A Few Notes on Gameplay and this Walkthrough
Sentinel allows you to move freely about in a three dimensional environment. Because of this, I cannot give you exact movement directions. I will try to direct you around using landmarks as best as possible but if you find yourself somewhere other than where I am describing, just backtrack and look around some more. None of the environments in the game are that large so you really can’t get lost.
You should be aware that Sentinel has a lot of sound based puzzles. You cannot complete the game without sound. Make sure your speakers are on and your sound turned up.
The interface is simple. To move forward, press the “W” key or the right mouse button. “A” and “D” move you to the left or right and “S” backs you up. You turn and look around using the mouse.
Normally the cursor is a single dot in the middle of the screen. When it is positioned over an area that you can interact with, a circle appears around the dot. Click the left mouse button to enter a closeup. Click the right mouse button to exit the closeup.
Pressing the space bar causes you to jump. This really isn’t necessary anywhere in the game though I did use it once or twice to free myself when I got “stuck” and couldn’t move.
The game has no inventory puzzles so it has no inventory as such. There is only one type of object you can pick up and you can only use them in one place. They appear on the screen whenever you are at that location and their use is more-or-less automatic.
I also must note that Sentinel did not get along particularly well with my video card. The game plays properly but none of the water effects in the game were visible; water appears as a featureless blue-green blob. I have seen the game on other machines and it looks fine so do not take the screen shots here as being representative of the game.
Finally, this game has been released under two completely different titles. The original release was titled Sentinel: Descendants in Time while a subsequent release was titled Realms of Illusion. Outside of the title the two games are identical and this walkthrough is valid for either one.
The Story So Far…
Far in the future, the Tastan civilization flourished. The wealthy and powerful Tastans built elaborate tombs for themselves and furnished these tombs with pocket dimensions, each holding a small environment modeled after some place that was important to the Tastan buried there. To protect the tombs, a security system was put in place that included the uploaded personality of the Tastan the tomb was designed to protect.
In the hundreds of years since the fall of the Tastan civilization, many treasure hunters have made names for themselves by braving the tombs, defeating their security systems and returning with artifacts and treasures from within. Only one tomb has remained unplundered after all these years; Tomb 35. Only one hunter, a man named Ramirez, has ever returned from that tomb and he returned empty handed.
You are Beni, a young treasure hunter. Your sister Carrie has been kidnapped by the crime lord Doba. Now, you must enter Tomb 35 and return with an artifact of value in order to save Carrie’s life.
Walkthrough
Tomb 35
When the opening cutscene ends Beni will automatically get on the elevator and ride to the tomb floor. Move forward along the bridge, the only path available to you. When you get near the end, Beni will start calling for Dormeuse; the security program for the tomb. (Beni, did it ever occur to you that one of the differences between successful and unsuccessful tomb raiders is that the successful ones didn’t call the attention of the security system to themselves? Just a suggestion.)
Dormeuse, the security system, will appear. She tells Beni that if he leaves immediately then she will let him go. Beni says he can’t and explains about his sister. This seems to intrigue Dormeuse for some reason and she disappears, leaving Beni to his own devices.
When you regain control, continue going forward until you reach an arched doorway. The device you see on the ground inside the doorway is a transporter that will take you to one of the pocket dimensions but it isn’t active at the moment. Look above the doorway and note the symbol carved there; a triangle open on the bottom-right.
Turn around and go back the way you came. Take the first ramp up to the right. At the top of the ramp, go into the doorway on the right. There is another transporter in here but it too is inactive. (All of the transporters are shut down at the moment). Go up the steps and follow them around.
At the top of the steps there is another transporter on the balcony to your left. Ignore it and go into the opening to the right and go up the steps you find inside. At the top of the steps, turn left and follow the path. You will see another arched doorway with another transporter inside. Note the symbol above this door; the base of a triangle with a vertical line rising from it.
Continue past the doorway. Take a moment to look out the window ahead of you to see a canyon dotted with tomb openings. Turn left and go the rest of the way up the ramp.
Out on the balcony, go to the right and follow the path around the outside wall. You will reach a third arched doorway containing a transporter. Look above this door to see another symbol, this one the base of a triangle.
Turn away from the doorway and walk out onto the stone bridge. You should see a crystalline object ahead of you; this is the “waystone” (though you don’t know that yet). Beni wonders aloud to himself as to why Dormeuse hasn’t killed him yet. (Or maybe he’s talking to you; who can tell?) Walk around to the far side of the waystone then turn to face it. Click on it for a closeup.
Click on each of the three buttons until they display the three symbols you have seen in the order in which you passed them. (Set the first button to show the triangle open on the lower-right, the second the base of the triangle with a vertical line and the third just the base of a triangle.) You will get a very brief cutscene of a transporter activating.
Dormeuse will appear and ask why Beni thinks she is just a defense program and not a complete, uploaded personality; she considers herself to be real. Beni points out that she would have been programmed to think she was real and asks, if she was, why she would choose to stay in the tomb instead of going into the outside world.
Dormeuse replies that she has her domains and can create anything she wants or needs. Beni says that she didn’t create him and she responds by asking how he can be sure. This seems to unsettle Beni and she leaves him to think about things for a while.
The three transporters behind the arched doorways are now active. You can visit the active domains in any order but we’ll start with the one nearest us. Walk back around the waystone and down the bridge then enter the arched doorway directly in front of you. Step onto the transporter to be taken to Tregett.
Tregett
When you arrive, step off the transporter. Dormeuse will talk to you briefly and remind you that this is just a sampling of the real thing. You can go forward and wander around the base of the tower in front of you if you wish but there is no reason to do so. Instead, find a path leading off to the left towards an elevator platform inside of an organic tower. (The on-screen arrows may help you here though I found them to be an annoyance most of the time.)
As you approach the tower a cutscene begins. Dormeuse appears and asks Beni why he is there. Beni asks what Ramirez told her and she replies that he said it was so he could test himself against the unknown. Beni basically agrees with this. Dormeuse then asks if it bothers him to disturb her final resting place and he responds that no one really thinks of it that way; it is only about the challenge. Dormeuse disagrees with this, saying that she thinks he is there to get information on the Tastans and their civilization from her and that she plans to prevent him from doing so.
When the cutscene ends, enter the elevator platform. It will automatically rise to the top of the tower. Exit the elevator and examine the control panel in front of you.
This panel controls the tower you see in the distance. The lower switch allows you to raise or lower it while the upper lever turns it to the left or the right. You control the tower by clicking on one of the white indicators around the lever and switch. Note that you can move the tower one unit down or to the right but that there are two settings for moving it up or to the left. The blue button on the lower-left part of the console “resets” the tower.
The tower acts like a lighthouse. Your goal here is to turn the tower so that it points at each of the five “flower buds” surrounding it. You have twelve “moves” in which to do this before the tower resets itself and you have to start over.
To solve this, do the following. Reset the tower if necessary and turn it 1 Right, 1 Up, 1 Right, 1 Down, 1 Left, 1 Down, 2 Left, 2 Up, 1 Right and 1 Down. (“2 Left” means to use the second position to the left and “2 Up” means the second position up; everything else uses the first position.) There will be a brief energy display as lightning bolts leap between the “flower buds” and hit the tower. Beni will express surprise that it was so easy. (Don’t worry Beni; we’re just getting started.)
Go back into the elevator platform and ride it back down. Now approach the tower. On either side of the tower there is a flashing red light. Approach either light. Near the light there is a white button on a pole. Click on the button and the walkway surrounding the tower will rise into the air. When it stops, walk around to find a platform with four control panels on it.
Examine any of the control panels for a closeup. Note that there are eight switches on each panel. Flip any one of them to examine the result. A series of lights will appear along two cables ahead of you. Each switch causes a particular combination of lights to light up. Only one switch from each panel can be on at a time but you can have a switch active on all four panels.
If only one switch causes a light to be activated it will be red. Two switches cause it to be yellow, three cause it to be blue and four cause it to “overload” and go out. If matching lights on each cable are blue then an energy beam will appear between them. Your goal is to get all of the lights to turn blue by causing each light to be activated by exactly three switches.
To do this, turn off any switches that may be on then flip switch 8 on the first panel, switch 3 on the second, switch 6 on the third and switch 4 on the fourth. All of the lights will turn blue. Beni will again express surprise at how easy it was and speculate that Dormeuse wants him to see these things. Exit any closeups, walk around the panels and go up the stairs formed by the energy beams. Look around to find a tunnel entrance and walk through it.
On the far side of the tunnel, Beni calls out to Dormeuse and asks about the comment she made implying that she created him. She appears and observes that it bothers him. Beni says that if he isn’t real, then Carrie and Doba aren’t real either so there is no reason for him to continue. Dormeuse then, oddly, encourages him to continue by saying he can’t afford to assume they aren’t. This restores Beni’s resolve and he says that Ramirez warned everyone that despair was the real enemy in the tomb. Dormeuse agrees.
When the cutscene is over, turn towards the right and cross the bridge to the structure you see. Enter the railed-off area. Notice that there are three flower-like windmills outside of the structure. There is a device that looks like a lever on the outer railing facing each of the windmills. There is also a small device on the inner railing. The inner railing devices match up with the windmills, but not necessarily with the nearest one.
When you first enter the structure the inner rail device almost directly in front of you goes with the windmill to your left. If you go around the inner railing to the right, the first inner rail device you come to goes with the first windmill on the right. The second windmill on the right goes with the remaining inner rail device.
