The Castle

By Orb
with help from Dan Kueng of Blueline Studios

You start at the front gate of the castle. Turn right, you'll see a well. Go to the side of the well, you'll see a rock holding a rope. Click on the rock to remove it from the rope. Turn around, and pull on the outermost rope until the bucket is raised above the lip of the well. If it's not high enough, it will crash back down. Put the rock back on the rope. Take the key. Your inventory panel will appear. Go back to the gate. Click on and read the note stuffed in the side of the gate: "my beloved, where are you? A terrible thing has happened! I figured out everything. This place is evil. Oh please save me before it's too late! Yours in love, n."

Use key in lock. Open both sides of the gate. Go through the gate. To the left is a hedge maze. Go into the hedge. Use landmarks above the shrubs to keep track of where you are. Going in, facing the hedge to the right is the building. Back and left are hills with trees; behind you are trees. Go to the right first, to get your bearings. At the entrance/crossroad, go right, forward, forward—a dead end. Turn right twice (around), forward, forward (you'll see the building), forward (building on left), big open area—forward, forward, forward, copper metal bowl on stand with two lights. Go back out to the beginning (trust me—this is the easiest way to orient yourself).

Now you'll go to the left. Go left, forward. This is the first crossroad. Start with right. Go right, forward, forward, there will be a lamp with a yellow button. Click button. Go back to entrance. Now going in again to the left: go left, forward, left, forward. This is the second crossroad. Left first. Go left, forward, forward (will be a white wall), forward, forward, forward (following wall around), forward, forward, dead end with a piece of paper, pick it up.

Back out around wall. You'll come to the entrance of the second crossroad. The path farthest away is the right path you have not done yet. Middle is where you came in from. Click right. Another dead end with a piece of paper. Take it. Click out and turn right twice. Go right again and go back out. Start again: go left, forward, left, forward second crossroad, right, left, forward, forward, forward, forward (you'll be turned around), forward, forward, forward (wall), forward.

At this point you should see a wall on the left, a dead end with a lit lamp in the front, and a maze entrance to the right. Go forward. This is crossroad three. Go to right. Forward, another dead end and piece of paper. Take it. Turn around. Go forward. Go left. Another dead end/piece of paper. Pick it up. Turn around. Open gate. There is a dock in front of you. Go forward onto dock and get into boat. Turn around and look at the lock. It is unusually shaped, and you need a key.

Go back out front. Go to the left side of the house. Notice there are stairs. The door is locked. Turn around and observe the edge of the dock, and watch the animation of a family of ducks. Go to the right side of the house. Pick up another piece of paper at the water's edge. Go up stairs and through the door.

Inside house. Go upstairs. You'll be in a turret. It has a red chair, two candles, a picture of the castle, and a podium. The podium has a yellow circle with yellow dots around it. Click the third button to the left of the bottom middle. A metallic shaft comes up—this has a moon symbol and button. Click the button, it turns blue. It is now night outside. Go back out. Go to other turret. This door is now open.

Go upstairs. Same setup, push second button to the right of the bottom button this time. This turns it to daylight. Leave it at night for now. (When it is daylight, you can only go into the right side; when it is night, left side only.)

Go downstairs. There is a door. It is locked. You need to get the key. Go back to the copper bowl in the hedge. There you'll find a key. Take it. Go change it to daylight. The key will now work in the front door. Go into the foyer. Ahead of you is a pink marble fountain, a downstairs hall, and an upstairs hall. Go up the first flight of stairs. Pick up the paper. Go up the second flight of stairs. There are three doors here. The first is a pink bedroom. Go in. Go to dressing table in alcove to the left. Note dressing table, bedside table, glass ducks. Go to other side of bed. Turn around, look at girl. Touch her and she disappears. Go to the bedside table. Open the drawer. There is a book with the face of a cat on it. Pick it up, all your papers will go in here, now you can read them. Open window, go out onto balcony, pick up page. Go to third room. Open bedside drawer, examine picture, miniature tree, boat. Go downstairs, into hallway. Go to door on the left. Push the button on the keypad to the left of the door to activate it. Number the buttons 1 through 5, with the top one being 1. The solution is 42315. Go through the door. Pick up page. Go upstairs. Halfway up go into the attic. In back is a locked trunk. Turn around and pick up three diary pages. Go forward. Pick up another page. Go forward twice more. Pick up five more pages. Go back to door. Pick up two more pages behind door. Go out. Go up stairs. Pick up a page.

