The Council: Episode One, The Mad Ones

The Council is Big Bad Wolf’s five-part narrative adventure, set in 1793 on Lord Mortimer’s private island off the English coast. Louis de Richet has come looking for his missing mother and finds himself among George Washington, Napoleon Bonaparte and a secret society. Episode One, The Mad Ones, has four parts and five different endings; this walkthrough covers all of them, every confrontation, and the collectibles.

How the game works

The Council is a conversation game. Most of it is a matter of building the right dialogue, watching the details of your surroundings, and reading the manners and behaviour of the people you are talking to so as to interpret what is happening and what is coming.

You play as one of three classes: Diplomat, Occultist or Detective. Each has skills only it is really good at, which means the same room can often be entered several ways: talk the servant round (Diplomat), pick the lock (Occultist), or find the key and unlock it (Detective). The class also opens different lines in conversation. A Diplomat is practised in verbal duelling and can see through every evasion; a Detective with Vigilance not only catches the main thought in what is said but the hidden hints as well.

Watch the length of your conversations and do not get carried away with the sparring, because it tells on the character’s mind and he can lose his grip on it easily. Every line spoken has consequences in the story, which branches a great deal and gives different endings in each episode.

Skills

You can use any skill regardless of your specialisation. Every skill is useful, but you cannot develop them all. Invest your skill points first in the main skills of your chosen class, the ones you will use constantly in conversation and in puzzles:

• Diversion, for the Diplomat: draws attention away and avoids difficult questions.
• Manipulation, for the Occultist: lets you set other characters particular tasks.
• Psychology, for the Detective: helps you understand other characters better.

Choosing a class unlocks all five of that class’s abilities at level 1. You can still use others, but they become harder to develop, since taking them to level 1 costs more action points. Buying a skill opens new dialogue lines and actions, and every new level lowers the cost of skill points.

Diplomat

• Etiquette: lets you tune your attitude and behaviour to the situation.
• Conviction: the character is better at persuading others.
• Politics: gives knowledge of geopolitics, usable in conversation.
• Diversion: lets you avoid answering questions and distract people.
• Linguistics: the character understands texts and speech in other languages.

Occultist

• Science: the character knows modern science and medicine.
• Occultism: broadens knowledge of religion and mysticism, and lets you read texts in ancient languages.
• Manipulation: makes other characters carry out particular tasks.
• Erudition: increases the character’s general knowledge.
• Subterfuge: lets you steal items, open locks and spot forged documents.

Detective

• Questioning: the character notices peculiar behaviour in others.
• Vigilance: the character notices important details and strange elements.
• Psychology: helps you understand others better.
• Logic: increases the character’s powers of reasoning.
• Agility: increases physical ability, useful wherever force is needed.

Items

Useful items are scattered all over the game, in chests, cupboards and boxes. Some lie in the open, some take ingenuity to get hold of. Everything you can pick up is marked with a small orb of light. Some items relate to goals, characters or secrets; others have special properties. The four below can be used at any moment, but are most valuable during a verbal confrontation:

• Mead restores 2 effort points, which is what activating any ability costs. Press and hold 1.
• Golden Elixir removes negative states such as fatigue. Press and hold 2.
• Tribulus shows the strengths and weaknesses of the person you are currently talking to. Press and hold 3.
• Carmelite Water is free to use, costing no skill points. Press and hold 4.

Amber shards are also found around the locations, and they permanently increase your effort points. They show in the inventory as a rectangle with four lit sides; four shards make one action point.

Be careful and stay attentive. Many secrets open without using any ability at all: you simply have to listen to the characters and read the books and notes you come across. Every answer matters in conversation, so picking lines without thinking about what you are doing will lose you important information. The right abilities help in dialogue, but the effort points needed to activate them run out fast.

New mechanisms come with detailed information when they first appear, and you can read it again later from the game menu.

Coins are hidden all over the island and are purely collectible. Their locations are given below.

Prologue

The prologue is a film you take no part in, apart from one important decision at the end of it.

Paris, France, 10 December 1792

A man named von Borchert has chained Sarah de Richet and her son Louis to chairs and is preparing a chemical solution that dissolves flesh, to make them tell him where the book Al Azif is, which he claims they stole. Because von Borchert’s attention keeps going back to his reagents, Louis manages to get his cuffs open. He tells his mother, then frees her, and she asks him to call von Borchert over so she can deal with him. Louis puts conditions to von Borchert and holds his attention.

• An important choice: “Act yourself” or “Trust your mother”.

Trust your mother unlocks the trait Trusting. Sarah jumps up, snatches the pistol lying on the table and covers von Borchert while Louis hits him over the head with the chair. Sarah plans to question him on her return and refuses Louis’s request to come with her. They leave the room.

Act yourself unlocks the trait Independent. Louis jumps up and strikes von Borchert, but von Borchert manages to cut him with a knife and shove him onto the table. Louis grabs the pistol lying there and kills him. The scar stays on Louis’s face.

A month later, 21 January 1793, Lord Mortimer’s island, off the coast of England

Louis arrives on the island having received a letter from Lord Mortimer about his mother’s disappearance.

What is coming

At the end of part one Louis has a choice that matters later. In his room he decides what to do with the letter he was given by Cardinal Piaggi: open it or leave it sealed. With Subterfuge there is a third option, opening it without disturbing the seal. Without that skill, opening it causes trouble: at the end of part two the cardinal asks Louis to lend him the letter so he can add a name to the list, and an opened letter makes Piaggi distrust him, which has consequences of its own.

Part one: off the coast of England

Having accidentally overheard a conversation between His Eminence Cardinal Giuseppe Piaggi and Duchess Emily Hillsborrow, Louis tells himself he already dislikes the place, and he has only just arrived.

The cardinal asks what business brings Louis here:

• ”A conversation with Lord Mortimer”
• ”Personal circumstances”

He asks whether this is Louis’s first visit:

• ”Tell the truth”
• ”Ask the duchess the same question”

A few steps after the departing guests, Louis clutches his head as a savage pain goes through it. He sits down on a bench and blacks out.