Approach any of the outer rail levers and examine it. Your view will shift to show the lever and the windmill. Notice that, as the windmill turns, a series of concentric circles appear near the center of the windmill and radiate outwards. You should also notice that each circle is drawn with a unique pattern. If you watch for a while, you will see that the patterns eventually repeat. If you click on the lever, the windmill will stop rotating. Click on it again to start it back up.
Back out of the closeup, turn around and examine the corresponding device on the inner rail. For now, notice that there are also three concentric circles in the center of the device here. These circles also have unique patterns. Make note of the patterns then back out of the closeup.
Turn back to the windmill again and reenter the closeup with the lever. Watch the patterns on the windmill. Eventually you will see the three patterns from the inner railing device appear. When this happens, pull the lever to stop the windmill. (Note: You need to anticipate the pattern a bit. Pull the lever just as the circle with the innermost pattern starts to emerge. If you wait until it is completely in position the windmill will advance one more cycle before stopping. If you miss it the first time, don’t worry; the patterns eventually repeat.)
Look at the stopped windmill. Notice that the windmill has both long and short blades. Make note of the order and positions of the blades then back out of the closeup and turn back to the inner railing device again.
Now examine the outside of the device. You will notice that there are a series of posts around the outside edge of the device and that these posts can be extended or retracted by clicking on them. Click on the posts until they match the arrangement of long and short blades on the stopped windmill.
Now, repeat this process for the other two windmills. The images here show the correct combination of windmills and devices but if they aren’t clear here are the correct settings. For the first device you encounter after entering the structure, start at the top right post and set the posts to out, in, out, in, in, out, in and out (going clockwise around the device). The second device (going to the right around the inner rail) gets set to in, out, in, in, out, out, out, in. Finally, set the third device to out, in, out, out, in, out, in, in.
When you have correctly set all three devices, an elevator will arrive in the middle of the inner rail. Enter the elevator and ride it to the ground. Beni will again wonder why he is doing so well and say that it feels as if he has gained extra skills. (No Beni, you just have us looking over your shoulder, that’s all.) You should be able to see a transporter nearby but it isn’t active. Instead, look around until you find a path leading to a low hill. There is a device on the hill with a crystal inside. Click on the crystal to pick it up. Beni will excitedly say he may be able to give the crystal to Doba to get him to release Carrie.
Go back down the path. The transporter is now active, so step into it. This takes you back to Tomb 35.
You arrive back at the same location as before (except the transporter here is no longer active). Go straight ahead across the bridge and back to the waystone. Click on it to automatically insert the crystal you found. (In spite what Beni just said there is no way to offer the crystal to Doba.) The waystone will project a symbol onto the wall of the tomb.
Dormeuse will speak up at this point and tell Beni that he needs to find all of the “hearth crystals” and bring them to the waystone. Beni asks what the crystals are for but she does not reply.
Though you don’t know it, another of the transporters has activated. Basically, each time you complete a domain by retrieving a hearth crystal from it, that domain’s transporter shuts down. Then, when you insert the crystal into the waystone, another activates. It doesn’t matter in which order you do the domains as each is independent of the others (and you can leave and return to a domain as often as you like until you take its hearth crystal). So, we’ll just take them (more or less) in the order we encounter them.
That said, go back down the bridge and away from the waystone. Follow the path to the right until it loops around and reenters the interior of the tomb. Continue following the path on down the ramp to the right.
At the bottom of the ramp is another arched doorway containing an active transporter. Step into the transporter to find yourself in Maru.
Maru
Welcome to Maru; hope you aren’t afraid of heights. Dormeuse will briefly appear to remind Beni that the domains are just small pieces of the real thing before departing again. Look around a bit if you like (I thought Maru was the most impressive of the domains myself) before going down the bridge in front of you. (You will later learn from Dormeuse that these floating facilities are called “sky engines”.)
At the bottom of the bridge you will find a control. Click on it and the wall in front of you will spin past. Keep clicking on the control until an opening moves into place in front of you. Go forward into this opening then turn left and go forward until you reach a second control.
Face this control and click on it until another opening appears. Go straight through the opening to another control.
Click on this control until yet another opening appears ahead of you. Don’t go though it yet. Click on the control one more time. A second opening will move into position. Go forward through this opening then turn right and go through to the next chamber. Once there, turn right again and go back out to the next outer ring. Turn left and go forward to another control.
Click on the control and the door you just came through will move in front of you. Click once more to bring the second door here. Go forward, turn right and go forward again to reach a final control. Keep clicking on this control until the final opening slides into position. Go forward into the sky engine. Somewhere along the line Dormeuse will start talking again and explain that her father was stationed on Maru when she was a child but that she always remembered it. She says this is why she is showing it to you. (Dormeuse, you’re the security system, I’m the tour guide, OK?)
Go forward into the center of the sky engine. The central part of the platform is an elevator and, when you reach it, will automatically rise to the upper level.
Take a moment to look around and orient yourself. You should see a green light on top of a pole nearby. Go stand next to this pole.
Maru contains the first of many sound puzzles so make sure your speakers are on at this point. Look at the pole and you should see a handle on its side. Pull the handle and you should hear a sound. (My notes say I called it a “flat trumpet fanfare”.) Remember this sound and the color green.
Now, navigation on Maru can be a bit tricky since the sky engine is symmetric. I will use this pole as a reference mark. There is a path extending outwards from beside this pole. (The pole is to your right as you face the path.) Go along this path to the outside edge of the sky engine.
When you reach the outside edge, Dormeuse will start talking to Beni again and he will look around wildly for her, though he can’t find her. She will express surprise at how far he has come and say that he must have had help. (Oh, don’t mind me Dormeuse.) She asks what Ramirez told him and he replies that Ramirez talked about her and said that she was ruthless and beautiful. Dormeuse seems flattered by this comment and tells Beni to call her Tamara; Dormeuse is apparently just Tastan for “sleeping woman”.
Tamara again wonders why Beni is there and speculates that it is for vandalism or theft. Beni protests that he hasn’t done anything like that and she says she knows that and thanks him. Beni then adds that he has to take something valuable to Doba or he will kill Carrie. Tamara doesn’t seem to believe him.
Since Beni has been randomly looking around you may be disoriented. Turn until you are facing the center again; towards the pole with the green light. There are some steps to our right and a telescope behind us but we need to do something else before we start to interact with them. Turn to the left and start walking around the outer edge of the sky engine. (You should be going clockwise around the rim.) You will come to an elevator on your left. Enter the elevator and look for the controls. You are currently on level III, so push the button for level II.
When you arrive, exit the elevator and start walking around the corridor. You will eventually reach another pole, this one with a blue light. Pull the lever and make note of the tone associated with this one. Then, return to the elevator (there are actually two but it doesn’t matter which one you take at this point) and ride it down to level I.
Here you will notice that you can exit the elevator in either direction; there are two concentric walkways. Exit the elevator to the inner walkway and start walking around. You will soon find another pole, this one with a purple light. Pull the lever to hear another tone.
Go to either elevator and walk through it to get to the outer walkway. Walk around this one to find a pole with a yellow light. Pull the lever to hear what sounds like a tuba.
Walk around the outer walkway some more until you find a platform or gondola on the outside of the catwalk. (You may have already passed this while looking for the yellow pole.) Enter the platform and push the “I” button. The gondola will travel along a cable to another floating sky engine. Exit the platform.
Tamara appears to Beni and again asks why he risks death to enter the tombs. She accuses him of stealing things to sell but he denies this. He repeats that it is just about the challenge. He tells her that his civilization is simpler and “less bold” than the Tastan’s was. They have no wars and almost no crime. (Tell that to your sister, Beni.) Raiding the tombs is one of the few challenges they have. Tamara, sounding angry, sarcastically says that she is glad that they give purpose to Beni and the others of his time.
There are two poles on this smaller engine; one with a red light and one with a white. Pull each lever and listen to the sound. (I called them “flat tone” and “foghorn”.) Return to the gondola and push the “II” button to return to the main sky engine. (Tamara talks a bit more about the sky engines along the way.) Once you arrive, go to either elevator and ride it back up to the top level.
Look around and find the pole with the green light again. Go to the path beside this pole and stand where the path meets the outer rim. Turn to face outwards. You should see a telescope in front of you and some steps to your left. Approach the telescope and click on it to look through it.
You should find yourself looking at a small sky engine with a flashing light. If you watch for a while you should see it flash, in sequence, yellow, red, purple and green. Back out of the closeup.
Now, climb the stairs next to you. You will find yourself on a higher platform which faces the same small sky engine. There is a pole here with a speaker on the top and several valves or buttons on one side. Examine the valves for a closeup.
If you press the valves you will hear that they produce the same sounds as the levers on the various poles. Your task is to convert the flashing lights on the small sky engine to sounds; the poles around the engine tell you which sound goes with each light. If you play around a bit, you will discover that the first valve produces the sound from the red pole, the second valve the sound from the green pole, the third the sound from the blue pole, the fourth the yellow pole, the fifth goes with the white pole and the sixth valve corresponds to the purple pole.
In this case, the colors are yellow, red, purple and green. Number the valves from 1 to 6 (starting at the top) and press valves 4, 1, 6 and 2. The remote sky engine will echo the sounds and an energy beam will fire from it to the top of the engine you are on. A mechanical device near the center of the sky engine will drop somewhat.
Back out of the closeup and descend from the platform. Continue clockwise around the outer rim until you reach a second telescope. Look through it to see another sky engine. (You can also see the transporter you arrived on from this telescope; the engine you want is above it.) The lights here are purple, blue, green and white. Exit the closeup and go up the stairs. The valves here work the same as those on the other platform, so press valves 6, 3, 2, and 5. Again, the remote sky engine will repeat the sounds and emit an energy beam which causes the mechanical device to drop further.
