CHAPTER V: Rodrigue, Atlantzone, October 2 2002.
(Written by Mandi, editor axolotl)

CHAPTER V: CANCHES' OFFICE

  1. Is the study empty? Not so: take a look at the desk. Séraphin is sitting there. Talk to him.
  2. He will present you with a small casket – it will be on the desk.
  3. You have to figure out the combination: the casket has 6 wheels, with four digits and two symbols. If you're stuck, see [OPENING THE CASKET].
  4. Now the casket is open. Click on a small compartment to the right, and you will retrieve the GOLD KEY - the one belonging to Rodrigue.
  5. You will also pick up a slim wooden box. Examine it in your inventory and open it up.
  6. Inside you will find a chessboard and a slip of paper with a riddle. Read the riddle carefully; you need to decipher it to determine where to place the five pawns on the chessboard. If stuck, see [LINING UP THE CHESS PIECES].
  7. When the pieces are correctly placed, you will see the lines appear.
  8. While you're at it, unlock Rodrigue's Book in the safe. If you're stuck, see [OPENING RODRIGUE'S BOOK]. Read what Canches has to say to you. No doubt about it, despite these little games, you were his favourite.
  9. Once you've solved the chess puzzle, talk to Séraphin again. He will realize what the puzzle signifies and what LOCATION it indicates...
  10. On your way out, take a look at the dresser by the door. Hm, a loose pack of MATCHES. Better pick them up; you never know.
  11. Go out of the house, but this time, go left as Séraphin instructed. You will find yourself in a bit of a maze. It's actually very easy - if you run into a dead end, go back and try another direction. (There are maybe three possible paths you can take.) But if you still haven't found an interesting place, see [PATH THROUGH THE GARDEN].

CHAPTER V: THE WELL

  1. You've come across a well; take a look inside. Deep, isn't it?
  2. There's a row of lighter stones spiralling down into the well. That can't be coincidental. Click on the ones closest to you; they're not very stable. Click on the lighter coloured stones, going along the spiral - wait, did those move?
  3. That's right! The third and fourth stones from the bottom right are loose! Click on them again...
  4. ...and they fall away, to reveal the final piece of the Stone and another note: ROTAS. Take both Stone and note; time to decipher the last part of the scroll!

CHAPTER V: CANCHES' OFFICE (2)

  1. When you enter the study, speak to Séraphin. You will ask him to fetch you some sturdy ROPE, which you will need later. Click on him a second time to make him leave.
  2. Open up the safe and take the other four pieces of the Stone.
  3. Open the scroll. Use the ROTAS code to decipher the newest section...
  4. ...but wait! This time, MORE than just one page is to be translated! If you skip to the next page of the scroll, you will find a personal message to you from Canches. To make sure Rodrigue understands, click on the text of the page - it's telling you to assemble the MAGIC SQUARE!
  5. As soon as you do this, all 5 pieces of the code will come together in your inventory. Examine them. Yes, this is actually just a jigsaw puzzle - put the pieces together! If it doesn't work, make sure you fit them together precisely. Click on the finished square, and the pieces should come together.
  6. If you click on the square, you will hear a succession of musical tunes. Sound familiar? It should. Examine the items in your inventory carefully.
  7. With all five fragments in your inventory, use the Magic Square on the scroll. (If nothing immediately changes, close and then open the scroll up again.) You will see Canches' final instructions to you. PAY ATTENTION TO HIS WARNING; it will be useful in the epilogue of the game.
  8. Close the safe and go back to the study exit. Séraphin will be there, with a length of sturdy ROPE. Take the ROPE and go downstairs. It's time to go back to the well.

CHAPTER V: WELL (UNDERGROUND)

