Introduction

On a stormy night, William Gordon walks by candlelight to his tower study and begins a letter to his estranged grandson. He begs Samuel to return to castle Black Mirror. “There is not much time left,” he writes.

Gordon is closer to the mark than he may know. Cut to an exterior shot from the point of view of something climbing the tower wall. We can’t see the climber but the accompanying dark whisper, the sheerness of the wall and the slightly fuzzy, stretched-out quality of the picture (as though seen through the eyes of an animal) suggests it can’t be entirely human.

Within, William writes on -- that he is close to learning “the truth about our family,” but thinks he lacks the strength to see it alone.

There’s a sound outside like some great creature in pain. William looks left in agitation -- we can see now how on-edge he is -- but continues to write. He’s enclosing with the letter “the ancient ring of your heritage.” “Always have it with you,” he charges Samuel. “Take extraordinary care of it.”

Two candles on the wagon-wheel chandelier suddenly go out. William writes his final words: “I know my time is closing in. I can feel it.

“I am afraid ...”

With good reason. The climber has reached the windows. The two to the right of William’s desk burst open as though blown by the wind. The player doesn’t see what enters -- we hear only guttural sounds -- but William does.

Cut again to an exterior shot of the tower windows. The remaining candles flicker twice and then go out. The near window is flung open. And out goes William -- his back to the window and moving as though thrown -- to plummet onto the spiked fence below.

Samuel does come home -- for his grandfather’s funeral. He takes up the story as the family returns to the castle in strained silence from the nearby Warmhill church.

Odds & ends: The study depicted in the introduction is exactly as you’ll find it at the end of Chapter I. It’s modeled right down to the skull on the chest at the rear, the chess board at the right and the music box on the roll-top desk. (You’ll be able to make a similar comparison at the rear of the castle library later in the chapter and in other locations periodically throughout the game. Three-dimensional models were the foundation for the game’s two-dimensional backdrops.)

Don’t puzzle too much at the two candles on the chandelier going out before the windows open. Call it a draft from some unseen gap in the run-down castle’s masonry. This is just foreshadowing -- an early signal of an upcoming event. In this case, that William’s own candle is flickering perilously. The designers do this throughout the game.

Finally, look carefully at the shot of William after the windows open. There’s a lot going on in those two seconds.

First, note that Samuel’s grandfather appears to be looking at two intruders. Before his fall, we see his eyes flicker back and forth between them. This isn’t explained and perhaps it can’t be explained (though I’ll suggest a possibility late in our story).

And if I read anything beyond terror in William’s eyes in this scene, it would be a flash of recognition. To judge from his letter, he seems to have expected just such a fate ... but not that it would arrive in this form.

General Hints

Before we get into the thick of things, here are some practices that’ll help keep you and your game on an even keel.

Clicking: You’ll have help from an intelligent cursor--one that’s typically red when placed over an interactive object or location.

But you’ll want to be aggressive in its use. All the available info doesn’t necessarily pour out on the first click. If one left-click on an item or location doesn’t prove revealing, a second may. (You can click as many as four or five times before exhausting the responses, but pertinent info is usually available within the first two clicks.)

Or try a right-click. Samuel may then conduct a search or more thorough inspection of the location.

Note that there are three kinds of right-clicks. Most can be performed when the usual mouse pointer is displayed. (More on this curiously-shaped pointer a little later.)

But you can get important details about certain locked doors by right-clicking when the door icon is on-screen and first impressions of non-player characters when the dialogue icon is displayed. (These icons always appear as white. To see whether you can elicit info with a right-click in a given situation, you’ll just have to try.)

These latter descriptions (one of the game’s better-kept secrets) usually belabor the obvious or supply details you could otherwise pick up in conversation. But in a couple of places you’ll preview the true flavor of a person, get a sense of Samuel’s reaction to them or elicit a detail that is unavailable in conversation or Samuel’s inner monologue. (These thoughts are bracketed with dashes.)

If cursor remains red when placed over the object even after you elicited all available details, the object will likely find a role at some future point in the game. (But not always. In chapters I and III, you’ll find that certain locations turn the pointer to no clear purpose.)

Finally, don't assume that just because an item wasn't interactive on first acquaintance, it will remain non-interactive on a second. As the game progresses, the status of a few items changes from “non-interactive” to “interactive,” from “interactive” to "usable" and, here and there, all the way from “non-interactive” to “usable.”

Talking: Just as you’ll want to go back to previously non-interactive objects, go back to previously-silent people -- especially in the ultra-talky first chapter. Sometimes an event or a conversation with one character will ignite a new topic with another.

Throughout the game, you'll sometimes have the opportunity to give one of two answers to questions posed by non-player characters. You can't see the answers before you give them--just their general positive or negative cast (represented by happy and sad theatrical masks).

You can’t go wrong in any serious way here, as your answers rarely alter the subsequent course of the game and then only in the most minor of ways. (The most significant result: You can get, or not get, some extra topics with other characters after talking to Samuel’s grandmother Victoria about the gardener Henry in Chapter I.) Typically they’re just different text to the same end. Hence, I'll address in detail only those positive/negative questions to which your response either has some clear effect on the course of play, the player's thinking or on real or apparent resources.

Movement: There's a great deal of running around in The Black Mirror. You can significantly reduce the amount of time spent waiting for Samuel to reach a room exit by double left-clicking on the exit icon and sometimes trim the number of rooms or regions he must traverse with judicious use of the game map found in the Black Mirror library in Chapter I. (This isn’t available at all in Chapter III or Chapter VI and you’re prevented from using it in certain portions of the other chapters.)

Standalone puzzles: Two of the game's stand-alone puzzles -- the solar system puzzle in Chapter I and the sliding-tile puzzle in Chapter III -- rely in some part on the player’s own knowledge. That is, you can’t find the answers within the game.

These solutions require in one instance familiarity with the identity and positions of the planets and in the other the ability to identify and place in sequence astrological signs.

A lot of folks probably know this stuff. But not all folks or all the stuff. Hence, at the appropriate spots in the walkthrough, I've included links to web pages that prominently feature the [then] nine planets and 12 zodiac signs.

Time sensitivity: Every so often, you'll encounter a timed sequence: killing the dark wolf at the end of Chapter II, presenting your credentials to the caretaker at the beginning of Chapter III and escaping your bonds and distracting James in Chapter IV.

In each case, you'll have a window to select the appropriate item. This isn't particularly hard, but it's useful to know that a clock is running.

There are also two or three brief timed waits when Samuel tries to sneak into the asylum in Chapter IV: the first for the furnace attendant to reach outside for a sedative-laced beer and the second for him to fall asleep.

(The third wait may or may not surface when you try to remove an iron bar from the window beside the furnace-room door. It depends on how you handle the puzzle.)

Waiting: Some other plot points appear time sensitive, but aren’t. At several points in the game, Samuel must ask third parties for help with certain tasks. And then Samuel must wait -- in Chapter II for Dr. Hermann to develop Samuel’s photos and for Mark to make a key, in Chapter III for the chemist Richard to research the meaning of the chapel inscriptions and in Chapter V for Father Frederick to search church records for the final resting place of Lothar Gordon.

It may seem as though actual waiting is required in these instances. But if you go that route, the wait will take forever. If Samuel sits on his hands, the non-player character will never respond with the information or item required.

A clock isn’t actually running in those instances. The game here simulates the passage of time by monitoring the player’s movements and you can run out each of these waits quickly by moving Samuel to certain locations.

Death: In Chapter II, Samuel can electrocute himself shortly after he enters the Old Mines and be eaten by a wolf immediately after he escapes. In Chapter III, he can lose his head in Dergham Gordon's tomb. In Chapter IV, James will bury Samuel alive if you don't act fast. In the catacombs in Chapter VI, Samuel can fall into a pit and, in two spots, get a blade through the head. In each case, you’ll then get a rather neat 3D cut scene in which the camera zooms in on Samuel’s gravestone.

It's easy enough to avoid most of these bad ends through common sense and careful gameplay, but clicks sometimes miss their target ... and, in Chapter VI, you have no advance warning that what you’re doing is potentially deadly. You'll spare yourself potential frustration if you save your game on a regular basis in those sequences.

Inescapable situations: The Black Mirror’s good about not stranding the player ... except in one spot. If you leave the Old Mine at the end of Chapter II without a bullet in your gun, you -will- die.

Red herrings: The game offers a few false leads -- among them referenced items that never turn up (the report on William’s death mentioned in Chapter II), story elements that remain adrift (the goal of Robert's experiments), a prominent container that appears unlock-able but can’t be unlocked (the chest against the rear wall of Williams’ study in Chapter I) and items and locations that promise interactivity but never deliver (the fountain and test tubes in Chapter III).

Don’t get hung up on them. You won’t find solutions to any of these problems.

Plot holes: Lots of these. Seemingly by design, the game rarely lays out of the meaning of a given event in plain language. This can be confusing. I’ve done my best to interpret these events and sort out contradictions. (In places, I’ve probably over-interpreted them.)

The walkthrough: This is version 1.01. It includes additions in chapters I and V about the identity of William Gordon’s father.