Repeat this for the other two platforms. Continuing clockwise, the third light pattern is green, yellow, white and purple so press valves 2, 4, 5 and 6. The final pattern is yellow, blue, green and red so press 4, 3, 2 and 1. When you have correctly matched all four patterns you will get a brief scene as the mechanical device lowers another crystal to the elevator platform. Beni gloats a bit.
Return to the center of the sky engine and take the crystal from the device. The elevator lowers you to the bottom level again. Leave the elevator and return to the maze formed by the rotating walls.
Fortunately, leaving is a lot easier than entering. Enter the first chamber, turn right, go to the next room, turn left and go forward. Go to the control here. Press the control four times. At this point, the wall in front of you should not have a door in it. Turn left and enter the next room. There should be a door to your right. (If there isn’t, go back to the control and press it again.) Go through the door and follow the path back out. (There is only one way to go so you can’t get lost. You don’t need to do anything else with the controls.) Cross the bridge and step onto the transporter to return to Tomb 35.
Now, we could go ahead and take this crystal back to the waystone but there really isn’t any need to do so right now. So, exit this room, go to the left and follow the steps down to the right. Exit through the opening to your left. Note that the transporter on the balcony here has activated (this one turned on when you inserted the crystal from Tregett into the waystone). You could go on through this one (it leads to Corabanti) but I like to do the three initial domains first then come back and get the others. So, for now, go down the steps to the left.
There is another transporter in this room but it is still deactivated. Exit and go down the ramp outside. At the foot of the ramp, turn left then go forward and enter the room ahead. Step onto the transporter and it will take you to Eska.
Eska
No, you haven’t suddenly traveled to the Florida Keys; this is Eska (bane of my video card). Step off of the transporter and Tamara will make her usual comment about how this is just a small piece of the real thing, mysteriously adding that there is enough of it to test Beni. (Test? No one said there would be a test!)
Leave the short boardwalk on which the transporter is sitting and go left. A little ways down the boardwalk you will see a wooden box on the right side; stop and examine it. Note the three ropes hanging from beneath the box. You can click on them to move them up or down but we don’t know what we’re supposed to be doing with these yet so for now just note that the ropes are colored red, purple and blue. Back out of the closeup
There is nothing else we can do in this area for now so turn to face the direction from which you just came and go forward. Just after you pass the boardwalk leading to the transporter the boardwalk you are on will turn to the left. Keep following the boardwalk. You will pass two more of those boxes on the right side of the boardwalk. Examine both of them to find that one has four ropes hanging from it while the other has five. Note that the four ropes are yellow, red, green and blue while the five ropes are blue, yellow, red, green and purple. When you have finished examining them continue on down the boardwalk. Remember where they are though; we’ll be coming back later.
The boardwalk will enter a small covered shed. In one corner of the shed there is a console that looks like a shell. Examine it for a closeup then push the button on it. A fountain will start spraying water. Back out of the closeup.
The boardwalk continues past the shed so keep following it. You will enter another covered shed. There are two boardwalks leaving this shed; take the one to the right. (The other path is a dead end for now.) You will next come to a “T” intersection. Turn to the left and follow the boardwalk to a tower.
Climb the tower. Just before the top you will find another of those shell-like consoles. Examine it and press the button. A slight spray of water starts coming out of the top of the fountain. Back out of the closeup and admire the view of Eska for a moment. (Note: the button here is a sort of “reset” button. You will be pressing several buttons to increase the water coming from the fountain. If you press them in the wrong order, the water spray from the top of the fountain will shut off. If this happens, come back here and press this button again to start over.)
You can go a bit higher in the tower but there is nothing on top except a large, greek vase hanging from a rope (and no, I don’t know why). So, go all the way back down. (Note: I occasionally got “stuck” on the stairs here. If that happens, hitting the space bar to “jump” was sufficient to free me.) Once down, go back along the boardwalk again. When you reach the “T” intersection keep going straight and follow the boardwalk into a partially walled-off area.
When you enter this area Tamara will appear again. She asks Beni if he trusts Doba to release Carrie and Beni says that he has no other choice. She then asks if he trusts her and he says he can’t; she is a defense program after all.
Tamara points out that she may be an uploaded personality. If so, she might let Beni go. Beni says that a defense program may be programmed that way also; it may let visitors go if they pass certain criteria, such as not destroying things and passing certain tests. Tamara seems amused by this and suggests that the main criteria may be entertaining her. Beni asks how he is doing and she responds that she is still entertained and that he is still alive.
When the cutscene ends look around until you find a box hanging from one of the walls. Examine it for a closeup. Note that this box has three ropes hanging from it with a light above each rope. If you click on the ropes they will move up or down and the light above each rope will change colors as it does.
Remember the box with the three colored ropes? Those ropes were red, purple and blue. So, click on the first rope until the light above it turns red, the second rope until the light above it turns purple and the third rope until its light turns blue.
Now, look at the pole on which the box is mounted. There is a series of seven notches cut into the pole. Number the notches from 1 to 7 starting at the top. Notice that the first rope is even with the sixth notch, the second rope with the fourth notch and the third rope with the sixth notch. Write these numbers down then back out of the closeup.
The boardwalk continues a short distance from here but there is nothing to see. So, turn around and start back in the direction from which you came. When you reach the “T” intersection turn back to the left and go all the way back to the first box you examined earlier; the one with the three colored ropes hanging from it.
Now, remember the settings we got from the box with the lights. Click on the red rope until it is at the sixth notch, the purple rope until it is at the fourth notch and the blue rope until it is on the sixth notch. You should see a bridge rise into position next to you. Cross the bridge into another of those covered sheds. There is another shell console here, so examine it and press the button. The spray of water above the fountain increases a bit.
Back out of the closeup. There is nothing else to do in this part of the boardwalk so leave this shed and turn to the left. Follow the boardwalk around until you reach the covered shed with two boardwalks leading from it. This time, take the left boardwalk. The boardwalk will pass a long pipe with several valves on it and will end at a lever and an odd suspended bridge. Unfortunately, the bridge is rotated away from us and we can’t use it. You can pull the lever if you like but it doesn’t do anything at the moment. Instead, turn to face one of the valves.
These valves control the pressure in the pipe and the pressure in the pipe is what is used to rotate the bridge. If it is too low the bridge won’t move. Too high and it swings too far. We have to figure out what the correct pressure is.
Look at the valve and the wall above it. First, notice that each valve has 16 markings on it. The markings correspond to settings of 0 to 15. All valves are currently at zero. (Once you rotate a valve, you can tell which is the zero marking by looking at the spiral pattern in the middle of the valve; the “point” of the spiral is at zero.)
Now look at the wall above the valves. Notice there are three circles on the wall and a line is drawn from one circle to the valve. The rightmost valve (as you face them) connects to the large circle, the middle valve to the middle circle and the leftmost valve to the smallest circle.
Finally, notice that each circle is four times the diameter of the next smaller circle. (Count the boards.) Four times the diameter means 16 times the area. There’s 16 again. From this, we can gather that each marking on a valve corresponds to a full turn of the valve to its left. This tells us all we need to know in order to determine how to approach this.
Set the small and medium valves (the left and middle ones) to zero. Set the right valve to 8 (halfway). Go pull the lever. The bridge doesn’t move so obviously 8 isn’t high enough. So, go set the right valve to 12 (half the remaining distance). (Remember to click on marking 12, counting from the point of the spiral. Also remember that the first marking is 0, not 1.) When you pull the lever this time the bridge swings too far. So, 12 is too high. Go back and set the valve to 10 (half the distance between our known too low and too high settings). The bridge stays too far over so 10 is still too high. Set the valve to 9 (half the remaining distance). This time the bridge swings back. So, we know the setting is somewhere between 9 and 10. Since we can’t adjust any further with the rightmost valve, leave it set to 9 and move to the middle valve. Repeat this same process there to learn that its correct setting is 12. Finally do the same on the leftmost valve. When you set this valve to 4 and pull the lever the bridge moves to its center position. So, the correct settings, from left to right, are 4, 12 and 9.
Cross the bridge. When you do, you will see a clamshell console to your left. Do not use this one yet! The clamshells have to be activated in a particular order. If you don’t, the fountain spray shuts down and you have to start over again with the button on the top of the tower. This isn’t the one that needs to be activated next, so skip it for now. (Unfortunately, I never found anything to tell me what order to use the clamshells in other than trial and error.)
Instead, turn to the right and go to the end of the boardwalk then turn left and go through the mesh tunnel. Then, continue to follow the boardwalk to another partially walled-in area. Look around to find another box with ropes and lights, this one with four ropes. We saw another box with four ropes earlier and the ropes there were yellow, red, green and blue. So, move the ropes here until the lights are displaying yellow, red, green and blue. This should leave the ropes hanging to positions 5, 4, 7 and 6.
Leave this closeup and return to the box with the four colored ropes, near where you first arrived on Eska. Examine the box for a closeup. Then click on the ropes until the yellow rope is at notch 5, the red rope at notch 4, the green rope at notch 7 and the blue rope at notch 6. A bridge will rise into place beside you.
Back out of the closeup and cross the bridge. Turn right and go through the mesh tunnel then turn right again to continue following the boardwalk. You will see a set of stairs going down to your left; ignore them as they really don’t go anywhere. Continue on down the boardwalk, down the stairs straight ahead then up another set.
