PAWN, THE

PAWN, THE (?) (?)

Complete Walkthru:

PART 1:

You wake up with a bump on your noggin, wearing some odd clothes and a strange wristband. What to do. Well, first, LOOK AT THE CLOTHES. Yep, that plant design sure smacks of something potty. LOOK IN THE POCKET. There's a key in there (a metal key, as it turns out). Time to do some exploring of this strange new land. Go east. Whoops! What's this? You enter the grassy wilderness and Kronos, the magician, appears zooming up to you on some sort of stone platform (a Kerovnian hovercraft?). SAY TO KRONOS, 'GREETINGS'. Kronos will reply that he needs someone to take a note to King Eric. TAKE THE NOTE. Then, be sure to ASK KRONOS ABOUT THE WRISTBAND. The magician will promise to remove your wristband if you perform a service. You must kill a man on a legless horse and bring his dead body to Kronos' room in the northernmost mountain. Kronos offers you a chest which will help in this task. TAKE THE CHEST, but do not open it. You can LOOK AT THE NOTE and/or THE CHEST if you want, but it's not necessary. Go east twice. You will be in the palace gardens. LOOK UNDER THE MAT. Another key. GET THE KEY. (This one is a wooden key.) Also, LOOK IN THE FOUNTAIN and GET THE CHIT (it's an I.O.U from Honest John for 1 Ferg). Now go southwest.

You're at the shed. UNLOCK THE DOOR WITH THE WOODEN KEY. Southwest. Once inside, you will see three things. GET two of them -- the RAKE and the HOE. (The wheelbarrow is a red herring. Forget it.) Then LOOK AT THE WORKBENCH. You spy a trowel. GET THE TROWEL. Nope, you're not done yet. LOOK UNDER THE WORKBENCH. You find a pot. GET THE POT. LOOK AT THE POT. Hmmmm, the pot contains a plant which closely resembles the plant on your shirt. (Lotsa pot references in case you're missing it!) Okay, you're finished in the shed so go northeast, then east to the gatehouse.

The guards at the gatehouse won't let you pass until you SHOW THE NOTE TO THE GUARDS. Then, you are allowed in to see King Eric, who is infuriated by Kronos' note. He rewards you for delivering it by having you kicked out of his palace. So much for good deeds. Oh, well, no great harm done except to your dignity, and you'll suffer plenty more indignities in this game. Go west three times and south. Then, go west twice to the path. Go north five times on the path. You will come to a very large boulder. (Before we go on, remember, any time you wish to know the directions you can move in THE PAWN, simply type EXITS, and you'll be told.)

Hmmm, what to do with this humungous boulder? Well, for the moment, you can forget it. Head west, then northwest to the top of the heather-covered hill. There's a hut here. GO IN THE HUT. My word, there's a Guru here, and he laughs uproariously at your wristband. What could be so funny about that? No matter, he won't stop laughing until you can somehow hide the thing. So TAKE OFF THE SHIRT. COVER THE WRISTBAND WITH THE SHIRT. Ah, that's better. At least the Guru stops laughing long enough to give you a chore to perform. He empties his bowl, gives it to you and instructs you to bring it back full of the essential nourishment of life. (Doesn't want much, does he?) Well, no ducking the assignment; but before you leave the hut, GET THE RICE you are informed is there.

Now it's time to retrace your steps to the foothills where you last left the large boulder. Once you reach the durned thing, you can UNCOVER THE WRISTBAND. Then, TIE THE RAKE AND HOE TOGETHER WITH THE SHIRT. It isn't very plausible, but you now have just the implement with which to move the boulder.

Bet you would never think of the next entry: LEVER THE BOULDER WITH THE RAKE AND THE HOE. (Yes sir,it's a beaut, all right!) Well, it works, and the boulder goes bounding down the mountainside out of harm's way. Now you can proceed northwest up the narrow track. (You might want to pause before doing so to PUT ON YOUR SHIRT. It gets chilly up in those mountains.) Of course you have to UNTIE THE SHIRT (from the rake and hoe) before you can wear it. Oh, dear, just when you thought you were on your way, you no sooner get by the boulder than your path is blocked by a rockfall. No problem. CLIMB OVER THE ROCKS. (See? Sometimes the solutions are right there as plain as the nose on your face, no gimmicks, no tricks.)