Why write 87 single-spaced pages about a five-year-old adventure game? A couple of reasons. I’ve written guide books and have been looking for ways to expand upon the traditional format. And because I had all kinds of questions about The Black Mirror. When I couldn’t find satisfying answers online, I decided to answer them myself. It sort of snowballed from there -- to the point where the walkthrough became more of reverse-engineered game design document.

Contact: Your comments and corrections are welcome. You can write to me at peternolafson@yahoo.com.

Copyright: This document is copyright 2008 by Peter Olafson. You may not sell it, distribute it, modify it, excerpt it (except for "fair use" purposes in news coverage), edit it or publish it in any fashion without my prior written consent.

Chapter I: return of the future ...

This chapter is notably more complex, dense with optional things to do and less linear in structure than the five that follow it, so I’m handling it a bit differently.

Below you’ll find two separate walkthroughs: a stripped-down approach in “Just the Essentials” (for players who want to cut to the chase already) and a vastly expanded one in “The Long Form (for players who want to know how everything works).

Just the Essentials

The over-arching mission here is getting Samuel into his grandfather William's locked and barred study. You can start on this task straightaway -- though you won’t be able to complete it until you finish the chapter’s other key threads. (In fact, the most efficient route -- it reduces somewhat the running back and forth -- would be to wait until Bates shows you a strange symbol on the castle wall and then combine clearing the boards from the study door with the task of extracting film from your uncle Robert's locked chest.)

The tower is reached via the attic. Drop down one screen from your starting position, climb the stairs, and head right along the balustrade to the old wing. The door to the attic is in that room's right rear corner.

It's locked. But trying the door allows you to ask Bates about the attic key, which you can’t find on your own. It's hanging to the right of the cellar door in the kitchen.

In the attic, try the chest against the back wall to the left of the entrance to learn it’s also locked and the study door all the way at the other end to learn you can't remove the boards by hand.

These respective actions permit you to ask your uncle Robert for his chest key (after you’ve collected your camera; see “The symbol” section below for details) and to take the hammer from the drawer of the work table in the stable.

The boards gone, try the study door once to learn it's locked and then a second time for Samuel to mention checking with his grandmother Victoria about the key.

Victoria's ticked off you brought it up and sends you packing. Ask Bates for his advice -- an apology -- and then deliver on it and you'll learn the key is history but that William may have had another. Consult Dr. Hermann and he'll agree to send a messenger to the front gate with William's belongings. They conceal a riddle which leads to the study key.

You'll be transported to the gate automatically when the bells ring at the Warmhill church. But to get to that church, you need to complete three additional parallel plot threads at the castle (one of which we’ve already touched upon), pick up four additional items and then pay a visit to the village of Willow Creek.

Except for the visit to the village, all these tasks can be performed at any point in your attempt on the study door. (You can't visit Willow Creek until after you've completed the three threads and have all the items.)

Those items:

- the map from table in the middle section of the library,

- the pills and wallet from the suitcase in your room

- and the candies from the bowl in the dining room.

The remaining threads:

- find and record a strange symbol on the castle wall,

- find and follow up on a "strange object" in the bushes nearby

- and reassemble and follow up on a torn-up photograph found in the fireplace in the old wing.

The symbol: This is the thread you can combine with clearing the way to William’s study.

At the front left corner of the castle, look at the bent section of fence where William's body landed. Then ask Bates about "the place of William's death." He'll lead you outside and point out a "strange spot" on the wall above. Look at the "stain" beside the casement window and click on it. Samuel then says he should record it.

You'll need the camera from the dresser in your room upstairs. Use the key Bates provided at the start to unlock its door. Try the locked bottom drawer of your dresser and then retrieve (with a right-click) the key from atop the doorframe.

Camera in hand, talk to your uncle Robert about film and he'll offer some of his own. If you’ve already tried to open Robert’s chest in the attic, you’ll also be able to ask for the chest key immediately. (If not, you’ll have to try to open the chest and then return to Robert.) Use the film on the camera and use the camera on the symbol to take your snapshot. Return to Robert and ask about developing the film.

The strange object: Also right-click on the shrubs to the right of the symbol to retrieve a "strange object." Talk to Bates, who refers you to the gardener Henry. Henry confesses he found a similar piece nearby, pawned it in Willow Creek and misplaced the receipt. Be sure to follow up on the "bill of exchange" topic.

The torn-up photograph: Right-click on the fireplace in the old wing to retrieve the pieces of a torn-up photo. Right-click on them in your inventory to reassemble them. (See "The Long Form" for some advice on the solution.) After you've unbarred and then twice tried the door to William’s study, ask Victoria about the picture and she'll identify its subject. Run the picture by Robert as well -- a second time after Victoria identifies its subject -- and he'll say it looks like a patient.

If you’ve done everything above, you can now highlight the village on your map.

Willow Creek: Move right across the river and try the pawn shop door. Then talk to the child Vick in front of the Three Kegs Inn, respond positively when he asks if you have candy and run through all his topics. Enter the inn, talk to the proprietor Harry about "what's new" and then twice "about the pub" and then to the patron Tom about "debt." Talk to Harry again about "debt" and "pay off the debt" and then to Tom again about "debt" and "Mark." Now you can highlight the Warmhill church on your map.

Warmhill Vicarage: Head all the way right and talk to the grave-digger. Run through all his topics, then visit the rear of the graveyard and click on William's gravestone. Return to the grave-digger and ask after Father Frederick a second time. The bell tolls and Samuel automatically returns to Black Mirror's main gate to meet Dr. Hermann's messenger Mark.

Black Mirror: Collect the box Mark leaves behind, right-click on it in inventory to extract a watch and again on the watch to extract a riddle. Once you’ve read it, enter the rear section of the library and activate the quill on William’s work table. Take the box of model planets from the secret cabinet in the corner and use them on the rim of the globe in the room's middle section. Place them correctly (see "The Long Form" for the solution) to reveal the key to William's tower study.

In the study, open the rolltop desk and take the chess piece and the music box from the desktop. From the drawer, take the book. Right-click on the book to find a hidden key. Right-click on the front of the drawer to find William's diary. Use the small key to unlock the chest on the right side of the room and take the strange sphere within. Right-click on the chess piece in your inventory to reveal a little knife. Use the knife to lift the latch on the study door and step through the doorway into the attic.

The Long Form

When the introduction ends, you'll find Samuel outside the common room in an upper corner of Black Mirror’s main hall. We'll make a survey of the house and grounds and then zero in on your key discoveries.

Samuel’s inventory is as good a place to start as any. You’ll find here the bedroom key he received from Bates and William’s “mourning card.”

The key can find a use almost immediately. After he leaves the common room, Samuel’s inner monologue suggests a visit to his bedroom. You’ll eventually need to collect three items from that second-floor chamber, but none of them are required at this early stage of the game.

And the mourning card? You won’t touch it until Chapter III, when it’ll help get you past a pair of locked entrances. For now, it’s just a curiosity. This is apparently how Samuel learned of William’s death. (When Samuel finally talks to Victoria in the common room, he’ll refer to the card as “the Mourning letter” in the “about myself” topic.)

I drew a blank on “mourning card” myself and turned up this nugget in the online archive of Ancestry Magazine (at http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library/article.aspx?article=152):

“Funeral cards have a long history ... These cards were to be distributed to family members, friends, and the surrounding community in a timely manner to alert invitees to the date and time of the funeral. Recipients of a funeral card were expected to attend the funeral or risk offending family members.”

The article goes on to report the cards are no longer used. In the modern era, they’ve been replaced by obituaries and death notices. So how is it they are used in The Black Mirror, which is set in the spring of 1981? (You’ll learn the year from William’s gravestone at the end of Chapter I and the season from the diary you’ll subsequently find in William’s study.)

Ah. It’s just another element of the timelessness of the game world, described on page 17 of the manual in the preamble to “First Five Minutes of Gameplay”:

“In the town of Willow Creek and nearby Black Mirror Manor, everything looks as it did a hundred years ago. There are no paved roads, no prefabricated houses and no cars. The roads are cobbled, the houses are made of stone and look dilapidated, and instead of cars the local inhabitants drive wooden carts or coaches. There aren’t many who would wish to live in the middle of nowhere, and strangers seldom come here ...”

Allusions to this odd state of affairs surface several times in this chapter and spottily thereafter. These include Samuel’s question to the servant Bates about “castle Black Mirror,” Robert’s replies to Samuel’s questions about “Black Mirror” and “what’s new,” Dr. Hermann’s note to Robert (which you’ll find upstairs in the magazine rack outside Robert’s study), the portrait of Dergham Gordon in the common room (in an oblique way) and the appearance of a broken-down carriage in the Black Mirror stables. But it’s never explained in down-to-earth terms -- perhaps because there is no earthly way to explain it. (The closest the game comes is in Robert’s reply to Samuel’s inquiry about the castle’s state of disrepair. See the “Robert’s study” section below.)

Much of the manor is open to you initially. Some areas require keys (the attic and William's study), others open after certain events (the common room and the greenhouse) and some require completion of a series of events plus the map from the castle library (the village of Willow Creek and the Warmhill church). Still others will have to wait for later chapters: the cellar (Chapter II) and Robert's study (Chapter V). (You never do get inside Victoria’s bedroom, but she’ll talk to you through a crack in the door in Chapter V.)

