Part 6: Wherein a Revolution is Staged

Chapter 4: Wherein a Revolution is Staged



(Music: Mysterious Jungle)

We're back at the Dog Fort. Last time, we talked to that white kitty over there pulling the wagon - in a different spot, but the conversation is the same everywhere - and she told us to go find Fluffy, who is leading the revolution to overthrow the imperialist dogs who have taken over the island.

You might notice Malcolm is standing kind of weird. I'm sure it's nothing, though. So to find this Fluffy character, we need to venture out into the jungle.



And as I'm sure you'll remember, the jungle is vast and non-Euclidean and I don't have a map, so I just stumble around haplessly for a while on the west side of the Dog Fort.



Eventually you'll find yourself in this little spot of jungle with a cat hiding behind a tree.



Hey, psst yourself. Who are you?

I am Fluffy. Are you with the revolution?



Against the capitalist Dogs!

Why do you need MY help?



The Altar of Mouseification must be repaired.

That must be the altar in front of the giant mouse statue we saw earlier. I don't see what that has to do with securing food supplies, however. It was just a bunch of stone balls in the middle of nowhere.

Why can't you fix it?

The coast is not safe for Cats!



Further conversation with Fluffy just makes him repeat these lines. In order to get him to help us out, we need to lie to him and say we're with the revolution.

So, are you with us?





The Altar of Mouseification must be repaired.



For our trouble, we get a leather mouse and some points.

A leather mouse.

There's nothing special about it as far as we can tell, but Fluffy seems to think it's vital to repairing their altar, so let's go back there and see what we can find out.



Rubbing the mouse against the altar itself doesn't seem to do anything. Fluffy mentioned the colossi, though.

Hmm. Cats do like mice.



I don't quite follow the logic, but sure, let's give it a try. Also, are you okay there, Malcolm? You seem itchy. At any rate, the game gladly gives us some Wild Guess points for our trouble, and then...





Somehow, the leather mouse contains the magic to turn the gigantic stone boulders into gigantic stone statues of what looks like cat gods or something like it. It's not really clearly stated anywhere, but Fluffy implied the colossi had been turned into balls somehow, probably by the dogs. I'm not really sure what the logic behind all this is, but whatever, we've got cat statues now.



I'll say. Sadly, the power to repair cat statues is not likely to impress captain Barbecue, so we'll need to keep searching for some magic that will.



Here are the other three statues.

I wonder if there's a way to activate these?

We're not quite done with the statues, but there's nothing more we can do here right now. Time to check out that little cave in the Dog Fort that we've avoided until now.



On the way there, however, disaster strikes.





Nice! Very glamorous! Terminal fleas.

Yeah, that's what the itching was all about. The dogs around these parts aren't terribly hygienic, as it turns out. Spending any amount of time around them gradually gives Malcolm more and more fleas. Go too long without fixing the problem and... well. Terminal fleas. Sometimes this death can be triggered by saving/loading the game, so if it weren't for that Second Chance option in the death dialog, you could screw yourself over here. Fortunately, that option exists, so you can just click that and you'll get a chance to fix things before moving on.



Getting rid of fleas is as simple as clicking Malcolm while he's scratching himself. The flea is an inventory item and you can carry it around with you if you like, but you really have no reason to. Dropping them in the room makes them vanish. All in all, I removed about seven or eight fleas here.



Time to check out those ruins. This is where the portal potion took us, as you'll recall. It's quite dark in here, though.

It doesn't look very safe here.





Hey, Mr. Wallenda, how many times have I told you to be careful?

This is a reference to a German troupe of acrobatic circus performers, of all things. The ruins are too dark to safely traverse, but we do need to go down there to make any further progress, so we need to find a light source of some kind.



The key is in this otherwise anonymous-looking jungle location. It's actually the room directly east of the Dog Fort, which helps a little. Time to get machete-in'.



Removing the bush in the bottom right corner reveals a small hole in the ground. This particular bush doesn't block your path, so you might not normally think to look for it. It's also the only bush that doesn't grow back once you leave the room.



The ruins are now nice and bright.

I hope this place doesn't collapse on me.

Yeah, it doesn't look very safe. Any other interesting thoughts to contribute?



I do wonder where that Enchanted Knife came from.

Whoa, wait. What. Where is this coming from? We know you killed the king. It was in the introduction video and everything. Let's just move on.



