Fanclub Das Freakmagazin 1/FANCLUB1.ISO/losung/blackcld.txt

Text File | 1996-05-13 | 21KB | 341 lines

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=== THE ELECTRONIC GAMER ===
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THE BLACK CAULDRON WALKTHRU

THE BLACK CAULDRON, by Sierra On-Line, is loosely based on the Walt Disney
movie of the same name and was written in conjunction with Disney's
personal computer software staff. It's a 3-D game almost totally controlled
by joystick, mouse, or various keys depending on your computer and personal
choice. In my version, only one command, FAST (NORMAL and SLOW are options
too), may be entered on the keyboard and everything else is done with the
DO, USE, or LOOK commands using the mouse, joystick, number keypad, tab,
and various function keys.

This is not as easy as it sounds as you must decide which item to "use" and
must place your character in just the right place and all. However, it was
thought that typed commands would be more difficult for children. If you
are having trouble with an arcade sequence killing you by surprise, it may
help to use the "slow" command to slow Taran down. To use an item in your
inventory, press the appropriate buttons, and keys to see it on your screen,
move the "highlight" to the item you want to use, and press again to return
to the game screen.

Since I am a long-time adventure game player, I normally use north, east,
etc., as directions. However, you may be newer at this than I am and up,
right, and so forth, may be more comfortable. I've tried to make these
directions clear; but if you get confused, just think of your screen as
having a set of compass points on it with north is pointing up and it
should be clearer. In addition, since you may be reading this mainly to
help your child, I've tried to make it as clear and complete as possible.

You are Taran, assistant pig keeper and would-be adventurer. Your mission,
as it evolves during the game, is to deliver the visionary pig, Hen Wen, to
safety and destroy the evil cauldron. You begin outside the cottage of
Dallben in Caer Dallben in Prydain. If your computer has enough memory,
type FAST on the keyboard and press the carriage return. (Try it. If you
don't have enough memory, it won't work.) Then move Taran up to the door of
the cottage and use the DO command to open the door and go in. Move over in
front of Dallben and DO again. He'll tell you it's time to feed the pig so
move up to the fire and DO to get the food cooking there. Go outside and
east (right) to the pen. DO at the gate to open it, go in, highlight the
pig food and USE it to feed Hen Wen. (There's corn in the shed too and you
can use it to feed Hen Wen instead of the gruel.)

She will take off in a hurry so follow her back into the cottage. (Don't
worry if she gets ahead of you -- just keep going back to the cottage.)
Move fairly close to Dallben and read about Hen Wen's vision and your
mission. When Dallben gives you the rope, move to the upper right side of
the room and DO to open the cupboard and take out everything in it. (If you
keep on pressing the DO command you will end by closing the cupboard.)
Leave the cottage (Hen Wen will follow) and move around to the bottom left
side of the water trough right in front of the low place. Highlight the
water flask and then USE it. Move North and West (up and left) keeping
close to the edge of the screen.

When you get to the tree with the hole in it, move right in front of it and
DO. You'll find a lute. It looks quicker and easier to move straight up the
middle of the screen but the evil Horned King has sent his despicable
gwythaints after Hen Wen; and the method for avoiding them (and almost all
Sierra bad guys) is to move to another screen FAST! So stay close to the
edge of the monitor and move two screens up (north) to a briar patch as
best you can. This is the first, and easiest, of a series of arcade
sequences in this game. You want to move north but must, through trial and
error, find a twisty path through the briars. This one's not hard. Just go
around the rock to the west (left), north a little, east around a bush in
front of you, and west around the back. (If you came in from the east from
behind the tree, just go west until you can't go any further, north, and
straight west.)

When you have successfully negotiated the briars and gone north to the next
screen, you'll see a door to an underground house in front of you. Move up
to it and DO. You open it and go inside. This is the home of the Fair Folk
who will take care of Hen Wen for you. When Gwystyl has given you the new
message from Dallben, the magic word, and takes the pig to safety, move up
and right to the cupboard at the back. DO and you'll get the cookies. Go
back outside and you begin the next phase of the game.

