Key & Compass presents:
Ka
by Dan Efran

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

Map

Walkthrough

Darkness

> about. i. x scroll. read it.

> sing cat eyes. (You can see in darkness.)

The Solid Gold Coffin

> x coffin. x body. x me.

> x scroll. read scroll.

There's several songs on the scroll, although it's not obvious what they all do at first:

• Cat Eyes to see in darkness.
• Down Under opens the west door to the afterlife.
• Silent Supplicant makes shrines permeable.
• Master Glazier makes glass permeable.
• Golden Forest Runner makes gilt wood permeable.
• Letting Myself Come Through asks statues of yourself to let you pass.
• Sandstone Sifter makes sandstone and quartz permeable.
• Lost Memories makes one remember a lost memory.
• Gold Digger makes gold permeable.

> sing gold digger. out.

The Glass Mosaic Coffin

> sing glazier. out.

The Gilt Cypress Coffin

> sing runner. out.

The Quartzite Sargophagus

> sing sifter. out.

The First Burial Shrine

Silent Supplicant lasts four turns, letting you escape all four shrines if you don't waste turns.

> sing supplicant. out. out. out. out.

Burial Chamber

> x statues. e.

Treasury

> x Anubis. x gifts. x shrine. x case.

> open case.

> x replacement flail. (Makes you uneasy.)

> x spare crook. (You never used it.)

> x large crook. (Your father's best crook.)

> x large flail. (Your father's best flail.)

> sing lost. (You remember your coronation. You were nine...)

A Childhood Memory

> x attendant. x flail.

> break flail —or— reject flail.

You now remember why the replacement flail is authentic.

Treasury

> take replacement flail. w.

Burial Chamber

> sing letting. s.

Antechamber

> take crook. x crook. w.

Annex

> x goods. (Some items are missing.)

> e. e.

Corridor

> x stairs. w.

Antechamber

> sing letting. n.

Burial Chamber

> x false door.

> sing down under. (The door to the afterlife opens.)

> w.

Solar Sphere

> x amulet. x scarab. x metal ball. (It's of gold wire.)

You want to sing when the scarab's coming down the west wall.

> sing gold. enter ball. (Going up the east wall...)

> sing gold. out.

Solar Sphere (on the Jewelled Globe)

> x obelisk. take it. d.

Solar Sphere

> z. (Wait for the scarab to be on the west wall...)

> sing gold. enter ball.

Time for a better look inside the ball.

> look. x mechanism.

> x spool. x strap. x cone. x bellows.

> pull strap. (The spool is spun fast.)

> put obelisk in spool.

> pull strap. push bellows.

The cage now is aflame and is now clearly represents the sun in this tableau. With the dawn, an archway to the west of the chamber is revealed.

> sing gold. out.

> w.

Senet House

You'll be playing Jackals and Hounds against a clockwork sage. He's "Jackals"; you're "Hounds".

> x doll. x stool. x game board. x dice.

> play game.

> turn table —or— take jackal. (You're now playing the Jackals side.)

> play game.

> w.

The Dodecahedron

The nagging thought about your tools is a too-subtle prompt to search your memories again.

> sing lost.

You remember your father's funeral. It's time to retire your tools.

> x landscape. x quicksilver. x pump.

> x wheel. x shadouf. x flames.

> push shadouf. (The landscape stays dry.) drop shadouf.

> push wheel. read river.

It's a new song: Inversions.

> sing inversions.

The Dodecahedron (on the ceiling)

Inversions only lasts three turns. If you want to examine the crystal, do that, then wait until Inversions wears off and sing it again.

> sing sifter. enter crystal. burn flail.

The Dodecahedron

> sing inversions.

The Dodecahedron (on the ceiling)

> sing sifter. enter crystal. burn crook.

The Dodecahedron

> x arch. w. (A clockwork lioness blocks you!)

> x lioness. (She asks you a riddle: "What is supported by six legs in the morning, five legs at midday, and four legs in the evening?")

If you sing Lost Memories a few times, you seem sure the answer is something you've seen today.

The answer is "clockwork". The scarab has 6 legs; the sage's two legs plus stool's three legs equals 5 legs; the lioness has 4 legs. It's easy to see why the Solar Sphere is "morning", but it's a lot less clear to me how Senet House is "midday" or that the Dodecahedron is "evening".

> say clockwork.

> w.

Hall of Two Truths

> x Anubis. x Ammit. x scale. x feather.

Any action other than looking or examining causes Anubis to take action instead:

> i. (Anubis reaches through you back to your body, takes your heart, and balances it on the pan.)

*** Now you can rest ***

Extras

Characters

• The blameless attendant. Seen in "A Childhood Memory", you remember accidentally touching him with your Royal Flail. You must break the flail to save his life.
• The clockwork scarab. Seen in Solar Sphere, eternally pushing a gold mesh ball up and around an amulet that represents the Earth.
• The Clockwork Sage. Seen in Senet House. He is an expert player of Jackals and Hounds but is unable to notice moves outside the game proper.
• The Clockwork Lioness. Seen in The Dodecahedron when you try to leave. She blocks the western archway until you can answer her riddle.
• Anubis is the god that weighs your heart against a feather in the Hall of Two Truths. A statue of him is also in the Treasury.
• Ammit is a demon, the bone devourer, is also in the Hall of Two Truths.

Inventory

• Book of Songs of Getting Through the Day, originally presented as a papyrus scroll in your inventory until you read it. The "Cat Eyes" song lets you see in darkness; read the scroll again. Most of the other songs, when sung, help you navigate past various barriers. The "Lost Memories" song lets you remember a memory.
• Crook, Impolitic Spare. Found in the Sceptre Case in the Treasury. It was a gift that you never used; you can ignore it.
• Crook, Large Paternal. Found in the Sceptre Case in the Treasury. It's your father's and you can ignore it.
• Crook, your Coronation. Found in the Antechamber. Take it. In The Dodecahedron, after remembering your father's funeral, burn it in the fire that's inside the crystal on the ceiling; you'll need to sing both Inversions and Sandstone Sifter to reach the fire.
• Crook, your Royal. This is your Coronation Crook as seen in your inventory during your coronation memory. Do nothing with it.
• Flail, your replacement Coronation. Found in the Sceptre Case in the Treasury. Take it. After you've sung Lost Memories and remembered where this flail came from, you'll know it is the flail you used in life.
• Flail, Large Paternal. Found in the Sceptre Case in the Treasury. It's your father's and you can ignore it.
• Flail, your Royal. This is in your inventory during the memory of your coronation. You must break it to save the attendant's life. This incident is also how the replacement Flail became your true flail.
• obelisk. Found on the amulet in the Solar Sphere. To get it, sing Gold Digger to get inside the metal ball and sing it again to leave it at the right time, so that you fall onto the amulet. Although there's writing on it, you can't read it. Get back inside the ball, put the obelisk into the spool's hole. Pull the strap and push the bellows to light the metal ball aflame, and thus bring dawn to the Solar Sphere.

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.