Nancy Drew: Message in a Haunted Mansion

By Jenny Guenther

I played as Senior Detective. This is only one possible path through the game. Many of the tasks need not be completed in order. This is a chronicle of my wanderings through the game; it's definitely not the most efficient path.

Nancy's Room

At the game start, you are in Nancy's room at the mansion.

First look at the desk that you are facing. Then, circling to the right, look at the table to the left of the fireplace. Look at the green dragon on the mantel and note the inscription, "Daughters of diligence earn the gold of nine dragons." Note the Chinese symbol next to "Daughters."

Look at alarm clock on table to left of bed. Note that the time is 8:15 a.m. and the alarm is set for 9:00 a.m. To exit this screen, click the cancel button on the alarm clock.

Look at the dragon motif on the footboard of the bed. Look at the knob on the right part of the footboard. Nancy says, "It's stuck."

Look at the tapestry to the left of the door.

Look at Nancy's luggage (to right of door). Nancy says, "It's locked." Use the key that you started with on the suitcase. Open suitcase, look at Nancy's journal. Read it. Not much there at this point, but you can see that it might be useful later. To exit this screen, first close the book by clicking on the left side, then close the suitcase.

Pan back left to the door and click it to leave Nancy's room.

You will enter a hallway.

Upstairs Hallway

Look at dumbwaiter. Notice it's not there right now.

Go to Abby's room, knock on door, and talk to Abby. Choose whatever conversation path suits you; she says the same things no matter what you choose. Abby tries to warn you about spirits, but you're not having any.

After you talk to Abby, go back and look at Nancy's notebook again. You will see a new entry detailing the important info you learned from Abby. That's good to know.

Go down the spiral stairs.

Downstairs

You will be facing the dumbwaiter. Look at it again. Click on the rope end. Nancy says, "The rope is cut." You say, "duh."

Go through the double doors at the end of the hallway and talk to Rose. Again, it doesn't matter what conversation choices you make. She will fill you in on the background and tell you a little about Charlie and then ask you to solve a parquet tile problem.

Click on the floor to the right of Rose to get the Tangram puzzle. This is kind of tricky. You have to make sure the pieces are highlighted before you lay them down. And if you do it right, there will be no gaps.

After you complete the puzzle, talk to Rose again. She'll tell you to go upstairs and chip tiles from the ceiling. Ask her about Abby.

Before you go back upstairs, you might as well look around a little. Panning to the right of Rose, first look at the table, then the magazine to learn how to build a four-poster bed (?!).

Look at the sideboard, then the clipboard to see everyone's schedule. Look at the drawer to the right of the clipboard to learn about Rose's new fire insurance policy. Very suspicious, no? Take note of the Chinese symbol for "fire."

Look at the far side of the dining table from where Rose is sitting. Atmosphere, pure and simple.

Okay, now time to go back upstairs.

Upstairs ...

Examine the construction area. Note the water damage on the patterned ceiling. Nancy says, "I need a paint scraper." No paint scrapers near here, so let's try downstairs.

... Downstairs

Go downstairs, this time through the open door near the construction area. We are in the foyer. Look under the scaffolding and examine the paint can. Move the paint tray to find the paint scraper.

As long as we're here, we might as well look around a bit again. Panning to the right of the scaffolding, we first look at the stained glass light over the entry door. We see the address, backwards, is 4653. I wouldn't be surprised if this means something later.

Look at the table between the two chairs. Nice lamp. Look at the pictures above the lamp. Listen to the grandfather clock.

Look at the bird head post on the left side of the left stairway. Nancy says, "It's missing an eye." Hmm ... Look at the bird head post on the right side of the left stairway to see what the eye should look like. You can also look at the bird head posts on either side of the right stairway, but nothing happens.

There are two doors we can use to exit this room. The one between the stairs, we recognize from our earlier foray into the downstairs hallway. Let's try that one, and then the door to the left. It leads to the basement. We'll save that for later.

The door across from the basement door is inaccessible. Let's try that other door out of the front room. Back we go ...

Sitting Room

... To find ourselves in the sitting room. Panning to the right of where we are standing, click on the side table. Nothing much doing there.

To the right of the side table is another set of double doors. We'll come back to that later.

Examine the desk in the corner. There's a phone that we can use to call home, Bess, or Emily. I really like Bess; I think I'd like to hear her voice again, so I dial ... Guess what? George is there, too. What I learned is that we can call them for hints if we get stuck. Good to know.