Go straight east to the next screen. Wander around here for a bit, moving a
screen or two if necessary, and you should see Gurgi, a little creature
who's dirty but cute, and hungry. Give him the cookies (or the apple) and
he'll be your friend for life. This isn't mandatory but you get points and
it is part of one (not the best but still useful) of the solutions to the
game. Go south (down) to the lake with the smooth stones. Cross over it in
any way you like, just don't get too close to the waterfall. You can walk
around or swim (You can also go as far east (right) as possible and north
(up) from there, across the footbridge, etc.) With the waterfall on your
right, move across the bottom of the screen close to the rocks in the falls.


When you're near a flatish rock that sticks up rather high in the water,
highlight the magic word and USE it. The rock will drop. Be careful here
and step on the rock going slightly up to the next flat area but not really
straight up. The graphics aren't right here and it looks like you're
walking on thin air but if it's dark, you're in the right place. Keep going
east and there you are in the Land of the Fair Folk being challenged by
King Eiddileg! A bit battered for falling down the hole but none the worse
for wear. DO to tell him who you are, highlight and USE the lute to give it
to him as a token, and he'll give you some flying dust. Highlight and USE
the dust, fly out, USE the magic word to lower the rock again and return to
the ground. Go North two screens to the bridge. If you go into the stream
and LOOK at the bridge from the side you'll see a food wallet. DO to get it
and you'll never run out of food although I never had any problem using
just the bread and the apple.

Now you're ready to tackle the castle. Go West three screens to a
frightening forest that has a tree with a dagger holding up a "no
trespassing" sign. Move to the tree in a sort of NNE direction and DO to
get the dagger. Now go North to the next screen by going between the two
black trees at the top ("The rapids are turbulent and treacherous. This is
not a good place to dive in.") and West to the Base of Eagle Mountains.

You are confronted with a large number of rocks which make up another maze,
quite a bit more difficult this time. Make some notes for yourself so
you'll know how to do this. You have to come back down this way and do it
all over again later. Start navigating the maze from slightly up on the
right. (Specifically, where you came in from the east (right).) Move in
(west) and north a bit, west, northeast, west, north, west in a bit of a
loop and back around east-northeeast (east on a slight north angle), and,
finally, north up the rocks somewhat to the right (east) of the center of
your screen. After you've gotten into the maze the main rocks you are
concerned with are the big one in the center and slightly to the right of
your screen (around to the right and across the back) and the large pointed
ones in the top half to the left (around the left and across the back).

This may take quite a bit of adjusting and some work since all I could give
you was a general idea of where it goes. Keep working and look for openings.
Much depends on just how you approached a specific area. Look for "V"
shapes in the rocks for extra clues. However, they ARE there, and at least
you are unlikely to die in the maze. You'll end up right in front of a
barren tree which is a new screen.

Save a LOT in this area!! You'll need those saves! This stuff is tricky and
the flying dust won't work. Move up close to the tree, highlight the ROPE
in your inventory, and USE it. It should attach to the tree and head on up
to the top corner of your screen. If it doesn't, move a bit and keep trying.
Remember which way it went! You'll need to know that to get back down. Use
the DO command to start climbing the rope. If possible, I strongly
recommend you use the keyboard here. The rope is set at a precise northeast
(or northwest) angle and you can easily fall off using the joystick or
mouse. Don't forget to save. I recommend one at the bottom before you start
the climb and another at the top. One helpful thing is you'll be walking
into a cliff at the top and so you don't have to worry about making certain
he's stopped before getting to the next screen.

Now that you're here, cross to the other side of the ledge and move Taran
into the wall until his fingertips "clutch the tiny crevices in the rock
face," move him across and down to the next ledge down. SAVE! Walk around
the ledge and climb again. Up this time and away from the side your rope is
on. If your rope is on the left, (it went right) move until his feet just
clear the long ledge one level up from the rope and then drop down. If your
rope is on the right, you'll need to move all the way up into the ledges on
the top (but not so far that you fall off) before coming back down or you
won't be able to get him onto the ledge no matter what it says on your
screen. (At least in my version.)

SAVE! Now, walk around the long ledge being careful not to fall off the
front OR the back. Climb again until you can land on the final ledge at the
side of your screen over the rope. Be careful! It is possible to fall off
the side if you're too close to the edge of the screen and you'll need to
adjust a bit to make it work. The left screen here is a little strange. One
time I was close to the left side of the top ledge and automatically
dropped off, without being in the right place and leaving an odd red piece
behind which wasn't really there. Also the topmost climb (into the
overhanging rocks) looks all wrong. However, it doesn't matter. SAVE! Go to
the next screen.