No particular route is forced on the player for much of this first chapter. That is, you can work on the chapter's four major threads in parallel or in almost any order. ("Almost" because you'll have to complete three threads before you can complete the fourth: entering William's study.)

Initially, Samuel’s stated goal is to decide whether to remain at the family home. His grandmother Victoria requests as much at the tail end of the intro and your uncle Robert raises the question in his first in-game speech. Clearly this was designed to give Samuel some time to wander about his former home and form impressions about what happened to his grandfather.

Samuel says before leaving the common room that he needs some time to put his thoughts in order before he decides. But it doesn’t take long and Samuel seems to reach this decision invisibly. He can declare twice in this chapter -- right away to Robert and later to Victoria -- that he returned to Black Mirror only for William’s funeral.

And that’s the last you’ll hear about Samuel moving back into his old room and unfurling his old soccer pennants. Early in the first chapter, his goal changes to investigating William’s death. More on this rather awkward transition under “the library” section below.

The Ground Floor

The main hall: There’s a lot going on here. We’ll start with the butler Bates.

When you leave the common room, this old family retainer temporarily vanishes from the game. But once you enter the part of the hall closest to the front door (down one screen from your starting position), he'll reappear in an upper corner of this large three-section chamber. You'll find him dusting the mantel of the fireplace beside the library entrance -- one screen to the left of your starting position.

Talk to him. Right off the bat, you can ask after Robert, the castle and Bates himself. He'll reveal that there is something oddly oppressive about the place -- a sense Samuel shares -- and that Robert is behaving oddly (though he’s too decorous to put it that way). Your uncle doesn't come home some nights -- apparently owing to his commitments at a place called Ashburry -- and no longer allows Bates into his study.

And that’s not the end of Robert’s strangeness. See the “Hallway” and “Robert’s study” entries in “The Second Floor” section below.

Check in with Bates on a regular basis. He is a regular fountain of information. If you: a) talk to Robert about the state of the castle, b) click on the fireplace in your room upstairs, c) try the locked attic door, d) reassemble the torn-up photograph from the fireplace in the old wing, e) try to remove the boards blocking the door to William's tower study, f) click on the spot outside where William's body landed or g) find the “strange object” in the bushes nearby ...

... Bates can: a) try to steer you away from exploring the castle’s old wing (unless you've already visited it), b) indicate he’ll light a fire for you (and eventually does; see the "Samuel's room" entry in “The Second Floor” section below for details), c) direct you to the attic key (with an attendant request to return it when you're done), d) report that the man pictured doesn't look familiar, e) refer you to the stable for tools and explain why the study door is barred, f) lead you out of the house to the bent section of fence at the castle's left front corner and point out a “strange spot” on the castle wall or g) suggest you turn the object over to the detective Collier (which can’t be done) and finally direct you to the gardener Henry.

Topics c), f) and g) are all necessary to make progress in the game.

Note that, unlike other characters in this chapter, Bates moves around a good deal. After he leads you outside to the bent section of fence below the tower, he moves from the main-hall fireplace to the kitchen. If you ask him to light a fire in your room and then leave the house (using any of the three doors, but not the map you’ll find in the library), you'll find him emerging from your room when you next approach Samuel’s bedroom. (After this event, he assumes his previous position in the main hall or kitchen.)

This hall -- consisting of the starting location outside the common room, the fireplace screen to the left and the front-door screen below -- is the hub for your exploration of the house and grounds. And, once you acquire the map (see "The library" section below), it's your destination point when traveling to the castle. When you click on the castle, you'll appear just inside the front door.

After the common-room conclave at the start, the hall is also the closest thing to a family gathering place. In addition to Bates's appearance here in Chapter I, you'll find Victoria on the sofa at the beginning of Chapter II and Victoria and Bates at the start of Chapter IV. (If you click on the sofa to the right of the fireplace now, you’ll also learn the late William liked to read the paper here.)

And it’s the locus for a lot of the castle's strangeness. The "monolith" at the hall's center is the castle's founding stone. It's "charged with a peculiar kind of energy" and surrounded with a ring of old symbols. If you move over by the fireplace, you can click on the symbols. Samuel says no one knows what they mean.

Now, cryptic symbols and a stone charged with energy of any kind would seem to beg further investigation. But not here. This location never comes into play. It’s used just to set the creepy mood.

Odds & ends: There’s a little inconsistency here. Read the plaque on the monolith. Samuel reports that the castle’s founding stone was laid in 1206. But in Chapter V, he indicates construction started in 1121.

Same deal with the vines or snakes that spiral around the columns that flank the front door and the support poles for the pale green lights that flank the gap in the low wall around the central monolith. You’ll also find this motif on the lights just inside the library entrance, the three lamps in the common room, the bedposts in Samuel’s room and, much later, on the columns in the secret chapel beneath the castle. There’s something vaguely predatory and tentacle-like about them -- consistent with the oppressive environment Bates mentions.

Finally, note the huge paintings of past Gordons in the two upper corners: good-guy Marcus Gordon above the big fern at the starting point and, more particularly, his bad-guy brother Mordred above the fireplace.

These set the stage for the appearance of a significant painting in Robert’s study in Chapter V. But there are all kinds of things going on with the latter portrait -- few of which will make any sense right now.

Mordred appears bathed in a pale green light and surrounded by a strange glow. These are the effects of a nearby light source. You’ll learn about the source in Chapter II, but you won’t actually see it until Samuel has a vision in Chapter V. (This lighting scheme involves some artistic license, as, logically, it doesn’t quite work. The light source would have to be behind Mordred to produce the corona effect, but in front of him for him to be bathed in light.)

Also check out the strange ornament Mordred wears atop his head. It’s similar to the mouse pointer. You’ll see this again in Chapter II (when you’ll find something similar) and then repeatedly throughout the remainder of the game.

The backdrop is drawn from the secret chapel beneath Black Mirror. Victoria will mention this location later in the chapter if you ask her about the castle.

The two dogs that flank Mordred also flank the entrance to the common-room door and what appears to be a miniature of one can be found on the table in front of the picture of Jeremy Gordon in the front section of the library.

Odds & ends: And was something more planned for the paintings themselves? The game treats certain pictures at Black Mirror in a different fashion from other interactive objects ... but to no clear end.

Most hotspots in the backdrops are interactive only in the first chapter in which they appear. (Exceptions are objects or locations that change state owing to the rainy weather or the time of day. We’ll see these in chapters II and III.)

But four paintings at Black Mirror -- those of Marcus and Mordred Gordon in the main hall, William’s watercolor in the greenhouse and the portrait of Jeremy Gordon in the library -- are interactive in every chapter in which you’re able to reach them. And a click on three of those pictures (Marcus, Mordred and the watercolor) yields on each occasion a close-up view of the painting.

One close-up I understand. Marcus and Mordred will turn out to be key characters in the backstory. But why repeated close-ups ... unless something is observably changing in the paintings from chapter to chapter?

It’s an intriguing idea -- rather like the premise of M.R. James’s short story “The Mezzotint” -- but there’s no evidence to support it. The viewable portraits are the same in Chapter V as they are at the beginning of Chapter I.

Other hotspots: the chair just to the right of the door to the library, the fireplace, the Gordon coat of arms above it, the door to the right of the front door and the little table just left of the common-room door.

A couple of notes on these last two locations. The door is purely ornamental. This former entrance to the castle’s old wing has been sealed off. You can reach the old wing on the second floor.

And Bates allegedly deposits the family's mail on the little table. However, nothing ever appears here. The parcel that turns up in Chapter I and the letter in Chapter IV must be collected personally out at the main gate.

One last note. Check out the crossed-swords motif on the wall between the fireplace and the sofa. You’ll find a sword just like this one in the final chapter.

The common room: Located behind the right-hand door at your starting location, and initially off limits.

Most of the people who were gathered here have scattered -- your uncle Robert to his study upstairs, family friend Dr. Heinz Hermann to the ground-floor library and the butler Bates to the main hall -- while your grandmother Victoria remains behind to think her sad thoughts. You won't be able to speak to her here until after you’ve twice tried the unbarred door to William's study. Thereafter, the room remains open to you. (Nothing further happens at this location in-game, but you’ll make a non-interactive appearance here at the end of Chapter III.)

No take-able or use-able items can be found here, but, once you get inside, click on the horse statue and the plaque below for a brief evocation of better days. (The estate still maintains two horses and a groom. Check the stable to the left of the castle.)

The Henry VIII-like fellow in the picture on the far wall is Dergham Gordon. You’ll find a way into his tomb in Chapter III.

And if you linger here long enough, the clock below the painting will eventually chime a random number of times. This is just a nice adornment and has no meaning. Most of the time, the game doesn’t keep track of time.

Other hotspots: the small cabinet below Dergham’s portrait and the magazine on the table to the right of Victoria.

The library: This is reached by heading left from your starting position to the fireplace and then through the door.

You'll find Dr. Hermann scanning the shelves to the left of the entrance. He has one topic at the start: William.

Use it and, straight off, Samuel tells him he doesn’t believe William’s death was an accident.

And why not? Well, that’s something of a puzzle. This assertion comes out of nowhere. At this stage, we have no reason to think Samuel has any basis for doubting the cause of death. Our protagonist seems to have placed the cart of his suspicions before the horse of an investigation.

