Part 16: Wherein a Ghost Testifies, and Provides a Conclusion

Chapter 10: Wherein a Ghost Testifies, and Provides a Conclusion



Welcome back to the final chapter in the legend of Kyrandia. We've come a long way, and we're nearly there. Last time, Malcolm tricked the pirates with the fish queen's choker, and Kyrandia is free once more. Well, mostly. There are still a lot of mouse-people walking around, including the king and his advisor back there.

From here on, your choice of conscience matters less. There are a few minor differences, and I'll mention them when we come across them, but the puzzles are mostly the same.



You know I have committed no crimes, Kallak.

We can't do anything else in here right now, so let's head out.



Music: Back in Kyrandia (This is still the best track in the game. Listen to it.)

It sure is sweet. So what do we do now? We accomplished what we set out to do and got rid of the pirates, but surely this isn't the end of the game. In order to get a clue on what to do, we have to leave this screen and come back.



Please! Give us some cheese! I'm tired of being a mouse.

Leaving and coming back frees Brandon and Kallak from their bonds - if not their mousification - and dumps whatever gems you gave to the pirates on the ground in front of the castle. People in Kyrandia have really strange ideas about the value of precious minerals.

Your father's going to return for my trial, you know.

What?

I'll be performing a Royal Séance.

Actually, I don't remember him.

Brandon would've been an infant when all this went down, so that's not so odd. At any rate, we have a clue, then: We need to arrange for a séance to clear Malcolm's name. We'll scoop up all those gems while we're at it. Since we still have that cheesemaker, we also have a choice of whether to unmouse Brandon and Kallak or not.



Which I'm going to do.

What? Why would you waste perfectly good cheese on them?

I think it would be a nice gesture of reconciliation.



Well, charity does begin at home.



Oh, that Kallak. We had the option to do this, by the way, because Stewart is with us. If we'd opted for Gunther, he would've stopped us from giving them any cheese. Small difference at this stage, but it's there.

So, if we're going to put ourselves on trial, we need a judge.



Like this guy. Zanthia seems to have left, meanwhile.

... let's get on with the trial! I don't think those pirates will be bothering Kyrandia any more.



How on earth are we going to do that?

Show me the artifacts you plan to use to summon William's ghost.

Right. Let's think back to what we learned you need to do to perform a Royal Séance, all the way back in Limbo: You need seven people who want the king to return, a way to see back in time, and a portrait of the deceased. We know where to find the latter; Malcolm had a photo album back in his apartment with a portrait of William.



Unfortunately, it looks like someone kinda trashed the place while we were gone.



Fortunately, the page is still here; it's just hidden under the bed. How you're supposed to know to click on those few pixels is beyond me.

This is a good likeness of William.

That's one part of the puzzle, but we still need something to see back in time with. There doesn't seem to be any newspapers lying around this time. Actually, I'm not at all sure how we're supposed to know this, since there are no clues that point to it, but we have come across such an artifact already.



It's this thing: Marko's magic cabinet. We trashed it in one of the alternate timelines, but no one ever actually told us what it does.

But we don't have the required seven people.

I can override that requirement just long enough for us to get a preview.

Very convinent.





Malcolm did not kill us. There is a curse on the Enchanted Knife. Any person of Royal Kyrandian blood who touches the blade will be stabbed to death.

... well, that sure is enlightening. All that weird plot foreshadowing from way, way back is coming back in force, now. With the cabinet and the crumpled portrait, we're two down, one to go. Next, we need to gather up some people to witness the séance.

Once again, the game is refusing to give us any good clues. But there is one place where we've seen large numbers of people before:



The Fish Cream Parlor. Of course, the place is not really operational right now. The clerk is a mouse, and the machine is wrecked. If we want to get the people back in here, we need to repair that machine. There are two ways of getting the job done; an easy way and a hard way. The easy way is only available if we have Stewart with us, which we do.



A quick spin of the cheesemaker, and we can unmouse the clerk.



