The Fool's Errand

@paradox

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computer games walkthroughs

 · 5 months ago

The Fool's Errand - MS-DOS front cover

THE FOOL'S ERRAND: Part 1

Due to the uniqueness of the puzzles presented in THE FOOL'S ERRAND and the order in which they are encountered, this walkthru will lead you through the solutions in the order they appear in each of the menu bars (from I through V) and will deal with the placement of the pieces in the Sun's Map last.

NOTE 1: Because some of the puzzles involved are picture puzzles, only the placement of key items from the pictures will be given. I have tried to be as explicit as possible in these instances.

NOTE 2: Solutions for the mazes you will encounter are nebulous. I will try to point you in the proper direction and tell you what to watch for. But none of them are too difficult, just tricky.

NOTE 3: In Menu Bar I, The Warrior, The Stream, The Pyramids, The Watchtower, and The Wand do not contain puzzles to solve, but they do contain clues which will be used later in the game.

THE SINGER

"ARE YOUR EYES BLIND?" Select the letters in the following order: A, the second R, the two Es, the L, N and D. This gives you the key word, BOW.

THE PAGE OF WANDS

To find the letters to enter into the blanks, drag the mouse SLOWLY across the bottom of the screen, within the white border of the picture.

THE KNIGHT OF WANDS

This is a cryptogram (encoded letters) puzzle. The first three lines of the phrase are: WELL HE BEGAN I MET A PAGE. With this information, you should be able to decode the rest of the phrase.

WHEEL OF FORTUNE

This game is one of skill and luck. The object of the game is to have the higher of two three-card hands. Following is a list of which cards make up a pair (or triplet):

• Council Pair: Justice, Judgement, Temperance, Hierophant
• High Pair: Sun, Magician, Fool
• Dark Pair: Devil, Death, High Priestess
• Mortal Pair: Strength, Hanged Man, Chariot, Hermit
• Lucky Pair: Lovers, Wheel of Fortune, Hanged Man, Fool
• Astral Pair: Sun, Moon, Star, World
• Low Pair: Chariot, Tower, Fool, Lovers
• Royal Pair: Emperor, Empress, Hermit, Hierophant

The following is a partial "ranking" order for individual cards and pairs:

• Death beats High Priestess and Magician
• Sun beats Judgement and High Priestess
• Magician beats High Priestess, Hierophant and Devil
• High Priestess beats Judgement
• World beats Strength
• High Pair beats Astral Pair
• Council Pair beats Royal Pair and Mortal Pair
• Astral Pair beats Mortal Pair

Naturally, it would appear that winning depends on the luck of the draw. Here's where the skill comes into play. If you see that the two cards from which you can choose wouldn't give you a pair or triplet but that one of them could give the old man a better hand than yours, take the card he can use. This way, you have a 50-50 chance that your high card will beat his high card (unless, of course, he's already got a pair). Also, keep a close eye out for triplets -- they give the highest scores. The game is won by the first player to reach 700 points.

THE ARCHWAY

This maze appears relatively straightforward. However, all is not as it seems! What look like easy, open pathways, terminate rather rudely as hidden doors slam shut, blocking your progress. Conversely, obvious deadends conceal secret panels which open allowing you to continue.

Starting from the lower left-hand corner go up and to the right to the first deadend. Go right through the passage and all the way up as far as you can then to the left and up through the passage. Continue straight up and work your way to the left and down, then down through the passage. Go to your left, straight down and left and up through the left-to-right zigzagging corridors. Do not take the obvious right path, but continue up to the deadend and up through the passage.

Go right to the FIRST intersection and go down to the deadend. Go down through the passage, left, right and down through the passage. Head straight down to the bottom wall of the maze and work your way right then up at the FIRST intersection you come to. Go left and up through the passage.

Go right and up at the first opening, then left and up through the passage. Go right and up the first corridor and up through the passage. Continue straight up to the top wall of the maze. This is where it gets tricky so follow closely.

Go right, down, right, up, left, up, right, and down to the deadend. Go through the passage to the right. Go up, right, down to the deadend, and down through the passage. Go up, right, down, right, up, down and left. Go down through the passage, left at the FIRST intersection and down to the deadend. Go left through the passage and continue left, up all the way to the left and then up and left through the passage.

Go straight down and right at the SECOND intersection then work your way down to the bottom wall of the maze. Go right, up, right, down, left, down, up, right, etc., to the bottom right-hand corner of the maze. Go straight up and up through the passage. Finally, go left and up, but DO NOT go through the secret passage which opens at the top. Instead, go right, down, left, down and out.

THE CANOPY

The Canopy is one of those "word search" puzzles. The only difference here is that words are not spelled backwards or diagonally -- just across and down. The words you're looking for are names of vegetables. The word list follows:

Across: Cabbage, tomato, celery, parsnip, onion, rhubarb, eggplant, squash, cauliflower.

Down: Scallion, radish, carrot, leek, asparagus, potato, parsley, beans, turnip, broccoli, artichoke, cucumber, lettuce, lentil.

THE FIGHTING BOYS

It's difficult explaining this (and the others like it) puzzle. The object is to click the numbers in the right sequence to rearrange (unknown) letter combinations to spell out a word or phrase. The order to click the numbers in is 3, 2, 1, 4, and 5.

THE STONE WALL

Filling in the blanks for this puzzle is a bit easier than the other puzzles of this kind you will run into. The two words you need are pictures on the screen. Don't mess around with the letters growing on the ivy, although the letters you need are there and in their proper sequence. Instead, enter the animal and the type of foliage to solve this one.

