Walkthrough for

                             The Hermit's Secret

                             by Temple Software

                           Written by Richard Bos


  First, some notes.

  To start with, this is an MS-DOS game written in 1982, and it is certainly a
child of its age. Don't expect a plot - it's a pure treasure hunt. In some
places it's clearly Colossal Cave with the serial numbers filed off, but there
are also some more original parts.
  One way in which The Hermit's Secret is like Colossal Cave is that there are
dwarves which throw knives and a pirate which steals your treasure and hides
his chest in a maze, only this game calls them assassins and a gnome. They
behave the same way, though. A man will throw an axe at you, which you must
take with you; later, you will come across assassins, at which you must throw
the axe. You may miss, in which case, take back the axe and throw again; and
when you kill him (or it...), don't forget to retrieve the axe anyway, because
there will be more of them. As for the gnome, it will steal treasure and hide
it in its dungeon, which is mase-like. As in Cave, both of these require some
luck: the assassins may kill you, and if you don't come across the gnome before
your lamp's batteries run out, you won't find the chest and can't win the game.
All of this is timed randomly, so I can't tell you in the walkthrough when it
happens. Just remember to take the axe and deal with the assassins whenever you
come across them; I've left the taking of the gnome's chest as late as
feasible, so you have the greatest chance of it being there.
  Technically, the program is slightly restrictive, which isn't surprising
given its age. There are no command recall facilities, not even the ones used
by the DOS command line. At least capitals are accepted, but never significant;
and the vocabulary is decent. Word are significant up to six letters - an oddly
large choice, but no burden. "It" is not accepted. At some points you need
commands of more than two words, and the grammar for those is exacting; you
must use precisely the command as given below, including prepositions, and the
error messages for getting this wrong aren't as clear as elsewhere.
  One thing in which The Hermit's Secret is very unusual is its treatment of
saved games. In this it's more like a Roguelike than like a normal text
adventure: it allows only one save file, which can be saved when you leave the
game, and is automatically restored the next time you play. Under DOS, or in a
normal Windows command prompt, it is also deleted when you quit the game
without saving (or, die, or win); I found that playing under DOSBox prevents
this, but you still only have the one save file, which you'll have to copy and
rename if you want more save points.
  Finally, since this is a walkthrough, spoilers are rife below. I'm not taking
you past every single clue and sight - in fact, I'm not taking you past any.
I'm mostly limiting myself to puzzles which give you the points you need to
win. All magic words I'll be giving you can be found in the game somewhere,
though, and there are other hints, too - and a few red herrings.


We start our treasure quest in a meadow.

  Go southwest and south, take the can, north, east twice and south, take the
sandwich, east, get the paper and card, and go west, north, and northwest
twice. Fill the can.
  Go east, north twice and east. Be careful of your tread here, by the way. If
you step off the path, you will end up in the forest, which is maze-like, easy
to get lost in, and not easy to get back from at this point in the game. We'll
visit it later, but I'd rather not now. If you mis-step closer to the house
you'll end up in the cornfield, which is only a single location and closer to
home, so that's not quite as nasty.
  Pour the water, go west twice, north and east twice, give sandwich to lion
(and remember to type that exactly - well, you may abbreviate "sandwich" to
"sandwi"), west twice, south and southwest, fill the can again, go northeast
and east twice, and pour water. Now go south, take the lamp (and leave the keys
for now), east, down, and on. We're inside.

  Go south, east, south and west, get the coral, east, south twice, take the
gong, north five times and northeast, take the cage, southwest, south and
northeast. Type 235. Go east, take the silver, east twice, take the mallet,
north and up. This is our treasure storage, so drop the coral and silver.
  Go down twice, south twice, west twice and north. Take the animal; we'll see
what it is later. Go south, east twice, north twice and east twice. We're now
in the Warehouse - the game world isn't particularly consistent in theme! -
which is a proper maze. We don't need to spend a lot of time here, though.
  Go southeast, fill the can (with oil, this time), and go west, south four
times, and east. Get the diamond. Go west, put card in hole, and drop the card.
Then west and south, take the perfume, north, northwest and south twice, and
give oil to robot.
  Go east and take the icecube. This will start melting, so don't dither about
_too_ much right now, but don't exactly need split-command timing, either. Go
west twice, put paper in changer, take the coin, and go southwest twice. Kill
salamander with cube, and in another bit of Crowther and Woods plagiarism,
answer yes.
  Go northeast twice, east, south and west, get the muff, go south twice, west
and southwest. Hit the gong, then drop the gong and mallet. Go northeast, then
east thrice. Free the animal and drop the cage. South, west twice and south.
  Now for our first magic word: pirate. Enter just that word as your command.
Then the second: jenny. And yes, I could've shown you where to find out about
these words, but I chose not to - that's the price you pay for playing with a
walkthrough! Take the burro, jenny, take the shovel, pirate, west, southwest,
off, shack. (And yes, there's a clue for that one, too. Somewhere.)

