Part 9: Interlude: No Business Like Show Business

Interlude: No Business Like Show Business



Today, we're going to have a look at another way to get off Kyrandia. Two ways, actually, since they're pretty close to each other.

There are a whole bunch of rooms back in Kyrandia that we haven't been to yet, because we didn't need to in order to do the previous escapes. They're to the left of this location, the Bluff.



The Crossroads is immediately to the west. In general, there's not much interesting here. Some flowers. A rock. Mostly it just connects to other, more interesting locations. There's also a random event that can happen here, which we'll look at a little later. For now, let's go north.



You might remember this place from the first game. Brandon talked to his departed mother here in order to activate the final gem in his amulet.

I suppose I should try to explain things to Katherine. She has to know I didn't kill her.

This is also where this plot thread first appears if you're just randomly exploring Kyrandia.



That said, Malcolm clearly didn't think very highly of her in the first place. Let's have a chat.



Who's this guy? He reminds me of the ghost from the second game that we used to possess a scarecrow. Is it tradition in Kyrandia to bury royalty with their servants or something?

[ghost] If you wish to speak with her, two flowers would be the polite gesture.



Right. In the first game, we had to bring a red orchid from the mainland in order to be able to talk with ghost mom. Seems the underworld has gotten more stingy with their retainer fees lately. Well, there are some yellow flowers over there that look vaguely orchid-like. Those should work.



Okay, then. The orchids make monkey noises as they leap away, resisting our efforts at picking them. We'll come back here later. For now, let's see what's south of the crossroads.



That could be my ride off this island.

It certainly could! Look at that snazzy dog, too. I'm sure he'll let us ride his boat to the Isle of Cats.



Right. Darm mentioned this earlier. The circus has just been in town, and I guess this is their boat.

I look like I belong in a circus, don't I?

Sorry. We're leaving soon. You'll have to stay up here.





Maybe if we lie and tell him we're part of the circus he'll let us get on?

I'm supposed to go with you.

I don't think so. Please, don't ask. You know the rules.



I don't think so.

He's not buying it. This dog is too smart for us. We need to convince him we're part of the circus and belong on that boat. Now, there are two ways we can do this, and I'm going to cover both here.



All right, so, remember the toy factory? Malcolm's apartment is in the back there, and the hole in the ground leads to the city hall basement. We've been ignored the machine in the middle of the room up until now.



We can fiddle with the levers, and the green button on the right activates the machine, but nothing much happens. It spins its gears a little and then... nothing. Let's have a look at that big red book in the background. Perhaps it contains the instructions to this thing.



Clicking the book made a ghostly horse pop out.



After fiddling with the settings some more, the book now instead shows us a ghostly toy ball.



When the levers are in the upright position, we're shown a toy soldier. So, the book's purpose is to show you what configuration the machine is currently set to, but configuration is only half the puzzle. We need to provide the machine with some appropriate raw materials to make toys out of.

For this puzzle, we need to make ourselves a set of leather balls. To do that, the obvious raw material is leather.



For instance, this shoe we found in the trash heap. We'll just jam it into the hopper up there.



Instant toy ball!



That's nice, Malcolm. Now, we need to make two more balls, and we need more leather to do that. We could go back to the dump and rummage through it randomly until we find more old discarded shoes, but there are some alternate sources of leather that will work just as well.



In an alternate timeline, we stole a leather jerkin from the public baths in order to wear it as a disguise. But, as it is made of leather, we can also use it with the toy machine.



Two balls, one more to go. The jerkin does respawn, so if we wanted to, we could go back there once again and pick it up. But there is a third source of leather...





RIP squirrel.

We could go straight to the docks from here, but there is something we need to cover first.



First, we'll need a broken glass bottle from the dump. For what we're about to do, we can also use the scissors from the prison, or the shears from the chain gang, but the bottle can be gotten straight away without having to do any of that.



Y'see, the broken bottle has some sharp edges on it.



Enough to make a clean grab at one of the jumpy orchids, I guess? I'm not entirely sure why this works but just picking them doesn't. Seems to me the flowers would try to escape either way.



With two monkey jumpers - that's what the orchids are called, appropriately enough - we can finally have a chat with Catherine's ghost.



How is it that such a brutal, evil murderer can still be free in Kyrandia? You should be rotting in the Dungeon of Dismay.