He has a vision of his mother, her face bloodied and her left arm ending in a stump. She is talking to the duchess, into whose body Louis finds himself moved, then out again and back into himself. Then, over Louis’s protests, she points a pistol at her, or at him, and pulls the trigger.

Louis comes round, feeling himself over. His nose is bleeding. He looks up in surprise at Emily, bending over him, and she offers him a handkerchief. Louis asks her to go on and promises to catch up.

You get a new item, EMILY’S HANDKERCHIEF, and two new characters are opened, Giuseppe Piaggi and Emily Hillsborrow.

Follow Emily. Louis catches up with the duchess, and she asks him what he has decided to become, implying they have discussed it before.

• An important choice: answer that you want to be a DIPLOMAT, an OCCULTIST or a DETECTIVE.

Choosing your class and skills

Read the specialisations over, then choose one and click the picture with its name. Each class has its own skills, described in the tooltip that opens when you hover over a skill icon.

You have three skill points to spend as you like. You can spread them across three of your class’s skills, add them to the class’s main skill, add them to another class’s skill (Vigilance for a Detective build, say) or hold them back.

When you are done, press and hold the space key. You are then told which class trait you have taken, and given the item that belongs to it:

• The Laws of Gallantry, for the Diplomat.
• Archidoxes of Magic, for the Occultist.
• The Art of Knowing Men by Physiognomy, for the Detective.

Goal: go up to the mansion

The jetty

Louis tells Emily about his work, and the account differs depending on your specialisation. Emily insists they have met before.

• ”Try to deceive her”
• ”Say honestly that you have not”

The first option opens a further choice:

• ”Suggest it was in Paris”
• ”Talk her round”, needing Diversion
• ”Feign offence”, needing Manipulation

Emily sets off for the mansion.

The first opportunity

Click quickly on the two active points, on her face and her neck. Louis draws a conclusion.

These active points appear throughout the game and you have only a limited time to catch them. If the character does not currently have the skill required, the mechanism does not trigger at all. It is worth opening the menu and going carefully through your items and information as you collect them.

Follow Emily. Go up to the masked servant standing at the foot of the stairs.

• ”Where is Lord Mortimer?”
• ”What do you know about my mother?”

Then:

• ”Are there any witnesses?”
• ”Did you find anything?”, needing Questioning

The servant says that while they were searching for Louis’s mother her handkerchief was found, and that he has been told to hand it to Lord Mortimer. There are four ways to get it off him:

• ”Give the handkerchief to me, I will deal with it”, needing Logic
• ”Hand over the handkerchief”, needing Conviction
• ”Please give the handkerchief to me”, needing Manipulation
• ”Splendid”, needing no skill

Pick the one that suits your specialisation and you get the MOTHER’S HANDKERCHIEF. The goal is set aside for now.

Goal: find the clues your mother left

Go back to the pier and up to the letter box.

• ”Find the lead”, needing Logic
• ”Look through the letters one at a time”
• ”Step away”

With the first option, Louis finds and reads a letter from his mother addressed to him and encrypted as an anagram.

With the second, take the letters in turn. Reading the letter with the ideograms needs Linguistics; the rest Louis looks over and puts back. Choose “Look at the remaining letters”.

The letter beginning “To His Holiness…” opens:

• ”I know that name”, needing Occultism
• ”I do not know that name”

The letter to Rémi Sileur Dochois opens:

• ”Think about the name”, needing Occultism
• ”Check the addressee’s address”, needing Etiquette
• ”Put the letter down”

Louis reads his mother’s letter and thinks about the name of the addressee, Manuel Godoy:

• ”I remember!”, needing Politics, and Louis remembers who Godoy is
• ”I cannot remember”, after which Louis decides he has questions for his mother

You get the item SARAH DE RICHET’S LETTER, and the goal is done.

Goal: keep looking for clues, or go up to the mansion

Search the jetty and collect the items marked with glowing orbs.

• COLLECTIBLE COINS: two can be found on the jetty.
• MEAD (three)
• AMBER SHARDS
• IRON BAR

Clue 1

Stand facing the stairs up to the mansion and move right. Find the active point at the edge of the jetty; Louis bends over a broken plank.

• ”Examine”
• ”Think about where it came from”, needing Vigilance
• ”Step away”

Find the second active point, to the right of the first. Louis looks at a plank unlike the others.

• ”Examine”
• ”Tear the plank up”, needing Agility
• ”Use the iron bar”
• ”Step away”

Louis prises the plank up with the BAR and finds his mother’s hiding place, taking away a book he knows, Secrets of the Universe.

You get SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE. Look at the items in turn. Decide whether to take or leave the RUSTY KEY, and whether to step away or take the bag.

Clues 2 and 3

Go up to the metal grille:

• ”Open the gate”
• ”Step away”

Choosing to open it:

• ”Pick the lock”, needing Subterfuge, difficulty 3
• ”Use the iron bar”
• ”Step away”

Inside are MEAD and AMBER SHARDS.

Examine the case with the pistol missing from it, which is clue 2. Examine the broken barrel, clue 3, in which Louis finds gunpowder. With Science, examine the cannon powder and Louis draws his conclusions. The goal is done.

Goal: go up to the mansion

Approach the stairs and look at the inscription set into the floor. The Occultist gets a “Translate” option on the right, the Diplomat one on the left. Go up the stairs into the mansion.

The hall

His Eminence Cardinal Giuseppe Piaggi comes over as Louis enters. He says he has a letter he promised to hand to Louis’s mother, Sarah de Richet, in person. Louis decides to get hold of it.

A confrontation has three preliminary stages, a final stage, and the winning of the other person’s trust. Symbols on screen show you how convincing your arguments are. The lines below carry the preliminary stages.

Goal: convince Piaggi to trust you with the letter

Stage 1. “Is Louis’s mother not already here?” — “Yes, she has been here a while.”

Stage 2. “What is it Louis and his mother do?” — “It is a professional secret”, no skill needed.

