Morpheus Walkthrough by Dan Kennedy

Introduction

At first glance, Morpheus
appears to be a pretty standard adventure game cast in the Myst mould.
The perspective is first-person, and the main gameplay takes place
on a deserted ship and within several empty dream worlds. There is
no inventory system, and your only interactions are with ghosts, as
in The 7th Guest. The graphics are certainly nothing to write home
about, and the puzzles rarely get above the mildly challenging level.

What sets Morpheus apart
from other games in the genre is a well-developed and thought out
plot that will likely keep you thinking about the game long after
you’ve finished it. The adult themes that are present in Morpheus,
such as controversial science experimentation, child abuse, and physical
deformity, are handled with a subtlety and thoughtfulness that is
rarely found in a computer game.

Kudos to the developer
Soap Bubble Productions who to this day maintain a web-site (www.soapbubble.com)
that allows gamers to retrieve hints and download a patch. The patch
corrects a minor freeze-up problem in one of the dream-worlds.

Into the Great White
Open

The game begins with an
extended movie setting the scene: our protagonist Matthew Holmes (MH)
has journeyed to the arctic in 1952 to solve the mystery of his father’s
disappearance some 30 years before. MH has gotten himself lost in
a blizzard, and is hiding down a crevice waiting to die. As he fades
into unconsciousness, he begins to dream about a boy named Jan who
appears to have been mistreated by a number of people – a boxer, his
mother, a teacher and another boy. As the movie ends, MH sees a vision
of an ice-bound ship – and suddenly finds himself standing on the
deck of the vessel.

The aft deck of the ship
gives you an opportunity to get familiar with the game interface.
The stand-by cursor is a ship’s wheel – press and hold the left mouse
button down, and move the mouse left or right for panning in all directions.
An arrow cursor will let you know when movement is possible in any
given direction, and a magnifying glass allows closer inspection of
an item. A yellow microphone indicates that MH has a comment about
the indicated item or direction, and a human hand cursor indicates
that an object can be manipulated in some way.

Have a look around – you
should be able to see a doorway leading into the bulkhead to your
right, but it appears to be inaccessible. Proceed forward and to the
left, and approach the life preserver hanging on the wall of the ship.
Examine this item – MH indicates that the name of the ship, "Herculania",
is the same one his father went looking for prior to his disappearance.
Talk about being in the right place at the right time!

Backing away from an object
is accomplished by clicking the "backup" arrow. After the
life preserver, pan off to the left, and proceed down the left side
of the ship. This part of the deck ends with a set of doors. Examine
the doors, and press one of the black buttons – unfortunately the
doors are sealed. Before you go back to the aft deck, have a look
at the bird’s nest to the left of the doors.

Cross over to the other
side of the ship, and confirm that the doors here are also sealed.
Examine the emergency station to the right of the doors. We’re freezing
– this must be an emergency! Click on the hammer to smash the glass
and press the red button. A distress balloon is released from the
station; unfortunately it gets caught up in the mast of the ship.
If we can get it down, we can at least examine the distress canister.

Flaring Up

Proceed back to the aft
deck. Once you round the corner, a ghostly figure appears over the
metal cargo doors in the centre of the deck – this unhappy man appears
to be hanging himself. Once the vision dissipates, go over to the
cargo doors and look around. This may be a way into the ship, but
the doors are shut tight..

Your next move should be
to the accessible stairs to the lying bridge at the back of the ship.
Standing at the top, you see two pieces of equipment to the left and
right. Click on the left equipment for a close-up. To the left we
see a flare-gun mounted on an adjustable base; to the right an adjustable
viewing screen. A large pull-down lever is located between the two
machines. The position of the view screen can be changed by clicking
and dragging the horizontal and vertical wires across the face of
the viewer. The relative position of the wires can be determined by
the position of the red lights along the base and the right side of
the screen. If the vertical wire is placed so that the base level
red light is in the 7th position from the left, and the horizontal
wire is placed so that the right-side red light is in the second position
from the bottom, the distress balloon hung up on the mast should come
into focus.

