Part 13: Wherein an Old Friend Returns

Chapter 8: Wherein an Old Friend Returns

Last time, Malcolm made it out of Limbo and into the Underworld, which to everyone's surprise was not all fire and brimstone, but a beach resort full of Australians. Much to Malcolm's dismay, he was booted out due to a clerical error, and dumped... here.



Music: The Boondocks

I can't believe they're making me go back to the surface! This can't be what they expect me to ride out of here.

There's nothing else in the room with which to interact, so I suppose we're using this odd screw-like contraption to make it out of the Underworld and to whatever strange new location awaits. Tally-ho!





Hey, would you look at that. We're back in Kyrandia, and it looks to be night time now. The drill machine fell apart, but it's not like we need it any more.



Oh, we dislodged that rock on the side there coming up. Some pretty sparklies flew out. I wonder if that's significant.



Whoa hey who are you.

Hmm. Sorry, pal, it's been sort of a hectic day.



Stewart? Who's Stewart?

Permit me to introduce myself. I'm Stewart, the good half of your conscience.

You might remember this guy from the intro, where Gunther knocked him under a falling rock, crushing him. I'm not sure if the game is implying that Malcolm going to the underworld and coming back revived him, or if he was just stuck under that rock all these years and we physically dislodged it enough for him to slip out.



Gunther here does not give good advice at all.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why don't you get lost again? We really have no use for your kind anymore.

I believe in all fairness that you should be the one to leave, Gunther. You've had him all to yourself for years, and look where it's gotten him!

Decades, by the looks of it.

Oh, brother. This is all I need.



What.

You decide which of these idiots I should keep, and who should go. I'll accept your decision, whatever it is.



So after that bit of outright fourth wall breakage, we have a choice again. We can choose to keep Gunther around, or ditch the devil and let Stewart guide us from now on, or keep both of them. Now, there is a real difference between these. The endgame is slightly different depending on which one you choose. However, the general progression is pretty close, with the differences being a few minor puzzles working out differently, and the ending itself is practically the same, so it's not worth putting it up to a vote. I'm going to choose to go with both Gunther and Stewart for now, and we'll explore the differences in a later update.



Well, the road to virtue is never easy.

Grooooaaannnnnn! Oh, great! This prude is all we need!



This has been a pretty rough day for Malcolm, all things considered.



One thing to note is that we don't have a mood gauge any more. From now on, our interactions with other people are entirely dependent on which choice of conscience we made. Well, now that we're back in Kyrandia, we might as well go and see how our old apartment is doing. The teleporter to town should be nearby.

Music: Back in Kyrandia

By the way, the music in this part of the game is some of my favorite in the entire game.



Huh, that's strange. The teleporter appears to be broken. There's a big crack straight across it and everything. I suppose we'll have to walk.



The mime has left too, and the door to the bath house is wide open. Peculiar.



Whoa hey, you're familiar. It's one of those pirates we hired way back when. What are you guys still doing here?



Oh. Well, that kind of explains it.

Oh, great.

What? I'd think these guys would be your friends.

By the look of it, after betraying Malcolm, the pirates sailed right back to Kyrandia and used the mouse magic to take over the country without us. As previously mentioned, the mouse magic is really pretty lame - especially since all it seems to take to break the curse is to eat some cheese - but it sure seems to have worked for Barbecue and pals.



Well, here I am. How about getting out of my country?

Maybe. Maybe not.

So, what do I have to do?



... by bringing us all the jewels from the Isle of Cats!

Aww, man. That's referring to the six jewels we used to activate the colossus on the Isle of Cats, all of which are presumably still there. On the Isle of Cats. If we're going to get those back, we have to arrange transportation... again. Let's see if Brandon or Kallak have anything interesting to say.



Hello, Brandon. Does "The Ends of the Earth" ring any bells?

You wouldn't happen to have any sesame, would you?

You pathetic wretch! There was a time when I would have gladly slain you. How sad that my anger must now turn to pity!

Wow, harsh. And unnecessarily florid.

Does that mean you don't have any sesame?

Get a spine, you puppy!

All right, nothing useful there. Kallak, then.



Your precious Mystic magic didn't help much, did it?

I must be released! Perhaps you could take my place.

