Cragne Manor Complete Guide and Walkthrough

Playing Game Hints
21

A list of keys:
Some cross-over with the transportation reference, but includes keys used at source, and in key-description order.

Key – Found – Used – Notes

Key – Found – Used – Notes
Allen key – Tunnel Entrance – Tunnel Entrance (hatch)
aluminum key – Backwater Jail – Backwater Jail (evidence locker)
ancient key – Curiosity Store – Narrow Straits (sarcophagus)
bronze key green from age – Back Garden – Back Garden (bronze padlock)
Ed’s coveralls – Meat Packing Plant – Meat Packing Plant (janitor’s closet)
employee ID card – River Walk – Platform (locker)
frosty blue key – Basement – not used – melts on first attempt
hefty rust-streaked iron key – Shambolic Shack – Under the Bridge – not retained
old iron key – Science Tower – Science Tower – doesn’t unlock anything, may cause electrocution
intricately folded origami key – Basement – not used – unfolds on first attempt
key from an urn – Cragne Family Plot – Cragne Family Plot (pewter box)
Konstantin’s keys – Meat Packing Plant – Meat Packing Plant (small blue journal) – not retained
large brass key – Tiny Windowless Office – Mudroom (north door)
long wooden key – Crypt – Church Exterior and Chapel (south door)
nasty-looking key – Steeple – Subterranean Tunnel and Amorphous Tunnel (doors to Narrow Straits)
ornate bronze key – Basement – not used
ornate silver key – Workroom – Workroom (barrier) – not retained
Red Triangle Key – Wine Cellar – Hallway South (balcony)
silver and ivory key – Basement – not used – attempted use is FATAL
sinister iron key – Basement – Basement (Forbidden Annex) (cage)
slimy key – Disheveled Studio – Train Station Lobby (green door)
small desk key – Library (manor) – Library (manor) (desk)
small rusty iron key – Study – Kitchen (cellar hatch)
splintery wooden key – Basement – not used – breaks on first attempt
sturdy key –Balcony – Upstairs Hall (Master Bedroom door)
tarnished brass key – Station Security Office – Shack Exterior
thin steel key – Dusty Office – Dusty Office (filing cabinet)
tiny brass key – Shambolic Shack – Rec Room (board games cabinet)
white ivory and bone key – The Court – Cragne Family Plot (crypt door) – not retained
winding key – Platform –Platform (clock) – not retained

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22

Organizing things another way, here’s a list of the paths in which puzzles unlock from room to room. These are puzzles in which you need something from one room to do something in another, which gives you something you can use in another room, etc. etc. So this doesn’t include puzzles within rooms, or puzzles to get access to another part of an author’s area. Nor does it include the collection puzzles (library books and Variegated Court).

Highly spoilery, of course.

Puzzles gating access to map areas (not involving keys as such):

Train Station Exterior – requires glass jar from Train Station Restroom – gates access to church exterior, woods, west half of town
River Bridge – requires flashlight from Churchyard (?) – gates access to west half of town, manor exterior, meatpacking plant exterior
Outside Meatpacking Plant – gates access to Meatpacking Plant interior
Gallery – gates access to Rec Room and Music Room
Shadowy Closet – requires mirror from Laboratory – gates access to Cragne Manor attic
Intersecting Paths (bah, I forget its exact name) – gates access to Observatory
and to some extent Old Well – requires eyepiece from Train Station Platform – gates access to Circular Room, though this is effectively an item trade

Order in which keys unlock areas:

Bronze Key Green from age (Back Garden) allows access to Shambolic Shack
hefty rust-streaked iron key (Shambolic Shack) allows access to underground and locked back of church
large brass key (Tiny Windowless Office) allows access to main part of manor

now there are two paths:

one

small rusty iron key (study) allows access to manor basement
red triangle key (wine cellar) allows access to balcony
sturdy key (balcony) allows access to attic (once another puzzle has been solved)
slimy key (disheveled studio) allows access to station security office
tarnished brass key (station security office) allows access to Shack Interior (non-shambolic)

two

white ivory and bone key (Court) allows access to Family Crypt
long wooden key (Family Crypt) allows access to church
nasty-looking key (Steeple) allows access to Narrow Straits