To position the flare gun,
just match up the red lights on the gun mount to those of the view
screen (base level red light 7th from left, right side red light 2nd
from bottom). Move the gun by clicking and dragging it into position.
Now pull down on the lever located between the flare gun and view
screen. The rocket will take out the balloon, and the distress canister
falls to the deck by the right-side sealed doors.

Now take a step back from
this equipment, and examine the machinery to the right. The switch
in the middle opens and closes the metal bay doors below. Pull on
this switch – the cargo doors try to open, but are somehow blocked.

Descend back down the staircase
and go down the right side of the ship to open the distress canister.
Clicking on it will play a message dated 1928 from the ship’s captain
JC Pharris. According to Pharris, the ship is trapped in the ice at
87°N latitude and 55°W longitude. He indicates that something
called the "Neurographicon" is still receiving power, and
that the interior of the ship has been sealed.

Unsealing the Freshness

Proceed back to the metal
cargo doors where the ghost appeared. Try stepping out onto the doors
themselves. AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! Scary dead guy! You come face to face
with the frozen corpse of the ghost. Step away to look at the body.
He’s left a suicide note. Examine the note – apparently John Malherbe
had no other alternative to offing himself. He mentions several names
including Jan (remember the boy from the opening dream sequence?)
and Claire, and something about condemning people to dreams in the
Neurographicon.

Try scaling up the doorway
to the deck – too steep. Examining the cargo bays in the other three
directions also reveals nothing. Have a look at the control panel
next to Malherbe’s body – the panel controls the elevated platform
that you are standing on. Pull down on the right lever to lower the
platform to the next level.

This lower lever also contains
cargo doors in three directions, and a smaller door in the fourth.
Approach the smaller door, and click on the wheel to open it. Inside
you get a view of the inside of the ship’s "engine"; it
also appears that you may have broken the seal into the ship – those
doors up on the deck may open now. Go back to the elevated platform
and examine the cargo bay to the left of the doorway. Click on the
crate with the green glow from within. Looks like something on the
ship requires radioactive fuel. Return to the platform, and pull on
the right lever to descend to the bottom level.

The bottom level of the
hold has three cargo bays, and a set of crates piled in front of the
fourth. The contents of the crates are rather exotic (flowers from
Indonesia?) One of the three cargo bays has a doorway on its right
side. Click on the wheel to open the door, and travel up the passageway
back up to the deck (remember that bulkhead doorway that was inaccessible?).

Lighten Up

As you explore the ship
further, you will see a number of ghostly visions of the passengers.
These visions help to flesh out the personalities and motivations
of the characters, and occasionally help to reveal clues or move the
story along. Since the visions are too numerous to mention, I will
only discuss them if critical to the game’s advancement.

Make your way along the
right side of the ship to the previously sealed doors, and enter the
ship’s interior. Apart from a few silhouettes of tables and decorations,
there’s not much to see in this room with the lights off. Make your
way forward to another set of doors, and go back out onto the ship’s
deck. Enter the door on your left. You will see a hooded ghost moving
off to the left ahead of you. Take one step forward, turn to your
left, and descend a staircase. You will see the faint outline of a
door in front of you. Turn around and approach the circular object
with a silver knob on top. Touch the knob – this turns out to be a
solar-powered switch for opening a huge skylight. Click on the switch
after the skylight opens for an explanation of the light source.

Now that we’ve got some
light (but no power yet), let’s do some looking around. Facing the
staircase, move off to the right, and forward several steps, until
you enter a small theatre. Turn to your right until a small projector
comes into view. Press the top button to start the film (how is this
projector powered?), and watch a newsreel about Matthew’s father and
his attempt to cross the arctic in a balloon. Once the film is done,
turn around and exit the theatre, but first examine both sides of
a postcard lying on the steps. The card was written by "Claire"
to her uncle, and speaks of Jan, the disfigured inventor of the Neurographicon
(hereafter referred to as NG, ’cause I’m lazy).

