Some players may not want to wade through the whole walkthrough, just to find the solution to one troublesome spot. Therefore, you may click on a link to jump to the desired area.
System requirements:
The interface: The cursor changes to a pointy arrow when you can interact with something. To examine it, right-click, and to either pick up, operate, or open something. left-click. The navigation arrows are obvious, as are the conversation icons.
- Pentium 200 MHz
- Windows 95/98/2000/ME
- 32 MB RAM
- 2 MB VGA Video (with or without 3D)
- 16-bit sound card
- 200 MB free disk space
Warning:This game is not suitable for young children or very squeamish adults. It contains frequent references to murder and occasional references to cannibalism. Explicit graphic images of violent acts may frighten or offend some people. |
A word about installation and game options: If you have room, I strongly recommend the following procedure: Open "My Computer" and navigate through the following folders: C:, Program Files, House of Tales, Mystery of the Druids. If you are in the correct folder, you will see a savegame folder, an updates folder, and several files. Right-click on the background and select New >Folder. Name it Disk1 (without a space). Do that again, naming a new folder Disk2. Now, depending on how much room you have - put the disk labeled "The Present" in the CD-ROM, and copy the entire disk into the Disk1 folder; then put the disk labeled "The Past" in and copy it into the Disk2 folder. If you are short of space (each disk will take up about 600 megabytes) just do the Present for now. When you finish the Present section of the game, you will not need to return to it, and you can delete the Disk 1 folder and fill the Disk2 one. If you have the capacity to copy both disks, you will have a smooth transition from present to past.
The improvement in performance is well
worth the effort of doing this. When you start, you will be given the option
of setting your video to either Best Quality or Best Performance. You should
select Best Performance unless you have a very high-end very
fast machine. The difference in quality is barely noticeable, but the difference
in performance is substantial.
| For detailed instructions on the full install, Click Here. |
| For a printable walkthrough, Click Here. |
Back at the Yard, find the Forensics Laboratory. It's across the hall from Chief's office. Talk to the technician, show him your evidence, keep conversing with him until he suggests you see Dr. Turner.
Addressing the Captain by his proper title
does the trick. He becomes a regular Chatty-Cathy. Listen to his stories,
and encourage talk of Druids. Find out that salt is able to bring down
their buildings. Look down at the water-line of the boat and discover some
salt sticking there. It probably would be a good idea to have some salt,
just in case.
| This would be a nice time to save your game. |
Talk to the fisherman again, and learn
that they are old drinking pals, but the captain's cat can be a nuisance.
Now, you see a plan starting to come together. If you can get the cat to
help you, the fisherman's equipment might come in handy. He is unwilling
to either loan or sell it.
Go back to the fisherman's area and let
the cat go. She knocks the bait into the water, and the fisherman grudgingly
leaves to buy more bait. He trusts you to watch his precious rod and reel.
He never met that beggar, apparently. So if you take the rod, and tale
the bucket, they can be combined to create a salt-scraper. Go to the boat
and fetch-a-pail-of-salt.
| This would be a nice time to save your game. |
Go talk to Lowry. The way to get him out of the office so you could "borrow" his scissors would be to phone him up and scare him out of the room. Talk to him everything, but especially about dating Janet.
"Well, I would have thought . . ."
| If the choice to use his phone does not appear, go back to your office, pick up the receiver; "No, I'd rather use the speaker - phone;" try to dial a number and notice the missing dial tone. Now the conversation with Lowry will include a reference to the phone. Keep at him until he gives you his extension number, 196. |
Go to your office and use the speaker-phone button to call ext. 196. Play message 5, and Lowry dashes out of his precious office, leaving it all to you. Get the scissors, snip off the excess carbon, and go directly to the Chief. If Lowry's still in there getting chewed out, go somewhere. Your office, the lab, Janet's, it matters not. When you come back, you can enter. Give the Chief the stationery form to sign. Make your way out, and go to Janet. She still wants a request for data form signed by the Chief himself. Give her the ersatz form, and ask for information on the Circle. She digs into the archives, finds about Lord Sinclair, a murder, and other things. When she is finished, ask for a printout. Take the printout from the printer and go into the hallway and make a copy. Go to the museum and put the copy into the letterbox in order that Ms Turner will know where we are.
You are locked
in your room. How to get out? The door is locked, the wardrobe is locked,
the window is locked. Examine the large painting over the bed. Ugghh! Left-click
on it, and night falls. Left click on it again and take it down. Use the
frame to pry out the nail. Use the nail to remove the canvas. Notice the
slit under the door. Notice the dark keyhole. Maybe we could retrieve the
key by dropping it onto something thin and flat. The canvas won't fit through
the slit. Take the nail and pry up a couple of tiles. Now the canvas fits.
