Entering William's Study (1 of 2)

... at the far end of the attic.

This is the big one.

For starters, you’ll need to get into the attic. You may already have done so to get film from Robert’s chest in “The Symbol” section above. (Or, locked doors being anathema to adventure gamers, just for the heck of it. You don’t need a reason.)

If not, you’ll need to try the locked door at the right rear corner of the old wing, ask Bates for the key and retrieve the key from the kitchen, where it hangs on a hook beside the cellar door.

In the attic, walk all the way left to find the study door. It’s been boarded-up. Victoria is apparently very big on boarding things up these days. Click on the boards and Samuel says he can't remove them with his bare hands.

Maybe you've already seen a tool that might help. There's a hammer in the drawer of the work bench in the stable to the left of the castle. If not, Bates can steer you to it once you've tried the barred door. Simply ask him about tools. (You can take the hammer without getting Bates’s say-so first, but you must have tried the remove the boards.)

Hammer in hand, get back up to the study door and use it on the “barrier boards.” They fall away. Try the door. Locked. It figures. Where is the key?

The game’s rather sly here. You'll have to try the door twice for Samuel to say he should ask Victoria about the key. That sets up a conversation with his grandmother.

So get back to the main hall and click on the common room door. Yeah, you've probably already tested this door more than once ... but this time Samuel's curiosity about William’s study is permitted to overcome his respect for his grandmother's privacy. He enters and can now talk to Victoria about the virtually the whole cast of characters (or, at a minimum, a subset of you, Bates, Dr. Hermann and Victoria herself), the castle (if you’ve discussed it with Robert), the strange object and torn-up photo (if you've found the former or found and reassembled the pieces of the latter) ... and the study key.

Odds & ends: If you haven't assembled all the nonessential topics available to Victoria and cherish the great lady's worldview, don't talk to her until you’ve talked to everybody else about everything. Once you select a topic, her non-essential topics are fixed and quitting the conversation and introducing yourself to Henry (for instance) won't add the gardener to the roster. (However, the essential torn-up photo topic can be added to the roster at any time.)

You'll naturally want to talk "key." But this topic distresses Victoria, related as it is to her late husband, and she'll end the conversation then and there. You're gone. If you click on the door gain, Samuel decides to leave Victoria alone. "I'll apologize later," he says.

Don't panic. You'll be able to pick things up again almost immediately, with all unused topics still in place, but you need to check in with Bates first.

As mentioned earlier, he moves around. Depending what else you’ve done, you may find him beside the fireplace in the main hall, in the kitchen or the hallway outside your room (after which he’ll remove to one of the first two locations).

Bates says the lady of the house has a soft heart and suggests a swift apology (as opposed to "apologizing later," as Samuel proposed) would set things right.

In fact, any apology will do. The Black Mirror is occasionally time-sensitive, but not at this early stage of the game. When you talk to her again, Victoria, also contrite, reveals she had the tower key destroyed but that William may have had another and suggests you consult Dr. Hermann about William's belongings.

The doctor’s still in the library. You'll find that, following your talk with Victoria, he’s moved to the shelves to the right of the entrance. He's happy to arrange delivery of William's things after his return home (which occurs after you head to Willow Creek) and promises to have a messenger at the castle's main gate at 7 p.m.

The precise time supplied here may make you think you need to keep track of the time. You don't. You’ll automatically move to the gate once you’ve completed your business at the Warmhill church.

Odds & ends: Time’s a funny old thing in The Black Mirror. A stopwatch does run invisibly in a number of scenes, but time doesn’t figure at all at other plot points where you’ll have to wait on a third party to perform a task. And none of the click-able clocks in the game keep time both readably and accurately!

We’re not quite done with Victoria. As mentioned under “The Torn-Up Photograph” above, you’ll have to run that topic as well to advance. And a few of Victoria's other answers, while non-essential, are of more than ordinary interest. As mentioned earlier, she saw something similar to the strange object on William's desk. An inquiry about Black Mirror yields two additional topics: Marcus Gordon (whose portrait appears in the main hall) and a rumored secret chapel beneath the castle.