Consider: Samuel doesn’t raise any such concerns in the intro. No one has told him about the circumstances of William’s death or the discovery of his body. (In fact, you’ll never get an account of the latter. Bates might have offered one when he takes Samuel to the spot where William died, but Samuel takes pity on the old retainer and doesn’t push the subject.) He hasn’t talked to the authorities or questioned anyone at the castle. He probably hasn’t seen the spot where William died or the room from which he fell. He hasn’t read his grandfather’s urgent letter or learned about his reclusive behavior.

And he hadn’t been in touch with William in 12 years, so even if he’d done his homework, he wouldn’t be in the best position to judge whether the death was an accident, suicide or something more sinister.

To be sure, Samuel will do his homework in this first chapter. And the death is indeed suspicious. But shouldn’t there be some event or discovery early in the game to make Samuel suspicious?

Odds & ends: This isn’t an isolated event. Something similar can occur if Samuel asks Robert about William and does occur when he finds the spot where William died.

In the former case, Samuel declares he doesn’t believe the death was an accident, “let alone suicide.” In the latter, he says, “I won’t leave before I find out the truth” -- assuming that an unknown truth is out there to be found. All this may make you think you’ve missed some critical discovery or epiphany. But no. It’s just a gap in the story.

The doctor concedes the circumstances are “strange.” He appears to discount the notion of suicide -- as does Samuel in conversation with Robert -- and to raise the possibility of foul play via the disclosure of unusual marks on the corpse: "numerous deeply burned areas, I have no clue as to their origin."

However, it’s a short chat. Hermann’s uncomfortable talking about his friend in the wake of the service, and assures Samuel he'll reveal "everything" the next day when you visit Hermann at the morgue. Samuel then tells himself that Hermann knows something.

Odds & ends: Does Hermann in fact know something more? Samuel says he does, but, taken at face value, the exchange suggests Hermann just wants to get off an uncomfortable topic. (You don’t talk about the autopsy right after the funeral.)

In any case, the burns are an intriguing dead-end. When you talk to Hermann in the morgue in Chapter II, he refers to his report on William's death and mentions the burns again with barely any elaboration.

The report doesn't exist -- you won’t find it in the morgue or anywhere else -- and the issue is then abandoned at an active point of investigation.

But it’s not the last time we’ll hear about burns. A burned plant turns up in Chapter IV at the scene of the third murder. (And, no, it’s not explained then, either!)

Like Bates, Dr. Hermann picks up a couple of extra topics as you explore the house. Once you assemble the torn-up photo from the old wing's fireplace (see “The old wing” section below), you can ask after the man pictured. (Hermann can't identify him. You’ll learn later from Victoria that the doctor is a relative newcomer to this strange neighborhood). And once you've spoken with Victoria about the key to William’s study,the doctor agrees to arrange delivery of a parcel of William’s belongings that opens up a puzzle in the library.

Hermann vanishes from the library after you head to Willow Creek. His basement morgue will be a regular stop in chapters II, IV and V.

You'll want to poke around a bit in this large room's three sections. On the left side of the middle one, you'll see a round table. The scroll in the middle is a map. Later in the chapter, this map provides access to the village of Willow Creek and the Warmhill church and, in later chapters, to a range of other locations: Hermann’s house in Chapter II and the Stonering site, the Ashburry asylum and the Sharp Edge lighthouse in Chapter IV. (The Old Mine also appears on the map in Chapter IV, but you can’t travel to it. You can reach this location only in Chapter II and then only through the secret tomb beneath the Warmhill church.)

Right now, the map has just one purpose: a shortcut to spare yourself some room-to-room clicking. Wherever you are on the estate, clicking on the house takes you back to the main hall -- as though you'd just entered through the front door. (Click on the grounds in front of the mansion and it takes you to a position just outside the main gate).

Bear in mind that using the map requires a right click and a left click. Hence, it’s most efficient when Samuel’s at the far ends of the estate: the attic outside William’s study (a walk and then four double-clicks from the main hall when moving room-to-room) and inside the greenhouse (five double-clicks from the main hall).

Also have a look at the globe to the left of the world map on the right side of the library's mid-section. On closer inspection, you'll see the top has been raised to reveal a model of the solar system and that “it seems like something’s missing here ...” This is a significant puzzle later in the chapter -- it conceals the key to William’s study -- but you can't do anything with it now.

Finally, check out William's work table at the rear. The big book here -- the chronicle of the Warmhill manor -- doesn't contain any information critical to our story, but does contains a number of interesting nuggets.

1) “It is thought that Marcus [Gordon] had the [Warmhill] church built on pagan lands, where many innocent people died through the ages.” The chronicle goes on play down this belief, but this reference nevertheless appears to set the stage for a spooky story you’ll hear from the church’s grave-digger near the end of the chapter.

2) Lest you confuse him with his evil brother Mordred, the chronicle establishes Marcus as forward-thinking good guy -- being that he built both the Warmhill church and the Academy at Black Mirror. (And no, you won’t find any signs of the Academy or its library in the game.)

3) Finally, the book foreshadows the importance of the Warmhill church as a source of information on the Gordon family's early history. That comes into play in chapters II and V.

You’ll use a hidden button on the table later in the chapter.

At the left side of the rear part of the library is a black statue of a person holding a key or amulet. This foreshadow events in chapters III and VI, when amulets serve as keys to Dergham Gordon’s tomb and a key chamber in the Black Mirror catacombs.

The Rembrandt-like picture on the far wall in the library’s entry area is Jeremy Gordon. (A duplicate can be found to the left of the fireplace in the old wing.) Click on it and Samuel identifies him as William’s father. You’ll find his crypt to the right of William’s grave in the rear portion of the Warmhill church’s graveyard and he’s apparently the author of the chronicle on the work table.

Odds & ends:

How’s that now? The chronicle ends: “Recorded by the hand of Jeremy Gordon 1632 A.D.” William was born in 1903. If Jeremy is William’s father, he was around 300 years old when his son was born. We’ll give the designers a break and assume there were either two Jeremy Gordons ... or Samuel needs to take a headache pill.

Addendum (new to version 1.01): And if this isn’t confusing enough, the game later provides a second candidate for this job. In Chapter V, the parish priest Father Frederick will posit a “Thomas Gordon” as William’s father.

Other hotspots: In the front section, the shelves flanking the library entrance and the scrolls beside the chair in the foreground. In the middle section, the chest to the right of the table where you found the game map, the 16th century world map and the central bookcase (located at the rear of the library, but view-able only from the middle section). In the rear section: both bookcases and the drawers in the lower right-hand bookcase.

Non-hotspots: The two clocks -- one atop the drawers behind the work table, the other below Jeremy’s portrait -- aren’t interactive, but you’ll hear one or the other of them ticking faintly as long as you remain the library. The first time you enter the rear section, they’ll both chime twice in close sequence.

And check out the horned helmet above the drawers in the right-hand shelves. This is another example of foreshadowing. You’ll find its twin -- and a sword matching the one on the wall beside the fireplace in the main hall -- in the castle catacombs in Chapter VI.

Dining room: Located through the left of the two doors at your starting position, it's mostly a pass-through location -- scenery on the way to somewhere else. However, look at the bowl on the table beside the window and you'll see a few pieces of candy scattered among the apples. Take them. You'll use them a little later in the chapter to bribe the child Vick in Willow Creek.

The two doors at the rear put you in the rear garden (left) and the kitchen (right).

Other hotspots: the middle chair on the left side of the table and the Buddha figurine and broken clock on the mantel.

The kitchen: The only items of interest here are the attic and cellar keys, which are hanging on hooks to the right of the cellar door.

For what I suspect are technical reasons, while both keys are visible on the screen, only one is accessible for viewing or taking at any given time. In this chapter, you can identify the cellar key until Bates tells you the attic key is at the same location.

Bates moves to the kitchen in later encounters. The rear door takes you out onto the castle's right lawn (here called "the right wing") and the near right door into the dining room.

Odds & ends: Bates makes a point of mentioning he’ll need to visit the attic later in the day and reminding you to return the key.

Return it, don’t return it. It doesn’t seem to matter. If you hang onto it, this key will vanish from your inventory and be restored to its place beside the cellar door when the chapter ends. Bates comment is really just more foreshadowing. He’ll find Samuel in the attic when he faints after leaving Williams’ study.

Note that you can also try to use the attic key on the cellar door. It glows encouragingly -- typically an indication you’re using the right item in the right spot -- but Samuel then says it’s the “roof key” and won’t work here.

Other hotspots: the vase beside the keys, the stove around the corner to the right (and that’s a hard one to spot), the decorative spice-grinder beside the exterior door. the servants’ dining table in the far corner and the cabinet on the right side of the screen and the drawer therein.

The Second Floor

From your starting position, just drop down a screen and climb the stairs.

Top of the stairs: Mainly a junction point. The archway straight ahead takes you to the family’s rooms and a right turn along the balustrade to the balcony, old wing and attic.

Odds & ends: Check out the end of the left balustrade and you’ll find a door icon for “upper floor.” Like the child's room beside Samuel’s bedroom and the ground-floor section of the old wing, this location doesn't actually exist. Try to go there and you’ll learn that the corridor is lined with empty chambers. This makes up in a small way for the significant disparity between the exterior view of the castle (in which the castle appears huge) and the comparatively small area that can actually be explored.