Just after you climb back up the stairs there will be a ramp to your left. Turn and take this ramp. Follow the boardwalk here on around and through another mesh tunnel to get to yet another of those covered sheds.
When you step into the platform, Tamara will appear again and ask Beni what he thinks of her domains. Beni will express admiration and say that he has never seen anything like them before. He then says that Tamara must have been a great and powerful woman. This seems to please Tamara (who is oddly playing with an umbrella the entire time).
Tamara asks if the domains have given Beni any insights and he says they are distracting him; that he needs to find something to give Doba to save Carrie. Tamara interrupts him and says that she values her conversations with him and that he should make time for her. If he does, she might reward him.
Beni asks if this means that she will give him something and let her go. Tamara doesn’t promise anything but says that if he brings her news of the world outside then she may be merciful to him.
Once Tamara is gone, look around until you find another rope box on the wall. This one has five ropes, matching the remaining rope box we found. The earlier box had ropes that were blue, yellow, red, green and purple. So, as before, set the ropes on this box so that the lights show blue, yellow, red, green and purple. These correspond to rope settings of 1, 5, 1, 2 and 4.
Well, we have another set of numbers so it is time to use them. (This area of boardwalks is actually fairly extensive and there is another clamshell console near here but we need to use another one before we can use it so we’re skipping it for now.) Return to the boardwalk near your arrival point then go a short distance up the boardwalk to the five rope box you saw earlier.
Set the blue rope to position 1, the yellow rope to position 5, red to position 1, green to 2 and purple to 4. Another bridge will rise into place.
Cross the bridge and turn left. Go straight ahead and up through the mesh tunnel ahead of you. Turn left and go into the covered platform ahead of you. Tamara will start speaking and will talk about how much she loved Eska. (Tamara? One word: handrails.) There is a clamshell console in here, so examine it and press the button. The plume above the fountain will increase.
Leave here and go back to the spine bridge (the one we rotated with the valves). Cross the bridge and go to the clamshell console to the left. Now we can safely use this one. Examine the console and press its button. More water sprays from the fountain.
Now go back to the bridge next to the four rope box. Cross this bridge and follow the boardwalk around as before except, this time, continue straight along the boardwalk past the ramp to the left. Enter the small shed, turn left and go straight to the next shed. There is a final shell console in here. Examine it and press the button. The water plume increases for a final time, becoming strong enough to turn a water wheel above the fountain. A covered platform will rise from the water. Walk around to the newly exposed platform to find a crystal on the side wall. Take the crystal then return to the transporter (keep going straight ahead to take a shortcut) and return to Tomb 35.
Back in the tomb, go straight out of the room and down the ramp. Take the ramp up to the right then enter the room to the right. The transporter in here is still inactive so take the stairs up and around. At the top of the stairs there is an active transporter on the landing to your left; the one we bypassed earlier. We may as well use it while we’re here, so step into the transporter and travel to Corabanti.
Corabanti
OK, let me get this out of the way; I hated Corabanti. Not because it was difficult, but because it was tedious. Figuring out what you need to do here is quite simple. Actually doing it takes forever.
But, enough of that. Tamara gives her usual reminder that this is just a small piece of the real thing then leaves us to our own devices. Step off the transporter and look around. Hmmm… Looks warm. To one side you should see a complex arrangement of wooden walkways and poles with an antenna looking device beyond. (Wooden walkways? Over a lava field? Does this make sense to anyone? Me neither.) There is a telescope pointing at the arrangement of walkways. Approach it and examine it for a closeup. Look through the telescope and pan around using the mouse. You will notice that there is a symbol on each pole and each pole sits on a set of walkways. You will also notice that all of the walkways do not connect with each other. You probably should note down the various symbols but, just to make things easier, I have reproduced all of them below so don’t worry too much about it.
Back out of the closeups and turn around. You are on a small island in a sea of lava. There is a charred wooden bridge extending from your island to a larger one. Cross the bridge. (And did the Tastans just not believe in handrails or what?) Turn to the right and walk around the outside edge of the island.
There is a tower in the center of the island and you will shortly come to a path on your left that leads to an opening. Go up this path and through the opening into the tower. (There are a few openings you can use to look into the tower but you can only go through this one.) Once inside, continue onward to the center of the room. You can see another hearth crystal in front of you but you can’t get to it yet. Instead, turn to the left and enter the small room to the side of the tower.
Approach the table in the middle of the room and examine the book lying on it for a closeup. The book shows a mechanical drawing to which someone has added several colored marks. There are a different number of marks for each color; four red, three yellow, five green, two purple and one blue. Note that an arrow has been drawn from the purple marks to the second indicator on the device. Note the colors down then back out of the closeup.
There is nothing else in this small room (there is a bookcase but you can’t do anything with it) so return to the main part of the tower then go stand just inside the doorway through which you entered. Look around and you should see a pole with a small red button on the top. Press the button. The platform you are on will rise to the top of the tower.
Take a moment to look around. There are four large windows up here, each looking out over a set of wooden walkways like the one you looked at earlier. There is also a four-sided console in the middle of the room. If you examine the console you will see that it is covered with buttons and that each button is labeled with a symbol similar to the ones on the poles over the walkways.
The console controls the walkways. Each time you press a button, the walkway corresponding to that symbol rotates. Sometimes. Actually, it will only rotate if there is an unbroken path of walkways leading from the center walkway in the row nearest the tower to the walkway you are rotating. (The walkway you are rotating does not have to be connected but every walkway leading to it does.)
Your goal here is to rotate the walkways so that you will have an unbroken path from the entry walkway (the center walkway in the row nearest the tower) to the antenna-like device beyond them. Once you have done so we will be visiting those devices.
Normally this would require that you go to each set of walkways and use the telescopes there to note all of the symbols as well as the current arrangement of the walkways. You would then have to come to this console and use the buttons to rotate the walkways into position. This is the tedious part.
Fortunately, I have done the hard work for you. I will be using the volcano you have probably seen in the distance as a reference so walk around the console until you are looking across it and out of the window in which you can see the volcano. Click on the console for a closeup. You will be able to see the console and the walkways beyond. Below is a graphic showing the initial arrangement of the walkways and their corresponding symbols.
You will always enter the walkways through the center walkway in the lower row. The destination is different for the different walkway sets, but in this case it is the center walkway in the upper row. So, remembering that you can only rotate walkways that are connected, you need to hit the symbols in the following order.
If you need to press a button that isn’t visible on the console, don’t back out of the closeup. Instead, click on the “rotate” button at the very bottom of the console until the set of buttons containing the symbol you need rotates into view. (The rotate button is the small arrow at the very bottom of the console.)
(Note: If you had previously pressed any of the buttons on the console then the walkways may be in different orientations. If so, just look to see what the current orientation is and, using the graphic above to see which button controls which walkway, rotate them until you form the correct path.)
Now, walk around the console until you are looking out the window to the right of the one with the volcano. Examine the console here. This set of walkways has the configuration and symbols shown here. (Note: You can actually rotate any walkway, even if you are not facing it, but it makes it a bit easier when you can see what you are doing. You do need to be aware however that if you accidentally press the wrong button then you may rotate something you can’t see.)
In this case, your destination is at the left walkway in the top row. These walkways can be set to the correct orientation by pressing these symbols in the following order.
Back out of the closeup and walk around the console some more to look out the window opposite the volcano. Examine the console from here. (You should be able to see the red light on the elevator that brought you here on the left.) This set of walkways has the configuration here.
It is solved by pressing buttons:
Back out of the closeup and walk around to look out of the final window. The walkways here are configured like this.
Rotate these walkways by pressing these buttons.
(Note: Always remember that if you have pushed any other buttons then these initial configurations and button sequences will not be correct. In this case, just use the graphics here to determine which button controls which walkway and rotate them as necessary.)
We’re done for the moment so go to the elevator and press the button to go back to the base of the tower. Go straight out of the tower until you reach the outer edge of the island then turn right. Go forward around the edge until you reach a pathway and bridge to your left. Go across this bridge. The transporter that brought you to Corabanti is here but ignore it and continue out onto the complex of walkways. Follow the path until you reach the small island with the antenna on it.
When you arrive, Tamara will talk a bit about how most people hated Corabanti (see, I’m not alone) but that she loved it. When she is finished, examine the crank in front of you.
If you click on one of the spokes of the crank it will turn and cause the antenna to raise and lower in its shaft. Notice the lights on the antenna shaft. The antenna base should remind you of the drawing in the book back in the tower.
Remember how there was an arrow from the two purple marks to the opening in the antenna base? Raise or lower the antenna until the purple light in the second position is showing through the opening. Then, back out of the closeup. Go back across the walkways and across the bridge back to the main island.
Once there, turn to the left and continue around the island until you reach the next opening to your left. Cross this bridge and the next complex of walkways to reach another antenna and crank. Examine this crank to use it. Remember the book back in the tower and compare the lights here to the markings in it. In this case, there were three yellow marks in the book and you are able to move the antenna so that the yellow light in the third position shows through the opening in the base. Do so then back out of the closeup.
Now, turn to your left. A couple of rocks away you should see another telescope. Hmmm… Wonder why that is there? Turn on to your left and go onto the first bridge then turn to the left again. Yes, that is another set of walkways and another antenna. However, this one is hidden from the view of someone in the tower by a rock outcropping. To see the symbols on these bridges, you would have had to configure the walkways where you are now standing so that you could have reached the telescope you just saw. Actually, you can’t read all of the symbols from it since some face the other way. You would also have had to configure the next set of walkways to reach a telescope there as well! Then, you will have to configure this set of walkways a third time to connect to the new set of walkways so you can reach the antenna there. Yes, you have to do the same thing three times!
