Part 7

That's right! The solution is on the stairs in the Sphinx's room.


Remember these diagrams? We saw these back when we solved those riddles so fast it made Oedipus look like a whiny little mama's boy.


Here's a close up.


So, we'll pull the switches in the order given:


The right...


Middle...


Then the right one again.






Now we can grab the orb (which turns out to be pretty important too)






Looking at the orb.


And, while we're here, looking at that BIG COIN.


Now begins the big backtrack.


We need one more item that we haven't been able to get yet.


And we had to get the orb and blade before it would be worthwhile.


Remember this bridge? It said we had to lose weight.




This bottle (BOTTLE 2) says it's impossibly light.


Problem solved, now we can cross.


A snake! Let's look at it more closely:






Going Old Testament again.


Remember Pharoah's magicians' trick?








Now we have the staff. But it's not yet the Staff of Ages we need.


Looking at the staff


Let's look back at that Scroll of Exposition.


"Five to find, three are one. One gives access, the Bladed Sun. The Silver Orb, to banish below. The Staff of Ages, to vanquish the foe. Joining two, the Golden Blade. The last to invoke, the Platinum Horn.

So the Staff of Ages is made up of three components: a staff (presumably), the Golden Blade (that joins the staff to something) and a third item. It's not the Horn or the Bladed Sun according to the above description so it must be the Silver Orb.


So first we'll use the Blade on the staff...






Then the orb...


Sweet. Incidentally, this also means we can now cast the Humana spell, which will be useful shortly. Let's head back.




Guess who's back. And he's armed. Let's try just walking on past.






No good there. If only there was a way to just sneak past him.


Humana: "As the shadow of the wind, thou shalt be!!"






This basically teleports us to the next screen without having to confront the troll again.


Back in this room, I forgot to get something earlier.


You can lift up one of the stones and there's something hiding inside it.


A small vial of water.


Let's look at it.


Ahh, a cross. Must be holy water.


I know just where to use it.


That looks like the Horn we've been trying to find.


Yep, that's the one. I'll just reach out...











I think the answer is obvious...


No, hellhound! That's a BAD hellhound!




Ah, or we can try the holy water.








Now we can take the horn and move on.


As opposed to a normal, humdrum blue dragon.


Ahh, wyverns. Where would RPGs be without you?




Yeah, I don't think that solution is ever going to work.




Ok, we'll try the star.










And now we can take this talisman that kind of looks like a pointy sun.