The Power Stones of Ard: Completely Stuck

 

I have never been so stuck.

    

Well, this is a situation that I've never been in before. I have to stop playing a game before I've won it because I can't solve a puzzle. Usually, if I can't figure it out, one of three things happens: 1) I find an online hint; 2) a commenter bails me out; or 3) I cheat. But this game is so obscure that there are no online sources for hints that I can find; commenters who claim to have won the game have not responded to entreaties for help; and even a dump of the game's text doesn't provide the answers I need. Kudos to the creators on the challenge, I guess. Oh, I also can't figure out how to reach the creator. That would be a fourth option.

   

Still, I suspect that after this entry publishes, something will come along, so stay tuned for an addendum. In the meantime, the best I can do is document the game as I experienced it.

   

As I discussed in my first entry, Ard takes place on a 5 x 5 map of individual screens or "rooms," as the game's file calls them. There's a little "map" in the lower-right corner that shows your position, and you can tell from it which ways you can go, but you otherwise don't move on the map, nor see your character there. All important interactions happen in the text window. Some of the rooms have buildings that you can go "in," leading to additional options, but the screen doesn't change except to put the word "IN" on top of it.

     

Most of the rooms offer one or more puzzles that you solve with a combination of inventory and common sense, drawing from the long list of keyboard commands (every key is used), including a S)pecial option that lets you type a command and a T)alk option that has you type your own keywords. At its heart, I think Ard is more of an adventure game than an RPG. Combat occurs only on certain screens and has a minimal number of options. (You do need to fight to get enough riches to buy key items, though.) It appears from the text that most important encounters are handled as puzzles.

        

My updated map. I haven't been able to reach the middle square. The ones in orange have combats.

      

The rooms I experienced, from the northeast corner of the map, moving across and then down, are:

   

1. Empty House (combat screen). If you L)isten here, a ghost says his name is Nephron and to call him. If you T)alk and speak his name, he appears. "I lost my life on the quest you have begun," he says. "You will find my bones behind a door marked 'Enter Here.' My amulet will be there. Use it to destruct demons. But beware! I died for the lack of a way out. I know now a silver coin could have changed my fate."

   

2. Stable. Examining the room tells you that seven horses' tails are hanging out of the stalls. If you talk, one of the "horses" turns out to be a centaur. If you feed him the keyword MAGIC, he tells you that "from 2 of the 3 empty houses in town, you can get to places you should find very interesting."

        

Get there how?

      

3. Main Gate. This is where the game starts. Moving north from here ends the game.

   

4. Empty House (combat screen). This one has a table and chair covered in dust. If you O)pen a window, the breeze blows away the dust revealing a message that says: "Key opens the dungeon door."

       

You really have to try everything in this game.

       

5. Jeweller. He sells several pieces of jewelry, including a fire ruby that you need for the "Fireball" spell. 

   

6. Temple. You can pay here for healing, holy water (which you need for the "Healing" spell), and a "star crystal" that will automatically resurrect you if you die. It's expensive.

   

7. Guild Hall. You level up here and drop gold to pay for leveling up.

  

8. Inn. You can rent a room here for the duration of the game for 150 gold pieces. It's good for resting (which restores strength) and storing excess stuff, though you need to enlist the guard at the barracks to keep it from being stolen.

   

9. Tavern. You buy food here to restore constitution lost in combat.

    

10. Barracks. There's a guard pacing around here. If you say most things to him, he'll just say that it's not one of his duties. But if you ask him to GUARD your room, he'll do so.

        

Although he never leaves the barracks.

      

11. Elders. A single elder sits at a desk here. If you say DUNGEON, he'll say: "Legend has it that the ruins beyond the maze used to be a powerful wizard's castle. He hid the spirit stone in the dungeon below."

   

12. Weapons. You can buy a variety of weapons, including short, long, and broad swords, a battle axe, a spear, and a halberd. I've been using a broad sword for most of the game.

  

13. Magic Shop. Technically, I haven't been here, but I know it's here because of my inspection of the game files. It's in the center square of the map, which can't be reached by walking from any of the other squares. See my discussion of the puzzles below.

    

14. General Store. Sells some adventuring equipment, including a flask and candle.

   

15. Hermit's House (combat screen). The hermit who lives here has the riddle whose solution does turn out to be APPLE, but he just tells you to find one and note "when and where." He also tells you about the SEARCH command. If you feed him the DUNGEON keyword, he says he made it to Level 5 and he gives some vague hints about a pit that you have to jump over.

        

The hermit has a little dungeon ditty.