This is the first hint that there’s more to Black Mirror than meets the eye -- it’s the setting for the endgame -- and makes the still-unseen cellar of greater interest. But that's as far as this thread goes for now. You won’t reach the chapel until Chapter VI.

Odds & ends: An inquiry after the gardener Henry finds Samuel ratting him out as a drinker. Victoria acknowledges this, but explains no one else would take the job. "But why are you asking about Henry?" she says. "Is it that you know something about him that I should know, too?" And here you'll get another pair of theatrical masks.

A “positive” response here adds a little curlicue to the tale. Samuel then passes along the intelligence from Morris that Henry sometimes acts strangely. Victoria says Morris is himself a strange fellow who'd be out of a job if she could replace him. Then she remembers she'd ordered Morris to seal the old well to prevent an accident, and asks Samuel to have him do it today.

This exchange sets up a new "job" topic with Morris. (Also a "Morris" topic with Robert. See the “Robert’s study” section above.) After you're done with Victoria, you can chug back to the groom and ask him to take care of boarding up the well and Morris says he will.

It’s in the foreground just to the left of the stable and, as mentioned, it appears to be already boarded-up. Click on it and Samuel says it's long since gone dry. A dry well may sound like an inviting target for your explorations -- especially after Victoria’s talk of secret chapels. But no, you can’t get into it.

This is another one of those weird topics that turns up again in a subsequent chapter even if you don’t use it when it first appears. In Chapter II, Samuel finds himself yelling at Morris when the groom fails to act promptly on Victoria’s request -- whether or not Samuel in fact talked to Victoria on the relevant topic or passed along the request!

The well isn’t the only thing that’s gone dry. It's not yet 7 p.m., so you can't collect the parcel from Dr. Hermann. How to pass the hours until then?

That depends what else you’ve done to date.

If you’ve done everything I’ve mentioned so far, you have just one small task remaining.

You just talked to Victoria. What did Victoria say that calls for a response from another character?

That won’t be apparent if you haven’t yet spoken to Robert about the torn-up photo. She identified its subject. And Robert has denied (or will deny) knowing him.

Try him again. Now that you know the man’s identity, your uncle will change his tune. (If you haven’t talked to him on the subject, make sure you ask him about the picture twice.)

Then again, if you moved from your starting point straight up to William’s study and neglected everything else, you’re still facing a whole raft of tasks large and small.

The large tasks are outlined above. To reprise:

1) Reassemble the torn-up photograph from the pieces found in the fireplace in the old wing and ask Victoria and then Robert (a total of twice) about it.

2) Take a photo of the stain on the castle wall near the spot where William’s body landed and ask Robert where you can get your film developed. (You’ll need the camera from your dresser and film from Robert’s chest.)

3) Retrieve the “strange object” from the bush near the stain and then ask Bates and the gardener Henry about it. (You’ll also need to ask Henry about his pawn ticket.)

And the small tasks? Collect the map of the estate from the table on the left side of the middle section of the library. This allows you to select off-site destinations.

You’ll also need the pills and wallet from your suitcase up in your room. The pills never really figure in the game, but you’ll need money to induce one village resident to tell you what he knows.

Finally, you’ll need the candy in the bowl beside the window in the dining room for another little bribe.

If you've done everything in the game's critical path, you should now be able to highlight Willow Creek on your map.

Willow Creek

It's a relief to be somewhere other than the grim castle. But, on close inspection, this picturesque three-screen hamlet lies within Black Mirror’s shadow. Junk is floating in the central river. (This is identified on your map as the Glance.) The rowboat moored near the pawn shop is waterlogged. The big clock on the tower is broken. Familiar people have died or moved away.

And, at the far end of the village, you’ll find Murray's Pawn Shop closed. You’ll have to try the door anyway to make progress here, so make this your first stop.

The sign in the window says that Murray will be right back. Samuel doesn’t know whether the sign’s been there been hanging there for a year or a minute. You need some advice on whether to wait around.

Talk to the child Vick, who's bouncing his ball off the front of the Three Kegs Inn. The little smart-ass plays both ends against the middle: He says he’s not supposed to talk to strangers (which winds up being really good advice) and asks if you have any candy.

A "positive" answer oils the gears of conversation. Samuel hands over the sweets from the castle's dining room.