Don’t worry, I’ll save you some effort. Here are the symbols and initial configuration of this new set of walkways. We’ll get to them later.
In the meantime, just go back across these walkways and to the main island. Once again turn left and continue around the island to the next walkway. (This is the one facing the volcano.) Follow the walkways to the antenna. In this case, you will move the antenna up or down until the red light in the fourth position is showing through the opening in the base. When it is set, back out of the closeup and look to the left to see the telescope with the fifth set of walkways beyond it. Fortunately, you won’t have to worry about this one.
Go back across the walkways to the main island. Once more turn to the left, walk around to the final walkway and walk out onto the smaller island.
When you cross the first bridge, Tamara will appear and ask Beni if he has any “insights” for her. Beni, with some excitement, says that the Tastans want people like him raiding the tombs. Tamara seems pleased with this idea and asks Beni why he thinks that would be. He responds that it would be so that the defense programs would be constantly tested and improve themselves. He says this would keep the defense system entertained.
Tamara asks how he came up with the idea and he says that anyone who could create domains and upload personalities wouldn’t worry about things like hearth crystals and waystones. Tamara again seems pleased and says that apparently they give each other purpose.
Beni asks Tamara to help him find something to give Doba. Tamara thinks it is amusing that someone would ask the security system of the person they were robbing for help. Beni insists that he will get something and get out and Tamara, with slight sarcasm, observes that hope is always beautiful.
When the cutscene ends, go on out to the end of the walkways. Examine the crank and antenna. Move the antenna up or down to find that the correct match with the colors in the book is to have the green light in the fifth position showing through the opening in the base. Set the antenna then back out of the closeup.
We have now set the four antennas we can reach to the correct positions. We now need to set the hidden walkways correctly so that we can reach the hidden antenna. Return to the interior of the tower and ride the elevator to the top. Walk around the console until you are looking across it and out the window to the left of the one with the volcano. Examine the console for a closeup.
Now, the first thing we have to do is set the visible set of walkways so that they connect with the hidden set. (You can actually see the first walkway of the hidden set to the right of the main walkways.) If you have been following this walkthrough, the walkways should look like the diagram below.
To rotate everything into position, press the buttons in the following order.
Remember, you will not be able to see your last few moves. (As before, if you have pressed any other buttons then your walkways will not be in the configuration shown here. In that case, just use the diagrams here to determine which button rotates which walkway and do whatever moves are necessary in your case.)
Exit the closeup, return to the elevator platform and return to the ground. Leave the tower and follow the path to the outside edge of the island then turn to the right and follow the path. Ignore the first path to the left and continue to the second. Take this path and follow the walkways all the way to the hidden antenna. Use the wheel here to put the blue light into the opening in the base. When you do, you will get a brief cutscene as a panel back in the tower rotates into a position which will allow you to reach the crystal.
When the cutscene ends, back out of the closeup and return to the tower. Take the crystal then return to the transporter.
When you approach the transporter another cutscene begins. Tamara’s voice asks Beni what he knows about history. Beni responds that the Tastan’s civilization was 500 years before his own and that his is simpler technologically and “debased” by comparison.
Tamara then asks if Beni has ever wondered why there are only 85 Tastan tombs. She points out that their culture lasted for seven centuries and had a population that numbered in the millions. Beni says that the Tastans vanished overnight and she asks him what happened to all of them.
Beni speculates that those in the tombs were part of a select group. Tamara encourages him at first then becomes amused at his wild speculation. Beni even guesses at one point that all of the millions of Tastans are uploaded into the tombs and Tamara laughs. She then asks why the greatest culture the world had ever known allowed itself to be replaced by a simpler successor. Beni says he doesn’t know and Tamara leaves, saying that she is sure that something will come to him.
When the cutscene ends step into the transporter to return to Tomb 35. Once there, return to the waystone and insert all of the hearth crystals you have found. This causes another three symbols to be projected onto the wall of the cavern and activates another two transporters. (The crystals from Maru and Eska cause the transporters to activate. The one from Corabanti does not have an immediate effect.) Tamara will also speak briefly and say that it is tempting to skip some of the domains but that if you do you might miss a vital clue. (Even if you wanted to you don’t have a choice; you have to do all of the domains.)
Leave the waystone and follow the path around to the right and back into the interior of the tomb. Keep following the path until you find the next active transporter; at the foot of the stairs about halfway down. Step into the transporter to be taken to Sanselard.
Sanselard
Well, after the lava fields of Corabanti, Sanselard should look pretty good. Hope you brought a jacket along though. As usual, Tamara will talk briefly about how much she liked Sanselard before leaving Beni to explore a while on his own. Take a minute to look around.
Be aware that most of the puzzles here are sound based so turn your speakers on and your volume up. Also, Sanselard is probably the most complex of the domains in terms of navigation so it will be difficult to give exact movement directions. Instead, I am going to describe what needs to be done here and leave it up to you to find your way around.
At some point while you are wandering around Tamara will appear again. She asks Beni if he has thought any more about what happened to the Tastans. Beni at first guesses a war against an unknown enemy but Tamara dismisses this. He then says that the Tastans, for some reason, decided to change into a simpler and less complex society; his own. Tamara more-or-less confirms this then asks what that tells him about the 85 tombs.
Beni says those in the tombs refused to go along with the change. Tamara leaps on the word “refused” and disappears in a burst of bitter laughter.
As you look around, you should see three major types of structures. These are called “Towers”, “Mills” and “Totems”. (Examples of each are to the right.) Note that both mills and totems have diaphragms on them that create sounds when you click on them. The diaphragm on the totem also has two symbols that flip back and forth. Finally, towers have a panel at their base that shows a similar set of four symbols. You will also find what looks like a manhole cover showing a relationship between the mills and towers but it isn’t exactly clear what the diagram is indicating.
To get started here, you first need to go to one of the mills. Click on its diaphragm and note the two sounds that it makes. Then, go visit the various totems and click on their diaphragms. You will hear another two sounds. The two symbols on the diaphragm correspond to these two sounds. Keep checking totems until you find the one that makes the same sounds you heard from the mill. Make note of these two symbols. (Note: There is not a one-to-one correspondence between symbols and sounds. Instead, two symbols together produce a unique two sound combination. A single symbol will not always correspond to the same single sound.)
Next, go to a second mill and repeat the process. This will give you another two symbols.
Now, go to one of the towers. In its base there is a display showing four symbols. Examine it for a closeup. Click on the symbols to change them and set the upper two symbols to match those from one of the totems and the lower two to match those from the other totem. An elevator will descend to the base of the tower. We’ll get to it in a minute.
Repeat this process with another two mills and another tower. Do this for all four towers. The symbol combinations you need are shown to the right. (Note: If a particular combination doesn’t seem to work for one of the towers, just try a different one. I had this happen occasionally but never determined a pattern to it. You really only need to gain access to three of the four towers but you may as well do all four.)
When you enter the four symbols for a tower an elevator platform will arrive. Step onto the platform and ride to the top of the tower. Look around and you should see a small console. Approach it and click on it for a closeup.
You have probably noticed by now the energy beams that are jumping between the four outer towers and the tower in the middle of the complex. The beams are firing with different timings. Your goal now is to get all of the beams to fire together.
The console here controls the timing of the beam. This is not that difficult to adjust. There are several settings around the outside of the console. If you click on one of the settings on the left, the beam from your tower will start firing a bit earlier. If you click on one to the right, it will fire a bit later.
Simply adjust the timing of your tower’s beam until it matches those from the other towers. For the first tower you are on, I recommend adjusting your beam to match the beam of the tower to your left. After that, adjust the beam of the tower you are on to synchronize with those that you have already matched up.
There are several markings on the console and you can click on different ones to adjust the timing by different amounts but I recommend just using the first setting. Click it, watch the result then click on it again as necessary. You will need to adjust the timings on three towers.
When all four towers are synchronized you will see an object “drop” in the central tower. You will then see what looks like a manhole cover open up. This is the elevator to the surface. (You did notice that this entire complex is floating in the air, didn’t you?) Leave the tower you are on (you get back down by stepping onto the elevator platform again). The easiest way to find the elevator to the surface is to go to the central tower then take the bridge from there to the middle of the complex. Step into the elevator and ride it down to the surface.
Exit the elevator and follow the only path available to you around what looks like a tree trunk. You will eventually come to a wheel facing what looks like a door into the tree. Examine it for a closeup.
It is not immediately obvious but the door-like panel in the side of the tree can be rotated into a number of positions. One of those positions has a window in it and another has an open doorway. What you cannot see is that there are another four panels behind this one.
The wheel here causes the panels to rotate. The lever to the right of the wheel determines which panel the wheel rotates.
Normally the wheel only causes one panel to rotate at a time (even if you can’t see the panel in question). There is one exception to this. If any panel between you and the one you are rotating has its door opening showing, then all of the panels from the one being rotated up to and including the one with the door will rotate.
Obviously, we are trying to get all of the doors in the panels lined up so we can enter the tree. But we can’t just rotate the nearest door into position then switch to the next panel as this will cause the door to rotate away. What we have to do is to rotate the windows into position, starting with the one closest to us, until we can see all the way into the inside of the tree. Then, since we can see what we are doing, we rotate the doors into position starting with the one furthermost from us.
How can you tell a window from a door? Windows have railings at the bottom (and usually have frost on them as well). Doors have railings at the top.