Step forward, and note
the four ornate film viewers located to the left and right of your
position. Starting on your right, approach the first viewer, and grab/pull
down one of the two handles on either side of the eye-pieces. The
first film introduces the six passengers of the Herculania – the boxer
Leo Galte (Jan’s natural father), the dancer Belle Swan (Jan’s natural
mother), Belle’s wheelchair-bound step-daughter Claire, Jan’s childhood
friend Billy Mexler, Grace Thermon (Jan’s guardian at the Goodman
Home for Boys), and Dr. John Malherbe (a Herbalist, and Jan’s personal
physician).

Keep turning to the right,
and begin the film within the second viewer. The "unseen power
source" from "beyond death" of the NG is discussed,
as well as its potential use as a regenerative tool (thus Claire’s
presence on the ship).

Continue turning to the
right, past the entrance to the theatre, and begin the film in the
third viewer. Details of the luxurious Herculania are given, including
the personalization of the ship to its passengers. The film also discusses
the relationship between the rich ship-builder JC Pharris, and his
adopted son Jan.

Begin the fourth film –
this gives a quick look at John Malherbe’s research into the power
of Indonesian flowers. The film mentions that the locals use a serum
comprised of blood, the Black Orchid, the rare Valley Orchid, and
a fourth ingredient, to tap the mysterious power beyond life.

Once the films are done,
step forward towards the strange blue doorway across from the theatre.
On closer inspection, the door is inaccessible, with a humming atomic
symbol on its surface. Back away, and turn to the left and right.
The staterooms of JC Pharris and Jan are located here. We have no
idea how to access these rooms yet, so proceed past the blue doorway
and return to the bottom of the staircase. The doorway at the bottom
of the stirs leads to a short hallway containing doors to the staterooms
of the six other passengers, as well as a large model of the ship.
The door on the other side of the hallway, like the blue one we just
examined, is currently inaccessible.

Pokin’ Around

Return to the stairway
and go up the stairs. Turn to your left, up more stairs, and turn
left again. Now proceed along the upper hallway to the large doors
at the far end of the room, have a look at Belle’s poster, and enter.
This ballroom is the large dark room that we entered previously. Turn
to your left, go up the stairs, and click on the closest viewer to
see Grace Thermon sneak a peak at someone. Go back down the stairs,
up the other staircase, and look into the closest viewer to see the
guests dancing during a costume ball (gee, what a crowd!). Back on
the ground floor, go to the right towards a set of doors on the far
wall, and pass what looks to be Claire’s wheelchair on your way across
the room.

Proceed through the doors
into the garden. How did these plants survive? Wander around the displays,
and see if you can find the exotic orchids from Malherbe’s film (black
and valley). Note the amphibian tank at the far end of the garden,
and click on the net if you can find it. It appears that Malherbe
had a strange interest in frogs. Access the shed found along the same
wall as the doors leading to the ballroom – inside you’ll find the
pumping system that’s kept the plants alive, and a map of the garden
with some chart showing some curiously descriptive words on it. We’ll
need this later!

Proceed back to the ballroom,
through the doors we came originally came in, and go towards the right
of the stairwell – there should be a doorway straight ahead. Proceed
through, and look around the Y-shaped hallway decorated with boxing
posters. Leo Galte’s poster seems to be missing. Turn around, and
note the presence of another strange blue inaccessible door – could
this be an elevator? Proceed left past the elevator, through the door,
turn to your left, and go back onto the ship’s deck.

Keep moving along the right
side of the ship – you will eventually encounter a bench with what
looks like a piece of paper on it. Click on the paper ton watch Grace
Thermon get a nasty surprise. Proceed straight ahead until this level
of the deck ends. Turn to your left, and enter the door in front of
you. You are now on the ship’s bridge.

