The Story

The year is 1862. You received a letter from your old childhood friend Raynard. You have kept in touch on and off since you left your village for the city to find work and a more interesting lifestyle. Raynard elected to stay and eventually moved to a neighbouring village called Raven Wood to take over the running of his fathers' Blacksmiths. He would carry on his fathers work for the great estate after which the village was named. The new head of Raven Wood manor (Lord Elgan Wood) was a strange fellow, who only recently arrived to take control of his now dead fathers' legacy. Rarely seen outside of the manor the new Lord is a strange and mysterious fellow. Soon after his arrival strange events started to befall Raven Wood.

First, was the disappearance of several children in the Sirens' Wood. Then when the Priest of the village church went to the manor for help he was never seen again. The appearance of strange creatures and now some sort of strange snow storm which has beset the village are making travel impossible.

It's now been over a month since you heard from Raynard, his last message was disturbing and he pleaded for you to return to help him put a stop to these events. He was going off to confront Lord Elgan who he believed to be at the heart of this dark trouble.

After braving the mountain pass you arrive at Raven Wood and its an eerie scene, snow is falling, but its July! The air is chilling to the bone. The villagers are keeping indoors for fear of freezing to death.

You stable the horses and return to find the driver has disappeared!? It's time to find out what's going on and what has happened to Raynard....

How To Play

This is a text adventure with graphics. You type in commands and take part in an interactive story or adventure. These are simple Verb/Noun combinations. Things like - GET ROCK or USE KEY or TALK BARMAN. You can move around the game using simple directions like N, S, E, W, IN, OUT, U, D. All inputs get shortened to a 4 letters maximum. This makes it quicker to type them in, for example: TALK BARM or UNLO DOOR are all you need.

Some Tips

Examine everything! or EXAM for short. Some objects can not be seen, but can be discovered when you examine objects or locations.

TALK to everyone you meet. Except hostile monsters ;-) After solving a puzzle or achieving an important task it's worth talking to people again as they may have different information to tell you!

Make a map! It's best to make a map as it helps to remember where people and objects are later in the game. You may need to return several times to the same location, so it'll make that job that bit easier.

A few important and useful 'verbs': TALK, EXAMine, USE, LOOK, GET, TAKE, SAVE, HIT, OPEN, UNLOck, North, South, East, West, Up, Down, IN and OUT. Obviously there are other words to discover, but I don't want to give too much away.

Happy adventures!

The Map

Before you leave for Raven Wood you scrabble around in a selection of old chests. You find your father's old maps of the neighbouring lands. He was a bit of an explorer in his youth. He did indeed draw a map of Raven Wood! Obviously he could not get into the estate, but it looks like he did a thorough exploration of the village and its surrounding landmarks....

Hint Sheet

Here are some useful hints for The Darkness of Raven Wood adventure game. Things you might not pick up on in the game and some useful Lore that might help you in your quest.

1. The Undead. The usual way to kill them applies here.Find something that could do that job and swing away.
2. Wolves?! They don't much like wizards in grey cloaks.
3. The missing priest was said to have a magnificent silver cross. It took all the villagers to muster the money and a small contribution from old Lord Raven Wood to buy it for the church. Its his pride and joy. A symbol of the villagers unity.
4. The Seven Sisters. Said to be the resting place of a beautiful ghost. She is said to help lost children find their way home from the Siren's Wood. She is an ANGEL among US.
5. A spell of summoning requires the dust of the dead, a word of power and an ancient temple.
6. Hitting objects can make a new thing.
7. The forests can be disorientating. Never, Never Ever give up hope.
8. Pervasive plants usually need some weed killer, their roots run deep and far.
9. Giant Serpents. Show it something it wouldn't like.
10. When the forest is at its most dense and you loose sight of the sky. Every Endeavor will Surely save you!
11. Golems are powered by the word of truth.
12. Ancient seals need a blood spell to break them.
13. Mystical Fire is like any other fire.
14. An ancient evil is difficult to destroy. It requires a weapon of power but first it has to be weakened from within. Take a deep breath... it can be done.

Loading

Hold down SHIFT and tap BREAK to load the adventure.
Alternatively, type: *EXEC !BOOT (RETURN) from the BASIC prompt.