Along about now the adventurer should appear, riding on a horse. Aha! The horse has no legs. This must be the guy Kronos wants you to knock off. GIVE THE CHEST TO THE ADVENTURER. No sooner said than the adventurer opens the chest and a lethal blast wafts into his kisser and kills him dead. GET THE ADVENTURER and PUT THE ADVENTURER ON THE HORSE. Now it's time for you to GET ON THE HORSE yourself. (This nag has a sense of humor, as you will see.) More important, for whatever reason he turns out to be a magical source of light. And you must have him with you when you enter dark places, or, find another light source. (Yep, you'll have to do that, too. After all, horses, legless or otherwise, can't go everywhere.)

Now go northwest and up to the plateau. From here you can see an ice tower off to the southwest. Time for that later. You will be coming back. (The only reason I stuck this UP move in is just in case you need an extra move or two to meet the adventurer. In other words, he doesn't always appear at the same place I've indicated. But don't fret; he will be along.) Anyway, go back the way you came (i.e., DOWN). There's a cavemouth to the east. Go east twice. (By the way, without the horse, you wouldn't be able to see your hand in front of your face. Good thing you have your new friend along.)

Go east one more time (into the cavern), then down. You will find yourself in a small cave. Go east into the corridor. You'll find a REM statement here. To read it, GET OFF THE HORSE (don't worry, he'll wait. And, don't forget, there will be other times later when you're riding the horse when you can't do things unless you dismount). Okay, READ THE REM STATEMENT. (You can skip it if you prefer. I only stuck it in here to give you the tip about dismounting.)

After the REM statement, get back on the horse and ride east to the Lava River. You will see a vertical shaft which you decide bears investigating. GET OFF THE HORSE and go up. Foiled again! You are told you must drop everything to go up. Don't do it. Something might break. Instead PUT ALL (items in your inventory, which should include the pot, hoe, trowel, rake, bowl, rice and chit) ON THE HORSE. Now you can go up, and up again.

You are told that the primary function of the shaft is probably to supply air to the fires of hell, rather than allowing mortals pot-holing practice. Hmmmm. Well, at its apex you are in a chamber by the river. It looks like the wall keeping out the river is very fragile. Nothing to do but to BREAK THE WALL. The wall breaks easily and the water rushes in, sweeping you with it back down the shaft. You'll wind up in the dark, so go east, back to the Lava River, and there you find your horse (and light) calmly waiting for you. Go north.

Now, then, the reason you broke the wall was to let the river in. The result of this action was to cool and solidify the Lava River so you could move north. Otherwise, you would have been incinerated.

On the north bank of the Lava River you see a pale blue pedestal. Also, in the northeast wall is an exit with a notice above it. If you go northeast, you will be in an endless maze. (The notice, by the way, which you have to dismount to read, says: 'Warning: This maze is totally irrelevant to the adventure.') Don't tear your hair if you stumble into the maze by mistake. If you read the notice, you shouldn't make such a dumb move; but if you do, simply type EXIT MAZE and you'll be out again. Now wasn't that easy?

What you're really after is that pedestal. So (presuming you've dismounted) type, LIFT THE PEDESTAL. Just as you suspected, there's a niche here. LOOK IN THE NICHE. Oho! Another key, this one a blue key. GET THE BLUE KEY. Now GET ON THE HORSE and retrace your steps back out of the caves. (Go south, west twice, up, west three more times and you'll be outside on the path. Now it's time to go up to that plateau from whence you spied the ice tower. (You're not finished with the caves, by the way, nor with the ice tower; but they can wait until later.)

Once you are on the plateau, dismount and GET THE BOWL (remember, you left it on the horse with all your other stuff). Once you have it, PUT SNOW IN THE BOWL. (Yes sir, that'll make the essential nourishment of life, all right!) Now go down three times until you reach the foothills. Go south, then west and northwest back up to the hill to the Guru's hut. GO IN THE HUT and GIVE THE BOWL TO THE GURU. (Betcha forgot to get off the horse first!) He thanks you and gives you a pretty obvious clue, something about a light in the forest helping you and the trees.

