THE PAWN Walkthrough

 

 THE PAWN

  Part 1

 Before you even boot THE PAWN, be sure to read all of the documentation which

comes with the game. (Oh, all right, I know you want to see the magnificent

graphics, so go ahead -- boot it. But then get right back to those docs. You

can't see all the great pictures, anyway, until you progress in the game.)

 It is especially important that you read "A Tale of Kerovnia." This will set

the stage for the action to follow so you'll have some idea of the story line.

Besides, the "Tale" is not only informative; it's really a barrel of laughs.

If you like droll English humor, you'll appreciate it.

 One other suggestion: Do yourself a favor and read the excellent review of

THE PAWN, written and uploaded to TEG by Sara Groves and Mike Squire. It will

give you an even better feel for what's happening as you play the game. Okay,

here we go.

 You wake up with a bump on your noggin, wearing some odd clothes and a

strange wristband. What to do. Well, first, LOOK AT THE CLOTHES. Yep, that

plant design sure smacks of something potty. LOOK IN THE POCKET. There's a key

in there (a metal key, as it turns out).

 Time to do some exploring of this strange new land. Go east. Whoops! What's

this? You enter the grassy wilderness and Kronos, the magician, appears

zooming up to you on some sort of stone platform (a Kerovnian hovercraft?).

SAY TO KRONOS, "GREETINGS."

 Kronos will reply that he needs someone to take a note to King Eric. TAKE THE

NOTE. Then, be sure to ASK KRONOS ABOUT THE WRISTBAND. The magician will

promise to remove your wristband if you perform a service. You must kill a man

on a legless horse and bring his dead body to Kronos' room in the northernmost

mountain. Kronos offers you a chest which will help in this task. TAKE THE

CHEST, but do not open it.

 You can LOOK AT THE NOTE and/or THE CHEST if you want, but it's not

necessary. Go east twice. You will be in the palace gardens. LOOK UNDER THE

MAT. Another key. GET THE KEY. (This one is a wooden key.) Also, LOOK IN THE

FOUNTAIN and GET THE CHIT (it's an I.O.U from Honest John for 1 Ferg). Now go

southwest.

 You're at the shed. UNLOCK THE DOOR WITH THE WOODEN KEY. Southwest. Once

inside, you will see three things. GET two of them -- the RAKE and the HOE.

(The wheelbarrow is a red herring. Forget it.) Then LOOK AT THE WORKBENCH. You

spy a trowel. GET THE TROWEL. Nope, you're not done yet. LOOK UNDER THE

WORKBENCH. You find a pot. GET THE POT. LOOK AT THE POT. Hmmmm, the pot

contains a plant which closely resembles the plant on your shirt. (Lotsa pot

references in case you're missing it!) Okay, you're finished in the shed so go

northeast, then east to the gatehouse.

 The guards at the gatehouse won't let you pass until you SHOW THE NOTE TO THE

GUARDS. Then, you are allowed in to see King Eric, who is infuriated by

Kronos' note. He rewards you for delivering it by having you kicked out of his

palace. So much for good deeds. Oh, well, no great harm done except to your

dignity, and you'll suffer plenty more indignities in this game. Go west three

times and south. Then, go west twice to the path. Go north five times on the

path. You will come to a very large boulder. (Before we go on, remember, any

time you wish to know the directions you can move in THE PAWN, simply type

EXITS, and you'll be told.)

 Hmmm, what to do with this humungous boulder? Well, for the moment, you can

forget it. Head west, then northwest to the top of the heather-covered hill.

There's a hut here. GO IN THE HUT. My word, there's a Guru here, and he laughs

uproariously at your wristband. What could be so funny about that? No matter,

he won't stop laughing until you can somehow hide the thing. So TAKE OFF THE

SHIRT. COVER THE WRISTBAND WITH THE SHIRT. Ah, that's better. At least the

Guru stops laughing long enough to give you a chore to perform. He empties his

bowl, gives it to you and instructs you to bring it back full of the essential

nourishment of life. (Doesn't want much, does he?) Well, no ducking the

assignment; but before you leave the hut, GET THE RICE you are informed is

there.

