Gabriel Knight - Dancing with Man's Best Friend

Written by Michael

Can we talk about this game for a while?

It’s time for me to go back down to New Orleans again, and continue where I left off on Day 3.  Last time around, I learned a few new things, such as many details about African Voodoun practices and the fact that anyone who owns a snake is instantly a suspect in the Voodoo Murders.

Well, somehow I took this screenshot and it didn’t register in my brain.

At the end of my last post, I had noticed that I had found a page from the phone book in my inventory, and I didn’t remember it being given to me.  But, looking at my screenshots from the prior post, it was indeed handed to me by Grace.  So, one little mystery solved on the way to solving the big ones.  So I’m heading back to the bookstore for many reasons, such as calling Wolfgang and calling Madame Cazaunoux.

Back at the bookstore, I engage in my usual routines.  I interrogate Grace, asking her if I have any new messages (none, I’m sad to report) and to ask her about any new items in the conversation tree.  One of the topics is Black Voodoo, which we learned about from the lecture last time.  As usual, Grace is off put by the subject.

Why, exactly, did I hire her as a research assistant for a book on Voodoo if she’s so squeamish?  Was her whole job interview premised on her being in her 20s and attractive?  Did I miss something here?

After a little resistance, she offers something possibly useful but more “fortune cookie”: “I know there are ‘dark’ forms of any major religion.  Where there’s a yin, there’s a yang.”

Gabriel, noticing his attractive Asian employee: “Speaking of yin and yang...”

In the immortal words of Miss Cleo, “Call me now!”

I slip into my bedroom, and pick up the phone. First thing I notice, in an annoying bit of realism for the 90s, was that it behaved like any other cordless phone.  After picking it up, dialing numbers had no effect, unless you pressed the button to turn it on.  Sheesh.

I dial the number for Wolfgang, and after he’s on the phone, he tells me that he’s been having visions of me, feelings, sensations... Oh, if only this were a lady.  But I digress (on behalf of Gabriel).  

So far, this game seems to be cribbing from a Heart song.

It seems that Grandma’s guess was correct; Heinz was the brother to our grandfather after all.  He tells me I should come straight away to him in Schloss Ritter, West Germany.  Our family home.  Obviously, I’m a little skeptical.  First, who the **** are you?  And second, I haven’t paid my employee in weeks, where am I getting airfare from?

He says if we’re not going to come out to Germany, at least read the journal he’s about to have FedExed to us.  It’s from one of our ancestors.  Read it, Gabriel, and then come out here.

See, now, let me pause and talk about my first gameplay post.  Remember how I read the graphic novel that came with the game, and in the comments, Alex Romanov thought that I had made a mistake?  Well, I’m not sure it’s a mistake, but I’ve been making a lot of predictions in my head so far.  They basically go like this:  I’m a descendant of Mr. Ritter from the novel, which means that all those dreams I’m seeing are premonitions because I’m a “witch hunter” also.  And later in this post, I’m going to do something else he did in the graphic novel as well.  Perhaps Alex is right, and it will ruin a reveal, but I am still enjoying the story so far.

Back to the game, I hang up on my rather expensive international call.  Let’s keep using the phone, shall we?

Behavior like this is why we don’t have public phone books anymore.  Well, that and Google, I suppose.

Looking at the page from the phone book, I notice four listings with the apparently very common last name of Cazaunoux.  I call each of them, with different cover stories.  One, I pretend to be from the drug store about a winning raffle entry, another I tell I found her purse in the store.  I succeed with another call, claiming to have an order to deliver.  She claims not to know what I’m talking about, but her voice was distinctive, and she pauses to ask her yip-yip dog, Castro, to be quiet.

I’m not sure how this is going to help me find her address yet, but we will soon learn.  I solved that puzzle somewhat accidentally.

See, the page from the telephone book looked a little suspicious to me.  I noticed that the four entries for Cazaunoux were slightly bolder than the other entries, but that there were two other entries that were highlighted in this fashion.  So, I called them both.

First was the ‘C’ The World Travel Agency, which was somehow placed alphabetically between Canker and Cank, both of which were above Canaunvo and again above Can.  Whomever in Sierra’s art department did this is a sad advertisement for American public schools and could use some help, perhaps. But back to the game.  

Can’t we just lock ourselves into a box and have us delivered there?

