"The Van der Nagel Papyrus" Invisiclues Hints / Walkthrough

dfabulich · March 2, 2026, 9:52am

General Hints

It’s easier to play the Vorple version on https://rcveeder.net/papyrus/ because it changes the background color, providing you a contextual clue about what’s going on.
The Vorple version includes a message, noting that the prompt for this game was “a scroll that alters the world around it.”
Examine everything twice, both with and without the scroll that alters the world around it.
Make a map. You’ll find an in-game map, but make your own map. You can use paper, or you can use Trizbort. (I use https://trizbort.io)

Part 1: Exploring the Mansion

What am I trying to accomplish?

First, find the papyrus. See “Where’s the the Van der Nagel Papyrus?” below.
This is the “scroll that alters the world around it.”
Examine everything twice, both with and without the papyrus.
Now, explore the rest of the mansion. See “How do I go east from the Map Room?” and “How do I go north from the Iron Chamber?”
If you’ve gone north from the Iron Chamber, then you’ve found Den, Escape Room, Courtyard, and Bedroom. (Examine your laminated map; it turns into a wooden shingle under the influence ef the papyrus.)
Notice anything about the map?
Notice anything alphabetical?
There must be a way west from the Bedroom, behind the Murphy bed. See “How do I open the Murphy bed?”
Once you’ve opened the Murphy bed and found the Altar and the Flight of Stairs, there’s just one missing spot on your map. See “How do I find the 25th room?” below.

Where’s the the Van der Nagel Papyrus?

Start by exploring all of the rooms, making a map.
You should have found the Vestibule, Queen’s Chamber, Parlor, Unused Room, King’s Chamber, Lacuna, Gilded Corridor, Hall of Homunculi, Map Room, Rotunda, Workshop, Yoga Studio, and Zodiac rooms.
Go north from the Zodiac room. The papyrus is two rooms north of there.

How does the papyrus work?

Pick it up and walk around with it.
Put it down and walk around without it.
Review the “General Hints” above.
When you get close to the papyrus, the background turns purple, the room title changes, and the room is changed.
Explore every room both with and without the papyrus.
You should have found the Vestibule, Queen’s Chamber, Parlor, Unused Room, King’s Chamber, Lacuna, Gilded Corridor, Hall of Homunculi, Map Room, Rotunda, Workshop, Yoga Studio, Zodiac, Tea Room, and Office.
In the Parlor, open the coffret to find a blue Post-It note.
Read the note again while next to the papyrus.
When you’re next to the papyrus, the blue Post-It note turns white, and it has a different message about the scroll.
There are more secrets to the papyrus. See “How do I go north from the Iron Chamber?” below.

How do I go east from the Map Room?

You’ll need to find the papyrus first. (See “Where’s the Van der Nagel Papyrus?” and “How does the papyrus work?”)
Surprisingly, you might be able to go east from the Map Room more or less accidentally. Try it.
Drop the papyrus and try it.
Drop the papyrus in the Queen’s Chamber (“purple, pink, then green”) and go east from the Map Room. Do you understand why that worked?
There’s a blue Post-It note in the coffret in the Parlor about this.
The papyrus affects nearby rooms. Check your map. (The laminated map transforms into a wooden shingle under the influence of the papyrus.)
The papyrus started out in the Office, next to the Noble Gases room. When the papyrus is affecting the Noble Gases room, the room is filled with vapor.

How do I go north from the Iron Chamber?

