Syberia Walkthrough
By Steven W. Carter
scarter831 earthlink net
Last Updated
September 6, 2002
April 17, 2002 (morning)
------------------------
Dear Diary,
This job sounded like it was going to be so easy. All I had to do was travel
to Valadilene, France and get Anna Voralberg to sign a contract selling her
automaton factory to the Universal Toy Company. Since the details had already
been worked out, I should have been able to pop into town, get the signature,
and then dash right back to New York. Little did I know what was in store.
But let me back up and explain things from the beginning.
Paris is six hours ahead of East Coast time, and flying from New York to Paris
takes about seven hours, and then taking a shuttle from Paris to Valadilene
adds another two hours to that. So I booked a 6:35 PM flight from New York,
which got me to Valadilene at about 10:00 AM. I slept fitfully on the flight
-- I was just too nervous about doing this job correctly -- and mostly I went
over and over the paperwork to make sure everything was just so.
Thus I was a little groggy when I arrived in Valadilene, and I had to wonder
if I was dreaming, because just as I got to my hotel I saw the strangest
thing. It was a funeral procession being led by a wind-up drummer and being
accompanied by several men using a weird lockstep gait. The men sort of
looked like robots, but why would Anna Voralberg have created automatons for
walking in funeral processions? Or were they just villagers dressed up like
automatons? At least I could tell the horse drawing the hearse was real.
I watched the procession for a bit, but then I hurried to the hotel. It had
started to rain, and I didn’t want my hair to frizzle. I was also tried of
lugging my suitcase around.
The hotel seemed cozy. I hung up my coat on the coat rack and put my suitcase
down by the door. No employees seemed to be around, so I took a couple
minutes to glance through a brochure and chat with a boy named Momo sitting on
the far side of the room.
Finally, I went up to the front desk to see if I could attract anybody’s
attention. There I found a strange little bell. I tried to ring it, but that
didn’t work. The bell seemed like it might be one of those automaton things I
had just read about, so I used the key next to it to wind it up, and then I
pushed the button. That worked! The little robot guy went to work and rang
the bell four times. It was so cute!
The bell also finally brought the innkeeper to the front desk. I introduced
myself and he let me know I was in room 6 on the next floor. I briefly
considered carrying my suitcase up those narrow stairs myself, but then I
figured the boy Momo might be the hotel’s bellhop, and he could do it for me.
However, when I asked the boy he refused saying he was too busy. He didn’t
look too busy to me.
Luckily, when I asked the innkeeper, he offered to carry my suitcase for me.
Such a gentleman. Of course, he also gave me the bad news, that Anna
Voralberg had died the previous evening. That explained the funeral
procession I saw earlier.
When I got to my room I saw that my boss, Edward Marson, had sent me a note of
encouragement. Or was it a warning? Regardless, I decided I better tell him
about Anna Voralberg’s death, and so I called him on my cell phone. He took
the news in stride, and he told me I should contact Anna Voralberg’s lawyer.
Since Ms. Voralberg didn’t have an heir, the lawyer could no doubt sign the
contract in her stead. Marson also told me to wait for a faxed letter of
introduction to the lawyer.
Well, it looked like I wasn’t going to get a chance to freshen up after all.
I headed right back downstairs, and I asked the innkeeper about the fax. It
had already arrived, and he handed it over to me. It turned out the lawyer’s
name was Maitre Alfolter.
I chatted with the innkeeper for a few more minutes, and then I headed over to
see what Momo had been working on. Oops! It looked like he had been carving
gear outlines into one of the innkeeper’s tables. I scooped up the gears, all
four of them, so the innkeeper wouldn’t notice, and then I headed outside to
find the lawyer. It had stopped raining by then, and I was feeling optimistic
that the weather would stay nice, so I left my coat in the hotel.
