been brainwashed to believe that they are a zombie?  Maybe?  This feels like a stretch.  Did I miss a clue somewhere? 

Still, I have a lucky horseshoe (in fact, maybe two of them), and I can easily get lizard tears, so it’s just the other two ingredients.  One of them may be right here on this screen.

There’s a big giant rabbit statue here, with his foot raised in the air.  If I press the soft and stretchy taffy to it, it makes a mold of his foot.  Okay, that’s another ingredient.

Lizard tears?  I go back to the pet dragon (the puppy), give him back his bowl, and then take it away again.  Waaaahhh!  Waaahhh!  Three ingredients down.

Sweet and sour sauce?  This took some thinking, but looking at the screenshots, I remember Zanthia commenting on the root beer when I had her drink it, saying that it was very sweet.  Well, mixing that in the bowl with something sour, like the bottle of vinegar I still have, does the trick.  I have the ingredients, but now I have to find an “Altar of Doubt” to make it.  Turns out, that’s really close, but I died along the way there.

“You know, for kids.”

Further up the gorge is a set of trees, with a rope hanging in between.  Obvious thing to do is to swing over the gap, right?

Famous last words.

When I try it, Zanthia says, “I don’t think I can reach the rope... it could be dangerous.”  So I save the game and click again.  She takes a running start, jumps, grabs the rope, and swings.  But the rope breaks as a result, and she catches the edge of the cliff on the other side.  Hey, I made it!..... No, she loses her grip and falls into the ravine.

It turns out the safer approach is to poke the rope with the stick I had, gently grabbing it, and then swinging over.  Then it doesn’t break.  Sadly, no John Williams music plays in the background as I did this.

At the altar, even if the bottom of the screen didn’t tell me where I was, there were some subtle hints.  Like the giant question mark at the top, or Zanthia musing out loud things like, “I wonder if this is the right place?” or “I’m not sure this is the altar I’m looking for.”  If she looks at it, she might remark, “What an incredible structure!  Is this the Arc d’Gullibilitie?”

I mix the potion on this screen, and remove two portions to the empty flasks I have.  I then go over the the jail, the closest location, and try the potion on him, but to no effect.  “That didn’t snap him out of it.”

What did I do wrong?

Well, I need to activate the potion on the altar.  So, restoring back (just in case I need all 4 servings), this time, I fill the flasks and place them on the altar, one at a time.  The altar comes to life with a light show, the potion changes color briefly, and, “Now it’s a complete Skeptic Potion.”  

Back to the giant fish, I unfreeze the jailer, and when I try to talk to him, now he responds, “I’m too busy to chat, missy.”  That’s an improvement, I suppose.  But he also moves out of the way of the door, so I can go inside.

Inside the jail is our good friend Marko, who seems to have been knocked out from behind and woke up in the jail.  Our incompetent wanna-be savior asks us to “Get a magnet and look around in the water for the key.  The sheriff likes to throw keys into the water.”

Well, I suppose I’ll need to save him again, because that seems to be my side job.  But first, let’s look around the room.  There’s a poster announcing the annual Miss Kyrandia Beauty Pageant., and a giant sea shell on the floor that when I click on it, Zanthia says she can hear the ocean.  Nothing else here, I’m afraid.

Back to my original task.  Let us undo the trance on the rest of the victims.  Over to the wharf, and I awake the captain, who first tells me he doesn’t go to Volcania, but when I push him, he says to go get a voucher and they can go.

I activate the final two servings of the potion, and head over to the mustard shop, which actually was the shipping and boat’s office instead, it seems.  When I wake up the clerk, he continues his conversation from before he was knocked out, realizes the audience is gone, and is then receptive to talking to us.

The price for an ocean cruise, apparently, is three gold coins.  I have three gold teeth, but sadly, “I cannot accept used dental equipment.”

So, I will pause here, and figure out my next steps.  What do I need to do in the next session?

• Convert or mold gold teeth into coins so I can buy a ticket for the ship
• Find a magnet so I can fish the jailer’s keys from the sea

Session Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 3 hours