Game InfoPoint ListWalk Through

King's Quest VI : Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow


Walk Through

Alexander is standing on a little beach with shipwreck debris scattered everywhere. There is a shimmering glint in the sand. Look at it. It is Alexander's royal insignia ring that might come in handy, so take it. (When taking items using the HAND icon, click the tip of the extended pointer finger on the object.) On the right side of the beach, there is a long plank lying on the sand. Touch the plank to move it. A little box will be revealed. Open the box. You will see a close-up of the inside of the box with a little glint of a copper coin. Take it. You can move the plank back over the box if you like, but that is all you can do on this beach for now. Head north to a fork in the path with a large majestic tree in the center. There is nothing in the tree's hole, but later in the game, a little visitor will be in the branches of this tree. For now, choose the east path to go to the castle. Once at the castle, look at the guard dogs. Talk to them repeatedly until they have nothing new to say. The guard dogs need prove that you are indeed Prince Alexander of Daventry. The only identification you have is the royal insignia ring you got from the beach, so show it to them. Click the ring on one of the guard dogs. Captain Saladin will arrive and let you enter to seek an audience with Vizier Alhazred. Watch the animated sequence. Take special note of the genie -- particularly his eyes. The vizier is not the most hospitable of all people and kicks you out of the castle, not to be let in again! Go around the left side of the castle to see a blank wall. This wall will come into play near the end of the game, but for now, return to the forked path and large tree.

Go west into the little village. There is an old street peddler here selling old lamps for new lamps. Look at him and talk to him about his unusual business. Maybe later, you will be able to get a lamp from him. There are two shops here. You can look at the signs on the shops to see what they are. The left shop is Ali's Bookstore. Touch the door with the HAND icon to enter the bookstore. Once inside this nice cozy place, go talk to Ali (the bookstore owner) repeatedly until he has nothing new to say. Take special note of what he says concerning transportation to the other isles and the ferry. You will have to speak to the ferryman later. There is a book next to Ali on the counter. Look at it and click on it with the HAND icon to ask about this book. Ali says that it is a spellbook and would be willing to trade it for a rare and more marketable book. Keep that in mind. Just beside the door is a little bargain table. Look at it to see a little sign. Free book? Okay! Take it! Wonder why Ali wants to get rid of it? Open up the inventory window and touch the book to read it. Woah! What an awful book! That could definitely put someone to sleep! It even beats theoretical calculus books! Perhaps the book on the center table beside the chair is better. Take the book and sit down in the chair to read it. Well, that was an interesting book about court jesters. Wonder who likes it so much? Oh, well. Unless you have been blind, there is an old cloaked man standing in the bookstore. Look at him and talk to him. Not much of a talker. What glaring eyes! Look at all the books on the bookshelves. There are several sections of shelves here. The section on the farthest right side of the store is the only section that Alexander is really interested in -- poetry. Click on the bookshelves there to get a book of love poems. Read a few poems. The last one was particularly interesting. Once Alexander puts the book back onto the bookshelf, look at the floor. One of the pages fell out. Take it. Goodie! Ali said that Alexander could keep it! That is all for the bookstore for now, so leave.

Ali mentioned something about the ferry, so let's find it. SAVE GAME. Go north and out of the village. There is a nice stucco house here with a beautiful rose garden in front. There is girl here looking at the roses. Look at her. She seems to be a servant or slave. You cannot talk to her. Suddenly, a mean old lady appears at the front door and orders her back to work. Poor girl! Perhaps you can help her later. Continue west to the pier. There is a little boy here with sparkly eyes who repeatedly invites you to swim with him. Ignore the boy and let him disappear. Beside the pier is a boat. Click the HAND icon on the boat's front door. You may need to move Alexander out of the way in order to click on the door. The ferryman will come out. Talk to him. If you talked to Ali in the bookstore before meeting the ferryman, he will let you inside. Once inside, talk to the ferryman repeatedly until he has nothing new to say. Take special note of the discussion concerning a magic map and the pawnshop. Once you are done, look at the rabbit's foot on the table and take it. The ferryman will give you permission to have it. Leave the boat. Head back to the village.

Before entering the pawnshop, stop by Ali's bookstore again. A strange-looking man should be in the chair reading a book. Look at him and talk to him. He is too worried about the princess and will not speak to you unless he knew who you were. Using the same tactic you used on the guard dogs earlier, show him the royal insignia ring. You can also show him your copper coin. He will talk to you now. Talk to him repeatedly until he has nothing new to say. The man, Jollo the Clown, talked about a nightingale named Sing-Sing. Hmm. Once he leaves, exit the bookstore. You can follow Jollo if you like, but it is not necessary. Enter the pawnshop. That old cloaked man is here as well. Look at him. Try talking to him. Notice the eyes. Talk to the pawn shop owner now. If you talked to the ferryman repeatedly enough, Alexander will question the pawn shop owner about a magic map. The owner will take the map out and set it on the counter. He will only give you the map in exchange for something of great worth. Give the owner the royal insignia ring. Once Alexander gets the magic map, the old cloaked man will take a mint and stagger out of the pawnshop. Then an automatic cartoon sequence with Vizier Alhazred and his genie Shamir will start.