Stage 3. “Is Louis to be trusted?” — “You can rely on me”, no skill needed.

The final stage has to be won with the right line. It repeats until you get it right or until you have made the maximum number of mistakes.

Stage 4. “Will you swear before God that nobody will read it…” — “Yes, of course”, on a timer, no skill needed.

The cardinal hands over the envelope, and you get the PIAGGI LETTER.

Goal: join the company by the fireplace

Items in the hall: TRIBULUS on the side table, and Parallel Lives on the table in front of the fireplace.

Join the group at the fire. Emily introduces Cardinal Piaggi to George Washington, and Louis says he is delighted to meet the president of the United States of America.

Washington asks what Louis was discussing with the cardinal. The choice is timed:

• ”About my mother”
• ”About a letter”
• ”About the remarkable front door”, needing Etiquette
• ”Let us change the subject”, needing Diversion

He asks the reason for Louis’s visit, also timed:

• ”Say that she has disappeared”
• ”Invent a reason”

Washington asks Louis for a minute to talk about his mother, Sarah.

Opportunity: click quickly on the active point on Washington’s chest. Louis sees the mark of the Grand Master of the Golden Order there, and suspects Washington knows everything about his mother.

A man in a wig appears on the balcony and says that Lord Mortimer will not be able to join his guests this evening.

• ”Ask about the man”
• ”Say nothing”

Asking tells Louis that this is Mr. Gregory Holm, an influential English aristocrat.

Holm comes down and invites the company into the small drawing room, where refreshments have been served. George Washington says he is not hungry, and Emily Hillsborrow stays with him.

• An important choice: “Stay with Washington” or “Talk to Holm”.

Branch I, choice 1: stay with Washington

Goal: find out about your mother

Washington, Emily and Louis stay by the fire. Washington offers to answer Louis’s questions:

• ”What do you know about this Mortimer?”
• ”How does Emily know my mother?”

To Washington:

• ”How do you know her?”
• ”When did you last see her?”

On what they discussed when they met:

• ”Politics?”, needing Politics
• ”The secrets that surround you?”
• ”The Golden Order?”

The goal is done, and the conversation goes on. On Washington’s claim that Mortimer is busy searching for Louis’s mother:

• ”Do you think the Order knows?”
• ”What if my mother sailed off the island?”

Learning that neither Emily nor George knew Sarah was supposed to be on the island, decide, on a timer:

• ”Show the book found on the jetty”, which gives the trait Inquisitive
• ”Say nothing about the book”

Branch I, choice 2: talk to Holm

Louis excuses himself to Washington and Emily and goes to the small drawing room.

The small drawing room

The cardinal and the aristocrat sit down at the table to eat. Louis stays standing, and notices a young woman in the room, by the fireplace.

Opportunity, needing Politics: click quickly on the active points on Holm’s figure. Louis reflects on what he has heard.

Holm invites him to sit down.

• ”What do you know about this business?”
• ”Are you acquainted with my mother?”

Louis asks leave for one last question:

• ”Why did my mother come here?”
• ”What does Hillsborrow have to do with my mother?”
• ”Who might have borne my mother a grudge?”
• ”Has anyone else disappeared here?”

The woman by the fire is taken ill and drops the cup she is holding.

• ”Take charge”, which gives the trait Courteous
• ”Do not get involved”

Taking charge:

• ”Make a quick examination”, needing Science
• ”Notice a strange detail”, needing Occultism
• ”Ask them to stand back”
• ”Examine the young lady”, needing Vigilance

Louis turns to Holm for an explanation:

• ”Who is she?”
• ”What is wrong with her?”
• ”And what are you doing here?”

Louis learns her name is Elizabeth Adams and that she suffers from a mental disorder.

Opportunity, needing Vigilance: click quickly on the pendant at Elizabeth’s throat.

She heads for her room. The cardinal speaks to Louis in Latin.

Opportunity, needing Linguistics: click quickly on the active point on the cardinal’s lips.

The hall, both branches

Everyone gathers in the hall again, watching the balcony where a servant is walking Elizabeth to her room on his arm. To draw attention away, Emily starts talking about how luxurious the hall is. Louis studies her face.

Opportunity, needing Vigilance: click quickly on the active point on the countess’s face. Louis realises Emily is lying. If you took the second branch, he begins to regret not having stayed by the fire with them.

Holm talks about the several magnificent specimens on show here.

Opportunity, needing Erudition: click quickly on the active point on the painting on the left. Holm explains that the painting which caught Louis’s eye was done by Lord Mortimer himself.

George Washington asks about the woman who crossed the balcony.

Opportunity, needing Psychology: click quickly on the active point on Washington’s face. Louis notices how his face changes at Elizabeth’s name.

Talking about Mrs. Adams, Holm asks the company to make allowances for her.

Opportunity, needing Questioning: click quickly on the active point on Holm’s face. Louis sees that Washington is surprised and that Holm apparently does not notice, which is odd.

Following the masked servant, everyone goes up to the first floor and off to their bedrooms.

Goal: go to your room

Before going to Louis’s room it is worth searching the floor for items and coins.

The first floor

Items, found by examining every spot in the corridor:

• ENCYCLOPAEDIA PAGES (1 of 3)
• GOLDEN ELIXIR
• Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour
• TRIBULUS
• MEAD (two)

Louis’s room

Louis takes the cardinal’s envelope out of his pocket.

• ”Open the letter”
• ”Do not open the letter”
• ”Open the letter without disturbing the seal”, needing Subterfuge

Goal: go to bed

Items in the room:

• CARMELITE WATER on the side table on the right.
• GOLDEN ELIXIR, needing Subterfuge to break into the casket.
• TRIBULUS, needing Agility to get down the book on the shelf it is inside.
• COLLECTIBLE COIN on the floor by the table in the middle of the room.

Go out onto the balcony. Items there:

• CARMELITE WATER on the table.
• MEAD on the same table.
• COLLECTIBLE COINS: one on the table at the far right end, one on the sofa beside it.

Go through to the bedroom and Louis goes to bed. The first part is summed up.

What is coming in part two

An event follows on from what you did earlier: Cardinal Piaggi asks Louis to lend him the letter so he can add another name to the list. Two options are offered:

• ”Hand over the letter”
• ”Lie”

The first is fine if you decided in part one not to open the envelope, or opened it unnoticed with Subterfuge. If the envelope was opened, the second is better, but it needs Diversion. Handing the cardinal an opened letter costs Louis his trust, which may have consequences later.

Part two also holds the second branch in the story:

• Help George Washington, who asks Louis to distract Elizabeth Adams for a while so he can search her room.
• Check your vision, going to the room Louis saw in his dream to work out what it meant.

Helping the president leads to a further dilemma when Louis witnesses Jacques Peru’s violence against Elizabeth Adams:

• ”Do not get involved”
• ”Step in, at the risk of losing Adams”

Not getting involved puts two marks in the Failures column when the day is summed up, “I did not save Lady Adams from a beating” and “I did not pick up Lady Adams’s talisman”, and leaves three story branches unseen, all three tied to taking the first option rather than the second.

Stepping in also puts two marks in Failures: “I could not detain Lady Adams”, which automatically brings on “I could have learned more about my mother’s past”, because Elizabeth startles George Washington and he cannot finish reading the papers in her room. Accordingly the Story branches column shows four lines, the three from the first option plus “I could have talked to Mr. Washington about my mother”.

Choosing Check your vision leaves the Failures column empty, and the Story branches column shows the three lines tied to the second option rather than the first. Bear in mind, though, Washington’s remark that Louis should not expect help from him in future either.

Part two: a walk at night

Louis dreams that he watches Holm and a man with grey side whiskers playing chess and talking about Sarah de Richet. The man says her son has been put in the same room Sarah lived in before she vanished. A young French officer comes in, and Gregory Holm leaves.

A new character is opened, Napoleon Bonaparte.

Louis follows Gregory Holm, who stops in the corridor to exchange a few words with George Washington. On parting, the aristocrat advises the president to take an infusion of mint, lime blossom and valerian root, a sure remedy for insomnia.

Louis wakes to a knock at the door.

Louis’s room

Items:

• A note from Lord Mortimer, on the table by the wall.
• KEY WITH A RING, on the table next to the note.
• MEAD on the table at the foot of the bed.
• TRIBULUS on the chest of drawers, under the painting.
• COLLECTIBLE COIN on the floor, to the right of the balcony door.

Goal: open the door

Go to the door and open it. George Washington comes in.

Asked whether he has disturbed you, on a timer: “Yes” or “No”.

Washington asks about the woman they saw on the balcony: “No” or “Yes”.

He explains that she is the daughter of his vice-president, John Adams, and that until now he believed her dead, having been at her funeral. He wants Louis’s help in making sure it really is Elizabeth, and asks him to distract her while he searches her room.

• An important choice: “Help George Washington” or “Check your vision”.

Branch II, choice 1: help George Washington

Goal: find Adams in the small drawing room

Go down to the hall on the ground floor and through to the small drawing room. Items in the hall:

• GOLDEN ELIXIR on the table in front of the fireplace.
• COLLECTIBLE COIN on the floor, at the corner of the rug nearest the fire on the right.

By the drawing room door Louis sees the cardinal trying to listen in. Spotting Louis, the cardinal asks him to help Mrs. Adams, because he has heard somebody beating her.

• ”On my way”
• ”That sounds dangerous”
• ”Why me?”

Louis goes in and finds Mrs. Adams with a large man, Jacques Peru, who is berating her about something. Mrs. Adams is begging to be allowed back to her room.

Goal: do not let Adams return to her room

The goal as written is achieved by staying out of the argument between Jacques Peru and Elizabeth Adams. There is an alternative that changes what comes later. The choice is timed:

• “Do not get involved”
• “Step in, at the risk of losing Adams”

If you do not get involved

This unlocks the trait Immoral. The brute shoves the woman onto the sofa.

• ”Insult him”
• ”Remind him where he is”
• ”Do not make things worse”
• ”Stay out of it”

Jacques Peru leaves the room with a threat to Louis.

• ”Comfort Elizabeth”, needing Manipulation, difficulty 2
• ”Do not react”, after which Louis follows Peru out

The goal is done, and Jacques Peru is opened as a character.

In the hall Louis finds George Washington by the fire. Washington says that Louis’s mother Sarah was Elizabeth Adams’s doctor for years, and behaved towards her less like a doctor than a butcher.

• ”Defend your mother’s honour”
• ”Let Washington explain”

Letting him explain, George describes how Sarah treated his friend’s daughter, torturing her.

• ”Yes, if duty demanded it”
• ”No”

Washington describes the terrible things Sarah did to the child.

• ”Refuse to believe Washington”
• ”Accept Washington’s version”

Louis asks to be left alone.

If you step in

This unlocks the trait Nobility. Louis grabs Jacques by the shoulder and stops him. Elizabeth uses the moment to run, dropping her pendant in her haste; it lands on the drawing room rug. The goal is not achieved.

Goal: avoid a quarrel

Win the confrontation with Jacques Peru.

Stage 1. “What is stopping me from knocking you out…?”

• ”Intimidate him”, needing Conviction, difficulty 3
• ”Remind him where he is”, needing no skill

Stage 2. “Do not tell me…” — “Calm him with a wise word”, no skill needed.

Stage 3. As Jacques levels his pistol at Louis, our hero is thrown into confusion and a red circle appears in the left corner. Press 2 to take a GOLDEN ELIXIR and put him right.

“Now we will see what you are worth”:

• ”Doubt that he has the nerve”, needing Vigilance, difficulty 2
• ”Frighten him”, needing Manipulation, difficulty 2
• ”Beg for mercy”, needing no skill

Peru leaves the drawing room grumbling. The goal is done and Jacques Peru is opened as a character.

Goal: leave the small drawing room

Items in the room:

• ELIZABETH ADAMS’S TALISMAN, on the rug where she dropped it. Choose to remember what the object is.
• ENCYCLOPAEDIA PAGE, on the stand under the bookcase. Several pages have to be collected before they count as a manuscript.
• GOLDEN ELIXIR (three), in a locked casket patterned with five circles, on the bookcase stand in the left corner. It opens with a key you have to find, or by picking it with Subterfuge, difficulty 2.

Leave the drawing room. In the hall Louis finds George Washington at the fireplace. Washington is annoyed, because Adams nearly caught him in her room. All he found was confirmation that the woman really is Elizabeth Adams, and he needs to know more.

Goal: return to your bed

Go up to the first floor and towards Louis’s room. In the corridor Louis runs into Cardinal Piaggi, who asks for the letter back so he can add another name to the list.

• ”Hand over the letter”
• ”Lie”, needing Diversion, difficulty 2

The cardinal steps away for a minute and gives the letter back on his return. Go back to your room.

Branch II, choice 2: check your vision

Goal: follow the people from the vision

Go to Napoleon’s room. In the corridor, head for the door of Napoleon Bonaparte’s room and you find a servant by it.

• ”Question the servant”
• ”Give the servant an errand”
• ”Feign haste”
• ”Frighten him”, needing Manipulation, difficulty 5
• ”Step away”

For the errand:

• ”Mint, lime blossom and valerian root”
• ”I will remember in a moment”, needing Vigilance, difficulty 3
• ”Are you testing me?”, needing no skill

The servant goes off to brew the tea and Louis goes into the room and decides to lie low. The goal is set aside.

There are in fact three ways onto the balcony to overhear Napoleon. The first is the conversation with the servant. The second is through Jacques Peru’s room, where you have to break the balcony door open, needing Agility. The third is through Emily’s room, where you have to find the key. If you go in through Napoleon’s or Emily’s room you cannot get out again afterwards; from Peru’s room you can. And if you do go through Emily’s room, do not stare at her sleeping and do not steal her origami.

Goal: find a way to watch what is happening in the next room

Items in Napoleon Bonaparte’s room:

• TRIBULUS on the small table in the left corner.
• The Prince, on the bookshelf on the left.
• MEAD, inside a book on the upper shelf on the right, needing Agility, difficulty 1.
• CARMELITE WATER, on the table behind the desk, needing Vigilance, difficulty 1.
• A note on the desk, which reveals Resilience.

Go out onto the balcony. The goal is done and the trait Cunning is unlocked.

Goal: follow the people from the vision, continued

Louis creeps to the door of the next room and listens to Napoleon talking to the man with the grey side whiskers. He learns of a deal his mother made that he knew nothing about, and is surprised to hear that he himself is being counted on to find where she is. He recognises the man as Lord Mortimer. A crow takes off and draws the two men’s attention, and Napoleon steps onto the balcony.

Opportunity, needing Agility: click quickly on the active point on the left. Louis presses himself to the wall.

Mortimer suggests to Napoleon, once he is back from the door, that he discuss the financial deal for the cannon with Louis. The goal is done; without Agility the opportunity is missed and the goal does not register.

Louis opens the door of the nearest room and finds himself in the duchess’s, where she creeps up behind him and puts a blade to his throat.

Goal: convince Hillsborrow you are innocent

Stage 1. “Explain why you are here.”

• ”Assure her of your innocence”, no skill needed
• ”Try to calm her”, needing Manipulation, difficulty 2

Stage 2. “What are you doing in my room?”

• ”Calm her”, needing Psychology, difficulty 4
• ”Invent an excuse”, no skill needed

Stage 3. “What were you doing on the balcony?”

• ”Tell her about the young officer from the vision”, needing Vigilance, difficulty 3
• ”Show concern”, no skill needed

Stage 4. “Is the Golden Order mixed up in this?”

• ”Tell her about your mother”, needing Manipulation, difficulty 2
• ”Share the information”, no skill needed

Emily Hillsborrow lets Louis go.

Goal: return to bed

Head for Louis’s room. In the corridor he runs into Cardinal Piaggi, who asks for the letter back so he can add another name to the list.

• “Hand over the letter”
• “Lie”, needing Diversion, difficulty 2

The cardinal steps away for a minute and gives the letter back. Return to your room, and the day is summed up.

Part three: wine and cannon

A straightforward part: one puzzle and two confrontations, with no branches or turns in the story.

Waking, Louis remembers that in the dream they said he had been put in the room his mother used to occupy.

Goal: find the clues your mother left

Search the room and find the book with writing in it.

Louis’s room

Items:

• MEAD, in the locked casket on the table in the room.
• AMBER SHARDS, in the locked casket.

Things to work with:

• Writing materials on the desk in the corner, needing Vigilance, difficulty 2. Examining the quill, Louis notices it has never been dipped in ink and smells of lemon.
• The note “Personal effects…”, in the casket on the table in the room next to the bedroom. Opening the casket needs the KEY or the option to break in.

Note the scratches on the floor. Examine the bookshelves and find the book A Voyage Round the World. Louis studies it for a clue and notices a pale, barely visible mark of the Order.

• ”Examine the book with the symbol”, needing Vigilance, difficulty 2
• ”Step away”

With the first option Louis concludes that the notes were made in invisible ink. With the second, go out onto the balcony and look at the lemon tree, and he reaches the same conclusion.

Goal: find something to bring the message out

Take the burning candle from the table in the bedroom and heat the page with it. Louis reads the note:

Where all eyes measure you, the gorgon must be passed.

He also notices a postscript: “Be careful, hero. The monster always attacks the least protected, and therein lies its weakness.”

You get the item PAGE FROM BOUGAINVILLE’S BOOK, and the trait Initiated is unlocked.

There is another way to read the text: take ash from the fireplace and sprinkle it on the page. Part of the text is lost that way.

There is a knock at the door. A servant says lunch is served in the red drawing room. Louis tries to decline, but the servant says Mr. Holm insists on his presence.

Goal: go down to the red drawing room on the ground floor

Leave your room. Louis remarks that he could look into the other guests’ rooms for a moment.

Getting into Napoleon Bonaparte’s room needs Subterfuge, difficulty 2.

Napoleon Bonaparte’s room

• GOLDEN ELIXIR on the chest of drawers in the bedroom.
• A note from Lord Mortimer, on the trunk in the corner.
• AMBER on the mantelpiece.
• COLLECTIBLE COINS on the chest of drawers in the corner to the right of the door, and on the floor in the corner of the room.

The first-floor corridor

• KEY WITH A HALF-RING on one of the sofas.
• ENCYCLOPAEDIA PAGE
• TRIBULUS

Elizabeth Adams’s room

Louis stops at her door, and inside is struck by the disorder.

• A note from Elizabeth’s father, John Adams, on the trunks in the corner to the right of the entrance.
• CARMELITE WATER on the floor, by the wall on the right.
• COLLECTIBLE COIN on the floor beside the water.
• The book Elizabeth, in the bath beside the desk in the far right corner.
• Two notes from Elizabeth’s sister Abigail, on the desk, and a third on the floor behind it.
• MEAD on the chest of drawers in front of the mirror.
• TRIBULUS on the writing desk, to the left of the chest with the mirror.

An active point on the chest of drawers in front of the mirror: Louis looks at a small box filled with white crystals.

• ”Taste the crystals”, no skill needed
• ”Examine the crystals”, needing Science, difficulty 1

Louis identifies them as magnesium crystals, which help settle anxiety.

An active point on the floor, in the near left corner from the entrance: Louis bends over a locked casket with a semicircle on it.

• ”Open with a key”
• ”Break in”, needing Agility, difficulty 1

Inside are AMBER SHARDS and a GOLDEN ELIXIR.

Louis looks at a note from the casket, written in an unsteady hand.

• ”Study the notes”, needing Occultism, difficulty 1
• ”Study the notes”, needing Science, difficulty 1
• ”Take the notes”

With either of the first two options Louis reads the text, which resembles the description of a rite of exorcism.

You get the item MYSTERIOUS NOTES.

Having looked her room over, head for the stairs and down to the hall.

Elizabeth on the stairs

Mrs. Adams calls out to Louis on the staircase.

• ”Remind her that she was taken ill in the drawing room”
• ”Ask about her eye”
• ”Say nothing”

If you stepped in earlier and protected Elizabeth, she demands her talisman back, and you choose whether to return it.

Elizabeth asks what Louis is doing here.

• ”Ask why she is interested”
• ”Admit that your mother has disappeared”
• ”Change the subject”

Elizabeth says she knows Louis’s mother well.

• ”Say that you know” (greyed out)
• ”Press her”

Mrs. Adams describes Sarah’s behaviour, and Louis notices the woman getting more and more worked up.

Opportunity, needing Questioning: click quickly on the scar on Elizabeth’s head.

Louis does not want to believe what she says about his mother, and notes that he is finding it harder and harder to argue with her. He stops her as she tries to leave, to find out what Sarah did to her.

Confrontation. Goal: convince Adams to trust you

Stage 1. “Why rub salt in the wound?” — “Get at the truth”, no skill needed.

Stage 2. “Somebody must love you, surely?” — “Mention her sister”.

Elizabeth admits Abigail is dear to her, and is willing to say how she came to meet Sarah de Richet.

Louis hears her out. The poor woman came in the hope of help from Lord Mortimer’s specialist in the occult, and learned to her horror that Sarah de Richet had also been invited. Saying she knows her days are numbered, Mrs. Adams leaves.

The manuscript

Go to the servant standing on the left and talk to him about everything, to get information about Lord Mortimer’s estate. Choosing the line “I want to read the manuscript”, persuade him to hand the book over, using “I quite forgot, that is my own book”, which needs Manipulation, difficulty 3.

You get The Sorrows of Young Werther. Head for the red drawing room.

The dining room

Louis takes his place at the table after the other guests, between George Washington and Duchess Hillsborrow. Everyone listens to Gregory Holm introducing the company to one another. The man with the grey moustache is Johann Christoph von Wöllner, minister for religious affairs to Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia. Louis has met the rest. Lord Mortimer is again absent.

Louis wonders what Mortimer is up to: he invited Louis to the island and sent nobody to meet him.

Opportunity, needing Etiquette: click quickly on the active point on Jacques Peru’s face. Louis notices how ill at ease he is in Napoleon Bonaparte’s presence.

Louis notices that Wöllner and Piaggi get on well.

Opportunity, needing Occultism: click quickly on the active point on Wöllner’s face. Louis is surprised that Wöllner has banned religious rites in Prussia, and notes how Piaggi fawns on the minister.

Duchess Hillsborrow and Minister Wöllner talk about the French Revolution.

Opportunity, needing Politics: click quickly on one of the two active points on screen.

The duchess turns to Holm and talks about wine. Gregory speaks about the orphanage in Bloomsbury, and Emily thanks him for looking after the girls kept there.

Opportunity, needing Psychology: click quickly on the active point on the duchess’s face. Louis is surprised how moved she looks at the mention of the orphanage.

Wöllner asks Emily whether all is well with her, and she thanks him.

• ”Ask Washington what he thinks of Wöllner”
• ”Ask Emily what she thinks of Wöllner”
• ”Introduce yourself to Wöllner”

Washington says Wöllner is considered the king of Prussia and advises Louis to beware his iron grip. Emily says Wöllner is highly dangerous, because she used to work with him.

Introducing yourself, Wöllner asks about your nobility:

• ”Not a noble, but not a commoner either”
• ”Despite the name, I am a plain commoner”, needing Etiquette, difficulty 1
• ”And you?”, needing Diversion, difficulty 1

Washington asks Louis about Napoleon:

• ”Let Emily answer”
• ”Say that he decides nothing”
• ”Offer a guess”, needing Logic, difficulty 1

Napoleon Bonaparte comes over and asks for a couple of minutes, and the two of them go out onto the balcony. Napoleon says Mortimer advised him to discuss the supply question with Louis rather than his mother, to which Louis replies that he has not yet met the lord and is not ready to help.

Confrontation. Goal: prove your competence to Napoleon

Stage 1. “Under the agreement I am to be lent 50,000 louis d’or…” — “You are deceiving me”, no skill needed.

Stage 2. “What must France do to recover her strength?”

• “We must restore the monarchy”, no skill needed
• “France needs a leader”, needing Manipulation, difficulty 3

Napoleon gives Louis a book, and you get Reflections on the Revolution in France.

Louis and Napoleon go back to the table, where George Washington is making a speech. Louis watches the president closely.

Opportunity, needing Etiquette: click quickly on one of the two active points on screen. Louis notes what a gifted speaker Washington is.

Everyone leaves the dining room, and the third part is summed up.

What is coming in part four

The closing part has branches of its own. You have to decide which character to go on with, following Elizabeth or going to Emily. Choosing the first brings a dilemma over Elizabeth’s offer of a drink, and one of the game’s endings can be reached at that moment. Accepting leads to a further branch, and each of its arms gives a different ending.

Part four: the gorgon

Louis decides to look for the place his mother’s note points to.

Goal: find the place your mother described

The dining room

Talk to the cardinal, who has stayed behind in the room. Piaggi remarks that Louis is starting to worry about not having seen Lord Mortimer yet.

• ”No, not particularly”
• ”Perhaps”

Louis decides to put a question to him:

• ”Where can everyone measure me with their eyes?”
• ”I am looking for Medusa”
• ”Until next time”

With the first option the cardinal suggests the gallery and, at Louis’s request, explains how to get there. With the second he can be no help at all.

Items:

• Discourse on the Method, on the stool in front of the fireplace.
• CARMELITE WATER on one of the tables, nearer the fire.
• TRIBULUS on the table by the painting Circe.
• A casket with three circles, on the table by Circe. Open it with a key or break in, needing Subterfuge, difficulty 1. It holds MEAD (four).
• Another CASKET on the table by the wall on the right, the one with flowers in a vase, in the passage to the library. Needs Subterfuge, difficulty 1, and holds AMBER SHARDS.
• KEY WITH THE OCCULT SYMBOL “EARTH”, on the table by the wall on the left, almost opposite the table with the second casket.

Go out through the door.

The library

Follow the round platform to the right, along the shelves of books.

• GOLDEN ELIXIR at the entrance, on the floor on the right.
• MEAD on one of the shelves.
• ENCYCLOPAEDIA PAGES on one of the shelves.
• COLLECTIBLE COIN on the floor, not far from the case you took the page from.

Go through the door at the other end of the platform.

The gallery

Louis realises he has come to the right place and only has to find Medusa.

Goal: find Medusa

Items:

• COLLECTIBLE COIN on the armchair beside the sofa you can sit on, in the centre.
• CARMELITE WATER on the table under The Last Supper.
• AMBER SHARDS (two), on the tables under The Holy Family and under The Night Watch.
• GOLDEN ELIXIR on that same table.
• MEAD (two), on the upper shelf in the gallery’s small room, needing Agility, difficulty 1.
• TRIBULUS, in a casket on the table to the right of the bust of Medusa, which has to be picked, needing Subterfuge, difficulty 1.

Click the active point on the bust of Medusa. Louis turns the bust and wonders what his mother was trying to tell him.

Louis looks the small room over and sees three statues:

• a hero armed with a sword
• a hero with a lamp
• a hero with a shield in his hand

He realises they form a scene: “the heroes will meet the monster face to face.”

Goal: solve Medusa’s riddle

Find the book The Origin of Myths on one of the shelves and read it.

• ”Read the page in French”
• ”Read the page in Latin”, needing Linguistics, difficulty 3

Without the skill, Louis sees that the French text differs a good deal, describing how men have always belittled women in society. It does not stop him finding the passage he needs in the description of Medusa: “…the hero with the sword prepares to strike the medusa.”

Turn the statues like this:

• Turn Medusa to face the hero with the shield.
• Turn the hero with the shield to face the hero with the sword.
• Turn the hero with the lamp to face the hero with the shield.
• Turn the hero with the sword to face Medusa.

A mechanism starts and the platform with the fireplace turns.

The hidden room

Louis finds himself in a concealed room, and is startled to turn and see Duchess Hillsborrow in front of him. She asks what he is doing here.

• ”Answer honestly”
• ”Laugh it off”
• ”Answer a question with a question”

Honestly: Emily does not answer the same question back, and Louis tries to guess.

• ”You are looking for somebody too”
• ”Does it matter?”
• ”You are spying on Mortimer”

The first option hits the mark and Emily suggests he do something useful.

Laugh it off: Louis answers with a joke, and Emily suggests he do something useful.

Question for a question: Emily is thrown, and to cover it asks again what Louis is doing here. A fourth option, “Suggest not wasting time”, is added to the first three. Emily ends by suggesting he do something useful.

Goal: search the room with Emily

Items in the hidden room:

• COLLECTIBLE COINS on one of the tables.
• Reflections on Art, on one of the shelves.
• LORD MORTIMER’S HANDWRITTEN NOTES, on one of the shelves on the wall opposite the shelf with the book.
• AMBER SHARDS on the table with the sheets of paper.

Go up to Emily. The duchess is surprised that on paper the entire property belongs to Mortimer.

• ”Suggest he stole them”
• ”Suggest he forged them”
• ”Suggest there are several Mortimers”
• ”Suggest Mortimer is immortal”
• ”Study the document”, needing Subterfuge, difficulty 1

Choose the second, that he forged them.

Emily and Louis wonder why Sarah de Richet left the papers here if she was interested in them. Louis decides to ask his mother when they find her.

• ”What do you make of the collection?”
• ”Why does he hide it all here?”
• ”How did he manage to get hold of it all?”

Emily suggests carrying on with the search.

Click the active point on the table behind Emily. She asks with interest what Louis has found, and he points to a cameo pendant. Emily’s face changes and she backs away from the table. Louis is at a loss.

A red circle appears in the left corner, showing his agitation. Remember to take a GOLDEN ELIXIR.

Emily admits she likes Louis, but still does not intend to open up to him. Louis asks her to trust him.

Confrontation. Goal: convince Emily to reveal her secret

A green marker appears in the left corner.

Stage 1. “And why should I open up to you, Louis?” — “You already have”, no skill needed, or “But I trust you.”

Stage 2. “And you spotted my vulnerability?” — “Psychology”, no skill needed.

Stage 3. “Do you understand?” — “You already have an accomplice”, no skill needed.

Stage 4. “You do like a gamble… Very well… Your accomplice…” — “A woman, and that is…” then “Your sister.”

Emily admits she is looking for her sister. You gain the title Psychologist, the character Emma Hillsborrow is opened, and the trait Reliable is unlocked.

Emily talks about her twin sister Emma and their decision to play the part of women with two faces. Emma was supposed to return from Mortimer’s a week ago, but when the ship reached Plymouth her sister was not on it. Holm sent word to Emily through a sailor that her sister had disappeared. Louis realises his mother disappeared at the same time. The two of them leave the room, and the trait Attentive is unlocked.

The first-floor corridor

As Louis and Emily walk down the corridor, Elizabeth Adams comes out of her room. Emily supposes she is drunk again. Mrs. Adams presses Louis that she needs to speak to him. Emily whispers in his ear that she will be waiting in her room.

• An important choice: “Follow Elizabeth” or “Go to Emily”.

Branch III, choice 1: go to Emily. Ending 1

Louis’s room

Emily greets Louis with a question about Elizabeth, lying on the bed in his room.

• ”Nothing in particular”
• ”To talk about my mother, probably”
• ”What is she doing here?”

Emily says she followed the Paris scandal around von Borchert, and knows Louis and his mother stole something from him.

• ”A book”
• ”Possibly”, needing Diversion, difficulty 2
• ”What is all this about?”, needing Questioning, difficulty 2

Emily says that she and her sister are interested in one particular book, and wonders why Sarah came here.

• ”She was looking for von Borchert’s employer”
• ”Who knows”, needing Psychology, difficulty 2
• ”You are trying to draw me out”, difficulty 2

Asked what she will do with the book, Emily says plainly that she will give it to her sponsor, because Sir Gregory always has something up his sleeve. She suggests they stop talking and get on with it.

• ”Keep her company”
• ”Refuse”

Keeping her company unlocks the trait Dissolute. Refusing unlocks Ascetic. Either way, Louis wakes to loud knocking at the bedroom door. Outside he finds a servant, who steps aside in silence. Louis goes through into the room, where Lord Mortimer greets him.

Ending 1.

Branch III, choice 2: follow Elizabeth. Endings 2, 3 and 4

Excusing himself to Emily, Louis follows Elizabeth, who takes him to her room. Sitting down on the sofa, she says at once that her days are numbered. Louis suggests she need not worry about his mother, if that is what she means.

Elizabeth Adams’s room

Elizabeth says she saw Sarah last night. Louis doubts it, and she keeps insisting.

Opportunity, needing Questioning: click quickly on the active point on Elizabeth’s arm. Louis notes that she is certain of what she is saying.

Elizabeth nervously pours wine into glasses.

• “Drink a glass of wine”
• “Refuse”

Refusing: ending 2

Elizabeth presses Louis to drink, threatening not to tell him something important, and the question comes again, drink or refuse. Refusing a second time unlocks the trait Level-headed.

Louis returns to his room and goes to sleep. In the morning he is woken by loud knocking. Jacques Peru kicks the bedroom door in, and Gregory Holm and the servants follow him inside. They arrest Louis de Richet for the murder of Elizabeth Adams.

Ending 2.

Drinking

After one mouthful Louis realises he is getting drunk at once. Elizabeth fills the glasses again and proposes a toast: “the last glass for a doomed woman.”

• ”Drink”
• ”Stop”

Stopping repeats ending 2, above.

Drinking, Louis agrees to a little more and notes that the second went down no better.

Elizabeth asks whether Louis would like to know why his mother did those foul things to her.

• ”Drink”
• ”Refuse”

Drinking again, Louis feels the stupor taking hold. Take a GOLDEN ELIXIR to feel better.

Elizabeth says Sarah de Richet was trying to silence the voices in her head.

• ”Are you possessed?”
• ”Have you lost your mind?”

Louis cannot see why his mother would torment the poor woman. Elizabeth insists the voices go on talking to her despite everything she suffered at Sarah’s hands, and asks Louis to say he believes her.

• ”Yes, I believe you”
• ”No, that is nonsense”

Mrs. Adams fills the glasses and Louis drinks without protest.

• An important choice: “Advise her to flee the island” or “Advise her to stay”.

Branch IV, choice 1: advise her to flee. Ending 3

Louis advises Mrs. Adams to get off the island. She agrees and says she needs a boat. Louis realises his head is spinning more and more, and Elizabeth admits she has been adding tincture of opium to the wine. Losing consciousness, Louis just manages to see Elizabeth take a knife and drive it into herself.

Ending 3. A mark appears in the Failures column: “I drank with Elizabeth.”

Branch IV, choice 2: advise her to stay. Ending 4

Louis suggests Elizabeth not rush, since he is here with her, and urges her to fight her voices. Elizabeth admits she has been adding tincture of opium to the wine. Losing consciousness, Louis sees her take a knife and drive it into herself. The trait Desperate is unlocked.

Louis slowly comes round. He hears somebody breaking the door down, and sees Elizabeth Adams’s body beside him. The knocking grows louder, the door opens, and Gregory Holm comes in. He looks in horror at the body, then turns his eyes on Louis.

Ending 4. A mark appears in the Failures column: “I drank with Elizabeth.”

That completes the first episode of The Council.