A "negative" one -- a lie -- poses a bigger problem than it first appears: Vick won't talk to you anymore and there seems to be no way to amend your fib ... until you drag the candies onto the boy, at which time the chat picks up merrily again. (Usually, you can talk about an item that you can give to another character. This is an exception.)

Odds & ends: Vick asks if the candies are chocolates. Samuel says he doesn't know. But he does know. He identifies them as almond-filled chocolates -- his favorites -- when you right-click on them in your inventory.

You’ll need to run all Vick’s topics -- the pawn shop one included. (This appears only after you’ve tried the shop’s door.) He’ll make it clear the place isn't going to open today. Murray apparently dressed up for a trip to town and you shouldn’t linger in anticipation. (It will remain shuttered until Chapter II.) And Vick’s the only person outside Black Mirror who can comment on the torn-up photo you found in the old wing’s fireplace.

“He looks pretty stupid,” Vick says. “Are you related?” It’s just a joke, but this foreshadows a discovery in Chapter IV

When you're done, the boy resumes his ball game and the ball sails through the window and breaks one of the glasses hanging above the bar. (When you reenter the inn, you can see the broken glass on the floor.) Proprietor Harry flies into a rage and Vick quickly vanishes -- a signal you’re done with him. He’ll reappear in the same position in Chapter II ... and turn up in Dr. Hermann’s morgue as a murder victim in Chapter IV.

Inside the tavern, you'll find the proprietor Harry and customer Tom. Harry will give you a hard time, albeit in a friendly way -- establishing in the process that Tom owes Harry for his bar tab -- and then you'll be able to put questions about Black Mirror, the pub and, if you’ve tried its door, the pawn shop.

However, once the initial pleasantries are out of the way, Harry’s only required topic is the pub. Ask after it twice to learn that Harry remembers William well, has heard stories about his reclusive last months and refers you to a patron named Mark who used to work in the castle gardens for more details.

This is the same Mark mentioned in Dr. Hermann's note to Robert -- the one from the magazine rack outside Robert’s study. And, honestly, Mark doesn't know squat about William. This is really just a way to connect Harry and Mark. You’ll need Mark’s help with two tasks in Chapter II and Harry provides entrée in each case.

(The only other topic of interest is the pawn shop. Ultimately, it’s a false lead. Harry’s right about Murray being a cheat. In Chapter II, he’ll try to overcharge you for the second part of the strange object. But this may encourage in the player a belief that Murray would do anything for a buck -- including giving up the item without a pawn ticket -- and that’s not the case.)

You won’t get far with Tom. He has overheard your chat with Harry, realized he has some info you could use and now proposes a swap.

Ask after Tom’s debt, then see Harry to pay off the 17-pound bar tab and try Tom again. He now reveals William was seen visiting the Warmhill church late at night and that Mark works for Murray and Dr. Hermann. (The latter isn't a tip so much on where to find Mark -- when you need him, you’ll find him right here -- as an early indicator on a connection in which Mark might be used a little later in the story.)

Now you can go to the Warmhill church.

Odds & ends: You’ll notice that, every minute or two, Harry vanishes through the archway behind the bar. You’ll hear a sound like running water and then, 15 to 30 seconds after he disappeared, he’ll return. We’d like to think Harry’s attending to business in the kitchen with his oft-mentioned, never-seen wife Mary, but the trickle sounds more like he has a bladder condition. Wash your hands, Harry!

When you enter the village, don't move directly to the tavern door. Instead, click on the dock to the right so the screen scrolls to the left.

See the fishing line dangling at the right edge of the screen? It's connected to a fisherman. He’s always just “fisherman” in the game, but this is Tom's uncle Jim. (You can get this tidbit from Tom in the inn.)

Jim explains that he fishes from the dock because his boat is full of holes. If you've tried the pawn shop door, you can also ask about when it will reopen (to no useful effect).

Jim’s rowboat is docked in front of the pawn shop. Click on it, and Samuel now connects it with Jim. (Click on it without first having talked to the fisherman and you’ll learn it's not exactly seaworthy.)