Once the cartoon sequence is finished, take a mint from the mint bowl on the counter. Now examine all the items on the counter. Look at them and the pawnshop owner will tell you more about them. You will eventually use all these items at some point during the game. For now, start with the mechanical nightingale. There is nothing more to do in the pawnshop besides looking at all the unusual merchandise on the shelves. Leave and go to the crossroads with the large tree. If you have the magic map with you, then the nightingale Sing-Sing (that Jollo talked about earlier) will appear. Sing-Sing is very shy towards people, so perhaps if Alexander could befriend it somehow, it might help him out. Use the mechanical nightingale from the pawnshop on Sing-Sing. It will fly to a lower branch. You will give Sing-Sing three items later in the game. For now, let's take a quick check on the village. The pawnshop owner just dumped a bunch of trash into the large pot outside his store. You know how the saying goes, "One man's trash is another man's treasure." Go dig around in the trash. There is an interesting ink bottle in the pot. It appears to be empty. Maybe your eyes are deceiving you, so open it and look inside to see if there could possibly be anything inside. Surprise! It's invisible ink. Hmm. This may come in handy.

The pawnshop owner said that the map could only be used near where there is water, so go to the beach where you first woke up. Use the map on Alexander to look at it. There are four islands: Isle of Wonder, Isle of the Sacred Mountain, and Isle of the Crown. Let's go to the Isle of the Sacred Mountain first, so click the HAND icon on that island to be magically transported there. Gosh! I wish I had a map like that to get around! Wouldn't you?! The magic map will work on all the beaches as well at the docks on the Isle of the Crown (thanks to Akril for the info on the docks). At the Isle of the Sacred Mountain, there is some writing on the cliff wall. You will deal with that later. For now, take the nasty smelling flower and the black feather on the sand. Use the magic map and go to the Isle of Wonder.

Save your game once you are on the Isle of Wonder. Do not head north yet! There is an oyster bed on the west side of the beach. One of the oysters is not asleep. Look at the oysters and talk to the awake oyster. It has an ache in its mouth due to a large pearl. Talk to the oyster some more to see if you can help it. Hmm. You cannot poke around in its mouth because it will not let you. Well, the oyster needs some rest, so perhaps if you read the oyster a bedtime story, it will fall asleep. Since you don't have a lot of time on your hands, read the really boring book you got from Ali's bookstore. A close-up of the oyster will appear on the screen. Hover the HAND icon near the middle of the oyster. It will yawn three times before falling asleep. As it yawns, you will find out that it has a gigantic pearl in its mouth that is causing the ache. You need to grab that pearl inside its mouth when it yawns. Be quick before it falls asleep! Once you get the pearl, the oyster will sleep peacefully. SAVE GAME.

In the ocean, there is a floating string of letters. Wait for the string to float closer into the shore and take it. Look at the string to see what it says. Do not try to go out into the ocean to take the string. Alexander will get sucked under by the currents. SAVE GAME. Now it is time to head north. Before you can get far, five sense gnomes will approach Alexander. Each gnome has one dominating sense (i.e. taste, touch, smell, sight, hear). You need to fool them into not knowing that you are a human, or else you will get thrown into the sea to your demise. The first gnome is the gnome with the big nose. After they do their little chant, the cursor will change back to normal. You have a few seconds to rush up to the inventory, select the flower of stench from the Isle of the Sacred Mountain, and put it under the gnome's large nose. All he will smell is the nasty flower. The next gnome has large floppy ears. Use the mechanical nightingale on him and watch him dance! The third gnome has a large mouth and long tongue. Put a nice mint from the pawn shop on that tongue. Yum! The fourth gnome has enormous hands. Let his fingers poke at the lucky rabbit's foot from the ferryman. The last gnome has large eyes. Use the ink bottle on yourself to disappear from the eye gnome. If you did not get the invisible ink bottle from the trash that the pawn shop owner dumped out, then you will die here. However, if you are quick enough and use your map to teleport back to the Isle of the Crown when the gnomes finish their chant, you might just make it in time to get that bottle. Once the gnomes are gone, you are free to explore the Isle of Wonder.

Go east to the book garden. There are stacks of books everywhere and spelling bees hovering overhead. Perhaps one of these books is a rare book that can be used to trade for magic book that is in Ali's Bookstore. Use the HAND icon on any of the books, and the bookworm will appear. Talk to him repeatedly. He will want something in exchange for a rare book. You can try giving him the floating sentence fragment from the beach, but fragments are a dime a dozen and will not be accepted by the bookworm. One of the things he wants is a dangling participle. Keep that in mind. You cannot do anything with Diphthong, Oxymoron, or the bees. However, there is a nice little spider web at the bottom of the screen. Look at it and talk to the sexy (but deadly) black widow spider who owns it. Do not touch the spider in any way! Look at the piece of paper stuck in the web. If you try to grab the paper now, the spider will poison you. You have to distract it first. At the base of the web, there is a loose thread. Click the HAND icon on it to pull it out. The spider will run down to that string and try to fix it. Take these couple of seconds to quickly grab that piece of paper. The word on that piece of paper is LOVE. Make sure you remember that word because it will come into play later in the game. You cannot keep the piece of paper. It will fly away, so do not worry about it.