THE QUEEN OF WANDS

In all the "Queens'" puzzles, you have to rearrange 3-by-3 grids of letters so that they spell words both across and down. The center letter is not moveable. The word across the top is SAD; the word down the left-hand side is SIN. Complete the puzzle by putting the remaining three letters in their proper places.

THREE SHIPS

This puzzle drove me crazy for literally hours. When you try to click on the "?" to see the puzzle, the "?" zooms maddeningly away, always elusive and always just out of reach. Try as you might, you cannot seem to "catch" it. The answer here is to position your arrow just to the south of the "?" and then type the letter "S" until the question mark comes to you. When you've captured the "?" box, you will be presented with the First Key of Thoth, which, amazingly, is a key! You'll need it in order to solve the riddle of the High Priestess' Eye.

THE FOOL'S ERRAND: Part 2

NOTE: In Menu Bar II, The Knight of Pentacles, The Merchant, The Maze of Thorns, and The Page of Pentacles do not have puzzles to solve, but their stories have clues which you will use in the endgame.

THE JUGGLER

The Juggler has another cryptogram for you to solve. The first two lines of the phrase are: I AM AFRAID THAT I AM NOT THE MESSENGER YOU. With this information, you should be able to solve the rest of the phrase.

THE FARMER

The Farmer is a jigsaw puzzle for you to put together. The phrase is: I AM HERE AT THE QUEENS BUSINESS.
THE BLACKSMITH

The Blacksmith is a series of three sets of three jumbled letter crosses for you to solve. Rearrange the letters so that they spell out 18 five-letter words. The last set of three will give you the keyword, ROI. The word list follows:

Brown, crown, sorry, merry, quick, quill, scowl, growl, bliss, amiss, north, worth, throb, three, ghost, ghoul, still, chill.

THE CATHEDRAL

The Cathedral is a jumbled up picture puzzle. While I cannot tell what order to move the pieces around in, I can tell you where key items in the picture should be placed.

The letters MYR go in the top center; the man on the ladder is on the right- hand side and he has a hammer in his hand; the fool is on the left between two columns; the two men are in the center of the picture with the fat man on the right and the man with the hat and glasses on the left.

THE CHAPEL

The Chapel picture shows all the letters of the alphabet except three, which are missing. Find these three letters and insert them into the squares to form a three-letter word.

THE HUMBUG

Don't blink your eyes with this one. This is probably the second most bizarre puzzle in the entire game. Push the eye on the left up and around, down and through, following the trail until you reach the eye on the right. If you lose your hold on the eye, treat the resulting "unstacking" as dominoes falling over: rush the mouse over and try to "catch" the eye before it completely unstacks itself. If you do this one on your first try, congratulations!

After you've solved The Humbug, the Second Key of Thoth will be revealed to you. Remember this puzzle pattern; you'll need it to help you solve The High Priestess puzzle. On the screen will be an ever-changing series of black bars, boxes, rectangles and one box in the lower-left hand corner which seems to pulsate. Click on that box. Now, one appears to be pulsating in the upper right corner; click on it. A third pulsing box appears in the lower right corner; click on it. Finally, a fourth box just left of the center of the screen and a bit toward the top is pusling; click on it, too. After you do, the activity on the screen stops and the boxes you've clicked all have numbers, from 1 to 4, in them. Remember the sequence of these numbers for The High Priestess!

THE MAZE OF HEDGES

This is the toughest of the mazes. "Wandering winds" bar your progress by bouncing you from one side of the maze to the other. However, being bounced hither and yon by the winds is the only way for you to enter the key corridor so that you can make your way to the exit. Try to get blown to the middle upper half of the maze. Once there, wind your way past the winds (which will appear as you discover them) toward the right. Approach the exit to the maze from the upper right-hand corner of the maze.

THE QUEEN OF PENTACLES

This is another 3-by-3 grid of jumbled letters. Rearrange the letters so that they spell out six three-letter words. The central letter is immovable; the word across is ARM and the word on the left is ATE. Rearrange the remaining three letters to complete the puzzle.

THE PENTACLE

The Pentacle is a jigsaw puzzle which reads THE FOUR SAGES.

THE WORLD

The World is a word search puzzle. This time you must find the names of 23 countries. The word list follows:

Across: France, Russia, Scotland, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, Poland, Italy, Iceland, England, Netherlands, Rumania, Spain, Portugal.

Down: Austria, Grece, Finland, Turkey, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Switzerland, Albania, Yugoslavia.

STRENGTH

Strength is another picture puzzle. The placement of the objects is as follows:

The "dark" eyes and pyramid go across the bottom of the screen; the "light" eyes and pyramid go across the top; the moon is to the right of the dark pyramid; the sun is to the left of the light pyramid; in the central section of the picture, from left to right, are the tree, the fence, the man with the fishing pole, the fool, the porch column and the letter E.

TEMPERANCE

Rearrange the letters to uncover the following six different "traditional anniversary" items: paper, leather, wood, turquoise, silver, and bronze.

THE FOOL'S ERRAND: Part 3

NOTE: In menu bar III, The Not-A-Merchant, The Cup, and The Abandoned Cups have no puzzles to solve, but their stories contain clues you will need for the endgame.

THE HANGED MAN

The Hanged Man is a picture puzzle. The objects are placed in the following general areas:

The letters "KD" are in the right hand corner, the sun is to their left; the reflection of "KD" is in the water directly below them; the fool's "hobo's pack" on its pole is on the left side toward the middle; the fool is to its right and the running man is to the fool's right; the fish and its "bouncing" lines are on the right side of the picture in front of the running man; the castle is in the upper left corner, the tree to its right and the knight is to the tree's right.