 Now it's time to retrace your steps to the foothills where you last left the

large boulder. Once you reach the durned thing, you can UNCOVER THE WRISTBAND.

Then, TIE THE RAKE AND HOE TOGETHER WITH THE SHIRT. It isn't very plausible,

but you now have just the implement with which to move the boulder.

 Bet you would never think of the next entry: LEVER THE BOULDER WITH THE RAKE

AND THE HOE. (Yes sir,it's a beaut, all right!) Well, it works, and the

boulder goes bounding down the mountainside out of harm's way. Now you can

proceed northwest up the narrow track. (You might want to pause before doing

so to PUT ON YOUR SHIRT. It gets chilly up in those mountains.) Of course you

have to UNTIE THE SHIRT (from the rake and hoe) before you can wear it.

 Oh, dear, just when you thought you were on your way, you no sooner get by

the boulder than your path is blocked by a rockfall. No problem. CLIMB OVER

THE ROCKS. (See? Sometimes the solutions are right there as plain as the nose

on your face, no gimmicks, no tricks.)

 Along about now the adventurer should appear, riding on a horse. Aha! The

horse has no legs. This must be the guy Kronos wants you to knock off. GIVE

THE CHEST TO THE ADVENTURER. No sooner said than the adventurer opens the

chest and a lethal blast wafts into his kisser and kills him dead. GET THE

ADVENTURER and PUT THE ADVENTURER ON THE HORSE. Now it's time for you to GET

ON THE HORSE yourself. (This nag has a sense of humor, as you will see.) More

important, for whatever reason he turns out to be a magical source of light.

And you must have him with you when you enter dark places, or, find another

light source. (Yep, you'll have to do that, too. After all, horses, legless or

otherwise, can't go everywhere.)

 Now go northwest and up to the plateau. From here you can see an ice tower

off to the southwest. Time for that later. You will be coming back. (The only

reason I stuck this UP move in is just in case you need an extra move or two

to meet the adventurer. In other words, he doesn't always appear at the same

place I've indicated. But don't fret; he will be along.)

 Anyway, go back the way you came (i.e., DOWN). There's a cavemouth to the

east. Go east twice. (By the way, without the horse, you wouldn't be able to

see your hand in front of your face. Good thing you have your new friend

along.)

 Go east one more time (into the cavern), then down. You will find yourself in

a small cave. Go east into the corridor. You'll find a REM statement here. To

read it, GET OFF THE HORSE (don't worry, he'll wait. And, don't forget, there

will be other times later when you're riding the horse when you can't do

things unless you dismount). Okay, READ THE REM STATEMENT. (You can skip it if

you prefer. I only stuck it in here to give you the tip about dismounting.)

 After the REM statement, get back on the horse and ride east to the Lava

River. You will see a vertical shaft which you decide bears investigating. GET

OFF THE HORSE and go up. Foiled again! You are told you must drop everything

to go up. Don't do it. Something might break. Instead PUT ALL (items in your

inventory, which should include the pot, hoe, trowel, rake, bowl, rice and

chit) ON THE HORSE. Now you can go up, and up again.

 You are told that the primary function of the shaft is probably to supply air

to the fires of hell, rather than allowing mortals pot-holing practice. Hmmmm.

Well, at its apex you are in a chamber by the river. It looks like the wall

keeping out the river is very fragile. Nothing to do but to BREAK THE WALL.

The wall breaks easily and the water rushes in, sweeping you with it back down

the shaft. You'll wind up in the dark, so go east, back to the Lava River, and

there you find your horse (and light) calmly waiting for you. Go north.

 Now, then, the reason you broke the wall was to let the river in. The result

of this action was to cool and solidify the Lava River so you could move

north. Otherwise, you would have been incinerated.

 On the north bank of the Lava River you see a pale blue pedestal. Also, in

the northeast wall is an exit with a notice above it. If you go northeast, you

will be in an endless maze. (The notice, by the way, which you have to

dismount to read, says: "Warning: This maze is totally irrelevant to the

adventure.") Don't tear your hair if you stumble into the maze by mistake. If

you read the notice, you shouldn't make such a dumb move; but if you do,

simply type EXIT MAZE and you'll be out again. Now wasn't that easy?

