The Secrets of Da Vinci: The Forbidden Manuscript

The Secrets
of Da Vinci

The Forbidden Manuscript

(A Walkthrough by
Zurreen Zubairie)

Copyright © 2007.All rights reserved.

(Please,
note that this walkthrough is copyrighted.Hence, any attempt to
reproduce anything from this
walkthrough will be severely punished
to the maximum extent of the law.)

The Walkthrough

GENERALLY:

For those of you who might be concerned, this game has
nothing to do with "The Da Vinci Code" book or movie.Rather, it is just
a very intriguing, quite non-controversial, and (apparently) fictitious story
about a youngman who has been hired anonymously to retrieve an invaluable
manuscript left behind by the great Leonardo Da Vinci.The story line is wonderful, the graphics are
superb, and the quest as well as the puzzles are quite clever and
engaging.In short, this is a game that
I would highly recommend to anyone looking for some good, clean fun with the
touch of a nice intellectual challenge.

As for the dynamics of the game itself: This is a
point-and-click game.In addition,
please note the following about the Inventory Page that you can access at any
time during the game by right-clicking, i.e., clicking on the right button of
your mouse.

The "Conscience" Gauge:This
is undoubtedly the most important dynamic in the game.As explained in the game booklet, some of the
actions you carry out would have a "good" or "bad" impact
on this gauge, depending on how you choose to accomplish a given objective.You need to strive for a balance: if you are
too "Angelic," you would not be able to carry out at least some bad
things that you might have to do; similarly, you can’t afford to be too
"Diabolic" either.For my
part, I have taken the "Angelic" approach, for the most part, using
bonus points to keep the Conscience gauge balanced.But don’t worry – you will have more bonus
points than you will ever need in this game, in no time at all.In the following walkthrough, I have pointed
out at least some of the "Diabolic" actions that you can take.If you decide to try them, however, please
keep in mind that doing so does have at least some unpleasant consequences,
although none of these consequences will prevent you from doing well and
finishing the game.

The Diary:You will find this particular notebook under
the hero’s portrait, in the right-hand portion of the Inventory Page.It contains virtually all the information you
need about the story: the description of the place, characters, and
events.It even gives you a checklist of
things to do; and once you have accomplished a given task, that task even gets
crossed out in the list.Be sure to
check out the diary at the very beginning of the game.The sooner you can get a hang of using it,
the more useful it will prove to be later.Here is how to use the Diary.

Click on the Diary in the Inventory Page to access it.Note the four arrows (or rather the
arrowheads) at the bottom of the screen.You can click on the two arrows in the middle to flip through the pages,
two pages at a time; or you can click on the arrows in the extreme left or
right (the ones with a vertical dash each on their point, i.e., I< or >I) to immediately
get to the first or the last two
pages, skipping everything in the middle.The box with all the arrows would be grayed out at the beginning of the
game, of course, because there are only two pages in the diary at that
time.Right-click (click on the right
button on the mouse) OR click on the Exit icon (the circular
combined image of the Sun and the Moon) at the lower right-hand corner of the
screen, to return to the Inventory Page.

The Portfolio:This is the large
notebook you see in the top center of the screen.It will contain all the documents you collect
in the game.In addition, any document
that you produce or reproduce in any way will at first appear among the various
objects in your inventory as a "sheet to be added to the
portfolio."You would therefore
have to click on this "sheet" and then on the Portfolio, in order for
the sheet to be attached to the Portfolio as a document.Here is how to use the Portfolio.

Click on the Portfolio to access it.A close up of the notebook would be presented
to you.Note that there are two sets of four arrows each on this
page – one to the right of the
Portfolio, and the other to the right of the black box (the "Text
Field") under the
Portfolio.Use the four arrows to the
right of the Portfolio (above the Exit image), to flip through the documents collected in the game.The two arrows in the first row (I< or >I) take you to the
first and the last document, respectively, while the two plain arrows (< or >) in the
second row allow you to flip through the documents, two pages at a time.