A small thing, but a thing nonetheless.You can visit with the fisherman again in Chapter II. (He’ll vanish in Chapter IV.)

Other hotspots: Outdoors: the “Willow Creek” sign (easy to miss, it’s directly over the spot where Samuel arrives), the stairs down into the river a bit down the screen, the door of the house beside the Three Kegs Inn, the crate and menu board to the left of the Three Kegs’ front door, the sign above it and the rain barrel to the right, the towels hanging outside the inn’s second-floor window, the beer barrels under the inn’s swinging shingle, the wagon to the right of the inn, the building to the right of the clock tower, the front doors of the two houses fronting on the river, the window of Murray’s Pawn Shop (different from the description you’ll get when you try the door), the sign above it and the trash can at the corner of that shop. Inside: the lower of the two posters just to the right of the Three Kegs’ door.

The Warmhill Vicarage

... is not actually a vicarage. That’s where a vicar lives. This is a church. We’ll call it a church hereafter.

A closed church, at first glance. The two available entrances are locked. However, the screen scrolls left as you move right to the side door and, near the right edge, a grave-digger comes into view.

Run through all his topics. Father Frederick is away at the the neighboring Windshire manor, and "grave-digger" -- that's his de facto name -- won't open the church. (You won’t find it open until Chapter II.)

But what he tells you (via the “grave-digger” and then "William" topics) should send a shiver down your spine: a hooded William walking through the graveyard late at night and mumbling, then meeting in a state of some agitation with the father inside the church.

Odds & ends: At some stage in The Black Mirror’s development, the grave-digger must have had a name: Rowan. “Grave-digger” isn’t mentioned in the credits ... but “Rowan” is!

Via the "Warmhill parish" topic, the grave-digger also supplies spooky stories about a child's voice he once heard in the graveyard late at night and rumored passages beneath the cemetery where lost souls are said to wander. You’ll learn nothing further about such a child in the game, but this seems to refer back to the legend (reported in the chronicle on William’s work table) that innocents once died on this land.

And there are indeed underground passages here -- albeit without lost souls. You'll explore them in Chapter II.

And that's that? Not quite. Things can occur in slightly different orders here. Here's the most orderly of them.

To the left of the church is the rear portion of the cemetery. The Gordon crypts are at the back and William's grave roughly in the middle. Look at William's stone in close-up for a telling line that'll come back to you in the endgame and then return to the grave-digger, who now discloses that Father Frederick won't return until the following day ... and that, no, you still can't get into the church.

With that, the church bells ring and Samuel realizes he's due back at the front gate to meet Dr. Hermann's messenger.

Other hotspots: In the front section of the rear graveyard: the big tree and two of the gravestones in the foreground (a click on either takes care of both). And, at the back, the two crypts flanking William’s grave.

Entering William’s Study (2 of 2)

You'll move automatically to Black Mirror's front gate, exchange a few non-interactive words with the curt Mark -- a shame, since we wanted to ask what he carries between Dr. Hermann and Robert -- and then you can collect a shoebox from the ground.

Right-click on the box in your inventory and a handsome pocket watch replaces it. (No, it won't tell time either.) Right-click on the watch and it's replaced by a scrap of paper. Right-click on the paper to learn it's a riddle.

"To my forgetful head: The path to the key begins in the library on my work table, hidden away under the blue curtain of unwritten words."

You've already seen William's work table. It's the one at the back of the library that holds the chronicle of the Warmhill parish. The “unwritten words” is a tip that the quill on the left end of the table is now interactive. Samuel finds a button beneath it, presses it automatically and the room's near corner rotates to reveal a secret compartment. Within, a box of miniature planets.

These go with the solar system puzzle we checked out earlier in the library’s middle section. Use the box on the indentations around the outer rim and the planets move into place. Now you just need to move them onto the correct tees within the solar system display.

You probably learned this stuff in grade school, right? If not, here’s a nice picture that should help: http://www.rain.org/campinternet/astronomy/solar_system_img.html . (An easy place to go wrong: reversing the positions of Uranus and Neptune.)