Go west back to the beach and head north to the swamp. In the swamp is Stick-in-the-Mud. On the left side of the screen is his brother Bump-on-a-Log. Alexander will deal with them later. For now, take a milk bottle from milkweed bush underneath the dogwood tree. The tree will bark wildly at Alexander, but that is okay. Ignore it. Continue west into the unusual garden. Look at all the plants that grow there. Talk to them! Take the rotten tomato from underneath one of the vines. You can talk to it and touch it in your inventory for funny responses! Not a very pleasant little guy, is he? On the right wall, there is a little hole-in-the-wall. You can look inside the hole to see what looks like rolling checkered hills. It is Chessboard Land. You want to get the hole-in-the-wall, but it is too shy and runs away each time. You will get it later. For now, open the doors and enter Chessboard Land. You are immediately greeted by 2 horses (actually, they are knight pieces in chess). Talk to them. The red and white queens will arrive shortly. Listen to their conversation closely. It seems that the red queen has the only lump of coal in Chessboard Land, and the white queen only has a spoiled egg. Alexander could not help their little situation right now, but keep that information in mind. Take the red scarf that the queen left behind. You cannot enter into further Chessboard Land and see what lies beyond those rolling hills. Sorry!

Exit back into the garden. On the ground is some iceberg lettuce. Take a nice cold head of lettuce, and return to the beach. The head of lettuce will melt after a certain amount of time has passed, so that is why you should get it after meeting the chess queens. If, by chance, your lettuce completely melts into a puddle of water before you use it, go back here and take another one. Go the beach, take out the magic map, and go to the Isle of the Beast. If you talked to the bookworm on the Isle of Wonder enough times to hear him wanting a dangling participle, then a strange-looking creature should appear dangling upside-down from the branches. Talk to it. It seems a bit uncooperative. Show it the sentence fragment that was floating in the sea at the Isle of Wonder. It will complete the sentence and ride with you. You have 2 passengers now -- if you count the rotten tomato as the second one! Continue north to a small pond of boiling water. SAVE GAME. Alexander will have to wade through that pond, but the water is way too hot. Cool it down by throwing a head of iceberg lettuce. It needs to be completely unmelted or half-melted. If the lettuce is completely melted into a pool of water, go back to the Isle of Wonder and get another head of lettuce from the garden. Once the water is cooled down a bit, run through it. Ouch! On the other side of the pond, there is a yellow hunter's lamp hanging from a tree. Take it. No genie in that lamp. Sorry! Do not give the hunter's lamp to the street peddler yet. You will need to hold onto it for a while for you will use it for a certain spell. Continue north to a garden with a moving archer statue. SAVE GAME. The gardener (notice his eyes) will tell you to come over and join him. Do not listen to him. The moment you pass through the gate, the archer statue will shoot an arrow at Alexander and kill him. Later, you will find something to protect yourself from the archer. Then you will be able to explore the rest of the Isle of the Beast. The gardener will disappear. Good riddance! There is a small gray brick lying on the grass near the bottom of the screen. Take it and return to the beach of this isle.

Take out your map and go to the Isle of Wonder. Talk to the bookworm again and give him the dangling participle you got from the Isle of the Beast. He will give you a rare riddle book. Open it and look inside. Part of one of the pages is missing. The design on that page looks quite familiar, does it not? Didn't the torn piece of paper in the spider's web have that same design? Hmm. Too bad you cannot read the riddle. Go back to the beach and transport to the Isle of the Crown. Go to the village. A sign should now be posted on the wall next to Ali's bookstore. Read it. It's a wedding announcement for Princess Cassima and Vizier Alhazred! Enter Ali's bookstore and talk to Jollo about the event. After Jollo leaves, give Ali the rare riddle book you got from the bookworm on the Isle of Wonder. He will give you the spellbook. Click the HAND icon on the spellbook in your inventory window to see a close-up screen of the spellbook's pages. There are three spells in the book. You are looking at the first spell. To turn to the next page, hover the mouse on the southeast corner of the second page (right page). Hover it near the edge if needed. The cursor should change to a bent arrow. Click the arrow at that spot to turn the page. To turn back to the previous page, click on the southwest corner/edge of the first page of the spell. Look at all the ingredients required for the spells. If you plan to take the long path, you will need to find all the ingredients for these spells and use these spells. The short path does not require any spells.

Take stop over at the pawnshop and trade in the mechanical nightingale for the flute. Show the pawnshop owner the pearl you got from the little oyster on the Isle of Wonder. He will gladly accept that pearl and give back your royal insignia ring. Just don't get too attached to that ring because you need give it to Sing-Sing the bird. If you did not play the mechanical nightingale for Sing-Sing in the large tree, it will not accept your ring. Sing-Sing will take the ring to Cassima. Cassima will give Sing-Sing a hair ribbon to give to you. Take the hair ribbon and examine it in your inventory. Touch it to find a strand of maiden hair that can be used for one of the spells. Now give Sing-Sing the love letter. Cassima will send back a little note of concern for you. Not exactly a love letter, but hey, it is a start! *smile* In her letter, she mentions trying to get her hands on some small means of defense ... a small weapon? Keep that in mind. There is another item that you can give to Sing-Sing to hand to Cassima later in the game. (NOTE: A strand of maiden's hair can also be found on Beauty's clothes later in the game. It will either be in the hair ribbon or in Beauty's clothes, but not in both places).