Upstairs is the oracle. It has a left purple button, and a right turquoise button. Hit purple button, nothing. Hit turquoise. A mouth appears. "Soon, a human being is going to get shot," it says. Turn around. There are three stars with symbols on them. The first is red, on it is "providence, harmony, pity, sacrifice, enigma." These are backwards. The second one is white. Words are "light, perfection, honesty, love, wisdom." The last is grey, the words are: "negation, lie, absurdity, hate, ignorance."

Go downstairs, pick up another page. Go into the salon, the room to the right. Go to end of table. Note brandy snifter. There are eight glasses, four empty, four full. You have to move these around in four moves. This is the same puzzle as the book puzzle in The 11th Hour game, and the solution is the same: move 2 and 3 to 9 and 10, move 5 and 6 to 2 and 3, move 8 and 9 to 5 and 6, move 1 and 2 to 8 and 9. A key will appear in the snifter; take it.

Go to the window ledge, pick up page, click on bookcase, read book, you'll see a symbol with a key going through it. The key goes to the middle bedroom door, which was locked. This is Brad's bedroom. Look at the castle. Click on bookcase, open book, get key. Open top drawer of bedside table. Look at picture. Click on second drawer, get gun. Take off safety. Open desk drawer. Read note "h's gonna be there when we're long gone. "Go to third bedroom, open top bedside drawer, take bullets, move slider. Your gun is now loaded. Don't fire the gun; after all, think about it—you've been given bullets and a gun with a safety for a reason, so no target practice, okay? Take the key to the attic. Use on the chest. Take the next key, look at the pictures, letter!

Go outside open the front gate and walk out, you'll find more two pages out here; pick them up. Find another page in the maze by the copper bowl. Walk back through the garden; you'll find another five pages, four in back by lamp and gate, one by the inner wall area. Pick these up. Pick up another page near the shore on the right side of the castle near the tower that's in the water. Change it to night. Go into the other tower use the key with the downstairs door and go in. Go all the way to the end of the hall to a door. It's a wine cellar. Go in, turn right, pick up three pages from the floor. Go behind the wine bottles. Click on the wine case. It's a sliding square. This puzzle can be reset at any time by clicking on the bottle in the rightmost corner of the screen. The final position of the bottles to solve should now be in your diary; once you have the positions from this, it is very simple to solve by trial and error. Strategy on this, is that you should start by straightening out the lowest row first and move up each row to the top. Use eight bottles at a time, rotating them is a circle to switch the bottles around. Here is the final configuration: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15.

Go back out and you'll see one of the wine barrels is now open; go inside it. Walk through the tunnel, pick up a page to the right of the brass door. The door has triangles on all sides, it is an elevator door and one of these is the call button. Hit the triangles (it's random reset time) to find the one to call the elevator. There are three buttons, pink, orange and yellow. Hit pink. You are taken to a bedroom. Go to the left toward the bed. Note the room is circular with the elevator in the center. Go to the bedside table, pick up a page. Open the top drawer. Click on the device. It's a video-recorder. The orange button is play, the turquoise is rewind. The message is "seems to be a recording device, this weird thing here. Nice you came here to pay me a visit, smart arse! A pity that I didn't wait for you patiently. I got a little bored in this little prison. Hope you're not mad at me. Anyway, someone seems to be pretty fond of pentagrams. Hard to find this one I must admit. Hope to see you later."

Put the device away. Open the second drawer. There is a blue key. Take it. This will unlock the padlock on the boat. Turn around. Click on the design on the wall. This is the puzzle that you will have to solve to get out, as the walkway you came down to get to the elevator now has a piece missing and is blocked by a gorge. The recorded message is your clue; you are looking for a pentagram shape in this puzzle. The solution is four pieces in the upper right corner that form the shape of a star. Click on these pieces to change color and open walkway. Go back to elevator. Click the triangles, enter and click on the orange button. You are at the top of the tower—nice view. Click on the second from the top on the right button to summon elevator and your surprise.