THE PAGE OF CUPS

The Page of Cups is another jumbled word puzzle. This time you're unscrambling types of fish. The types of fish are: sardine, trout, goldfish, halibut, minnow, perch.

THE KNIGHT OF CUPS

The Knight of Cups is a cryptogram. The first two lines of the cryptogram are: ALAS I DO HE SIGHED YOUR KNIGHT SAYS. You should be able to solve the rest of the phrase with this information.

THE CHILDREN

The Children is one of those "press the numbered circles in the right sequence" puzzles that will drive you mad. Push the numbers in the following sequence: 2,5,4,6,1, and 3.

THE COUPLE

To fill in the blanks, insert the first letter from each word in the phrase at the bottom of the picture.

THE DANCERS

The Dancers is a jigsaw puzzle with a phrase which reads, THE RAINBOW OF HOPE.

THE FAMILY

The Family is a word search puzzle. This time you're in search of 26 colors. The list follows:

Across: Purple, maroon, amber, scarlet, blue, violet, pink, orange, azure, indigo, black, chartreuse, crimson, hazel, aqumarine, ochre.

Down: Vermillion, turquoise, yellow, green, beige, magenta, white, brown, gray, lavender.

THE QUEEN OF CUPS

Another 3-by-3 grid. The word on the top is TWO and the word down the left is TOE.

THE CLOUD

The Cloud is a picture puzzle. The objects are placed as follows:

The word "fifteen" starts in the upper left-hand corner; the word "two" starts in the lower left-hand corner and the word "twenty" is to its right; the fool and his pack are on the left in the center with the man to his right; the seven cups are to the right of the man.

THE VISION

The Vision is a jigsaw puzzle with a phrase which reads, FOURTEEN EIGHT FIFTEEN.

THE ENCHANTMENT

This is the second toughest of the "press the numbers" puzzles. The numbers to push are: 4, 1, 6, 7, 5, 2, and 3.

THE HIEROPHANT

Unscramble the jumbled letters in each of the crosses to spell out ten numbers. The numbers are: three, fourteen, one, nineteen, six, thirteen, five, seventeen, two, and twelve.

THE MOON

Click the proper letters in The Moon's phrase, "Much to accomplish," to uncover the hidden letters, AIH. Select the first C, H, O, A, the third C, and the PLISH.

THE FOOL'S ERRAND: Part 4

NOTE: In menu bar IV The Nightmare, The Sword, The Dead Warrior, and The Page of Swords do not have puzzles to solve. Their stories contain clues which you will need for the endgame.

THE EMPEROR

In this word search puzzle you're to locate the names of 26 birds. The word list is:

Across: Woodpecker, whippoorwill, dove, hawk, meadowlark, nightingale, buzzard, huthatch, heron, crane.

Down: Thrush, goose, eagle, vulture, bobolink, wren, crow, parakeet, cardinal, finch, duck, sparrow, robin, swallow, canary, bluejay.

THE EMPRESS

Unscramble the twelve words to reveal the key phrase. The words on the left are miss, twig, idea, and root; the words on the right are weep, your, hair, area, worm,iron, lard, and soup.

THE STAR

The Star is a jigsaw puzzle with the phrase, MYSTICAL CHANT.

THE HIGH PRIESTESS

How do I explain this one? It's totally mind-boggling and requires a good set of eyes and, later, quick reflexes. The puzzle has multiple parts, the first of which is the strangest of all. You must click the mouse on the numbers in descending order from 99 all the way down to 1. At the beginning it's easy, but as you near the finish, the remaining numbers start shifting position and the closer to "1" you get, the faster they shift until all you see is a blinding glare of incomprehensible mishmashed squigglies. Ah, there it is, the last number! Press it quickly and try to solve the enigma of the High Priestess' Eye. You'll need to have solved The Three Ships (see Part 1 of this walkthru) before you can finish solving The High Priestess.

When her "Eye" appears, guide the key toward the iris. As you connect the key to the iris, you are shown The Book of Thoth. This looks familiar, doesn't it? Right, the pulsating squares, only now you can't see any pulses. Click in the general area where the original "1" appeared (lower left corner). The screen will stop activity and show you not four but SIX boxes! Do you remember where the other three were located and in what order they were numbered? The box in the upper right was numbered "2," the box in the lower right was numbered "3," and the box to the left of center and slightly down was numbered "4." Click the remaining boxes in this sequence.

Now what the heck is this spinach all about? You've not seen its likes before! Remember the pulsing bar on the left that you drug to the right? That's right -- it's this puzzle. Drag left to right, right to left, top to bottom, then bottom to top.

Oh yeah, you remember this one alright. It's the crazy-quilt "Simon Says" pattern you had to memorize and trace. Do you remember the pattern? It looks like a key. Trace its pattern and behold The Book of Thoth! Alas, when you tr to fill in any of its blanks, you are admonished, "You cannot claim The Book of Thoth so easily!" We shall complete it later -- MUCH later -- on.

THE SENTRY

The Sentry's puzzle is very clever. You are presented with two rows of boxes which need to be filled in. At the bottom of the screen are clues as to which letters to insert. The first clue, MEDAL - MEAL = ?, will give you the letter "D" (If you remove the letters M-E-A-L from the word MEDAL, the remaining letter will be a D.) Continue solving the remaining clues in this manner.

THE KNIGHT OF SWORDS

The Knight of Swords is another cryptogram. The first two lines read: I BRING A MESSAGE FROM YOUR KNIGHT. The last word in the phrase is WANDS.

THE CHANT

The Chant is a cryptogram phrase. The first two lines read: A GIANT WHEEL STOOD NEAR THE PYRAMIDS. This should give you enough to solve the rest of the puzzle.