I'll try Emily. I really don't know her that well, but I'd like to hear what she has to say ... She turns out to be an old friend (I guess I really do know her but just forgot) who lives in San Francisco; she's a veritable gold mine of information. Ask her as much or as little as you care to, but I think it's a good idea to ask her everything.

I miss my pappy, so I'll try calling home as long as I'm here ... He's not home, but Hannah answers the phone and fills us in on Rose and Rose's situation. (Hannah sounds just like Patty Mayonnaise on the cartoon show Doug, doesn't she?)

My ear is ringing. Time to be done calling people. Look in the left drawer of the phone table. I found some interesting correspondence.

All right, continuing our rightward circuit, next we come to a corner cabinet with a floral scene on the door. Open it to find a fire extinguisher. Nancy says, "It's good to know it's here."

Look at the fireplace, then the box on a chair toward the right of the screen. Find an old telephone directory from 1894. Note that E. Valdez, Hotelier, once lived at 4653 California Street. Funny ... that's this house. Didn't Abby say something about Valdez?

Look at the other paper in the box to learn that the property was auctioned off several years later, in 1906. I don't know what all this means, but I have a feeling I'll find out.

Look at the windows to the right of the left-most sofa to get some spooky curtain movement.

Look at the table between the two window nooks. Look at the bird carving under the table. Look at the book on the table to the right of the chairs, "Subterranean San Francisco." Read it to learn about tunnels under the city.

Now I think we've seen everything in this room; let's try the double doors we passed by earlier.

Library

It's the library.

Look at the fireplace, then look at the missing tiles. Something odd here, if you click on one of the empty spots, Nancy says, "it won't fit." What won't fit? I guess we should find some tiles and try again later. Meanwhile, be sure to look at the statue/lever thing on the left side of the fireplace.

For a change of pace, let's pan to the left this time. Look at the desk. What's this? A laptop! Turns out all you can do with it is play a maze game. Look at the book to the left of the computer to learn the knight's moves in chess.

Look at the boxes of books to the left of the desk. Read one to learn about phoenixes.

Look at the table between the two green leather chairs. It's a Mah Jongg set. Examine the tiles more closely. You can learn a Chinese symbol for four.

Look at another pile of books in a different corner. Read about Lizzie Applegate.

That's about it here. Let's go pry off some ceiling tiles now. Back upstairs to the construction area. As you climb up the stairs, a whispered voice ... "I see you." Ooh!

Construction Area

Use the paint scraper on all of the water-damaged tiles to reveal a secret door. Examine the keyhole. Nancy says, "It's locked." At this point, I went back to Nancy's room to check the journal and got some creepy noises there, too, but nothing much new in the journal.

I recall that I haven't explored the basement yet. Down I go.

Basement

Talk to Charlie. Choose any topics. He tells you he thinks he's a good worker and it's not his fault that there are so many accidents.

Look at the piano. You can't open the door to the player piano roll part, but you can tap out tunes on the keyboard. Question is, what tune? You try the piano bench and find sheet music for "Swanee River." There are no notes to play, but there is another Chinese symbol, for "river."

Try looking at the fireplace. Nancy says, "I should wait until he leaves."

Look at the scrollwork behind the bar. Read the book, "Famous Non-Alcoholic Drinks and how to mix them," to learn how to make Minty Festival Punch and Ginger Whisper. Mmm, I'm thirsty.

Read the newspaper on the table to the left of the bar to learn about the B&B boom in San Francisco.

Look at the junk to the left of the stairs to read a piece of old newspaper telling us about some scandalous behavior (play-acting) by society ladies.

Back Upstairs

Go talk to Rose again and exhaust all topics of conversation. You learn some interesting tidbits. Most interesting is the name of the owner of the laptop in the library, Louis.

Here I went back to use the phone in the sitting room to call Emily again. She told me a little bit more about some of the stuff I had learned. Then the phone rang, and I heard a "creepy sound."

Sudden Death ... Sort of

As I was heading back up to the second floor, using the right set of stairs this time, I noticed a rope wound around a knob on the wall. I clicked on it and learned that it lowered the chandelier in the foyer. I clicked again until the rope was completely unwound, and the chandelier dropped to the floor. Rose kicked me out of the house. Luckily, the game has a "second chance" option that let me restart just before unwinding any of the chandelier rope.

Back into the Bowels of the House

Down to the basement again. Now Charlie's gone, so I can look at the fireplace. I see a grate, but Nancy says, "It's stuck." I look at Charlie's work table and take a screwdriver from his toolbox. I look at the base of a table to the left of Charlie's work table and find a secret compartment ... with nothing in it.