Hit the yellow button. This takes you back to the starting floor. Go back out to the wine cellar, and back upstairs. Pick up two more pages on your way. Go up and make it daylight. Go back through the maze toward the gate in the back (make sure it is unlocked or unlock it using the button on the light in another part of the maze). Pick up two more pages on the way. Go through the gate. Walk toward the boat, pick up another page. Look inside the boat, pick up another page.

Use the blue key on the boat lock. Turn around and click and drag on the oars to get them up and into the water. Click and drag left on the left one to move away from the pier. Continue to click and pull until you land. On the way you will see a bottle that you can only access when the stern of the boat looks towards the bottle; click on this for a message, "The color of the mirrors of my soul" (Noemi's eyes). When you land, there will be a building. You can walk all the way around this. On the right hand side, there is an orange button that changes colors. Change the colors to the color blue of Noemi's eyes. Inside is a green pentagram. Turn around and look at the closed doors, which give you the clue to solve, "all sums are 15." Move toward the pentagram; a keypad will rise up from the center. It is a magic square. Each number may only appear once. Two are already done, 1 and 5. The solve is: top row is 6, 1, 8; middle row is 7, 5, 3; bottom row is 2, 9, 4.

Another control device comes up. It has three markers. The first one is orange with three triangles and three wavy lines. The second is yellow with three circles and three wavy lines. The third is plain blue, and is where your messages will appear. At the base is an orange button. You are on what the machine calls "level 1," and you need to change it to level 2. Hit the second button. Both switch colors. Push the orange knob. It will say "modification attempt" and "verify." Push the orange button again. It will say "abort process" "modification begin" and will count down from 5 to 0. It will then say "modification end, status changed to level 2" and "waiting."

Go outside. The green landscape has disappeared; everything is now white. You are in a parallel universe. Get in the boat. Do the same procedure with the oars as before, both in, pull the left oar to the left to move away, pull again and hold; this will turn the boat around. Click left and pull lightly and let go, then just row across. At the pier, turn the boat around to land. Get out of the boat. Walk forward. Pick up the paper airplane and read it. Go to the left fork and walk to the end. There is an elevator. Open each door by grabbing and pulling; you can get in and close the doors, but nothing happens when you push the switch. Get out, go to the far right fork. Note three pentagrams on a stone with a skull on it, and i, n, e, m, o (Noemi) written in blood in the following configuration: n i e o m.

Go back out and walk down the center path, toward the crystal dome. Pull the levers in the same order as Noemi's name is spelled at the site to the right. When the machine stops humming, go back to the elevator and get in. Close the doors, click and hold the lever up. Open the doors. You are in a bedroom. Go to the bedside table. Open the top drawer, look at the picture. It's the missing part from the picture in Brad's room.

There are two other bedrooms, one up, one down. Go down first. Click on the desk, open the drawer, take the extra bullets. Pull back the top of the gun to cock it and take the safety go back. Go upstairs. Make a new saved game at this point, or "Game:Save" the game, then turn off "Game:Auto-save game" so you can later just "Revert," as right after this, I had my whole game past the bottles puzzle dump out and I had to redo it.

There has been a scuffle in this room; note the overturned chair. Go to the right and check out the hypo and green drug on the desk. Go to the bed. There's Noemi, asleep. Click on her twice to trigger Rod animation. First he will say, "Don't worry, Brad, she's just asleep," then he will tell his very wordy story, tell you your gun is out of bullets when you try to shoot him, and disappear. If you shoot and miss, he'll not miss. If you have no gun (yes, you can put the gun back into the drawer; Rod will say that he's disappointed you didn't even find the gun, though he has put it in front of your nose).

If you haven't loaded (forgot the slider or the safety) your gun and you try to shoot him, he'll say that he's disappointed that you forgot to load the gun. I really can't remember myself if he's giving you a second chance ... :)

If you have forgot to grab the ammo, he'll say that he's disappointed that you didn't find the ammo or something.

If you refuse to follow Rod's instructions to turn around, he will shoot you, and you will see a farewell note from Noemi. If you turn around and do nothing, he just gives you another chance to get gun and ammo. He'll reappear and you'll be able to finish the game!

The best ending is to load the gun and when he starts talking, shoot the hell out of him; you'll get a congratulations note from Noemi.