Loch Ness (Cameron Files) - Part 1 See also the screenshots ~ Walkthrough by Tally Ho ~ Day One: In a Nutshell Responding to a telegram from Allistair MacFarley, you have traveled to Scotland, and arrive at the family castle, on a hill above the shores of Loch Ness. Mr. Shastra greets you, and introduces you to Ursula MacFarley, who is visibly upset. Her husband has been kidnapped, and her daughter Moira won't arrive until tomorrow. The stress is too much for her, and she swoons. She is escorted off to bed, and you are alone in the drawing-room. Have a look around. On the desk is a newspaper describing the theft of a rare Celtic book, and some amber disks. You can also look close-up at a book about Electricity and Magnetism. Checking the sitting area, are three hotspots. A cushion on the sofa and a liquor bottle on the small table reveal red hotspots, indicating there is reason to examine them, but that they are not yet accessible. On the coffee table, there is a game of chess in progress. White appears to have a slight advantage. (Don't fuss about the chess game; it has no actual part in the game.) Before going any further, check your inventory (right-click.) You don't have much: no actual items, but on the bottom are your notebook, an empty wallet, and a map that is not yet active. Read the notebook for some helpful suggestions. It suggests picking up your bag from your room, and exploring the kitchen. The manservant said your room is on the first floor. That would mean up the stairs one flight, not the floor we are on. Exit the drawing room the way you came in, and go upstairs. At the top, go left, and left again. Your room is the second one on the right. Pick up the bag from the bed. A check of inventory reveals what you now have: A flask of bourbon, a knife, a rope ladder, a camera, some Copper Oxide (it's a fine black powder) ink, and paper. Also, in your wallet is the telegram. Find the kitchen thus: Go down stairs, and enter the main part of the house through the doorway between the staircases. Turn right, and go left into the hallway, to the end. The grey wooden door on your right leads into the kitchen. Explore the kitchen thoroughly. Find the matches and candles in the drawer in the wooden table. Have a look at the call-bells. Take the rag from the sink. Open the wooden key-box next to the door and take the Passkey. You can do these things in any sequence; when you do them all, the bell from Mrs. MacFarley's room rings. She wants a cup of tea. Exit the kitchen the way you came in. (The stairs near the fireplace lead up to a dead-end; and the spiral stairs at the other end of the room lead up to the laundry room.) At the end of the hall, just to the left, is the other door into the drawing-room. Go in there and look at the sofa. The old lady must have lost her locket when she fainted. Take the pills and the key. Go back to the kitchen, and straight across from where you enter, is a dumb-waiter with a cup of hot tea sitting there. Pull the lever to send it upstairs. Go up the spiral steps. When you arrive, look right to find the laundry room. Take the tea. Go to her room, which is at the head of the stairs. You think she needs a little help. Open your inventory, combine the pills with the tea, and give her the cup. She speaks of three crystals, a banshee, and suggests looking in her chest of drawers. Turn around, look in the bomb' chest and take the bottle of chloroform. Then go into the bath-area, unlock the chest on the marble table with the Small Key, and take the Attic Key from within. Go to the dressing table beside her bed and take the Picture from the drawer. Exit the room, turn left, and go into the next room, using the Passkey to unlock it. This room, the green one, is Mr. MacFarley's bedroom. Immediately to the left is a bookcase you can open, and take a document. This item goes into the wallet, and is instructions for operating the telegraph. Save that for later. Go to the other end of the room and examine the curly-maple table. In the drawer is an appointment book displaying a date to meet McGrab at the distillery. Use the left-pointing cursor to see some fingerprints. It would be nice to 'lift' them somehow. Use some Copper Oxide, followed by some ink, to make the fingerprints visible. Then apply the paper to them to keep a permanent record. Let's go find the attic. Exit this room, turning left. Follow the corridor until you come to the attic stairs. Go up, and keep going until you get to a locked door. The Attic Key let's you in. Hey! Someone slammed the door, and locked you in. Besides that, it's dark. Step forward once, and look left to find the candlestick. Use the candles, then the matches to brighten things up. Look in the box on the table near the tower to see the photo album. There are pictures of your father, Bruce McGrabb (it was spelled with one 'b' in the appointment book), Ursula, Allistair and Moira MacFarley. Take his picture, you might want to describe him at some point. Go to the left. You find another door but it, too, is not accessible. Still locked in. Go left again, and open the cabinet. The paper lying there is a map of the area. Take it. It