Key & Compass presents:
The Enigma of the Old Manor House
by Daniel M. Stelzer

• Map
• Walkthrough
• Extras
  • Characters, Credits, Endings, Inventory, Score
• Thank You to my Patreon supporters
• Support me on Ko-Fi
• External links:
  • This game at Homepage, IFDB, and IFWiki.
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Map

Walkthrough

Entrance

You snuck into the house where Dr Black died.

> take lantern. x it. turn it on.

> take notebook. x it. x map. x plan.

> x tarp. take tarp. (too high)

> x chandelier. (shape obscure with tarp on it)

> x staircase. (too dangerous to go near)

> w.

Sitting Room

> x wardrobe. open it. (locked)

> x rod. x north door. (blocked on other side)

> e. e.

Study

> x carpet. x desk. x skylight.

> open drawers. take key.

> x clock. open it. (can't; has keyhole)

> unlock clock with key.

> open clock. (+1)

The open clock is your ghost detector for the study.

> n.

Library

Note: If you try to take any books from the library, you'll instead drop them back into the pile before you go.

> x ladder. (has solid base and wheels)

> x books. take books. read books. put books on shelves.

The shelved books are your ghost detector for the library.

> x shelved books.

> n.

Sunroom

> x dirt. search dirt. (A shard cuts you.)

> x west door. (blocked)

> w. (You can't get through with the lantern or any other bulky items.)

> drop lantern.

> w.

Huge Room

Either in this room or one of the next two rooms, you gain +1 point when you feel the ghost rush past you.

> x east door. (You can't see what it's caught on.)

> w.

Kitchen

> x sink. x counters.

> s. (+1: You've explored the mansion now.)

Dining Room

> s.

Sitting Room

Get back to the sunroom to get your lantern, but also push the ladder there on the way.

> e. e. n.

Library

> push ladder north.

Sunroom

> take lantern. u.

Roof

> x northwest.

> put lantern in northwest. (It's now in the kitchen.)

> ne. w. w.

Kitchen

Sometimes there's a bug that won't let you take the intact china. I'm not sure why not.

> take lantern. x box.

> push lever. (There's now light here and in some of the other rooms.)

> open cabinets. (awful squeal from hinges)

> x shattered china. x intact china. x hinges.

The open cabinet's squeaky hinges are your ghost detector for the kitchen. Don't re-close the cabinet.

> e.

Huge Room

> move furniture. (East door is now unjammed.)

> x piano. open piano. (can't, but you see a keyhole)

> unlock piano with key. open piano.

> x keys. x strings. play piano.

The open piano is your ghost detector for the huge room.

> w. s.

Dining Room

By now, you've gained +1 for the ghost activating one of your detectors, the hinges in the kitchen.

> move boxes. (+1; doors unjammed)

> x table.

> s.

Sitting Room

> unlock wardrobe with key.

> open wardrobe. take gloves.

> e. e. n. n.

Sunroom

> wear gloves.

> search dirt. (You find wind chimes.)

> x chimes. clean chimes. (high B sound)

> put chimes on hook.

The chimes is your ghost detector for the sunroom.

> push ladder south.

Library

> push ladder south.

Study

> push ladder west.

Entrance

With the ladder here:

> take tarp. (It falls to the floor.)

> x chandelier. take tarp.

The uncovered chandelier is your ghost detector for the entrance.

> w.

Sitting Room

The tarp on the rod is your ghost detector for the sitting room; you'll hear the cloth tear and rip.

> put tarp on rod.

> n. n.

Kitchen

> take intact china. (while wearing the gloves)

> s.

Dining Room

The china on the table is your ghost detector for the dining room.

> put china on table. (That's all the ghost detectors set up.)

Okay, this next part is tricky to explain. By now you've noticed that the ghost can't go through closed doors, and that the ghost doesn't like to stay in a room with you. You want to herd the ghost into a room with both a container and a skylight. This walkthrough will choose the kitchen as our target room, and the cabinet as our target container.

Start by going to the kitchen and closing its east door, then walk counterclockwise to the sunroom:

> n.

Kitchen

> close east door.

> s. s. e. e. n. n.

Sunroom

If you are hearing the piano, you need to chase the ghost out of the huge room:

• > w. e. (Repeat if necessary until you hear falling books.)

> close west door.

> s.

Library

If you are hearing the chimes, you need to chase the ghost out of the sunroom:

• > n. s. (Repeat if necessary until you hear the clock.)

> close north door.

> s.

Study

If you are hearing books falling, you need to chase the ghost out of the library:

• > n. s. (Repeat if necessary until you hear the chandelier tinkling.)

> close north door.

> w.

Entrance

If you are hearing the clock, you need to chase the ghost out of the study:

• > e. w. (Repeat if necessary until you hear tearing cloth.)

> close east door.

> w.

Sitting Room

If you are hearing the chandelier, you need to chase the ghost out of the entrance:

• > e. w. (Repeat if necessary until you hear shaken china.)

> close east door.

> n.

Dining Room

If you're hearing rippping cloth, you need to chase the ghost out of the sitting room:

• > s. n. (Repeat if necessary until you hear rusty hinges.)

