CLAWS OF DESPAIR (Players)

SOLUTION (Spectrum) by the Phoenix

You commence the Adventure in the Market Place. Pressing 'I' will tell you that 
your current inventory is currently a bag of platinum nobles and the Star of 
Thorgrim. You must not lose the Star, but you will have to temporarily part with 
it during the game. BUY FOOD and you will automatically move SOUTH to the Main 
Street. Here you find an old woman being beaten by some guards. Both HELP WOMAN 
or KILL GUARDS results in you obtaining a flagon of wine. This wine will cure 
your thirst, later. TAKE WINE then go SOUTH. If you look at the notice you will 
see that you have to hand over any item of value to the guards. GIVE STAR, you 
will get it back again, soon! You will now pass the guards, to end up outside 
the City Gates. Proceed SW and SWIM LAKE to find a golden chalice. TAKE CHALICE 
and go NE, SE, E, then W to the Desert Rat Inn. The Innkeeper will demand gold 
for information. GIVE CHALICE and he will tell you to ask the conjuror for a 
riddle. Go EAST three times to the Orchard and you will meet Wizdoichus. Say 
RIDDLE and he will ask you to state the odd one out in the following sequence of 
numbers: 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13. It is 9, because all the rest are prime 
numbers, so you input '9'. He will now tell you of a magic word, namely 
'SABZTETI'. Proceed as follows: W, S, SW, W.  You are now faced with a desert 
maze, but it is quite easy with the way back being exactly in reverse to the way 
forward. So, we go: W, W, S, E, E, S, W, S, E, E, S, then finally SOUTH to the 
edge of a crumbling cliff. You will find a dagger here, but you can only take it 
safely, if you have learnt the magic word. SABZTETI then but TAKE DAGGER. On 
retracing your steps through the desert you will become hungry and thirsty. 
Proceed N, N, W, W, EAT FOOD, N, E, N, W, W, DRINK WINE, N, E, E, NE, then SE to 
outside a cave. DIG SAND to uncover a copper key. TAKE COPPER KEY then go SOUTH 
and KILL DRAGON with your dagger. There is a captured Princess here, who is 
locked in chains. UNLOCK CHAINS with your copper key and TAKE PRINCESS. Proceed 
N, NW, N, then NORTH to a dried up river in the desert. DIG SAND here to locate 
some silver coins. TAKE SILVER COINS. Now go NW, SW, then SOUTH WEST to the 
front of the fort, where you encounter some more guards. They are easily bribed, 
so GIVE COINS and they will lead you into the Entrance Hall. The old man, here, 
is the Princesses father, who returns your Star of Thorgrim in gratitude. So 
TAKE STAR. Proceed N, NE, NE, S, S, then EAST to a clearing. The nymph, here, 
asks you a riddle, and the answer is 'SAY TOMB'. (You may also correctly say 
GRAVE, GARVE, or just TOMB on its own - they all seem to work!) The nymph will 
then hand over some Beeswax, so TAKE BEESWAX, then WEAR BEESWAX, to avoid the 
effects of the Harpies whom you encounter shortly. You should now go WEST three 
times to the Inn of Shelzama. Here is a rather unfair, but nevertheless solvable 
puzzle. You are asked to sing a song, and the way to find the title of the song 
is to study that particular location description. Look at the text and you will 
see that there are four letters in capitals, namely I, A, L, S. So you SING 
IALS, then TAKE BRASS ROD! Proceed E, E, then SOUTH to a deep cleft. If you dare 
to go SW you will encounter a deadly trap! Instead take the SE route to the 
waterfall. Don't be tempted to open the chest here as you will find a scroll 
inside which gives you misleading directions. In fact it advises you to swim in 
the mountain lake, but if you do you will be killed by the 'watcher'!! So, SMASH 
CHEST to find a useful horn. TAKE HORN. Now go NW then SOUTH. You cannot hear 
the harpies as you are wearing the mask. Another two moves SOUTH brings you to 
the shores of a mountain lake. Here you should BLOW HORN to summon the ghostly 
boatman, who will row you across the lake. When you arrive on the southern 
shores of the lake you will be faced with seemingly unopenable doors. STRIKE 
DOORS with your brass rod and you will find yourself in a great hall, beyond the 
doors. Go EAST to a panelled passageway and SLIDE PANEL to reveal a metallic 
figurine. TAKE FIGURINE then UNSCREW FIGURINE to find a stone tablet. There is 
