# # ##### ### # # #### #### ##### # # ### ##### #### # # # # # # # # # # # ## # # # # # # # # # ### ##### #### #### # # # # # ## ##### #### # # # # # # # # # # # # # ## # # # # # ### ##### ### # # #### # # ##### # # ### ##### # # Complete walkthrough written by Darrell Wong (DKW 001). ============================================================================= OBLIGATORY BORING DISCLAIMERS - I wrote this walkthrough as a service to fellow gamers who need help with this game. I gave this FAQ to GameFAQs and nowhere else, and everything on their site is free for the viewing. So if anyone tries to sell you this walkthrough, don't pay a cent. And DEFINITELY never never ever try to claim it as your own and sell it. That's plagiarism, you can get into serious trouble for it, and the risk of that is definitely not worth whatever laughably small pittance you could get for my works. Wishbringer everything related is copyrighted by Infocom. All rights reserved. You know the drill. WHERE TO GET THIS GAME - This game is "abandonware", meaning that it is no longer commercially produced. You can download it freely from www.theunderdogs.org. (There's at least one other site, but this one is by far the most reliable; I recommend it.) You'll also want the instructions, which are available at Infodoc.plover.net/manuals/index.html. OBJECTIVE - Your immediate objective (which your boss, Corky Crisp, will reveal in no uncertain terms) is to deliver a very important letter to a very special old woman. The entire city is mapped out, so you should have no problem finding her. Easy, right? Well, best not go straight there; you'll probably want to pick up a few things you need first. Why? Let's just say that they might not be available to you when you return. The old woman, by the way, will tell you your *real* objective...one which most definitely involves the Wishbringer (hence the title!). As you complete tasks, you earn points. The highest possible score is 100. You must complete the game without using *any* wishes to get this score. I'll just go right to the walkthrough since there really aren't any general tips I can give that the game and instructions don't. Those of you familiar with the Zork games may notice some familiar elements in this game (albeit toned down to fit the game's difficulty). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMPLETE WALKTHROUGH - [Notes: As with my Zork walkthroughs, I use abbreviations for all directions, including up (U) and down (D). Since Festeron is a much simpler place to get around than the Great Underground Empire, I won't bother with location notes. Even if you do get lost, everything's connected; it shouldn't be too hard to find these places. This walkthrough covers only the essentials since there's a lot of other things in this game that are unnecessary and/or irrelevant, which I'll point out later.] As the game begins, you're in front of the Post Office, and your boss is rather urgently requesting your presence. S. Z (or look at something; it amounts to the same thing). He'll put what's apparently an extremely crucial envelope in front of you. GET ENVELOPE. N. Note that anytime someone tries to give you something (this will happen three more times), you *must* take it. W. W. Hmm, laying the "helpful counsel" on a little thick, if you ask me, but never mind. YES. N. Z. GIVE ENVELOPE. Amazing the ideas he gets. Z. D. You can't enter the grave with the gravedigger around because he'll pull you out. GET BONE. U. S. E. E. E. DROP BONE. For some reason, you can't get past the poodle until you give it the bone; the game will inform you that the poodle "won't let you go in that direction". Maybe it's a "magick" poodle, I dunno...N. Violet Voss, the town librarian, is here, and she has something for you. Z. GET NOTE. N. L IN FOUNTAIN. GET COIN. All right, you got everything you need! Well, except the horseshoe, but it'll be there when you get back. N. N. N. N. E. BREAK BRANCH. Leave it where it is for now. U. W. N. U. E. S. U. You arrive at the Magick Shoppe...whereupon Mr. Crisp helpfully reminds you that you have to open the door and go in before 5:00. Sheesh, someone find that man a hobby...OPEN DOOR. ENTER. Z. Z. GIVE ENVELOPE. OPEN ENVELOPE. READ LETTER. For those of you who lost the original letter, here it is: "Deliver the Magick Stone to me before the moon sets or you will never see your cat again! - The Evil One". The old woman then regales you with her sad tale. Z. GET CAN. Z. Z. You learn of your mission before being sent off. All of a sudden it's 6:01...and things have changed quite a bit (that tower should be your first hint). Save your game, then