Other hotspots: the chest of drawers.

Hallway: This two-segment looping hallway (located through the archway at the head of the stairs) gives access to the family's rooms: Robert's study in front, Victoria's bedroom to the left and Samuel's bedroom to the rear.

Look at the magazine rack beside Robert's door. The newspaper here contains a note to Robert from an H.H. (clearly the family doctor, Heinz Hermann; it’s read in his voice) that suggests the two doctors are conspiring in some illicit activity.

“I will take care of your ‘parcel’ as usual,” Hermann writes. “Fortunately, no one cares about anything in this godforsaken place.”

The note also references a drunken messenger named Mark. You’ll meet him at the end of the chapter and again in Chapter II, when you’ll enlist him to create a timely diversion at Hermann’s morgue and make a key.

You can't bounce this note or a companion note found in Hermann’s trash in Chapter II off either Dr. Robert or Dr. Hermann ... and you won't begin to get to the bottom of their plot until you reach Ashburry in Chapter IV (though you'll find horrific evidence of Hermann's complicity in Chapter II).

Other hotspots: In the front section: the picture at the corner (the wife of the otherwise-unmentioned Thobias Gordon) and an apparent meal-warmer on the table below. In the rear section: the clock in the lower left corner, the table and chairs and the far end of the hall, the picture on the wall above them, the right-hand of the two large paintings on the right wall ... and the door on the right side of the screen. Ostensibly, this leads to what was once a child's room. Click on it and Samuel says the walls are now bare and that it isn't worth a visit.

Robert's study: You don't need Hermann’s note to establish that, as mentioned by Bates, Robert is acting strangely. It's been 12 years since he and his nephew saw each other last, but, when you knock, he doesn't invite you inside. He talks to you through a crack in the door. The man has something to hide.

Initially, you can speak with Robert about William, the castle and "what's new."

Robert doesn't seem taken aback by (or even wholly aware of) the odd circumstances accompanying William's death. He accepts it as a suicide -- a not-unreasonable conclusion for someone who hasn't seen the introduction -- and suggests Samuel is “jumping to conclusions.”

"You don't happen to think it was murder, do you?" Robert asks. "William was alone in the tower when it happened and door was locked from the inside. So a stranger's intervention is impossible."

You may feel inclined to put Robert's secrecy, his extended absences, the note in the newspaper and William's death together. And the first three do go together.

But not the last. Robert’s preoccupied with another matter. He will eventually be revealed as a Very Bad Man, all right, but he's not responsible for his father's death.

The “Black Mirror” topic raises the issue of the castle's state of disrepair and provides a spooky tale of failed repair attempts in the old wing. "The new structure never lasted more than couple of years," Robert says. "It is as though the old stones do not want to accept the new ones."

This is foreshadowing of the family curse you'll learn about at the end of this chapter and in Chapter II. The will of Gordons past seems to exert an influence in the world of Gordons present.

Robert accrues a slew of additional topics as you perform tasks or talk to other members of the household and staff. If you: a) talk to Bates about Robert's not wanting the servant in his office, b) reassemble the torn-up photo from the old wing's fireplace, c) reassemble the photo and run it by Robert and Victoria, d) retrieve your camera from your dresser drawer, e) try to open Robert's chest (whether or not you know it to be Robert’s at the time), f) retrieve the film within, g) take a picture of the symbol on the castle wall, h) talk first to the gardener Henry and then to groom Morris about Henry or i) talk to Henry, then to Morris about Henry and then to Victoria about Henry (with a "positive" reply) ...

.... Robert can: a) offer the rather thin excuse that he doesn't want to be bothered by Bates's "servility," b) assert that he doesn't know the man -- matter-of-factly if you make a “negative” response to his return question and perhaps protesting too much if you take a “positive” tone, c) confirm the photo resembles one of his patients, d) indicate there's usable film in his chest in the attic, e) give you the chest key, f) accept his chest key back, g) refer you to Murray’s Pawn Shop in Willow Creek to have your film developed, h) briefly discuss the feud between Henry and Morris and Henry's boozing or i) speculate that Victoria doesn't like Morris because he is "so common."

Only b) through e) are necessary to make progress in the game.

Victoria's room: You never actually get inside, but, in Chapter V, Victoria will talk to you through a crack in the door. (Apparently the Gordons are paranoid about people seeing their stuff.) Most of your interactions with Victoria take place elsewhere: the common room in Chapter I and the main hall in Chapter II. Right now, a click on the door just gets you a reminder that your grandmother is down in the common room.

Samuel's room: You'll have to unlock the door with the key provided by Bates at the end of the intro to get inside. Simply drag it from your inventory onto the door.

Inside, click on the suitcase (which is over on the loveseat and vanishes at chapter’s end) once to open it and twice more to extract the headache pills and wallet it contains. (You can also right-click on the wallet to remove a coin from it, but there's no need to do so now. You won’t use a coin until you reach the Ashburry asylum in Chapter IV.)

Odds & ends: Curiously, you never actually select the headache pills in the game, though they’re used for you on two occasions. One crops up if you visit the greenhouse in this chapter and the other at the end of the Chapter IV.

There's one minor puzzle here -- opening the locked bottom drawer in the dresser near the door -- and it's a mite tricky.

As Samuel speculates when you try to open the drawer, the key is in the room. But its hiding place doesn't become interactive (turning the mouse pointer red) until after you've tried the drawer and have discovered you need the key. And when you try to look atop the doorframe with a left-click, Samuel complains that he can't see up there. It's too high.

No, Samuel doesn't need something to stand on. You just need to right-click on the doorframe. (You'll run into this a lot in the game.) Samuel then feels blindly along the top of the frame and retrieves the key. As with the door, drag the key onto the drawer to unlock it and activate the drawer again to reveal a camera.

If you've come straight up from the main hall, you won't be able to take it. But the pointer stays red when placed over the camera. Read: You'll be able to take it when you need it. And you will need the camera after you look at the symbol on the castle wall near the spot where William’s body landed.

You can also establish here why Samuel has been estranged from his family. This room and the old wing summon bad memories. Clicks on the photo album in the top dresser drawer, the broken mirror above the dresser, the framed photo atop the dresser (a spooky cut-scene here) and the topmost picture on the left wall above the loveseat all lead to brief, sometimes-anguished reveries about Samuel's companion Cathrin.

"Forgive me Cathrin," says Samuel when you click on the picture above the loveseat. "She died in those horrible flames. and it was my fault. I will never forgive myself for that."

Odds & ends: Cathy’s one big loose end.

You never do get a clear account of the fire and Samuel’s part in it But at the end of the game Samuel makes some general comments about his past that, if they apply to the fire, seem to suggest it wasn’t accidental.

Also: Who is she? Samuel’s precise relationship to Cathrin is never revealed. Wife? Girlfriend? Overly-friendly governess?

In fact, the game is oddly quiet on familial relationships in general. Granted, William being Samuel’s grandfather is mentioned on the back of the game box. But you actually have to talk to the grave-digger at the Warmhill church to learn in-game that William was Samuel’s grandfather. Victoria is never expressly called his grandmother -- in-game, she's always just "Victoria"-- and you won't learn in plain language that Robert is your uncle until you talk to the furnace attendant at the Ashburry asylum in Chapter IV. This lends a whole new meaning to "estranged."

You can adjust the environment a bit as well. Click on the fireplace. Samuel says the room is cold and that he’ll ask Bates to light a fire here. The butler now has a new "fireplace in the room" topic. Find him and use it. Bates tells you he'll see to it. Leave the house using any of the three doors (in the main hall, the dining room and kitchen) and then return to the rear portion of the upstairs hallway. You'll find Bates just leaving your room and a fire blazing merrily within.

It doesn’t do a thing beyond adding an animation (and a hotspot), but it’s a nice little touch.

Finally, you can use the water basin beside the loveseat. Samuel washes his hands. You can do this repeatedly in each of the four chapters in which you visit the castle. (Chapter III is spent in Wales and Chapter VI limits you to the regions below the castle.) Then interact with any other object and you can do it again ad infinitum.

I never found a practical use for this, and suspect it's just an obscure kind of foreshadowing: Much as he may wash them, Samuel won't leave the game with clean hands.

Other hotspots: the bed, the old rolls of films and the bible (both in the bottom dresser drawer), the lower left picture and two lower-right pictures on the wall behind the loveseat, the fire in the fireplace (after Bates starts the fire), the crucifix on the mantel and the picture above it.

Balcony: The door off right balustrade (which leads to the old wing) leads onto a balcony atop the portico. There's nothing out here, but it's the only spot in the mansion exterior where you can look up at William's tower study. The music swells and Samuel says that to find out how William died, he must find a way into that room.

The old wing: This ruined section of the castle, located at the end of the balustrade right of the head of the stairs, is important for two reasons.

a) It's on the route to William's tower study. The study is off the attic, and the attic stairs are located at the right rear of the old wing.

Right now, the door to those stairs is locked, but not in any enduring way. Try the door. This gives the servant Bates a "key to the attic" topic. He'll tell you it's on a hook in the kitchen beside the cellar door. You can get it now or wait until Samuel decides to record the strange symbol on the castle wall.

b) A left-click on the fireplace on the right side of this room reveals it contains "just ashes" ... but the cursor stays red. So right-click on it to examine the ashes more closely and you'll find the pieces of a torn-up photograph. Right-click on them in your inventory and you'll open the game's first stand-alone puzzle. See “The Torn-Up Photograph” section below for some tips.

