Part 5: Wherein Zanthia Tampers With the Post

Last time on Hand of Fate, we finally collected the gold Brueth wanted in return for transportation. Unfortunately, we came back to the ferry to find it burnt to a crisp by... this... thing. Sadly, I believe it's a dragonfly.

Video: Dragonfly (Youtube)



I accidentally burned it down.



Can you fly me to Morningmist Valley?

Zanthia knows how to keep her eyes on the prize. Let's not worry about what happened to Brueth or what the repercussions of this area being cut off from Morningmist might be. All that matters is that we get over there.

I will if you find the four letters I dropped.

Unfortunately, that lies on the other side of a fetch quest.

If I find your letters, will you give me a ride?
Sure. If I don't get those letters back, I could lose my job.

I guess burning down someone's ferry is not grounds for dismissal in Kyrandia, but so help you god if you misplace one letter.

Where did you lose them?
I was watching a damselfly go by and I guess I just dropped them.



All the way.

All right, so at least all hope is not lost yet. If we can find the letters this doofus dropped, he'll help us get to where we need to go. The letters are all over the place, but they're not hard to track down. The first is by the firefly tree.



Scotia, Evil Sorceress; c/o the Dark Army, Castle Cimmeria, Land #13127, Lore.

It's a reference to another Westwood game, Lands of Lore. After Westwood did Eye of the Beholder, they decided to produce another game along the same lines but with an original franchise. The game itself is pretty cool. Check it out some time. Anyway, Scotia is the big bad of that game.

The next letter is on top of Zanthia's hut.



Malcolm the Jester, Castle Kyrandia. RETURN TO SENDER.

Looks like our old nemesis from the previous game had some pending mail that got stuck in the system after he got turned into a rock.

While we're here, let's have a look at what Faun is doing. Sitting quietly in the corner, I hope.



I don't trust this guy at all. Why does Zanthia hang out with him, anyway? Speaking of pathetic figures, we should probably do something about Marko. This is strictly optional, but everything we need to get him out of his predicament is in our inventory already. I'm not sure if this is half of a cut puzzle left in the game or what, since you can neglect to do it with no apparent penalty.



What might a huge plant monster be interested in receiving in exchange for Marko?



How about some plant food?



I could've done that.

Sure thing, Marko. Anyway, he has nothing interesting to say, so let's just go find the next two letters. The third letter in all is at the quicksnad pit.



Farmer Greenberry, Morningmist Valley, Kyrandia, KY.

No idea who this guy is. Well, that's not entirely true, but we'll get to Farmer Greenberry later on. The last letter is at the sulfur springs.



Herman Meünster, Acme Cheese Factory, Timbermist Woods, Kyrandia, KY.

Is this a reference to Herman from the previous game, or is it just a random reference to the Munsters? If only there was some way to find out. If only we had some steam we could just steam the letter open and check it out, but where would we get steam?

Oh, of course, right here! Using one of the letters on the wisps of steam emanating from the sulfur springs lets you open the letter and check out the contents. This is Herman's letter:



Whelp. I guess it is our Herman. What's more, it seems no one bothered to un-zombie him after Brandon defeated Malcolm. Speaking of which, let's check out his letter.



This just looks like some random fluff. I'm not sure if there's any references to other media in this one. Scotia's letter is full of them, though:



Aside from the Indiana Jones reference, these are all references to Lands of Lore, mentioning things that appear in that game. Finally, Farmer Greenberry's letter:



So that guy's a bit of a weirdo. Let's not dwell on that; we have all the letters the dragonfly dropped, and with Marko rescued, there's no unfinished business left to take care of. Most of the items in our inventory are really just random trash with no use. Let's go return these letters to the dragonfly and be out of here.



He gets a bit impatient. Give all the letters to him, and...

Video: Flight to Morningmist (Youtube)



Off we go!



Thanks. You really know how to flatter a person. How about I get rid of this anchor?



Thanks. As long as you're going to Morningmist, could you deliver one of these letters for me?
Sure. As long as there's no postage due.



Er, oops. If you leave the anchor behind before you give the dragonfly all the letters, you don't get the sequence involving it. But why would you ever willingly let go of all that gold, anyway?





We made it to Morningmist, and in reasonably close to one piece!



Can't say the same for our clothes, though...



Zanthia fixes that problem in a snap.

Much better! Hey, everything has fallen out of my knapsack.

Aw, all our carefully collected crap! To help you deal with all the random red herrings in this game, whenever you change to a new area, the game takes away all the excess items. This also means it's impossible to go past a point of no return missing a critical item, unlike the previous game. Shame about the Alchemist's Magnet though. Nothing to do now but start collecting a new pile of garbage!



That looks like a good start. It must be the letter the dragonfly wanted us to deliver. Next time, we'll explore our new surroundings, deliver that letter, and see if we can figure out what our next destination is.