Standing in the centre
of the bridge, and looking forward, there are five pieced of equipment
that can be examined. Starting from the left, the first is a still-rotating
radar screen. The second is the engine control levers, ominously set
at Full Dead Stop. The third is the ship’s wheel (with a quick shot
of JC at the helm). The fourth piece of equipment looks to be some
sort of radio squawking at us.

The fifth piece of equipment
is some sort of recorder. Click on it once to hear JC Pharris’ audio
ship logs. Successive log entries are played by clicking on the recorder
once the prior log entry ends. The logs trace the instability of the
NG’s performance, and Jan’s apparent deepening madness. Interestingly,
it’s the NG that is causing the ghostly apparitions that walk the
ship. Eventually Jan takes control of the ship and traps the other
passengers in the NG. With Malherbe dead, JC has no choice but to
wander off looking for the senior Holmes’ balloon expedition.

Head back out onto the
ship’s deck, and return to the crab’s bench. Now descend the staircase
directly in front of the bench, and make your way to the bow of the
ship. Click on one of the lifeboat racks to note an interesting detail.
Examine the large piece of equipment at the front of the ship – it
can be rotated, but is useless without power.

Its time to get this ship
powered up. Proceed back along the left (or right) side of the ship,
and return to the large staircase in the ship’s interior.

Power to the People

Descend the main staircase,
and turn around to the left. Proceed towards the theatre, but before
going past the blue door turn to your right and go through the doors
along the right wall (there is an identical doorway on the other side
of the elevator). Descend the stairs, and enter the bowels of the
ship. Move towards the double doors located on the far wall, and enter.

You are standing in a small
area overlooking the engine and its parts. Turn to your left, and
examine the "Solar Voltaic Circuits". Is this thing on or
off? Pull down on the lever to the left – oops, the lights went out.
Pull on the lever again to turn on the lights. Move away and examine
the "AIV Sequencer" equipment to the right. The A, I and
V refer to the Atrium, Injectors and the Ventricle, parts of the NG.
We must obviously get this working, as it appears to be without power.

Press the button on the
left, and a gondola moves towards us and stops. Get in – note that
the controls for the gondola consist of levers and buttons on the
left and right of the gondola. The levers move the gondola forward
and backward, while the buttons raise and lower installations from
below. Try hitting the button on the right – a ladder pokes up through
the gondola’s base. Proceed down the ladder, and take a stroll around
the bottom of the ship – move to your left, and make your away around
the engine room. Just before arriving back at the ladder, you will
come across a piece of paper mounted on the wall beside some gauges
and valves. Examine the paper – it looks like a "to do"
list for the engine crew.

The list mentions that
due to a guest’s complaint, the water heater temperature has been
set to 40 degrees (the checkmark indicates that this task was completed).
Another item mentions that the fountain is not displaying the correct
ratios for the heaters – this must have been fixed as well. The third
item, yet to be completed, mentions that the rocket launcher can be
aimed at the mast (lucky for us, as we found out earlier). Proceed
back to the ladder, and climb back in the gondola. Lower the ladder
away by pressing the left button.

Now to power this puppy!
Grab the handle on the very right side of the gondola, and pull it
to advance the gondola ahead one position (you can track the relative
position of the gondola using the lights displayed over the "Injectors"
label). Hit the button on the right to raise a lever mounted on a
post. Grab the lever and pull to the left until a blue light appears
above the "Atrium" label, and then press the button on the
left to lower the post.

Pull the right lever to
advance to the next position, and hit the right button to raise a
series of red thingamajigs. Press on one of the red things to activate
the light above the "Injectors" label, and press the left
button to lower the mount. Now pull the right lever – instead of advancing
the gondola one position, the gondola spins around 180 degrees. So
how do we get to the next position? Just pull the left lever – this
causes the gondola to move backward one position, getting us to the
last installation (since we turned around backwards, the only way
to move forward is to go backwards…well, take my word for it).