Start by making sure the lever is in the bottom position, which means we are controlling the panel closest to us. Click on the right part of the wheel to cause the panel to rotate. Continue doing this until the window comes into view. (If the door shows up, ignore it for now and keep rotating.)
Once you are looking through the window, set the lever to the next position upwards and start rotating the next panel. When its window appears switch to the next panel and rotate it. Continue doing this until you have rotated all five panels so that their windows are showing and the lever is in the topmost position.
(Note: It can be sometimes difficult to tell what is happening, especially once you are looking through three or four windows. Just make sure that there aren’t any railings showing at the top of the windows during this part and you should be OK. You will know you are done when you are looking into a green lit room.)
Once you have all the windows showing, leave the lever in its top position and continue rotating the furthermost panel until its door rotates into position. (Watch for the railings to appear at the top of the window.) When it does, move the lever down one position and rotate the next nearest panel until its door comes into view. Continue this way until all of the doors are in position.
When they are, simply enter the doorways. There is a crystal inside (You were expecting elves?) but before you can do anything with it Beni starts calling for Tamara.
Tamara appears and Beni expresses frustration over the fact that he knows so little about what is going on. Tamara seems to take some pity on him and asks how old he is. Beni says he is 78. (Really? So why the whiny teenager attitude, Beni?) Tamara accepts this and asks if a typical lifespan is around 500 years. Beni confirms this and Tamara asks if he finds this unusual.
Beni doesn’t and wonders why Tamara would think it was. Tamara points out that, for most of history, human lifespans have been less than one hundred years. She says that the Tastans used genetic engineering to increase human lifetimes. Beni still doesn’t understand what she is driving at and she finally tells him that the “tombs” were not built as such; they were designed to be traps. She stares at him significantly for several seconds before disappearing again.
When the cutscene is over, take the crystal then return to the elevator. When you step inside you will be taken back up to the tower complex. Once there, simply go back to the transporter that brought you here and return to Tomb 35.
We have a new crystal but there is no point in taking it to the waystone yet. Instead, leave the room you are in and continue down the path to the bottom. (Tamara will speak up along the way and again encourage you to visit all the domains.) Once there, follow the path to the right along the edge of the underground lake. You will soon find another transporter to your right. Step into it to travel to the next domain.
Goda
You will find yourself in the underwater domain of Goda. Oddly, Tamara does not immediately comment on it for once. There is only one way to go so just follow the tunnel. About halfway down, Beni will suddenly call out to Tamara again. (I guess he was wondering where she went as well.)
Beni will ask if the domains and the puzzles in them are just there to slow him down and distract him. Tamara partially admits this but says that the domains really were important to her in life. She then asks him if he has thought any more about why there are only 85 tombs. Beni says he hasn’t but that the answer must matter to her since she keeps asking about it.
Tamara somewhat sarcastically asks how something could be important to her if she is just a security program. Beni says he just feels that it is and she points out that intuition is a human trait. Tamara replies by pointing out that lying is too and that she was once human. But, he does want to understand the 85 tombs. Because it matters.
Continue on down the corridor. Along the way, Tamara will finally talk about Goda a bit. When the corridor ends at a door, click on it to open it and go inside.
The room you are now in is an elevator. There are six levels in this complex, numbered 0 to 5. Though you have no way of knowing at this time, the machine in front of you controls the doors (actually drawbridge-like gates) on each level. You can only set two levers on each level and, initially, you don’t know which doors you need to open.
What you are supposed to do here is ride the elevator to the top level then walk down a spiraling ramp to the bottom again. The drawbridges you are opening connect the ramp to each level. The way you would normally solve this is to ride the elevator to the top, go down the ramp as far as you can, look to see which drawbridges need to be opened, go back to the elevator, go to the proper level, set the levers for that level then return to the top and try again.
Fortunately, I’ll save you the effort. Push the button labeled “1” to go to the first level. Number the levers from 1 to 4 starting on the left. Pull lever 3. Push the “2” button to go to the second level. Here, pull levers 1 and 2. On the third level pull levers 1 and 4. For the fourth level pull levers 3 and 4 and, for the fifth level, pull lever 2.
You are now at the top. Beyond the machine and to the left you should see the top of the spiral ramp. (There is also a short walkway to a module extending from the side of the main structure. If you go there Tamara will talk for a bit but doesn’t say anything of major importance.) Go to the ramp and start going down. At each level, just look around to find the next ramp and keep going down. The ramp will eventually end at a landing above a short set of stairs that lead to a circular walkway running around the outer edge of this level.
Spaced along this walkway are twelve machines. Turn to look at the one just to the right of the stairs (as you descend them). The machine has two controls on it; a large dial and a lever. Click on the dial to turn it. You will get a very short scene of a light on the top of a machine turning on.
The machine you just saw is a short distance down the walkway. From the stairs, turn right and start walking around the level. (You should be going clockwise around the facility.) You will pass a few more of the machines like the one you just examined then you will come to a covered switch facing two large machines, one of which has the red light you just saw on top of it. Between you and the machines there is a channel filled with water. This channel goes all the way around the facility and separates the walkway you are on from the central areas of the complex.
We need to get to that central area but cannot cross the water. There is a floating bridge further on down the walkway, but it is too low for us to use. We need to raise the level of the water in the channel.
The two large machines in front of you are water pumps and they are controlled by the smaller machines located along the walkway. Some machines control one pump and some control the other.
You have to activate exactly seven of the smaller machines. (The smaller machines are activated by using the lever on their base.) When seven machines have been activated a cover will close over them and the cover over the switch in front of you will open. Pull this switch to have the pumps send water into the channel. This will cause the floating bridge to rise.
But, if both pumps are on, too much water will be pumped into the channel and the bridge will rise too far. We need to make sure the seven machines we activate all control the same pump.
The way to do this is to use the large dial on one of the machines then go look at the pumps and see which one is on. If only the left pump is on then that machine is one of the correct ones; go back to it and activate it using the lever on its bottom. If the right pump is on then you need to leave that machine off; go back to it and turn its dial back to off.
To correctly raise the bridge, go back to the stairs. Number the machines from 1 to 12 starting with the one you switched on a few minutes ago and going clockwise around the walkway. (If you are facing the stairs, machine 1 is on your left and you want to continue in that direction.) You have already turned on machine 1 so activate it by pulling the lever. Now, additionally turn on and activate machines 3, 5, 7, 8, 10 and 11.
When you activate the last machine the covers will drop down over them and the one over the switch will open. Go to the switch (it’s between machines 2 and 3) and pull it. The floating bridge over to your left will rise into position. Go to the bridge (between machines 5 and 6) and cross it to the central part of the level.
You are now facing another console, this one with 10 switches on it. Examine it for a closeup. Beyond the console is a door that is locked with a set of 10 rods. Each switch on this console causes one rod to move to the left and one to move to the right. You need to get all 10 of the rods to move to the central position.
This is easily done. Number the switches from 1 to 10 starting on the left. Then, flip switchs 10, 1 and 9 (in that order). The door will open.
(Note: If you have previously used any of the switches then the solution here will not work. In this case, number the rods from 1 to 10 starting at the top and use the following information to determine what switches to use. (In the following, S1-5L,9R means that switch 1 causes rod 5 to move left and rod 9 to move right.)
S1-5L,9R S2-7L,8R S3-1R,6L S4-2R,4L S5-3R,10L S6-2L,7R S7-1L,9R S8-3L,6R S9-5R,10L S10-4L,8R)
Walk around the console and into the doorway. You are back in the elevator again. The elevator will automatically start to rise and will go past the fifth level and on up to the top of the complex. When you arrive, you will see a crystal ahead of you. Walk around the machine and pick it up.
Turn around and you should see an active transporter on the other side of the level. Walk towards it.
Before you get to the transporter, Tamara will appear again. Beni will complain that the domains and tests are distracting him and that he keeps worrying about Carrie. Tamara (who is sorting through her wardrobe; apparently she does have something other than that one outfit) will stop him and say that he is of no use to Carrie dead and that both Carrie and her need him to stay focused.
Beni expresses surprise at this remark and the fact that she hasn’t done more to stop him. Tamara reminds him that the entire tomb is a trap and points out that his food and water won’t last much longer. She then adds that she does want Beni to continue exploring the domains within the tomb and asks if he has any more ideas as to why there are only 85 of them. Beni doesn’t know and asks her for the answer. She says that the answer must come from him and that she will leave him alone for a while to think.
Once the cutscene is over, step into the transporter and return to Tomb 35.
Time to go back to the waystone and drop off the latest batch of hearth crystals. Go back down the path and all the way up through the tomb to the waystone. Along the way, Tamara will say that Beni does indeed have to visit all of the domains and that he needs to; not just for Carrie but for her as well.
At the waystone, insert the latest hearth crystals. Then, go all the way back down through the tomb again and along the pathway on the edge of the lake. Keep going past the point where the transporter to Goda was located. A bit further along there will be a room on the right with a final transporter inside. Step into the transporter to be taken to the final domain; Argannas.
Argannas
Toto, I think we’re in Kansas again. Actually, it’s Argannas but I can see the resemblance. Step off the transporter and take a moment to look around. Tamara will start talking about how much she loved Argannas and mention that she tried to save it at the end but failed. (This apparently refers to the event Beni mentioned where all of the Tastan cities were destroyed.)
Argannas contains yet another set of sound puzzles so turn your speakers up again. Be warned that some of these are very subtle; I’ll point them out when we get to them. Also, these sound puzzles are random so I cannot give you exact solutions for them. Instead, just follow my instructions on solving them to get the correct solution for your game.