The conversation options when I call the travel agency make it pretty obvious where we need to travel later in the game, but I ask about the specials first.  “Two weeks in India for 20,000 rupees.”  Actually, that’s an incredible special, because converted to US dollars as of 6/1/1993, it’s about $63.15.  But somehow, Gabriel isn’t impressed.  So, I ask about the trip to Germany, and a flight to Munich is going to run me $1,400, not including the cab fare from there to Rittersberg.  (For the record, that’s over $3,000 in today’s money.  A quick search on JetBlue’s web site tells me I’d pay about $1,100 today.)

Since I can’t afford that, I’ll just have to keep that in the back of my head for now.  So I then call the other “highlighted” phone number on the sheet, the Cajun Critters Animal Clinic.

A few conversation choices, so I choose an obvious “wrong” one, to ask about snakes.  They don’t seem to service many of them.  Then I choose the right one.

See, the way I *should* have solved this puzzle is to realize that Mdme. Cazaunoux is crazy about her little puppy, so she probably brings him to the vet non-stop for checkups and the like.  No, I just lucked on this.

That said, the right choice is to ask if the Madame is a client, which they acknowledge because doctor-patient confidentiality isn’t a vet thing, I suppose.  I ask for her address, but they won’t give it to me.  

Fortunately, I already solved that puzzle, by calling the multiple listings in the phone book.  So when I claim that I’m worried about Castro missing dance lessons (dance lessons?!?), she realizes that I really am a true friend and can be trusted with the info.  There were other options, but this seemed the most obvious one.

Of course I know him, we both pee on the same trees in the park.

So, I head out to her house, knock on the door, and tell her I’m selling so fine leather jackets writing an article about Voodoo, and she sends me away.  “I’m a good Catholic, young man!  Take your evil influence elsewhere!”  The door closes on me.

Good Catholic?  Didn’t I steal receive a charitable contribution from the priest’s closet?  I try to put on the shirt I took, but Gabriel says it’s not enough.  Did I miss something?  I head back to the church.

Before I go to the wardrobe, I go to confession again, and do a better job exploring.  By that, I mean I didn’t notice there were TWO confessionals on either side of the priest’s doorway.  If this is standard for a Catholic church, I didn’t know (I was raised more sacreligious than religious, I suppose) so I wouldn’t have thought of that.  In the other confessional I didn’t visit before, it’s nearly identical but mirrored, but there’s a knothole in the wall, about the size of a quarter.  I don’t know if this is an important discovery, or just a fun detail, but I noticed.  I can’t do anything with it, so I leave the room and explore the church more.  Specifically, back to the dressing room.  I guess I missed the box of white priest’s collars in the closet, so I grab one of them.  I go to my inventory to combine it with the shirt, but Gabriel has already done it.  I try to dress here, but Gabriel says it’s an inappropriate place, so I return to the Cazaunoux residence.

How much for a subscription to InterAction?

I throw on the outfit (Gabe tastefully blanks the screen for the “private moment”) and then call on the lady.  A new option shows, introducing myself as Father MacLaughlin.  His accent is obviously fake, but she doesn’t see through it.  But, she does notice my unkempt hair and that I should be ashamed of my grooming.  “I’m sure the Bishop would never approve!  You can just go get a hair cut before you come calling again on me!”

I thought his father was the artist...

I haven’t come across a hair salon, but I did pick up, a few posts ago, Gabriel’s fru-fru hair gel.  I use that to make my hair more presentable, and knock on the door again.  It’s been 30 seconds, but video game logic means I can get away with this, right?

I wonder if this is tongue-in-cheek from Jane Jensen, considering the awful situation of the church in 1993.

This time it works, and she allows me into her home.  I proceed to interrogate her, because that’s what I do.

Saintly or sinister?  You decide.

She’s a fountain of information about topics such as Voodoo, because her family has been here in New Orleans since 1750.  Unlike what the newspaper and the druggist tell us, there’s Voodoo all around us here.  You have to be careful; for all you know, the person behind you in line at the clothing store may be stealing strands of your hair to use against you.

Voodoo murders?  Sure.  They’re all out to get us, we’re not even safe in this room.  New Orleans?  Gone to hell in a handbasket, there’s so few of the original, real French people left here.  Snakes?  Evil.  They can be sent into people’s dreams.  St John’s Eve?  A great night of wickedness, worse than All Hallow’s Eve!  Marlie Laveau?  A figurehead, the real power was in the shadows.  Black Voodoo?  Oh yeah, that’s the stuff they practice here in New Orleans!

She knows nothing about animal masks, Schattenjӓger, and vévés

Then the question we ask everyone:  “Do you have any idea what cabrit sans cor’ means?”  Her answer, basically, I know, but how about you?  I respond back with the translation, “goat without horns”, and score points both with her and the game.  Then, she talks about human sacrifice, and you can almost hear her salivating as she does.  Asking her more about human sacrifice, and we learn her great grandmother witnessed it plenty.  