Use the nail to push the key out, and pull it back under the door. You
are free!
| This would be a nice time to save your game. |
Go downstairs and into the dining room.
Examine the pictures on the wall, especially the one close to the table,
which resembles the symbol on the Amulet of Transformation. Go out the
back door, and a long cutscene ensues, where you observe a gruesome Druid
ritual, and join the Circle at dinner. You become one of them. Then Melanie
Turner reads your note and decides to check up on you.
| This is an ESSENTIAL time to save your game. Do it! |
There are two guards. One is watching the front of the house, and the other walks back and forth along the side. When the side-guard walks away, throw a stone at the front. Wait until the side-guard comes to a stop beside the other one, then dash behind the next bush. then into the open window. They might see you enter the window, but will not follow. Examine things in the room: bones, skulls, an altar with a bowl of blood, an "interesting" device under the painting (touch the device!!), a weird painting, and a Pentagram, which gives all the appearance of a puzzle. You can turn the outer ring, which is filled with warriors (?) one of which is facing the opposite direction and one is standing straight. Turn the outer wheel until the straight man is at the bottom, and turn the star until it is inverted, with the bead at the bottom. You will hear something unlock.
Go to the weird picture and slide it to reveal a safe. The combination is deduced from the painting. The ten o'clock, one o'clock and six o'clock positions appear to be important. Try clicking the rectangular button. Listen to the sound. Now turn the combination to 10. Press the button and notice the slight difference. That is the first digit. Then one, click; six, click. The safe opens and you receive a parchment covered with runic writing, and the Amulet of Transformation. Uh-Oh. The door rattles. In comes Brent Halligan. He is just not himself. A very long cutscene ensues, ending with a conversation at Mr. Blake's. Continue talking with him until he mentions the need for a book: "Celtic Orthographic Systems" by Scott M. Winfield. You will go to the Oxford Library to find it.
How can we get this book out? She won't let it be circulated. Aha! Back to those Roman-coin books, and borrow one of the dust-covers. It fits well enough, and that title can be borrowed. Check it out, you've hit her field of interest. She turns as nicey-nice as she was nasty before. Let's give it to Mr. Blake.
Back to the kitchen, woman! They are expecting a love-potion, but it seems prudent to concoct a sleeping drink instead. Go to the shelves left of the fireplace and take a copper scale-pan from the bottom shelf. Put it on the scale. From the middle shelf you can pick up several herbs. Right-click in your inventory to get a description. From left to right: menthol, unknown leaves, cinnamon, fleshy leaves, anise, and spongy leaves. Well, that's not much help, the recipe calls for crimson (red) and other colors. On the table by the door is a wooden bowl. Take it and use it to scoop water from the cauldron. Don't you just love it? She puts a bowl of boiling water in her pocket! What will they think of next?
Anyway, go to the scale and put the coin in the right side. Choose an herb, crush an ounce of it and put it back. Then, in inventory, put the crushed herb into the water bowl to learn what color it becomes. The recipe says one ounce crimson, one of golden, and two of ounce and ounce makes green. We find out that there is no green herb, but we know that blue and yellow create green; thus another yellow and one blue would do the job. Here's the colors: Menthol=white; Unknown=yellow; Cinnamon=red; Fleshy=light brown; Anise=blue; and Spongy=violet. Crushing and adding one ounce at a time, it calls for two cinnamon, two unknown, and one anise. There, the water turns clear. Time to feed the boys on the home front. They get groggy, but do not sleep. Go to the kitchen for a moment, and return to find them passed out. Take the key from the blond fellow. You can look at the left-hand end of the room if you like, but the exit is locked. Go down the cellar stairs to find Brent whining in his cell. Let him out. If you tried the key upstairs, you know it's the wrong one. Go left, to the big crates. They're heavy, but the two of you are up to the job. Find the secret exit and proceed. It looks like a maze, but don't worry. Just proceed, following Brent's voice until "Groan . . ." You are seized, not to be seen as Melanie for a while.