PART 2:

EXIT the hut and get on your horse. Go south through rolling hills, south through the rank forest, and south again until you come to a forest clearing. Here you find a tree stump. LOOK AT THE STUMP. The stump is gnarled and rotten. It contains a pouch. GET THE POUCH. (Note: If you had found this place before satisfying the Guru, you would not have found the pouch. Just an empty and not terribly useful old stump.) OPEN THE POUCH. LOOK IN THE POUCH. You are told the pouch contains a blue, a green and a red. (Presumably, these are either jewels or stones, we are not told. The main thing they are is your new handy-dandy transportable source of light. Also, as you will see, the red has still another use, as does the pouch.) But we dally. It's time to GET ON THE HORSE.

At this point you may want to retrace your steps and go back to where you saw the ice tower. The exact sequence doesn't matter in THE PAWN, but it's where I chose to do it. So go all the way back north and up to the plateau where you filled the bowl with snow. From the plateau, go south and west (still on the plateau). Here you will find an entrance to the ice tower. Trouble is, there's a big, fat doleful looking snowman blocking your way. He won't let you pass, so GET OFF THE HORSE.

MELT THE SNOWMAN WITH THE RED. That did it! Now you can go northeast into the ice tower. Once inside, go west into the storeroom and get the spiky boots you find there. PUT ON THE SPIKY BOOTS. Oh, yes, look at the table. You see a prism so GET THE PRISM. (I never did figure what the prism was for, but I decided it might come in handy. Never did as I recall, but maybe you will find a use for it. Remember, THE PAWN has lots of twists and I know I didn't discover all of them. The only thing I can guarantee is that you will get all 350 points possible if you follow this walkthru, prism or no prism.)

Leave the storeroom by going east. You will see an opening in the west wall and a slope made of ice spiralling in a helical path up the inside wall of the ice tower. (That's why you need the spiky boots. If you try that slope without them, you'll die from the fall.) Go up to the landing. To the north is a heavy wooden door which, of course, is locked. What to do?

Well, you can unlock it. BUT, I don't recommend it. To do so you must use the blue key. And if you do, the blue key will disappear, never to be used again. Worst of all, you need to use it elsewhere. The solution is to SAVE your game at this point; then unlock the door with the blue key. (Obviously, you will find out what's behind the door and you can later RESTORE, getting your blue key back nice and safe and sound.)

Inside you will find sweet Princess Lacey, greasy hair and all. She has been imprisoned here by Kronos, which is what that note to Eric was all about. Seems Kronos was looking for a tad of ransom. You may rescue her and take her back to King Eric for whatever reward he may have in store. (Recall he wasn't too generous when you brought him that note!) If you do this, you will give up the 40 points you would have earned if you had chosen to forget the princess and used your blue key elsewhere. Aren't you glad you read this walkthru now? Anyway, I chose to abandon the princess and restored my game outside her door. I recommend it.

So much for the diversion of the ice tower. Leave it, get back on your horse and head for the forest. Oh, all right, I'll help. First, you will find the snowman is rebuilt. That's all right. Melt him again with the red. Go north, then east and down four times. Now go south five times and west twice. You come to a very tall tree. Better get off the horse and climb the tree. Be sure to get the stuff you've left on the horse (except for the adventurer). You may need it. Now go up.

Oh, dear, another locked door confronts you at the top of the ancient tree. UNLOCK THE DOOR WITH THE WOODEN KEY. Open the door and go east into the tree. Hmmm, there are some loose floorboards here. The trouble is it's too dark to move them. First, close the door. Then, MIX RED, BLUE AND GREEN. Ah! Let there be light! And so there is. You wind up with a WHITE, and it will be your light source whenever you're away from your horse. That old Guru wasn't such a bad chap after all.

Now you can MOVE THE FLOORBOARDS and go down into the tree. Go down again and you will be in a low ceiling room. Go east into the White Room. (If you look at the walls, you will be told the stone wall is a 'standard issue Kerovnian dungeon wall, to be found throughout Kerovnia, keeping adventurers within the substance of the universe.') Go back west.

From the Low Ceiling Room go west to the crossroads and southwest to the door of what appears to be a small abode. OPEN THE DOOR. Go west into the lounge. You see a hard hat. WEAR THE HARD HAT. You also see a settee. LOOK AT THE SETTEE. There are some cushions on it. MOVE THE CUSHIONS. You find a coin. GET THE COIN.

Go west into the kitchen. LOOK AT THE STOVE. There's a teapot here. GET THE TEAPOT. You should also LOOK AT THE WORKTOP and GET THE CARROT. (These two items, like the prism, proved to be utterly useless, but I got them anyway. Do as you please. But don't overlook the coin or the hard hat. They're why you're here.)