 What you're really after is that pedestal. So (presuming you've dismounted)

type, LIFT THE PEDESTAL. Just as you suspected, there's a niche here. LOOK IN

THE NICHE. Oho! Another key, this one a blue key. GET THE BLUE KEY. Now GET ON

THE HORSE and retrace your steps back out of the caves. (Go south, west twice,

up, west three more times and you'll be outside on the path. Now it's time to

go up to that plateau from whence you spied the ice tower. (You're not

finished with the caves, by the way, nor with the ice tower; but they can wait

until later.)

 Once you are on the plateau, dismount and GET THE BOWL (remember, you left it

on the horse with all your other stuff). Once you have it, PUT SNOW IN THE

BOWL. (Yes sir, that'll make the essential nourishment of life, all right!)

Now go down three times until you reach the foothills. Go south, then west and

northwest back up to the hill to the Guru's hut. GO IN THE HUT and GIVE THE

BOWL TO THE GURU. (Betcha forgot to get off the horse first!) He thanks you

and gives you a pretty obvious clue, something about a light in the forest

helping you and the trees.

 THE PAWN

  Part 2

 EXIT the hut and get on your horse. Go south through rolling hills, south

through the rank forest, and south again until you come to a forest clearing.

Here you find a tree stump. LOOK AT THE STUMP. The stump is gnarled and

rotten. It contains a pouch. GET THE POUCH. (Note: If you had found this place

before satisfying the Guru, you would not have found the pouch. Just an empty

and not terribly useful old stump.) OPEN THE POUCH. LOOK IN THE POUCH. You are

told the pouch contains a blue, a green and a red. (Presumably, these are

either jewels or stones, we are not told. The main thing they are is your new

handy-dandy transportable source of light. Also, as you will see, the red has

still another use, as does the pouch.) But we dally. It's time to GET ON THE

HORSE.

 At this point you may want to retrace your steps and go back to where you saw

the ice tower. The exact sequence doesn't matter in THE PAWN, but it's where I

chose to do it. So go all the way back north and up to the plateau where you

filled the bowl with snow. From the plateau, go south and west (still on the

plateau). Here you will find an entrance to the ice tower. Trouble is, there's

a big, fat doleful looking snowman blocking your way. He won't let you pass,

so GET OFF THE HORSE.

 MELT THE SNOWMAN WITH THE RED. That did it! Now you can go northeast into the

ice tower. Once inside, go west into the storeroom and get the spiky boots you

find there. PUT ON THE SPIKY BOOTS. Oh, yes, look at the table. You see a

prism so GET THE PRISM. (I never did figure what the prism was for, but I

decided it might come in handy. Never did as I recall, but maybe you will find

a use for it. Remember, THE PAWN has lots of twists and I know I didn't

discover all of them. The only thing I can guarantee is that you will get all

350 points possible if you follow this walkthru, prism or no prism.)

 Leave the storeroom by going east. You will see an opening in the west wall

and a slope made of ice spiralling in a helical path up the inside wall of the

ice tower. (That's why you need the spiky boots. If you try that slope without

them, you'll die from the fall.) Go up to the landing. To the north is a heavy

wooden door which, of course, is locked. What to do?

 Well, you can unlock it. BUT, I don't recommend it. To do so you must use the

blue key. And if you do, the blue key will disappear, never to be used again.

Worst of all, you need to use it elsewhere. The solution is to SAVE your game

at this point; then unlock the door with the blue key. (Obviously, you will

find out what's behind the door and you can later RESTORE, getting your blue

key back nice and safe and sound.)

 Inside you will find sweet Princess Lacey, greasy hair and all. She has been

imprisoned here by Kronos, which is what that note to Eric was all about.

Seems Kronos was looking for a tad of ransom. You may rescue her and take her

back to King Eric for whatever reward he may have in store. (Recall he wasn't

too generous when you brought him that note!) If you do this, you will give up

the 40 points you would have earned if you had chosen to forget the princess

and used your blue key elsewhere. Aren't you glad you read this walkthru now?