Okay, geez, calm down. We get it.



How can you claim you didn't kill us?

It was the Enchanted Knife!

Your hand was on the blade!





Whelp, that's all we're going to get out of that one. You can keep putting flowers on her grave, but you'll just keep having the same conversation. This bit is completely optional, and is really only there for some plot setup, as far as I can tell.



Oh well, time to move on. Now that we have three balls in our inventory, all we have to do is use one on Malcolm.

I'd like to audition for a job.



Hey, you have real talent, pal! You're hired!

Excellent!









I can't believe they threw you overboard and cancelled the performance.

I can't believe they didn't like my juggling.

And that's the juggler escape: make three leather balls with the toy factory, then impress the circus dog with your juggling skills and he'll let you leave Kyrandia with the rest of the circus troupe. We didn't really impersonate a circus performer so much as get ourselves recruited as one, though...

There is a second way to get onto the circus boat.



This guy kinda looks like he might be a circus performer, right? If only we could find some way to impersonate him.



First, we need an eel.



Then, we just need to wait for the mime to turn around. You'll notice Malcolm is wearing a snazzy squirrel hat; it's going to become necessary in short order, too. Anyway, with eel in hand, we can proceed.



Now we're having fun!



Once again, we'll use the nail on a string to jimmy our way into the bath house.



You'll notice the leather jerkin is gone; in its place is the mime's outfit. We can now proceed to steal it the same way we did before; lie to the attendant about mucking with the controls, turn the heat up, and take the outfit while he's distracted.



Before we can put it on, we need to unhypnotize the squirrel. It's as simple as using the nut on a string on ourselves.

This smelly mime outfit might look good...



And there we go. We're now successfully disguised as a mime. The disguise works just as well as the leather jerkin for purposes of interacting with other Kyrandians, but more importantly, we can go back and talk to the circus dog again.



Ah. Apparently the mime is the captain of the vessel, and the dog is completely fooled. Our disguise is flawless.

We're just about ready to leave. Did you bring me a fish cream sandwich?

Looks like we forgot something.

Why would I bring you a fish cream sandwich?

Smooth.

You said you would get one for me.

I'm sorry.



Okay, I'll get you a sandwich. Anything else? A pillow, a nice beverage?

We're not quite done. The dog won't let us embark unless we get him the fish cream sandwich we promised him. Er, the mime promised him. Now, I've already shown you one way to do this - scare everyone out of the parlor, collect some cream and eels and sesame, and you're done. But there is another way.



This kid. He randomly spawns in a number of different locations, and I've avoided showing him before now. He looks pretty radical, but most importantly, he has a fish cream sandwich. Perhaps he can be persuaded to give it to us.



Uh

What?



This should be a fascinating conversation.

Here's the voice clip for that line. If you've played the previous game in this series, Hand of Fate, or read the LP, you might be thinking this kid must have a little bit of yeti in him. And, indeed, just like the yeti in that game, the kid is talking backwards. The subtitles aren't random, either; there's a simple substitution pattern.

Sdfr ralowfid sarsur jmtry! This sandwich tastes lousy!



(Voice clip) Do you have any toys?

You've got a tremendous personality, don't you?

If you have the patience to decode his speech, you'll get a hint that the kid is interested in getting his hands on some toys. It's a fairly logical thing to try even without the hint, though. All kids like toys, right?



Back to the toy factory. The kid wasn't very specific about what toy he wanted, so we'll make of each. Aside from the leather ball, that means a toy horse and a toy soldier. For those two, we need a piece of firewood from the screen east of town each.



One of these should do it.



I ran into him in this location next.

Here, kid! Go play in the street!

Lm sdalhr. No thanks.

Maybe a different toy?



Sdalhr. Thanks.



This offering was apparently acceptable. I don't know if the game chooses which toy he wants at random, or if it's always that one, or what. Either way, he gave us his fish cream sandwich in exchange, so we should be ready to go!



Thanks. I love these sandwiches.



Let's go, then.







I can't believe they threw you overboard and cancelled the performance.

I wonder how they found out I wasn't the captain. Maybe it was that... incident.

And with that, we've covered the mime escape. These are probably the ones that are most likely to occur to people playing the game for the first time, since you're likely to find the boat while randomly exploring and Malcolm directly comments that it's a way of getting off the island.