Odd & ends: When Samuel first enters this room, he'll reminisce about how he was responsible for the fire that took Cathrin's life. (See the "Samuel's room" section above for more examples of our protagonist’s happy thoughts on this topic.) And that's his last word. He never explains why he was responsible, and Cathrin vanishes from the story after Chapter I.

If you talk to Robert and then Bates about the state of the castle -- without visiting the wing -- the servant intimates that the old wing is dangerous.

It isn't really. Yes, the ceiling does collapse between chapters I and II. (Be sure to revisit the room in Chapter II or later to witness the results. It cuts off access to the attic and William’s study.) And Samuel can indeed die in later chapters. But he won't die here.

Other hotspots: the chair beside the window, the vase to the left of the arch, the cabinet on the far side of the arch, the painting to the left of the fireplace (a duplicate of the portrait of Jeremy Gordon from the library) and the chandelier above it. (A click on the chandelier summons another sad reverie about the fire.)

The Third Floor

The attic: The entrance at the right rear of the old wing is locked. Try the door and then talk to Bates -- the repository of all knowledge on such matters -- to learn the attic key hangs in the kitchen beside the cellar door.

You'll visit the attic at least three times in this chapter: once to try the lid on Robert's chest and the barred door to William's study, once to extract the film in that chest and pull off boards on the study door and finally to unlock and enter William's study.

Robert's chest is on the right side of the attic. Once you try the lid, you'll have to return to Robert for his key. (However, if you try the lid before you need the camera, you’ll be able to immediately request the key.)

The attic’s distinct from every other room in the house. (You won’t find another screen like it until you reach the entry screen in Willow Creek.) The scene begins to scroll to the right once you reach the middle of the first screen.

Walk all the way left to find the barred door to William's study.The boards can be removed with the hammer from the drawer of the work table in the stable (See "The stable" entry in the “The Grounds” section below.) But the lock won't fall until you solve the solar system puzzle down in the library. And that requires quite a bit of legwork -- outlined below under "The Major Threads."

Odds & ends: The first time you enter the attic, you’ll hear a flapping of wings. And at the left end, both on the first visit and thereafter, you’ll periodically hear the cooing of pigeons or doves.

You won’t find any birds up here, but if you look up at the tower from the portico or the right front corner of the castle, you’ll see a half-dozen birds circling above it. (You’ll see this phenomena repeated over the Warmhill church later in this chapter and also over the ruined church on the Gordon manor in Wales in Chapter III.)

What’s that about? It could be a few things. Circling birds can be a sign of death, decay, coming rain or simply that the birds’ natural habitat has been somehow disturbed.

Any or all of those reasons could fit into our story, but given that it’s not raining at any of the three locations when the birds are present and it verifiably does rain at two of them later in the game when they aren’t, I’d bet that was the designers’ rationale.

That said, the birds outside look more robust than pigeons and they’ll appear here whether or not you’ve visited the attic.

Other hotspots: the rocking chair, the chest and cardboard box to the right of the chair, the right near corner and the shelves in the background. (The attic and William’s study become inaccessible after the end of Chapter I, so complete-ists will want to finish their explorations here before then.)

William’s study: The room from which William fell in the intro and Samuel’s objective in this chapter. You won’t get in here until the end of the chapter.

The door is locked and barred. You can remove the boards with the hammer from the work table in the stable but the key’s buried in the solar-system puzzle down in the library and you can’t reach the item needed to activate it until the arrival of Dr. Hermann’s messenger.

See the two “Entering William’s Study” sections below for details.

The Cellar

Also off-limits at this time. The door’s in the kitchen and the key's hanging beside the door.

Well, sort of.

That is, you can identify it as the cellar key -- but only provided Bates hasn't already said the attic key is at this same location. (If that's the case, you'll simply take the attic key when you click on the hooks and return that key when you click on them again.)

You can't actually take the cellar key until you explore the sub-cellar sewers in Chapter IV. (You won't need it to operate the pumps in Chapter II. On that occasion, Bates precedes you into the cellar and leaves the door ajar.)

The Grounds

The portico: Just outside the front door, with exits left and right to the front corners of the castle. Dig the giant skulls on the portico itself. (You’ll find these again in Dergham Gordon’s tomb in Chapter III.) Are those vampire fangs in the upper jaw? You’ll also find a similar image on the game’s menu screen.

Also check out the two strange tentacle-like trees. These are non-interactive, but you’ll find others on the right side of the castle (including the only one you can actually inspect) and in the rear garden.

The left front corner of the castle: Located one screen left of the front door, this is an important location. You'll find here the bent section of fence where William's body landed (clicking on it enables you to ask Bates about the spot), the symbol on the castle wall beside the casement window (once Bates points it out) and, with a right-click, the "strange object" in the bush to the right (again, after Bates has pointed out the spot on the castle wall). You can then ask Bates about the object and he'll put you onto the gardener Henry. (He's at the base of the stairs just inside the estate's main gate.)

Odds & ends: This symbol vanishes in Chapter II. (Other symbols appear in chapters II, IV and V (two), but this is the only symbol location you can revisit in a later chapter.)

The right front corner/top of the stairs: This appears to be another pass-through location, but it does contain one unimportant hotspot: the lit second-floor window. Click on it and Samuel identifies this as his room. (Actually, being that Samuel’s is the middle room in the hallway, I would have placed this more to the right. The lit window should be the one-time child’s room beside Samuel’s.)

The right wing (outside the kitchen door, between the top of the stairs and the rear garden): Just scenery here -- mainly emblems of decrepitude. Samuel can inspect the large dead tree (“It invokes a rather queer feeling in me”), the gazebo (“summer house”) and three “menhir.”

These standing stones have a companion outside the main gate -- together foreshadowing the appearance of a more sinister stone at the Stonering site in Chapter IV. The extension to the right forms the top the archway above the path that leads back leads to the greenhouse.

The rear garden (outside the dining room door, behind the right wing): The fountain here is a focus in Chapter II. But click on the dirty water now and you’ll pick up an extra topic (cleaning it up) when you talk to the gardener Henry. (Henry’s at the base of the stairs.)

Other hotspots: the bench to the left of the fountain, the base of the far tower (“to the stable”) and the trees to the right of that tower.

The base of the stairs: Located just inside the main gate (or down the stairs at the right front corner of the house). You'll see the gardener Henry raking leaves off to the right. Sooner or later, you'll have to talk to him about the "strange object" he found in the flowerbeds and then follow through on his pawn ticket. The rest is optional.

Initially, Henry talks only about himself and William. And he's uncomfortable talking about William (the whole "don't speak ill of the dead" thing, I suppose). He suggests the old man was crazy. Samuel wonders how he got this impression. This will become clearer once you talk to Harry at the Three Kegs Inn in Willow Creek and the grave-digger at the Warmhill church.

Like other characters, Henry picks up other topics in the course of the chapter. If you: a) look at the water in the fountain in the rear garden, b) reassemble the picture from the fireplace in the old wing, c) retrieve the "strange object" from the bushes at the left front corner of the house and talk to Bates about it, d) follow up on the pawn ticket mentioned in topic c), e) try the greenhouse door, f) look at the bloody branch grinder to the left of the greenhouse door or g) look at the watercolor painting in the greenhouse ...

... Henry can: a) agree to clean up the fountain, b) deny knowing the man (Henry’s another newcomer), c) confess he had a companion piece to the object but pawned it at Murray's Pawn Shop in Willow Creek, d) protest he still doesn’t know where he lost the pawn ticket, e) explain that he keeps the greenhouse locked during the day to keep the groom Morris out of his things, f) assert he puts only branches in the grinder or g) tell you he’s looking after the picture for Victoria.

Topics c) and d) are the only required ones, but a) sets up the discovery of Henry’s body in the fountain between chapters I and II. (Hence, if you're curious about Henry’s non-essential sidelights, you’ll want to talk to him sooner rather than later.)

But here’s the strange thing: Even if you skip over this topic in Chapter I -- it’s not required -- in Chapter II Samuel treats the topic as though he had selected it. That is, he tells Bates that, having asked Henry to clean the fountain, he feels responsible for Henry’s death.

My guess is that this is a limitation of the ADGS game engine. Each of The Black Mirror’s six chapters is a stand-alone entity and, beyond the end of the one chapter igniting the start of the next, details of the player’s actions in one chapter do not flow into later ones. You’ll notice that similar decisions on two additional topics -- Samuel’s request that the groom Morris board up Black Mirror’s dry well in Chapter I and the footprint found near the fountain in Chapter II -- don’t make the transition into subsequent chapters.

The tenor of this particular exchange is also worth noting. While Samuel exhibits much solicitude for the old family retainer Bates early in the game, he is oddly officious with newcomers Henry and Morris, who are after all his grandmother’s servants and not his own. (Samuel does turn out to be the heir to Black Mirror, but he won’t learn that until Chapter V.) He threatens to fire each of them when they display less than the requisite enthusiasm for the respective tasks of fountain-cleaning and well-boarding and Henry a second time over the lost pawn ticket. (Later in the game, Samuel can also go off on other characters -- even Bates -- but these aren’t built-in reactions. All flow from “negative” choices in conversation.)