Anyway, I chose to abandon the princess and restored my game outside her door.

I recommend it.

 So much for the diversion of the ice tower. Leave it, get back on your horse

and head for the forest. Oh, all right, I'll help. First, you will find the

snowman is rebuilt. That's all right. Melt him again with the red. Go north,

then east and down four times. Now go south five times and west twice. You

come to a very tall tree. Better get off the horse and climb the tree. Be sure

to get the stuff you've left on the horse (except for the adventurer). You may

need it. Now go up.

 Oh, dear, another locked door confronts you at the top of the ancient tree.

UNLOCK THE DOOR WITH THE WOODEN KEY. Open the door and go east into the tree.

Hmmm, there are some loose floorboards here. The trouble is it's too dark to

move them. First, close the door. Then, MIX RED, BLUE AND GREEN. Ah! Let there

be light! And so there is. You wind up with a WHITE, and it will be your light

source whenever you're away from your horse. That old Guru wasn't such a bad

chap after all.

 Now you can MOVE THE FLOORBOARDS and go down into the tree. Go down again and

you will be in a low ceiling room. Go east into the White Room. (If you look

at the walls, you will be told the stone wall is a "standard issue Kerovnian

dungeon wall, to be found throughout Kerovnia, keeping adventurers within the

substance of the universe.") Go back west.

 From the Low Ceiling Room go west to the crossroads and southwest to the door

of what appears to be a small abode. OPEN THE DOOR. Go west into the lounge.

You see a hard hat. WEAR THE HARD HAT. You also see a settee. LOOK AT THE

SETTEE. There are some cushions on it. MOVE THE CUSHIONS. You find a coin. GET

THE COIN.

 Go west into the kitchen. LOOK AT THE STOVE. There's a teapot here. GET THE

TEAPOT. You should also LOOK AT THE WORKTOP and GET THE CARROT. (These two

items, like the prism, proved to be utterly useless, but I got them anyway. Do

as you please. But don't overlook the coin or the hard hat. They're why you're

here.)

 All finished in the abode (which obviously belongs to one or more gnomes who

happen to be away at the time). Maybe they've gone fishing, who knows? Go east

twice to the crossroads. Now take the northwest exit which leads to a mine.

 After you go northwest, you will come to a lift (which the British insist is

the correct word for an elevator). This is a little tricky, so pay attention.

A sign asks, "Are you wearing your had hat?" "Yes," you say to no one in

particular. You see a button. PUSH THE BUTTON. You hear a click. Now you must

use the time-tested command, WAIT. In fact, you must use it several times.

After about the third WAIT, the lift will arrive. LOOK AT THE DOOR. Yes, as

you figured, the door is closed.

 Well, what do you do with a lift door? You SLIDE THE DOOR OPEN, that's what.

Now you can enter the lift by going north. Inside you find a rope. GET THE

ROPE. You also find two buttons. LOOK AT THE BUTTONS. You learn that the first

button makes the lift go up if pressed. The second makes it go down. First,

SLIDE THE DOOR CLOSED; then PRESS THE SECOND BUTTON. Click. Slowly the lift

descends.

 SLIDE THE DOOR OPEN and go south. Whew! As you step from the lift, part of

the roof collapses. Fortunately, your hard hat protects you and you escape an

untimely demise. You are at a rockface, deep in a mine. There are some lumps

(of lead) here. GET THE LUMPS. The lumps steadfastly refuse to budge. Good

thing you brought your trowel, eh? GET THE LUMPS WITH THE TROWEL. You now have

the lumps and you can leave the mine the way you came, pressing the first

button in the lift to go up, sliding the door, etc. -- boring when you know

how.

 THE PAWN

  Part 3

 Once out of the lift (by going south), go southeast to the crossroads, east

to the Low Ceiling Room and east to the White Room. Now go east again. You

will find yourself in a voting booth. The graphic will show that there are two

ballot boxes, a large one if you want to vote for Gringo Baconburger, about

whom you read all there is to know in "A Tale of Kerovnia." (You DID remember

to read that, didn't you?) There's also a small ballot box. Well, you can't

cast your ballot quite yet. So return west to the White Room and go north.

