THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT
Central Solutions, 1984
===========================
Solution by Exemptus - August 2025
Overview and general hints:
---------------------------
This game is a classic "look for hidden will in a house" theme but the mechanics
are to follow a series of clues in order, where each clue leads to the next. In
this sense it resembles more a treasure hunt race: the player's avatar is
supposedly entering a competition to find a hidden will in the grounds of a
large house with a lot of secret passages, nooks and crannies. The key bit is
that the room descriptions are deliberately incomplete: the clues refer to
objects and actions in rooms that would be otherwise unknown if it weren't for
the clues mentioning them, often in cryptic fashion. This, in principle,
prevents the player from accidentally revealing a clue without solving all the
former ones. This is still possible (it did happen to me), but players are
expected to follow the spirit of the game and refrain from experimenting on
their own.
The concept is ingenious and sort of works, though sadly the idea is badly
implemented: the Quill's parser is too limited for this to be effective. The
vocabulary known to the player is small, EXAMINE is never used, and hence the
puzzles are either based on the clues or on obstacles to enter certain places
that require the right object to be carried. Even so, some of the necessary
actions are obscure and the player is forced into a "guess the verb" dynamic
time and again. This gets old quickly.
The worst thing is that a major logic bug prevents a certain object from
existing as such. It is named, but not carriable, and the player has no way of
knowing how to solve a key puzzle without it. But the game never checks for it
and the puzzle can be solved with the right command, even without the object.
There's no reasonable way to guess the command, though.
To make matters worse, the game is heavily UK-centric. Many clues are loosely
based on some of the conventions of British cryptic crosswords, and if you have
not been culturally exposed to this, it might be tricky to guess some of the
meanings.
Some objects are duplicated for no good reason (the matches and the canister of
poison gas). The copies can be ignored. Inventory slots are 4 and they work as
per usual norms. There are dark places and a light source with no surprises.
Some room connections require an object to pass, but only one way: in the
opposite direction the obstacle doesn't exist.
If you want to play the game, it is advisable to map it first, as knowing the
names of the rooms in advance tells you where the clues lead in many cases.
The solution below goes sequentially by clues. It is implied that some recon of
the map has been previously done and the obstacles found, since otherwise the
walkthrough would be too cumbersome going back and forth only to discover an
obstacle and getting the necessary objects, etc. For ease of search, where clues
are stated, I will mark them with the label *CLUE.
Walkthrough:
-----------
[It is 1926. Uncle Silas has died and his will is hidden somewhere in Sheldon
Manor, a large country house. Being eccentric, he arranged that the first person
to find it will inherit the estate. Having been invited to join the hunt, we
start at the Entrance Lodge within the grounds, carrying nothing. The first clue
is here in the form of a note.]
GET NOTE
[*CLUE 01: "The second clue for you is to the north / Quite valuable, towards
the will it's worth / Once you are there then don't look too far / As you can
find it easily in ajar"]
DROP NOTE
N [The clue says north, so here we are, at the Garage; there is a plug here]
[The clue said "find it easily in ajar", meaning not "a jar", as it might have,
but a door or window that is ajar. There is a trap door here on the floor. We
can't go through it yet as there are wasp's nests and we'll need something to be
able to, but we don't need to. As EXAMINE is not available, the command is very
awkward and has to be found by trial and error.]
DOOR EDGE [Another note]
[*CLUE 02: "Look at a politician under floor"]
["Under floor" is the command to use, so the clue is really "Look at a
politician". This may seem obscure, until we realize that this means "Observe a
Tory" (Tories are member of the UK Conservative Party). This is to say,
"observatory". There is a location with that name, so let's go there.]
W
W
W
W
N [At the Observatory; there is a paddle here, but we'll ignore it for now]
UNDER FLOOR
[*CLUE 03: "Sewn up"]
[This is an adventure classic: SEWN are directions to follow, "up" the command.
Since going S, E, W, N takes us back to the Observatory, we needn't go anywhere:
the next clue is here too, so we look up.]
LOOK UP
[*CLUE 04: Move to the east is what you must do / Creatures there have legs more
than two / Once there search under those legs o' wood / To find the next
location there you should"]
[East of here there's the house entrance, the summer house, and the stable. The
latter is the only one that has creatures, so it must be it.]
E
E
E [At the stable; we notice no horses, but there are troughs, a table and straw]
[The table is the only thing with legs of wood, so...]
UNDER TABLE
[*CLUE 05: "Be Sharp and see Major Highup"]
[This is to be read as music notation: "B# and C Major, high up". At first we
may think this must be the Music room, but no. What other location is related to
music? The bandstand works.]