Hit the right button to
raise up another lever mounted on a post. Grab the lever and pull
to the left until a blue light comes on above the "Ventricle"
label, and lower the post using the left button. Now we want to get
back to our starting point. Pull on the right lever to move back one
position, and again to turn the gondola around. Now pull the left
lever twice to move the gondola back to your starting place. Have
another look at the AIV Sequencer – now the A, I, and V symbols are
all lit up a red colour. Grab the lever on the right side of the panel
and pull down. Congratulations, you’ve powered up the NG! Watch the
vision of JC and Jan fighting over whether to continue with the experiments.

Belly Up to the Bar

With the power on, we are
free to more fully explore the ship. In particular, we’ll be looking
out for the 3-digit combinations to the staterooms of the six guests.
Proceed back out the doors, and go up to the theatre-level using the
stairs to the left or right. Go over to the elevator, and click on
the doors to enter. We have a choice of four floors to visit. Its
time to head to the bar – hit floor No 1. Once the elevator stops
you are ushered out into the ship’s lounge. Turn to your right and
click on the bar for a close-up of a cigar, and Billy enjoying some
of life’s pleasures.

Keep panning to your right,
and click on the card on one of the bar tables. Apparently Belle Swan
will be accompanied by a flute, drums and oboe during her Salome performance.
Continue to pan right, and follow the arrow to the right of the elevator.
There will be a booth behind you – click on the cards on the table’s
surface to watch Billy pulling a fast one on Leo. Return to the centre
of the room, and click on the coloured panels across from the bar.
Leo dances like he’s punch-drunk (or just drunk). Proceed through
the doors located directly across from the elevator.

You are taken though a
hallway directly into the ship’s dining room. Turn to your left, and
click on the table with the cigar collection to watch Grace giving
Billy the business for smoking. After the ghosts clear off, click
on each of the 9 compartments of the cigar case to get a close up
of the cigars in each one. After viewing the cigar from the top-central
compartment, the cigars shift over to reveal a card. Pick up the business
card and examine both sides – it appears that Billy has entered the
highly respected profession of fountain sales.

Proceed through the room,
and exit by the far doorway. Another hallway whisks you to another
door – open it by pressing one of the buttons, and you’re on the ship’s
bridge again. Turn around and make your way back to the elevator.
Press the button for Level 2. The elevator opens up into the hallway
decorated with the boxing posters. Approach the spot where Leo’s poster
used to be mounted, and click on the blank space to see a confrontation
between Belle and Leo. Click on the small plaque as well to see Leo’s
weight class (Welter Weight). Since the poster is gone, we don’t know
Leo’s weight (unlike the other boxers pictured in the hallway).

Proceed through the doorway
into a gymnasium.

The Boxer and the Dancer

Go directly to the swimming
pool straight ahead, and click on it to hear a ribald conversation
between Leo and Grace – sounds like Leo still appreciates his ex-flame
Belle. Pan toward the right, and move towards the free-weights and
rowing machines. Click on a rowing machine to take it for a spin,
and then examine the barbells. Two appear to be missing – the two
10-pound barbells to be exact. Note the magnifying glass cursor above
the missing weights – click here to see Leo weighing himself. Pay
close attention to what he says.

Leo first mentions that
he is the exact same weight that he was when he knocked out Fightin’
(Ned) Flanders in the 3rd. He then picks up the 2 barbells, steps
on the scales, and promptly proclaims himself heavyweight champion
of the world (where’s Don King when you need him!). Once the movie
is over, proceed back to the doorway and click on the scale. The weight
guidelines tell us that for a heavyweight you must be 175 lbs or more.
Leo’s poster mount tells us that he fought as a welter weight – according
to the weight limits, that puts his fighting weight between 135 and
155 lbs. Since Leo is holding 20 lbs when he steps onto the scale
again, he must have weighed 155 lbs during his fighting days (as he
does now). Put another way, the only weight that lies within the welter
weight range that Leo could have combined with the 20 lb barbells
to get to the heavyweight range (which starts at 175 lbs) is 155 lbs.

Hmm, 155 lbs – could this
be Leo’s stateroom code?

