Part 31: Gabriel Knight vs. Sacred Ground

Chapter 29: Gabriel Knight vs. Sacred Ground



The trip from Munich to the center of Benin proves more or less uneventful for Gabriel. Considering some of his recent adventures, "uneventful" is a huge improvement.





Gabriel's taxi driver screeches to a stop in front of the entrance to Benin's infamous yet rarely-spoken-of double snake mound.



As soon as the Jeep roars into position, Gabriel steps out and stretches, glad to be out in the open for a change.




Gabriel calmly dismisses his driver.



He takes another look at his destination and reconsiders his quick dismissal.




Almost immediately, the taxi driver settles in for a good rest.





It's an amazing morning, and Gabriel would love nothing more than to sit down and admire the view all day. Unfortunately, he has a lot to investigate, all of which can be found inside the creepy-ass dirt mound. With one last look back at his snoozing taxi driver, Gabriel reluctantly enters the site.



Unfortunately, the beautiful day doesn't last long where Gabriel's headed.




All of the walls in the mound are made of densely caked dirt; the only lights are provided by a few already-lit torches. Best-case scenario, this could mean Wolfgang's somewhere inside. Worst-case ... well, it's best not to think too much about who else might be around.




Thirty seconds back into his investigation and he's found more dead people. Fantastic. At least these ones aren't fresh.





The stone appears to have some crude scribblings of snakes on it. It's prominently placed; this seems like it could be important somehow.



While he puzzles out the purpose of the stone, Gabriel moves on to the next room. There's a door on the other side as well, but for now he decides to travel clockwise around this place.



The daylight only just barely creeps into this room, leaving the illumination to the torches dimly burning in the corners.

There's another stone plate inside the creepy face mural. Gabriel takes a closer look while his eyes slowly adjust to the new conditions.



This plate is pretty similar, except that there are seven snakes this time instead of ten.



In the next room, Gabriel finds a mummy looming over the pathway between the doors. This room, however, has two stone plates sitting out in the open -- and a suspiciously-shaped empty slot on the wall.







The stone plates are solid, but light enough that Gabriel can carry a few of them around with him at a time (along with all the other crap he's dragged along from New Orleans).





Two and five snakes this time. Gabriel takes one to the suspicious hole in the wall.




Sure enough, the stone plates fit perfectly.



Gabriel removes the plate from the wall; it seems like he found a vital piece to the puzzle, but he needs to poke around more before deciding his course of action.

He returns to the previous room to check the plate in there.




Apparently at least some of the stone plates are sealed into place. No point trying to force it off; for all he knows, it's held in place by Voodoo magic.




He passes through the next room, keeping an eye on the looming mummy. It kind of looks like it might take a swipe at him at any moment.




In the following room, Gabriel finds the next plate on the wall and a new treasure sitting in the corner. He takes a quick look behind him; the room with the entrance is completely out of sight now. He shrugs off the urge to get the hell out of there and moves in on the strange rod.





It's certainly thematically appropriate. Gabriel decides to hang onto this for a little while as well.

He moves to try the stone panel on the wall.



The plate dislodges with little effort.



Gabriel removes the plate from the next room as well.



Outside of another aggressively-posed mummy, the room after that holds nothing of interest.

In the next room, however, things start to come together:



This room finds another panel permanently affixed to the wall ...



... with a pattern of twelve snakes.

Gabriel thinks back to the room with the spooky mural. There was a stone plate stuck in that room as well, with a seven-snake design. Recounting his steps, he realizes that he passed through five rooms clockwise to get here.

Suddenly very close to understanding the game, Gabriel looks through the stone plates he's collected so far. Each plate's pattern has a different number of snakes, all of them a number less than twelve. Each room to date has had an slot for these things in the interior wall ...

Is this mound designed like a clock?



Gabriel continues through the snake mound, rolling with this assumption. He picks up all the stone plates he can find ...



... and places them in the room that, based on the clock theory, matches the number of snakes in the design.



He makes his way through the snake mound methodically, placing the stone panels where he believes they should go.



By the time he reaches the entrance again, Gabriel's sure he's on the right track. The snake mound has twelve rooms, he's collected exactly the right number of stone plates, and there are no discrepancies in the pattern. All he has to do is put the rest where they belong.