The first room on the left (Halligan's right) is Brother Maglor's. Go in and talk to him as much as possible. Serstan has perfected the ritual and must be stopped. It will take place at Stonehenge, only 2 days and six hours from now. We are probably honored guests, if you get my drift. The next room is a storehouse for foodstuffs. Mind the rats! Next view down shows three doors. The one on the right has books on a table, and the fire's out. The middle door is not accessible, and the one up the steps leads to a mysterious room with a huge portal, barred and locked. Go back out and around the corner by your room. The first door on the right (H's left) goes outside to the interior courtyard you saw out the window. Go right (H's left), and visit the blacksmith. Talk to him about everything, including his village, and unusual things happening. Look around the back of the shop and see the shield with the same symbol; wavy lines and an X. Outside, look at the other side of the shop and see the chimney blocked by a bird's nest. No wonder the fire doesn't burn.
Go back and investigate the other end of the courtyard. There is a garden, a drain, a rusty pipe, further on there are stables, hay and a pitchfork, a cistern full of water, and a valve. I feel a plan coming on, but what? Time will tell, I'm sure. Go back inside. Across the hall is a large double door. Look in, and find a large conference-table, complete with familiar signs. At the far end is a device like a slide rule. We need clues to solve that one. The small door leads into the library. Guess who's doing her homework? Melanie convinces us that she is doing the right thing, and persuades us to keep looking around. Next door is the kitchen. Eeek! Mind the bloody rats! Where's Garfield when you really need him? Over on the right sideboard is an iron crucible. Take it. Over on the other side of the room, past the stove, is a table with some herbs. Take them. See the hatch to the dining room? You can open and close it. You can also open and close it from the other side, which is obviously the next room. There is someone sitting there, but he does not talk to us.
The next room is Serstan's. Enter and talk with him, You will find you just how imperious he is. He kicks you out. Next room, the fire's working, but little else to do. Next, you will find the candelry. Take some candles and go back to the room with the working fire. Place the crucible on the fire, then the candles in the crucible. You have a block of wax.
Go back outside to the garden. Put the herbs on the drain, blocking it. Turn the valve on the rusty pipe. Then go all the way back to the cistern and open the valve, letting the water flood the garden and drive some earthworms out of the soil. Take the worms. Go to the far side of the Smithy's shop and climb up to the roof. Put the worms on the roof, luring the crow away from her nest. Pull down the nest, allowing the fire to work properly. Speak to the smith. He is grateful, sort of. He might help someday. Go around back of the shop again, farther until you find a chopping block and axe. Take a chip of wood from the block.
Go back inside and visit Serstan again. He throws you out. Visit him again and ask to watch. He doesn't care, as long as you don't touch anything. Notice the artwork: Three of the four pieces that you saw in Sinclair's house. The fourth painting Sinclair had showed the scene of the temples, same as the view out your bedroom window. Find the Secret compartment in the wall behind Serstan, just to the right of the window. Put the piece of wood in there. Now go visit Maglor and ask him for undisturbed access to Serstan's room. "That settles it. . " Grudgingly, he will try. Return to Serstan's empty room. Serstan has closed the secret compartment with a block. Must be something valuable in there. You can pull out the block because the little piece of wood prevented its being seated properly. Take out the red chest and place it on the stool. Open the chest, take the key and make an impression in the wax. Put the key back, take the wood chip out of the hole, and replace the chest and block. You want the room to appear undisturbed.
Go to the Blacksmith and convince him to
make a key from the wax impression. It will take some time, so let's visit
Melanie and see if she has learned anything. She has, but it's not much
help. The main reason for seeing her is to allow the smithy enough time
to cast the key. Go back and get the key. Make your way to the large doors
that are locked and barred. Unlock both padlocks and remove the beam. Enter.
This would be a nice time to save your game. |
Okay, does anyone hate mazes more than I do? This one's a real doozy! I cannot take credit for solving it. What makes it difficult is the fact that going back the way you seemingly came does not necessarily take you backwards. You can end up at a different location. In fact, the path you need to take actually has you stepping into the door you arrived at four times. The shortest path is only ten steps long, if you do it correctly. If you have the (insanity) patience, you could map the maze functions and figure it out, because each node is coded with a runic symbol. Probably they relate to the way the maze works, but I'll leave that up to the more intrepid player to discover. For the quick way through this mess, Click Here.
Cross the open area and discover a stone wall decorated with relief carvings. Examine them. Turn around and close the wooden door, and the eye will open, revealing a tunnel. You have found the Crystal ball! Look into it. Huh? Stonehenge, but it should be intact, not in ruins. Look around the perimeter of the room. You find two rod-and-ball devices similar to the one in the conference room. One is whole, the other destroyed. Let's go back into the monastery. Maybe we can find Maglor and get some enlightenment. Look in the conference room. He is there, next to the Library door. He tells us that those devices are calendars, and that Serstan controls things by adjusting them. We learn that the current date is represented on the calendar in this room. Let's have a look. If this thing is a calendar, then the segmented bars must represent weeks, days, months, or whatever the Druid calendar was composed of. The top bar has 14 segments, the second 6, the third 4, the fourth 8, and the bottom one 12. The balls are set, from bottom to top, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. That should be easy enough to remember.