Look at the right side of the bar; examine the cash register, push a button to open the drawer, and find a key.

Attic

As I was going back upstairs, someone (or something) slammed the basement door shut. Scary ...

I tried the new key on the attic trapdoor (above the construction area), and it worked!

Up in the attic, panning to the right, first examine the table and read "The Mysterious Story Book." Examine the lectern. Nancy says, "It's locked." Examine the old tool chest to find a crowbar. Just what the doctor ordered! No adventure game is complete without a crowbar.

Read the diary on the old sewing table to learn about a puzzle pyramid and the possibility of a puzzle mansion.

Look in the box by the doll head to find an iron. Take the iron. Note the bundles of old newspapers. Look on top of the barrel to find a tile. Take the tile.

That's about it up here, so we turn to leave, but the trapdoor rope breaks. Good thing we have the crowbar! That does the trick.

Basement Yet Again

Let's try our crowbar on that grill in the fireplace. It works! Alas, it's too dark down there to see anything. I hope we find a light soon.

Nancy's Room Yet Again

Back up to Nancy's room. I looked at the notebook, but nothing had changed. I remembered that bedpost, so I tried the crowbar on it. No go. Then I tried the screwdriver, and that didn't work either. I tried the paint scraper, and that did the trick. This is a prime example of the inimitable logic of adventure games. Anyway, all commentary aside, I found another key.

Attic Revisited

The new key opens the lectern in the attic. You find sheet music for The Bandit's Treasure. Do you suppose that's the tune to play on the piano? Worth a try. What's with those circled notes?

Before we go, let's look at the other stuff in the lectern. There's an old playbill for "The Bandit's Treasure," a recommendation letter from E. Valdez, a photo of a woman (maybe Lizzie Applegate?), and a practice book of Chinese characters for the word "beginning."

Piano Playing (Basement)

Play the highlighted notes from The Bandit's Treasure on the piano. The notes are B-E-G-A-G. On the playable keys of the piano, numbered from the left, the order is 6-2-4-5-4. That's for all of you who stink at music puzzles as badly as I do. It took a good deal of figuring out for me. When you get the right sequence, the player roll cabinet opens, and you get a piece of a player roll for The Bandit's Treasure with a note saying that it's the key you need. (Note: Well after the fact, I found a book in the library, on the shelf under the statue of the horse, that lays out the keys for you. And another book on the shelf under the photo that tells what notes lie where on the staff. D'oh!)

Attic

Go back up to the attic, open the lectern, get the sheet music, and put the player piano roll scrap on it. It reveals the clue, "find Diego on stairs." Off we go, a'Diego huntin'.

Landing

Go to the foyer stairs, but not down, and look at the railing. There are letters on the bottoms of the posts. Turn the posts until the letters spell DIEGO. You're on your own here--I didn't take notes on what order I clicked the posts. Anyway, when you get done, it spells out "coins false floor" and a compartment opens up under the posts.

Click on the compartment. You see a scroll. Click on the scroll and get a wooden Chinese pictogram. Open the scroll and read it. It's a note telling you "here is the tool that you'll need to find" the treasure. Then there's a poem riddle:

Library

Go back to the library and meet Louis. Talk to him until he gives you the brush-off. His last suggestion is to go talk to Abby.

On the Way to Abby's Room

You go back up the stairs from the foyer, and as you are heading down the hall, you notice a vent on the bottom right corner. Use the screwdriver on all four screws to remove the cover, and you see a speaker inside. Hmm, could that be the source of some of the ghostly sounds? Put the vent cover back. Next time you pass by that vent, you hear a woman crying. It gets louder as you approach the speaker.

Seance

Go to Abby's room and knock on the door. Watch the seance. After the cutscene, you are back in Nancy's room. It is 10:15 p.m. Check the notebook.

As you leave Nancy's room, you catch a glimpse of a shadowy figure slipping down the hallway.

Dining Room

Go down to the dining room, where Rose used to be but is no longer. Now you can examine all of her paperwork, four pieces in all. While you're there, observe Rose's coffee mug. Wonder where she got that? I want one!

Basement

Go back to basement. Look at the base of the table where the seance was held. Open the secret compartment. Now there's a smoke machine, a film projector, and a cassette inside. Take the cassette.

Dumbwaiter

Go back up and look at the frayed rope on the dumbwaiter. Use the iron on the end of the rope. Go upstairs and look in the dumbwaiter. Take the tile. Note the Chinese symbol for "eye" on the bottom of the cup.