I don't think they want to switch hostages. You're far too important.

Your lack of cooperation will be noted in your file!

YOU have the nerve to threaten MY reputation?

Nope, they're both useless.



Fortunately, the pirates will just let us leave no problem. Before we go trying to find a way to get back to the Isle of Cats... again... let's look around the place.



The dump looks more or less the same. We can pick up our old acorn-on-a-string here as well as the usual junk items. All we need right now is a bent nail and that piece of firewood in the background.



The bath house is now called the "Ex-Baths", and we can actually go inside now.



And there's our old pal Herman. Looks like he avoided mousification somehow.

Malcolm! What are you doing here?

Herman the mercenary! I see you still switch sides easily.

What can I say? I've got to go with the flow.

I'm not sure it's fair to say Herman switches allegiances that easily, given that last time that happened it was literally because of a magic curse Malcolm cast on him. No such excuse this time, though.



At this moment, I'm selling this beautiful item: Happiness!

So, the deal here is Herman will sell you random items. However, at this stage of the game, we have no way of paying for any of it, so instead he will just offer intangible or invisible things like "happiness" or "a barbecue set" or the like.

So, if this is a pawn shop now, what will you buy?

I have to be very careful with my inventory decisions. Right now, the only thing I'm willing to purchase is...



Likewise, he will buy random items from you if you have them. You might think this means you could sell him something and then use the profits to buy some of the intangible garbage, but there's a certain value differential involved that will become evident much later. We don't actually need to muck around with Herman on this path anyway, so we're free to move on.

At least one Kyrandian seems to be prospering in the new regime.

Yes, but shouldn't he be more worried about King Brandon?



Kyrandia is otherwise much the same as before, just darker.



Downtown has a few changes. The toy factory is now open, but the city hall has been sealed up and is no longer lockpickable.



Toy factory looks unchanged.



We can go into the fish cream parlor, but the pirates wrecked the machine and there's no one around to run it anyway. The only place left to go is the magician's lodge; it's locked, but the nail we grabbed from the garbage dump solves that problem.



Music: Temporary Jail

Well, would you look at that. Looks like the bath attendant, the fish cream clerk and Zanthia all got mousified and locked up in the lodge for good measure. At least they have some food.



None of them are especially talkative. They just want to be free of that pillory. Fortunately, we still have that nail.

Ha! I wouldn't waste the effort on these cretins.

No man is an island, Malcolm. You'll need some friends somewhere!

Okay, I guess I'll let you out.





They did leave their lunch behind, though. We'll swipe it; we get an eel, some sesame and a bottle of water for our trouble. Now, let's see if we can sneak into the town hall. The door is boarded up, but there is another way in; if you'll remember, the town hall connects to the basement where Darm's teleporting rug is, and there's another way to get into the basement.



It's where the hole in the toy factory comes out. This place looks much the same. We can fish for eels here and everything. Right now, though, we're interested in the town hall proper.



Ah, Zanthia is here, and she managed to unmouse herself. Looks like she stashed all her gear in here when the pirates took over.

Why is the door outside blocked?



And the Voice of Reason is active, too. He's not very useful to us right now, though.

I can do nothing until Kyrandia is free.

Maybe Zanthia has any ideas.

Malcolm, I thought you'd never get here.

The pirates are asking for six large jewels.

Almost all Kyrandian magic is shut down. Where can we get large jewels?

Hmm. There are those jewels on the Isle of Cats.

The pirates explicitly asked for those jewels, actually.



Sure! Make me a Pegasus Potion! Hurry! What's the matter?

I'll need some Essence of Horse. Unless you can find some, and soon, we're doomed!

We've solved this puzzle before, and the solution is the same as last time. We can get back out by climbing up the same pipe we used to get down to the basement in the first place.



Don't complain, pal. It worked!



Using the firewood we picked up earlier and the right settings, we can make a rocking horse.



And just like last time, it's close enough to essence of horse to work.

Wonderful! It worked! I always knew you were okay.





Back at the pegasus platform, and we're ready to... sigh... go back to the goddamn Isle of Cats again. I feel like the game is repeating itself.

I'm ready. Let's go!

Not too fast, okay?



We'll pick right back up at the Isle of Cats next time.