If you're hungry or thirsty, this is a good place to take care of it.
Highlight WATER (not the flask) or BREAD (or the apple or food wallet if
you like) and then USE it. This screen is surprisingly small and it may
look as if you'll fall off the edge if you go north (up) but you won't. So,
go north to the next screen and you'll be confronted with another ledge-
style path to the castle. Carefully make your way to the castle following
the graphics (the keyboard may help you here although you can do it with
the joystick without much trouble if you're careful) and go north to the
castle and the moat filled with alligators. (Another good place for a
save.)

There are two ways to get in the castle. You can leap into the moat when
the alligators move apart, swim to the wall, DO, climb it, cut the vines at
the window in the top left corner, and go in. However, I'm an adventure
game player, not an arcader, and after navigating the maze, climbing the
rope and the wall, and navigating the walkway, I chose the easier route. Go
west to the side of the castle and you'll see a drawbridge which is most
likely closed. If so, go east again and come back. Keep moving back and
forth between the two screens and eventually the drawbridge will be open
and the King's henchman will be there with a cart.

For some odd reason, I often found it helpful to use the magic word near
the alligators but this didn't always work and is certainly not necessary.
In any case, as soon as you see the cart move around behind it and DO.
You'll jump in the back, the henchman won't see you, and you'll end up
inside the castle. As soon as he leaves, DO out of the cart and go north
through the archway to the wine cellar.

If you started this walkthru in the middle and Hen Wen has already been
caught, you need to go north, west, up the stairs, east, and through the
door to the East onto the balcony overlooking the Horned King's Throne Room.
You should see Hen Wen and can jump off, grab her to break the spell, and
take off with her. You can throw her off the parapet, or go across the
drawbridge or down into the dungeons letting her go out through the hole in
the burial chamber either with or without Eilonwy. However, I have been
playing Sierra games for too many years to have allowed her to be captured
so I have not tried any of these methods and am not sure what happens after
that except that you need to DO at the pig tracks near the waterfall to
jump from rock to rock in order to get to the King of the Fair Folk.

If Hen Wen is already safe you have some options on how to get to the
dungeons. You can go there directly from the wine casks, or go north, west,
down the stairs, south, turn the figure on the wall, and climb down the
ladder. If you get caught right away, rattle the cup at the cell door to
open up a passage, and don't forget to grab your stuff from the closet
through the left door at the back in the area north of the wine. Personally,
I went directly down the garbage chute.

In the wine cellar there are six huge wine casks, three on each side of the
door. Between the first and second to the right of the door (counting from
the center) is a garbage chute you can't see. Go between them, wiggle
around a bit, and you'll fall down the chute landing two floors down, a bit
dizzy but no big problem. Here is Eilonwy and her magic bauble imprisoned
by the Horned King. Go west twice (go north first if you were captured or
west, north if you went down the stairs) and you'll see a wall where five
of the stones reach onto the floor from the wall. Move up in front of them
(a LOOK may be useful here) and DO until you have removed them one-by-one.
Go through the hole into the burial chamber and you'll see a stone coffin
with a "glint of metal" on the top.

The magic bauble will find an exit to the north-northwest and Eilonwy will
follow it out of the castle. (If you have Hen Wen, she can follow them
too.) Since you can't follow her, move up close to the coffin and DO. Now
you have a magic sword! Go south twice and east. You'll see a "hideous
gargoyle" on the wall next to a ladder. Stand in front of the gargoyle and
DO to open a trap door in the ceiling (not necessary if you used the
stairs), then move in front of the ladder and highlight the sword in your
inventory. Be prepared to move quickly because you MUST NOT be caught with
the sword or the game is over. I found it easier to use the function keys
here instead of a joystick or mouse because it required only one button so
it was faster. SAVE!

Okay, now go up the ladder, move closer to the center of the screen and go
North. The henchman is guarding the cell and the dungeon so he appears here
incredibly often; and he must be close to you or you'll miss him with the
sword. When he gets fairly close USE it. Yup. It's a magic sword all right.
(Also typically Sierra non-violent.) He's momentarily stunned but not
permanently out of commission. Moving fast DO to get the keys on the right
wall and go back south to avoid the henchman. Go back to the center of the
screen and go north again continuing to move quickly.