Nancy's Room

Go back to Nancy's room. Nancy, always quick on the uptake, checks her journal and sees her own note that the seance was a hoax. As you leave Nancy's room, someone slips an envelope under the door and then runs off too quickly for you to see who it was. You read the note: "Leave the mansion now!" (You try, but the front door won't open! You're stuck! Just kidding.)

Fire!

Go back down to the sitting room. Fire! Good thing you found the fire extinguisher already! Get the fire extinguisher and use it on the fire. You hear sirens in the background, then you find yourself back in the dining room with Rose. Exhaust all topics.

Library

Go to the library and talk to Louis again. Exhaust all topics. We don't like him much. Something smells like fish. You think he could be the bad guy? We'll just have to wait and see ...

There's a third tile behind some books on the shelves to the right of the library exit door. Sweep your magnifying glass cursor until it lights up, then click.

Sidetracked

We now have three tiles--let's see if we can fix that fireplace. Where was that again? Not the basement, but I talked to Charlie again while I was down there. He seems so genuine and innocent, and he manages to cast a little doubt on Louis. Or was it the elusive and spooky Abby? Hmm ...

Oooh, we can go snoop in Abby's room now. Look at the interesting spider lock on her wardrobe. Look at the book on her nightstand and read about Lizzie Applegate and the Bandit. Get caught and get kicked out of the house. Second chance time again ...

Oh well, maybe we'll try that another time. That fireplace again... Oh yeah, it was in the library all along.

Secret Doors and Tunnels

Place the three tiles you collected where they go (you have to make a symmetrical pattern), then pull the bird lever to the left of the fireplace. What's this? A secret door! Better hustle on over there before it closes!

Look at the bottom of the portrait of the little girl to get the Chinese symbol for "child."

Take the lantern. Look at the loose brick above the lantern's location to find a peephole to spy on the Mah Jongg table.

Pull the lever and back out of the hidey hole.

Now that we have a lantern, it's time to go explore the tunnel under the basement. (In the fireplace, remember?)

Look out for the hole! Continue down to the end of the tunnel. Look at the Chinese food containers to get the Chinese symbol for "king."

Look at the book to learn about "El Diablo." Take the "term paper" diskette. Somebody's been sleeping here. Look at the postcard. It's signed "Charlie"!

Look at the bar. You are behind the mirror that's behind the bar in the basement. Go up the stairs. You come out in the downstairs hallway again.

Let's go talk to Rose again. Exhaust all topics.

Library

Time to do the horrible maze game on Louis's computer. I solved it by sticking to the left wall no matter what and wandering where I was led. I suspect that book about the knight moves next to the computer might play into it somehow, though. Eventually, I came to a giant target on the maze floor, et voila! I was in. I found a list of San Francisco hotels showing that the mansion was called the "Golden Gardenia Hotel" in 1888, as well as a list of Louis's passwords. The password to his computer is "antiques," and the password to his briefcase is "4653-4868." There, now you don't have to do the maze game at all.

Exit from the computer close-up, and then put Charlie's term paper diskette on the diskette slot in front of the laptop. Log on to the computer again using Louis's name and password, and click on the diskette icon to read Charlie's term paper outline.

Abby

I wanted to go talk to Abby again, but she was always snoring. I looked at the alarm clock in Nancy's room, which said 5:00 a.m. I set it to 8:00 a.m., and the time was advanced to 8:00! Abby was now awake; I exhausted all topics with her. She admitted to staging "part" of the seance and tried to cast suspicion on Charlie.

Library

Go back to the library, use the secret door, and look through the spyhole. This will trigger a cutscene where we see Louis taking a book from the library, exclaiming "aha!", and putting the book in his briefcase. He is called out of the room by Rose, and he leaves his briefcase on the green chair. Time to go see what he was hiding..

We open the briefcase using the combination from Louis's computer (two locks, two combinations) and read the book. We learn a Chinese phrase, Gum Bo Fu. We rifle through the rest of Louis's papers and find out that the dirty dog is nothing but a treasure hunter. He already has a client lined up to buy the mansion's hidden treasure when he finds it.

I'd Like to Phone a Friend, Regis

I called Emily since she's an expert on all things Chinese and San Francisco, and she filled me in on a lot of stuff. She didn't know what "Gum Bo Fu" meant, so she told me to ask everyone in the house.

Then just for the heck of it, I tried Louis's office number from the business card in his briefcase, and the "call could not be completed as dialed." Hmm ...