SW
W
W
W [At the bandstand, there's a canister of poison gas here]
GET GAS [It will be useful for the rats later]
LOOK UP
[*CLUE 06: "Travel east to the coloured dwelling / With contents oh so sweet
smelling / There beneath a lamp for winter heating / The guide to the Will you
may be soon meeting"]
[The coloured dwelling which smells good is the East greenhouse, which is past
two obstacles, so we need a couple of things. We'll get them then go there.]
N
N
E [South edge of Clover woods, there's a key here]
GET KEY [Will open some doors in our way]
E
S
S [North corridor]
U
U
NW
SW
W [Bathroom]
S [Bedroom 7; even though there is no visible exit west, we can go there]
W [Secret passageway, there is a box of corks here]
GET CORKS
D [There is a hood with eye holes here]
GET HOOD
E
E [Going back W requires the key, but not in this direction]
NE
E [This is the Hall]
[The Hall acts as a central hub for the mansion and is a good place to leave
useful objects not immediately needed.]
DROP GAS
DROP HOOD
DROP KEY
S
S
W [Observatory again]
GET PADDLE
E
E
S
SE
N
GET PLUG
N [South bank of a stream; there is a boat with a cord and hook here]
[The boat has a hole in it, but this is why we have taken the plug.]
GET BOAT
PLUG BOAT [The hole is fixed now and we can use the boat]
PADDLE BOAT [North bank]
[North of here is a parrot that swears and somehow this hinders us from passing,
but the corks fix that problem as well]
N [To East greenhouse; there is an axe here]
GET AXE [Will be useful later to clear a shortcut]
UNDER LAMP
[*CLUE 07: "Go for the 12 o'clock at 5 ways then under floor"]
[The lawns location has a pentacle, which is the "5 ways". Going for the 12
o'clock means going north from there, which is the summerhouse. This is our
next target.]
S
DROP CORKS [In case we have to get back here]
PADDLE BOAT
DROP PADDLE
DROP BOAT
S
W
W
N [At the summerhouse]
UNDER FLOOR
[*CLUE 08: "At house fronts and made of glass and wood / Before entering is
where you could be stood / There down below beneath that floor / A new lead will
be found once more"]
[This is plain enough: it means the porch, which is nearby.]
W
N [Here we are]
UNDER FLOOR
[*CLUE 09: "Moor gin instead (ANAG) behind panel"]
[The annotation (ANAG) indicates an anagram of "moor gin instead", which is
"east dining room". Let's go there.]
GET OIL [Will be used later for filling the lamp]
N [Hall]
DROP OIL
DROP AXE
GET KEY
UNLOCK DOOR [The door to the E dining room is locked]
BEHIND PANEL
[*CLUE 10: 9, 6, 12, 10-30 in soap box"]
[This is a bit more obscure: the numbers are times on the clock and represent
the directions the hours hand points to, which are W, S, N, NW respectively.
From here, this means the West store.]
W
DROP KEY
NW
SOAP BOX
[*CLUE 11: "One thinks hard under desk"]
[To think hard is to study, so this means the Study 1.]
W
S
SW [This is the Study 1, and there's a lamp here]
GET LAMP [It's empty and unlit]
UNDER DESK
[*CLUE 12: "Witch ken (ANAG) in drawer"]
[Another anagram: witch ken = "w kitchen"]
NE
N
N [West kitchen]
IN DRAWER
[*CLUE 13: "Note this place under lid"]
["Note" means here a musical note, so this time it points to the Music room.]
E
E
SE
E
N [Music room]
UNDER LID
[*CLUE 14: "Take a tip off him who shall enter here / For the next clue he shall
find I will fear"]
[One could be forgiven for giving up on this one, because it's definitely
awkward. This means both a place and an object are needed. The object is easier:
it's the billiards cue, which has a tip that can be taken off (literally!). The
place is the hall, but this is only hinted at by the first verse of the couplet
being rendered as "Take a tip off him whose hall enter here", even if the
syntax is questionable. Yes, a bit cringey, but who you gonna call?]
E
S [Billiards room, where we find the cue]
GET CUE
W
SW
NW
W [Hall]
TAKE TIP
[*CLUE 15: "In the central one it is quite gloomy / Damp, dirty and not at all
very roomy / Once there in a pipe you must poke / But not the sort of pipe you
can smoke"]
[The pipe is a drainpipe, and the location is the damp central tunnel under the
gamekeeper's cottage. In order to go there we'll need to pass the rats, which is
why we stashed the gas canister here. We no longer need the cue, by the way.]