Go to the crystal ball room. Don't worry, the maze remains solved. Set the calendar to match the one upstairs, ignoring the two new rods that Serstan installed at the top. Start from the bottom and set them 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Look in the crystal ball now. Apparently the calendar here controls the view in the crystal ball. Stonehenge is in good condition. Now set the calendar for the time of the ritual; two days from now, so slide the ball on the third rod (days) from one to three; the second one represents day and night, so it's already correct, and the top rod should be on six, for the hours. Need a picture? Click Here. Now look in the crystal ball again. Oh! Better go find Maglor and tell him what's up. Go to your room; he will find you. You talk, and Serstan decides to put an end to your antics. Take the bedsheet, make a hole in it with the candle, go to the window, and click on the temple in the distance. Geronimo!
The makeshift parachute works remarkably well, given the circumstances. Unfortunately, Serstan hurls a magic bolt and hits Maglor in the back; you land in the stream. Go back and find Maglor. He is badly injured, and when you convince him you can help, he suggests mistletoe. It's nearby, at the base of a tree (mistletoe usually grows high up in a tree, we'll forgive them) behind some nettles. Use the gloves to part the nettles and grab the mistletoe. Too late. Maglor is gone. Take the gyro-top from his pocket and go into the Left Temple.
Go to the next room and see the vessel with the symbol for air. Use your bellows to put air into the chamber. Light the fire underneath, and look out the window to see the stone and hear water running.
Go past the locked door to the next room. The vessel has the symbol for water. Lift the top and pour in the water. Light the flame, see the stone out the window and hear the wind blowing.
In the last room, the vessel has the symbol
for earth. Open it and put in the earth sample. Light the fire, and see
the megalith and again hear the wind blow. You see the magic shield around
the altar turn off. Go to the altar, take the key, unlock the blue door
and proceed down.
On the way down, you will come across some "slits in the wall." They contain stone tiles with the elemental symbols on them. There will be eight tiles in all. Some of them are hard to see, as indicated in the photo. As a help, whenever there is one tile at a location, there is always another. Two sets look like this, and two are a different view, looking down. In that case, the easy - to - see ones are higher up, and the hard ones are just about shoulder - height. |
 |
Gather all eight tiles and head into the chamber below. Take care: because of the stairs, your orientation is different. The elements are arranged in the same sequence as above, but whereas upstairs you entered between fire and earth, now you enter between earth and water. Look in one of the rooms. You will see a pedestal and a megalith. The object here is to distribute the tiles so that the pedestal receives a tile corresponding to the starting element as above; and the accompanying megaliths will receive a tile representing how the element is changed. So: the first one you come to counter-clockwise should be earth. Place an earth-tile on the pedestal and an air-tile in the stone. Then, in the next room, place fire in both. In the third room, use air on the pedestal and water in the megalith. Finally, water on the pedestal and air in the stone.
The shield drops, and you can take the staff from the altar. Serstan comes in, with Melanie as hostage. You negotiate with Serstan, and insist that he swear on his honour that nothing will happen to either you or Melanie. Then, he begins the ritual, and sends you through the gate of the worlds to the present. Off to Stonehenge, then, for it must be time for the ritual at Sinclair's hands. Cruel as it may be, there is only one logical way to disrupt the proceedings. Serstan swore that nothing would happen, so conscience set aside, and for the good of the world. . .worlds; take your hedge-clippers and use them on Melanie. She dies; Serstan's vow is broken, and Sinclair falls victim to his own evil. The neo-Druids do not exist. Now are only problem is Melanie. Do we have any way to save her? Did we almost save Maglor? Hopefully, a thousand-year-old sprig of mistletoe will help. Ahhhhh!
| For a forum on Mystery of the Druids, Click Here. |
Just a quick note: when I arrived at the
final scene, and Sinclair started to cut his throat, the game crashed.
It was because I used the full install, and it did not include the final
cutscene. If this happens to you, delete (or rename) the Disk2 folder,
and replay the ending with the CD "The Past" in the drive.
GameBoomers
Walkthroughs and Solutions
You enter at a three-door gate. The blue
glow is seen in the background. Take the Right doorway.
The underlined instructions indicate
that you turn and go back into the same door.