     

16. Empty House (combat screen). The third empty house has a book stand. If you P)ush or Y)ank it, it opens a bookcase and reveals a brass key. There's a red book on the book stand, but if you try to read it, the game just says you don't understand it.

   

17. Armorer. You can buy a variety of armor and shields.

   

18. Gypsy Camp. Paying 100 gold pieces gives you one of the game's many hints. More on hints below.

     

The old gypsy woman serves her typical role.

      

19. Maze (combat screen). Once you enter, you have to flail about to find the exit. I really don't think there's any rhyme or reason. Combats pop up here frequently.

   

20. Thieves' Guild (combat screen). You usually fight one thief outside who drops a lockpick. Inside is a chest with a hook above it. Trying to open, push, or pull the chest triggers a trap that instantly kills you. Trying to mess with the hook triggers a trap that instantly kills you. Neither the "Knock" spell nor the brass key work on the chest.

    

If I have a lockpick, why do I need a spell anyway?

    

21. Woods (combat screen). You can climb a tree in the woods and get a feather.

   

22. Wizard's House (combat screen). The wizard sells you each of the game's spells for 200 gold. When you buy them, he tells you what physical components they require. Each time you enter, he only offers two spells, but these seem to be time-dependent, so you can just wait and re-enter for new ones.

    

23. Field (combat screen). You can climb a tree here and get an apple.

   

24. Ruins (combat screen). The ruins of the wizard's castle contain the dungeon entrance. If you SEARCH the ruins, you find a door with three slots, each one takes a number of gold pieces. The nearby door does not respond to unlocking or "Knock." 

   

25. Dump. I had to fight a trash fiend the first time I visited, and I honestly can't remember what item I got from it. Trying to recreate it will take a while because the trash fiend is tough and I'll have to grind for a few levels.

   

There are two ways to get hints in the game. One is to press H, which I'm always accidentally doing when I want to change what I'm holding (the proper command is I for "in hand"). That depletes intelligence. I don't know any way to restore intelligence.

  

The second is to pay 100 gold to the gypsy. Between the two of them, these are the hints that I got:

   

• Remember your teleport
• Each race has a special
• Hold component for spell
• Good STR makes good jumps
• Know the color code
• Beware!  Behind one door, a gaseous death awaits
• A star, revealed a star, reveals a star
• Beware the tor beast! No blade will pierce it   
• Scales of the guardian rend with starlight
• The prince of darkness has the crystal key you need
• Chests need keys to open
• Doors unlock with spell
• Sleep in safe places
• Spell ends with room change
• You can backout of fights
• Specials need an S

    

The primary puzzle that I'm facing is the door with the three slots at the entrance to the dungeon. Some combination of gold pieces must be fed into these three slots, and I'm at a loss how to figure out how many. None of the hints that I've received nor any of the encounters in town have referenced it. Worse, I can't even find any reference to it when I scan the files for text. [Ed. Thanks to LanHawk for helping me accomplish this by extracting the text from the data files, something I couldn't figure out how to do.] That made me think there must be some clue in the manual, but I can't find anything there, either. Nor do any of the graphics suggest anything. I even tried brute-forcing all potential combinations of numbers up to 3, which required 64 guesses. 

As I said above, despite the clue that "doors unlock with spell," holding the lockpick and casting "Knock" does nothing.

  

Other puzzles include:

     

• How can I read the text of the red book? I've tried casting "Augment" to no avail. No one responds to RED BOOK or BOOK as keywords.

• How can I open the chest in the thieves' guild? Again, neither the brass key (cf. the clue that chests need keys) nor "Knock" seem to work.

• What's with the clue that "each race has a special"? A special command? If so, what is it? Typing HUMAN doesn't do anything.

• How do I access the magic shop? I thought "Detect" cast in one of the adjacent squares might do it, but that requires a lodestone, which I haven't found. I thought maybe you have to teleport there, perhaps from one of the empty houses (see the centaur's clue), but "Teleport" requires blink dust, which I haven't been able to find.

      

I'm particularly keen to solve the door puzzle since the text has references to dungeon rooms and levels, and yet there are only 25 "Room" screens on the disk. This suggests that the dungeon uses a completely different interface. I'd like to at least experience that before I try to rate the game.

   

I'll leave this up for a week or so to see if anyone has any ideas, and if not I'll have to close it and rate it as I experienced it. It would be too bad to have to abandon the game. It's one of the earliest graphical adventure/RPG hybrids, predating even Hero's Quest. I'd love to be the first to fully document it.

   

Time so far: 7 hours