Key & Compass presents:
The Cruel Count's Castle
by Drosselmeyer

In this escape game, you play as the Marchioness Laurentina, kidnapped by the cruel Count Chiropterio to languish in his castle's dungeon, with a chain locked to your wrist and a rotten corpse as your benchmate, until you sign away your very soul. A fouler fate cannot be imagined!

This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 1 of the game.

SPOILERS AHEAD. Reading a walkthrough prematurely can sometimes diminish one's enjoyment of an interactive fiction game. Please make an honest effort to play the game before reading this walkthrough.

Map
Walkthrough
Extras
- Characters, Endings, Inventory
Thank You to my Patreon supporters
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External links:
- This game at IFDB, and IFWiki.
- Follow me at Bluesky, Ko-Fi, Mastodon, Patreon, and Wordpress.

Map

Walkthrough

Dungeon

> x me. i. x chain. x cuff.

> x corpse. x finger. take it.

The corpse animates and suggests instead that you ASK it ABOUT things. Unfortunately, it knows only a few topics, and without understanding reasonable synonyms. I learned that the finger's true name is "index bone" by using TAKE ALL.

> ask corpse about corpse.

> ask corpse about Count Chiropterio.

> ask corpse about index bone. (You have it.)

> unlock cuff with finger.

> drop chain. stand.

> x door. x wall. x gap. take key.

> unlock door with key. open door.

> enter door —or— u.

Hallway (at steel door)

> s. (no: slay the Count first)

> n. (no: steel door locked)

> w.

Hallway (at gold door)

Most doors in the castle are locked. The notes on the doors are hints about where to get the key for a door. Apparently, the Count has a poor memory and has to remind himself this way.

> x door. read note. ("Recall your experiments in the glass, your attempts at the Philosopher's Stone.")

> e. e.

Hallway (at bronze door)

> x door. read note. ("Remember the balcony.")

> e. u. w.

Hallway (at diamond door)

> x door. x note. ("Remember your spell for calling diamond from the earth.")

> w.

Hallway (at stone door)

> x door. n.

You are warned that you might face the Count. Are you sure you want to enter?

>> no

> w.

Hallway (at wood door)

> x door. n.

Balcony

> x rail. x road. x lodestone. take it.

The lodestone introduces a new mechanic. You can HOLD UP something which may have an effect, there and then. You continue to hold up the thing until you POCKET it. You can only HOLD UP one thing at a time.

The lodestone, of course, can find things made with iron in your current room.

> touch rail. (You find a key on the underside.)

> i. (It's a bronze key.)

> s. e. e. e. d. w.

Hallway (at bronze door)

> unlock door with bronze key. n.

Ossuary

> x corpses. x parchment note. (One corpse has the steel key.)

> hold up lodestone. (One corpse is singled out.)

> pocket lodestone.

> x corpse. look in mouth. open mouth.

> take steel key. x it.

> s. w.

Hallway (at steel door)

> unlock steel door with steel key. n.

Armory

> x pistol. x hole. x pipe. take pistol.

> shoot pipe. (Water pours into the hole.)

> z. z. z. z. z. (A diamond key emerges from the overflowing hole.)

> take diamond key.

> s. e. e. u. w.

Hallway (at diamond door)

> unlock door with diamond key. n.

Bedroom

Note that searching, moving, or taking the pillows won't work. You must LOOK UNDER them.

> x bed. x pillows.

> look under pillows. (You take a glass key.)

> x glass key. x mirror.

> hold up glass key. take reflection. (You acquire a gold key.)

> pocket glass key. i. x gold key.

> s. e. d. w. w. w.

Hallway (at gold door)

> unlock door with gold key. n.

Laboratory

> x diary. (has entries for 15-01, 17-01, and 19-01)

> look up 15-01 in diary. (poison recipe)

> look up 17-01 in diary. (say "Briney deeps" to go to the kitchen from the lab.)

CAUTION: The "briney deeps" teleportation magic only works here in the laboratory. Don't use it until you've made the poison and you're carrying it in the phial.

> look up 19-01 in diary. (The Count intends to kill you and reshape your soul into a demon-thrall in your likeness. It really is a kill or be killed situation.)

> x phial. x barrel. x water.

> x stove. x burner. x retort.

> x desk. open drawer. (which?)