follow these directions exactly: D, N, W, D, S, E, D. Whew, you can see again! Incidentally, it *is* possible to plummet to your death by going the wrong way on the mountain path, which is why you should save. GET BRANCH. W. Whoa, *he* certainly wasn't here before! Unfortunately, he won't accept the coin (try it), so use your "alternate payment". GIVE CAN TO TROLL (OPEN CAN also works). Now *don't* just leave the can...there's something else in it! GET CAN. SQUEEZE CAN. Voila, a false bottom drops out, revealing...THE WISHBRINGER!! The game only refers to it as "a mysterious stone", but it's plainly obvious what it really is. And you thought you had to complete your big rescue mission before you could even glimpse it! And you thought you had to search for legends or whatever, when the stone was literally right in your hands all along! Yep, the old woman lied to you, all right. Don't fret, though; she actually had a good reason for this, which you'll discover later. But for crying out loud, this is supposed to be an *Introductory Level* game...well, more on this later. All right, back to the action. DROP CAN. GET STONE. OPEN GATE. S. READ SIGN. You should now have more than enough proof that something's seriously amiss here. S. Okay, you have to be a little careful now, because the Boot Patrol is continuously on the move, and they'll throw you in jail in a heartbeat if they catch you. (Getting arrested isn't totally bad...you can escape at least once, twice with the help of a wish...but it's still not something you want, so avoid it.) If you hear marching boots in a direction, don't go there, and if the game says that they're "heading this way", leave the area pronto! Don't worry about leaving someplace you have to be; you can always return after the coast is clear. W. S. L IN PIT. Poor platypus...you have to save her! PUT BRANCH IN PIT. PULL BRANCH. DIG X WITH BRANCH. And the *reason* you had to save her, of course, is that she's important to your quest. Oh yeah, the gate to the cemetery will have opened by now. *Don't go in*; right now that place is deadly. DROP BRANCH. GET WHISTLE. BLOW WHISTLE. Who needs a broom, anyway? W. Z. GET HAT. Z. BLOW WHISTLE. Short trip, yeah, but you got what you needed. N. U. L AT STUMP. Will the weirdness never end...OPEN STUMP. IN. Leave the horseshoe; you'll pick it up on your way out. The Wishbringer lights your way, so darkness isn't a concern. E. S. L THROUGH HOLE. MOVE BED. U. This is the cell you'd have ended up in if you were arrested. Since you're able to get here by other means, there's no point in getting into trouble (especially since the Boots fill in the hole after you escape). GET BLANKET. D. You can't go down the hole if you're carrying too much, which is why you couldn't take the horseshoe. N. E. Yes, there are grues in this game, and they will eat you if you linger in total darkness too long. COVER GRUE WITH BLANKET. OPEN REFRIGERATOR. GET EARTHWORM. W. W. U. GET HORSESHOE. Now it's time to find your ally King Anatinus spoke of. N. E. E. E. GIVE HAT. First platypi, now a pelican? And to think that Mr. Crisp is skeptical about a *woman* being versed in magick. At any rate, better write that special word down. W. W. S. S. L IN FOUNTAIN. Looks like someone "restocked" the fountain. Save your game, PUT EARTHWORM IN WATER, and GET TOKEN. If you're here at the wrong time, the Boot Patrol will nab you; in this case, restore, leave the area, and wait until they disperse. You must grab the token *immediately* after distracting the piranha, which is why you should take this precaution. Okay, you only need one more item before your heroic assault on the tower. E. L AT MARQUEE. The Evil One is an actress? Intriguing...not to mention a little fishy. BUY TICKET. ENTER. GIVE TICKET. N. Figures that *this* place would be clean and comfortable, huh? LOOK UNDER SEAT. GET GLASSES. WEAR GLASSES. Relax and enjoy the movie (do anything except leave the theater). Hmm, pretty strange movie, even by Witchville standards. You don't suppose it's "based on a true story", do you? After the movie's over, REMOVE GLASSES, S, EXIT, and YES (sheesh, is this game paranoid or what). E. S. L AT MACHINE. That title should be a hint. Save your game before you're even promted to and INSERT TOKEN IN SLOT. MOVE JOYSTICK W. G. MOVE JOYSTICK S. G. PUSH BUTTON. YES. YES. You should now find yourself at the Hilltop. If not, restore and try again. If you have any trouble, note that the game's grid is the same as the postal grid on the map. The star starts off at the rightmost square (the arcade) and you have to get it to the bottommost square (the Hilltop). Ah, there's