 You will be in Gringo Baconburger's office. LOOK UNDER THE RUG. You find a

safe. Well, I'll be jiggered! The safe is locked. Now just exactly what do you

suppose will open that safe? You got it! The blue key. Now aren't you glad you

left the princess to rot away in that tower? (Oh, don't worry, she'll get out

one of these days. Probably her yucky boyfriend, Malcolm, will save her. In

the meatime, you have work to do.) OPEN THE SAFE WITH THE BLUE KEY. The blue

key vanishes but the safe is now unlocked. SEARCH THE SAFE. You find a ballot

paper. GET THE BALLOT PAPER.

 You now have the means to vote, so go back to the booth (south and east).

Type, VOTE FOR GRINGO. When asked, "How?" type, PUT THE PAPER IN THE LARGE

BOX. (For what it's worth, this action will give you 40 points toward the

grand total of 350 which you're striving for. Rescuing the princess would have

given you zilch.)

 That about does it for the tree, so you can leave by going west through the

White Room, then up twice to the Tree Trunk room. Exit the room by going west

then down. Yippee! Your faithful horsie is still here. GET ON THE HORSE and

ride east twice. Now head north and turn west onto the grassy plain.

 On the grassy plain you will find Honest John with his cart full of goodies.

You've got the coin (plus a chit if you need it), so GET OFF THE HORSE and BUY

THE WHISKY BOTTLE AND THE BEER BOTTLE WITH THE COIN. Honest John thanks you,

and tells you it was nice doing business with you, your exit cue, I think.

Anyway, GET ON THE HORSE and go north.

 You're back in the foothills again, and you're going back into those ominous

caves, sulphur smell and all. By this time you ought to be able to get there

without my help.

 Once you get down into the small cave, GET OFF THE HORSE and go north. Here

you will find an amusing political poster, touting the merits of Gringo

Baconburger. No great significance; just amusing. You can also go to the

entrance (south from the small cave), and you will see two freely swinging

perspex doors to the south. Don't bother with them yet. You aren't ready.

Instead, go back to the small cave and head north.

 You will go through the damp passage where you see the political poster and

if you go north one more time you will come to a laboratory. Inside the

laboratory you stumble upon three alchemists. The alchemists are hotly

debating who should go outside to get their dinner as they are scared whoever

leaves will sell the secret of turning lead into gold. Suddenly, they spot

you.

 They offer to make you some gold if you give them something to eat. GIVE THE

RICE TO THE ALCHEMISTS. So far, so good. Next, they ask if you have any lead

that you wish to have turned into gold. GIVE THE LEAD TO THE ALCHEMISTS.

 Huh? The alchemists take your lead and skedaddle. No gold. But all is not

lost. If you check, your score just went up 30 points, which ain't all bad.

 Checking out the lab at your leisure, you look in the flasks. These contain

some liquid. Go ahead, drink it. It tastes delicious; just like apple juice.

Won't help your score or affect the game, but you were thirsty from all this

adventuring, weren't you? Better still, go northeast into the alchemist's

storeroom. Here, among all the flotsam and jetsam, you find an aerosoul. Yep,

that's the way it's spelled and that's the way the authors intended, for

reasons to be revealed. GET THE AEROSOUL.

 You also find some tomes. You're told these are works of ancient lore which

would crumble to dust if you tried to open them without a spell. Okay, CAST A

SPELL ON THE TOMES. (Ha! You didn't even know you could do that, did you?)

Well, it works, one of the tomes opens. Reading the tome, you learn that

Kronos has made a contract with the Devil. In return for his soul, Kronos has

been given his special evil powers. Once he expires, however, the soul of

Kronos is doomed to horrendous agony for all eternity; however, a sub-clause

in the contract reveals that Kronos can avoid this torture by exchanging three

good souls for his own.