After wandering around the quaint town for a while, I finally found the
lawyer’s office to the left of the hotel. Somebody had left a newspaper on a
bench in front of it, and the lead story was about Anna Voralberg. She had
lived to be 86. That wasn’t too bad. Along the way to the office, I also
spotted a baker, and when I talked to him I found out that the entire town was
in mourning for Anna Voralberg’s death, and that’s why nobody seemed to be
around.
When I reached the lawyer’s office, I discovered he had a robot thing -- oops,
an automaton -- at his front door. I played with it for a bit, and it seemed
to be some sort of security camera. I tried letting it view my face, but that
didn’t work. Its hand kept whacking me in the head. Then I decided that the
automaton looked like it was trying to read something, so I put the letter of
introduction in its hand. That did the trick!
Inside I discovered the lawyer at his desk. I sat down to talk to him, and
that’s when he dropped the second bombshell of the day: Anna Voralberg’s
brother Hans, thought to be dead for over 50 years, was really alive and
somewhere in the “north of Siberia.” If this was true, I’d have to track him
down and get him to sign the papers. So much for the easy job!
And that lawyer! When I asked him for help, he said his health wouldn’t allow
it. That’s just like the innkeeper and Momo, who said they were “too busy.”
I think these men of Valadilene are just lazy! But at least the lawyer
pointed out where I could get the key to the Voralberg factory prior to taking
his “nap.”
Since the lawyer was sleeping (or pretending to be sleeping), I decided to
snoop around in the front office. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything
interesting there, but I did notice a strange automaton on the desk. It
looked like a desk pad, except it was too small, and it had the word
“approuve” on it. My French is a little rusty, but I’m pretty sure that means
something close to “approved.” I tried pushing the button on the machine, but
nothing happened, and I figured I’d spent enough time playing around in the
office anyway. So I decided it was time to go.
On the way out, I remembered to pick up the factory “key” from the coat rack.
It looked sort of like a metal divining rod. I also decided to leave the
front door open, just in case I needed to come back. I had already given away
the letter of introduction, and I didn’t know any other way to get the door
open should I close it.
Kate
April 17, 2002 (early afternoon)
--------------------------------
Dear Diary,
After I talked to the lawyer, it seemed I wouldn’t be able to rush back to New
York like I thought, so I took a short nap at the hotel. The bed sure was
comfy! But then I had to make a decision: should I head for the factory and
see if I could find any information about Hans there, or should I go to the
cemetery and verify that his coffin was empty?
Well, I like to verify things for myself, and it’s not like Momo and Anna were
terribly reliable sources of information. Plus, if I discovered Hans really
was dead, I wouldn’t have to trot around all over Russia looking for him, and
I could get back to New York much more quickly. So I decided to head for the
cemetery.
On the way I got a call from my fiancé Dan. He has an important meeting with
the Goldbergs tomorrow night, and he wanted me to be there. But with the job
so much up in the air, I told him I probably couldn’t make it. He didn’t seem
to understand, and then he called the Voralberg plant a “measly toy factory!”
If we kept talking, I knew he’d call my job a “hobby” again and suggest I give
it up so I could play the dutiful future wife. So I begged off as quickly as
I could. I didn’t want to get into a fight over it. Again.
The church and surrounding cemetery were very pretty. Almost pastoral. I
explored the grounds and found the Voralberg family tomb on the left side of
the church, but there didn’t seem to be any way inside, and I couldn’t find a
caretaker anywhere to let me in. I also got another call. I thought it was
going to be Dan again, but instead it was Marson, and he wasn’t happy at all
that I hadn’t gotten the papers signed yet. I wonder what he’ll say if I have
to strike out for Siberia?
The front door to the church was locked, but along the side I found an odd
compartment. There was a gearbox next to the compartment, but it seemed to be
missing some gears. Was this where Momo had gotten the gears he had been
playing with? I thought about trying to fix the mechanism, but then decided
to ignore it for now and keep looking for a caretaker or priest to let me in
the tomb.