For now, go back to the Isle of Wonder and into the unusual garden. Remember that hole-in-the-wall? Now it is time to get him. The shy wallflowers are in the way, but plants love music, so play a nice little waltz tune on your flute that you got from the pawn shop. After Alexander finishes playing, the wallflowers will continue dancing for a few more seconds. That is your cue to use the HAND icon quickly onto the hole to get it. This may take several tries. (On some newer computers, there is virtually no time to get the hole before the wallflowers stop dancing. If this is the case on your computer, before playing the flute, SAVE GAME, and then set the game speed to slow. Now play the flute. Hopefully, the game will slow down enough to give you time to grab the hole.) Since you have the spellbook now, a little teacup is sitting on the table in the garden. If you plan to do the long path, then take the teacup.

Go back to the Isle of Crown and enter the pawnshop. Trade in the flute for the tinderbox. It is time to explore more of the Isle of the Sacred Mountain, so go there. The beach area is quite small, and all that you can see are the cliffs. On the cliff wall at Alexander's eye-level, there are little markings. Look at those strange cliff markings to get a close-up of four words: IGNORANCE KILLS WISDOM ELEVATES. This is the first of five challenges that Alexander must solve on the cliffs of logic. If you click on any of the letters, they will depress into the cliff wall. If you press the correct sequence of letters (or symbols later on), then stone steps will appear on the cliff wall for you to climb using the WALK icon on each step. SAVE GAME often, especially after completing a puzzle correctly. Since the information and answers to the logic cliffs are copyright protected, I cannot give them out to you. You must refer to your game manual (see paragraph 2 of this walkthrough.) However, I will give you hints on where to go to find the information:

In the "Logic Cliffs" section of the Guidebook of to the Land of the Green Isles, the first, third, and fifth challenges are explained. For the first and fifth challenge, you have to press the letters in order on the cliff wall to spell out the answer that is written in CAPITAL letters in the manual. For the third challenge, a "Stones of Stealth" poem is listed. The poem is a number order puzzle. You have to press a certain combination of circular buttons in the correct order, according to the poem. Just mess with it a bit, and you will eventually get the correct sequence. The second and fourth challenges require the use of the Ancient Ones alphabet in the game manual. The answers to these two challenges can be found in the third paragraph of the "Ancient Ones" section. They are there! Just read closely. For the second challenge, you have to spell out the correct word using the symbols. For the fourth challenge, you have to press four symbols total on the cliff wall -- one symbol representing one of the sacred four. That means you do not need to spell out each of the sacred four.

Once Alexander reaches the top of the of the cliffs, SAVE GAME, so you do not have to go through all that again. *grin* At the top of the cliffs is a strange lady with sparkly eyes who repeatedly invites Alexander to eat a berry from the bush. The berries are poisonous, so do not listen to her. Talk to her a bit and just wait around for a moment until she disappears. Definitely extremely odd! There is a tiny cave entrance where the berry nightshade bush is. Use the HAND icon to crawl into the entrance and into the cave. The cave is very dark, and Alexander cannot see unless he uses the tinderbox. Click the tinderbox on Alexander to light it. Now, he can see, but that does not necessarily mean you can see! *grin* You might need to brighten up your monitor and/or turn out some lights in your room, because it is sometimes impossible to see the little cave hole on the east side of the screen that leads to the second screen of this cave. If you need more help, you can click on the button below to see a screenshot of this cave hole's location.



In the second screen of the cave, there are some mint leaves. Take a few. Do not eat them. They are not for you. That is all that is in the cave, so leave. SAVE GAME. At this point, if you continue north into the Winged Ones City, you will eventually get thrown into the catacombs. Right now, check your inventory. Make sure you have the following items: red queen's scarf (Isle of Wonder), tinderbox (Isle of Crown), hole-in-the-wall (Isle of Wonder), and brick (Isle of the Beast). If you have all these items, then you are ready to enter the catacombs. If you do are missing an item, go back down the cliff and get them. If you have all the items, enter the Winged Ones City and talk to Lord Azure and Lady Ariel. Eventually, you will end up in the catacombs in a mission to save Lady Celeste. SAVE GAME NOW! There are 2 levels of the catacombs: you are currently on the upper level. You will need your game manual for the tile floor puzzle in the upper level. Sometimes, Alexander might see Lady Celeste walking around in the upper level. She's a fake. Do not follow her. There are a lot of rooms with pits where Alexander can fall to his death. If you want to wander around the catacombs on your own, skip the next two paragraphs.

This is a straightfoward tour of the catacombs. From the starting screen, go up 2 screens, right 2 screens, and up 1 screen. You are now in a room with a lot of creepy, icky skeletons. There is a skull on the floor. Take it. Go down 1 screen, left 2 screens, up 1 screen, and left 1 screen. SAVE GAME! You are now at the Tile Floor Puzzle Room. Alexander must step on the correct sequence of tiles to the exit on the rightside of the screen, or else he will get killed with spikes. In the "Catacombs" section of your game manual, there is a Roses poem. Each verse of that poem contains images shown on the tiles. Use the poem to solve this puzzle, since I cannot give out the answers to solve this puzzle due to copyright protection. After exiting the tile room, go left 1 screen and up 1 screen. Take the shield on the wall. Go up 3 screens and left 2 screens. There is a skeleton lying here with some gold coins on its eyes. Take the gold coins. Go right 2 screens, down 1 screen, and SAVE GAME. Go right 1 screen to a trap room with a falling ceiling. You have to be quick and throw the brick into the rotating gears to spring the trap. Go right 2 screens, up 1 screen, and SAVE GAME. Go right 1 screen to fall to the lower level 2.