THE DREAM

This is the absolute toughest puzzle in my opinion. Mathor wrote a program on his Macintosh to solve this one: The program ran for 60 hours generating phrases from all the possible permutations generated by these eight letter sequences. Select 6, 2, 7, 4, 3, 8, 1, 5 and send me an aspirin!

THE QUEEN OF SWORDS

The top word in this 3-by-3 grid is RAW and the left hand word reading down is ROB.

THE BOAT

This is probably the most intriguing of the jumbled letters puzzles. As you unscramble each set of words, they are interconnected with new scrambled words which you must solve. The place where the new puzzles connect with the solved ones locks that word's connecting letter into place rendering it immovable. Continue solving each new set of jumbled words until you reach despair.

DESPAIR

Despair's phrase, TEN GLOWING SWORDS, hides the word PUS. To uncover the hidden word, select the letters E, G, L, O, W, N, G, S, W, O, D, and S.

JUSTICE

Justice is a nice little puzzle which requires logical thinking. The idea is to press the squares in the proper sequence to fill a 5-by-5 grid with 25 eyes.

Begin by pressing the center square. Next press the four squares containing the dots. You should now have an eye in the center and eight equally spaced dots around the perimeter of the grid. Remembering the positions of these new dotted squares, press them and ONLY them, clockwise, starting with the upper square on the right (e.g., row 1, column 4) being careful not to press any of the new squares you create as you go.

You should now have dotted squares in each of the four corners of the grid, each of the four sides' mid-points, and four dotted squares on the diagonal from the corner squares. In addition, you should have a 3-by-3 "cross" of eyes with the central eye being in the center square. Next, press the dotted squares which are on the diagonals with the four corners. The four corners and the four mid-points around the perimeter should have dots. Equally spaced between the perimeter dots should be eyes.

Press the squares in each of the four corners. You should have a 5-by-5 cross of eyes with dots at the end of each "arm" of the cross. Finally, press the four dotted squares. Congratulations! You have now earned the Third Key of Thoth! But what's this? A pulsing bar along the left side? What's this all about? Click and drag the bar from left to right. Another pusling bar appears. Click and drag this bar from right to left. Lord, now there's one at the top! Click and drag it from top to bottom. Yes, there's another one to click and drag from bottom to top. But that's what you'll have to remember when you co to the High Priestess' puzzle.

THE FOOL'S ERRAND: Part 5

NOTE: In menu bar V The King of Swords, The King of Pentacles, the King of Cups, The King of Wands, The Madness, The Straight Path, and The Plain of Bones do not have puzzles to solve. Their stories contain clues you will need for the endgame.

THE CHARIOT

The chariot is a jigsaw puzzle with the phrase, PENTACLES CUPS SWORDS WANDS.

THE THIEF

To locate the letters to insert in the boxes, drag the mouse SLOWLY from left to right just underneath the Eye. Start at the border. The first letter you find should be an "I."

THE HERMIT

The Hermit is another of those clever oddities, puzzle-wise. In this one, you must memorize and trace the pattern displayed on the screen -- sort of a latter day "Simon Says" game. Each pattern is more intricate than the last, but trace them all and you'll earn the Last Key of Thoth, which is another pattern to memorize and trace.

JUDGEMENT

Judgement's phrase, GAZE INTO THE SANDS, hides the letters ECZ. To uncover them, select the G, A, N, T, O, T, H, E, D and S.

THE TOWER

The locations of the key objects in The Tower's picture are as follows:

The letters "RW" are in the lower right corner; the man is carrying six swords in a pack on his back -- hilts upward. The sword hilts terminate in the upper left corner (right where they are when you first see the puzzle). The moon is in the upper right corner, the lone sword is in the center of the picture to the left of the RW and the fool is on his hands and knees directly under the moon. The battlefield of tents runs across the center of the picture and terminate just before the fool.

THE DEVIL

The first two lines of The Devil's cryptogram phrase are: TO SECURE THAT WHICH CANNOT BE GOTTEN. The rest of the puzzle should be easily solved with this information.

DEATH

This is the easiest puzzle of all, but it's also the trickiest insofar as how you go about solving it. I finally needed a nudge from Neil McCulloch on this one. After he told me, I felt stupid. All you have to do is as SOON as you click on the "?" box, put your mouse cursor in the upper menu bar area. You'll have a second or two to spare since you have to insert the Game Disk for this puzzle.

With your cursor in the menu bar, wait for the black eye to generate a white eye at the bottom of the screen in the scroll. Now click and drag your cursor down to the bottom of the screen. The black eye won't follow you. When you get to the white eye, click it quickly.

THE MAGICIAN

The placement of the key objects in this picture puzzle is as follows:

The letters "RW" are in the upper right corner, the sun is to their left. To the left of the sun and in the upper left corner are rocky mountain formations. The fool is on the right side of the picture under the reflection of the "RW" in the water. To his left is a man with a goatee who is holding the reins of a horse, which is to his left. The horse's saddle has a pommel. Directly above the horse in the water is a four-masted ship with rigging.

THE LOVERS

This is the last of the word search puzzles. In this one you must find 22 tarot card names. The word list follows:

• Across: High Priestess, Hanged Man, Empress, Devil, World, Star, Emperor, Fool, Strength, Chariot, Sun, Lovers.
• Down: Justice, Hierophant, Wheel of Fortune, Judgement, Death, Hermit, Temperance, Tower, Moon, Magician.