(Actually, you don’t really need to solve the puzzles with the various noisemakers and keypads. The only reason for solving them is to reach the birdhouses you need to find in order to open the main door. The codes needed to open this door are not random, so if you are completely stuck you can use my solution here to open it.)
Finally, Argannas is just complex enough that is slightly difficult to give good directions for moving around. So, if you seem to be lost, look around for a bit.
That said, start by looking ahead and to the left. You should see a tall tower with a large door in its side (visible in the image here). Walk towards it. When you get close, you will see that the door is surrounded by four panels. Three of them are covered by metal grilles but the fourth (on the upper right) is open. Examine it for a closeup.
You will notice that there are eight geometric shapes on the panel as well as a large, red button on the upper left. Click on the button and you will hear a series of bird chirps. You can also click on any of the geometric shapes. When you do, the shape will slide into the panel and another shape will slide back out into its place. If you continue clicking, you will discover that there are five different shapes.
We can’t do anything with this yet so back out of the closeup then turn around to face the transporter that brought you here. To the right of the transporter you should see a ramp. Walk down this ramp. In front of you there is what appears to be a birdhouse on a tall pole. Walk around to the other side of the pole then turn to face it.
The first thing you should notice is that there is a plaque showing four shapes on the pole. Below the plague is a button. If you push the button, the pole will spin and you will hear a series of bird chirps; the same chirps you heard when you pressed the button on the panel beside the door. These shapes are the first four shapes you need for the first door panel so note them down. Also note the shape of the birdhouse on the top of the pole.
When you are done go back up the ramp. Continue going more-or-less straight, though you will have to bear a bit to the right. Keep going until you get near what looks like a closed gate in the back wall. You will pass several more birdhouses of various shapes along the way but when you get near the gate you should see another birdhouse that looks like the one you examined earlier. The pole for this birdhouse also has a plaque on it with another four shapes. Note these down as well.
Now return to the door into the tower and examine the panel on the upper right. Click on the shapes until the top four shapes match those from the first birdhouse you examined and the bottom four match the shapes from the second birdhouse.
You will automatically exit the closeup and several things will happen. The metal grille will close over the panel you just used while the grille covering a second panel will open. Also, the door into the tower will open, revealing… a second door. (You didn’t expect it to be that easy, did you?) Examine the panel that just opened and press the large red button. Note the series of chirps that it makes then back out of the closeup.
There are several more birdhouses scattered about but none of them are of use to us. There are several closed-off areas of the domain and we need to find the way to enter them.
Start by facing the door that just opened then turn to the left. Go forward until you reach a wall. There is a keypad in the wall here and you can examine it if you wish though we don’t know what to do with it yet. Turn to the right and go forward along the wall. Follow the path you are on; it will bend to the left. Keep following it under what looks like a hanging sculpture of a dragonfly until the path ends at a corner.
At the corner, turn to the right. You should see a building in front of you with an open doorway. (The building looks like an unfinished church of some kind.) Enter the building.
Take a moment to look around. There are a series of columns supporting the roof here and, if you examine them, you will find that each of the columns has a crank of some kind on it as well as a symbol. If you examined the keypad you saw earlier you will realize that the symbols here match those on the pad; obviously there is a connection. You will also notice that each column is different in that each has from three to eight sides.
If you click on the cranks they will turn and you will hear a sound. There are six cranks in here and they produce a variety of sounds, but one sound will be produced by three different cranks. Note down the symbols for the three cranks that produce that common sound and the number of sides on the columns to which those cranks are attached.
Now, return to the keypad you saw earlier. Enter the symbols you just noted on the keypad. The order in which you enter the symbols is based on the number of sides of the column the symbol was on; enter the symbols in order of increasing number of sides.
When you do, several things will happen. A panel will close over the keypad you just used and you will see a second keypad open somewhere else. Additionally, the door to your left will open. Go through the door.
When you enter you will see the keypad that just opened over to your left but, since we haven’t found the code for it yet, just ignore it for the moment. Also to your left there is one of the birdhouses with a button on its pole. You can push the button if you wish but it isn’t one of the ones we are looking for.
Instead, turn to the right. There is a street in front of you with a covered sidewalk on the right side. (To me it looks sort of like an “old west” style street.) Walk along either side of the street. Spaced along each one you will find several bells hanging from the roof, each marked with one of the keypad symbols. Also note that the rope holding each bell has a number of knots in it. Click on each bell to ring it. The bells will make various ringing sounds but, as with the cranks, three of the bells will make the same sound. Note the symbols on the three bells with the common sound and the number of knots in the ropes holding them.
While you are ringing the bells Tamara will suddenly speak up and ask Beni if he has figured anything out yet. Beni, excitedly, will say that he has figured out who the tombs are for. They are those few Tastans for whom the process to extend their lifespan failed to work.
Tamara confirms Beni’s guess. The tombs were created to trap and kill those who left her and the others like her behind when they became “near immortal”. She and Beni talk about this a bit and Beni asks if this revenge is enough. Tamara says that it has to be.
When you have the symbols from the bells, go to the keypad we passed a few minutes ago. Enter the symbols in the proper order, which in this case is based on the number of knots in the ropes. Once again this keypad will close and yet another will open. Looks like we may be here for a while.
Go through the door. In this room you will find a series of seven tracks with a barrel sitting in each one. You will also find several more birdhouses. Beni will gloat a bit when he gets inside. Ignore the birdhouses for now and go examine the barrels.
If you look, you will find that each barrel has a keypad symbol on one side. Click on the barrel and it will roll to the opposite end of its track. Do this for each barrel and listen to the sounds each one makes as it rolls.
Once again, several of the barrels will make the same sound when rolling while the others will make different sounds. (Note that some of the differences may be subtle here.) In this case, there are four barrels with a common sound. Make note of the symbols on these barrels and their relative sizes then leave the room.
Go back down the street with the bells and continue to the back wall. You should see a stairway on the wall that leads to nowhere. You can climb it and look around if you wish but there is really no reason to. Instead, go under the stairs. You should find a small gap in the fence, go through it.
Go ahead and a bit to the right. You should find the next keypad in a small alcove. Enter the four symbols you got from the barrels in the order of increasing barrel size. Once again this keypad closes and you get a brief view of still another keypad opening. The door beside you opens as well. Go through this door.
Inside you will find several flights of stairs. Climb the stairs and note the sound your footsteps make as you climb each set. (Be careful. If you go full speed up the stairs you may not hear anything. Go up the stairs a few steps at a time.) As you can probably guess, your footsteps make different sounds on different flights of stairs but one sound will be common to five of the flights.
About halfway up each flight of stairs there is a symbol on the side wall. Note the symbols for the five flights of stairs with the common sound and the order in which you encounter them as you climb. Be aware that some of the differences in the sounds here are very subtle, so listen carefully.
As you near the top Tamara will speak up again. She will repeat that she tried to save Argannas at the end and add that very few people have made it this far. You can briefly pat yourself on the back before finishing all of the steps.
When you reach the top level, take a moment to look around. There is an odd set of up-and-down stairs on the far side of the room that you need to climb to get the last symbol. You should also notice a pair of birdhouses up here. Note the one near that far set of up-and-down stairs. It has a button on its side, so push it. You should hear the sound from the panel next to the door into the tower. This is the first half of the code you need, so copy down the shapes from the side of the pole.
Once you have identified the five symbols and gotten the shapes from the pole, go all the way back downstairs and exit this building. When you leave, continue going straight along the alley in front of you, between the building to your right and a fence to your left. After a short distance you will see a flight of stairs leading up to a balcony. Climb them. At the top of the stairs you will find a birdhouse which matches the one you found at the top of the squeaky stairs. Copy then symbols down from this birdhouse as well.
Now head back to the street with the bells. (You can either go back down the stairs and retrace your steps or you can follow the balcony around up here. It leads to another set of stairs that takes you down to the street of bells.) From there, return to the door into the tower and enter the shapes you just found into the panel there. This panel will close, the next door will open and a third panel will open. Examine the newly opened panel and press its button to hear another set of chirps.
Fortunately, this one is easy to find. Go back down the street with the bells. As you approach the stairs along the wall in back, turn to your right to face a courtyard. There is a birdhouse with a button here. Press it to hear the same chirps you just heard. Copy the shapes from this birdhouse.
Next, return to the room where you rolled the barrels around. As you enter, turn to the right and go through the opening into a small courtyard. There are several birdhouses out here too and one of them matches the one you just found. Copy down its shapes too.
Return to the door into the tower again and enter the shapes you have found into the panel. As before, another door opens, this panel closes and the final panel opens. Push the red button on the final panel to hear the last set of chirps.
The birdhouse that produces these chirps isn’t accessible to us yet, so we have to go though some more doors. Face the door into the tower then turn to the right. Go straight ahead and into the open door of the building in front of you. Inside you will find the next keypad. Enter the five symbols you got from the stairwell in the order in which you passed them on the stairs. The door next to you will open and, yes, another keypad will open somewhere else. (Is this getting annoying or what?)
(A slight trick on solving the keypad puzzles. If you are having trouble eliminating one of the sounds, it is fairly easy to solve the puzzles even if you can’t eliminate the last one.
In this case, suppose two of the sounds were clearly different but you couldn’t tell what the third different sound was. So, you have six possible symbols instead of five. If this happens, simply enter the symbols five at a time, leaving out a different one each time. Since you know the ordering there are only six possible solutions at this point and it shouldn’t take you much time at all to find the correct one.)