the tower you're about to bust into. Enter the magic word you received at the lighthouse. S. Do anything; you'll get captured no matter what...by Mr. Crisp! You find yourself in a torture chamber along with the exceedingly unlucky Princess Tasmania. You can't do anything just yet, so have courage and wait. Eventually Mr. Crisp will come along and ask if you're carrying anything of interest. As a matter of fact, you are. GIVE NOTE TO CRISP. With all the craziness going on, you nearly forgot about it, didn't you? Crispy, not realizing that the note came from the "regular" Voss (as opposed to Witchville's Voss), dashes off. GET COAT. GET KEY. UNLOCK CHAIN WITH KEY. PULL LEVER. That's twice you've saved her life; should do you plenty of good in the future. At present, though, you might be interested in that note. DROP COAT AND KEY. GET NOTE. Read it if you're curious, although you don't have to yet. OPEN HATCH. U. U. What the...WEAR GLASSES. Deja vu! The "movie", as you've probably guessed, was actually what was happening in this room at the time. (The pieces should be falling into place by now.) L AT PANEL. L AT FIRST SWITCH. As expected. L AT SECOND SWITCH. So that's what it is...and seeing that it's the Evil One's security, it might be a good idea to shut it down. TURN OFF SECOND SWITCH. Extremely important note: *The cat is not Chaos*! It's the Evil One's cat! *Do not* use the broom to fly back to the Magic Shoppe with the cat! In fact, don't fly back to the Magic Shoppe, period; you won't like what happens. All right, time to blow this joint (by nonmagickal means). D. DROP GLASSES. MOVE PAINTING. TURN CRANK. N. N. READ NOTE. E. Eep! Never fear; though she may be big and fierce and fixing to tear your throat out, she's still Alexis. ALEXIS, HEEL. Whaddya know, it really works. (Note: You must read the note before giving this comamnd to Alexis, or else it won't work. If you're saving and loading frequently...like you should be...there's a good chance you accidentally leave it unread after exiting the tower. I don't know how many times it's happened to me. At any rate, don't ever drop that note, and always read it once you're outside the tower.) Not only will Alexis let you pass freely, you can also see what's in Miss Voss' cottage. Do that; OPEN DOOR and E. GET KEY. And while you're here, L AT MESSAGE. Wow, there really is something going on between them, what are the odds. Save your game now because you're about to enter the homestretch. W. N. UNLOCK DOOR WITH KEY. OPEN DOOR. ENTER. Do anything; the door will close and lock, seemingly on its own. S. L AT SCULPTURE. Say, you don't think...BREAK CASE WITH HORSESHOE. The horseshoe is the only thing heavy enough to do this, and incidentally, good thing you had the foresight to shut down the security system. PUT STONE IN SCULPTURE. Just as you're about to do this, the Magick Shoppe owner shows up! She confirms that the stone is, as you've suspected all along, the Wishbringer, and the sculpture is actually Chaos. Then she says that "your quest is complete" or something before demanding that you keep the stone well away from that scuplture's forehead. The game informs you of the momentous decision you must now make. Do you defy the woman and insert the stone, or do you do as she says? Answer: duh. YES. YES. You know, Evil One, if you want to fool someone, it helps to be a little less transparent about your true intentions. (If you grant her request, she then demands that you hand over the stone, giving a really lame excuse for wanting it. By then, it should be patently obvious that the proper path is *not* to do as she says.) Anyway, the power of the Wishbringer restores Chaos to her natural state, removes the Evil One's disguise, and destroys her evil influence on the city...and her...for good. Before you know it, you and Chaos are instantly transported to the Magick Shoppe, and quite a bit of time has passed. KNOCK ON DOOR or D. The real Shoppe owner finally reveals all. She couldn't tell you the truth about the Wishbringer because you might never want to give it up, and Chaos would remain a lifeless sculpture forever. Makes sense in a weird, "magickal" kind of way. Then she tells you that the "true power" of the Wishbringer lies in companionship, and failing to realize this was the Evil One's greatest mistake. Okay, whatever. And then she gives you Miss Voss' note to deliver to Mr. Crisp. Wait a minute...didn't you already do that in the tower? Granted, he was under the Evil One's thrall at the time, but...hey, wait a minute, how did *she* get it?? Ah, who the hell cares. You're a hero. Be proud. :-) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT THE WISHES DO - Since it's possible to win the game without making any wishes, you might be wondering exactly what purpose they serve. Well, I figured them out myself...prepare to be seriously underwhelmed. Rain: The umbrella is at the end of the cemetery, south of Lake Edge. This fills the hole Tasmania's trapped in, allowing her to swim out. Wow, you're saved the colossal, back-breaking task of *taking a branch, putting it in the hole, and pulling it back out!