The correct order (from the tee nearest to the sun):

- Mercury (the reddish-brown planet; the second smallest)
- Venus (the grayish planet; the fourth smallest)
- Earth (the cloudy-blue marble; the fifth smallest)
- Mars (the orange planet; the third smallest)
- Jupiter (the tan, cloudy planet; the largest)
- Saturn (the orange-ish ringed planet; the second largest)
- Uranus (the green planet; the third largest)
- Neptune (the aquamarine planet; the fourth largest)
- Pluto (the white planet; the smallest)

Odds & ends: Pluto is no longer a full planet. In 2006, the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union reclassified it as a "dwarf planet."

When each planet is on the correct tee, the right side of the display slides around to reveal the key to the study.

Get up to the attic, use the key on the door, step inside the study ... and discover you're locked in. In his eagerness, Samuel has left the key in the outside of the door.

As mentioned earlier, the study is just as we saw in the introduction. Open up the roll-top desk to the left and take the black rook (which is missing from the chess board near the center of the study) from the left side of the desktop and the jewel box from the right.

The rook will prove perhaps your single most useful tool -- beginning with your exit from this room -- while the jewel box turns out to be a music box.

Odds & ends: The tune it plays seems to resonate with people across the game. Right-click on it in inventory and Samuel says, “As though I’ve heard that melody somewhere before ...” In Chapter III, you’ll hear the tune played on piano and can learn it’s recalled from a “distant memory.” And in Chapter IV, it’s sufficiently distracting to prevent Samuel’s murder.

Is there a backstory? Alas, no. But it seems as though there should be one, doesn’t it?

Also open the drawer below and take the book "Spellers Balanced Rations." (This makes a non-interactive appearance in Chapter II.) Samuel thinks the book doesn’t fit in with the other contents of the study, and he’s right: Right-click on it to find a small key. Use this to unlock the chest on the right side of the study and take the black sphere inside. You won't find a use for this until Chapter VI.

Odds & ends: Like the attic key in the cellar door, this key also glows encouragingly when used on the chest against the back wall. This may lead you to believe (not unreasonably) that there is a way to get it open. (When you use the wrong items elsewhere in the game, those wrong items also glow -- and there is a way to complete each of those tasks.)

In this case, however: no way, no how. My hunch is this interactivity is an artifact from some earlier phase of the design -- that the chest was originally the vessel for an item that was trimmed from the game.

Something odd here: For all the stuff strewn across the desk, there’s nothing really significant. This is brought home if you click on the parchments on the left side of the desk and Samuel says William must have been recording his important notes somewhere.

Somewhere secret. Note that, in the zoomed-out view, the drawer where you found the chest key is still red under the cursor. Right-click on the front to remove William's diary from its hiding place beneath. Like Dr. Hermann’s note to Robert, you'll read it automatically in the voice of the writer.

Listen to all of it. It's a riveting account of William’s research into the madness that has long afflicted the Gordon family.

You’ll keep this book through the rest of the game. It provides the game’s over-arching mission -- assembling five keys-- as well as leg-ups on puzzles in chapters II and VI.

But it’s not all spelled out for you. For example, the first entry refers to “the guilt that I bear in my heart for the fate of my dear James -- the fate that I didn’t have the courage to change.”

Who’s this James, what is his fate and why did William feel guilty? Read carefully and you can sort some of this out well before the game hands you the answers.

In the second entry, William writes that “James is not the only one to have lost full control of his mind, Throughout the centuries, several of my blood ancestors have suffered from the same affliction that now curses James. It seems as though it is all somehow correlated, has a perverse purpose of some kind.”

It’s thus implied that James is somehow related to William -- fully three chapters in advance of this connection being made explicit. And thanks to Victoria’s and Robert’s comments about the man in the torn-up picture being Robert’s patient, you can now put 2 and 2 together and surmise that he’s James. (This is confirmed when you visit Wales in Chapter III.)

The issue of the Gordon madness isn’t so easily sorted. In fact, you can’t really get to the bottom of it at all.

William writes that the all sufferers were born in the same week -- stretched out over a period of 200 years -- and wonders if the madness is a kind of punishment. But for what?

You’ll get a sense of the pivotal deed in Chapter II when you find a second book: Marcus Gordon’s chronicle. Among other things, this supplies an account of Mordred Gordon’s death at his brother Marcus’s hands and the curse Mordred laid upon Marcus’s descendants.

