King’s Quest 1 – Day 2

Yes, it’s been a while, but we’ll not talk about that. Let’s jump into King’s Quest 1 Day 2!
When I last played I had found a ton of little treasures and items lying about, but none of the fabled three magic ones that were causing Daventry to go to ruin. In my quest for them I ended up finding a bridge to somewhere, with a troll guarding it. Figuring that I’d need something or someone to help me with it, since the game wouldn’t let me throw a dagger I had in my inventory at it, I went off looking again.

I ran back into the goat in the pens, which reminded me of the carrot I had in my inventory. Giving it to him? He just eats it and lets you go on your merry way. Not much help. Showing him the carrot lead to him following me where I went. Go goat. I took him back to the bridge with me, after which he made short work of the ugly troll and I was free to cross in peace to the other side. Impressively this seems to be one of the more clear puzzles so far in this game. Let’s hope it stays that way.

Here’s the gnome. He wanted me to guess his name and I only have three guesses. I know as a kid when I first played the game I figured it out, or I cheated, or had a friend tell me, but for the life of me I have no clue what his name could really be. Zelda, Rumplestilskin, Dolly or Joe, none of them worked. Not that it mattered much. He dropped a golden key and that’s good enough for me, because it worked on the door I ended my last play with.

Unfortunately it also meant stairs. A little side rant here. Sierra must have loved to put stairs in their games because it was pure evil to force you walk up them; with how your little person walked it was very easy to just fall off the stairs to your death repeatedly. I still have bad memories of the winding staircases in Kings Quest 4 and the many falls, deaths and restores it required. Luckily, I think I’ve improved and only managed to fall to my death twice (once on the way up and once on the way down).

This giant is what greets me in at the top of the stairs in a nice little patch of forest in the clouds. Must suck to be cut off from everyone, carrying around a nice chest of gold, and of course whenever someone comes to visit you get so excited, run over to greet them and stomp them to death. Or at least that’s the way I figured it. Still I needed that chest and he wasn’t going to give it to me.

So after finding a sling and combining it with my sweet little handful of pebbles, I went biblical on him and found myself standing over the now dead giant and in the possession of one of the legendary treasures of Daventry! One third of my way to being king! Back down the stairs and out to the “real” world again since the clouds ended up being empty of anything else to do. Poor giant.

I found the well again, and pulling from old memories I knew I needed to do something with it but couldn’t remember. Cutting the rope? Sure I got a bucket but then I couldn’t climb down the well and I’d fall to my death. Getting in the bucket and going for a ride? Perfect. I cruised on down, got out, cut the rope and took the bucket with me. After all, if I’m sacking Daventry for the crown, I might as well go all the way.

A short swim down the well later, I ended up meeting an old friend.

I remember being stuck on this guy for ages as a kid. What to do with him. How could I beat him? I wisely stayed back from him this time around, and feeling bad about killing the giant with a rock I didn’t want to kill another beast here. So throwing my dagger was out, but then I had a nice bucket of water and after throwing it at him he ran away with his tail tucked under him and I found myself in possession of treasure number 2 – the Magic Mirror. As good enough time to stop for the day before trying to find the last of the three.

Time Played: 1:55
Deaths: 6 (wolf, stairsx2, giant, drowning, falling in a well)
Score: 88 of 158