Go through the opened door. Inside you will find another door, this one with a symbol on it. Click on the door to open it and listen to the sound it makes as it opens. Go through this door and continue on to the next. Open it and listen to its sound. Continue onwards, opening doors and listening to the sounds they make. The path twists around and goes up and down several sets of stairs but there is only one way to go so you can’t get lost. You will pass several pieces of furniture along the way but you can’t do anything with any of them.
After you have gone through the fifth door, you will descend a flight of stairs into a courtyard. There is a birdhouse here with a button. Push the button to hear the chirps from the last door panel. Copy the shapes from the birdhouse then continue on your way.
When you go through the door leaving the courtyard you will pass the door with the keypad. Ignore it for now and continue on until you have found all nine doors, six of which make the same sound when they are opened. Note the symbols on these doors and the order in which you went through them.
Now return to the keypad. Click on the six symbols in the correct order. The door will open and this time no other keypad is revealed. Whew! Glad that’s over with. Go on through the door and up the stairs behind it. On an upper balcony you will find the birdhouse matching the one back in the courtyard. Copy the shapes from this birdhouse.
And now we’re almost done! Go back to the door and enter the last set of shapes into the door panel. The final door will open and Beni will cheer his success, saying that he now knows how Ramirez must have felt. Tamara doesn’t have a response for this, so go through the doors. You will find yourself in an elevator which will automatically rise to the next level.
When it arrives, exit the elevator and take the corridor to the right. You will come to an opening on your right with a flight of stairs beyond it. Follow the stairs down and go to the right at the bottom to find yourself in a well-furnished room.
A cutscene will start in which Tamara will tell Beni that she has allowed him to see everything after all; this is the final chamber. She seems fairly bitter about him being there (even though she just admitted that she allowed him to get this far) and says that this is where Ramirez wrote his name on the wall; indicating some markings as she does so.
Beni becomes instantly regretful and starts apologizing to her. Their conversation is a bit odd and it seems at one point as if he is even offering to stay there with her. Tamara is dismissive of him but he tells her that he will make sure everyone knows the truth about what happened to Tamara and the others. Tamara doesn’t seem convinced and eventually disappears.
When the cutscene ends you can wander around Tamara’s rooms if you wish. The various items and pieces of furniture you have seen her with in her earlier appearances are all here though you can’t do anything with them.
The major item of interest here are the markings on the wall. If you examine them, you should recognize them as the same as the symbols being projected by the waystone onto the wall of the tomb.
Remember that Tamara said that Ramirez wrote his name on the wall here? Well, “Ramirez” is seven letters with the first and fifth letters being the same. There are seven symbols here, with the first and fifth symbols being the same. Yes, this is Ramirez’s name. (I wonder how he programmed his name into the waystone as well?) There is no way for Beni to write his name here (even if he wanted to), so just go back up the stairs when you have finished looking around.
Go back into the elevator and it will rise to the top of the tower. Exit and follow the corridor around to find the hearth crystal for Argannas. Pick it up then return to the elevator. You will be taken back to the ground level. Once you step back outside the final door into the tower will close again and you will not be able to reopen it. There is nothing else to do here so just go back to the transporter and return to Tomb 35.
Tomb 35
Tomb 35 should be familiar to you by now, so just go all the way back up to the top of the tomb and place the final hearth crystal into the waystone. The final symbol will be projected onto the wall of the tomb. When it does, you will see what looks like a crypt rise from the ground. Well, I guess that’s where we need to go next.
Go all the way back down to the bottom of the tomb again. Follow the path around the edge of the water and past the point where you found the transporter to Argannas. There is a narrow bridge here that leads out to the crypt. Go across it.
When you reach the front of the crypt there will be a device of some sort to your left. Ignore it for now; you can’t reach it yet. Instead, go into the crypt. Keep going forward until you find yourself… right back where you started?
Beni will express surprise at this (and I’m not sure what happened either) and say that he is back where he started. Tamara will appear and ask if he is sure. She will then ask, if Ramirez went through the tomb, why no one knows about their true purpose or who the 85 really were. Beni guesses that Tamara either changed Ramirez somehow or that she converted him to her side. Tamara dismisses both of these ideas and suggests a third one; that Ramirez never really escaped.
You should have seen a step slide into position at the base of the device we passed earlier so go examine it. Though it is not obvious, this is a keyboard. When you press any of the keys, a series of balls will roll into the tracks on either side of the keyboard.
Above each track there is a symbol, a set of radiating lines and a set of circles. Together, these tracks indicate a symbol like those being projected onto the wall of the tomb. For example, the first symbol being shown has four lines and two circles. So, the key that causes four balls to roll into the lines track and two balls to roll into the circles track is the correct key for this symbol.
Each time you press a key, an asterisk symbol appears above the keyboard. When you have entered seven symbols, the asterisks reset.
What you need to do here is press the keys corresponding to the symbols that are being projected by the waystone. Since we have already determined that the symbols are the name “Ramirez”, you are entering Ramirez’s name. The correct keys to press are shown in the image to the right. Just press, in order, R – A – M – I – R – E – Z. If you have done this correctly, the asterisks will change to “RAMIREZ” and a final cutscene will start.
Tamara will reappear and tell Beni that he is Ramirez. When she first encountered him she was impressed by his compassion and nature but she needed to test him again to see if they were real. She has decided that he is honest and so she will let him go.
Beni… er, Ramirez asks if she is afraid that he will tell everyone the truth. She replies that she doesn’t think it will matter, given what they have discussed of human nature. But, she says that maybe things will change. She blows Ramirez a kiss and bids him farewell, at least until they meet again.
Ramirez slowly walks back towards the entrance to the tomb, where he is met by “Doba” and Carrie. Doba tells Carrie that he knew her father would return and welcomes you home, and we fade out as Carrie runs towards you calling “Daddy!”
And you have completed Sentinel: Descendants in Time. Glad you came along.
Final Thoughts
Allow me a moment to say… “What the frell?”
All right, let me talk about the puzzles first. For the most part, I liked the puzzle part of Sentinel. I thought it was a bit heavy on the sound puzzles but that is really a minor quibble. I liked them because solving them came with a sense of accomplishment. For the most part, you had to understand the puzzle in order to complete it; you couldn’t simply try every item in your inventory or every possible combination and just get past the puzzle without knowing how or why it worked. (For example, there are over 390 thousand possible combinations of shapes for each of the four panels on the door into the tower in Argannas. You aren’t getting through that door using trial and error. This is why I had the problem with Corabanti that I did; even after “solving” the puzzle there you still had to rotate bridges over and over and over again. That isn’t puzzle solving; that’s busywork.)
On the other hand, much of the plot had me going, “Huh?”
Let me see if I understand this. The Tastan civilization, technologically advanced and peaceful, is at its peak. Then, the Tastan’s develop a means of drastically extending their lifespans. The entire population decides to undergo the treatment and, overnight, chooses to destroy their own civilization, burning their cities to the ground and rebuilding a simpler, less advanced culture.
Why? This is never made clear. Perhaps the people of Beni’s… er… Ramirez’s time are simpler and “less bold” (as Beni puts it) because of a side effect of the life extension treatments. But, if that was a side effect, wouldn’t there be some number of Tastans who would choose not to take the treatments? Choosing a shorter but “bolder” life?
Apparently not, since it seems the only ones who didn’t undergo the treatment were those who couldn’t. And they apparently were so angered at their inability to have their lives extended that they designed the tombs to trap and kill those who could.
And they apparently succeeded, to some extent, since know one knows the real reason for the tombs. Or what happened to the Tastans for that matter. Which also doesn’t make sense.
The Tastan civilization ended 500 years ago. And the life extension process extends lifespans to around 500 years. So, the Tastan civilization fell only one generation ago. But no one knows what happened to them? The Tastans kept it a secret from their own children? All of them? Why?
Of course, we only think we know all this because we hear it from Beni and we know that his memories have been altered by Tamara. He doesn’t even remember being Ramirez, how can we know that he really didn’t know what happened to the Tastans before Tamara erased his memory? For that matter, if we accept that Tamara can erase memories and implant false ones, how much of anything that happens can we believe?
On the other hand, maybe she can’t. Maybe the ending of the game is where Tamara finally closes her trap on Beni. Remember the tunnel through the crypt, the place where Beni seemed to return to his starting point? Suppose that tunnel led him to another domain, one created just for him by Tamara. He isn’t Ramirez, he just thinks he is because Tamara told him he was. And, soon, Beni will die within the tomb, thinking he is Ramirez and that he has been reunited with his “friend” Doba and his “daughter” Carrie. Just the latest victim of Tomb 35.
Actually, that idea may make the most sense. Go back into the game and Tomb 35. Look at the place from which you entered the game; the column where Doba and Carrie are supposedly waiting for you. It’s just a small, isolated column sitting in the middle of the tomb. How did you get there in the first place?
Maybe “Tomb 35” is just another domain. Tamara did say, several times, that she could create anything she needed. So, maybe this is the trap. Beni will spend the rest of his life, forever searching through Tomb 35 again and again.
Or, maybe I’m overanalyzing this. After all, the “plot” of an adventure game is really there just to provide an excuse for the puzzles. Still, it is possible to have a plot which makes sense and provides a reason for the puzzles as well. (See Syberia as an example.)
Overall though, Sentinel: Descendants in Time (or Realms of Illusion or whatever it is called now) is a good game. I just wish it had been a bit clearer as to what was supposedly going on.
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