All finished in the abode (which obviously belongs to one or more gnomes who happen to be away at the time). Maybe they've gone fishing, who knows? Go east twice to the crossroads. Now take the northwest exit which leads to a mine.

After you go northwest, you will come to a lift (which the British insist is the correct word for an elevator). This is a little tricky, so pay attention. A sign asks, 'Are you wearing your had hat?' 'Yes,' you say to no one in particular. You see a button. PUSH THE BUTTON. You hear a click. Now you must use the time-tested command, WAIT. In fact, you must use it several times. After about the third WAIT, the lift will arrive. LOOK AT THE DOOR. Yes, as you figured, the door is closed.

Well, what do you do with a lift door? You SLIDE THE DOOR OPEN, that's what. Now you can enter the lift by going north. Inside you find a rope. GET THE ROPE. You also find two buttons. LOOK AT THE BUTTONS. You learn that the first button makes the lift go up if pressed. The second makes it go down. First, SLIDE THE DOOR CLOSED; then PRESS THE SECOND BUTTON. Click. Slowly the lift descends.

SLIDE THE DOOR OPEN and go south. Whew! As you step from the lift, part of the roof collapses. Fortunately, your hard hat protects you and you escape an untimely demise. You are at a rockface, deep in a mine. There are some lumps (of lead) here. GET THE LUMPS. The lumps steadfastly refuse to budge. Good thing you brought your trowel, eh? GET THE LUMPS WITH THE TROWEL. You now have the lumps and you can leave the mine the way you came, pressing the first button in the lift to go up, sliding the door, etc. -- boring when you know how.

PART 3:

Once out of the lift (by going south), go southeast to the crossroads, east to the Low Ceiling Room and east to the White Room. Now go east again. You will find yourself in a voting booth. The graphic will show that there are two ballot boxes, a large one if you want to vote for Gringo Baconburger, about whom you read all there is to know in 'A Tale of Kerovnia.' (You DID remember to read that, didn't you?) There's also a small ballot box. Well, you can't cast your ballot quite yet. So return west to the White Room and go north.

You will be in Gringo Baconburger's office. LOOK UNDER THE RUG. You find a safe. Well, I'll be jiggered! The safe is locked. Now just exactly what do you suppose will open that safe? You got it! The blue key. Now aren't you glad you left the princess to rot away in that tower? (Oh, don't worry, she'll get out one of these days. Probably her yucky boyfriend, Malcolm, will save her. In the meatime, you have work to do.) OPEN THE SAFE WITH THE BLUE KEY. The blue key vanishes but the safe is now unlocked. SEARCH THE SAFE. You find a ballot paper. GET THE BALLOT PAPER.

You now have the means to vote, so go back to the booth (south and east). Type, VOTE FOR GRINGO. When asked, 'How?' type, PUT THE PAPER IN THE LARGE BOX. (For what it's worth, this action will give you 40 points toward the grand total of 350 which you're striving for. Rescuing the princess would have given you zilch.)

That about does it for the tree, so you can leave by going west through the White Room, then up twice to the Tree Trunk room. Exit the room by going west then down. Yippee! Your faithful horsie is still here. GET ON THE HORSE and ride east twice. Now head north and turn west onto the grassy plain.

On the grassy plain you will find Honest John with his cart full of goodies. You've got the coin (plus a chit if you need it), so GET OFF THE HORSE and BUY THE WHISKY BOTTLE AND THE BEER BOTTLE WITH THE COIN. Honest John thanks you, and tells you it was nice doing business with you, your exit cue, I think. Anyway, GET ON THE HORSE and go north.

You're back in the foothills again, and you're going back into those ominous caves, sulphur smell and all. By this time you ought to be able to get there without my help.

Once you get down into the small cave, GET OFF THE HORSE and go north. Here you will find an amusing political poster, touting the merits of Gringo Baconburger. No great significance; just amusing. You can also go to the entrance (south from the small cave), and you will see two freely swinging perspex doors to the south. Don't bother with them yet. You aren't ready. Instead, go back to the small cave and head north.