In lower level 2 of the catacombs, it is pitch black. You have a limited amount of time to click the tinderbox on Alexander's eyes to light up the lower level. Now, go left 5 screens, down 2 screens, and right 1 screen. This is the spying room. Wow! Loud noises! It seems to be coming from the left wall. Use the hole-in-the-wall to peek through the wall. The minotaur! He has a secret entrance behind some tapestry that lies in the room just east of this room! Now to get to that room. Go left 3 screens, down 2 screens, right 1 screen, down 1 screen, right 2 screens, up 1 screen, right 1 screen, and up 2 screens to the Tapestry Room. Take a short break! *grin* Phew! Touch the tapestry, SAVE GAME, and go into the Minotaur's Lair. Yikes! He's got Lady Celeste tied up! The minotaur has quite a bullish personality, so be a bull-fighting matador. Use the red scarf on him (try clicking it on his pants) or on the firepit to distract and kill him. Yay! That wasn't too hard! Free Lady Celeste and leave the catacombs. She is kind of snobbish, don't you think? Perhaps she and the snobby prince (frog in King's Quest 4) would make a nice couple! Hehe! At least, she lets you keep the handy dagger.

Alexander will be congratulated by Lord Azure and Lady Ariel and get a nice meeting with the Oracle. Bad things are definitely churning up in the Green Isles! *sigh* The Oracle gives Alexander a vial of sacred water. (NOTE: If you forgot to get an item in the catacombs, you can always go through it again to retrieve any items that you are missing. No minotaur to deal with! Just stay in the upper level.) Go back down to the beach area of the Isle of the Sacred Mountain. You will no longer have to deal with the Winged Ones. Look on your magic map. There should be a new island in the lower righthand corner of the map called the Isle of Mists. This island will not appear until after you successfully completed the catacombs. Go to that isle.

Once you reach the shores, SAVE GAME. From the shore, DO NOT go north, or else you will end up dead in the Druid Ceremony. Go west into the little village area. You cannot enter the houses, but there is a scythe (blade-like weapon) hanging on the west house and some coal in the firepit. Take the scythe. If you plan to take the long path, take the lump of coal now. Go east back to the shore and transport to the Isle of the Beast. At this point, if you return to the Isle of Mists a second time, you will be thrown into the Druid Ceremony automatically.

On the Isle of the Beast, go to the garden screen where you found the brick earlier in the game. There is a stone archer here. If you enter the gateway, the archer will shoot Alexander to death. Use the shield from the catacombs on Alexander to protect him from the stone archer. On the other side of the gate, there is a rosehedge blocking the path that suddenly grows together if Alexander gets too close. Use the scythe on the rose hedge to cut through it. On the other side of the rose hedge, Alexander will meet the cursed Beast. Talk to the beast and listen to what he says. Once the beast leaves, SAVE GAME. Alexander was just given a curse by the beast. If Alexander does not find a maiden who is willing to stay with the beast, he too will turn into a beast. That means you do not have a lot of time, since this curse is set on a game timer. Return to the rose hedge, and take a white rose. Hmm. There was only one maiden (besides Cassima) that you saw on these Isles. The servant girl on the Isle of the Crown who was attending roses earlier. Go to the Isle of the Crown.

Go past the village and see that the serving girl is a bit closer towards the front. Talk to her. She is quite shy, but she really likes roses! Give her the white rose from the Isle of the Beast. She will now talk to you. Talk to her a few times. Give her the ring that the beast gave Alexander to tell her about the tale of the beast. Wow! She wants to attend to this beast! Wonderful! Beauty will come with Alexander to meet the Beast. Watch the sequence! Aw! Hope they live happily ever after in their castle! You cannot enter the hedge maze and meet them again in their castle. Sorry. The beast did give you a mirror, and Beauty gave you her clothes. Go to the rose hedge and take another white rose. You have finally arrived at the point where you must choose between the short path or the long path (see third paragraph at the top of this walkthrough). I will start with the short path first and then the long path. Read the appropriate section for the path you have selected.

TAKING THE SHORT PATH


Go to the Isle of the Crown, and enter the pawn shop. Trade the tinderbox for the mechanical nightingale again. Make sure you have mint leaves with you from the small cave on the Isle of the Sacred Mountain. Now go to the crossroads with the big tree and Sing-Sing the nightingale. Give Sing-Sing the second white rose you got from the Isle of the Beast. That will be the last item you send to Cassima via Sing-Sing. Poor Alexander! He gets nothing in return this time. Go to the Castle of the Crown. A line of servant women are entering the castle. Notice how they have very similar clothing to what Beauty used to have. Aha! An idea! Enter the little hut on the side road. Click Beauty's clothes on Alexander, so he can put on a disguise. Enter the castle disguised as a servant maiden. Once you enter, SAVE GAME.