Most of the stone panels have profoundly uninteresting designs, but the ones with four and eight snakes are fairly eye-catching:







After one and a half laps around the snake mound, Gabriel places the final stone panel in room 1.



Gabriel sits back and admires his handiwork. Nothing happens, but he has a feeling deep in his gut that he's made significant progress. He takes a closer look at the stone panel.



Each stone plate has a small circular hole in the center, lined up with a similarly-sized hole in the wall. After a moment's consideration, Gabriel inspects the snake-themed rod he picked up earlier; it's exactly the right size and shape.

Gabriel knows exactly what to do.





...or not. Maybe in room 12, with the other stuck stone plate?



Again, nothing. He's on the right track, but it seems unwise to keep shoving the rod into random holes. He's done plenty of that already.



Gabriel steps back and tries to figure out what's been nagging at him this whole time. Something about all the snake designs reminds him of something he's come across in the last few days ...

Suddenly, it clicks. Gabriel pulls out his sketchpad and flips to the page with his father's drawings.



The answer is in his father's drawings and paintings. It's in his grandfather's poetry. It's found its way into Gabriel's dreams. And it was the key to open that damned clock.

Three snakes.

Gabriel goes straight to room 3.



In a way, it's felt like Gabriel's entire life has been leading up to this one moment. He readies himself, then thrusts the snake rod deep into the wall.










......this could be a problem.



"FUCK!"



Gabriel roars past the suddenly very active mummy towards the doorway.



Once Gabriel's at a relatively safe distance, he can see the zombie is lumbering towards him at a very slow speed. From his experience as a horror buff, the fact that he can easily outrun them doesn't comfort him much.

He's got to get out of here. The only exit is in room 6, three rooms away. Gabriel wastes no time running that way.



The mummy in the next room has also started to move, as can one Gabriel can see in the next room. This one's in a much more favorable position to grab Gabriel, but he easily escapes its grasp.



Just one more room before Gabriel can make his escape, but one of the zombies lingers right in his path. There's no way he can get through that gap without becoming the latest Agris sacrifice.



Gabriel stands near the inner wall for just long enough to lure the zombie over. Fortunately, the ones in the other room have been caught in a wall or something; theyhaven't followed Gabriel elsewhere into the wheel.



Once Gabriel has feinted the zombie far enough from the door, he runs past. He desperately hopes the next room will bring sweet freedom ...



... but, as he expected, he finds the exact opposite. One zombie lurks in the doorway to the exit. Another lingers in the doorway leading further into the snake mound. Neither seems to be in any particular hurry to go anywhere.

A thurd mummy slowly lingers from the far side of the room while Gabriel considers his options.



"I've got to get out of here! I'm faster than them, but that'll mean shit all in a couple hours when I'm exhausted!"

He scans the room wildly for something that'll help him get past these mummies. Before he even has to get out of the way of the lone moving zombie, he spots something he can use.



Gabriel frantically grabs hold of one of the vines and prepares to swing himself through the barricade.







Gabriel crashes through the sentry, finding himself in the room that originally held the mural -- and now holds a wide-open passageway filling with an increasing number of zombie mummies.



Before the zombies have a chance to strike, however, a man somehow leaps down from above.





The elderly man lands gracefully and immediately grabs a nearby torch.



He begins swinging the torch back and forth, keeping the mummies at bay.

An old man, in the Agris sanctuary, keeping three zombies at arm's length¹? This must be Wolfgang Ritter, in the flesh! Finally!




Wolfgang treats Gabriel kindly, though he finds himself a tad preoccupied at the moment.





Gabriel looks into the secret panel and immediately spots another conveniently-sized hole. He readies himself for action.



Wasting no time, Gabriel thrusts the rod into the hole.





Wolfgang discards his torch, then dives headfirst into the passageway.









Next time:

Gabriel gets increasingly confused in Chapter 30: Wolfgang Ritter vs. The Inner Chamber!

Videos!
53. We could introduce Wolfgang in a boring castle ... or he could fight zombies! (Dailymotion) (Youtube)

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I guess I owe the clock puzzle an apology, since it actually fits in with the puzzle here. But I still think it's an unnecessary hindrance, and this puzzle was kinda lame too.


¹ Wolfgang also appears to the tune of the best goddamn music in the game, another clue that we've found the old man we're looking for.