 Once you read this, the tome crumbles to dust. You also begin to feel a

little sorry for that corpse you've been toting around on the horse you

aquired by handing Kronos' chest to the adventurer (aka, the corpse). Oh,

well, how else would you have corralled the horse? And without him, where

would you be now? Nowhere, that's where, unless being back at square one is

"somewhere."

 Well, no time for reflection. You're ready to leave the laboratory and get on

with the adventure. Go southwest from the storeroom into the lab and exit by

going northwest. Move west toward the sunlight you see coming through a gap in

the wall. You will come to a high ledge, roughly one-third of the way up the

mountain. A rickety old rope bridge, which doesn't look too safe, leads North

out over a deep ravine, hundreds of feet down. Nothing for it but to plunge

ever onward -- hopefully, not downward. Go north.

 You're on the rope bridge which creaks and groans alarmingly. But it manages

to take your weight (just). Keep going across, north.

 Whew! Made it! You're on the other side on another high ledge. You see exits

to the northwest and to the northeast. Go northeast. You will be in a tunnel

inside the mountain. Go north into a room with freshly papered walls. On the

walls is scrawled some graffiti. READ THE GRAFFITI. (Sigh) It says, "Do not

lean on this wall." (Actually, you don't have to do this, the graphic will

tell you what the graffiti says. It will, that is, if you have enabled the

graphics mode.)

 In the freshly papered room is a cupboard. OPEN THE CUPBOARD and LOOK IN THE

CUPBOARD. Inside you see a hook. (Remember the rope you found in the lift?

Well, now's your chance to use it.) TIE THE ROPE TO THE HOOK. Good. Now, TEAR

THE PAPER WALL WITH THE TROWEL and CLIMB THROUGH THE HOLE.

 Now, dear reader, you can go to Hell!

 No offense, that's precisely where you are going. Once through the hole you

will be on a ledge. Go down. (You're holding onto one end of the rope,

remember?) You can only go so far, though, and the rope will hold you back.

DROP THE ROPE. No damage done. Go east.

 You are now in a passage leading to some large double doors. There is a

massive brass knocker on the doors. KNOCK WITH THE KNOCKER. You will get an

odd reply from the character inside, so KNOCK WITH THE KNOCKER again. Hmmm,

another odd reply. KNOCK WITH THE KNOCKER one more time. Still, all you get is

gibberish. Well, persistence pays (it says here) so KNOCK WITH THE KNOCKER a

fourth time. Voila! The doors finally open and there stands a porter, guarding

the entrance. If you LOOK AT THE PORTER, you will soon see he is very drunk.

You will also note that his hip flask is almost empty.

 Now, you may think this guy is cute, but don't be deceived. If you don't tip

him, he's going to do you in, literally. He really is quite a nasty little

bugger, so GIVE THE WHISKY BOTTLE TO THE PORTER. Well, that did it. Instead of

hastening your early departure to a greater/or lesser reward, the porter

thanks you and lets you pass. Go east to the shaft where your nose informs you

that the stench of sulphur is overpowering and the heat makes you queasy.

(Ugh!) Go down.

 Once you've gone down the shaft, go north. Here is an annex, and lo and

behold! Inside is Jerry Lee Lewis, sitting at the piano and playing his hit

song, "Great Balls of Fire." You note that he looks very hot and

uncomfortable. GIVE THE BEER BOTTLE TO JERRY LEE LEWIS. My, Jerry Lee is

grateful. He thanks you (and you note your score went up again, too).

 Time for serious business. Leave the annex (south) and go east. As you enter,

the light you are carrying (the White) is reflected back from every direction,

forcing you back lest you be blinded. Gotta hide the white. PUT THE WHITE IN

THE POUCH. Go east. Nope, you're still driven back. Ah, I know, CLOSE THE

POUCH. Now you can go east then north into a cavern.

 Oh, Lord! The cavern is the home of a mob of powerful demons. They are

desporting themselves by chewing on rotten carrion coming from headless

corpses hanging from hooks on the walls. A fridge is embedded in the south

wall near one exit. (DO NOT open the fridge or go south. The fridge contains

heads, by the way, and if you open it you will become one of those corpses the

demons are chewing so merrily upon.) Instead, go east.