This room is still dark, though. There are some interesting reliefs on the back wall, there, though. They look kind of like the statues back at the altar. Maybe the mouse will work.

Hmm. Let's see if this has any effect.



Yeah, that's those statues all right.

What an attractive hieroglyphic.

I don't think that's what that word means. So what's the deal with these? They match the ones we saw earlier, but what's the point of this room?



Let's try the mouse again.



Whoa, trippy. Let's try the others.











So. From left to right, the cat statues show us visions of the moon, the sun, rain, wind, lightning, and fire respectively. Clearly this is a clue of some sort, but it's only half the puzzle. We don't know what to do with this information yet.



Hmm. Maybe Kallak knew about the knife.

Again with this? What is it about the cat ruins that's bringing this out, now? Moving on.



There is one feature of the jungle we've been strategically overlooking before now. Do you see it? Of course not, we need to cut down the damn bushes first.



How about now? It's right near where the cursor is.



For some reason, the jungle is full of gross old bones. Sometimes killing piles of snakes gives you bones, sometimes you just find them littering the place. I'm really not sure what's going on, there. Remnants of prey animals?



Dogs like bones, right?

Here's something for your pantry.

Thanks.



Hey, would you look at that. Duke went and buried the bone, as dogs do, and in the process uncovered something.



Precious metals! This is reminiscent of the birthstone puzzle from the first game, and that should be quite worrying.

So here's where the game gets incredibly stupid. There are six gems in total, and as you might have figured, they have something to do with the cat altar. We need all of them, and they're all buried here, in the Dog Fort. However...



... Duke is not guaranteed to exhume a gemstone when you give him a bone. As far as I can tell, the process is completely random. You can place the bones on the ground instead and he'll dig where you drop it, but there's no indication where the gems are buried. At least Duke will never dig up the same spot twice.



Furthermore, bones are not guaranteed to spawn. Sometimes, a room has none, sometimes one or two at most. This is the part of the game where the developers, for some godforsakenly unfathomable reason, decided that grinding for random drops was an appropriate and fun mechanic to subject the player to.

You can savescum by giving Duke a bone and reloading if he doesn't dig up a gem, but wrestling with the menu is no more fun and doesn't save as much time as you'd think.



Fortunately for you, we're skipping over all that. It took me 36 bones to get Duke to dig up all the gemstones for me. This is not the most annoying puzzle in the game, but it sure is a candidate.



Back to the cat altar. The gemstones have something to do with the colossi, so...

Let's try this gem on the altar.



I think the solution should be fairly clear by now: each gemstone corresponds to an element, and each element corresponds to a cat deity. The ruby is fire, the topaz is the sun, the diamond is the moon, the amethyst is rain, the emerald is wind, and the sapphire is lightning.



All we need to do is insert the right gem in the right statue, and...



Good work! Let's take that magic and go make arrangements to get off this rock!



Crystal mouse, huh. I wonder what it does...



Oh great. This is just fantastic.



Go scare some elephants?

Fluffy did say this was the Altar of Mouseification. The crystal mouse is indeed more powerful than the leather mouse, having the ability to transform people into mice. I'm not sure I want to think about why the cat-people would want something like this, and at any rate, we're stuck as a mouse now. Let's go find Fluffy and see if he can help us.



Somehow, it seems repairing the altar did indeed facilitate the overthrow of the dogs. The sesame cart is gone, and in its place is a lazily lounging cat.



The cat isn't interested in eating us, fortunately. With the sesame cart gone, we have to traverse the jungle to get where we want. Thankfully, Fluffy is located just one screen right of the altar.



Yeah, sure, but I'm a mouse! I hope for your sake you can do something about me being a mouse now?

You'll need some cheese.

I don't have any. Where can I get some?



That's a noxious stereotype.

Here, eat some of mine.



Okay, we're safe. The Crystal Mouse should impress captain Barbecue and his team. All we need to do now is hack our way through the jungle to get there.



Here we are.

So, where's the magic, Mister Wizard?





Good work! They've got to be impressed with that magic, don't they?

I'm sure the pirates will be thrilled that I cursed one of their crewmates to a mousy future.





Alright. I admit I see some potential with this magic. Ye've got yerself a ride, jester.



Oh god yes, let's. With Jean-Claude Barbecue and his crew of salty dogs and one mouse suitably convinced of our magical might, it's finally time to sail back to Kyrandia and get some proper revenge! Next time.