THE FOOL'S ERRAND: Part 6

Now you've solved all the puzzles and have received all the Sun's map pieces; however, the pieces are in a random order in the grid. It's up to you to decide where each of the pieces goes. The following layout will assist you in this puzzle.

ROW 1:

• Column 1: Star, No. 23
• Column 2: Big "V," letter "P" upper left
• Column 3: 2-headed, 1-legged bird (looks like palm tree), letters running down right side
• Column 4: Moon, letters running down left side
• Column 5: Tower with lightning bolt in middle, letter "K"
• Column 6: Roman numeral IX, number "10" upper right
• Column 7: Roman numeral X with letter "N" just above and variable-sized boxes
• Column 8: Roman numeral VI, number "15" upper right, variable-sized boxes
• Column 9: Large "T", letter "E" upper left, jaggy line with dots from top left to bottom center

ROW 2:

• Column 1: Mountain with lightning, number "13" upper left
• Column 2: Roman numeral III, number "18" upper right
• Column 3: Letter "o" (NOT the Big "O") with letter "T" upper left, letters running down right side
• Column 4: Roman numeral V with number "20" lower right, letters running down left side
• Column 5: Roman numeral VIII with Letter "O" lower left, number "12" lower right
• Column 6: Castle with two turrets, left and right, letter "H" lower left
• Column 7: Roman numeral III, with variable-sized boxes
• Column 8: Roman numeral II with variable-sized boxes (NOTE: Boxes in Row 2 Column 7 mate with boxes in Row 2 Column 8 as well as with those immediately above in Row 1 Columns 7 and 8.)
• Column 9: Letter "D" and jumping fish, jaggy line with dots from top center to lower right (mates with jaggy line above in Row 1 Column 9)

ROW 3:

• Column 1: Roman numeral X and man in bed, boxes upper right
• Column 2: Roman numeral V and mating boxes
• Column 3: Roman numeral II, letters down right side
• Column 4: Roman numeral VII, letters down left side
• Column 5: Large "F" with Roman numeral IV above
• Column 6: Chalice, letters down right side
• Column 7: Large "B" with number "24" upper right, letters down left side, lion upper left
• Column 8: Bridge, letter "M" upper left
• Column 9: Large "U" with hangman's noose

ROW 4:

• Column 1: Three-turreted castle
• Column 2: Roman numeral VIII, letters running across bottom
• Column 3: Large, fancy "Y," with letter "X" lower left and letters running across bottom
• Column 4: Looks like a wheel broken in half, one half in upper left, other half in lower right, and number "17" upper right
• Column 5: Big "O," letter "I" upper left
• Column 6: Big "E" and letters running down right side
• Column 7: World globe, letters running down left side
• Column 8: Letter "U," "window panes" below
• Column 9: Coin with star (Pentacle)

ROW 5:

• Column 1: Dagger stuck in ground, number "9" lower right
• Column 2: Roman numeral VI with "B" lower left and "14" lower right, letters running across top
• Column 3: Scales with letter "W" lower left, number "2" lower right, letters running across top
• Column 4: Letter "G" with letter "R" lower left, number "11" lower right, letter running across top
• Column 5: Big "R" with letter "C" lower left
• Column 6: Big "A" and letters running down right side
• Column 7: Number VI with six circles above and letters running down left side
• Column 8: Roman numeral IV with "window panes" above
• Column 9: Multi-turreted castle, the only one NOT black, with stairs leading to front

ROW 6:

• Column 1: Hour glass
• Column 2: Box full of rows of letters with path in middle
• Column 3: Squiggly path, letters along bottom
• Column 4: Roman numeral V, letters running across bottom
• Column 5: Roman numeral VII, letters running across bottom
• Column 6: Edge of cliff with stylistic sun upper left
• Column 7: Roman numeral III and little church
• Column 8: Maze with Roman numeral IX top center
• Column 9: Maze with Roman numeral X top center

ROW 7:

• Column 1: Tower, lighting upper left, number "22" lower right
• Column 2: Trident, letter "J"
• Column 3: Roman numeral VIII, river running lower right to upper left (river also looks like stairs), "QWERTY" runs across top
• Column 4: Letter "S" and 3 pyramids, "UIOPASDFG" across top
• Column 5: Roman numeral VII and what looks like a dish, "HJKLZXCV" across top
• Column 6: Roman numeral X and musical note
• Column 7: Church symbol with cross in middle, Roman numeral V above and number "8" lower right
• Column 8: Roman numeral VIII with small hammer, letter "F" lower left, letter "T" below hammer
• Column 9: Scroll with eye

ROW 8:

• Column 1: Pennant facing left-to-right, number "25"
• Column 2: Looks like mountains, letter "Q" lower left
• Column 3: Letter "D" with 3 pyramids
• Column 4: Three pyramids, number "5" lower right
• Column 5: Roman numeral IV with window panes lower right, number "6" upper right, letter "G" lower left
• Column 6: Window panes lower left with rat on top, Roman numeral II with letter "A" upper left, "19" upper right
• Column 7: Shaded 2-towered castle on hill with arrow below, letter "V" upper left, number "26" lower right
• Column 8: Letter "L" on a lake with letter "S" lower left, number "3" lower right
• Column 9: Roman numeral VII with barn and silo atop, letter "Y" below left

ROW 9:

• Column 1: Skull
• Column 2: Large "U" with heart, number "4" upper right
• Column 3: Star in rings, letter "X" upper left, number "21" upper right
• Column 4: Roman numeral VI with bridge, letter "U" upper left, number "16" lower right
• Column 5: Roman numeral V with window panes upper right, letter "L" lower left
• Column 6: Roman numeral I with window panes upper left, number "7" lower right
• Column 7: Either a statue or a tree on a pedestal, with letter "Z" lower left
• Column 8: Letter "D" with Roman numeral III above, 3 small pyramids lower left next to letter "D"
• Column 9: Letter "R" with Roman numeral II and 2 small pyramids at right

THE FOOL'S ERRAND: Part 7

Now that you have the Sun's map reassembled, you have but one set of puzzles left to solve -- uncovering the lost 14 treasures of the world. This set of problems tests your powers of observation; every puzzle you've solved in the game thus far will be used in this endeavor. I strongly urge that you print out the story if you have a printer. You'll refer to it often in the following paragraphs, and it'll be much easier looking at the printout rather than clicking pieces of the map to see the available clues. We'll start by looking at the Book of Thoth and picking up a few more clues. Click on the map square that has the piece of parchment with the Egyptian eye hieroglyphic.