* Advice: The shell is in the northeast, between the Pleasure Wharf and Lighthouse; you must get it before going to the Magick Shoppe or the tide will wash it away. The shell will periodically buzz, and if you listen to it, you get a piece of advice. Unfortunately, it's all really mundane stuff that's easy to figure out on your own (it doesn't tell you, for example, how to get to the tower). It *does* give you a hint on what you're supposed to do with the Wishbringer at the end, but again, it isn't really all that hard to figure out. Flight: Again, *do not* use this wish. Ever. If you return to the Magick Shoppe without Chaos, your game ends right then and there. It's totally unfair, I know, but that's the way it is. And no, you cannot use this wish after you find Chaos in the library because you're indoors. Darkness: The grue milk is in the bottle in the grues' refrigerator. This allows you to get past Alexis. She's afraid of the dark, and while she's cowering you can go west to the Hilltop. The darkness lasts for only one turn, so you have to move right away. You still have to read the note and say "Alexis, Heel" on the way back. This is actually a little simpler than using the Transmatter game (although the game is still easy enough). Foresight: More like hindsight; you get a little scene showing where the Wishbringer came from. This gives you a hint as to what you're supposed to do with it at the end. Interesting but by no means necessary. Note that it's the same every time, so you can save your game, make this wish, and restore; you get the benefit of this wish while leaving it unspent. Luck: After Festeron becomes Witchville, if you spend too much time in the cemetery, normally the eldritch vapors will scatter your possessions (and you) all over the city. If you have this wish active, they will instead take your possessions one by one, then throw you out once you're empty-handed. Because there's absolutely no need to enter the Witchville cemetery, this wish is worthless. Freedom: The candy's in the police station on Rotary West. You have to go there before visiting the Magic Shoppe and wait for Sgt. MacGuffin to fall asleep. If you escape from jail and the Boot Patrol catches you again, you'll find that your escape route is paved over. Then, and only then, can you wish for freedom. If you try this the first time you're caught, the Wishbringer will "sense that you're not truly confined" or something and the wish won't work. Frankly, the value of this wish is dubious at best; you'd have to be a major dolt to get nabbed twice (especially once you know the easier way to the cell). Well, there you have it. The Shoppe owner claimed that the Wishbringer's value as a companion far outweighed the value of its wishes, and in light of what those wishes are actually good for, I have to agree. :-) OTHER THINGS - Like I mentioned before, you must take each of the four items that are offered to you. The reason I emphasized this is because it's incredibly easy to get overloaded in this game. Not only will the person keep badgering you until you take the item, you have to drop something to make room. This is especially dangerous at the Magick Shoppe and Misty Island, since you can't return to them. If you go to Lake Edge in Festeron, you'll see a pile of leaves on the ground. Heed the warning in the sand and *do not move them*! They cover the pit Tasmania gets trapped in, and she won't get trapped if you expose the pit, which means you'll never get the silver whistle, which means your quest is doomed. Other things that can skunk your quest are dropping something you'll need later in a place where you can't get back to, opening Miss Voss' note, not taking the gold coin, opening the can before reaching the troll, going to the tower without the 3D glasses or password, not reading Voss' note before exiting the tower, returning to the Magick Shoppe, and entering the library without the Wishbringer and horseshoe. There's another light source in the game, the candle in the church. You can't get it in Festeron because of a booming voice from above..."Thou shalt not steal!"