Before you leave the gym,
be sure to look around the fighting ring, and have a go at the old-fashioned
fat-jiggler machine by the door. After exiting, head right past the
elevator, and go through the doors into the main staircase room. You
will get a first hand view of Leo’s hatred for dogs. For a quick diversion,
turn to your right, go out on deck, and click on the snow beyond the
ship’s railing. Apparently Leo reached his limit with Belle’s dog,
and made it walk the plank. Go back inside the way you came.

Go over to the doorway
into the ballroom, and enter. Move off to the left, and turn to your
right to look at the room’s music juke box. This is what was to supply
the music for Belle’s Seven Veils dance. Remember what instruments
were to accompany her? We got this from the bar upstairs – it was
a harp, a drum and an oboe. Click directly on the instrument labels
to scroll through the instrument choices until Belle’s musicians are
set. Now we must tell them which song to play. There are vertical
sliders located on either side of the label below the instruments
showing the name of the song. Slide the slider up or down until the
right music is selected – Salome’s Seven Veils, of course. Hit the
"Play Selection" button at the bottom of the machine, and
the music plays. Keep your clothes on, and jot down the 3-digit number
displayed in the centre – 586 – Belle’s stateroom code.

Before you leave the ballroom,
go over to Claire’s wheelchair, and click it to watch Jan’s moment
of triumph, followed by one of great despair. For a few shining moments,
Claire can walk, and Jan appears without his disfigurement. Next click
on the green jester’s hat on the floor to see the other passenger’s
reaction to the turn of events. Evidently everyone concerned has been
quite hard on Jan, particularly his father.

The Swindler and the
Prude

Now that we’ve got the
codes for Leo and Belle, we must work on Grace and Billy. Make your
way out of the ballroom, down the stairs, past the passenger staterooms
and into the baths. Recognize Billy’s fountain? Click on it to watch
Billy’s vision of the future, and Grace’s opinion of it. After the
movie, pick up Billy’s next card – he’s also into toilet sales (this
seems to flow naturally from his other job).

Turn to your left and enter
the mud room. Right away we see Billy’s next installation. Move over
to the shower in the corner and check out the room’s items. The mud
bath doesn’t look too inviting, and the personalized cabinets are
all locked. Click on the toilet to watch what seasickness (or booze)
does to Billy, and his introduction to the bidet. After he’s done,
click on the key he’s dropped in the basin, and then click on his
locker ("Mexler") to open. Billy’s got a peculiar poster
in his locker, and a most peculiar number scrawled on it. Billy either
likes his ladies meaty, or he’s written his room code on the sheet
– 386 (or both, I guess).

Exit the mud room, and
go directly into the herbal lab. We’ve got some activity in here.
Off to the right, there’s a large mechanical mixing machine stirring
up a batch of mushy flowers. Over on the bench, Malherbe’s been dissecting
frogs for some reason (recall him desperately trying to catch one
in his garden above). Over at the chair, click to watch Malherbe preparing
Grace to take some blood, in order to make-up a serum for her dream
journeys within the NG.

Turn to your left – there
is some sort of mixing machine here, with peculiar labels along the
sides. The labels should look familiar – recall the chart in Malherbe’s
garden. The doctor must be making up some of his goofy Indonesian
whack-out drink with this equipment. This machine, like the juke box
in the ballroom, seems to display a 3-digit code in the centre. Hmm…Malherbe’s
stateroom code, anyone? We’ll need to go back up to the garden to
get a little more information.

Exit the herbal lab, and
walk around the fountain to access the three doors behind. The baths
are equipped with a Frigidarium (brrr), a Tepidarium (I don’t know…well,
maybe) and a Vaporarium (now we’re talking). Press on any of the doors
to get a close-up of a small plaque. Press the button to reveal a
thermal lock. We must enter the correct temperature into all three
thermal locks to open these doors.