Wonderful! You're becoming a caring, sensitive person after all!

Caring? Sensitive? No way!

The next time you enter the parlor, the clerk will have fixed the machine. However, if you took the Gunther path, the clerk isn't here, since you never freed him from jail. He's not in jail either, mind you - he's just gone, along with the other prisoners. Instead, to fix the machine, you need to engage in some trading (which you can still do in the other paths if you feel like it).



Malcolm, here again?

I'm going to put myself on trial.

Let me know how it turns out. I like to keep ahead of these things.

Herman's pawn shop is still operating. The difference is from before is...

So, what do you have for sale?

At this moment, I am selling this beautiful item:



... he actually has items for sale now. Every time you enter the pawn shop, he will offer a new random item for sale. It's mostly fairly ordinary items, like leather balls and toy soldiers. If you don't like what's on offer, just exit the shop and come back. In this case, we're looking for a particular item.



This crutch, probably belonging to one of the pirates. Now we just need something to trade for it, and there's only one price Herman will accept.



That's fair. It's yours.

"Fair", right. Herman wants gems, and won't take anything else in exchange for his items, no matter what the item is. We don't really have any other use for them, though, so we'll gladly fork some over in exchange for plot-crucial items.

Before we go, there is one more thing to do. While cycling through Herman's inventory, you'll eventually come across... this.



I don't know about you, but a knife sounds like a great thing to have. Easily worth an emerald or two.

I wouldn't buy that if I was you.

We ARE him, you idiot!

Nonsense, I don't know what you're talking about. It's just a knife.



See, you even get some Not Paying Attention points for doing it. Let's just pick that up, a--



All right, that's... different. Now I don't know about you, but I'm not quite that old, so for now we'll just pretend we are and find out what this is all about, eh?





Oops! That had to hurt!

That was totally uncalled for! I'm going to have to report somebody to the authorities!



So... I guess we found that enchanted knife the ghost of king William was talking about, huh. We already knew from the photo album that Malcolm is royalty, but I guess this confirms it. The knife is always instant death, there's no way to actually get your hands on it.

Let's go fix that sandwich machine.



I'm not sure exactly what we just did there, but the machine sure is fixed!

Say! You're not a bad mechanic!

Splendid! You have some unexpected capacity for honest work, I see.

Big deal. If we had to wait for this moron, the machine would probably never get fixed!

All right, machine fixed. That's not enough to bring the people, though.

Now can you make some sandwiches?

Sorry. We're all out of ingredients.

To recap: to make a fish cream sandwich, you need some fish, some cream, and some sandwich. Er, sesame.



Unfortunately, as you might remember, sesame has become scarce in post-mouse Kyrandia, and what's more, we need quite a lot of it in order to get the cows to come home so we can harvest their cream.



The only source of sesame in Kyrandia right now is Herman. I spend the next few minutes here walking back and forth trying to get Herman to buy something I have available, and end up selling him the machete, a toy horse, and a toy soldier that he'd exchanged for a gem just minutes ago. Three piles of sesame seed is all you need - the gauge still needs to get up to 5, but there's a trick to get a little more mileage out of your seeds.



We also need to spend some time at the dump picking up our nut-on-a-string, a few nails (one of which is used to make some new fishing implements), and a flask. I'm just going to leave the gems on the ground. We don't need them any more.



Back in the cellar, the rug to Darm's place has vanished, but the game doesn't quite seem to realize. At any rate, we'll use the bent-nail-on-a-string to fish up some eels and combine them with two of the sesame seeds.



As you might recall, eel-fertilized seeds make large sprouts, and large sprouts count for two in the feed hopper. Don't forget to fish up a third eel for the sandwich machine, too.



They should be eating grass out on the prairie.

You're right. Maybe we could start a rehabilitation program for them. Or maybe we have more important things to worry about!

Sprouts go in hopper, cows come home, and the cream is flowing.



Open the container with a nail, and we can get ourselves a nice bottle of fresh cream. With that, we have all three ingredients we need: flask of cream, sesame seeds, eel.