Chit-Chat All over the Place

First I talked to Rose, then Charlie (he had a lot to say), then Abby, then Louis, who is back in the library by this time. When I asked Louis about Gum Bo Fu, he said, "where did you hear about that?" The choices were "in a book" or "from a magazine." I said "from a magazine." I don't know if the outcome would have been any different if I had said "in a book." Louis told me that Gum Bo Fu were private homes where books and documents were stored to protect them from the fires that ravaged San Francisco around the turn of the century.

Abby's Room

I was hoping to get another chance to search Abby's room. As I passed by the mirror in the hall outside her door, I saw a ghost in the mirror! Aaah! But it was a good thing I pulled myself together, because Abby is indeed absent from her room. I saved first, remembering what happened last time I tried snooping, then went in. To the right of her door is a trunk containing a book on illusions. To the right of the trunk is a picture. When you click on it, it opens, revealing the backside of the haunted mirror. In the wavy bookshelf in the corner is a book on the Chinese Zodiac.

Her desk drawer contains some incense with the Chinese symbol for "moon."

Look at the book on her desk. It's called "Fortune Telling for Business Popularity." You can't read it, but it gives you insight into what Abby's all about. Look at her dresser to see a magic lantern and some other stuff. The book on the stand to the right of her bed tells about "Lizzie Applegate and the Bandit." Look in Abby's jewelry box on the stereo shelf and take the spider charm. Use it on the wardrobe. You find the source of all of the haunted house stuff. Try the tape from the basement in the cassette player. It's the voice from the seance. Take the tape back, put the spider charm back in the jewelry box, and then it's time to go.

Let's Tattle ... or Not

I think we should go tell Rose. Instead of letting me spill my guts, she tells me that I'll be alone in the house and that she removed a tapestry from my room and left me a letter that someone had dropped off.

Nancy's Room

The letter is from Emily; it's on a chair in Nancy's room. Louis was lying! Gum Bo Fu really means "Gold Treasure Mansion!"

Look at the wall to the right of Nancy's bed, where the tapestry used to be. It's a secret door! Remember the Zodiac book from Abby's room? Press the panels in the correct order to open the door:

3     8   10   12
9     6     2     7
4     5     1   11

The door opens to reveal a safe! Instead of numbers, it has Chinese symbols.

Remember the tapestry by the door in Nancy's room? I bet that has some bearing on the situation. We already found nine of the ten symbols, and the tenth is the same as the first symbol in Emily's letter. We think it means "gold."

Turn the dial to line up each of the symbols under the arrow in the order they appear in the poem, child, beginning, daughter, 4, eye, fire, moon, king, and river, and then finally gold, clicking on the arrow after each symbol.

Child

Beginning

Daughter

4

Eye

Fire

Moon

King

River

Gold

It was Lizzie Applegate's safe! Look at everything: a jewelry box, a letter from Diego in which he fancies himself a sort of a Robin Hood, a letter from El Diablo proclaiming his love (d'you think Diego and El Diablo are one and the same?), Diego and Lizzie's wedding certificate, Lizzie's will, and a pyramid puzzle. When Nancy clicks on the pyramid, she says, "Something's missing here." Remember that wood charm we got from solving the "Diego" puzzle? Use that on the pyramid. It turns to reveal a puzzle where you have to change all of the moons to suns. If you click on the second from the corner on each edge (X marks the spot[s]), you can do this in four moves.

00X0
X000
000X
0X00

Then the pyramid turns again, and you get an accursed sliding tile puzzle. Oh, Her Interactive, why do you torture us so, we who love you, we, your most devoted followers! First a maze, then a sliding tile puzzle, the two great banes of adventure gamers the world over! And a music puzzle, too! (But at least not a tune-matching one.) Okay, editorializing over. Just do the puzzle, there's no escaping it. It makes a phoenix to match the inlay in the foyer floor when you do it right.

The box opens; you get a red jewel.

Endgame

Put the red jewel in for the missing eye of the bird at the foyer staircase. It causes a ray of light to shine from the door to the bird to the phoenix inlay on the foyer floor. Nancy can now click on the phoenix where before she could only look at it. She says, "It's stuck." Time for the trusty ol' crowbar again. Nancy has found the treasure! Unfortunately, Louis thumps her on the head and starts gathering up the treasure for himself. Nancy has to stop him! Quick! The chandelier! Drop it on Louis! But don't use the stairs with the creaky steps; go around the long way.

Nothing left to do but watch the wrap-up. Girl detective triumphs again!