Once you have the document you would like to check out,
click on it in the Portfolio and a close up of that document will be presented
to you.Click on this close up and the text of this document will appear in the
Text Field under the document’s close up.Use the four arrows arranged vertically to the right of the Text Field
box, to read through the text.Once
again, the plain arrows in the middle move you through the text, a few lines at
a time.Use the outer arrows (I< or >I) to zoom to the
beginning or the end of the document.

Finally, it would be a good idea to organize your Inventory
from time to time, because that really makes it much easier to locate the items
you need.

Well, that is all I can think of in terms of a general
guide to the game.Following is a more
detailed step-by-step walkthrough.Please, feel free to address any comments or questions about this
walkthrough to .

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *

Day 1 – (The Night of 22
September 1522)

You arrive at the Cloux Manor at Amboise, property of François I, King of
France.This is where Leonardo Da Vinci
died three years ago.The manor is
currently inhabited by Madam Marie Babou de la Bourdaisière, your hostess.You are ushered to your room by Saturnin, the
guardian of the manor.

As the controls of the game are returned to you, read the
two pages of the Diary first.Exit the
Diary and then read the two documents already collected in your portfolio.While the first document gives you some information
not already given in the opening cutscene, the second document gives you even
more new information.

Exit the Portfolio and the Inventory pages.Turn slightly to your left and examine both
the drawers in the chest-of-drawers.Retrieve the Doublet from the top drawer and the Brandy
from the drawer under it.Feel free to
don this doublet now or later when your meeting with the hostess is
imminent.As explained in the booklet,
you would put on the doublet by opening your Inventory and clicking first on
the doublet and then on the hero’s portrait in the upper right-hand corner of
the screen.

Step towards the table under the window, to your
right.Open its drawer and retrieve the Knife
and the Charcoal Crayon.We are
done in this room.So turn left and step
out of the room.Turn around and look
at the large rug hanging on the wall behind you.There is no icon on it, so we can ignore it
(for now).

Turn around again and go down the stairs, arriving in
what we will call the Pantry.If you pan
the camera around, you will see sacks of food and other goodies in this
room.But there is no icon right now to
allow you to take anything.Look down
and note the stairs leading to another room below with an open door indicating
a route out of the house.But there is
no reason either to go down or out of the house yet.So just turn around and enter the Kitchen,
through the door facing the stairs you had used to come down.

As you enter the Kitchen, pick up the Bottle of Milk
and Oil from the table in front of you.Step forward, turn left, and pick up an Egg from the other end of
the same table.Note the food dish down
on the floor to the left of the table.Pan the camera further to your left and you will see a black cat sitting
on the floor, to the right of the door you see there.Click on the cat, and listen to the hero’s
comment.Turn back around to the table
and feel free to put some milk in the food dish on the floor (i.e., click on
the Bottle of Milk in your inventory, exit the inventory, and then click on the
food dish).Now step in the cat’s
direction and turn around to see the cat drinking the milk out of the
dish.A "Use" (or gear) icon
appears on the cat; but nothing happens if you click on this icon.[Apparently, the only purpose for feeding the
cat is to befriend it; and this is the only time in the game that you would be
able to do so.This act of kindness on
your part also raises your Angelic level.]

Turn to the table on your left.You can try to pick up the knife lying on the
table, but the hero will not pick it up because he has "got one
already."(The extra knife is no
doubt provided just in case a gamer missed the one in the hero’s room.)Step towards the door on the left of this
table and step through it to enter the Great Hall.(It is actually the dining room, but we will
call it the Great Hall because it will be referred to as such much later in the
game).

Pan the camera slightly to your left and pick up the Bottle
of Water sitting on the dining table in front of you.Now step towards the door to the left of the
table.If you go through this door,
however, you will enter a corridor where the door to the right is closed at
this time.But that is the area we want to explore next – what we will call the
Workshop.So let’s ignore the door
leading to that corridor for now and use the other entrance from the Dining
Room to the Workshop: the door to the right
of this one.

