Part 9

Hello and welcome back to King's Quest IV. We're now past the biggest source of bullshit in the game. There's still more to come, don't you worry, but we don't have to ever return to that cave.



The game world looks much nicer at night.



We also have the prize we came for. Now we just have to help Genesta and get back home in time to save Graham.



So way back at the start of this game, I discussed how the end of it would revolve around Whateley Manor and the surrounding graveyard. Well, now that night has fallen we're at that point.

The game also did us a kindness by not advancing to night until after we got the obsidian scarab. If you recall last time, the crone said that it would protect us from the undead, and that we would need it.



When we're on either of the graveyard screens, we're going to be harassed by zombies. Word is they will kill you if you somehow get to this point without the scarab. I have many questions I'd like to ask the person who confirmed that. Because that involved wasting 12 actual hours.

I will not actually show that death off because I value my time too much. Now excuse me while I play Factorio until the sun comes up.



So let's go into the manor.



That candle on the left wall was not lit this morning. After a few seconds...

: What's that?! Why, it's the sound of a crying baby, and it's coming from upstairs!

We want to go in the left door upstairs. Periodically now, we're going to get a narration message while in the house.

: Rosella hears a baby crying!



This looks like it was once a very nice bedroom. That bed looks super plush. We, again, want to go in the open door on the left, into the nursery.



: The crying baby seems to be in here.

>look in cradle

: With trepidation, Rosella peeks into the rocking cradle and sees nothing. Tentatively she reaches her hand into it. There's nothing there!

Okay, so we got a ghost baby to deal with.



You might think I'm running away, but no. This next series of puzzles isn't well thought out. Basically, we need to calm the spirits in the house. Typically, this sort of thing requires us to find an object that belonged to the ghost in life and return it to them, usually into their grave. That puts the spirit at rest and lets us continue on. We're going to be doing the exact opposite of that. We'll be robbing the graves of these spirits to give to them the items they mysteriously can't find anymore.

No it doesn't make any sense.

Oh and there's an extra special layer of "fuck you" sprinkled on top. You remember that shovel we found much earlier in the game? Here's where we need it. That shovel is super rickety and basically falling apart. It will last through exactly five digs. There's five spirits we need to put back to rest.

Dig up the wrong grave by accident? Congratulations, the game is now unwinnable. To make matters worse more annoying, the entire time we're in the graveyard, zombies will be harassing us. Because we have the obsidian scarab, the zombies are entirely incapable of harming us.

In a well designed game, the zombies would spawn, test that you have the scarab, and then stop spawning altogether because you've solved the "puzzle". The entire section after we're sent to find Pandora's Box, until we return with it, is probably the worst part of the game collectively. There's a lot of bullshit that only serves to test your patience.

So let's get this crap over with.



If you look at the graves, the game just gives you a generic description. You have to actually type in >read tombstone.

As is standard for a video game graveyard, there's rhyming quatrains discussing the person buried underneath. I'm not going to be covering them all, but here's an example.


It's pretty obvious which graves are the ones we need to dig up. The one next to the shrubbery quatrain, for instance...


67 years old and a lord. It doesn't sound like our baby, but we'll keep his grave in mind.



When a zombie comes into contact with you, and you have the scarab, the above message plays. This happens no matter what you're doing. So expect to have your excavations interrupted by annoying messages.

The grave in the far left corner reads...


At first glance, this reads like a red herring tombstone. But nope, this is one of the five we'll need to dig up.



Just above Rosella here is a grave. It's in the far back of the screen and partially obscured by the creepy oak.


This sounds like the grave we need.

>dig



: Rosella carefully digs a small hole at the poor baby's grave. What is this?! She has uncovered a silver baby rattle!





Back in the haunted nursery...

>give rattle to ghost

: Rosella drops the silver rattle into the baby cradle. As she does so, the crying of the baby ghost and the rocking of the cradle cease. She breathes big sigh of relief.

: The sound of loud moaning and the rattling of heavy chains disturbs the peace and quiet.



>look ghost

: The ghost of a stooped old miser trudges through the house, lugging heavy chains behind him. He moans loudly in frustration as he appears to be searching for something he can't find.

Sounds like his current unliving nightmare is his just reward for being a greedy bastard.

Anyway, we already found the miser's grave.



: Rosella digs a small hole at the grave of the old miser. Aha! She has found a bag of coins.





I do like that time actually advances to the PM hours when night falls. I'm not entirely sure where it's getting 9:25, though. An hour and four real time minutes ago, it was 8:10. Even allowing for the 12 hour jump when night falls, I have no idea why it's a completely different time from what it should be.



>give coins to ghost

: Rosella offers the bag of gold coins to the old miser ghost. He greedily snatches it from her hands, and then promptly disappears. Shortly thereafter, the sound of sorrowful weeping floats down from upstairs.



This is in the righthand room of the upstairs. You may not immediately find the ghost unless you know exactly where to look.



She only fades into view when you're nearby, and she takes a second to do so.

>look ghost

: Rosella sees the sad ghost of a beautiful young woman. She sits in her rocking chair and weeps as if her heart will break.

>talk to ghost

: Rosella tries to comfort the lady ghost, but she doesn't respond. It seems as if she doesn't even know anyone else is here, as she continues her deep sobbing.



We're back on this screen again. Two of the five graves we need to dig up are over here. The first one is this big one in the immediate foreground that sticks out.


Sounds like our ghost.

>dig



: Rosella carefully digs a small hole at the sad lady ghost's grave. She has found a lovely locket!



While we're still here, the last grave we'll need is in the far back on the left side. The one that looks cracked.


That was super meandering and also badly written and reads like another red herring tombstone, but that's the last one we'll need.



>give locket to ghost

: Rosella hands the lovely locket to the distraught ghost. The locket seems to make her very happy as she vanishes into thin air. Suddenly, a loud wailing can be heard from downstairs.



This man looks like both an ex soldier and a lord of the manor. So I guess we know where to go next.

>look ghost

: Rosella has encountered the gentleman ghost of the distinguished Lord of the Manor. He wails despondently as he seems to be looking for something he desperately wants.



: Rosella digs a small hole at the grave of the Lord of the Manor. Gotcha! She has found an impressive Medal of Honor!





>give medal to ghost

: Rosella offers the Medal of Honor to the wailing ghost. He takes it from her hands with great reverence. Satisfied, he vanishes into thin air.



: A cute, little boy ghost suddenly appears! He grins mischeviously at Rosella, begins to giggle, and runs from the room.

I'm actually going to call the update here.

NEXT TIME: We find Pandora's Box and enter the endgame. We're very nearly done!

List of Points

+3 - Silver Rattle
+2 - Baby ghost helped
+3 - Ghost money
+2 - Jacob Marley helped
+3 - Buried locket
+2 - Sad ghost helped
+3 - Medal found
+2 - Lord ghost helped

Total

154/230

Register of Deaths

None this time