Bring the papyrus into the Iron Chamber. (See “How does the papyrus work?”)
There’s a blue Post-It note in the coffret in the Parlor about this.
The papyrus affects nearby rooms. Check your map. (The laminated map transforms into a wooden shingle under the influence of the papyrus.)
When the papyrus is affecting the Noble Gases room, the room is filled with vapor. Nonetheless, you must find a way to bring the papyrus to the Iron Chamber.
Read the message in the Yoga Studio (“activate machinery”) while carrying the papyrus.
Explore the Workshop with the papyrus.
Without the papyrus, the filing cabinet is rusted shut. With the papyrus, the cabinet opens easily.
Read the crisp notepad.
Explore the Map room with the papyrus.
Read the notes on the wall in the Map room while carrying the papyrus.
While it’s closed, nothing changes. Find a way to keep the scroll furled. The blue ring cannot SUPPRESS the scroll’s effects—merely FREEZE them.
You’ll have to FURL THE PAPYRUS.
Explore the Unused Room (“after filtering through”) with the papyrus.
Examine the sarcophagus in the Unused Room.
GET THE ROPE.
OPEN THE SARCOPHAGUS. GET THE COFFER.
Now, you have to open the coffer.
Reread the general hints.
Drop the papyrus and examine the coffer outside the papyrus’s influence.
Outside the papyrus’s influence, the lead coffer becomes a paper sack. Open it, and get the blue ring.
With the blue ring, you can FURL THE PAPYRUS (or just FURL for short), and UNFURL it when you want to unfurl.
See what happens when you FURL. (In the next hint, I’ll explain how furling works.)
When you furl the papyrus, the rooms it’s affecting remain affected, but you can carry the papyrus away from that area; it won’t affect any new areas while it’s furled.
Furl the papyrus anywhere except the Map Room. Bring the furled papyrus to the Iron Chamber and UNFURL.
Now, get rid of those cobwebs.
MOVE THE COBWEBS. Now you can go north from the Iron Chamber.

How do I open the Murphy bed?

Examine this room with and without the papyrus unfurled.
Without the papyrus unfurled, the bed is a hammock.
SIT IN THE HAMMOCK.
UNFURL while you’re sitting in the hammock.

I’ve only found 24 rooms! How do I find the 25th room?

For this part, make sure you’re carrying the laminated map from the Map Room. (It turns into a wooden shingle under the influence ef the papyrus.)
Each room is identified by a letter. You’re missing access to the room between the Rotunda and the Tea Room.
Explore the Altar with the papyrus furled.
Press buttons in the Altar, e.g. PUSH SOUTH
EXAMINE THE MAP. (If you put your map on the altar, it will display automatically each time you press a button.)
You can use the buttons in the Altar room to slide the rooms around.
Move the A room to the west of the blank spot on the map, and GO EAST.

Part 2: Finding more papyruses

You can find papyruses in any order. I’ll identify them by their starting clue. By now, you should have found all 25 of the rooms on the map. (See “How do I find the 25th room?” above.)

Where’s the second papyrus?

It’s in the Flight of Stairs room, south of the Altar room.
There’s an armoire/safe in that room, containing a second papyrus.

How many papyri are there?

Read the code sheet in the Escape Room.
Make a list of all of the room names under the influence of the papyrus. (In the next hint, I’ll show you the names.)
Here’s the list:
- A: about the time you’ve spent
- B: counting the stars
- C: those numbers mean nothing
- D: unless you’ve learned
- E: all of their names
- F: let loose your lovely
- G: little blade
- H: you will discover
- I: the northeast tower
- J: has a secret to reveal
- K: everything is over
- L: right when it should be
- M: even you
- N: achieve success
- O: right when you decide to
- P: even if it takes me
- Q: six years
- R: i will find the
- S: xanthous chamber,
- T: perhaps underground
- U: after filtering through
- V: purple, pink, then green
- W: your beam might
- Y: reactivate machinery
- Z: if everything aligns
Read the first letter of every message.
Actually there are six papyri.

Homunculus papyrus

How do I make homunculi?

Read the chalkboard in the unaltered Workshop.
You’ll need an inventory item that you make by mistake.
Examine the Gilded Room.
TAKE A LEAF.
Transform the gold leaf with the papyrus. There are more homunculi to make, all by mistake.
There’s an opportunity for a mistake in the Tea Room.
EXAMINE THE TRAY.
TAKE FUDGE. The papyrus will turn the fudge into a homunculus.
There’s another opportunity in the Den.
EXAMINE THE CHANDELIER.
TAKE A CRYSTAL. The papyrus will turn the piece of plastic into a homunculus.
Your last opportunity is in the Queen’s Chamber.
Make sure you’ve opened the crate in the Unused Room and read the clipboard.
Under the influence of the papyrus, the clipboard becomes a sandstone tablet; read that, too.
EXAMINE THE EMERALD STATUE in the unaltered Queen’s Chamber, after reading the sandstone tablet.
You’ll need the hammer to put the finishing touches on it.
The hammer is in the unaltered Jeweler’s Studio.
HIT THE EMERALD STATUE WITH THE HAMMER.

What do I do with the homunculi?