As we thus enter the Workshop, we find that the left half
of the room is shrouded in darkness.Even
if you click on the arrows pointing to the dark side of the room, the hero will
refuse to go there, because of the darkness, reminding us instead of our
immediate objective: to find Leonardo’s Study.[Note: the hero says that the Study must be on the "First
Floor."This is actually European
terminology, whereby the floor we are on would be called the ground floor and the "First
Floor" actually refers to the one upstairs.]But let us do a little exploring around the
Workshop, so long as we are here. So pan
the camera to your right and pick up the Stick leaning against the table
to your right.Pick up the Link
from the floor, to the left of where the Stick was standing.Step towards the area lit by the candle in
front of you.Note the sawing table on
your right and the drilling equipment on your left.Note also that both the crank and the drill
bit, in the drilling area, can be
removed.But leave them alone for now,
because you will just have to put them back again when you use the equipment
later.

Turn to the sawing table.Bring out the Stick from your Inventory and click on the gear icon on
the top of the table, to place the Stick in front of the sawing blade.Next, look under the table and click on the
machine’s foot pedal on the floor.The
sawing begins, but nothing is happening to your Stick!Don’t worry.Look at the top of the table again and click on the Stick now, to move
it against the blade and saw the Stick in half.Pick up both pieces of the
Stick (which will now be labeled as "Small Stick" in your Inventory).

We are done in this room – for now, so step back out in
the Dining Room.Step forward and use
the door on your right now, to step into the corridor that we had ignored
earlier.Turn left and step forward to
arrive in a small hallway with a set of stairs leading up to the First
Floor.Take a step up the stairs, turn
around and look down to find a "Collar" (necklace) on the
landing area between the two flights of stairs.Pick up the collar, wait for the hero to finish his comment, and then
take another step up the stairs to reach the First Floor.

As you arrive on this floor, you can turn left and step
forward to enter a rather dimly lit area.But there is nothing of interest here.So go back out and enter the corridor to the right of the stairs you had used to reach this floor.Look to the right of the corridor, but there
is no arrow allowing you to go further in this direction at this time.So enter the room to your left.This is what the hero calls Leonardo’s room.For the sake of clarification, however, we
will refer to it as Leonardo’s Bedroom.But it is Leonardo’s Study
that we still need to locate and, according to the hero, it must be near.

Look at the bed to your left.Note the symbol of a triangle at the top of
the left bed-post.Even if you can’t
actually see it, just move your cursor slowly around over the square block
forming the top of the bed-post until a magnifying-glass icon appears.Click on the glass icon and listen to the
hero’s comment about the triangular symbol ("sign"); but we don’t
have enough information just yet to figure out what that symbol means.Note a similar triangular symbol at the top
of the right bed-post as well.

Feel free to click on the two paintings, on the walls on either
side of the door you had used to enter the room.Turn around then and step forward to the tall
bookcase across the room.Again, feel
free to click on the two paintings on either side of this bookcase.Note the markings in the center, just above the bookcase.Click on the magnifying-glass icon appearing
on these markings, and the hero will read, "The path of
pleasures."Hmmm…

Turn left and step forward, to find yourself facing another
door.Click on it and listen to the
hero’s comment.Click on the painting of
St. John the Baptist, hanging on the wall to
the right of the door.Turn left of the
door, step forward, to face yet another door.But this one is of no interest.So look at the bed on your left and check out the triangular symbols on the
top of the bedposts on this side of
the bed.Next, turn to the small table,
to the right of the bed, and pick up the Sheet of Paper.If you try to pick up the Charcoal Crayon
lying next to that sheet, however, the hero will refuse to take it, because you
already have one – the one you got from the drawer in your room.So just turn to the large table, to the right
of the door, and pick up the Mirror.Feel free again to click on the painting above the table.

Open your Inventory, click on the Sheet of Paper and then
click on the Portfolio, to attach the sheet to the Portfolio.You will be presented with a close up of the
sheet you just attached (it is the one that appears as the right page in the
close up).Note the strange markings on
this sheet.Click on the black Charcoal
Crayon, in the middle circular slot to the right of the Portfolio.Now click first in the top half, and then in
the bottom half, of the sheet with the mysterious markings.A shading will be drawn across the page,
revealing an inscription in white, but it will be illegible.Click on the page, but the Text Field below
will also call it "Illegible Text."Release the crayon by right-clicking, and pick up the Mirror,
from the top slot to the right of the Portfolio, and then click on the shaded
sheet again.You will now be able to
read the text of the sheet, but only in the Text Field under the
Portfolio.Feel free to put away the
mirror (just right-click your mouse) as you scroll through this text.It is a message from Leonardo to Francesco,
presenting him with two riddles
the solution to which would enable one to find or make the necessary keys.

After you finish reading the message, use the arrows on
the right of the Portfolio to turn
the page.Note the four triangles on the
left page.These are the same signs we
saw on the top of the bedposts!There is
some kind of writing under each triangle, but you can’t read it off the page;
and if you click on the magnifying-glass icon appearing on this writing, the
Text Field would also call it Illegible Text.So use the Mirror on the right of the Portfolio again, and the Text
Field will tell you the meaning of these triangles.Thus, click on the writing under each
triangle, one by one, and find the Symbol
of the element Fire, the Symbol
of the element Air, the Symbol
of the element Water, and the Symbol
of the element Earth.

Go to the other side of the bed now (the one next to the
door you had used to enter this room).Click on the magnifying-glass icon on the left bed-post first, and the hero says, "The sign for
air."Now click on the
magnifying-glass icon on the right
bed-post, and the hero says, "The sign for fire."The hero then automatically quotes a line from Leonardo’s message, indicating we
have solved his second riddle. The camera will automatically pan down to the floor, and focus on the corner of a
carpet at the foot of the bed.Click on
the gear icon appearing on that corner of the carpet, to flip it back and
reveal a white rectangular panel in the floor underneath. Use your knife on this panel (i.e., open your
Inventory, click on the Knife, close the Inventory, and then click on the white
panel) to remove it from the floor and reveal something hidden inside.Click on the hand icon to retrieve another Sheet
of Paper and a Key Mould.

Open your Inventory and attach the new sheet to the
Portfolio.A close up of this sheet will
now be presented to you.Click on the
writing that appears at the bottom of the page, but it is "Illegible
Text" again.So use the Mirror again
on the writing, reading the Text Field to learn about "Bronze, a metal used for casting statues
as well as for ordinary objects such as keys" and how it is "an alloy of copper and tin."Turn the page now, and decipher the writing
in the middle of the left page, using the Mirror and the Text Field again, to
learn a little about the properties
of gold and how gold coins are molded.

Feel free to go around to the other side of the bed and
click on the magnifying-glass icons on the top of the bedposts on that
side.The hero will call out the meaning
of those symbols also, but nothing will happen after that, of course, because
the symbols on the first side of the bed were the only ones relevant to the
riddle leading to the secret panel in the floor.

We are done in this room, for now.All that remains is to somehow enter
Leonardo’s Study which we still
haven’t found.There are two ways to accomplish this
objective.Let us try the Diabolic
approach tonight.[Note:The Angelic approach will be discussed a
little later, because we would have no choice but to use it then anyway.Using the Diabolic approach tonight would be
advisable for two reasons.First, it
will give you a chance to use some of the Inventory items that you would not be
able to use otherwise.Second, you will
get more bonus points for having tried both the methods of entering the Study
than if you had used the same Angelic approach twice.The "downside" of using the
Diabolic approach, of course, is that you would then have to use some of these bonus points to
increase your Angelic level, thus restoring the balance in your
Conscience gauge once again.]