> open topmost. (has silver, arsenic, and lead)

> open middle. (has skin, hair, and nail)

> open bottom. (has cardomom, salt, and tumeric)

Don't bother looking at any of the ingredients in the drawers. They don't have descriptions.

Making the poison is somewhat awkward. Whenever you try to take an ingredient, you obtain a sample of that ingredient which is modeled as a separate item in the game. Take inventory to see the names of these sample items; for example, the sample of water is called a "palmful", and the sample of silver is called a "silverpinch".

Do not put ingredients into the phial. You must use the retort.

Note that there is only one sample-thing per ingredient. You must use the retort to track how many times you've inserted a pinch of something.

Put the empty phial onto the burner. When you turn on the stove, a "concoction" item is put into the phial. Assume that the liquid dripped down and out from the heated retort. The poison, when mixed correctly, looks no different from any possible failed mixture.

I strongly suggest saving the game before moving any ingredients.

> save

> take water. put palmful in retort.

> take silver. put silverpinch in retort.

> take arsenic. put arsenicpinch in retort.

> take lead. put leadpinch in retort.

> take nail. put nailpinch in retort.

> take salt. put saltpinch in retort.

> x retort. (Make sure you have the correct amounts of everything: 1 water, 2 silver, 3 arsenic, 1 lead, 0 skin, 0 hair, 5 nail, 0 cardomom, 2 salt, 0 turmeric.)

> put phial on burner. turn on stove.

> x phial. x concoction.

> turn off stove. take phial.

> briney deeps.

Kitchen

A demon-thrall is in a continual looping schedule, where it enters from the south and puts an empty pot onto the counter, then takes a full pot and carries it south.

You can safely assume that Count Chiropterio is eating pot after pot after pot of stew and is not sharing it with any family or guests. Perhaps the pots are really small.

> x counter. x full pots. x empty pots.

> put concoction in full pots.

> z. (Repeat waiting until the thrall gutters and disappears; this means the Count is dead.)

> s.

Dining Hall

> look. x count. (He's dead.)

> s. e. e. d. w. w.

Hallway (at steel door)

> s.

*** You are free. ***

Extras

Characters

You are the Marchioness Laurentina, imprisoned in the Count's dungeon.
Count Chiropterio is your cruel kidnapper and a necromancer. He's eating a long dinner in his dining room.

Found dead or undead:

The rotting corpse on the dungeon bench is accidentally undead. Its index bone is sharp.
Corpses are packed in the ossuary. One particularly foul corpse has a key.
A demon-thrall is busy bringing pots full of stew into the dining room and bringing the empty pots back to the kitchen.
Bones of the dead litter the dungeon.

Mentioned:

Peasant children steal the Count's food, so he leaves poisoned food out for them to eat and die painfully.
The Count's soldiers did the actual kidnapping for him.

Endings

You have been killed.

if you enter the Dining Room while the Count is alive. You have one turn to try to do anything, then he kills you. There are slight variations if you try to shoot him with the pistol, try to leave the room, or just wait there.

You are free.

if you kill the Count then leave his castle.

Inventory

Keys

an index bone. It's part of the rotten corpse in the dungeon; examine the corpse to notice it.

First, try to take the finger to "wake" the corpse up. ASK CORPSE ABOUT INDEX BONE specifically to acquire the bone; asking about the finger doesn't work.
Unlock the cuff (of the chain) with the bone.

an iron key. It's in a gap in the wall of the dungeon. Examine the wall to find the gap, then examine the gap to find the iron key.

The iron key unlocks the door in the dungeon.

a bronze key. Acquire it on the balcony by touching the rail there.

The bronze key unlocks the bronze door (for the ossuary) at the east end of the lower hallway.

a steel key. It's hidden in the ossuary inside a particular foul corpse's mouth. Hold up the lodestone to find the corpse, open its mouth, and take the steel key.

The steel key unlocks the steel door (for the armory) at the middle of the lower hallway.

a diamond key. It's in a deep hole in the armory. In the armory, shoot the pipe with the pistol, then wait five turns as water from the pipe fills the hole. The diamond key comes out of the hole when the hole is overflowing with water.

The diamond key unlocks the diamond door (for the bedroom) at the east end of the upper hallway.

a glass key. Acquire it by looking under the pillows in the bedroom.