  1. Secure the rope on the handle above the well.
  2. Go down into the well!
  3. Oh, no! The rope got loose! But you're okay, so get up. Take the rope and go forward.
  4. Too dark to proceed! But wait, what's in that compartment in the wall to the left? Click on it to find out.
  5. You can just barely make out a metal panel. Drag your cursor over it carefully; the HAND will appear on a spot on the left side. Click on that spot to open it up.
  6. Inside, you can see a switch. But flipping it does nothing. It's too dark to see, so you may have to shed some light on the subject and fix the wiring. If stuck, see [FUSES].
  7. Yay! You can see now! And apparently, you find yourself in a labyrinth - for this walkthrough, we'll refer to it as the "labyrinth of the well". Feel free to explore, and take note which directions take you where. Definitely take note of the letters on the walls and beside entryways - they are very important.
  8. You will come to a closed gate leading to the vault. You need to get this open. If you're stuck, see [LABYRINTH OF THE WELL].
  9. When you enter the gate, you will find yourself in a room with flagstones. Click on the floor to get a close-up of it.
  10. Obviously, to get across, one must step on the correct combination of flagstones. But how? Check out [THE FLAGSTONE ROOM] if you can't get it right.
  11. Past the next door, there is a wide, yawning pit. But how do you get across? See [SNAKE PIT] if you're stuck.
  12. Fell in anyway? All right, all right, you didn't listen carefully and forgot one step - see [SNAKE PIT 2].
  13. Whew! You crossed safely, but are barred by yet another puzzle - there's a grid with two white and two black stones on it. You must solve the puzzle by putting the two black stones on top and the two white stones on the bottom corners. But these stones move only in a certain way... see [BLACK AND WHITE] for more help.
  14. You have opened the door now, and you stand in front of an altar. As soon as you enter, you hear a VERY familiar musical sequence. This is important, so keep that in mind. Go take a closer look around.
  15. There's a pentagon engraved on the altar, with five points. It's tempting to simply deposit the Stones on the altar, isn't it? But it's not as easy as it looks - you need to place them down in the proper order. If you put them down in the wrong order, nothing will happen, and when you click on the centre, the 5 Stones will go back to your inventory. (If you see them there again while all 5 fragments are in your inventory, ignore it - it's a bug.)
  16. Notice how you hear a bit of music when you put each Stone down? Sound familiar? For more help, see [STONES ON THE ALTAR].
  17. You have restored the PHILOSOPHER'S STONE of Sigismond Canches. You can't take it with you, however.
  18. If you keep trying to pick it up, Rodrigue will say that it would be a good idea to find a way out of here first. Smart man. Take your time in exploring the chambers, there's no hurry now. See what you can do in the rooms.
  19. You will find the following setup... To the LEFT of the altar: a lion-headed fountain, with the water running, and exits to the left and right. You can examine the fountain, but there's nothing you can do with it (yet).
  20. It's up to you to figure out how to use what's here to escape. If you get stuck, see [ESCAPING THE UNDERGROUND VAULT].
  21. Congratulations, you opened the secret passage and are back outside the mansion! There's a small transition, and then you move on, finally, to the EPILOGUE...

FULL BLOWN CHEATS

CHAPTER V: [OPENING THE CASKET]
  1. The first and last wheel bear a series of planetary symbols, very familiar to you by now. The 4 wheels in-between only bear digits, from 0 to 9.
  2. For the digit-wheels, it's really obvious: surely they have to be set to the Heirs' birth date, which you found on a painting in Artémise's studio, and which Rodrigue even took the trouble of writing down in his notebook. So let's set these 4 wheels to 6666. (Notice how the Number of the Beast appears here? The Devil must be at work in this adventure!)
  3. For the planetary symbols, there are several methods to try and guess which they are.
  4. You can try all of them in turn... It doesn't take long, since the game designer has been kind enough to make the casket open as soon as the correct combination is set, without any tedious manipulation...
  5. You can reduce the scope by considering that none of the 4 Heirs' symbols should be considered. What is there left ? Look at the last Book that you haven't opened yet, and you will see the SUN. Look into Canches' "Alchimie" book, and you will see the SUN is associated with the EARTH and the MOON through the SALT element. Since EARTH is not one of the symbols on the wheels, this leaves only the MOON.. SUN and MOON, quite appropriate. Worth a trial (in fact two if you're unlucky).
  6. The final solution is to set the 1st wheel on the left to SUN, the 4 wheels in-between to 6666, and the last wheel to SUN. Note that this is very symbolic: the MOON represents Canches (and Jupiter is associated with him, the father figure etc.) while the SUN represents Rodrigue. Since the casket is handed by the father to the son, it all figures out well, don't you think? In short, it should be JUPITER, 6666, SUN.

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CHAPTER V: [LINING UP THE CHESS PIECES]

(Note: This assumes that you know the meaning of "symmetric". If not, go ask a math teacher. Or see this link: http://www.mcwdn.org/Geometry/Symmetry.html for a refresher course.)

  1. First, let's look at the riddle:

"In symmetry
I have buried them in my estate
to give them life,
setting by threes their six raised bodies
in four alignments, ritual and symbolic.
At the feet of the King lies what you seek."