Information trading track:

Teapot from Mudroom
used to get photograph of a woman from Carol’s Bedroom
used to get copper amulet from Town Square
used to get Edmond’s speech from Basement (of church)
used to get poem from Pantry
used to get star sign from Steeple

Item trading track:

ID card from Riverwalk
used to get eyepiece from Train Station Platform
used in Old Well to get moldy wad of cash from Circular Room
used to get dagger from Chapel
used to get mirror from Laboratory
used in Shadowy Closet to allow access to attic

whereupon there is a branch

egg/red herring from Science Tower
used to get ancient key from Curiosity Store
used to get cyst from Narrow Straits

and

sausage from Attic
used to get tiny brass key from Shambolic Shack
used to get cleaver from Rec Room
used to get secret menu from Meatpacking Plant
used to get whetstone from Pub
used to get vacuum component from Greenhouse
used to get letter opener from Nursery
used to get chime from Sitting Room
used to get photograph of a memory from Shack Interior

The most structurally unusual room/puzzle seems to be

Summary

[spoiler]Shadowy Closet–it seems to me as though it’s somewhat meant to be part of a track that starts with the ID card and goes to the cyst, since the red herring -> cyst branch is so much shorter than the sausage -> photograph branch. But the way it works is by gating access to the attic. And of the gating puzzles (unless you count the Old Well as a gate rather than an item trade), it’s the only one that requires an item that’s at all far down one of the tracks.

Ryan and Jenni could explain more about exactly how the tracks work there, if they chose (or maybe someone on one of the tracks could.[/spoiler]

Another couple of observations about puzzle structure, including the collection puzzles:

If I remember correctly, no Variegated Court puzzles require you to visit the manor attic or the church interior, and only one requires you to visit the manor basement.
Only two book puzzles require you to visit the manor attic. There are several in the basement, though.
The structure tends to mean that the Book of All Your Days is going to come very late in the game, as it’s at the end of two long puzzle chains that require you to have unlocked almost the entire map (and to have read one of the two library books that’s found in the attic, in order to solve the Disheveled Studio puzzle). Though one might easily put off one of the more elaborate collection puzzles like the Music Room or Workroom till after one had done everything else. Still, I think that worked out very well, since the Book of All Your Days is an effective setpiece for near the end that allows for a little denouement afterward.

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For what it’s worth, our internal spreadsheets have mirror->sausage as part of the Mars item trading track, and bat egg->red herring->cyst as part of the Moon traversal track, although the lines have gotten very blurry at this point. I think Ryan is going to write about his track design process in the big postmortem/source code PDF we’re working on, & I for one am really excited to read that.

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Re: tracks

Summary

[spoiler]So that means the Mars track goes from ID card to photograph of a memory and the
Moon track is all the keys plus red herring -> sarcophagus key -> cyst? Interesting… sounds like the Moon track doesn’t even have a simple branching structure, since you have to finish the branch that starts with the white ivory and bone key before you can finish the branch that starts with the bat egg, which means those branches remerge. Which makes the puzzle structure more interesting.

Also the information-trading track (Mercury?) seems much shorter than the others in terms of puzzles, though since it has Christabell and Carol that works out fine.[/spoiler]

The retrospective on the track design process should be very cool! And useful, if I’m actually going to spin myself up to try to organize another one of these (I find it hard to spin myself up, though).

25

One more access-gating puzzle, somewhat:

Summary

[spoiler]After you go to Tunnel, the puzzle in Tunnel Entrance to turn the lights on gates entrance back to the rest of the map, aside from Basement and Windowless Office.

Windowless Office can be solved on its own but Basement can’t be, no matter what else you’ve accomplished aboveground, because you can’t get into the manor without entering this area and you can’t get the crucial information to solve Basement without entering the manor. Unless you’re breaking sequence.[/spoiler]