The glass key unlocks nothing, but is needed for obtaining the gold key.
In the bedroom, HOLD UP GLASS KEY, then TAKE REFLECTION to obtain the gold key.

a gold key. See glass key on how to obtain the gold key in the bedroom.

The gold key unlocks the gold door (for the laboratory) at the west end of the lower hallway.

Alchemy

a phial. It's on the desk in the laboratory.

Based on the recipe in the diary, first put one palmful, two silverpinches, three arsenicpinches, one leadpinch, five nailpinches, and two saltpinches into the retort (which is on the burner).
Note that for any ingredient that requires two or more parts, you must take and insert the ingredient as many times as necessary. You cannot ever hold two pinches of the same thing, just one at a time.
Put the phial on the burner. Now turn on the stove: a concoction is now in the phial and the retort empties. Turn off the stove so the phial is cool enough to take.

a palmful. Acquire it in the lab by taking water (from the barrel).
a silverpinch. Acquire it in the lab by taking silver (from the topmost drawer).
an arsenicpinch. Acquire it in the lab by taking arsenic (from the topmost drawer).
a leadpinch. Acquire it in the lab by taking lead (from the topmost drawer).
a skinpinch. Acquire it in the lab by taking skin (from the middle drawer), but you don't need any skin.
a hairpinch. Acquire it in the lab by taking hair (from the middle drawer), but you don't need any hair.
a nailpinch. Acquire it in the lab by taking nail (from the middle drawer).
a cardamompinch. Acquire it in the lab by taking cardamom (from the bottom drawer), but you don't need any cardamom.
a saltpinch. Acquire it in the lab by taking salt (from the bottom drawer).
a turmericpinch. Acquire it in the lab by taking turmeric (from the bottom drawer), but you don't need any turmeric.
a concoction. It is formed in the phial when the phial is on the burner and you turn the stove on.

You must follow the poison recipe in the diary correctly, putting the exact ingredients in the listed quanities into the retort or the concoction is worthless. Do not turn on the stove until everything is ready.
In the kitchen, put the concoction into the full pots, then wait for the thrall to gutter out like a candle, signaling the Count's death.

Everything else

a chain. You're wearing it; its cuff is locked to your wrist.

Unlock the chain with the index bone, then drop the chain. Now you can stand (to get off the bench).

a lodestone. It's on the rail on the balcony.

In the ossuary, HOLD UP LODESTONE to find a particularly foul corpse. (If you were already holding up the lodestone, POCKET LODESTONE then try again.) Pocket the lodestone afterwards.

a pistol. It's in armory and it's loaded.

In the armory, shoot the pipe (with the pistol). Water falls out of the pipe and starts filling the hole in the floor. After five turns, the hole starts overflowing and a diamond key emerges from the hole.
CAUTION: Shooting the Count with the pistol will not have the desired effect; he's somehow immune to gunfire.

a diary. It's on the desk in the laboratory.

Look up 15-01, 17-01, and 19-01 in the diary. The first entry tells you the ingredients for a quick-acting poison which you need to make; see alchemy. The second entry tells you the magic phrase that teleports you from the laboratory into the kitchen.

Also, the pillows and mirror in the bedroom are portable, but you don't need them and you really shouldn't be able to take the mirror.

Thank You to my Patreon supporters

This walkthrough was funded via Patreon with

the support of Robin Johnson, Ville Lavonius, Andrew Schultz, Kenneth Hon, Carl Muckenhoupt, Mark Musante, Phil Tatro, Allyson Gray, Daniel Stelzer, and Tabitha;
the generous support of Janice M Eisen, Matthew Foxley, Thomas Insel, Brian Long, and Andy Volk;
the very generous support of Karl Ove Hufthammer, Lance Campbell, and DrkStarr;
the extremely generous support of Emily Short, Allen Garvin, Jesse McGrew, Jacqueline Ashwell, Jennifer Rexrode, and Christos Dimitrakakis;
and the invisible support of several anonymous patrons.

Ko-Fi is a way to send me small one-time donations. Every little bit helps, and thank you!

Key & Compass presents: The Cruel Count's Castle by Drosselmeyer

Map

Walkthrough

Extras

Characters

Endings

Inventory

Thank You to my Patreon supporters

Key & Compass presents:
The Cruel Count's Castle
by Drosselmeyer