You will go through the damp passage where you see the political poster and if you go north one more time you will come to a laboratory. Inside the laboratory you stumble upon three alchemists. The alchemists are hotly debating who should go outside to get their dinner as they are scared whoever leaves will sell the secret of turning lead into gold. Suddenly, they spot you.

They offer to make you some gold if you give them something to eat. GIVE THE RICE TO THE ALCHEMISTS. So far, so good. Next, they ask if you have any lead that you wish to have turned into gold. GIVE THE LEAD TO THE ALCHEMISTS.

Huh? The alchemists take your lead and skedaddle. No gold. But all is not lost. If you check, your score just went up 30 points, which ain't all bad. Checking out the lab at your leisure, you look in the flasks. These contain some liquid. Go ahead, drink it. It tastes delicious; just like apple juice. Won't help your score or affect the game, but you were thirsty from all this adventuring, weren't you? Better still, go northeast into the alchemist's storeroom. Here, among all the flotsam and jetsam, you find an aerosoul. Yep, that's the way it's spelled and that's the way the authors intended, for reasons to be revealed. GET THE AEROSOUL.

You also find some tomes. You're told these are works of ancient lore which would crumble to dust if you tried to open them without a spell. Okay, CAST A SPELL ON THE TOMES. (Ha! You didn't even know you could do that, did you?) Well, it works, one of the tomes opens. Reading the tome, you learn that Kronos has made a contract with the Devil. In return for his soul, Kronos has been given his special evil powers. Once he expires, however, the soul of Kronos is doomed to horrendous agony for all eternity; however, a sub- clause in the contract reveals that Kronos can avoid this torture by exchanging three good souls for his own.

Once you read this, the tome crumbles to dust. You also begin to feel a little sorry for that corpse you've been toting around on the horse you aquired by handing Kronos' chest to the adventurer (aka, the corpse). Oh, well, how else would you have corralled the horse? And without him, where would you be now? Nowhere, that's where, unless being back at square one is 'somewhere.'

Well, no time for reflection. You're ready to leave the laboratory and get on with the adventure. Go southwest from the storeroom into the lab and exit by going northwest. Move west toward the sunlight you see coming through a gap in the wall. You will come to a high ledge, roughly one-third of the way up the mountain. A rickety old rope bridge, which doesn't look too safe, leads North out over a deep ravine, hundreds of feet down. Nothing for it but to plunge ever onward -- hopefully, not downward. Go north.

You're on the rope bridge which creaks and groans alarmingly. But it manages to take your weight (just). Keep going across, north.

Whew! Made it! You're on the other side on another high ledge. You see exits to the northwest and to the northeast. Go northeast. You will be in a tunnel inside the mountain. Go north into a room with freshly papered walls. On the walls is scrawled some graffiti. READ THE GRAFFITI. (Sigh) It says, 'Do not lean on this wall.' (Actually, you don't have to do this, the graphic will tell you what the graffiti says. It will, that is, if you have enabled the graphics mode.)

In the freshly papered room is a cupboard. OPEN THE CUPBOARD and LOOK IN THE CUPBOARD. Inside you see a hook. (Remember the rope you found in the lift? Well, now's your chance to use it.) TIE THE ROPE TO THE HOOK. Good. Now, TEAR THE PAPER WALL WITH THE TROWEL and CLIMB THROUGH THE HOLE. Now, dear reader, you can go to Hell!

No offense, that's precisely where you are going. Once through the hole you will be on a ledge. Go down. (You're holding onto one end of the rope, remember?) You can only go so far, though, and the rope will hold you back. DROP THE ROPE. No damage done. Go east.

You are now in a passage leading to some large double doors. There is a massive brass knocker on the doors. KNOCK WITH THE KNOCKER. You will get an odd reply from the character inside, so KNOCK WITH THE KNOCKER again. Hmmm, another odd reply. KNOCK WITH THE KNOCKER one more time. Still, all you get is gibberish. Well, persistence pays (it says here) so KNOCK WITH THE KNOCKER a fourth time. Voila! The doors finally open and there stands a porter, guarding the entrance. If you LOOK AT THE PORTER, you will soon see he is very drunk. You will also note that his hip flask is almost empty.

Now, you may think this guy is cute, but don't be deceived. If you don't tip him, he's going to do you in, literally. He really is quite a nasty little bugger, so GIVE THE WHISKY BOTTLE TO THE PORTER. Well, that did it. Instead of hastening your early departure to a greater/or lesser reward, the porter thanks you and lets you pass. Go east to the shaft where your nose informs you that the stench of sulphur is overpowering and the heat makes you queasy. (Ugh!) Go down.