Each of the fourteen lines in the Book of Thoth has a brief clue which will be displayed in the lower left corner of the screen for every line you click. These clues tell you two things about the treasure which goes on its associated line: where in the game the answer can be found, and what form the answer will be in -- confused (scrambled letters) or disguised (cryptogrammed). The first line's clue, for example, says "The Kings are confused." This means that the treasure for the first line relates to finding out all you can about the four Kings of the tarot suits -- Pentacles, Wands, Swords and Cups. In addition, once you find out all there is to know about the Kings, the resulting set of letters you will have collected will be scrambled (anagrammed) and you will have to rearrange the letters to form the two-word treasure necessary to fill in the first line of the Book.

THE KINGS ARE CONFUSED

Look at the eight rarts of the story that deal with the four Kings. In addition to the obviously named "King of xxx" portions, you'll find references to each of the four Kings in the Kingdoms' (The Wand, The Pentacle, The Cup and The Sword) stories. Thus, from the Kings' stories you should pick up the letters N, Z, T and U. From the Kingdoms' stories you should pick up the letters S, B, T and E. Ah, that's only eight letters, you say? This is where the printout comes in handy since it has the Sun Map piece which relates to each of the four Kings. And as you can see, the letters O, E, R and A will complete your set of 12 letters. By anagramming the letters, you will find a BRONZE STATUE! Click on the Book hieroglyph and fill in the first line.

WITHIN THE KINGDOM OF THE PENTACLES

To find your next treasure, you will have to complete one of the four box puzzles on the Sun's Map. The Kingdom of the Pentacles' box puzzle is the long, skinny set of blocks on the middle right of the map. Point to its center and click. You see a 3-by-8 grid of boxes which must be filled in with each of the three-letter words you found in the Kingdom of the Pentacles. The stories from the Kingdom of the Pentacles starts with "The Blacksmith" and ends with "The Hanged Man." You should find the following three-letter word combinations: AIH, ROI, MYR, FIE, YES, ERA, SIP and TOP. As you fill the words into the boxes of the puzzle, you'll notice that (1) the central letters are grayed out, (2) all the letters in the right hand boxes are black, and (3) the four center boxes on the left are black. This means that by filling the words into the grid in the proper order, you'll spell out a treasure. The treasure is a STAR SAPPHIRE. Insert the words in their appropriate places; click on the Book and fill in the second line.

THE QUEENS ARE CONFUSED

Next, you must visit each of the four Queens' stories to locate the 15 letters necessary for the third line in the Book. From the Queen of Wands, you'll find the letters CLAC; the Queen of Pentacles will give you TRSC; the Queen of Cups has YNAL; and the Queen of Swords has EKE. Remember: The Queens are confused. Anagram these 15 letters to find a CRYSTAL NECKLACE and fill in the third line in the Book.

WITHIN THE KINGDOM OF THE WANDS

Back we go to the Sun's Map to another of the box puzzles -- this time, it's the box puzzle at the very bottom of the map. Point to its center and click. The stories you need to read in order to pick up the eight three-letter words start with "The Canopy" and continue through "The Watchtower." Put the eight words into the grid so that they spell out RUBY RING and fill in the fourth line in the Book of Thoth.

THE PATH OF SIX IS DISGUISED

This puzzle will have you bouncing all through the story titles following the Path of Six. Start your journey with the "Three Ships" story. You find the sacred RW and are told to "seek he who chases a fish." Looking through the stories, you find The Page of Cups is chasing his KD fish. He tells you to "seek she who holds two swords." Further into the manuscript you find "The Chant" and the lady, indeed, holds two rusty swords. She is intoning EZC and advises you to "seek the family who departs by boat."

The story of "The Boat" shows you a family following the path of the sacred YH. They tell you to seek "the broken wheel." Looking at the map pieces, you find one that has two broken wheel halves pictured. "The Chariot" driver says he has the mystical HA and tells you to locate "a thief who steals seven," then he drives away in a cloud of dust. The story of "The Thief" tells you the magic word is RW and that it's the last of its kind. Oddly enough, it was also the FIRST of its kind (re-read "Three Ships").

Now that you've followed the paths of six stories, you've collected RW, KD, EZC, YH, HA, and RW. Now what do you do with them? Ah, they're disguised, remember? Yes, it's time to use one of the alphabet strings on the Sun's Map. This time, it's the horizontal letter string in the middle left. Point to it and click. Then type in the letters you've collected in their original order to uncover an ONYX MEDALLION! Enter this prize on the fourth line in the Book.