some writing on the tablet so TAKE TABLET to find that it is inscribed with the 
word 'THGI'. Now go WEST twice to an alcove, where you will find a jade key 
protected by a strange beam of light. Say 'THGI' and the beam disappears, 
allowing you to TAKE JADE KEY. Now return EAST to the Great Hall. Now here is a 
lever - the normal action of PULL or PUSH LEVER results in incineration!. What 
you must do is PRESS LEVER and you should hear a faint grinding sound to the 
South. Proceed SOUTH to another passageway and the sliding stone will block your 
way back north!. Not to worry, press on and OPEN the door there. Here you will 
be faced with roaring flames. Let me tell you now, that you only have ONE move 
to avoid certain death. Input DISBELIEVE ILLUSION as that is all it is!! When 
the flames disappear TAKE TINDERBOX. (If you go EAST to a narrow passageway your 
tinderbox will be taken from you, preventing you from lighting the torch that 
you are about to construct). Proceed WEST to a dark semi-circular alcove. DROP 
the STONE TABLET, COPPER KEY, BRASS ROD and HORN, then TAKE POLE and TAKE LIQUID 
(POLE + LIQUID = TORCH). Now you can LIGHT TORCH then DROP ALL and TAKE first 
the TORCH and STAR. Go EAST then SOUTH to the temple. Now here's a very tricky 
puzzle indeed! There are five cubes here that must be collected in the correct 
order. The cubes correspond with certain colours of the rainbow. The order of 
colours for a rainbow are RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, GREEN, BLUE, INDIGO AND VIOLET. 
There are numbers on the cubes and if you multiply the cube number by it's 
position number on the rainbow you will know in which order the cubes must be 
taken. For example, using RED, the number on it being 4 multiplied by 1 (the 
first colour on the rainbow) gives you 4. Work out the others and take them in 
numerical order, smallest number first. So you should TAKE RED CUBE, TAKE VIOLET 
CUBE, TAKE YELLOW CUBE, TAKE BLUE CUBE and finally TAKE GREEN CUBE. Get it wrong 
and you have to answer to the Cube Monster!!. Right, now proceed SOUTH to a 
small room. The plaque tells you that you are about to enter the Maze of Mines. 
The locations all appear the same in this maze so follow these directions 
EXACTLY: S, E, E, S, W, W, W, N, N, W, S, S, E. You should now be in a small 
chamber with an exit so go SOUTH to emerge in a golden meadow. You will notice a 
girl combing her hair, so CUT HAIR and the girl will run off. TAKE LOCK (of 
hair) and go WEST to the banks of a small stream. Watch the text as a fish will 
momentarily appear and murmur 'GSTNDSTR' which you are supposed to translate to 
read "Go east and strangle" but, I have to confess I used a Hint Sheet for that 
particular one!!! You should now go EAST three times to a small forest glade 
where you will meet a sad knight who is pining for his true love. SHOW LOCK and 
he will give you an ivory key, so TAKE IVORY KEY. Now proceed EAST to a mine 
where you see a woman trapped in the marsh. Remember what the fish said and 
STRANGLE WOMAN. You will now hear of a magic word from her spirit - "GHAS KENI". 
Go WEST three times to the golden meadow and SOUTH twice to the end of the path. 
There is a small hut here. Say "GHAS KENI" then OPEN DOOR and you find yourself 
in a magnificent hall. Input HELP (whilst carrying the Star) and you are told 
that there may be another exit to this room. Proceed EAST to a dusty room and 
TAKE POTION (onto your hands) and you will be protected from the effects of the 
poisonous wand. Now RIP PAINTING and you will find a combination safe. Another 
tricky one!!. If you ENTER COMBINATION you are asked to do so in SINGLE digits. 
What is the combination? Well the magic word GHAS must be considered. The 
alphabet positions of G, H, A, and S are 7, 8, 1, and 19 and as the combination 
must be entered in single digits, the correct combination to input is 7, 8, 1, 
1, 9. The safe will now open to reveal an oaken wand. TAKE WAND and go WEST then 
SOUTH to a small room. Here you finally meet Zaegmar and you must immediately 
THROW WAND. He will turn into a snake and you should ignore the golden key. 
Finally go SOUTH to the Temple of Selvin and receive the staff of Safrin to 
complete the game with 100%!!!