Key & Compass presents:
Germania
by Vicente Muñoz

• Walkthrough
• Extras
  • Characters, Credits, Inventory, Score
• Thank You to my Patreon supporters
• External links:
  • This game at IFDB, IFWiki, and ifwizz.
  • Tweet about this walkthrough on Twitter.

Walkthrough

Outside the Cave Entrance

The legionary won't let you go south and avoid your mission.

> about. credits.

> x me. i. (Carrying nothing, but wearing a lot.)

> x legionary. (He's wearing mostly the same items except for galea, sheath, and pouch.)

> x galea. x tunic. x pouch. open pouch. x coins.

> x lorica. x sheath. x gladius. x scutum. x sandals.

> x mud. x footsteps.

> n. (Saw something shine.)

Cave Mouth

> smell. x shine. take glass. (You put it in your pouch.)

> x pyramid. x paint. (Raising the dead? Wolf eating someone?)

> x trail. x bush.

> n. (The wind reveals a hole in the ground.)

Inside the Cave

> smell. x hole. (square) x shadows.

> put pyramid on hole (+5. A pedestal rises, light fills the room, and red eyes cower into the darkness.)

> take sword. x eyes. (You can't see them.)

> x pedestal. x pyramid. look. x trail.

Oddly, the game doesn't seem to implement the "series of drawings" mentioned here. But although it doesn't know "shards", it does know glass:

> x glass. search glass. x shard. take it.

Hall of Truth

> x pedestal. x arch. x disc. take disc. (+5)

TL;DR: They're putting minds into a single entity called a nexus.

> enter arch.

Inside the Cave

> n.

Hole (top of)

> x shadow. take cloth. (+20. Mirror revealed. This room is now lit.)

> x cloth. x mirror.

> look. x rope. read words.

By "Gift of the Gods", they mean sunlight. That's important.

> d. (The rope breaks. You fall. Scutum broken.)

Hole (bottom of)

Caution: "take mirror" causes a minor runtime error.

> take rope. move scutum. x mirror. (broken)

> x scutum. smell. (It's south.)

> s.

Opening

> x bulge. take bulge. pull bulge.

Hole

It's the body of a germanic tribesman.

> x body. search body. (+5. You find a glass sphere.)

> x sphere. n.

Fork

> x mirror. x north mirror. (It faces south.)

> x left mirror. (It faces northeast.)

> x right mirror. (It faces northwest.)

> nw.

Tunnel

> x rock. move rock (+5. Door revealed.)

> open door. n. (+5)

A whisper warns you of creatures older than the world lurking in the dark. It calls the sphere an "eye". It offers to fix things for you here, regardless of space and time constraints.

[REPAIR COMMAND ENABLED]

Guard Room

> x eye. x large. (It was the door; now it covers the floor.)

> x basket. open it. (empty) smell it.

> x shelf. x candle. (Too short to be of any use.)

> x fur. move fur. (Find a broken spear.)

> take spear. x it. repair spear. (+5. It was the eye that spoke to you?)

> x spear. s. se. s.

Hole (bottom of)

> repair body. (The eye cannot restore the dead, or as it puts it, bring back from the Nexus.)

> put cloth on body —or— put coins on body. (+5)

> repair scutum. (+5. You take it, better than ever.)

> x scutum. (The eye is now part of the scutum.)

> repair mirror. (+5. Eye warns of evil lurking here.)

You're somewhere else now?

The Room of Mirrors

> x south mirror. touch it.

> x image. (Your reflection looks decayed.)

> push image. (+10)

The image stabs you with a dagger. The eye shines. The image and mirror explodes. Your wound heals. The eye bids you take the key and enter the Nexus.

> i. x dagger. (I guess that's the "key"?)

> s.

Hole (bottom of)

> x mirror. (It's whole and reflecting light north.)

> n. ne.

Lift Entrance

> x hole. x crank. (It's turning by itself.)

> listen to crank.

This action is impossible to guess, in my humble opinion, even knowing that ABOUT suggests ATTACH TO as a command:

> attach spear to crank. attach rope to crank. (+5)

> d.

Stone Hallway

> x wood. x metal.

> repair wood —or— repair metal. (No need, says the eye.)

> n.

Wooden Bridge

> x shield. (It's now silver! Nice trick.)

> x bridge. x sunlight. x eyes.

Another impossible to guess command, no other equivalent phrasing:

> use sunlight. (+5)

The Guardian, a giant albino snake, is repelled, but it also destroys the bridge, which collapses after you've crossed.

> n.

The Gate

When I first played, I mistakenly thought "in" from here just meant "north". Uh-uh.

> in.

Dark Tunnel

> x slime. search slime.

> take disc. (+5)

TL;DR: The eye of truth is a weapon of war made by the Nexus.

> out.

The Gate

> x gate. x figures. x lock.

> unlock gate with dagger. n. (+10)

Inside the Main Gate

*** You have made it into the Temple! But there is more, what lays inside this ancient structure? Why are there so many unnatural creatures and who is helping you? Sadly enough the only way to find out is to wait for the next installment. ***

Unfortunately for us, there is no next installment in this series.