Pour them in the hopper, and just like before, we're rewarded with a fish cream sandwich. The parlor should be back in business now, too! Let's leave the parlor and come back to confirm our work.



Hm. No people. Actually, this feels like a half-finished puzzle to me. It seems clear that the intention here is for you to repair the fish cream parlor so that the people will come back and get you the necessary seven witnesses. However, they just... don't. Nevertheless, as we'll soon find out, this is a required step, and an upcoming line of dialogue seems to reinforce the theory that this is supposed to get all the Kyrandians back in one place.

At any rate, now that we have a fish cream sandwich as proof that we fixed the machine, we can go and bring that back to the Voice of Reason. It's also possible it's a bribe. I'm not sure.



Excellent. You have assembled all the required elements.

Yeah, but how are we supposed to get the Kyrandians in here? They won't budge.



Yeah, this is the part that seems to indicate what effect our earlier actions were supposed to have. No matter, the Voice of Reason seems to have this one sorted.





There we are, and the people have finally decided to show up.



Our inventory has been stripped, save for the one item we need, and the Voice won't let us interact with anything else.

Do not waste our time! Summon your witness!



The only thing left to do is to use the portrait on the cabinet and start the séance. Here goes. The moment of truth, and the conclusion we've all been waiting for. Please enjoy.



Video: Ending & Credits

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43vLiR18dyQ





Music: Testimony of King William

Any person of Royal Kyrandian blood who touches the blade will be stabbed to death.

I don't think they're convinced. They think this is just a parlour trick. Isn't there any more convincing proof?

Let us view the events in question... it was many years ago... Malcolm and I were alone in the dining room... we had roasted a delicious Kyrandian pheasant for dinner.



The rest you can see for yourselves.



As you have seen, my faithful cousin Malcolm is innocent! I think you, Kallak, have particular need of delivering an apology!



Music: Finale

This whole odyssey has been annoying, but necessary I suppose.

I'm sorry Malcolm. I owe you an apology.

I love this part of my job!

Eeeuw! You make me sick!

So, does this mean I'm your uncle? Your mother's half-cousin?

Finally! A clean slate! A fresh start! Who could ask for more?

Sure, but what are we going to do for fun now?



What's fun about that?

Virtue is triumphant, and a job is well done, that's what's fun!

Oh yeah? Well I...

I've got an idea: Why don't you both get lost? I'll take charge from here on, thank you!





Yeah, yeah, yeah. You did good. And you scored a lot of points, too!

At this point, someone knocks on the door to Malcolm's apartment.

Music: Ends of the Earth (For some reason)















Another knock.



Uh, excuse us, but Brandon here insists on abdication. That means you, Malcolm, are the new King of Kyrandia.

Hmm! Well then, as my first official act as King, I order you two to go repair the Colossus on the Isle of Cats and turn yourselves back to mice!



If you didn't unmouse Brandon and Kallak, this sequence is instead their mouse selves showing up begging Malcolm to turn them back into humans.



... and a third knock. Poor Malcolm just can't get any rest.



Rowena? And who...



And with that, the game is over! After a long, hard journey that took him literally to Hell and back, Malcolm has finally cleared his name, become the new king of Kyrandia, and is now in charge of his own destiny. I don't want to speculate on exactly what caused that last little scene to be a thing, but I'm sure that happened somehow at some point, too! We never did find out where the Enchanted Knife came from, though... and for all we know Herman still has it in his pawn shop. That's the kind of thing that might come back to haunt you one day. The only difference to the ending other than mouse Brandon/Kallak if you didn't unmouse them is that Stewart/Gunther have slightly different lines if they're on their own, but nothing major.

What follows is the dorkiest credits sequence I've ever seen. It's in the video above if you want to see it.

I hope you've enjoyed this look at the Kyrandia trilogy. Despite its many flaws and shortcomings, I have some fond memories of this series, even if it's difficult to see exactly why sometimes.

Thank you for reading.