THE MYSTIC CHANT IS DISGUISED

This is the first of the cryptogram puzzles which use the four alphabetical strings on the Sun's Map. Although you hear many mystic chants throughout your wanderings, only one is recognized by the Fool as a mystical chant. Read the story of "The Stream" and you will find the mystical chant is NZSLTZMB HGZUU. Wonderful. Now what could that mean? To find out, point to and click the alphabet string at the bottom of the Sun's Map. You're greeted with the cryptic (appropriately enough) message, "If you know which is which, enter the letters you wish to switch." Type in the mystical chant and enter what you find in sixth line of the Book.

THE KNIGHTS AND PAGES ARE CONFUSED

What a mess these fellows are in! Not only are they confused, they're mixed in together as well! Look at each part of the Knights' and Pages stories. You will find one letter for each of them. Be cautious since some of the letters will have been or will be used to solve other puzzles. The letters you seek are on the map pieces you received for each of the Knights and Pages. The letters are S, D, L, U, D, T, O, and G. If you anagram the letters, you will find GOLD DUST! Enter this treasure onto the seventh line of the Book.

THE FOOL'S ERRAND: Part 8

THE MAZE OF THORNS IS DISGUISED

Point to and click the picture of the mazes on the Sun's Map. Ah, this looks relaxing and simple, doesn't it? You should be able to just zip right over to the exit and get out, right? Wrong! As soon as you try this, an ogre throws you back into the maze. Sorry, but you'll have to work to escape this one.

Pick a path -- any path. You'll see either one of the denizens of the maze or you will get the message, "You cannot enter unless eleven are seen!" What the message is refering to is the eleven different characters inhabiting the area. Continue trying paths until you've located all eleven creatures, then return to the path where you received the message. Searching every corridor will give you a four-leaf clover, a pine cone, and a brass coin. Go visit the Leprechaun.

In the Leprechaun's area you'll find a tiny pearl, a pink handerkerchief, and ginger root. Go visit the Witch. There you will find a gray mushroom, a knife, and an ancient scroll. Now that you have the knife, go to the Banshee and get a flat stone, a lamp, and a case of poison ivy! Ah, well, it can't be helped. With the lamp firmly in hand, go see the Genie. Visit the paths and get another gray mushroom, a pine cone and a copper key! Ah, where's that copper door?

Go back to the central area of the maze and straight down into one of the "room's" walls. A buzzing noise sounds and the copper door is opened to you! Entering the door loses the key, so don't miss any of these paths -- search everywhere! You should find the Mystical Spell of Prowess! Work your way out of the corridor and a hidden panel slides open to allow you to leave! Head toward the maze's exit. With your new-found prowess, you take care of that pesky ogre in nothing flat!

Explore this new area of paths and locate another tiny pearl, your second brass coin, and a quartz crystal. If you try to leave the maze, a noisy sprite chases you away. We'll fix it's caboose in a little while. In the meantime, who wanted the crystal? The Elf! After he leaves, search his home and find a iron bell, yet another gray mushroom and a silver cross. Aha, so that's how to get past the Vampire! Head back over there and chase Count Dracula away! Search his castle and find an ancient scroll, a tarnished ring, and a sprig of parsley.

The spirit wanted the herb, so fly to him then search his home for another iron bell, your third tiny pearl, and a case of poison oak! <Sigh> This doesn't seem to be your day, does it? Don't scratch! Instead, take the tiny pearls over to the Dwarf then look for an old umbrella, a third brass coin, and a silver key! Aha, another door opens! Go straight up and out of the maze into the central area and to the left wall. The silver door opens but, again, as you enter, the silver key is lost. There's only one thing to find in here and that's the Mystical Spell of Silence! Exit the corridor through the first panel that opens before you and head over to the noisy, little Sprite.

Having quietened the creature, go south into its area and search for a fourth brass coin, a yellow daisy, and another pine cone. If you try to leave the maze this time, you're repelled by a nasty Fire Demon! He blasts you back inside the maze with a fury. Better see if we can find another Spell to get past him.

There's only three residents left to satisfy. Let's go visit that snippity Pixie. The yellow daisy may placate her disdain for your less than stellar manners. Yes, that's made her happy. She flies away leaving you free to explore and find another pine cone, a piece of hickory bark, and yet another case of poison something or other -- this time Sumac.

No time to fret over your ever-blistering skin. Take the hickory bark to the Wood Nymph. After the twinkling light fades, search for an iron bell, another mushroom, and your fifth brass coin. Ah, that should take care of the Troll's demands. Head out and over to his domain. In here you will find only one thing: a gold key! Return to the central room and go south and to the left until you find the golden door. As before, the gold key is lost once you enter. Work your way through the paths until you find the Mystical Spell of Disruption. Head north to find the exit and then go back to the central part of the maze.

If you try to exit the maze in the normal manner, the Fire Demon will still catch you and toss you back. Let him do so. He'll throw you over the wall and into the area with the locked silver door. Exit through the panel and head STRAIGHT to the right but not all the way to the wall. Instead, take the first path to the LEFT of the far right wall and go north and east to the corner. Here, your Spell is activated and you vanquish the Fire Demon in nothing flat! Go back to the main maze exit and start to head out. As you do, you're given seven strange letters (XLPFYVX). Head toward the exit again and this time you're presented with eight more strange letters (ENPAZGZJ). Finally, you can exit the maze completely. Don't worry about all those mushrooms, bells, and pine cones you're left with. They're mere window dressing.

Remember what the hint in the Book of Thoth said? "The Maze of Thorns is disguised." Yes, the solution is in one of the alphabet strings on the Sun's Map. This time, it's the vertical alphabet string on the upper left. Point to it and click. Type in the cryptic letters just as they appear and enter the treasure you uncover on the eighth line in the Book.