> close north door.

Now that the ghost is trapped in the kitchen, you need to use the ladder and the skylights to get yourself in the kitchen without opening a door. Note that dropping into a room without the ladder there isn't permitted unless the manor's lights are on so you can see where you're dropping to.

> s. e.

Entrance

> push ladder west.

Sitting Room

> u. nw.

Kitchen

The ghost stops moving when you're in there with it.

> put key in cabinet. (The ghost enters the cupboard.)

> close cabinet. (+1; you hear a "mrow?")

> open cabinet. x cat.

You did notice that the lantern has a laser, yes?

> turn on laser. (+1; you've made a friend.)

The ghost cat now follows you.

> pet cat.

> s. s. e. s.

*** The End ***

Extras

Characters

• A ghost is haunting the kitchen, but it's shy and will float into an adjacent room whenever you enter its room. When you trap the ghost, you learn it's a ghost cat.

Mentioned in the prologue:

• Doctor Black lived in the mansion alone until his mysterious death.
• Abby, a friend of yours, told you the story about a ghost in the house.
• Dylan, another friend, dared you to find and trap the ghost.

Credits

The credits are found by reading the armload of books, obtainable in the library:

>take books
You scoop up some books from the pile.

>read books
(the armload of books)
You open one of them:
This game was tested by
    Andrew Schultz
    Mike Russo
    Amanda B
    Sarah Stelzer
    Ada Stelzer
    Grace Foster
    Matt
    Wallace
    Elisabeth
    Jeff (Fos1)
    Nils Fagerburg
    Zed Lopez

Thank you for playing!

Endings

• The End
• if you leave the house by the front door. The epilogue is different if you have all seven points or not.

Inventory

• your lantern. It's in the entrance.
• Turn it on for light. Don't worry about it running out of power.
• The lantern can't be carrying through either jammed door. Instead, take the lantern up onto the roof and drop it into the northwest skylight; it will fall into the kitchen. Squeeze through a jammed door without the lantern and take it from the kitchen.
• With the lantern's light, you can see the metal box and lever in the kitchen. Pull the lever to turn on the lights in the rooms that have lights.
• With light in the huge room, move the furniture to unblock the east door.
• With light in the dining room, move the boxes to unblock the south door.
• After the ghost cat is found, turn on the lantern's laser. The cat is now your friend.
• your notebook. It's in the entrance.
• Examine it. It contains a plan and a map. Examine the plan to learn what you need to accomplish in this game; it will be updated every so often during the game.
• a tiny silver key. It's in the study's desk drawer.
• The key unlocks three things in the game: the sitting room's wardrobe, the study's grandfather clock, and the huge room's piano. Open all three.
• an armload of books. Books are in a pile in library.
• Put some of the books back onto the shelves in the library. You'll know when the ghost is in the library when you hear books falling from the shelves.
• Note that you are unable to take any books into another room. Whenever you leave the library while carrying books, you drop your armload of books back into the pile.
• a canvas tarp. It's on the chandelier in the entrance.
• You must first push the ladder from the library into the entrance. When the ladder is in the entrance, you can easily take the tarp from the chandelier. Note that you initially drop the tarp onto the floor and must take the tarp a second time to actually carry it.
• In the sitting room, put the tarp on the curtain rod. Now you'll hear the sound of tearing cloth while the ghost is in that room.
• a pair of gloves. They're in the sitting room's wardrobe. Unlock the wardrobe with the key.
• Wear the gloves when searching the dirt pile in the sunroom. Otherwise, you'll just cut your fingers on a sharp shard. With the gloves on, you find some wind chimes in the dirt.
• Keep the gloves on. You need them on if you want to take the intact china from the kitchen cabinet.
• some wind chimes. They're hidden in the pile of dirt in the sunroom; make sure you're wearing gloves when you search the dirt.
• Hang the chimes on the hook in the sunroom. Now when the ghost is in the sunroom, you'll hear the chimes ring.
• some intact china. It's in the kitchen cabinet.
• You need to be wearing the gloves when taking china from the cabinet.
• Put the intact china on the dining room table. You'll know when the ghost is in the dining room when you hear the china clinking.

Also:

• When the ghost is trapped in the same room as you, you need to put something, anything, into a container. Then close the container to trap the ghost. For example, if you and the ghost are in the kitchen, try putting the key into the cupboard. Other viable containers are the wardrobe in the sitting room, and the clock and drawer in the study.

Score

The response to SCORE is:

You have so far scored your-score out of a possible 7, in several turns.

(If you read the plan in the notebook, it'll list which tasks are complete and which remain to be done.)

Points are awarded as follows:

• 1 point for Exploring the mansion (visiting everywhere, not counting the roof).
• 1 point for Unjamming the doors.
• 1 point for Finding evidence of the ghost.
• 1 point for Creating a ghost detector: something that will make noise if the ghost messes with it.
• 1 point for Setting up ghost detectors and using them to track the ghost.
• 1 point for Confining the ghost somehow (in a container).
• 1 point for Befriending a ghost cat.

Thank You to my Patreon supporters

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