too is not accessible, so you cannot use the map to escape the attic. Left again, to the pile of stuff in the middle of the room. Take the crowbar out of the box. Head into the tower in the far corner. Seems like nothing to do here, until you try to leave. You watch yourself being startled by a noise. Now the boarded-up window is active. Pull down the boards with the crowbar and have a look outside. Holy Smokes! What you see when you don't have a camera. Oh, but you do have one. Quick! Snap a photo of Nessie before she decides to go for a swim. Now try that other door. This time it is active. "Unlock" it with the crowbar. At the other end of the short hall is a trapdoor. It goes to the laundry room where, Zounds! A ghost. That's enough to drive you to drink. Head into the drawing-room and pour a shot of bourbon in a glass. Wow! There's one of the crystals. Now go across the main hall and enter the room that is newly accessible. Go straight across the room, where there is a chest in the corner. Open the chest and take the Mead. Mead is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey. It can range from mild to knock-your-socks-off potent, and is frequently flavored by the addition of fruit juices. Here's a little ditty for fun: MEAD If it's good for ancient Druids, Runnin' nekkid through the wuids, Drinkin' strange fermented fluids, Then it's good enough for me! Go to the far end of the room and find the locked cabinet. You don't have a key that fits, but perhaps you could pick the lock with your handy fishing-knife. Inside is an ancient document, the Auld Alliance Treaty, which dates from October, 1295. That's all in this room. Go between the stairs, into the main house, and down and around the left corridor, to find the Library. The Library door is the one with the red drapes, next to the back stairs. Poke around if you wish, but there's only one thing to do at this time: Find the book on the side-table by the sofa and see the Phalaenopsis flower alongside a diagram of a greenhouse. Hint. (Phalaenopsis orchids are wonderful showy plants favored by collectors and hobbyists. Some cultures attribute magical or aphrodisiac powers to them.) That's all for now. Go to the front door and exit the house. Forward once, then around to the right. Keep going until you come to the greenhouse. Go in, find the flower, and pick it using the knife. Then return to the front of the house, and walk toward the loch until you arrive at the Celtic cross. On the base, place the Phalaenopsis blossom and the decanter of Mead. The Banshee appears, and gives you some history and some advice. This is the end of Day One. Day Two: In a Nutshell Exit your bedroom, and you hear muffled voices. Follow the corridor around to where the back stairs are, and it seems the people are in that room above the library, but the door is not accessible. Go down the stairs and into the Library. Someone left a Gramophone record stuck, and it's most annoying. Go turn it off. Now you can hear the voices again, and make out part of the words. Go up the spiral stairs, and turn around at the top, so you are facing the room. Overhead, there is a trap door. Here is a view of the hotspot for the trap-door. I found it difficult to find, until understanding that it is completely behind you when you arrive at the top of the steps. See the screenshot - trapdoor Have a peek, and overhear Bruce McGrabb and Moira MacFarley engaged in a rather unpleasant conversation. She ends by wondering just what he is concocting in his distillery. Well, now! Whatever did she mean by that? Head into the main entrance hall, finding the front door still inaccessible. Turn around, and on the bench by the suit of armor, is a small case. Open it, take the Signet Ring and a letter intended for McGrabb. He appears, and asks to meet you tonight at the distillery. You think it's prudent to go there right now. Out you go then, the front door is working again. Around the left side of the house this time, and to the stream at your right. Go to the boat, pick up the oars, and row to the distillery. Watch the caretaker, that's the mean-looking dude with the shotgun, as he enters the building and shows you his best "Do Not Enter" look. If you try the door where he went in, he glares at you through the slot. "We're closed!" To the left, toward the corner, you can peek in the window to figure out where he is. To the left, find the bolt-cutters between the barrels. Keep going around, where the water-wheel is, and find the chained door. I haven't been nagging you to keep saving your game, because you could get into relatively little trouble up to now. Here, it is possible to die. If you have not created a saved game recently, do it now. Cut the chain and step inside. DO NOT go to the right. If you do, you will kick a bottle on the floor, and alert the caretaker. When you try to go through the door, the result is Game Over. Instead, go straight ahead, then right toward the door. Step in, and realize that the office just to the right is where he is sitting. Don't do a lot of roaming around; go to the office door and quietly pull it open. In your inventory, combine the Chloroform