However, confusingly, the madness charted by William is mentioned nowhere in that book and it’s easy to interpret Mordred’s curse as a separate matter. (We’ll take up the topic again in chapters II and IV.)

William goes on to write that “the way to revealing the truth” is said to be found via five “symbolic keys.” William had one key and gave James another. A third must be in the grave of Marcus Gordon. The fourth went to Dergham Gordon, who owned the family estate in Wales. The location of the fifth is a mystery and you won't sort it out until you enter Robert’s study in Chapter V.

Samuel’s grandfather begins his search by looking for Marcus's key in the crypts beneath the Warmhill church. (That explains his late-night presence in the graveyard.) He writes of an elaborate lock in the belfry, his descent into the tomb, his discovery of a “perfect sphere” (the one in the chest), his ultimate disappointment -- the tomb appears empty -- and speculates that clues to the body's location might be in four carved books found there. (William thought he’d nailed one of the answers: “map.”)

The final entry: "I am afraid of this night. I have not slept for two days now and I hear voices. Yes, human voices, there are dozens of them. Their whispering is melting my ears into a sea of horrifying noise.” This should recall the whispering you heard when you looked at the symbol on the tower wall. You’ll learn later that James hears voices as well.

And you know how it all ended.

But how do you get out of William’s study? Right-clicks have served you well here, so why not try one more? Right-click on the black rook to reveal a little knife. Use the knife on the locked door and you'll lift the latch. Step out into the attic. Samuel has one of his migraines, faints and wakes to find Bates and Robert at his bedside. He rests, and the chapter ends.

It may not even occur to you that you haven't yet seen the letter William was writing to you before he fell from the tower or the ring referenced in the letter. Someone must have entered the study before the room was sealed by order of Victoria and seized both items. You won't find them until Chapter V.

Other hotspots: the “parchments” of the wall to the left of the roll-top desk, the globe in the chest against the right wall and the astrological maps in the vase on the right side of the chest against the back wall.

Samuel says he doesn’t think these maps can help him, and they can’t; they’re not viewable. But there’s an astrology-based puzzle in Chapter III, and I wonder whether this was a take-able item at some stage of the design.

Chapter II: back to the light ...

Samuel's sleep is fitful. He dreams of the fountain in the rear garden, a floating corpse, a golden key descending through water. And then he's awake and Bates is at the door with a report that the gardener Henry has been found dead in "the pond" -- the basin of that very fountain -- and that a detective wants to speak to you downstairs.

Beginning to see that premonitions vs. memories issue more clearly now?

Samuel automatically meets with Collier in the common room. It is not his finest moment. He describes his interactions with the dead man as a "very trivial conversation."

Let's see: blood in the branch grinder, assorted discussions of Henry's and Morris’s mutual dislike, instructions by Samuel to Henry to clean the fountain in which Henry’s body was later found, as many as two threats of termination--one of them part of Samuel’s agitated response to Henry's missing pawn ticket and a dream of Henry’s body floating in the fountain. "Very trivial" indeed! Good thing for Samuel there were no witnesses to your conversations. They'd have thrown away the freakin’ key.

Odds & ends: We touched earlier on Samuel’s funny attitude toward the police. Here’s another example. Why does he lie to the detective? It’s not stated and, honestly, it’s not the best idea just in terms of the story, as it suggests “consciousness of guilt” at a very early stage.

We can guess that it’s for the very reason outlined above: The truth would look really bad. And if he had a detective breathing down his neck, Samuel wouldn’t be able to get away with some of the investigatory crap he’s going to pull.

Then again, Collier doesn’t seen a particularly adept detective. His own conclusions tend to be obvious ones -- that things are as they appear on the surface. It’s Dr. Hermann’s autopsies that keep him on the straight and narrow. For example, ...

Collier seems predisposed to put Henry’s death down in the "drunken accident" column. You'll part company under the portico -- Collier shows up again at Stonering in Chapter IV and Dr. Hermann’s morgue in Chapter V -- and Samuel rather coldbloodedly turns his thoughts to acquiring the second part of the "strange object" from Chapter I.

