Part 10: Zappone and Rumours

Turns out there's only one recap per in-game chapter (or at least the early ones) here, so I'll forgo it entirely this time.

[Music: Puzzles]





2. Pour milk from the 10-litre pitcher into the seven-litre pitcher. Then take the contents of that pitcher and pour what you can into the three-litre pitcher. This leaves you with four litres in the seven-litre pitcher. After that, return the contents of the three-litre pitcher to the 10-litre pitcher and refill the smallest pitcher using the seven-litre pitcher. This should leave you with one litre in the seven-litre pitcher. Next...
3. Now you have one litre left in your seven-litre pitcher. Empty the contents of your smallest pitcher into the 10-litre pitcher, then pour the one litre into the smallest pitcher. You should now have nine litres left in your 10-litre pitcher, so pour seven of them into the middle pitcher. Next, take your newly filled seven-litre pitcher and pour the milk into your three-litre pitcher. You should already have one litre in the small pitcher so...

Every solution posted was 9 moves. How nice and convenient.






It's basically identical to the previous liquid distribution puzzle, only taking a bit longer in the end. Disappointing, but makes some sense.



: Well, this being a restaurant and all, come by and eat whenever you like. It's on the house!

Thanks to how ridiculously often we get these, we've very nearly got them all already.



I suppose I can't blame most of you for skipping over this one since I had to do it myself for progress, and all, but try not to let that impede you.



3. The dice represent an object you are very familiar with. In fact, you probably have one hanging on your wall or strapped to your wrist right now!






Pretty easy one, but makes sense; don't want to block plot progression with something tough this early after all.



No one appeared to fall for the obvious trick, which also makes sense. Already had one that tried to pull "obfuscating the real question with useless information" after all.



2. Do you remember how many mice you started with? Have you considered how many mice you can expect, given that number?
3. Ok, let me spell it out for you. You need your mouse to become pregnant before it will give birth. What does the mouse need in order to become pregnant?






Good thing this wasn't some weird trick question wherein mice could suddenly reproduce asexually or something.



We've only got... 5 of these so far, and yet it was the first one we got. Quite odd that, huh.



The thing about this puzzle that got me the first time was...



I didn't think the answer would be quite so low, so I didn't think about it.

2. You could try and solve this with an algebraic equation, but that's no way to tackle a puzzle! Try to reason your way through this one. Move two years from the brother's age, and the difference in age becomes four years. Move three years, and the difference widens to six years. Four years makes the sister twice as old as the boy. Six years makes her three times as old.
3. The brother and sister were born in the same year.






Or at least that's my excuse and I will stick to it!



: He may look sedate, but, my, does he like the nightlife. He's friends with that party animal Jarvis.
: Jarvis? I don't believe I know the man. Where might we find him?
: Well, you see, Jarvis isn't the type to place much value in being "gainfully employed." At this time of day, he's probably lazing about around those steps to the north. Just head up north until you hit a fork in the road, then take the path to the right. Okay, I have to go now. Let's play again later!



Since we actually need to finish Zappone's island puzzle before we can advance the plot further, could just skip over it until necessary...



Or we can get it out of the way now. I think I prefer that idea.



3. Examine the area around the middle of the island cluster closely.








: Dare I say they approach my own?! It's the eyes, I say. They never lie! And when they do, I know!





Looks to me like even the people that didn't know how to trivialise these beforehand, do so now.



And yet after this one, the game will spell it out for you anyway.








: Well, I'm sorry to say that there's nothing you can do to change fate. You have to just grin and bear it.



Not much to say about this one, but apparently the DS just hates my writing sometimes...



No, that's not a 9. It's quite clearly a 4! I know your handwriting verification isn't that great but there's no excuse for this one (even worse; when I did a 4 the way the DS wants... it decided it was a 2 instead. I don't even know how that one happened).



2. What the father is essentially saying here is that if you add half of his age to the son's age, you'll get the father's age. If that's the case, the son's age must be half of the father's age.
3. As stated in the second hint, half of the father's age is equal to the son's age. To put it another way, the father's age is two times that of his son.








: Sorry for taking up so much of your time. I'll let you get back to what you were doing. Good day.



And that makes 19/20 (I miscounted earlier). Only one more strange gizmo to get and we can finally put it together!



This doesn't give you it, though.



3. As shown in the diagram, the only small cubes that have one side painted are the one located in the dead center of each face of the big cube. Each face of the big cube has only one of these.






[Music: About Town]



Okay, now we can finally go do things! Since Jarvis is just north of the fork in the road where Zappone was.



...This isn't quite where I was expecting to end up. Well, we're in the area so maybe this guy knows something about Ramon's disappearance.