THE HIEROPHANT IS DISGUISED AND CONFUSED

What can that mean? Oh, no! It's a cryptogram AND it's mixed up to boot! Ah, but was it disguised before or after it got confused? Well, we'll see. The Hierophant's story starts with "The Cloud," and ends with "The Moon." Lord, look at all those numbers! Where is this information supposed to be found? On the Map! Look closely at the corners of the various map pieces. Some of them have numbers and those pieces have corresponding letters paired with them on the adjacent map piece. A code! Write the alphabet down and write each letter's number next to it. Then extract from the alphabet the letters that match all the numbers you found in The Hierophant's story. Unscramble the letters to find an EMERALD FLOWER and enter it on the ninth line in the Book of Thoth.

IF JUSTICE BE DONE

This is an interesting puzzler. Reading the story of Justice tells you of a cursed emperor and his empress. This tale leads you to examine the stories of the Emperor and the Empress. To lift their curses, remove the letters of the Emperor's curse from the letters of the Empress's curse. The remaining letters can be rearranged to form a SILVER CHALICE! Enter this on the tenth line in the Book.

WITHIN THE KINGDOM OF THE SWORDS

This puzzle requires you to solve another of the box puzzles on the Sun's Map. This puzzle is the one in the upper left corner of the map. Point to it and click. You will have to do some story traveling to locate all the two and three letter "words" necessary to solve this one. The story to start with is "The High Priestess." She will tell you what you must seek in order to solve this puzzle. She tells you she needs three things from you, but she only tells you two of them -- the third is a message for you to deliver to The Magician. First you're told to find the sacred inscription from the evil dark tower. Looking at the story titles you see "The Tower." In this story, you learn that the sacred inscription is QM. Put this in the first two-letter space in the puzzle.

Next you're told to bring her the letters from the banner of Death. Reading the story of "Death" tells you the letters are ZA. Put this in the second two-letter space. The remaining three two-letter spaces are filled with the "words" from the story of "The Singer."

Now, return to the story of "The Sentry," which is the next story after "The High Priestess." Reading this story tells you to find a man who's been killed by ten and smear his blood on the weapon of an outnumbered warrior. Looking through the story titles you find two dealing with warriors: "The Warrior" and "The Dead Warrior." A gory description of the dead warrior's wounds gives you the first of the three letter words you need: PUS. You find the outnumbered warrior's weapon is a BOW. So the first word (PUS) is on top of the second (BOW). The remaining three "words" are on the Sun's Map. Point to and click "The Wheel of Fortune" and enter these three words into the remaining spaces to find your treasure. Enter it on the eleventh line of the Book of Thoth.

THE FOOL'S ERRAND: Part 9

FOLLOW THE STRAIGHT PATH

This one's fun and it changes with every game; so you'll be on your own after you learn the route to take. Point to and click the map piece filled with letters which has a path through the top portion of it. Ah, a word search puzzle! But it's unlike the other word search puzzles you played in the main portions of the game. This one has just one treasure to be found and a logical means for finding it.

Somewhere in the stories is talk of the shortest distance between two points and advice for following the straightest path. Start reading from "The Hermit" and finish with "Judgement." In these stories you learn your starting position is the letter "J." In "Judgement," you're given directions and the number of spaces to travel in those directions.
Locate any letter J on the word search puzzle and follow the directions from "Judgement." If you follow closely, you'll discover a JADE IDOL! Insert this on the twelfth line in the Book of Thoth.

WITHIN THE KINGDOM OF THE CUPS

This puzzle is the last of the four box puzzles. Point to and click on the box puzzle in the upper right corner of the Sun's Map. All the words necessary to complete this puzzle are found in the stories about the people in the Kingdom of the Cups. Start with the story of "The Children" and read through "The Not-A-Merchant" story.

In "The Children" you are told to seek the word of a star and the word of a pyramid. Reading "The Star" gives you the word ERR. The pyramid's word is a bit harder to locate. Both the Page and Knight of Wands and the story, "The Pyramids," gives you the letters E, X, and H. Anagram these to form HEX. In "The Couple" you are given the word CARE. "The Couple" also tells you about the work of the Devil and Despair. Read each of these stories for the words GRIEF and DEAD.

The story of "The Dancers" gives you the words LEAP and Joy. "The Family" contributes WISH and mentions "the food of fertile seeds." There's only one story that talks about seeds and that's the story of "The Knight of Pentacles." Go there and find WHEAT, CORN and RICE. Finally, "The Not-A-Merchant" story tells you that NINE is the last.

You now have all the words needed to complete the puzzle. Fit the words into the puzzle to locate a JEWELED CROWN! Enter this item as the thirteenth treasure in the Book.

EIGHT IN THE LAND ARE DISGUISED

This is your final challenge in completing the Book of Thoth. We will be using the last unused alphabetic string to uncover this treasure.

If you look at the map pieces, certain of them have very ornate letters engraved upon them. The letters are V, F, B, U, Y, U, D and R. But what order are they supposed to be in? This is where the printout of the story is invaluable because the letters are listed in the proper order when you read the story from beginning to end. The proper order is D, R, B, U, F, V, Y and U. Point to and click on the vertical alphabetic string on the right side of the map. Type the letters in and soon you will find the AMETHYST! Enter this fourtenth treasure in the Book.

ENDGAME

After you enter the last treasure, you see that The Fool has earned the Gif of Wisdom for his adventures, trials and deeds! Pride swells in your breast at this reward. But what's this? The Book of Thoth is growing smaller and smaller until nothing remains but the instruction to insert the "Show Disk" to see the finale. Believe me, it's worth the price of this game many times over! View the finale then sit back and consider phoning Miles Computing to congratulate them on a beautifully executed game!