Asked again?  “What is to tell?  They cut your heart out!”

Oh, and there’s a real, authentic Voodoo hounfour (remember from last post: a temple) somewhere here that’s been run by a voodoo queen for about two hundred years or so.  

Hmm.  The graphic novel was set exactly 300 years ago, in June 1693.  Coincidence?

And then, as I’ve earned her trust (I suppose by knowing about sacrifice), she decides to show me an evil object that’s been handed down the family tree from her great grandmother.  It’s a token to gain entrance to the “REAL” voodoo ceremonies.  “To tell you the truth, I’ve always felt nervous about having it in the house--you know, evil influence and all.”

Wait, it’s a cat?

Snakes.  I hate snakes.

Nah, it’s a bracelet formed of a curly snake.  She shows it to us, and we decide to say a blessing over it to remove the evil vibes.  And when we’re done, there’s a short period where we have control of the cursor.  So, I wonder what I can do to get the bracelet from her?  Or a copy?

I click my sketchbook on it, but no luck.  I try some other nonsense, but it times out and she takes it back.  But, in true fashion, I can get her to show it to me again!  “I’m not sure the first blessing took, and I’d like to re-bless it.”

That pleases her, and I have the bracelet again.  This time, I take an impression of it with the lump of clay I have from the shore of the crime scene.

“A lovely blessing, mom père!”

“Yes, I think it made a lasting impression.”

I find my way out, and Gabriel sheds the costume when I hop back on my motorbike.  I have a thought... didn’t the bartender tell me that the guy in the bar, Sam, was a jeweler?

I head to the Napoleon House and try to talk to the gentlemen playing the game of chess, but they won’t be interrupted.  The guy that was identified as the jeweler is being taken to the cleaners.  Can I help him?

I prefer a good Balsamic Vinaigrette.

Yes, by slipping him the Master Gamblin’ Oil.  “This Voodoo oil could make a NUN get lucky.”  

He asks the bartender for a Pimm’s Cup, which I mistook for just an empty glass, but later research tells me is a popular mixed drink in the UK, made of mainly gin and lemonade.  He adds some (a lot) of the gamblin’ oil, takes a swig, and...

Not a gracious winner.

...he becomes a winner and possibly loses a friend in the process, he’s so aggressive and rubbing his face in it.  “If you ever need a favor, you come to Sam, you hear?”

I have just the favor in mind.  I hand him the clay mold, and get him to work on making a cast of the bracelet.  Since he’s been doing nothing but playing chess for years, he’s glad for a change of vocation back to jeweler for a while.  He tells me to come back tomorrow.

Not a creature of the night?

When I leave the bar, the game decides I’m done for the day.  Guess that means I exhausted all the leads so far?

Soon after we park the bike and go inside, Grace leaves for the day, and encounters a mystery visitor who wants to see Gabriel.  Grace keeps telling her to shove off, but Gabe opens the door and allows the guest inside.

I think this line is only ever said in the movies (and video games).

The guest was Malia, and Gabe takes her to bed.  Going back to my comments earlier, about the graphic novel, it seems a member of the Ritter/Knight family has once again gone to bed with a dark-skinned beauty.  Coincidence?

The next day starts much the same as the previous, except first Malia departs.  Then the paperboy, then Grace arrives.  All one split-second after the other.

Grace doesn’t seem happy with us this morning (“You’re not speaking to me this morning?  Have it your way.”) but we keep on our path.  Also, there’s a creepy guy standing outside the shop window.

Since I wasn’t able to ask Grace to do any research last night, I do so now.  I give her the completed pattern from the park artist.  Then, I read the newspaper.  June 21, 1993.  It seems they’ve closed the Voodoo murder case, the police claiming it was just drug gangs at war.

I’m not sure I buy that one.  Even Zak McKracken couldn’t come up with something as unbelievable as that.

The horoscope?  “Death walks close to you today.  Resist temptation lest His eye fall on you, too.”

Gabe’s response echoes mine: “Peachy!”

No phone messages means I need to leave the store.  But that’s a next post problem.  Plans for next time?  

• Pick up the bracelet from Sam

• Visit Mosely and ask about the war on drugs

• Get the information from the professor at the college, and maybe even show him a mask

Until then?  Au revoir!

Score: 151/342

Session Time: 1 hour 

Total Time: 7 hours 0 minutes