with the rag. Use it on the old bugger to make him sleep. Now it's safe to rummage around. Look at the little satchel hanging on his chair, and take the Grand Book of Kelia: Crystals and the Ogams. Hey! Isn't that the book that was reported stolen? To the right, on the floor is McGrabb's walking stick. Take the Chest Key from the top, then pick up the cane itself. Go out to the waterwheel and use the cane to stop the mechanism. Then, back inside, the access to the cellar is no longer blocked by water. Go down the ladder. Fortunately, someone left a lantern burning in there. Strange room! An electric chair, of all things, and some sort of machinery; possibly an air-pump. The only thing that seems to work is the small chest under the chair. Open and take the disks, also probably the stolen items reported in the newspaper. Now that you've done that, the chair is active. Pull it out, and enter the door behind it, using the Signet Ring. Then, down the corridor, you face three doors. At first glance it looks like a maze, but fear not. It's just three corridors. The left one bears the sign of the Raven. At the end is what appears to be a puzzle, not yet active. The center one, marked by the cross, leads to a closed door - possibly to the chapel. The right one leads to a circular room containing a chest and an armoire with what seems to be diving equipment. Perhaps my guess about the air-pump was right. Exit through the door, and you find yourself outside the back of the castle. So the tunnel from the distillery connects to the main house. Go around front and inside again. (Any time the map is working, clicking on the castle will take you just inside the front entrance.) Head for the Library. At the back of the room, to the left of the curved wall, examine the symbol in the niche. It looks familiar. A matching symbol is on the head of the cane. Use it to unlock Mac Farley's office. Don't go up the stairs just yet. Look to the left to see a bookcase. Go to it, and look sharply down at the right side to find the hotspot. Use the chest key. Opening the door, you find the inside of the door inscribed "Foedis Francorum Scotis, Anno Dominici" (I think it should say Anno Domini) Look familiar? That's the title of the Auld Alliance Treaty between France and Scotland in 1295. See the lockbox? It needs the correct date set into it. Can't remember Roman numerals? Try this: MCCXCV. Your discover the instructions for an armchair puzzle. Soon, it is possible to die. If you have not created a saved game recently, do it now. Poking around downstairs reveals no further action to be taken. Go up the stairs. (I always wanted a room like this!) Proceeding upwards, you find an elegant armchair that seems to match the instructions you just found. Don't do it yet, you would be zapped. Keep going up. Enter the laboratory. This looks like a fruitful place to carry out some kind of experiment, but don't get your hopes up too high. Go to the near end of the table and pick up the Metallic Glove and the Window Handle. That's all for now. More later. Go to the armchair and solve it according to the instructions you found. Watch out! Use the metallic glove to take the crystal, else you will be speared and it's Game Over. Someone locks you in! Now you are in a timed sequence. Too slow and it's Game Over. Go to the window and use the handle. You descend via the rope, but someone cuts it and you land in the moat. You meet with Moira again, and Day Two comes to a close. Hope they Scotchguarded that sofa! Day Three: In a Nutshell You awaken again in the guest-room. Go directly to Mac Farley's secret office, opening the door by using the cane on the symbol. Look in the top left drawer of his desk and take two items: the Observatory Key and an Indian Dagger. Head up the stairs, and enter the metal door using your new-found key. At the top, look right and open the cabinet. Take two items: the Raven Statuette and the Files. Examine the files to learn how to operate the machine downstairs in the lab. Now look close- up at the Thermofax machine. There are two views; the dial-up control and the send-receive scanner. Turn on the power. Consult your documents (the memorandum) to review the instructions. You find two codes; 95612 and 75436. The first one seems to not work, so try the emergency one, followed by your I.D. - 65. Now the scanner will work. Send three documents: the Fingerprints, Nessie's photo, and Moira's Code. When you back away, the receiver rings, and you can pick up the prompt acknowledgement. Their note suggests a full reply will require some research, so let's poke around the lab a while. There is some basis in fact for the Thermofax device. The pendulum style scanner enables the sending and receiving units to remain synchronized. The sending scanner contains a photo-electric cell and some optics, and the receiver creates the image on special paper using a heated stylus. Actually, it would take about 20 minutes to send a full page. For the 1930's, this technology was miraculous when the alternative would take two or three days by post. It's an early step in the Information Superhighway! To be concluded in issue 86 - o -