Once you've gone down the shaft, go north. Here is an annex, and lo and behold! Inside is Jerry Lee Lewis, sitting at the piano and playing his hit song, 'Great Balls of Fire.' You note that he looks very hot and uncomfortable. GIVE THE BEER BOTTLE TO JERRY LEE LEWIS. My, Jerry Lee is grateful. He thanks you (and you note your score went up again, too).

Time for serious business. Leave the annex (south) and go east. As you enter, the light you are carrying (the White) is reflected back from every direction, forcing you back lest you be blinded. Gotta hide the white. PUT THE WHITE IN THE POUCH. Go east. Nope, you're still driven back. Ah, I know, CLOSE THE POUCH. Now you can go east then north into a cavern.

Oh, Lord! The cavern is the home of a mob of powerful demons. They are desporting themselves by chewing on rotten carrion coming from headless corpses hanging from hooks on the walls. A fridge is embedded in the south wall near one exit. (DO NOT open the fridge or go south. The fridge contains heads, by the way, and if you open it you will become one of those corpses the demons are chewing so merrily upon.) Instead, go east.

PART 4:

You have just entered HELL!! and there sits old Lucifer himself, enthroned high above and looking down at you with terrible fiery eyes. (I am not doing justice to the description of Hell, but you can read that yourself in the game's text.)

Your move: ASK THE DEVIL ABOUT KRONOS. The Devil replies that he would make Kronos the Himmler of Hell. (Wow! This is eerie stuff, yes?) ASK THE DEVIL ABOUT THE WRISTBAND. Now, that was a good question.

The Devil tells you he will remove your wristband if you will bring him the soul of no other than the magician, Kronos. To help you in this difficult task, Old Nick gives you a fragile crystal bottle, containing a potion. You are told you may not open the bottle. You are also told it is time for you to leave this land of the dead and return to the land of the living to carry out your task, 'Until,' the Devil adds evilly, 'I call again.'

You no sooner type GET THE POTION BOTTLE than a bolt of fire issues from the Devil's eyes and, ZAP, you are back on the high ledge. It takes you a moment to realize you're on the south (caves) side, and you recall there was another entrance into the northern mountain across the rope bridge. Before venturing across again, OPEN THE POUCH and GET THE WHITE. Go north across the rope bridge to the high ledge. This time, take the northwest exit.

Oops! You have entered an immense chamber containing a glittering pile of treasure. Atop the treasure sits an extremely ugly (and hungry-looking) dragon. The dragon looks at you and says, 'Ah, my lunch at last.' (Yep, he's hungry!)

You must act quickly, dragon-bait, or it's curtains. Here's what to do. SHINE WHITE AT SHADOWS. This will cause the dragon (who has poor eyesight, by the way) to look around. He says he can't see anything so he'll just have to eat you instead. You quickly type, POINT AT SHAPES. Sorry about this, Bilbo Baggins fans, but the dragon spies what you're pointing at, which turns out to be thirteen cute little hobbits, which he promptly fries and eats. Well, it was them or you, right? And this gives you your chance to get past the winged monstor. Go north.

You have entered the magician's workshop. Yes sir, it's old Kronos' hideaway, all right. What's more, Kronos is right here, staring at you. No time (or moves) to lose. Instantly, THROW THE POTION BOTTLE AT THE MAGICIAN. Ha! Kronos, old boy, that slowed you down! Not only does it slow him down, but the bottle breaks and the potion sloshes all over Kronos' face and skin. This causes him to boil and bubble away before your very eyes. True, but how to get his bubbling remains to back to the Devil. What's that? A light bulb over your head? You remember the aerosoul (and now you can deduce why it's spelled that way). GET THE AEROSOUL and PRESS THE NOZZLE.

Good! The aerosoul quickly devours the scarred soul of the evil magician with little resistance. (And your points are up again, too.) Finally, there's nothing left of Kronos but a pile of his clothes on the floor. You LOOK AT THE CLOTHES. Odd, the shirt is black with a green design of a plant which has seven jagged edges. (Haven't we seen this before?) You look in the pocket and there's a metal key and a wooden key. Oh, you dunce, you're looking at your own clothes! Well, be patient. Soon you are told that the cloak is black and adorned with mystical symbols. The pointy hat has silver stars and moons stitched on it. There is also a wand lying there. Obviously, these belonged to Kronos.