Ignore the man walking by with the tray. There are two sets of stairs. Do not use the east staircase. Use the west staircase. At the top of the staircase, listen to what the 2 guard dogs are talking about. Something concerning a reward for finding Sing-Sing. Watch how they pace up and down the hallway. Once they are heading towards the backwall of the hallway and have passed the little rightside alcove, run into the alcove and click the HAND icon on the big pillar to hide behind it. There is a painting here, but do not touch it yet. If you tamper with it, the guard dogs will catch Alexander immediately. The guard dogs will pass the pillar towards the staircase, turn around, and walk to the backwall again. Once they pass the alcove towards the backwall, walk out into the hallway and quickly click the mechanical nightingale onto the red carpet on the floor. It will start singing. Immediately run back into the alcove and hide behind the pillar again. The guard dogs will get temporarily distracted (about 5 minutes), but they will return. SAVE GAME.

Take this short time to examine the pillar. Take the nail that is behind it. Use this nail to unlock the door just across the hall from the alcove. This is Vizier Alhazred's bedroom. Nice decor, huh? *grin* There is a locked chest here that you can unlock using the nail. Take and read the letter in the chest. Yikes! It's a letter written by the vizier, and it contains very bad news! This guy is definitely evil and must be dealt with quickly! There is a little ebony box with a note in it that you can read (zebu) just for interest. Besides that, there is nothing else in the bedroom, so leave. Go back into the alcove and put the nail and the portrait back to their original positions, so the guards will not catch you later. Return to the main hallway to go towards the back wall. There is a door in this back hallway with crying behind it. Talk to the person behind the door. It is Cassima! Yay! Alexander found Cassima! After talking to Cassima, show her the vizier's letter, so she also knows how evil he is. She mentioned again about finding some small means of defense. Give Celeste's dagger to Cassima.

You cannot save Cassima right now, so quickly go back into the hallway and hide in the alcove again. Hopefully, you made it back before the guard dogs arrive. Just wait for a few moments. Something will be happening in the back hallway, and the guard dogs will be distracted there. Once you hear wedding music, SAVE GAME. Make a quick run downstairs and towards the large doors where the ceremony is taking place. Captain Saladin will stop Alexander from proceeding and will give him a few seconds to explain himself. Quickly show Captain Saladin the vizier's letter. He will let you enter the ceremony where Cassima is strangely happy to marry the vizier. Talk to Cassima. Yikes! What is going on?! She wants Alexander killed?! Hmm ... something is odd here. Notice her gleaming eyes.

According to the Beast, mirrors reflect truth, so use the beast's mirror on Cassima to reveal to everyone who she really is. The vizier will run away. Ignore whatever else is happening in the room and chase the vizier up the stairs into the tower room. He will summon the genie to cast a blast spell on Alexander. Well, by now, you should have figured out that the genie has been spying on Alexander in various forms. They all have gleaming eyes. One form was the old man in the village who had a love for ... mint leaves! Quickly give the genie some mint leaves. If you forgot the mint leaves, you are doomed here, and must restore to before entering the castle. Once the genie blasts himself into oblivion, Alexander must fight the vizier. Click on the sword on the wall behind Alexander. It is really heavy, but it will do. Click the sword on the vizier and watch the fight scene. If you did not give Cassima the dagger beforehand, Alexander will quickly lose here. Cassima will eventually come up behind the vizier and stab him in the back. Quickly click the sword on the vizier to give him one last blow. Watch the ending wedding sequence. Congratulations! You have just finished the short path to King's Quest 6: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow.

TAKING THE LONG PATH


Now it is time to start preparing some of these spells. One of the ingredients for one of the spells is swamp ooze in a teacup. (If you did not get the teacup earlier, you can find it in the garden one screen west.) Click the teacup on the swamp water. The stick-in-the-mud will start yelling at Alexander. Watch the scene between the stick and the bump-on-the-log. Talk to both repeatedly until they have nothing new to say. The bump needs something to get back at his obnoxious brother. Let's be generous and .. uh ... donate the rotten tomato to the help-the-bump fund. *grin* The bump and stick will have a little fight, apologize, and fall asleep. Wow! That was a quick, interesting scene! There is some swamp ooze on the bump, so click the teacup on him to take some ooze. If you do not have a milk bottle now, take one from the milkweed bush under the barking dogwood tree. Woah, boy!

Go into the unusual garden. There is another bottle here on the table. Take it. Look at it closely in your inventory. It says, "Drink Me." SAVE GAME. Test it out right now and see what happens if Alexander drinks it. There will still be some leftover for later if you decide to test it now. Nice effect that bottle gives on a person! Well, back to preparing spells. The "Make Rain" spell requires 3 types of water in a teapot. The teapot is basically the yellow hunter's lamp from the Isle of the Beast. Give one of the baby tears plants a bottle of milk. The others will cry. Collect the tears from one of the plants into the hunter's lamp. Tears contain salt, so you just got salt water for the rain spell. Now add the Oracle's vial of sacred water to the hunter's lamp. (You might need to click the vial onto the curl of lamp's handle to add the sacred water.) You just need falling water as the finishing ingredient. However, right now, let's pay another visit to the chess queens. Go to Chessboard Land, and talk to the queens some more. One of the queens has a lump of coal that the other one does not have. How selfish! Give the white chess queen the lump of coal from the Isle of Mist. She will be delighted and "reward" you with a delightfully spoiled egg.