  1. You don't need to know chess to do this. It's a geometry problem.
  2. Now look at the chessboard. "Six raised bodies" = six chess pieces. Including a King, no less. Try moving the King.
  3. The King won't move. So ONE of your six pieces is already set.
  4. "In symmetry" indicates a SYMMETRICAL solution. Since there are five pawns to work with, one of them MUST be on the vertical line of symmetry.
  5. One pawn must be "at the feet of the King" since you need to pinpoint "what you seek".
  6. That means that one of the 5 pawns must be on the same vertical line somewhere in front of the King. (Set one aside.)
  7. It follows that since you have 4 pieces left, the formation must use that vertical line through the king and the 5th pawn as its line of symmetry.
  8. So you need to arrange the other 4 pawns on either side of the king and the centre pawn "at its feet" symmetrically.
  9. The King's not at the centre of the board, so there's one less column on the left side. So you can rule out the column on the far right of the board COMPLETELY.
  10. The weird line "setting by threes in four alignments" means that when you connect the pawns, you get straight lines going through three pieces.
  11. What if you made an upside-down V with the 4 pawns and the king? That would be symmetric! (I'll use a ^ to denote it.)
  12. And it would satisfy the "setting by threes" bit - you'd have two straight lines connecting three pieces (king, first left pawn, second left pawn; king, first right pawn, second right pawn).
  13. The two pawns right next to the king can't be too close to the king - the arms of the ^ would go out too far to the left and right and the other two pawns would go off the board.
  14. Experiment with the four pawns. Remember that the two outer pawns can be either two or three columns away from the king. Make sure you've got them symmetric.
  15. Once you think you've got the ^ set up, let's place the last pawn in front of the King somewhere. Tried moving it up and down that column someplace where it lines up with the outer and inner pawns on both sides?
  16. Considered that the missing 2 alignments can cross one another, with that final pawn where they intersect? (Ever heard "X marks the spot?")
  17. The correct formation should look something like this: (K = king, P = pawn) 
     K
   P   P
     P

P         P
  1. Oh, all right, all right. If we letter the COLUMNS from left to right (far left column is A, far right column is H) and number the rows from the bottom up (bottom row is 1, top row is 8)...

    ...the King is at D8.

    Put the 5 pawns at:

    C6 E6 D5 A2 G2

    Once the lines appear, click on the board to continue.

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CHAPTER V: [OPENING RODRIGUE'S BOOK]
  1. Crack open Canches' "Alchimie" book again and look at the last page.
  2. Rodrigue has a GOLD KEY. What symbol corresponds to GOLD?
  3. That's right, the SUN. So you can open the book with the SUN symbol on it.
  4. To get the colour - the SUN falls under the element of SALT, which is green.
  5. What are the other symbols under SALT? The Moon (LUNE) and another symbol.
  6. The Moon is the only celestial body left of the 10 listed, so that should be the second symbol.
  7. Take the book with the SUN symbol - the one on the far right, leaning a bit.
  8. Set the colour to green with the gold key.
  9. Set the second symbol to the Moon. Ta da! It's open!

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CHAPTER V: [PATH THROUGH THE GARDEN]
  1. This isn't much of a maze. In fact, there are only THREE POSSIBLE PATHS. Two won't work.
  2. Séraphin told you to go left. So you have to keep going left.
  3. Go left at the exit, keep going past the split tree.
  4. At the first fork, take the left, darker path.
  5. At the second fork, go left AGAIN. Look! The well! Not so hard, is it?

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CHAPTER V: [FUSES]
  1. Too dark to see? Light a match!
  2. Ah, now you can see three wires - RED, GREEN, and BLUE - that are disconnected. You need to connect them to the proper fuses and flip the switch. If you get the wrong combination, the power won't come on. But if you get it right, the lights will switch on.
  3. But there's a drawback - you must be quick before your match goes out!
  4. To connect a wire, click on the end of the wire, then click on the metal piece you're connecting it to.
  5. To disconnect a wire, click on the metal piece it's attached to.
  6. There are 6 possible combinations, and 7 matches, so if you are quick you can try them all. (If you run out, you can always go back and try again; the correct combo never changes.
  7. But if you don't want to take the time, from left to right: RED, GREEN, BLUE. Yep, it was that easy.

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CHAPTER V: [LABYRINTH OF THE WELL]
  1. Take a good look around the maze. You notice that there are letters in the walls that you can press in and that make a sound when you do.
  2. You need to press a certain code of letters in a particular order to crack open the vault. If you press the wrong letter, you must start all over again.
  3. Here's where all 10 letters are. Starting from the labyrinth entrance:
  4. This gives us a total of 9 letters: M, U, I, R, A, O, V, L, T.
  5. By "code of letters" you realize I mean a word, don't you?
  6. Most players assume it's "VITRIOLUM". But that didn't work, did it?
  7. What's an even more OBVIOUS possibility?
  8. It's right in front of you.
  9. In block letters.
  10. Above the gate you're trying to open.
  11. It's "VAULT".
  12. Done kicking yourself? (I did that too.)
  13. Go find the letters and press them in order. When you press the last one, you will hear the vault door grinding open.
  14. Ta-da! The door's open! Enter the vault.

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CHAPTER V: [THE FLAGSTONE ROOM]
  1. Hm. Examine the floor. More letters. Bet you have to step on them in the order in which they spell out a word, right?
  2. It's not "VAULT", obviously - that won't get you across.
  3. Tried "VITRIOLUM?"
  4. Didn't work, did it?
  5. Look CAREFULLY at the note from Philemon's book in your inventory. It's a Latin word, and engraved in capital letters... and in Latin, any letter "U" is replaced by the letter "V"!
  6. Click on the stones to spell out "VITRIOLVM".
  7. Do not forget to click on the bottom of the door at the top of the screen to actually cross!