These over-the-top reactions are never explained in plain language. (In Chapter II, Samuel himself wonders to himself why he’s yelling at Morris about the well.) But it’s not difficult to guess from our protagonist’s voice -- on-edge from his first words -- that he’s wound way too tight. That headache medicine isn’t doing the job!

Other hotspots: the smoldering leaves near the base of the stairs.

And note the demonic claws supporting the lights at the base of the stairs. Sinister? No, there’s nothing sinister about this place at all!

The main gate: This location can be reached directly by clicking on the castle grounds (on the slope below the castle proper) on your map, or, if you don’t yet have the map, by moving down and left from the base of the stairs.

You'll meet Dr. Hermann's messenger Mark here automatically toward the end of this chapter and collect a letter from the mailbox on the right gatepost in Chapter IV.

Note that attempts to walk right from this screen after you're cleared to land in Willow Creek automatically call up the game map. (This also occurs at the exits of certain other locations in the game.) If you don't yet have the map or Willow Creek is not yet an active destination, Samuel says he has no reason to leave the manor.

Other hotspots: the gate itself and the menhir stone to the left.

The greenhouse: Up the alley beyond Henry. It’s not an essential location in this chapter -- it’s important only in Chapter II -- but comes with a couple of nice touches that add to the mood.

Predictably, the door is locked at first. Less predictably, there appears to be blood inside a grinder to the left of the entrance -- the first tangible evidence of something nasty going on here in the wake of William's death.

It turns out to be not so tangible. Backtrack to Henry at the base of the stairs and ask after the grinder and greenhouse. He'll explain the greenhouse is locked to prevent one "Morris" (whom we'll meet shortly; see "The stable") from snooping around in his belongings. (He offers to unlock it for you, but Samuel seems satisfied with the explanation and declines.)

And as to the blood, Henry seems genuinely flummoxed: He protests he only puts foliage in the grinder.

Samuel then suggests that he imagined it. And, sure enough, if you retreat to the greenhouse and look in the grinder again, the blood is gone.

Did he imagine it? Samuel thinks that’s possible, for he automatically reaches into his pocket and takes a headache pill.

This is one of the two uses for the pills in the game and occurs even if you haven't yet retrieved them from the suitcase up in your room. (The headaches pop up on our radar again at the end of this chapter and at the end of Chapter IV and, optionally, during a visit to Dr. Hermann’s house in Chapter II.)

What’s this about? This event has a three-fold purpose.

1) The blood appears to be a premonition of Henry's murder. (This occurs between chapters I and II.) The Black Mirror designers love to give early tastes of future events. This is a pretty vague one -- being that you only learn the true cause of Henry’s death (and hence the possible relevance of this premonition) if you click on one particular spot in Chapter II and then follow up with two characters.

2) It’s designed to throw us off the trail.

Samuel’s between-chapter dreams will be haunted by images of death. He appears to have advance knowledge of most of the murders that occur between chapters I and II, II and III and IV and V.

After the first of these sequences, you might well wonder whether he was actually a participant haunted by memories of the bad deeds. But a premonition provides an innocent context for Samuel’s future visions. Here, he’s simply an simply an observer and the player’s thus more likely to read the dreams as more of the same.

That said, it’s curious that the grinder sequence wasn’t tagged “essential.” (As mentioned, all the greenhouse stuff in Chapter I is optional.) If the designers want the player to trust a protagonist who seems to witness a murder virtually every night, the player’s going to need a reason!

3) Finally, the headache that follows the vision foreshadows the game’s big secret. Have you already guessed? I’m loath to give it away in the first chapter, so let’s just say that Samuel is not the usual objective narrator. We now know there’s something wrong with him.

Odds & ends: Can you get into the greenhouse in Chapter I? You can, though not to any clear purpose. Try the door and then return to Henry and ask about it. As noted, he'll explain he wants to keep Morris out of his stuff, and Samuel wonders to himself what Morris covets in the greenhouse. (You’ll learn in Chapter II that it’s a blackmail note.)

Now go out to the main gate or up the stairs (but not back to the greenhouse) and then return to the base of the stairs. Henry has vanished. Now return to the greenhouse. It's now unlocked and you'll find Henry filling a flowerpot at his work table at the left end.

The only interactive object here at the moment is William's watercolor painting of the castle. Take a peek -- it's really very good -- and then talk to Henry about the painting. (He'll tell you he's been looking after it for Victoria.)

You’ll find the greenhouse locked (permanently) in Chapter V.

Other hotspots: a pile of branches to the right of the grinder, bags of leaves to the left and the pail beneath the grinder -- all found outside the structure. Indoors: nothing else for now. That’ll change in Chapter II.

The stable: To the left of the manor is the stable. The path at the far corner of the rear garden is blocked by bushes, so you’ll have to go around front to reach this location. Outside, you'll find the groom Morris outside chopping wood.

Morris may make you uneasy. Partly, it's that weird, slow-burn fashion in which most character turn around to face Samuel when he speaks to them. And, partly, it’s because Morris always seems to have a potential weapon in his hands -- an axe here and a hammer in chapters II and IV.

The bad vibe gets worse if you right-click on the groom and learn he’s not to be trusted. True enough. Ultimately, Morris will be shown to be a liar and a thief.

However, he’s harmless, and you don’t even have to talk to him until Chapter II, when you’ll have to take up the issue of Henry’s blackmail note. But he does figure in some purely conversational sub-plots here
-- notably those relating to his feud with the gardener.

Initially, you can talk to Morris only about Bates and William. The former is "the same old standoffish mope." And Morris barely spoke a few sentences to William.

But, as with other characters, Morris picks up additional topics as you make your way through the story. If you: a) retrieve the "strange object" from the bush at the left front corner of the castle, b) talk to the gardener Henry on any topic, c) talk to Robert about Black Mirror, d) click on the label of the wine bottle on the work table in the stable or e) talk to Victoria about Henry and select a "positive" response ...

... Morris can: a) point you toward Murray's Pawn Shop in Willow Creek, b) reveal that Henry is a drunk, c) go off on a rant (about Henry spreading gossip about him) that morphs into an account of the old wing's general creepiness, d) say he received the wine from William (more on this below) or e) agree to board up the estate's dry well.

(We’ll take up this last topic again at its source below under the first of the two “Entering William’s Study” sections. For now, it’s just worth noting that the well in the left corner of the screen appears to be already boarded-up!)

The stable interior is a significant location here and in Chapter V. Enter by the right-hand door (the two others being non-functional), open the drawer of the work table on the right and click on the hammer.

If you haven't yet tried to pull the boards off the study door by hand, Samuel says he doesn't need to repair anything. If you have, you'll be able to take it. (In Chapter V, you'll also find a hair sample on Morris's cap on the wall between the stalls at the rear. The cap doesn't appear until that time.)

The only other item of interest here is the empty wine bottle on the back corner of the work table. Click on it for a close-up of the label, then on the label itself, and Samuel reckons it's from the castle's own cellar. (I’m a little unclear on how Samuel knows this, being that he hasn't yet visited the cellar and hasn't been here in 12 years!)

This enables you to ask Morris about the wine. He says William gave it to him -- the same William with whom Morris claims he'd barely exchanged a few sentences. Samuel figures he must have gotten hold of the wine in some other way. You'll learn how in Chapter II. (It's connected to the blackmail note and topic c) above.)

Other hotspots: Outdoors: the large door on the left side of the stable, the wooden stairs up the Morris’s quarters and the hay bags on the wagon. Indoors: the light switch on the left support pillar for the right-hand stall, the shelves on the left side of the work table, the pile of hay in front of the left-hand stall and the vice on the work table. (Samuel gives the handle a turn.)

Curiously, the interactivity of other stable hotspots is turned off when you click on the bent section of fence at the castle’s left front corner. There’s connection between that action and these locations -- they’re all inconsequential -- but clicking on the fence does enable a series of new actions and, conceivably, the game has a ceiling for the number of possible player actions accessible at a given time.

In any case, these additional hotspots include the wooden water pail to the left of the pillar with the light switch, the bucket beside the work table, the right-hand of the two ladders up to the hay loft, the metal box on the right side of the work-table drawer and both `the broken-down carriage on the right side of the screen and the coat-of-arms it bears.

The Major Threads

That concludes our tour of the premises. Let's focus on what we've found.

The Torn-Up Photograph

... from the fireplace in the old wing.

Put it together again by right-clicking on the pieces in your inventory. It's much easier if you to first assemble the white-edged border and then work inward.

The game gives you a little help with its two jigsaw puzzles. (The second involves reassembling a torn-up letter you’ll find in Dr. Hermann’s trash in Chapter II.) If you have a rough idea of a piece's position, drop it where you think it should go. If the piece is in its proper orientation -- you can rotate a selected piece with right-clicks -- and within about a half-inch of the target, the game will adjust the piece to its precise position. Just make sure you build the picture within the four cornices displayed on-screen. If you’re off, the game won’t recognize your completed picture.

The end result: a rather wild-looking man Samuel doesn't recognize. Nor does anyone else in or around the house.