 THE PAWN

  Part 4

 You have just entered HELL!! and there sits old Lucifer himself, enthroned

high above and looking down at you with terrible fiery eyes. (I am not doing

justice to the description of Hell, but you can read that yourself in the

game's text.)

 Your move: ASK THE DEVIL ABOUT KRONOS. The Devil replies that he would make

Kronos the Himmler of Hell. (Wow! This is eerie stuff, yes?) ASK THE DEVIL

ABOUT THE WRISTBAND. Now, that was a good question.

 The Devil tells you he will remove your wristband if you will bring him the

soul of no other than the magician, Kronos. To help you in this difficult

task, Old Nick gives you a fragile crystal bottle, containing a potion. You

are told you may not open the bottle. You are also told it is time for you to

leave this land of the dead and return to the land of the living to carry out

your task, "Until," the Devil adds evilly, "I call again."

 You no sooner type GET THE POTION BOTTLE than a bolt of fire issues from the

Devil's eyes and, ZAP, you are back on the high ledge. It takes you a moment

to realize you're on the south (caves) side, and you recall there was another

entrance into the northern mountain across the rope bridge. Before venturing

across again, OPEN THE POUCH and GET THE WHITE. Go north across the rope

bridge to the high ledge. This time, take the northwest exit.

 Oops! You have entered an immense chamber containing a glittering pile of

treasure. Atop the treasure sits an extremely ugly (and hungry-looking)

dragon. The dragon looks at you and says, "Ah, my lunch at last." (Yep, he's

hungry!)

 You must act quickly, dragon-bait, or it's curtains. Here's what to do. SHINE

WHITE AT SHADOWS. This will cause the dragon (who has poor eyesight, by the

way) to look around. He says he can't see anything so he'll just have to eat

you instead. You quickly type, POINT AT SHAPES. Sorry about this, Bilbo

Baggins fans, but the dragon spies what you're pointing at, which turns out to

be thirteen cute little hobbits, which he promptly fries and eats. Well, it

was them or you, right? And this gives you your chance to get past the winged

monstor. Go north.

 You have entered the magician's workshop. Yes sir, it's old Kronos' hideaway,

all right. What's more, Kronos is right here, staring at you. No time (or

moves) to lose. Instantly, THROW THE POTION BOTTLE AT THE MAGICIAN. Ha!

Kronos, old boy, that slowed you down! Not only does it slow him down, but the

bottle breaks and the potion sloshes all over Kronos' face and skin. This

causes him to boil and bubble away before your very eyes. True, but how to get

his bubbling remains to back to the Devil. What's that? A light bulb over your

head? You remember the aerosoul (and now you can deduce why it's spelled that

way). GET THE AEROSOUL and PRESS THE NOZZLE.

 Good! The aerosoul quickly devours the scarred soul of the evil magician with

little resistance. (And your points are up again, too.) Finally, there's

nothing left of Kronos but a pile of his clothes on the floor. You LOOK AT THE

CLOTHES. Odd, the shirt is black with a green design of a plant which has

seven jagged edges. (Haven't we seen this before?) You look in the pocket and

there's a metal key and a wooden key. Oh, you dunce, you're looking at your

own clothes! Well, be patient. Soon you are told that the cloak is black and

adorned with mystical symbols. The pointy hat has silver stars and moons

stitched on it. There is also a wand lying there. Obviously, these belonged to

Kronos.

 WEAR THE CLOAK AND THE POINTY HAT. GET THE WAND. Now you look exactly like

Kronos. (You will also find a top hat which you can take if you wish. If you

look inside, it contains a rabbit. There are some spare wands lying around,

too, but you don't really need them. The main thing is to fool the dragon into

thinking you're Kronos. (He doesn't see very well, remember?) So leave the

magician's workshop and head back south, all dressed up like Kronos.

 The dragon looks you over and says, "Thanks, oh, great wizard, for giving me

those hobbits." He says he wishes he could have had that human (gulp), too:

"Hobbits aren't all that filling." Don't dally. You're home free. Go southeast

to the ledge.

 At this point I should interject that there is an alternate route from

Kronos' lab, back to Hell where you must go next. It is via Kronos' flying

stone slab, which is found parked outside to the North of the workshop. Using

it is a matter of adjusting your weight (by dropping items) and then climbing

aboard. Frankly, it was too much bother for me so I chose the way back as

described, past the dragon.

 The adventure is nearly over. You now need only retrace your steps back into

the mountain through the northeast entrance, then down the rope in the papered

room, and through the cavern where the hideous demons are still feasting. You

enter Lucifer's presence once more and SHOW THE AEROSOUL TO THE DEVIL.

 "The Devil's eyes turn on you, showing a hint of gratitude mixed with a

patronizing condemnation of your weakness of spirit. Imperceptibly, the silver

wristband falls to the ground and melts into a blob of useless metal in a

matter of seconds. The Devil signals you to leave the chamber, your contract

fulfilled."

 That's it, kid. Don't ask any questions, just leave. (If you don't the Devil

will kill you.) First, OPEN THE POUCH AND GET THE WHITE. Then, Go west, then,

south and west to the shaft. Go up the shaft to the double doors. No, the

porter won't bother you. Go west to the ledge which is about ten feet below

the papered room.

 GET THE ROPE. (Now, this is important: Don't just type UP or you'll die.

Enter CLIMB UP THE ROPE and all will be well. You will be back in the newly

papered room (one wall of which you have thoughtfully ripped open with your

trowel), and you can leave the northern mountain by going south across the

rope bridge.

 Is that it? Well, you have 345 points and you're supposed to get 350. Odd.

Wonder what you didn't do? Well, there is something. Do you remember those

perspex doors back in the caves not far from the Alchemist's Laboratory.

Perhaps you should go there now.

 Go back into the cavern and down to the small cave deep down inside the

mountain. Once there, go south. This will take you to the narrow corridor that

gets brighter and brighter to the south, ending where it meets the two

swinging perspex doors.

 Oh, yes, I nearly forgot. You have one other chore to perform before you

tackle those doors. (And this is a real doozy, folks.) You GET THE TROWEL (if

you don't already have it in hand). Now you must (and type this exactly as I'm

writing it) PLANT THE PLANT IN THE POT WITH THE TROWEL. The plant will seem

much happier, and you should, too. Your score just reached the magic 350!

 Now for the doors. KNOCK ON THE DOOR. A voice from within will ask if you are

wearing a wristband. Say, NO, I AM NOT WEARING THE WRISTBAND. The doors will

open and you will find yourself inside a strange room, totally alien to the

rest of the adventure. The walls floor are littered with listing paper and a

large fan blows cigarette ash onto the many computers and peripherals that

inhabit the weird abode.

 You have entered the Chamber of the Programmers, the very ones who have

created THE PAWN. One of them gives you a listing and tells you to fix it.

Then, they all troop off to the pub to celebrate your finishing the game. LOOK

AT THE LISTING. You discover it is a listing of something called "Debugbits."

It looks like it might let you wander around the game without dying.

 Type DEBUG, and you will see the ">" prompt change to "]." Congratulations!

Now you can go anywhere you want in the game and no one and nothing can hurt

you. Waltz past the dragon. He won't care. Let go of the rope. Big deal! Go

see the Devil if you want. You are immune. Well, what's the point? You've

already finished the adventure. So why bother? Well, it might just be fun to

see if there is something you missed or could have done better. Heck, you can

go rescue the princess if you want. Maybe King Eric will treat you a bit

better if you do.

 That's THE PAWN. And if you enjoyed it as much as I did, you'll be hoping for

more from those weary programmers who so unceremoniously left you in the lurch

to hoist one at the pub. Maybe if you hurry, you can even catch them there.

But I doubt if they'll buy!

 THE PAWN is written by Magnetic Scrolls and published by Rainbird Software.

 This walkthru is copyright (c) 1986 by Neil P. McCulloch. All rights

reserved.



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