Nancy Drew: The Captive Curse

The monster inside the castle

Leave the shop to follow Anja and a message reports that the monster has got through the security system and is inside the castle. Hurry to the security room.

One monitor shows the monster standing by the glassworks. The rest show an empty castle. Go and look at it.

Go through the gift shop and straight on to the glassworks. Step inside and turn around: an overturned bucket of sand, and some very odd footprints. Follow the monster’s tracks up the stairs.

On the landing you run into Lukas in costume and expose his latest prank. Through the windows you see the real monster. Leave Lukas and hurry to the burgomaster’s office.

Talk to Karl about everything: he needs proof the real monster exists. Go to the banquet hall and talk to Renate about everything. Afterwards find coins on the green armchair to the left of the fireplace. Go to the gift shop, tell Anja the news, and go out to the foyer.

Talk to Lukas, who feels no guilt at all and even offers to help catch the real monster. Head for the courtyard.

The well and the labyrinth

Go to the well and look in. Take the lantern from your inventory and hang it on the well hook, then go down the arrow into the well.

Puzzle: the hexagons

To open the door into the labyrinth, arrange the hexagons so every pair of touching edges matches. Hexagons can be swapped: put the hand cursor on one, click and move it. To rotate, put the cursor on the right for clockwise or the left for anticlockwise. The top left hexagon is fixed, so start from there.

The puzzle is randomised, so there is no step-by-step solution.

Save point: well puzzle solved.

The labyrinth

Light your way with the lantern and go forward. At the blue wall is the first fork, left or right.

The author’s suggestion: wander the labyrinth yourself with the map you find later, which is far more fun than following directions. For anyone who would rather not, here is one route.

From the entrance, go five steps forward. At the fork by the blue wall turn left and go forward to the dead end with the old newspapers.

Read the notes and look at the lower columns of German word translations. Photograph them with your camera, or note them down. Pick up the coin and turn around.

Take two steps forward to the animal skull, then left along the arrow to the animal skull on chains. Take a coin from its eye.

From that skull turn left, step forward and turn right. Go forward towards the boulders and take another torn page.

Easter egg 3

From the stones turn right along the arrow. Take two steps forward and turn right again. On the wall you see a metal box set into the stone. Go to it and put Karl’s key and Anja’s key into the keyholes, then press the safe door. Take the third Easter egg.

The labyrinth, continued

From the safe go straight, left, and on to the red shield on the wall. From the shield turn right, take three steps forward and find a coin in the corner.

Go left, right, straight, and turn into the passage on the left. In the dead end, find a coin and the red scarf Renate told you about.

Turn around and go forward to the blue wall. Turn left, go straight, right, and three steps forward towards the stones. From the stones go right, then straight, with chains hanging on the wall to your right.

From the chains go straight twice, turn right and go to the red box on the wall. Take the second coded drawing from it.

From the red box go right, straight, left, straight. Move left and go straight towards more boulders. Find the active spot on the boulder and take the labyrinth map from behind the stone.

Turn around. Go straight, left, straight, right and you are back at the red box. From there go left, straight, right, straight, right, straight, with the chains on your right again. From the chains turn into the left side passage, go to the wall with the tree design and turn left towards the barrel. By the mushrooms at the wall, find five coins.

Take the crowbar and open the barrel. Inside is the fabric the monster’s costume was made from. Turn around and take two steps forward, keeping the tree on the wall to your left. Turn left along the arrow and go to the white door. Open it and you are in the forest.

The forest: the necklace and the photograph

Go left along the arrow and make two right turns. Go forward along the arrow to the large boulder and find the active spot on the ground beneath it.

Take the trowel and dig in several places. In one hollow you find a buried antique necklace.

Turn around, go left three times and one step straight. Turn around at the white labyrinth door.

Take Renate’s plan of the castle from your inventory and study it. You note aloud that Renate knew exactly where the monster would appear, and the plan clearly shows the tree it appears beside. Go there and get Karl his proof.

Important: without studying the plan again, the active spot on the boulder will not be there.

Route to the tree from the white door: left, right, left, right, forward, right, forward.

Look left along the arrow and find the tree under whose roots you found five gold coins. Settle down to wait.

Hidden, you watch the monster begin to pace past the tree. Take out the camera, set the focus where the monster’s head will show best, and press plus to zoom. When the monster is in frame, click take photo, then save it.

With the photograph saved, find the third coded message on the boulder. Return towards the white door.

You could go straight back to the castle from the boulder, but this route goes through the labyrinth to find another way out of it.