  Now take the keys. Go north, west, south thrice, southeast, south twice, east
and southwest. Dig here. Don't drop your shovel - it's jeweled, and a treasure!
Also don't mind that crow - we'll get the painting back soon.
  Go south twice, unlock the mailbox and take the stamp, south, east twice -
aha! - and south, unlock the doors and drop the keys. (We didn't need to unlock
those doors - they lead to the warehouse - but we were here anyway, and it may
be convenient if you decide to explore on your own.)
  Go north, retrieve the painting, west twice, north twice, northwest, dave,
on. North twice, west and down - we're back in the hold! Drop the muff (not a
treasure itself, but this game's calque of the velvet pillow), perfume, stamp,
coin, shovel, painting, figurine and diamond. Go back out: up, east, south
twice, off, dave.
  Go east, to get lost in the cornfield, and get the necklace. West twice and
southwest - now we're lost in the forest maze. North twice, take the emerald,
then west, south twice out of the forest, west twice and north twice. Take the
book, north, take apple, southwest, down twice and southeast, and take the
sphere - and don't drop it, because _this_ is this game's Delicate Ming Vase.
  Go northwest, west thrice, south, southwest, south, southeast, south thrice
back to the barn, and up. Take the etching. (And if you "read etching" -
"examine" doesn't exist, by the way - you'll be given a description of an
etching which Rembrandt really did make, although in reality the man is a monk
and the print isn't signed: you'll find prints of it in the Rijksmuseum and the
British Museum, amongst others)
  Go down, north and west. Give apple to hog, take the hog, southeast, take the
ring, southeast again, north, dave, on. North twice, west, down, drop sphere
(which lands nicely on the muff), ring, emerald, necklace, book and etching.
Down twice, south twice, west, south thrice, take the rug (which is so heavy
you can't carry much else beside), and back north thrice, east, north twice, up
twice, and drop that rug.

  Go back up, east, south twice, off, dave; northwest, north twice, northwest,
north. Curtain, north, on, east twice, and dig. You must be _carrying_ the pig
for this to work. Take the pearl and drop the pig.
  Go north, west, north thrice, west, southwest and east, get the mask, west,
southwest, west twice, south and west, get the crown, east, south four times,
northwest, get the bracelet, south twice and west. Check that you're wearing
the gas mask, or the next bit will be deadly. Go down twice and east, take the
statue, go back west and up twice, and only now drop the mask.
  Go east and up into the Gnomish Dungeon, then east and south. By now you've
probably had something stolen by the gnomes, in which case there will be a
chest here, plus everything which was stolen from you. If not, there is nothing
here. You will then have to roam around the dungeon until he does rob you, and
return here. I can't help you much with that.
  To add to the trouble, the Gnomish Dungeon itself is confusing; some passages
only go somewhere part of the time, and may go either elsewhere or nowhere at
other times. This makes navigating it hard, and describing the route out even
harder. You may need to refer to a map - or make one.
  Assuming that there is a chest here, take it and everything that may have
been stolen, then go to the Gnomish Vault - the short route is north, west,
northwest, south and up, but as noted, you may need to search about a bit to
find it. If you find the Tropy Room, from there it should be south twice, then
up.
  From the Vault, go north twice, west, north twice, and up thrice. Drop the
axe. You _may_ encounter an assassin after this, but it's unlikely, and you
can't carry any more and you certainly do have to keep our lamp, and the rest
of your treasure. This includes the airplane; take it.
  Go down, west, north, east twice, north twice, northwest, dave, north twice,
west and down. Finally, drop the statue, chest, pearl, bracelet, crown and
airplane.

  And you've won! Yes, you've won. No, really. Don't believe me? Just wait a
few turns, either here or in the nosecone or hatch - but whatever you do, don't
leave those few locations!