: I could've sworn that I dropped a lovely one somewhere nearby. See, I always seem to be losing things nowadays, and replacing them gets mighty expensive. I've become quite a penny-pincher. Don't suppose you'd mind advising me on a tiny money matter, would you?



Umm, not right now. Maybe we'll come back to it later.



But let's assume we did it now and then spoke to Gerard again. Hypothetically, of course.



: I'm all turned around on this one issue, and I need someone with a level head to help me out. See, it all started a while back when I was on holiday and bought this camera case. I think that sneaky merchant swindled me out of a few pounds.



As much as I would love to help another incredibly frugal person find out if they were scammed out of more money than necessary, I do believe we still have a missing person to find.



Call me crazy, but I think that's more important.

Anyway, now we can head south and talk to Zappone. He should know SOMETHING about Ramon's whereabouts, even if it's where he isn't going to be (other than anywhere in the south side of town).



: Well, let me give you my take on the situation... Well... Um... Hmm...
: Is something the matter?
: Ah, yes, now I remember!



: He owns the village restaurant.

We were there not too long ago and he didn't have anything new to tell us. I question your information!

That said, we don't have any other possible lead, so we might as well go see if he knows something after all.



: But before you run off again, I've got a tip for you. If you want to experience all that St Mystere has to offer, you can't just run from point A to point B. Take some time and explore the village from top to bottom. You'll be glad you did.
: Much appreciated. We'll be sure to give that a try. Come, Luke, we have work to do.

Might seem obvious, given how far in we are already, but being told this now do have a bit of a purpose.

Namely let's turn right back around right now and head north one screen. No reason why, just a hunch.



Lucy comes back now if you've beaten her first puzzle and had the scene with Deke. Naturally there is zero indication of this beyond Deke's super-cryptic message.





Though... we care not for cryptic secrets right now.



Instead let's go find someone else to interrogate that we haven't spoken to already this chapter. Now who fits that description...



: That place brings misfortune upon the village, and I strongly advise you to keep your distance.

I'm sure you have more to say on this manner. Spill it.

: I am a man who likes his templates and forms, and you are a man who likes stamps, yes? I thought so. I have just the puzzle for a man like yourself then. I strongly advise you make yourself useful and solve this puzzle without bothering me about it.



Hey, whoa, what? No.



Let's get outta here and see if Crouton does know anything after all or if he's just gonna send us to someone else to go see someone else to... needless to say this is getting quite silly.



: Sigh... It looks like we've hit another dead end.
: Too bad you couldn't find him. He usually sneaks out of work to come here to gossip and drink coffee. And you know, speaking of gossip, I've heard some weird rumours from my customers lately.



: A kidnapper?!
: Who is this old man?
: I heard all this second-hand, so you got me there. You need to find a better source for village gossip. You might want to try the cafe. Usually, you'll hear rumours straight from the source there. It's almost sunset now, so the cafe should be open for dinner.



[Music: Silence]





: I'm afraid that's my cue to start closing up shop. Come by tomorrow if you get hungry.







: It's all so bizarre. I can't make any sense of it at all, Professor!
: I think we've finally got some clues on our hands, my boy! Observing the nightlife in this village might tell us more of what we need to know.
: Great idea, Professor!







[Music: St Mystere]



Bleh, I really hate this puzzle.

Before worrying about that though, the flag doesn't mean what you think it does this time! No, this is the US version:



See the difference?



Yeah. 10 Picarats in the US version vs 30 in Europe. The puzzle itself? Unchanged. I guess they thought it was worth more than 10 for the difficulty after all. I'm very much inclined to agree but I may not be a particularly impartial judge in that matter.

1. There's no special trick to this puzzle. You just need to be diligent and count up those coins.
2. Try tracing the rope with your stylus as you count up the coins. If you fill in the area that will travel upward when the rope is taut, you should be able to get an answer without too much work.
3. There are 32 coins tangled in the rope. When all is said and done, you won't even pull in a third of them.



On the flip side, I find this way too easy for one worth 50.



1. This puzzle isn't math intensive, but there is a particularly tricky aspect to it that trips most people up. The camera and case cost a total of $310 but differ in price by $300.



Not much to say about this one, sorry!



1. Don't lose focus of what's being asked. Keep in mind that you aren't being asked the percentage likelihood of you grabbing your own umbrella from a group of three.



Not too sure how well this one'll work but since images hasn't been a problem before I don't think it'll matter too much now either.



1. There's no trick to solving this one. You just need to try working things out pound by pound. You'll have an easier time of things if you start from the stamps with higher values, like 80 or 90. Just remember that each group of stamps must take a different shape.