...but you can get it in Witchville (the, ahem, *ceiling-mounted loudspeaker* which projected the voice is too badly damaged to deter you). I don't recommend it because, one, you have the Wishbringer, and two, the candle fizzles out once you enter the library, and if you *don't* have the Wishbringer, you have about two turns to live! If you wish for luck, the horseshoe also becomes a light source, although, like the Wishbringer, the light fades if you drop it. If you go to the End of Wharf in Festeron, the easternmost point in the city, you'll run into a dying seahorse. The only way to save its life is to quickly throw it back into the bay (it won't survive to the fountain). So what's the benefit? Well, the third time the Boot Patrol captures you (after using the hole to escape the first time and wishing for freedom the second), they get tired of dealing with you and throw you to the sharks. If you saved the seahorse's life, it'll return the favor...and since the Boot Patrol thinks you're dead, they end the patrol and you don't have to deal with them anymore! Wow, that's...pointless. My advice, save yourself the trouble and don't get caught even once, let alone THREE times. You *absolutely must* get the password before going to the tower and *absolutely must* read the note before confronting Alexis. If you don't, the game informs you that you're "just guessing", and for some bizarre reason it doesn't count. I had no idea hellhounds and towers were freaking *psychic*. Needless to say, "Alexis, heel" never works on the poodle. In Witchville it's possible to go south from the Rocky Path into the forest (but only once). In it is something you'd never expect to find in this city...the white house from Zork I! Even more amazing, if you open the mailbox and wait long enough, the mailbox will animate and jump around, eventually becoming your loyal companion, following wherever you go. Oh yeah, you can't enter the house, so forget it. What to do with the metallic tyke? Take it to the Wharf, where another, more sinister mailbox resides. It too will animate, upon which both boxes stare each other down and...well, see for yourself. Doing this, incidentally, will make another display visible in the library museum, and you'll receive another little surprise at the end as well... The grave in Witchville has an entrance to the same underground passage which leads to Lookout Hill and the jail cell. I didn't mention it earlier because there's absolutely no reason to go there. You can't reach the tower via the cemetery, by the way; the gate closes and locks before you reach it. If you enter the jail cell from Lookout Hill (or the grave), you can stay there as long as you want and no one will ever find you. (You get the feeling that Sarge isn't particularly vigilant?) A little trivia: In the earliest versions of the game, it was possible to take the gold coin back after buying the theater ticket from Miss Voss and buy another ticket. You could do this as much as you wanted, getting three points per transaction. Also, you couldn't die from making a wrong move in the fog...thus removing any danger, thus defeating the supposed purpose of the fog. Both errors have since been corrected. COMMENTARY - I'm normally against the idea of editorializing in FAQs, but I have a strong beef about this game which I think is very important, and I hope you're patient enough to hear me out. I got this game for my birthday auld lang syne, a time when text adventures were hot property. Since this was an "Introductory level" game, I was able to get into it right away. I'd never been very good with text adventures, and it was very gratifying to really get into the game and get things accomplished. As opposed to the Zork trilogy, where I was doomed before I even started. It was fun 'n easy and I had a great time. Until the endgame. See, the problem was that I hadn't found the Wishbringer and was still operating under the assumption that I had to rescue Chaos before I could get it. Hey, don't blame me, I didn't have the slightest indication that the old woman was lying, nor did I have a clue that the stone was in the damn can all along. Anyway, I was using the candle for light and completing tasks without the Wishbringer's help. (Getting to the tower was the hardest, but I cracked that within a week.) And then I stood outside the library, ready to see what was inside. And that dang candle went out every time I went in. And I didn't have the faintest idea what to do. And I got frustrated. And I got more frustrated. And I finally gave up this game in disgust, maddened by the fact that I got so close yet couldn't seal the deal. First off, not properly emphasizing the importance