Finally, I discovered a back door into the church, and it was open. Nobody
was inside, so I took the opportunity to do some snooping. The wall behind a
crucifix looked scuffed, and when I moved the crucifix I discovered a key! So
I took it. Mother would be so proud that I’m stealing things from churches.
I also found an odd dresser with some sort of crank on it, and I decided to
rummage through it. The dresser was locked but the key I found behind the
crucifix opened it. Inside I found some punch cards, and when I pulled out
the middle drawer I discovered it had a poorly hidden false back. I couldn’t
pull out the drawer far enough to get at the objects in the back, but then I
decided maybe that’s what the crank was for. So I turned the crank, and
voila! I found one of those special Voralberg keys and a letter.
The letter was written by the parish priest in 1938, the year when Hans died
(or not). He admitted to learning that Hans was still alive and not doing
anything about it. That would have added more evidence that Hans was still
alive, except that the priest was basing his beliefs on a confession from
Anna, and so everything still came down to Anna. Maybe she hated that her
brother had died so much that she had made up the story that he was still
alive. So I still needed to look inside Hans’ coffin.
Well, nobody seemed to be around to let me into the tomb, so I decided to take
a closer look at that compartment I had skipped before. Momo’s gears fit
inside its mechanism perfectly, and when I pulled the lever I found that the
compartment was really an elevator! I couldn’t resist; I jumped in right
away.
The elevator led to the top of the church’s bell tower, and inside was a large
automaton. Did the automaton control the bells, maybe? It had a slot in its
back, and the slot looked like it was the right size for those punch cards I
had discovered earlier. So I put one in, and I was delighted to hear the
church’s bells play a Christmas tune!
Another one of the cards was responsible for a funeral dirge, but when the
music played I thought I heard some mechanical movement coming from outside.
So I went back down the elevator, and, sure enough, I found that the “statue”
on the Voralberg tomb was really an automaton! Moreover, it had moved its hat
to present a winding mechanism. I still had the Voralberg key from the
church, so I tried that, and I was in luck! The tomb door opened!
Inside the tomb I found Hans Voralberg’s coffin, and, I guess not
surprisingly, it didn’t contain a body. Instead I found a newspaper account
of Hans’ “accident” and an odd cylinder. So it looked like Hans really was
alive -- and that I’d have to tack him down. Oh well.
Kate
April 17, 2002 (late afternoon)
-------------------------------
Dear Diary,
After “exploring” the local church I went back to the hotel to have some
dinner. I figured I was going to need my fortitude if I was going to tackle
the automaton factory and hunt for information about Hans.
When I got to the factory gate, I found that the T-shaped piece of metal the
lawyer had pointed me to really was a key, and it allowed me to pass through
the gate. Once inside I found the factory grounds were huge. Not only was
there a factory and a residence, but there was also an entire train station!
The Voralbergs must have done a lot of business at one point in their history
to need a train station.
Since Anna mentioned in her letter to the lawyer that Hans had written her
sporadically and sent her automaton plans, I figured maybe she kept
correspondence from him at the factory. Nobody seemed to be around, but
luckily the front door to the factory was open, so I went inside.
I found Anna’s office up a set of stairs next to the front door. It was
rather austere. I thought some draperies and a nice carpet would have served
it well. I mean, come on! There were exposed pipes in the room!
Anyway, I went back into snooping mode, and I started going through Anna’s
things. In a cabinet I noticed a book out of alignment, and when I tried to
take a look at it, I inadvertently caused a secret compartment to swivel
around! Man! These automatons and secret compartments are everywhere!
The compartment had a cute little music box in it, but I noticed the music
cylinder the box used was just like the one I had found in Hans’ coffin. So I
tried it in the box, and it turned out to be a voice recording! In it, Anna
described how she and Hans had found a secret cave with mammoth drawings in
it, plus some sort of mammoth toy. Once the recording finished, the top of
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