Now turn around and look
at the fountain. According to that sheet posted in the basement, the
heaters have all been turned up to 40 degrees, and the fountain shows
the correct ratios between the temperatures in each of the three rooms
beyond. Hitting the blue button (Frigidarium, F) will cause one spout
to run; hitting the purple button (Tepidarium, T) will cause two spouts
to run; and hitting the orange button (Vaporarium, V) will cause three
spouts to run. So the temperature ratio F:T:V is 1:2:3. Since we know
that one heater is set at 40 degrees, the temperatures will be as
follows: Frigidarium = 40 degrees, Tepidarium = 80 degrees, and Vaporarium
= 120 degrees. (Whoever said puzzles have to make any sense?).

Enter the corresponding
temperature into each thermal lock (use the dial to the right on each
lock) to open the three doors. Have a look inside the Tepidarium and
the Frigidarium, but there’s nothing much to see. Enter the Vaporarium,
and look at the towel hanging to the right of the entry door – Grace
has been here. Click on the covered bench to see some classic Grace-grouching.
Now enter the inner room. Click on any of the wall spouts to fill
the basins with hot water, and the room with steam. Click on the door
– looks like Gracie wrote something on the window with her finger
– "Psalms 24,4". Not only is this a relevant passage (clean
hands and a pure heart indeed!), its also Grace’s stateroom code.

The Good Doctor

Proceed out of the baths,
back up the stairs, through the ballroom, and into Malherbe’s garden.
Do you remember the three ingredients in his trance-inducing serum
(besides blood)? Well we had the Black Orchid, the rare Valley Orchid,
and a mysterious third ingredient. At this point you should be able
to take a shot at what this mysterious substance is (think about his
workbench, his net in the garden, and the amphibian tank). Yes, frog
guts.

Walk around the garden
and locate the positions of these three ingredients (the Black Orchid
is close to the Amphibian Tank, and the Valley Orchid is close to
one of the entry doors. One you’ve found all three, proceed into the
supply shed, look at the diagram, and come up with the three important
sounding descriptors – these should be Earth (frogs), Death (Black
Orchid) and Soul (Valley Orchid).

Make your way out of the
garden, and across the ballroom to the staircase. Take this opportunity
to go out on deck, travel all the way to the very front of the ship,
and click on that funny looking piece of equipment at the bow. We
get to see Jan ordering Malherbe to continue with the experiments,
against his father’s wishes. We may be able to confirm our stateroom
codes from the supposed list of them in Malherbe’s room. The doctor
looks less that comfortable with the entire situation.

Proceed back along the
deck, inside at the stairs, down past the staterooms and into the
herbal lab. Click on the mixing machine to the left, click on the
three correct descriptors (Soul, Death and Earth), and watch the machine
spin around. The number 411 is displayed on the machine once mixing
has finished – Malherbe’s stateroom code.

Go out of the herbal lab,
and leave the baths area. After entering the stateroom corridor, turn
to your left to face Malherbe’s stateroom. Since we know where the
doctor is (or at least where his frozen corpse is), we can start here.
Press the left button on the door to open up the digit displays, and
click on each digit to scroll through until you’ve got "411"
displayed. Click on the right button to open the door.

The only items of interest
in here are located on the table to the left. Click on the wooden
box with the leaf symbol to open it. The piece of paper shows that
the Pod Extraction Code (whatever that is) is 318. None of the containers
have serum in them – it appears that the doctor did not prepare serum
for himself. Now click on his notebook – we only get a small portion
of the stateroom code list, but its enough to give us Claire’s room
code – 324. Read through Malherbe’s diary entries dating back 16 years.
From his notes it appears that Jan has had to undergo some long and
painful treatments at the hands of a quack. Malherbe was obviously
a weak man who worried for his future, and the impact that the NG
would have on his own research.

It’s time to have a peek
inside one of the other passenger’s staterooms. Exit Malherbe’s room,
cross the hall, and enter Billy Mexler’s code (386) into the lock
on his door. After entering the room, move forward and look about
the room. Clicking on the bed gives us insight as to how Jan and Malherbe
"convinced" Billy to take part in the experiments. Click
on the bathroom door to get a glimpse of Billy’s inner sanctum – a
vomit-free toilet demonstration can be viewed by examining the toilet
in here.