Return to the Isle of the Beast, and go to the beast's fountain of falling water. Click the hunter's lamp onto the falling water to collect some. (This will not work unless you have the salt and sacred waters already in the lamp.) Now open up the spellbook and turn to the page with the Make Rain spell. To finish preparing the spell, cast it by reciting the verse. SAVE GAME. Alexander now has a pot of ready-to-go rain spell. He is ready to survive the Druids, so teleport to the Isle of the Mists. The Druids will rudely take Alexander away and "cook" him at the ceremony. Stay in your chair and watch this uncomfortable scene as Alexander gets as red as a cooked lobster. The pot of rain spell will soon be activated and save Alexander. Yay! Since the Druids got their desired rain, talk to the Druid leader a bunch of times to learn about the Land of the Dead, the Lord of the Dead, and how to get there via a Nightmare horse. When they leave, get some embers from the ceremonial pit for the skull. Add the spoiled egg and the strand of hair to the skull as well. (You can get the strand of hair from Cassima's hair ribbon or from Beauty's clothes.) Teleport to the Isle of Wonder and go to the swamp. All the ingredients for the Charm spell have been found. The Druid leader mentioned that Nightmare loves to feed on noxious plants. Well, there were some poisonous berries on a nightshade bush on the Isle of the Sacred Mountain, so teleport there quickly (since the oak embers will not stay warm for long). Climb up the cliffs. Aha! There she is! What a magnificent black horse! She, a creature of the night, will not let you ride right now, so you will have to ... go figure ... charm her!

Open up your spellbook and cast the Charm spell and ride Nightmare to the Land of the Dead. SAVE GAME. There are zombies in this screen that will kill Alexander if they touch him. Avoid them at all costs. Among the spirits is a couple. Talk to them. Why, they are Cassima's parents! Queen Allaria will give Alexander a ghost ticket. Now, maneuver around the zombies and exit the screen in the southeast corner. This may take a few tries. SAVE GAME. The next screen contains a path towards a skull building, and there is a wailing female ghost here. Talk to her to learn that she cannot find her son. Alexander will offer to help her find him, and she will give him a handkerchief. Continue to the skull. SAVE GAME. He is now at the entrance to the Underworld. There is a keyholder who has a nice big skeleton key that you need. A lot of gamers miss this: there is a bone xylophone that Alexander can play. Play it and watch the amusing dance sequence. I bet you did not know they partied down here, did you? Hehe! Take the key that fell off the skeleton. Now give the ticket-holding skeleton the ticket from Queen Allaria. Once Alexander is on the other side, SAVE GAME.

Take your time and carefully walk along the suspended pathway. You can fall to your death here. On the pathway is a corpse of a knight. Examine the knight and take his gauntlet (armor glove). SAVE GAME. Carefully continue up the path to a boat with Charon (the boatman) in it. Do not enter the boat yet. The boat is on the River Styx, and you need some River Styx water for the final spell. Walk up to the edge of the river. Click the teapot onto the black water to collect some. SAVE GAME. Charon demands some kind of ferry payment, so give him the gold coins from the catacombs. Once Alexander reaches the other side, SAVE GAME. Walk up to the door, and click the HAND icon once on it. The door will transform into a face. Staying away from the door, talk to it a few times to get a riddle. You must answer the riddle correctly in order to pass safely without getting eaten. The answer to the riddle was written on the torn piece of paper stuck in the spiderweb on the Isle of Wonder. It is: LOVE. Spell out the answer and enter the door to meet the Lord of the Dead. SAVE GAME.

Walk up to his throne. After he speaks, challenge him by waving the gauntlet from the dead knight at him. He will give you a challenge to make him cry. According to the Beast, the mirror reflects truth, so show the mirror to the Lord of the Dead. He will weep at after seeing in the mirror how he lost all care for the pain and suffering around him. The mirror will break, but he will free Cassima's parents and send them and Alexander back to the Isle of the Crown via Nightmare. Cassima's parents will leave.

Go to the crossroads with the big tree and Sing-Sing the nightingale. Give Sing-Sing the second white rose you got from the Isle of the Beast. That will be the last item you send to Cassima via Sing-Sing. Poor Alexander! He gets nothing in return this time. Go to the village, and enter the pawnshop. That old cloaked man is here. You can talk to him, but he does not reveal much. By now, you probably figured out that he is the genie in disguise. However, to be sure, let's play an evil trick. Remember that "drink me" bottle and what it does? Drink it in the pawnshop and watch the sequence. Aha! It is the genie! In the scene with him and the vizier, take careful note of the genie bottle. After Alexander regains consciousness and almost giving the pawnshop owner a heart attack, trade the tinderbox for the paintbrush. Exit the shop and go to the street peddler who is selling old lamps for new. Talk to him and offer the old hunter's lamp, since you will no longer need it. Select the correct lamp from the peddler. It needs to look exactly like the genie bottle. It is the blue one with the long neck and no handle.

It is time to enter the Castle of the Crown finally. Go to the Castle. You cannot enter the front entrance, so go west to the side of the castle. There is a nice blank wall here. A good place for a door. *sigh* Wait! You can paint a door here! Click the black feather from the Isle of the Sacred Mountain onto the teacup of swamp ooze and River Styx water to stir it. The blackness in the feather drains into the teacup. Use the paintbrush on the cup to get some paint. Draw a door onto the wall. Wow! Alexander, you're such an artist! *grin* Now, cast the Magic Paint spell to turn Alexander's nifty drawing into reality. SAVE GAME and enter the castle. Too bad it is only a one-way door, so you cannot exit the castle once you enter.

