Hints: Illuminismo Iniziato

I’m stuck really early on in the game, 4 points.

I took the laundry ticket to Betty, who gave me Gorgonzola. I assume I’m supposed to perform tyromancy with it, but I have no clear idea how to do that. There’s a tyromancy machine at the Conjuring Commodities shop, but at $130, it’s far out of my price range.

If I sell my carpet, I can afford the nobbler, which I presumably want to slip into the captain’s drink, but I don’t know how to distract him.

I can also afford the tin hoop, which resists contact with the backpack, but I have no idea how that could be useful.

I’ve been to the peaked roof of the wooden house, but I have no idea how to get to the brick house on the other side.

You seem on the right track. Very very mild hint:

It’s a money game.

To achieve your goal, you need to (mild hint)

find something really nice to sell

Which you can get by (bigger hint)

being a Good Samaritan

Or, more specifically, (complete hint)

healing the pteranodon wound with purchased ointment then taking the saddle

Just a note that if:

at 4 points as you were, you asked Crystal for help, she would likely have told you to explore a bit more first.

Then, once you’d been to

the Blumph Heights Park, and if you’d asked her for help again, she would

have said (very explicit spoiler here):

“It’s too bad we can’t get that saddle from the pterosaur. It looks like it’s bothering it. We might be able to sell the saddle too. If only we could distract it somehow.”

That is not correct. I don’t think that’s an actual feature of this game.

>ask crystal about help
"I'm not certain what you're asking about," confides Crystal.
 
>ask crystal about hint
"I'm not certain what you're asking about," confesses Crystal.

I can’t afford that.

The ointment costs $25, but I only have $7: $2 at the start of the game plus $5 for selling the carpet to the crone. I have no idea where to get even one more plotkin, say nothing of $25.

You're carrying:
  a piece of Zamorano
  a crumpled scroll
    an address label
  a sturdy plank
  a piece of Gorgonzola
  the Town Tattler
  a threadbare red carpet
  a raspberry satchel (which is open but empty)
  a cheap glass snow globe
  some long flowing robes (being worn)
  a pair of slippers (being worn)
  two plotkins

I can state with 100% confidence that asking Crystal for hints are a feature of this game. You just didn’t have quite the right wording.

At the same four point point you’re at:

>ask crystal for help
“It’s too bad we can’t get that saddle from the pterosaur. It looks like it’s bothering it. We might be able to sell the saddle too. If only we could distract it somehow.”

If you follow this advice, including

Crystal’s advice about selling the saddle

you will then be able to

[spoiler]afford the ointment, Mr Wizard Portable Tyromancy Deluxe and numerous other things.

You will also need to figure out how to distract the pterosaur to take the saddle. In the inventory listing you provided, you have the necessary item to distract the pterosaur.

Regarding the ointment, Mathbrush is right, he’s just got the order a bit wrong. You need to take the saddle and sell it before you can afford the ointment and everything else. Healing the pterosaur comes after you relieve it of the saddle.[/spoiler]

I think Turthalion’s final hint is your best option right now. The specific mechanism behind it is shaking the globe.

Wow, that puzzle was brutal.

I’m hoping the author reads this feedback. (turthalion, are you the author?)

I didn’t know that the snow globe was distracting to other people. There are some incidental remarks about being dazzling after shaking the globe at the start, but Crystal said “No one else can hear me,” which implied to me that the globe only disoriented me.

I had no cause to shake the globe again after the starting room, so I never saw any of the NPCs reacting to the globe. Even showing the globe to the crone doesn’t indicate that it can dazzle NPCs.

FYI we had about a half dozen people at the SF Bay Area IF meetup and none of us had any clue what to do with the pterosaur. The puzzle looked like it required the ointment to solve it.

I think we might have figured it out if we’d figured out to “ask crystal FOR help” instead of “ask crystal ABOUT help”? But even then, it wasn’t clear that we could distract the pterosaur without the ointment. And, like all NPCs, the pterosaur doesn’t care about the globe unless you’ve shaken it recently:

>show globe to pterosaur
The pterosaur does not seem terribly impressed.

Even reading craiglocke/MathBrush’s last spoiler, I thought that he was proposing an alternate way of asking Crystal for help, not a way to distract the pterosaur.

I only gave up and tried shaking the globe after revealing all of the hints in this thread, after I tried doing all of the obvious stuff to the pterosaur, to see if Crystal would provide an alternate hint when shaken.

I’m sorry I misled you with my first set of hints! I just misremembered.

Stuck again, in the vault.

EDIT: Never mind, I figured it out.

[rant][spoiler]I put the satchel in the purple box, then I go north and use the hoop to enter the vault. I have the cheese from the vault, but now I’m stuck here. The hoop is back in the main room of the Plumbers Union Building Society; the vault door is locked.

>i
You're carrying:
  a raspberry satchel (which is open)
    a MegaMountain Autoclimber Extreme
    a piece of Gorgonzola (main hall vision)
    a piece of Gruyere (laboratory vision)
    an ornate golden key
    an address label
    an airship licence
    a piece of Montagnolo (bedroom vision)
    a piece of Madagascar Green Peppercorn (laundry back room vision)
    a cheese invoice
    a piece of Ardrahan (vault antechamber vision)
    a sturdy plank
    a tarpaulin
    a piece of Brie (workshop vision)
    the Town Tattler
    a front door key
    a piece of Zamorano (Vechlee road vision)
    a Mr Wizard Portable Tyromancy Deluxe
      a piece of Y-Fenni (tower roof vision)
    a pair of slippers
    two plotkins
    a crumpled scroll
  a pair of flight boots (being worn)
  a captain's uniform (being worn)
  a cheap glass snow globe (being worn)
[/code][/spoiler]

When I use the hints, it spoils the wrong puzzle. :frowning:

[spoiler][code]
>ask crystal for help
"We should figure out how to get into Ninario's caer. Who knows what Renaldo and Yekcal are up to in there?"
 
>ask crystal for help
"We need to pick a different target for the autoclimber," says Crystal. "He's just going to keep unhooking it."
 
>ask crystal for help
"If we point the autoclimber at the guard, maybe we can yank him down from the wall!"

That sucks. I’m stuck in the vault, not trying to enter the caer.[/spoiler]

I have the distinct impression that the problem I’m having is too stupid to be considered a puzzle. :confused:[/rant]

Yes, I am the author.

I’m planning a post comp release, so I could very gently nudge

about the snow globe a bit more. I don’t want anything too obvious like Crystal warning you about the effects of shaking the globe but maybe the crone could say something about it. I can also have NPCs shrug when shown the non-shaken globe and say something about “they’re more interesting to look at when they’re shaken.” Terry could look away and text could be provided or Crystal could say something about making it more interesting for Terry.

As for the hints, I’ll check into that. They’re task based so IIRC, Crystal should only have directed you to the caer if the vault stuff was done, but it’s possible that’s messed up. I did add some scored actions late which moved the task numbers all up so maybe there’s a minor issue there. If you kept any transcripts, feel free to forward them.