From the tree turn right along the arrow, go forward, right, then straight to the labyrinth entrance. Open the white door.

Through the labyrinth to Nancy’s room

Go straight, right, straight, keeping the tree on the wall to your right, and turn into the left passage. Go straight to the chains, then left. Go forward, turn right, go forward. Go right along the arrow, then straight, with the red box on the wall to your right. From the box turn into the left side passage, then straight, left, straight, left, straight. Turn into the left side passage, then straight, right, straight.

Move right towards the red arrow on the wall. Go up the steps, turn right along the arrow and open the door into Nancy’s room.

Returning the scarf, and the photograph

Go to the telephone and talk to Markus. Call Frank and Ned with the latest news. Leave and go to the banquet hall.

Talk to Renate about everything, returning her lost scarf and giving her a treat. Then go to the burgomaster’s office.

Talk to Karl and show him the photograph of the monster. You get a finished game card. Play cards if you want money for souvenirs. Leave and go to the gift shop, talking to Lukas in the foyer on the way.

Ask Anja about the necklace you found; it really is a genuine antique. Buy any souvenirs you still need and hurry to the security room.

Decoding the last two messages

Sit in the chair and check the monitors; all quiet. Open the decoder cover and click the bronze plate.

The drawing shows a mouse, a dragon and a unicorn: in German, Maus, Drache and Einhorn. Set the initial letters M, D and E in the three windows to the left of the rotor wheels. As before, type the text from the sheet and take the decoded tape.

Click the second sheet. Its drawing shows a bat, a castle and a knight: Fledermaus, Burg and Ritter. Set F, B and R in the three windows, type the text, and take the second decoded message.

Save point: all texts decoded.

You can clear Anja and Karl from their posts with the alarm buttons. Leave the room.

In the foyer, talk to Lukas, who has a bad feeling about all this. Then go to the glassworks.

The dungeon: the medallion

Close the left side of the furnace with the damper and open the right door. Use the tongs to lift the lever under the letter A. The dungeon door opens; go forward.

Go to the bas-relief on the wall and fit the medallion into it. Turn the medallion clockwise and the hatch in the floor opens. Now turn it anticlockwise and the door to the labyrinth swings open. Leave that door open and leave the dungeon.

Go to the landing to look more closely at the portrait of the Freiherr’s daughter. Find the portrait, look at it, and decide to find a copy of the original painting.

Hurry to the gift shop and buy the postcard reproducing the painting. Take it from your inventory and peel off the price sticker. As suspected: the original has the letters EN in the corner, perhaps the artist’s initials.

Check your task notebook. If everything is done, go out to the courtyard and fish artefacts from the well until Karl rings your mobile, or wait in the forest, or simply stand in the courtyard and wait for his call.

Lukas goes missing

Go to Karl, who reports that Lukas has suddenly disappeared. Leave and go to the foyer.

Go to the table where Lukas usually plays. You look at the marks automatically and conclude the boy was taken away by force.

Talk to Anja, who is very worried and also asks you to find him. Go through the gift shop to the glassworks.

Go to the cupboard where you found one of the coloured glass pieces and look at the floor to its left. Pick up the game token and listen to Nancy’s comment. Open the dungeon door and go in.

Go forward and look behind every door. In the far cell you find a frightened Lukas, begging for help. Click the bolt on the cell door.

Puzzle: the cell bolt

This one is played against a moving bar, so timing matters.

• Press buttons 3 and 4 to sink the first two columns of rods.
• Click the dark red bar so it starts moving right.
• Wait until the bar passes the second column of pins and nears the third, then press 2.
• Once the bar clears the third column, press 1.
• Wait for the bar to clear the fourth and fifth columns of hidden pins, then press 2.
• Once it clears the sixth column, quickly press 3 then 2.
• The bar should reach the right-hand edge.

Save point: dungeon cell bolt open.

Lukas bolts out of the dungeon and the door slams behind him. Trying to open it is useless. Turn around and head deeper in, since you left the labyrinth door open, but it does not go to plan.

The cell: the escape puzzle

You come round in the cell you just freed Lukas from. Turn right along the arrow and you see familiar symbols on the wall, the same drawings as on the postcard and the torn pages.

Puzzle: the symbol stones

Work out the order from the pages, each of which pairs a picture with letters:

• The postcard shows the necklace on the girl’s neck, with the letters EN.
• Page 11 shows a rock, letters ME.
• Page 17 shows a well, letters TK.
• Page 19 shows a shield, letters OM.
• Page 25 shows an open hatch, letter N.

