Part 12: Wherein the Anchor Stone is Retrieved

Last time in Kyrandia, we jumped down a hot steam vent and then this happened! Why did we think this would work?





This trip has been really hard on my wardrobe.

Welcome to the center of the world! We've made it more or less intact, although the same cannot be said for our dress. You can see a scrap of it stuck on a rock in the top-left corner of the room, actually. The center of the world seems to consist mostly of rocks, lava, and clusters of emerald. And a stray starfish, because why not. We lost our inventory in the fall, so we're down to just the magnet again.

We can go right across the emerald bridge, or left. Let's do left first for no reason other than that it's closer.



Hey! That must be the door to the Altar.

Also, a dinosaur. We're in Jules Verne territory now. Well, let's check out that door - it's the only thing standing between us and the anchor stone we're after.



Wait, what.

Hmm. Locked. Mr. Triceratops is blocking the way!

So, uh. When I recorded this, the game glitched the hell out in this room, several times over. Something is seriously wrong with the pathfinding in here. I don't remember the original game ever doing this, so it must be a ScummVM issue. What's supposed to happen is the triceratops is blocking your way to the door, and if you get past him, the door is locked anyway. Instead, what you get is Zanthia walking on nothing and ending up offscreen before complaining about both of those things. Once you get into that position, you're stuck. I managed to get this to happen with Zanthia ending up in a variety of different, weird positions.



Let's just pretend none of that ever happened. Point is, we can't get to the altar yet. Let's pick up that bottle and be on our way for now.



Next up is the other side of the emerald bridge.



This place is spectacular!

And that's a T-Rex. There's also more lava, more crystals, and for some reason, palm trees. Remember what I said earlier about Zanthia being telekinetic or something?



You can pick up this stick even though it's sitting on a little island separated from Zanthia by a ten foot wide stream of molten rock. Strangely, you can't pick up the suspicious-looking rock next to it. I remember you being able to do that in the original though, so maybe this is another ScummVM issue. Let's check out that sweet tyrannosaurus!



... but I wish I had something to use for bait.

A little more risky than what I had in mind, and I'm not sure what that will accomplish? On the other hand, it sounds metal as hell, so yeah, sure, let's ride a goddamn T-Rex through the center of the earth. We need some bait though. What could we use for bait? Our inventory is not exactly burgeoning with useful items. For now, let's move on to the only place we haven't been, which is to the north of this location.



More lava, more crystals, another dinosaur. When you enter this room, Zanthia automatically start talking before you have a chance to look at anything.

Hmm. Black pebbles on the ceiling. Why do I have the feeling I'm going to have to make a teddy bear to use for bait down here?

So... yeah. Zanthia just comes right out and spoils the puzzle for us. There's not really any reason for her to do it either, since we have so few items to work with and the usual principle of "when in doubt, look through the spellbook for any recipe that matches the items you happen to have on hand" would have gone a great way towards solving the puzzle organically.

We need to get at those pebbles, but we can't quite reach them right now. We can have a look at the dinosaur though.



Dinosaurs are pretty much dogs anyway, aren't they. Sitting just behind Zanthia is a lump of lead, which we'll pocket for no reason that's obvious right now.



Okay, time to get those pebbles. That stick we picked up earlier turns out to be just what we need. Use it on the dinodog, and...



Dawww. He's just like a puppy. We can use the stick on him a second time to repeat the performance, with one small difference.



Tricking the poor dinodog makes him ram headfirst into the wall, which causes some rocks to collapse over by the steam vent underneath the black pebbles. I'm sure you all see where this is going.





The game is really insisting that we make a teddy bear potion, so let's look at the list of ingredients.



The pebbles we just picked up will do great for what I assume are the bear's eyes. Next we need a "heart of gold" and some fuzz for filling. Now that you mention it, that lump of lead we picked up earlier is a kind of heart-shaped, isn't it?



One whack of the magnet later, and we have ourselves a heart of gold. Now for the most bullshit part of this puzzle. We need "fuzz". Where are we going to get something fuzzy down here?