Bring them to the Hall of Homunculi.
You’ll need four homunculi. See “How do I make a homunculi?” above.
You’ll need to bring the leaf, fudge, plastic, and emerald into the influence of the papyrus and then FURL it to bring them to the unaltered Hall.
You have four homunculi and there are four plinths here.
Try putting the homunculi on the plinths.
The homunculi can be a bit picky.
The emerald homunculus will only sit on the triangular plinth.
The gold homunculus will only sit on the cubic plinth.
The fudge homunculus will only sit on the hexagonal plinth.
The plastic homunculus will only sit on the octagonal plinth.
Have you seen these shapes elsewhere?
They’re in a a room of the mansion under the influence of the papyrus.
Examine stuff in the Tea Room under the influence of the papyrus.
The calendar has four panels: a triangle, square, hexagon, and octagon.
Bring the unaltered mistakes to the calendar. (Like before, you’ll have to leave them outside the influence of the papyrus, transform the Tea Room, and then FURL the papyrus to bring the unaltered mistakes to the calendar.)
Put the mistakes on their associated panels.
PUT THE EMERALD SHARD ON THE TRIANGLE. PUT THE GOLD LEAF ON THE SQUARE. PUT THE FUGDE ON THE HEXAGON. PUT THE PLASTIC ON THE OCTAGON. A papyrus will appear when you do that.

Furniture papyrus

How do I find this papyrus?

There’s a clue about furniture in a room under the influence of the papyrus.
It’s in the altered Zodiac room. EXAMINE THE MURAL.
Find those items of furniture in the mansion.
They’re all in unaltered rooms. (In the next hint, I’ll tell you where they all are.)
The birdcage is in the Unused Room. The folding table is in Noble Gases. The leather couch is in the Den. The pinball machine is in the Escape Room. The marble bench is in the Rotunda. The crate is in the Unused room. The treasure chest is in room S. (See “I’ve only found 24 rooms! How do I find the 25th room?” above.)
Now that you’ve found all the furniture, can you figure out what to do with them?
What rooms are they in, again?
What does that spell?
UNDERUS. In the next hint, I’ll tell you how to use the furniture.
LOOK UNDER each piece of furniture in order.
The mural depicted the furniture “all shoved rather close together.”
Put the letter codes all together.
PUTREDAPPLEINGOLDBOWL
Put the red apple (under the influence of the papyrus) in the gold bowl in the unaltered Gilded Room. (You’ll need to transform the apple and then FURL to bring it in there.) A papyrus will appear when you do.

Beam papyrus

How do I find this papyrus?

Read all of the transformed room descriptions in order.
Review the bottom line. “after filtering through purple, pink, then green, your beam might reactivate machinery if everything aligns”
You’ll need a laser beam.
There’s one in the Jeweler’s Studio.
You’ll need a big one.
Transform the Jeweler’s Studio with the papyrus.
TURN ON THE LASER.
How do you filter it?
Have you seen anything big and pink around?
There’s a giant pink crystal in the Yoga Studio.
Have you seen any other big crystals?
There’s an amethyst crystal in the transformed Map Room. (What color is amethyst?)
Amethyst is purple. Have you seen a green crystal?
Emerald is green.
Use the Altar to line up the transformed Jeweler’s Studio east of the transformed Map Room, east of the unaltered Yoga Studio, east of the unaltered Queen’s Chamber. Now, where’s that machinery?
The machinery will detect the beam and open something.
It’s the sensor in the unaltered Altar.
Line up A-Q-Y-M-J with M and J transformed, then return to the Altar. The sensor will detect the beam and open a panel containing a papyrus.

Hidden rooms papyrus

How do I find this papyrus?