Find the stone with the necklace on the wall and click it, then press the stones in the order the pages run. The letter pairs spell out the word you need next.

The stone wall slides aside, revealing another puzzle. Click it to activate.

Puzzle: ENTKOMMEN

Try to move one of the letters on the right into a cell of the polygon and you see that a letter placed in one cell immediately moves to the next cell clockwise. From the letters you have to spell ENTKOMMEN, shown on the left, which is German for “to escape”. You can start from any cell; the rule is simply that letters move clockwise into the neighbouring cell. If you go wrong, press the arrow at the top to reset.

Save point: dungeon trap open.

Leave along the arrow. The wall closes behind you and you go forward. You will have to get out through the labyrinth.

Out of the labyrinth

From the stones go left, straight, straight, right, straight, straight, straight, right, straight. From the chains go straight, straight, right, straight, right, straight to the red box. From the box turn into the left passage, then straight, left, straight, left, straight. From the stones turn left, straight, right, straight to the stairs. Go up and turn right along the arrow.

Try the locked door. Turn around, go back down the stairs and one step straight. Turn right into the side passage, then straight, right, straight. From the skull go straight, left, straight, right, straight. From the stones turn right, then straight, straight, right, straight, left, straight to the red shield. From the shield turn right, go straight, straight, and turn into the left passage.

By the foot of the stairs you see a bag that was not there before. Search it without hesitation: leaf through the book about the Castle Finster monster and read the forged letter dated tomorrow. Close the bag and go up the stairs.

The finale

The monster appears from round the corner.

Note: work out for yourself who was behind the masquerade and name them. Getting it wrong the first time costs you nothing; you always get a second chance.

Notice that the monster is standing on the hatch cover. Put the inactive cursor on the bas-relief and wait for it to turn red. The moment control briefly passes to you, quickly open your inventory, take the medallion, fit it into the bas-relief on the wall, and turn it right with the circular arrow.

Watch the closing video. Save your game, answer one of the quiz questions and look over your titles.

Wait for the credits to finish; there is something amusing at the end.

Senior Detective differences

Puzzle: matching pictures

Same task, a harder image.

Puzzle: Renate’s bag

Same principle, a tighter packing problem, and more than one valid arrangement.

Puzzle: Renate’s casket

Randomised, so no step-by-step solution. Note that on this difficulty a column can contain two of the same colour.

Puzzle: the casket of coloured glass

• Put the small blue glass one step right of the bottom right corner.
• Put the orange glass in the top right corner.
• Put the large light green glass tight against the right wall, directly under the orange.
• Put the large blue glass in the bottom right corner.
• Put the large red glass in the top left corner.
• Lay the large turquoise glass on the red, one step in from the top wall and one step in from the left wall.
• Turn the small lilac glass vertical and stand it in the bottom left corner on the small blue glass.
• Lay the small dark green glass beside the top of the large light green glass.
• Put the large violet glass one step up from the bottom left corner.
• Set the large yellow glass horizontally, three steps right of the bottom left corner.
• Set the last large violet glass vertically, two steps left of the top right corner.

Take the first rotor from the cache that opens.

Save point: first rotor received.

Puzzle: charging the cameras

Press buttons 9 and 15.

Save point: surveillance cameras on.

Puzzle: the sliding stones

Blue stone

• 7 right, 9 up, 11 up, 8 left, 3 down, 9 down, 7 left, 10 up.
• 1 and 2 right, 5 up, 8 left, 6 down.
• 2 and 7 left; 3, 9 and 6 up.
• 12, the blue stone, right into place.

Green stone

• 10 right, 11 down, 9 left, 4 up, 2 right, 3 up.
• 12, the green stone, one step right.
• 11 down, 2 left, 4 down, 5 left, 4 up.
• 6 and 7 up.
• 12, the green stone, right into place.

Red stone

• 9 right, 2 up, 3 left, 4 up, 5 down.
• 1, the red stone, right.
• 11 down, 4 down, 3 right.
• 10 and 2 down; 3, 7, 8 and 9 left.
• 1, the red stone, right into place.

Save point: grilles raised.

Easter egg: stacking the glass

Same principle as on Junior Detective, stacking into the top right corner. The rule: lay the light glass first and the dark glass on top of it.

Puzzle: the well hexagons

Randomised again, so no step-by-step solution. On this difficulty the central piece is the fixed one, so build outwards from there.