It's easier to complete this sequence if you can whack the henchman about a
third of the way up the screen. This allows you time to do what you need to
do before he wakes up and he's still far enough away so it takes him a bit
of extra time to reach you. USE the SWORD on the henchman again,
immediately highlight the KEYS, go straight up to the door in front of you,
USE the keys to open it, and go through it. Move up to Fflewddur Fflam and
DO. You'll introduce yourself and untie him. He'll give you his harp and
take off.

Highlight the sword again and go south through the door, west through the
next door, up the first stairs, east (don't forget to grab your stuff out
of the closet if you were captured), and then south twice to the drawbridge
area. (You can also go up the stairs, west twice to the parapet, and DO to
jump off or back out the way you came in if you climbed the wall. However,
the parapet method, at least, doesn't give you the 13 points you get by
using the drawbridge. Again, I never climbed the walls so I can't tell you
about that method.)

The henchman appears here often; and I found that it was almost always
possible to move fast enough to change screens to avoid him instead of
taking the chance of missing him with the sword. Move up close to the
drawbridge mechanism (you will need to be either directly in front or
slightly south (down) from it) and USE the sword. The sword has MORE magic
powers! It easily cuts the chain and the drawbridge is now permanently open.


You'll need a save here and you can decide whether you want it on disk 1
(inside castle) or disk 2 (outside). Go out the door, across the drawbridge
(again, the keyboard helps as it's VERY narrow and straight east/west), and
back to the rock wall. Now you know why I told you to remember which side
your rope was on because if you go the wrong way from the castle you won't
be able to get down.

Climb back down the cliff and the rope the same way you got up but don't
untie the rope because you'll be needing it again. Navigate back through
the rocks, exit south, and go south to the swamp. It will say there's a
swamp to the southwest and if you LOOK it will tell you it might be
possible to cross it here. From here you can try jumping on the rocks in
the swamp if you like but it's a lot easier to use the flying dust. (If you
went west out of the rock maze, just go south twice and fly west from the
northeast corner of Morva Marsh. With the dust it's okay either way.)
Highlight the dust, USE it, and go south (or W) past the beach (It's light
and yellowish in my version.), and south to the witches house, USE it again
to land, and start walking again. Move to the door, DO to open it, and go
inside. There'll be a chest here so move up close directly in front of it
and DO to open it.

Oops! It seems that the witches like to turn people into frogs and they
aren't too pleased with your activities! DO to tell them who you are but
that isn't enough so highlight the sword and USE it to trade. (Make SURE to
tell them who you are first or you'll be sorry.) Great, that's what they
wanted and you all go outside automatically. Move up to the cauldron and
LOOK then move to the witches and DO. (Be careful not to use DO too close
to the cauldron or you'll jump in it and the game will be over.) Wonderful.

These "ladies" are real "sweethearts." You get more snide remarks and a
gwythaint comes by, grabs the cauldron, and carries it off to the castle.
<sigh> Time to return to the castle. Fly back across the marsh, land where
you can, go back to the rock maze, and return to the castle using the exact
same route as before except the drawbridge is open this time. NOTE: If the
drawbridge is closed when you return to the castle, you can get in the same
way you did before or try another one of the listed methods.

Getting caught is not recommended this time so head for the garbage chute
between the wine casks. Go south, highlight the Magic Mirror, then east to
the King's Secret Burial Chamber where he's preparing to resurrect his evil
army. USE the mirror when he comes a bit closer to you. He sees his true
self and that much evil is too much even for him. He jumps into the
cauldron destroying both it and himself forever. Hooray!!

At this point the game is automatic except for pushing the button when
there's too much text. The destruction of the cauldron shakes the castle to
its foundations and throws you into the moat where you grab a passing log
and hold on tight. When you get to more peaceful parts you'll see the
cauldron floating in the stream and get out of the water. The witches will
arrive and start offering you things to give them back the cauldron. Don't
do anything and they will eventually offer you the sword, which you'll get
automatically.

If you like, you can press the button to look at the Status Screen and see
your full 230 points. Your friends Eilonwy, Gurgi, and Flewdur will appear
and all four of you will head off into the distance with Dallben waving
goodbye. Congratulations!! You're a REAL hero now!

THE BLACK CAULDRON is published and distributed by Sierra On-Line.

This walkthru is copyright (c) 1987 by Sara Groves and THE ELECTRONIC GAMER
(tm). All rights reserved. Not to be distributed without permission.