You’ll need to find four hidden rooms in the mansion, including the 25th room. But you’ll need to find the 25th room first. See “I’ve only found 24 rooms! How do I find the 25th room?” above.
In the Secret Room, open the treasure chest to find the scrap.
Transform the scrap with the papyrus into a typewritten note and read that.
The second hidden room is next to the Courtyard.
How can you get past that fence?
Use the Altar.
Push a room with a west and north exit (F, M, R, or Z) to the top middle position, where C was, then push the Alter to the west of that room. Now you can go east from the Altar and north to the Walled Garden.
EXAMINE THE POOL in the unaltered Walled Garden.
The third hidden room is the northeast tower.
It’s up above the Escape Room. How would you go up from there?
Use the Altar.
Push a room into the northeast spot that will allow you to go up from there.
Find a room containing stairs to nowhere.
Push the Flight of Stairs into the northeast spot, then position the Altar to the west of that. Then you can go east and go up to enter the Tower.
In the tower, EXAMINE THE BED.
GET THE PILLOW.
EXAMINE THE PILLOW under the influence of the papyrus.
OPEN THE PILLOW.
There’s an inventory item that would be perfect for opening the burlap pillow (but you have to transform it with the papyrus first).
Transform the jeweler’s hammer to the scalpel and transform the pillow. CUT THE PILLOW. (There may be a bug where the metal rectangle is instantly transformed into an embroidered cushion.)
Transform the cushion with the papyrus to an engraved bar. EXAMINE THE ENGRAVED BAR.
The fourth hidden room is the X room.
The altered room S calls this the “xanthous chamber.” Read all of the transformed room titles in order.
“I will find the xanthous chamber, perhaps underground”
You’ll get underground the same way you got up to the Tower.
When the Flight of Stairs is transformed, its staircase goes down, instead of up. But where should you put it?
Put it somewhere “underground.”
One of the rooms explicitly says it’s “underground” in its room description.
The room description mentions being underground only its its altered version. (In the next hint, I’ll tell you where to put room F to find room X.)
The altered version of room S, “xanthous chamber,” says, “You must be deep underground.” Push the altered Flight of Stairs into the fourth row from the top in the fourth position, the starting point for room S.
As you enter the chamber, be sure not to transform it with the papyrus, or you’ll be unable to act, due to excessive yellow.
In the unaltered Xanthous Chamber, there’s a yellow shoebox containing a yellow index card. Read it.
Now you have four secret words: SCREAM inside SIMPLY rooms
It’s time to use the Altar again.
Arrange the rooms so you can visit the rooms S, I, M, P, L, and Y without returning to the Altar.
I did it by arranging S-M-L-Y in the top row, then I south of L and then P south of I. then I put the Altar east of Y and pushed east to spell A-S-M-L-Y in the top row, allowing me to access I and P by going south of M.
With all that done, you can SCREAM in the S room, then I, M, P, L, and finally Y. A papyrus will appear when you scream in Y.

Part 3: End game

What do I do with my papyrii?

You should have six papyrii. (See above.)
Read them.
Remember the clue sheet in the Escape Room.
The other five papyrii are acrostics.
They spell out WALK THROUGH ORBIT ALABAMA MEMO.
Start by trying to solve as much of the puzzle as you can. If you’re doing it right, the game will print a message, “You’re on the right track.”
You solve this puzzle by entering and exiting specific rooms in a specific order. You don’t need to type any special commands, e.g. WALK THROUGH. In the next hint, I’ll tell you exactly how to get the “right track” message.
If you start in O and walk to R, B, and I, the game will print “You’re on the right track.”
The Altar has only two exits, so you can’t connect A to L, B, and M all at once. Despite that, this puzzle can be solved.
You can spell ORBITAL. O, south to R, west to B, west to I, west to T, north to A, east to L.
Once you walk ORBITALA, how could you get to room B? (In the next hint, I’ll tell you.)
After spelling out ORBITALA, push A to room B, to spell ORBITALABA. You can probably guess the rest from here.
After spelling out ORBITALABA, push blocks around to spell AMEMO. A, east to M, back to A, east to M, east to E, west to M, north to O.

We’ll be waiting for you!

Optional puzzle

This is a completely optional puzzle, requiring information outside the game.

Count the stars in the unaltered Zodiac room.
Now, you have to recognize that list of animals. I think the author would prefer this to be an “If you know, you know” kinda puzzle.
When you know all of the animals’ names, you can use the star count to spell out a secret message.
Use the number of stars to select a letter from the corresponding name. (1 star = first letter and so on.)
When you follow the instructions in the message, (do it in the unaltered room,) you’ll get a “special trophy.” “This trophy proves that you are smarter than everyone else.” There’s nothing else you can do with it.

dfabulich · March 3, 2026, 3:54am

I provided updated hints for the optional puzzle, without spoiling it.

Encorm · March 3, 2026, 12:04pm

I’ll add one more clue: The ChIF left a hint in the Iron Chef thread.