The interesting stuff is
on the desk located across from the bed. Start by examining the small
printing press on the right side of the desk. Pull the right lever
down to see how Billy became an instant expert in any profession of
his choosing. Examining the desk drawer will reveal a set of rubber
letters for the press, and the garbage can to the right of the desk
contains a number of misprinted cards.

The piece of paper located
on the left edge of the desk is a copy of Mexler’s invitation to sail
on the Herculania. Click on the box located next to the printing press
to reveal the tools of the scam artist – loaded dice, a set of marked
cards, and a series of printed cards (including a ruined Honus Wagner
baseball card!). The box also contains a locket with pictures of a
heavyset woman and a pudgy boy, a toy merry-go-round, and a flyer
for a circus dated 1907. The items obviously indicated some connection
between Billy and the circus.

Now open up the other wooden
box with the spade symbol on it. The box appears similar to Malherbe’s
serum receptacle, except that one the serum bottles contains a liquid.
Pick up the red coloured serum. Notice that the stationary cursor
has changed from a ship’s wheel into a small vial containing Billy’s
serum. This change will remain until we find a way to use the serum.
But how do we do that? Well, there is one floor accessible from the
elevator that we have not visited yet. Proceed to the elevator, and
go to the Sanitorium on the fourth floor.

Sanitorium, or Sanitarium?

This place should look
familiar to you as you exit the elevator – it’s the room pictured
on the front of Claire’s postcard to her uncle found on the steps
of the theatre. Step forward, turn to your left, and click on the
mechanism to see a close-up of Billy’s customized NG equipment. Pressing
on the button on the front of the equipment gives us a glimpse of
a sleeping/dead Billy, a portion of our dream concerning Billy that
we had prior to boarding the ship, and a quick view of what appears
to be a carnival at the end of the vision.

Turn around and look at
the equipment located across from Mexler – it appears to be unused.
Now look about the room – you will see equipment set up for Belle,
Leo and Grace, as well as another set of unused equipment in the back
left corner. Belle’s vision gives us a peak at a Persian palace, while
Leo and Graces’ visions yield glimpses of a darkened street, and a
beach (respectively).

Proceed over to the contraption
located to the right of the door as you walk in the room. Another
3-digit code is necessary – could this be the Pod Extraction Code
we found in the rooms of Mexler and Malherbe? Grab and pull up/down
on each number wheel and set the digits to read 318. Pull the right
lever down, and watch the unused equipment to our left spring into
life. A pod-like structure is inserted into a hole in the floor. Watch
the vision of JC and Malherbe dealing with the apparent deaths of
the four passengers in the NG, and note the secret doorway to the
right of the pod extractor control.

Once the vision is over,
turn around and face the newly inserted pod equipment – the name label
says MALHERBE. Did Jan intend to send his physician into the same
dream-hell as the other passengers? Go back to the corner where you
saw the secret door, and click forward to enter the bowels of the
Neurographicon.

Down below, the five inserted
pods are in the same arrangement as the equipment above. Examine the
four occupied pods to get a look at the four guests – are they alive
or dead? Note the open pod located across from Mexler – click on the
pod to hear a compelling argument to get inside and use the serum.
There’s also something at the end of the row of pods. Walk up to the
structure at the far end of the row and click on it to get a chilling
vision of Jan – he must be the NG Dream-Master! Is he alive or dead?

Walk back up the row of
pods and peer ahead at the person located in the window – is it Claire
in that strange compartment? Don’t bother clicking on her form – this
will just take you back up the stairs to the Sanitorium.

Its time to enter the dream-world
of Billy Mexler – perhaps learning his inner most secrets will help
us understand the mystery of what occurred on the ship. After hearing
the narration on the pod, click to enter. After the door closes, there
are five symbols displayed. Billy’s serum symbol was the Spade, so
click on it, and be transformed into Billy’s dreams.