You are now in the basement of the castle. Guard dogs lurk around here, so be careful. There is a locked treasure room door on the west wall and three prison cells on the east wall. One of the cells (usually the middle one) contains a crying boy ghost. Find him and talk to him. He is lost and wants his mommy! Aww! You met his mother in the Land of the Dead. Give the boy the handkerchief, and he will fly away to find his mother. Before leaving, the ghost boy mentions something about a door behind the suit of armor in this basement area. If you did not befriend Jollo the Clown near the beginning of the game using your royal insignia ring, skip the next paragraph.

Leave the cell, and go north to the horizontal hallway with the suit of armor and the door to the guard dogs room. Ignore those for now and continue east and south. This hallway contains a stairway leading up to the castle. Do not go there yet! On the east wall is a door that leads to Jollo's room. Unless you have befriended him, do not enter that door or else he will throw you into the prison cells. If you did befriend him, enter the room, and Jollo will be delighted to see you. Talk to him and give him the genie lamp replica you got from the street peddler. He will leave the room with it. There is nothing that you should take from Jollo's room, so SAVE GAME.

Exit back into the hallway and go north to the horizontal hallway with the suit of armor and the door to the guard dogs room. Examine the armor closely. If you click the HAND icon onto the statue's hand, a secret passage will open. Enter it and save game. This secret passageway contains several peep holes that are useful for spying. Look in the peephole on the east wall. Listen to what the guard dogs and Captain Saladin are talking. One dog says that he heard the vizier talking to the treasure room door. The vizier had said ALI before he was interrupted. Keep that word in mind and continue up the stairs to the next screen. There is another peep hole here, but SKIP IT for now. Continue west for two screens to another peep hole. Look into that hole to see the vizier writing something in his bedroom concerning wedding and killing Cassima. NO!! He is truly evil! You must get that letter somehow.

The secret passageway dead ends near here to the north, but look closely at the west wall at the dead end. There is an outline of a door. Click on it to open it and enter the vizier's bedroom through the closet. Interesting. There is a chest in the bedroom. It is locked, and you must unlock it using the skeleton key from the Land of the Dead. (If you did not get the key, you must sadly restore back to the Land of the Dead to get it.) Inside the chest is the letter, so take it. On the table is a little ebony box. Open it and read the note. It says ZEBU. You now have the 2-part password to open the treasure room door in the basement. Go back into the secret hallway via the closet and head back down to the peep hole that we skipped earlier.

Look into the peephole to see ... [drums roll] ... tada ... Cassima! Yay! Talk to her and show her the vizier's letter, so she will know what is going on. She mentions needing a small means of defense again. Give her Celeste's dagger. Stare deeply into her beautiful eyes for a moment ... Okay, time's up! Something happens, and Cassima vanishes from the room. Oh dear! There is nothing you can do now, so head back down the stairs and back into the hallway. Go to the treasure room door and talk to it. Type ALI ZEBU on the screen to open the door. Enter it and SAVE GAME. Move the thick cloth on the table and look at all the treasures individually. When Alexander had talked to the leader(s) on a certain isle, they always mentioned that a leader of another isle had taken a treasure from them, and that was why all the isles were feuding. Now, you learn the truth -- the vizier had his genie steal all the treasures in disguise! SAVE GAME.

At this point, you need to wait around in the basement until you hear wedding music. Walk out into the hallway for a few moments, just do not let the guard dogs see you. For some players, Alexander has to return to the treasure room and wait there for a good 5 minutes before wedding music comes. Once you hear it, SAVE GAME and use the stairs in the basement near Jollo's room to go upstairs into the main hall of the castle. Captain Saladin will stop Alexander from proceeding into the ceremony and will give him a few seconds to explain himself. Quickly show Captain Saladin the vizier's letter. He will let you enter the ceremony where Cassima is strangely happy to marry the vizier. Talk to Cassima. Yikes! What is going on?! She wants Alexander killed?! Hmm ... something is odd here. Notice her gleaming eyes.

Cassima's parents will appear and order Captain Saladin to stop. They reveal the truth about the vizier and "Cassima" the bride. The vizier will run away. Ignore whatever else is happening in the room and chase the vizier up the stairs into the tower room. He will summon the genie to cast a blast spell on Alexander. If you had given Jollo the genie lamp replica, then Jollo will soon enter and give you the genie bottle replica. Quickly use the genie bottle onto the genie to rid him. If you did not befriend Jollo and/or give him the lamp replica, then you will have to deal with the genie on your own. Well, by now, you should have figured out that the genie has been spying on Alexander in various forms. They all have gleaming eyes. One form was the old man in the village who had a love for ... mint leaves! Quickly give the genie some mint leaves. If you forgot the mint leaves, you are doomed here, and must restore to before entering the castle. Once the genie blasts himself into oblivion, Alexander must fight the vizier. Click on the sword on the wall behind Alexander. It is really heavy, but it will do. Click the sword on the vizier and watch the fight scene. If you did not give Cassima the dagger beforehand, Alexander will quickly lose here. Cassima will eventually come up behind the vizier and stab him in the back. Quickly click the sword on the vizier to give him one last blow. Watch the ending wedding sequence. Congratulations! You have just finished the long path to King's Quest 6: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow.