Gabriel Knight - Won!

Written by Michael

Gabriel thinks he knows what to do

Hey, we’re in the home stretch.  Day 10 will be the last day of the game.

Last time around, Gabriel had just watched his uncle sacrifice himself to restore the long-lost talisman to the family.  Gabriel, now taking on the family tradition of shadow hunting, is going to need the extra power boost.

If only it was back in 1989, we would have had another option.  And sadly, @arcanetrivia, this isn’t the job at hand.

Gabriel now has the talisman, and heads back to the states.  He arranges for his uncle’s body to be properly buried at the castle in Germany.  On the way back, he tries to reach both Grace and Malia.  Neither answer his calls.

They didn’t damage my coffee maker.  That might save them.

He returns to St. George’s Bookstore to find Grace’s stool upturned, and no Grace.  Other than that, and a note left by the cash register, there’s no real damage.  But Grace is priceless to us.

The note is from Malia:

Gabriel--I hope you survive long enough to get this,  Tetelo knows you have the talisman.  Your life is worth nothing, my love.  I fight to save you, but she controls far more than I!  She has taken Grace.  Return the talisman and leave New Orleans forever.  If you don’t, I can’t help you.  PLEASE.  I can’t bear to see you die.

Please believe me--I love you.  Malia

“Your life is worth nothing, my love.”   Huh.

He’s a Golden Retriever.  He’s good at sitting and playing dead.

Just as we finish reading the note, a noise in the back room startles us.  It’s our friend Mosely, who has returned from the grave!  “I was searching the tomb.  When I heard someone coming, I broke the light and got into the drawer.  Sorry I brained you, but I thought you were one of them.”

Of course, we did take his wallet, so I guess we’re even.

Mosely is uncomfortable talking in the front room, so we head to my apartment and talk.  While I can ask about a lot of topics, the new ones are important, like asking about Grace and making a plan.  Oh, and what has he been doing all this time?  Laying low and investigating, learning that the mayor, some judges, and a bunch of cops are all on the take from the cartel.  

We add some details, like how Malia’s the head honchette of the cartel, and Dr. John is her sidekick.  She’s been possessed by the spirit of Tetelo, and we have a talisman that should do the trick to hold them at bay.

He’s still not into the spiritual stuff, but that’s okay.  We still need to make a plan.

What’s the plan, you ask?  Find the Gedde cartel HQ, rescue Grace, and get some evidence that will allow the feds to arrest them all.

We give him the tracker computer, so we can place the beacon at the entrance of the hounfour and he can find it.

In real life, it was cloudy but otherwise uneventful.

Then I go back to the front room, and take care of the daily tasks.  I drink some coffee and read the paper.  I guess the weather was a little wonky last night.  Twenty died, a hundred injured. There’s been a crime wave, and over fifty reports of food poisoning in this city alone.

Skipping a month: “...keep your heads down, folks, and pray that August will return us to sanity.”

As for the horoscope, it’s actually a rather clever clue if you did not know where we needed to go today: “Gird thyself with mercy, arm thyself with righteousness.  The final hour awaits.”

Righteousness.  We can find that in a church, I suspect.  (Also, Gabe did point out the church from the airplane window.)

A guy in a trench coat saying this, I think we’re in an episode of Leisure Suit Larry.

I head over to the church, look around a little, but then remember about that strange hole in the spare confessional.  About the size of a quarter, I recall.  Similar to, say, the size of the holes in the snake mound?

I insert the rod, and the confessional turns into an elevator.  This seems to be the right place to place the locator, so Mosely can find us.  I slip it under the bench.

What I realized later was I also need to put the rod there, too.  How else will he operate the elevator?  If I don’t do it, the elevator stays here, so I’m not stranded.  But that’s the hint, I suppose, so he can get in.

Living it up while I’m going down.

We exit the elevator and find ourselves in a chamber with ancient African abstract art affixed to the back wall.  Let’s leave this room.

Well, now this looks rather familiar...

...is this where I recognize this?

...or this?

We are outside a room with a sign above the door with six snakes.  I wonder if room 3 will be important.  Still, let’s go clockwise again and see what’s up.

Is that a terror dog from Ghostbusters on the right?

Room 7 is a storage room.  I’m able to take two animal masks and two ceremonial robes, a Wolf disguise for myself and a Boar for Mosely when he arrives.  The rest of the contents of the room are apparently nailed down.

Room 8 has a locked door, we can’t get in there for now.

Spacious.

Room 9 is a guest room of some sort, with a bed, some art, and a bathroom, but not much else.  It looks like there is something under the bed, but it seems that’s just the art style and not a usable object.

Welcome to the jungle, we’ve got fun and games.

The tenth room is where they store their animals.  I suspect for sacrifice, unless they have a cosmetics brand they need to test merchandise for.  Nothing to do here but to look and be horrified.

Room 11 is locked.

Room 12 is another guest room, but with different art on the door.

Wrapping around the clockwise hallway, we reach room 1, which is locked.

Then there’s room 2.  Our friend Dr. John, with what appears to be angel wings painted on his back, is worshipping in front of a bloody altar.  There’s some sort of prayer rug or sleeping blanket on the floor there, and across the room is a key card.  That would probably open up the locked doors.

If I try to sneak over to the other side of the room, he catches me and throttles me on the ground, squeezing every last ounce of life from me.  So, I restore, and don’t do that again.  I’ll need to find another way to get the keycard.

Oh so many dreams in middle school involved sneaking around just like this.  Maybe without the demonic possession, however.

The third room belongs to Malia.  When we come in, we don’t see her, but she soon emerges from the bathroom.  She walks behind the curtain as we crouch down and hide.  She summons the spirit of Tetelo, and they have an argument, where essentially Tetelo claims that Gabriel is worthless and undoubtedly going to betray her, while Malia defends us and tries to spare our life.

When the conversation is done, they both depart, Malia hiding in the bathroom again.  We can snoop around, but “Gabriel hasn’t the heart to mess with Malia’s things.”

I play this game on the weekends to ESCAPE from places like this.

The next room is an office of some sort, with four desks, each with computer terminals and various accouterments.  Nothing is useful here except for a black ledger book on one of the desks, which seems to be the kind of evidence Mosely wanted to gather for the feds.  Also, a list of drum codes for the members of the cartel.

Room 5?  Another office, but no worthwhile items in here.

So, I’ve made a check of the twelve outer rooms.  What’s in the middle room?

...of a lady who was bringing up three very lovely girls...

After walking through a hallway (with a red herring trap door in the wall), we reach the center, a ritual room of some sort.  There’s a sacrificial altar here, just like the one in the African snake mound, and some drums on either side of the room.  There’s a totem pole, or, as it is called in Voudoun, a poteau-mitan, and also a fire pit.

Around the base of the sacrificial altar are pictures that tell a story, basically what happens after Tetelo gets the talisman from Gunther.

So, what to do next?  Perhaps we could use the drums to distract Dr. John so that we can get that keycard!

Let’s reach out and touch someone.

Once we play the proper beats (from the member list) to summon Brother Eagle, we hear a door open in the distance.  That’s my cue to leave.  (After failing another time) I choose the doorway in the upper right, which brings me below the good doctor’s room.  I slip in, and swipe the keycard.  Worried that the Doc might catch me, I rush down one door away, and use the card to go inside and hide.

Sweet dreams are made of this.

Turns out this room is loaded with the cartel’s ill-gotten gains.  Temptation gets the best of me, and I pick some up.  After a couple of grabs, Gabe says his pockets are full.  “I know it’s dirty money, but it’s for a good cause.  Me.”

Ice, Ice Baby.

I check out another nearby locked room, and find some dead bodies.  With a collection of hearts in jars.

Much like these.

No, I said hearts.

There’s nothing to do in this room except look around.

Snow White, what did the evil witch do to you?

Another locked room finds us the comatose body of our assistant Grace.  I go to check her out (ahem), and no sooner do I walk a few feet when our pal Mosely finally shows up to the party.  I try to pick her up, to shake her, talk to her... no luck.

We’re thinking that she’s been frozen in time by Voodoo, so let’s try that powerful talisman I brought!

Hey, it’s got a lion on it!

It does the trick and wakes her up.  After a second of disorientation, she’s ready to join our planning session.  Here’s the plan:  First, Grace goes back to playing dead, so they don’t think anything is up.  Then, we need to try to keep Dr. John from blowing that powder/smoke/whatever into the faces of others, because that’s what seemed to bring Tetelo around.  Then, deal with Malia.  Assuming she isn’t possessed by the spirit of her ancestor.

He doesn’t ask about the pile of clothes on the floor.

I give Mosely the ritual mask and robe I grabbed for him, and then I throw mine on as well.  As soon as we’re dressed, Dr. John walks in, wondering why we’re there.  “Go to the circle!   Now!”

This wording could be misread...

When they make their way to the ceremony, they realize that Malia is already possessed, and that throws a little wrench into their plans.  But still, the show goes on.

The drums on the left are unused due to layoffs in the city cult department.

As they prepare to make the sacrifice, I decide to take action.  I pull out my trusty talisman and tyro to use it on Malia/Tetelo, but, “Uh-oh!  The talisman seems to have little effect at protecting Grace from this distance!”

I’m worried I did something wrong there, but just as Tetelo attempts to thrust a knife into Grace, Grace gets up.  Remember, she was just playing dead all this time.

There’s a scuffle, and Mosely reveals himself as well, shooting Dr. John.  The body of our favorite physician lands on the trough, his heart’s blood dripping into the hole, causing the table to open, just as in the snake mound.

She gets in between us and our friends, demanding the talisman or she will kill them.  What do I choose to do?  Play monkey in the middle!

I toss the talisman not to Tetelo, but to Mosely, and tell them to safely get out.  Mosely hesitates, leaving us to deal with the possessed she-demon, but Gabe insists.

After they leave, Tetelo thinks she has the advantage.  “You are unarmed now, Witch-hunter!  Approach me and kneel!”  I again act like I'm going to, but instead lunge for the stone idol that was revealed inside the table.  I grab it and smash it, and the room starts to bust apart, Fate of Atlantis-style.

Tetelo/Malia is hanging on the cliff, trying to survive.  I click the hand icon on her to try to save her.

The inner Malia overrides Tetelo by letting go, sacrificing herself for the sake of Gabriel and others.

Darn.  Does that mean it’s time for my next game for the blog?

We go into a long ending scene overlooking the newly-destroyed temple underneath the park.  From the lion statue next to us, I suspect we’re back at the bookstore.  Grace and I have a heart-to-heart.  She wants to know if he’s going to go into the family business, and she hints that she might drop out of school to help him.

One screen of a long speech.

I’m too lazy to type it all out, but it is a soulful exchange.  And she’s definitely into him.

I got all the points; I suspect there were a few unnecessary things I did for points (like take the money) but only a few; I think there’s only a few optional points in total.

Speaking of points -- guess I have to come up with a score next time, right?  This is going to be tough.

Score: 342/342

Session Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 14 hours 15 minutes