You’ll begin the chapter with a full inventory from the end of Chapter I (minus the keys to the attic and Robert’s chest--both now inaccessible). At the start, you’re limited to Black Mirror and its grounds.

Odds & ends: It’s raining out here. Get used to it. It’ll rain at Black Mirror in every chapter in which you can visit the castle’s grounds. It stops only for the game’s final scene.

The rain’s mainly for mood. But you’ll find it changes a few things. When outdoors in rainy weather, Samuel uses the hood on his jacket. The birds no longer circle above the tower. Object descriptions are adjusted here and there--notably, outside the greenhouse, outside the stable and outside the Three Kegs Inn in Willow Creek. A click on the fire in Samuel’s bedroom now elicits a comment about drying his clothes on the back of the chair.

Finally, there are two new hotspots: one in the rear garden and the other inside the castle’s old wing. We’ll deal with the former almost immediately below under “The Grounds.” (It’s important to the story, though not required to complete the chapter.)

The latter is the previously non-interactive broken window in the old wing’s near left corner. The rain’s getting in here. Click on the window and Samuel says that, if it continues to rain, the hole will have to be patched.

This seems to set up another chore for the groom Morris and another potential change-of-state for the room on a subsequent visit in chapter IV or V. But nothing further changes here.

The Grounds

The greenhouse: Start out either here or in the rear garden. (The latter is covered below.)

Henry mentioned in Chapter I that he kept this building locked to keep Morris out of his belongings. We weren’t able to search it in Chapter I -- when the greenhouse was unlocked, Henry was present -- so it stands to reason that the pawn ticket might be concealed there.

Even if you didn’t ask Henry about the greenhouse in Chapter I (which prompted Henry to unlock the door), it’s no longer locked. Previously, Henry himself and William's painting of the castle were the only things here with which you could interact. Now there are a handful of click-able locations -- only one of them meaningful. That’s the right-hand drawer of the table at the left end of the room. Within, a locked metal box.

Ever seen a key around Henry? Right; the gold one in Samuel’s dream. It was descending through water -- presumably the water in the fountain where Henry’s body was found.

Other hotspots: The greenhouse has grown new ones (and changed versions of old ones) since our visit in Chapter I. Outdoors: the branch grinder and the bags of leaves (both adjusted for the weather). Indoors: the small table to the left of the easel, the bin on the floor to the left of that table, the watering can on the workbench at the left side of the screen, the flower pots to the left of the can, the left-hand drawer in the work table, the seeds (on the tabletop, but visible only in the close-up view of the left drawer) and a hip flask (probably whiskey, the temperate Samuel opines) beside the metal box in the right-hand drawer.

The rear garden: Prodded by the key in Samuel’s dream, you can start here as well. (You don’t have to find the metal box in the greenhouse first.)

Get over to the fountain and have a look. A left-click reveals the water is murkier than the day before -- the pelting rain has doubtless stirred things up -- and that Samuel, after expressing guilt over asking Henry to clean this very pool (whether in fact he asked or not), doesn't see how Henry could have drowned here.

That’s another bit of foreshadowing: It will turn out Henry didn't drown.

Note that the cursor remains red when placed over the water. Again, that’s usually a signal there’s something more going on. And, sure enough, a right-click here reveals that, despite the murky water, something’s glimmering on the bottom of the pool. (You can find this without first looking at the metal box.)

How to get at the glimmer? The pool can't be that deep -- it's only up to the statue's behind -- but options like wading or using a long pole with a net at the end do not suggest themselves to Samuel. You’ll have to get advice. You’ll have to consult Bates.

Odds & ends: Now here's something a lot of people will miss. It's not vital to the story -- you can skip it entirely -- but, once discovered, it can become a significant thread in conversation and appears to tie in with Samuel's premonition of the bloody branch grinder from Chapter I.

Just above the puddle to the left of the fountain is a fresh footprint in the mud -- invisible to the eye but not to your cursor. Samuel wonders briefly to whom it belongs. This gets you a footprint topic with Morris.

Without it, you’ll never learn what actually killed Henry -- just that he didn’t drown. (And you’ll have to wait until Chapter IV to learn even that much.)