Extras

Characters

• A legionary waits outside the cave entrance for you to complete your task.
• The dead body of a germanic tribesman is found in an opening south of the hole you fall down through.
• The eye of truth is a glass sphere that glows, talks, and repairs things.
• A giant albino snake can be seen briefly if you redirect sunlight at it. Usually, you can only see its red eyes hiding in the shadows.
• A man seen in the disc recordings tells you a bit about the Nexus and the eye of truth. It's not stated from what place or time period he's from.

Also mentioned:

• Your Centurion, who you're supposed to report back to, but all things considered, you probably won't.
• The head of the Cesar is stamped on your coins.
• A wolf, referred to by the painting outside the cave. There's no wolves anywhere else in the game, so it's unclear what this means.
• A bear from which the fur in the Guard Room came from.
• Unnatural creatures are mentioned at the very end, but not actually seen until the sequel, except there isn't one.

Credits

Programmed by Vicente "Vico Surge" Munoz. Testers: Admiral Dread, StormEagle and Metaldrummer. Special Thanks to: Admiral Dread and StormEagle for all the crazy stuff, making me procrastinate and all the small little details I left out.

Inventory

Note that most of your initial inventory isn't used except for the coins and scutum. There's no reason to remove any of your clothing.

• a galea. You're wearing it; it's a helmet.
• a tunic. You're wearing it.
• a leather pouch. You're wearing it. It contains a couple of coins.
• a couple of coins. Found in the leather pouch. They bear the head of the Cesar. Either put them or the cloth on the dead body to honour it. (You'll use both.)
• a lorica segmentata. You're wearing it. It's a breastplate.
• a leather sheath. You're wearing it. Your gladius is in it.
• a gladius. It's in the sheath. It's a sword. Surprisingly, you never use it.
• a scutum. You're wearing it. It's a wooden shield. It will be broken in a fall. Later, after you've opened the door and the "repair command" is enabled, repair scutum. The eye will now be bonded to it. Also, when you reach the wooden bridge, the shield will be turned to silver.
• a pair of sandals. You're wearing them.
• a small glass pyramid. Found at Cave Mouth; examine the shine there to spot it. Put it on (not in) the square hole at Inside the Cave; note this hole is only mentioned when you first enter the location. Once the pyramid is placed, a pedestal will rise up below it and the pyramid will shine sunlight everywhere in the room.
• a piece of cloth. Found at (top of the) Hole. Take it to uncover the mirror there. Either put it or the coins on the dead body to honour it. (You'll use both.)
• a rope. First seen at the top of the Hole, you can take it after it breaks at the bottom of the hole. Attach it to the crank in the Lift Entrance after attaching the spear to the crank first.
• a glass sphere. Found by searching the dead body. When you enter the Guard Room with it, it is re-styled as an eye of truth. Once it's called that, you can now repair things with it: the spear, the scutum, and the mirror. When the scutum is repaired, the eye will bond itself to it.
• a broken spear. After the eye repairs it, it's a spear. Attach the spear to the crank at Lift Entrance to make it stop turning.
• a silver dagger. Found by pushing the south mirror or the image in it at Hall of Mirrors; your distorted image stabs your hand with the dagger! Fortunately, the eye heals your wound. The dagger is also a key; unlock the gate with the dagger.
• a small disc and a small disc. The first disc is found on a pedestal in the Hall of Truth; touch the shard found Inside the Cave to get there. The second disc is found by searching the slime in the Dark Tunnel. Taking a disc plays a 3D hologram with audio recording, although of course the game doesn't describe it that way.

Score

In several moves, you have scored your-score of a possible 100 points.

• 5 points for getting a source of light in the cave.
• 10 points for being one step closer to the truth... (5 points per disc)
• 10 points for getting more light into the cave.
• 10 points for discovering a way to explore deeper into the cave.
• 5 points for finding a new source of light.
• 5 points for finding another room.
• 5 points for learning about the eye of truth.
• 5 points for fixing the broken spear.
• 5 points for honoring your enemies.
• 5 points for fixing your Scutum.
• 5 points for fixing the broken mirror.
• 10 points for getting the key to the "Nexus".
• 5 points for gaining access to the next level.
• 5 points for defeating the Guardian.
• 10 points for reaching the temple.

Thank You to my Patreon supporters

This walkthrough was funded via Patreon with

• the support of Thomas Bøvith, Robin Johnson, Ville Lavonius, Andrew Schultz, Kenneth Hon, Jason McIntosh, Carl Muckenhoupt, Mark Musante, and Phil Tatro;
• the generous support of Janice M Eisen and Amelia;
• the very generous support of Karl Ove Hufthammer;
• the extremely generous support of Emily Short, Allen Garvin, Jesse McGrew, Jacqueline Ashwell, Marius Müller, and Jennifer Rexrode;
• and the invisible support of several anonymous patrons.