The palm trees on the other side of the river of lava, of course! No, this puzzle doesn't make any sense. Telepathic item pickup is back in full force, and there is no indication that you would be able to get "crystal palm fuzz", whatever that is, from clicking the tree on the other side of the river, but that is the solution.

Anyway, fuzz in hand, we can brew up that teddy bear potion.



Like the sandwich and shoes, the potion turns into an actual teddy bear when we use it on Zanthia.



Of course it did! You made it! Why are you acting surprised?

The next step would be to use the teddy bear on the T-Rex and go for a ride. Or so you would think, but...



So the teddy bear is not the bait we want, then? No, it is. The game just doesn't approve of you using the bear on the dinosaur directly. Instead, if expects you to just click the T-Rex with an empty mouse cursor to trigger the event. The center of the world portion of this game is not very well designed - or implemented.

I bet I could jump on his back...













Whee! That was fun, but what was the point of it?



We got the piece of cloth that got ripped off our dress back. Why we needed it so badly, or why Zanthia couldn't just rip another piece of the one she was wearing and wardrobe herself a new dress, is a mystery.

Either way, we now have all we need to get into the altar room. Let's go check on that triceratops.



You'll notice the triceratops has moved. It actually does this every time you leave the scene and come back. The door remains locked, but now that we have a suitably red piece of cloth, we can do something about that. I bet you've already figured out where this is going.



Olé!



All right, we made it! And there's a whole pile of anchor stones right there, ripe for the picking! You know, I expected the actual anchor stones to be a bit... bigger than that, but hey, at least it's more practical this way. Finally, at long last, our quest is over.

Video: Chamber of the Anchor (Youtube)



I found it!



Hey, there's no need for pushing! There's plenty of stones to go around.

Bimbo!

Come on and try! I think you're chicken.



Wait what where did you come from

Thank goodness I found you!



What.

Marko! What do you mean? And how did you open that portal?

Hurry up and get in here... we have to get up to the Wheels of Fate! That's why everything is disappearing!



Whoa hey what was that about.

Say, he's cute. Ta ta!



Oh no! I think it's time to give Faun yet another buzz... Zanthia to Faun... Zanthia to Faun...



And why are you trying to set my carpet on fire, you little shit?

And where's Marko?

Marko and the Hand just left. Big hurry.

Open another portal. I've got to come back.



Because you spent them all on ear-enlargement potions?

Great! What's this about the Wheels of Fate?

Up in the clouds, past the Enchanted Forest.



Swell. I'll start heading that way, but you look for more blueberries so you can open another portal. I don't want to have to walk the whole way.

So, to recap: Just as we were about to get our hands on the anchor stone, which was supposed to have the power to save Kyrandia from disappearing into the void, Marko shows up and informs us that the entire game up to this point has been one giant wild goose chase. Furthermore, the real problem is somewhere we've never heard of called the Wheels of Fate. We're now stuck at the center of the earth with no easy way to get to where we need to go.

Fantastic.



We can grab an anchor stone, but there hardly seems to be any point now.



The spellbook page Marko left behind is more interesting.





The page contains the Party Favors potion and the Play Room spell. The latter has some seriously weird ingredients. Okay, so step one right now has to be to get out of the center of the earth. Finding a way to the Wheels of Fate is secondary.



See that little lava pool with the rock floating in the middle of it? It's time for a little creative geology.



There's a heavy rock sitting over here. There are several of them scattered around this place - four, to be exact. We need all of them.







Remember all those clues we got for how to get down here in the first place? Vents and rocks. The same clue will help us again. See that little red lava vent just to the left of Zanthia in the above screenshot?



Boop. The vent is now blocked, diverting pressure elsewhere. There are four rocks, and four vents we need to plug. Apart from this room, there are vents in the emerald bridge room, the triceratops room, and the Chamber of the Anchor.



After blocking all the vents, all the pressure has been redirected to this little lava pool, which is now bubbling violently and just moments away from erupting. And that's our ticket out of here.



That's quite some pressure there. Will Zanthia be all right? What is this strange floating island we seem to have landed on? Find out next time.