WEAR THE CLOAK AND THE POINTY HAT. GET THE WAND. Now you look exactly like Kronos. (You will also find a top hat which you can take if you wish. If you look inside, it contains a rabbit. There are some spare wands lying around, too, but you don't really need them. The main thing is to fool the dragon into thinking you're Kronos. (He doesn't see very well, remember?) So leave the magician's workshop and head back south, all dressed up like Kronos.

The dragon looks you over and says, 'Thanks, oh, great wizard, for giving me those hobbits.' He says he wishes he could have had that human (gulp), too: 'Hobbits aren't all that filling.' Don't dally. You're home free. Go southeast to the ledge.

At this point I should interject that there is an alternate route from Kronos' lab, back to Hell where you must go next. It is via Kronos' flying stone slab, which is found parked outside to the North of the workshop. Using it is a matter of adjusting your weight (by dropping items) and then climbing aboard. Frankly, it was too much bother for me so I chose the way back as described, past the dragon.

The adventure is nearly over. You now need only retrace your steps back into the mountain through the northeast entrance, then down the rope in the papered room, and through the cavern where the hideous demons are still feasting. You enter Lucifer's presence once more and SHOW THE AEROSOUL TO THE DEVIL.

'The Devil's eyes turn on you, showing a hint of gratitude mixed with a patronizing condemnation of your weakness of spirit. Imperceptibly, the silver wristband falls to the ground and melts into a blob of useless metal in a matter of seconds. The Devil signals you to leave the chamber, your contract fulfilled.'

That's it, kid. Don't ask any questions, just leave. (If you don't the Devil will kill you.) First, OPEN THE POUCH AND GET THE WHITE. Then, Go west, then, south and west to the shaft. Go up the shaft to the double doors. No, the porter won't bother you. Go west to the ledge which is about ten feet below the papered room.

GET THE ROPE. (Now, this is important: Don't just type UP or you'll die. Enter CLIMB UP THE ROPE and all will be well. You will be back in the newly papered room (one wall of which you have thoughtfully ripped open with your trowel), and you can leave the northern mountain by going south across the rope bridge.

Is that it? Well, you have 345 points and you're supposed to get 350. Odd. Wonder what you didn't do? Well, there is something. Do you remember those perspex doors back in the caves not far from the Alchemist's Laboratory. Perhaps you should go there now.

Go back into the cavern and down to the small cave deep down inside the mountain. Once there, go south. This will take you to the narrow corridor that gets brighter and brighter to the south, ending where it meets the two swinging perspex doors.

Oh, yes, I nearly forgot. You have one other chore to perform before you tackle those doors. (And this is a real doozy, folks.) You GET THE TROWEL (if you don't already have it in hand). Now you must (and type this exactly as I'm writing it) PLANT THE PLANT IN THE POT WITH THE TROWEL. The plant will seem much happier, and you should, too. Your score just reached the magic 350!

Now for the doors. KNOCK ON THE DOOR. A voice from within will ask if you are wearing a wristband. Say, NO, I AM NOT WEARING THE WRISTBAND. The doors will open and you will find yourself inside a strange room, totally alien to the rest of the adventure. The walls floor are littered with listing paper and a large fan blows cigarette ash onto the many computers and peripherals that inhabit the weird abode.

You have entered the Chamber of the Programmers, the very ones who have created THE PAWN. One of them gives you a listing and tells you to fix it. Then, they all troop off to the pub to celebrate your finishing the game. LOOK AT THE LISTING. You discover it is a listing of something called 'Debugbits.' It looks like it might let you wander around the game without dying.

Type DEBUG, and you will see the '>' prompt change to '].' Congratulations! Now you can go anywhere you want in the game and no one and nothing can hurt you. Waltz past the dragon. He won't care. Let go of the rope. Big deal! Go see the Devil if you want. You are immune. Well, what's the point? You've already finished the adventure. So why bother? Well, it might just be fun to see if there is something you missed or could have done better. Heck, you can go rescue the princess if you want. Maybe King Eric will treat you a bit better if you do.

Try typing in 'DEBUG' at the beginning of the game for the same effect.

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