THE SEVEN PARCHMENTS OF KANDOS by Martin Page Sinclair User Spectrum 128 This game has many, many random elements and several useless objects which make it very frustrating to play. I'm not sure you can win without doing a SAVE/RESTORE when needed. You goal is to find seven parchments, and when you meet him back in your garden, defeat Kandos. HINTS: On the way you will meet several adversaries which you must defeat. You can use spells or combat. All of the parchments are either healing or combat spells. Periodically you will need to eat and drink, and your supply appears unlimited. While you can carry many objects, there is a limit. You cannot drop any of the parchments once you have them. You can ask some people you meet to JOIN <name of person> or LEAVE <name of person>. Having Tindrel with you may help with navigation of the boat. The "JFMAMJJASOND" puzzle is simply the initial letters of the 12 months. Apparently Dwalo can read the ship's log for you, though I have not been able to figure out how to do this. This is not necessary to finish the game. EXAMINE what objects you can and listen to what Tindrel and Dwalo say. Some of the hints are helpful, some not. You can avoid the Pixies by not going there. Take the chess set to the pawnbroker. Even people who you would not think to kill, you should. Most of the time you get a parchment, so you cannot avoid killing them. Use the balm instead of a spell. Buy only two objects at the shop – something to help with light, and food. Any friends who are with you during combat sometimes die. Tindrel needs to die. When in the dungeon, EXAMINE ROOM (not dungeon). Sometimes only the first word of a two-word description is needed. The necessary objects are any objects that have an aura of magic (talisman, ring, amulet, swimming/drinking the water), balm, torch, spade, rope, key, scroll, matches, food, wine, chess set, ticket, piccolo, idol, horn, helm. You would think that the gauntlets should be able to protect you from a scorpion bite, but they don't. Unnecessary objects include the aardvaark gazette, necklace, jewel box, potion (though maybe I just was unable to figure out how to use them). Explore the sea fully before deciding where to stop first since there are only a limited number of moves before you die, and some dead ends. You need to use SAVE/RESTORE since you cannot map in the usual way by dropping objects. The parchments with their Magic Points necessary to use, their function, and their name: RED – 2 MP – to heal wounds sustained in battle; (h) - healing YELLOW – 3 MP – to open metal doors; (s) - sesame BLUE – 4 MP – to slow enemies in combat; (w) - web PURPLE – 5MP – to evade blows in combat; (i) - invisibility GREEN – 6 MP – to fall from heights with ease; (f) - feather BLACK – 8 MP – to cast denizens to the void in combat; (v) void WHITE – 10 MP – to resurrect yourself; cast before death takes place; (r) - resurrection To use a spell, type SPELL and the letter. Use the lower ranking one when you can. Save your spell points, though there appears to be many ways that they are increased. Some spells, like the yellow, and the green, are necessary in particular situations. Other, the combat spells are optional. Despite being given the option to retreat, you seem to always die. You can use the spells more than once. There were several spells I did not use. SAVE/RESTORE each successful combat move, but prepared for many, many, very many of these. Strength and endurance are randomly depleted every time you are hit. Endurance is lost more frequently and it appears to be more necessary to minimize its loss. Doreen Bardon and Terri Sheehan 2005-12-04 ***************************************************** Displayed on the Classic Adventures Solution Archive: http://solutionarchive.com