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CHAPTER V: [SNAKE PIT]
  1. Hm. There's a cross on the other side of the pit. What could you use on it?
  2. Tried throwing your rope?
  3. Good. Now that it's tied to the cross on the other side, you need something on this side to tie it to... turn around and look behind you.
  4. A-ha! Another cross! Tie the loose end of the rope to that.
  5. But just the rope will not hold you. Take that board.
  6. Lay the board across the gulf - a makeshift bridge! You may proceed... but listen carefully, you may need to be quick to grab something!

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CHAPTER V: [SNAKE PIT 2]
  1. So you used the board to cross and fell in anyway, eh? Well, you didn't listen carefully, did you?
  2. The first time you stepped on the board, you should have heard a cracking noise - the BOARD WAS CRACKING BENEATH YOU. One more step and it would go.
  3. In fact, when you stepped again, it vanished beneath your feet - and ONE SECOND LATER you were in the pit.
  4. What could you have grabbed for in that ONE SECOND of time you had?
  5. There's a VERY good reason you needed to have the rope tied to both crosses.
  6. As soon as you make your second step, CLICK ON THE ROPE TIED TO THE CROSS. (You only have three seconds to do this in the online game, and one second in the offline game. If the online game is slow to load, position your mouse where the rope should be and click as soon as you make that second step.)
  7. That should finally get you across... although going back is now definitely out of the question.

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CHAPTER V: [BLACK AND WHITE]
  1. You have 4 pieces: two white, two black.
  2. Move them by clicking on the piece you want to move, then clicking on the open space where you want to place it.
  3. But they won't move in any way you want - they will only move two spaces over and one space up or down (or two spaces up/down and one space over).
  4. Also, if there's a piece occupying the space, you can't move another piece there.
  5. The object of this puzzle is to eventually put the two black pawns on the top corners (where the white ones originally are) and move the two white pieces on the bottom corners.
  6. You may notice that to move a piece diagonally, you need to make 4 movements... since there are 4 pawns that need to be moved corner-to-corner, that's at least 16 moves total.
  7. Here's the solution in 16 moves exactly. Number the rows from 1 to 3. (top row = 1, bottom row = 3) Number the columns as A (left column), B (middle column) and C (right column).

    The moves are:
  8. When that's done, you will hear the release of the door lock mechanism... and you will be able to use the door handle to open the door.

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CHAPTER V: [STONES ON THE ALTAR]
  1. So you've placed the Stones on the altar, and they don't work. Perhaps Rodrigue says, "I must remember the musical phrases!"
  2. Remember the music that played when you entered? Sounded familiar, didn't it?
  3. In fact, doesn't the SAME MUSICAL SEQUENCE play when you examine and click on the MAGIC SQUARE?
  4. Oddly enough, when you examine and click on each Stone in your inventory, it plays a fragment of that very same tune.
  5. You must place the Stones on the altar in the order in which each Stone's fragment of music plays in the sequence. Examine the MAGIC SQUARE whenever you need to hear the tune again; there's no rush.
  6. Okay. So you have no ear for music, or your speakers aren't working properly. Don't give up. There is a way to solve this for us tone-deaf (or, in Mandi's case, just partly deaf) people:
  7. The solution is in this order (by the owner of each fragment):
  8. When you have placed the Stones correctly, they will begin to glow.
  9. Click, and the glow brightens...
  10. Click, and now you can see a shape forming in the middle...
  11. Click, and it becomes... the PHILOSOPHER'S STONE!
  12. Click and the glow will fade. Can you take it? Try.
  13. OUCH! Nope, it burned your hand. Well, then, you're not done quite yet...

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CHAPTER V: [ESCAPING THE UNDERGROUND VAULT]
  1. There are basically two triggers you can use here: the loose statue and the cross.
  2. Clicking the cross first does... nothing. So try moving the statue first.
  3. Huh. The water stopped gushing out of the lion fountain, although it's still running. Maybe we should go check the cross.
  4. When you clicked on the cross, did you hear that gurgling sound? Hey, the swan fountain's running!
  5. Does that mean it's not running in the lion fountain anymore? Go look.
  6. Yep, the lion fountain is dry as a bone. So Rodrigue doesn't have to worry about getting wet. Take a closer look at that fountain.
  7. Is that a loose brick I see? Tried turning it?
  8. Now that noise sounded like a door opening. Go explore. Is the gate pulled up? No. Darn.
  9. But what about the seemingly empty room by the lion fountain? It's got to be good for something...
  10. ...and it is! There's now an exit to the garden there! Yay!

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