of the Wishbringer was a mistake. Sure, I was able to solve nearly all the problems without "easy wishing" (as the instruction manual puts it), but I did it out of sheer necessity, and as a result I never even considered looking for the stone at the end. The idea that trumping up the wondrous powers of the stone at every opportunity would spur an all-out search for the stone despite the fact that it was unnecessary for almost the whole game was ridiculous. Don't forget, too, that the old woman says that you don't get the stone until after you rescue her cat, and, lacking any evidence to the contrary, it's pretty hard to see through her lie. The lack of focus on what's supposedly the whole point of the game, not to mention something that's absolutely essential to winning the game, was one of Infocom's major blunders. And then there's their *other* huge blunder, MAKING THE WISHBRINGER SO FREAKING HARD TO FIND. Your only, and I mean *only*, hint is that if you pick up the can after scaring away the troll, it'll rattle once in a while. There is absolutely no other indication...not on the can, not in the theater or tower, nothing. Which is just plain ridiculous. What kind of idiot picks up an empty can? And even worse, there's a RATTLESNAKE in the can! Which means that you're led to believe that the rattling comes from the snake! This is just unbelievable. This is an Introductory Level game, for crying out loud. On the *box* it says "age 9 up". Do *you* know any 9-year-olds who could figure out that the old woman was lying, *and* the Wishbringer is absolutely vital even though none of the wishes are necessary, *and* the rattlesnake was a ploy to disguise the Wishbringer's presence, *and* the secret to finding the stone lies in an empty can with no distinctive markings whatsoever? Cripes! Hey, I've been going to college for ages and playing text adventures on and off for years, and if I'd just discovered this game, five will get you ten *million* that I wouldn't ever find the Wishbringer. "But Darrell," you're no doubt saying by now, "it's just one task, and you didn't have any trouble solving the rest." Well, just as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, a game is only as easy as its most difficult task, and finding the Wishbringer is a monster. In fact, it's probably *worse* to have an utterly unsolvable problem in an otherwise easy game than in a game full of similar problems (like Zork III), because you go a lot further only to get hopelessly stuck at the end. What makes this even more baffling is that, in a game full of hints and advice, a game that often bends over backwards to prevent us from making a mistake, I haven't found so much as a single clue as to the location of the stone. I mean, c'mon, give me something. An inscription on the can. A candy jar containing a rock. A crushed plastic bottle. A comment by Sgt. MacGuffin about cells with false bottoms. A report in Miss Voss' cottage on "bottled light". *Something*! One more thing. Not being able to make those wishes took a lot of fun out of the game. One of the most enjoyable parts of any adventure is being able to try things. Knowing of the wishes and even how to make them, but not being able to do so, was an incredible letdown. Anyway...now you know why even the easy games need FAQs! Hope you enjoyed it. (See, I *do* know how to leave on a positive note!) ============================================================================= END NOTES - I would like to thank GameFAQs for being so kind as to put up my walkthroughs. I know text adventures aren't exactly en vogue right now, but I *also* know that there are plenty of gamers out there who grew up on them and were sad to see them leave the mainstream. At GameFAQs, there is no such thing as dead, obsolete, or out of date; without them, I would not have even considered writing walkthroughs in the first place. I have The Underdogs to thank for having the chance to play this classic again (having long since lost the original disk and instructions, and computers don't have 5 1/2" floppy drives anymore anyway). Having the chance to finish a game I couldn't the first time was simply fantastic. And kudos also to the Infocom Documentation Project. I know from painful experience how difficult is to play nearly any game without the instructions, and this site is a godsend. Abandonware is the best of all worlds: old but still entertaining titles free for the downloading, *no* compatibility problems or ultra-gargantuan memory requirements to speak of, and they're usually the latest versions, too. I'm behind it all the way. My website is home.hawaii.rr.com/dkwff.