Or so they say. Your uncle Robert is evasive, answering your question with a question: "Why are you asking?"

This is one of many questions in the game to which you can give two different answers. Here, the “positive” one (the truth) gets you more information.

Robert's response: "Given the fact that someone has torn up the picture, the person in it is probably not important. Forget about it." (In the “negative” answer, Samuel lies, claiming to have found the picture in a drawer. Robert's response: "No, I'm afraid he does not [remind me of anyone].")

Thus, if you respond positively, you’ll come to suspect Robert knows and is somehow involved with the man in the picture -- in fact, he’s very likely the one who tore it up! -- and is trying actively to discourage your interest. But why?

You’ll eventually have to challenge Robert’s lie and you can’t until after you’ve talked to Victoria about the photo. That requires an extra step: You’ll have to remove the boards from the door to William’s tower study at the far end of the attic and then click on the locked door twice to set up a chat with your grandmother. (The central topic is the study key, but, if you’ve reassembled the picture, you’ll be able to ask after it as well.)

Victoria then reports it’s a grown-old picture of an orphan who lived at Black Mirror as a child until he went mad and taken to Ashburry as Robert's patient.

That’s not the whole story. You won’t get a sense of the man’s deeper connection to the family until the end of the chapter, won’t name him conclusively until Chapter III and won’t confirm his true relationship to the Gordons until Chapter IV.

But it’s just enough of the truth to to contradict your uncle’s claim of ignorance. Robert must know this man. And sure enough, if you try again, your uncle, his back to the wall, now allows that the man "resembles one of my patients."

So why did Robert try to bluff you before with talk of the picture being unimportant? Why did he tear up the picture? What is Robert covering up?

Odds & ends: You’d think that, as along-time family servant, the butler Bates would be able to ID the picture. Is he also covering up a family secret?

Not likely. There’s no hint of duplicity about Bates. He confesses he’s just not good at remembering faces.

The only off-site characters with a take on the photo are the child Vick in Willow Creek (later in this chapter) and Eleanor at the Gordon Manor in Wales (in Chapter III). Vick takes the opportunity to make a joke at Samuel’s expense, but the words he chooses later prove telling.

The Symbol

... on the wall at the castle's left front corner.

Here you’ll find the bent section of fence where William's body landed. Click on it. The music swells, Samuel identifies the spot and says he won't leave Black Mirror without learning the truth.

Now you can talk to Bates about "the place of William's death." Samuel asks to see the spot and Bates reluctantly leads you right back to the castle’s left front corner.

Odds & ends: Samuel? I would like a word with you. We just found that same spot on our own. Why do you need to be shown the location again?

Bates now points out a "strange spot": a circular mark on the wall just right of the casement window nearest the bent section of fence. (You can see the spot on your first visit to this screen, but can't interact with it until Bates points it out.) Click on this "stain" for a close-up view of a reddish-brown symbol -- it looks like an “n” -- accompanied by a rush of other-worldly whispers. (Bates then makes his way back into the house. You’ll now find him in the kitchen.)

Odds & ends: This is the first of five such symbols. One turns up at each of the murder scenes and all five (along with three others) in a puzzle that opens the entrance to the Black Mirror catacombs in Chapter VI.

No, they don’t spell anything. But for an original take on their provenance, see the “Plot Holes” section on “The Backseat Game Designer” page at http://www.geocities.com/ataniel/mirror9.htm. The author, Lora Redish, writes that the symbols are drawn from the Hebrew alphabet (they correspond to the letters T, Y, V, N, and L) and apparently are used by Satanists in pentagrams.

Make sure you click on the symbol itself before you proceed. Samuel then says he wants to record it. It's not clear to what purpose -- it's really just so you can remember it in the endgame -- and this process proves rather involved.

You can snap a picture with the camera from the locked bottom drawer of the dresser in your room. The key's up on the inner doorframe. Right-click on the doorframe to find it.

You couldn't take the camera before you saw the stain. Now you can. But you'll need some new film for this purpose -- the rolls in the drawer being at least 12 years old.

Talk to Robert. He volunteers that he has usable film in his chest in the attic. The attic entrance is at the right rear of the old wing. Head right along the balustrade from the head of the stairs and enter the ruined chamber at the end of the corridor. This is the fire-damaged section of the house where Cathrin died. (If this is your first visit, Samuel will reminisce briefly about the fire.)

Naturally, the door is locked. Bates would be the natural fellow to ask about a key.

But where is Bates? The main hall is now empty.

As mentioned earlier, the butler gets around. Bates gave up his position beside the fireplace after he showed you the “strange spot” on the castle wall. He’s now working at the range in the kitchen ...

Odds & ends: ... unless, subsequent to learning about the “strange spot,” you asked Bate to light a fire in your room and then left the castle by using a door (as opposed to using the map).

In that case, make for the hallway outside your room. You'll now find Bates non-interactively exiting that chamber. He stops , reports that he’s built the requested fire and that he’ll resume his duties in the main hall. (This “hall” reference always appears, regardless of Bates’s actual destination. He goes back to the main hall only if you haven’t had him show you the “strange spot.” Otherwise, he’ll reappear in the kitchen.)

Note that Samuel must witness this scene for Bates to reappear downstairs.

Bates directs you to the hooks to the right of the cellar door in the kitchen. Grab the key and drag it onto the attic door and you're in. Robert's chest is just where he said it would be. He neglected to mention it was locked. So back to Robert's room for another quick doorjamb dialogue. He'll give you the key. Use it on the chest and then open the chest to get a roll of film. Use the film on the camera and you're all set for your closeup. (If you’ve previously visited the attic and tried to open the chest, you’ll be able to ask Robert for the key immediately without making a second trip for this purpose.)

Now get back to the corner of the the house and use the camera on the "stain" in either the closeup or third-person view and Samuel will wonder aloud where he can get this masterpiece developed.

Robert had film. Robert might know where to get film developed. Sort of. He'll point you to Murray's Pawn Shop in Willow Creek.

This eventually proves to be a red herring. The developing machine at the pawn shop is broken. Dr. Hermann will develop your pictures in Chapter II. However, you still need to ask Robert about the topic to reach Willow Creek.

The Strange Object

... from the bush to the right of the symbol.

After Bates shows you the spot where William died, you can click on the "stain" on the castle wall ... and also on the bush over to the right. A left-click just yields the information that the castle is surrounded by bushes. Duh. But a right-click and you'll come up with a circular item with a square-ish hole at the center and symbols engraved around the outside. Right-click on the item in inventory and Samuel opines that it seems "incomplete."

That's true. This is the first part of a three-part key you'll use in Chapter II to open a hidden vault under the Warmhill church.

You can show it around. Bates, the groom Morris and Victoria (after you've tried the locked door to William's study) can all comment on the object immediately and they're all helpful in one way or another. Morris mentions Murray's Pawn Shop in Willow Creek. (Has he been returning the favor by spying on Henry?) Victoria ties the object back to William. She once saw something similar on his desk. (We didn’t see it on his desk in the intro, so it must have been in his pocket when he fell.)

However, the only person you must talk to about the object at this stage is Bates. He first suggests passing the object along to the police detective investigating William's death -- not possible; you can't interact with the detective in-game until Chapter IV -- and then checking in with Henry, who was working in the flower beds nearby the evening William died.

Odds & ends: This doesn't quite work. Henry would have had to have been working in the flowerbeds after William's fall to recover an item that fell with him. And who works in the garden at night ... or in a thunderstorm?

Once you've talked to Bates, Henry can reveal he found something similar.

Does Henry still have it? Of course not. That'd be too easy. He pawned it at Murray's Pawn Shop in Willow Creek. Does he have the pawn ticket? Of course not.

Or so Henry says. Samuel doesn't believe him, gets royally bent out of shape and, after a second go at the pawn ticket topic, that's where things leave off. You won’t reconnect with this thread until you visit Willow Creek.

As mentioned earlier, Samuel is wound too tightly. But he's right to doubt Henry's word. The gardener not only has the receipt -- you'll recover it from his belongings in Chapter II -- but has also been disingenuous about what precisely he pawned. (He kept the jewel he mentioned. That's the third part. You'll find it when you go dumpster-diving in Chapter II.)

Odds & ends: A couple of oddities surface in this exchange with Bates. First off, when Samuel asks him if he thinks William’s death was an accident or suicide, Bates said he’s already offered his opinion on the matter ... and he hasn’t! (Bates never does directly address William’s death. I’m guessing that the matter to which Bates refers here is the strange object itself.)

Samuel then tells himself uncertainly that Bates seems to know something ... and never comes back to the topic again!

It’s also the first reference to Collier -- the detective who investigated William’s death. He appears non-interactively in chapters II and V and interactively in Chapter IV.

Finally, it’s the first example of Samuel’s innate resistance to cooperating with authorities. He blows off Bates’s suggestion about turning over the strange object. He’ll lie outright to Collier at the beginning of Chapter II and then, against Bates’s advice, drain the fountain in the rear garden without consulting the detective.

What’s this about? As so often occurs in The Black Mirror, the reason is implied but not stated explicitly.

“This thing may help us discover something new,” Samuel tells Bates. He’s determined to conduct his own investigation -- perhaps out of distrust of the detective who too readily accepted William’s death as an accident.