DROP CUE
DROP LAMP
GET GAS
N
N
N
E
E [Gamekeeper's cottage]
D
S
S [The rats flee at the sight of the gas, and some of them are dead here]
GET RATS [They will be used to bypass another obstacle]
IN DRAINPIPE
[*CLUE 16: "Plug up"]
[This is brief indeed. We found a plug in the Garage, but that's not it: where
we usually find a plug is in the bathroom, and there is where we have to go.]
U [We take a trapdoor directly to the E dining room]
W [Hall]
DROP GAS
N
U
U
NW
SW
W [Bathroom]
PLUG UP
[*CLUE 17: "No shooting in here in overtime"]
[A fun one. Where is "shooting" usually forbidden? If it means "photograph", in
a museum or art gallery, and there is one in the upper landing, so that's it.
The "overtime" bit means "above the clock", which is the command.]
E
NE
SE
E
E [Art gallery; a second gas canister can be found here]
OVER CLOCK
[*CLUE 18: "Make room in a box on ceiling"]
[This means the box room, although going there requires passing a vicious hound
that guards the entrances. But we took the rats in the tunnel and we didn't drop
them, so that will help with the dog.]
W
W
NW
SW
W
S
S [The dog lets us pass]
ON CEILING
[*CLUE 19: "Bi larry (ANAG) no flesh (ANAG)"]
[Which de-scrambles to "Library, on shelf".]
S
E
E
E
E [Library]
ON SHELF
[*CLUE 20: "Trott in wet cash (ANAG) in chest"]
[And this one is "Northwest attic". This is a bit harder to reach, as the attic
can be reached from two ways, but how to leave is not evident. We can go from
the South reading room just SW of here by using the ladders to climb to the
trapdoor on the ceiling, but it is also possible to reach it from the Secret
passageway SW of that room just going U and N, with no ladders needed. The
former way triggers an additional message and we need to stash the rats for
later, so we'll do it that way.]
NW
W
D
D
E
SE
S
S [Pantry, where the ladders are]
GET LADDERS
W
NW
W [Hall]
DROP RATS
N
U
U
S
SE [South reading room, with the trap door visible]
CLIMB LADDERS [The door closes behind us and we see a verse chalked on a slate]
[The verse reads "Alas alas and without more ado / The trap door has slammed
behind you / The only escape from these attics of dust / Is to solve the riddle
in the chest o' rust / For thro' the panel in the south wall and still / Allow
you to pass in your search for the will". This is not one of the clues, but just
a separate puzzle. Not too much of it, because in order to escape this room it
suffices to do what it says and open the panel in the south wall with OPEN DOOR.
The reference to the "chest o' rust" is lost. Maybe this is a puzzle that never
was implemented but the message was not amended. Anyhow, let's continue to the
next clue.]
N [NW attic]
IN CHEST
[*CLUE 21: "All clues in NW corner"]
[This sends us to the 'all (the hall) and the command is "in corner". Yes, some
of the clues are really, really poor.]
S
OPEN DOOR [We enter a secret passage]
D
D
N
N
E
E
NE
E [Hall]
IN CORNER
[*CLUE 22: "Not in the Mersey, Blackwall or Channel on SW wall"]
[This one is cute. The word that can go after all three of Mersey, Blackwall or
Channel is "tunnel". So clue 23 is down the tunnel below the gamekeeper's
cottage.]
DROP LADDER
N
N
N
E
E
D [Damp, badly lit and musty tunnel]
ON WALL
[*CLUE 23: "Bug in the SW corner"]
[Another corner, but this must again be the command. It is, but it's also the
location, because this sends us to the SW attic again. Nobody said these clues
had to be consistent. This time we'll go the alternative way.]
U
W
W
S
S
U
U
S
SE
SW [Softly lit secret passageway]
U
N [SW attic]
SW CORNER
[*CLUE 24: "Rest o seat (ANAG) in tea caddy"]
[The anagram is "East store", which is directly NE of the hall, but if we try to
enter we'll be told a raven wants something first. We'll pick up a snack for the
raven first then.]
N
E [Some dead bats are here]
GET BATS
W
S
OPEN DOOR
D
D
N
N
E
E
NE
E [Hall]
NE [The raven lets us pass]
TEA CADDY
[*CLUE 25: "Wet gin do mor sin (ANAG) back of chair leg"]
[You don't have to think hard to realize this means "West dining room". And we
are halfway through the clues now.]
SW
DROP BATS [Apparently they are reusable]
W [W dining room]
CHAIR LEG
[*CLUE 26: "Place for your cue, (CRYPTIC) behind curtain"]
[The annotation (CRYPTIC) means some kind of wordplay like those used in cryptic
crosswords. This one is rather literal: the place where one puts a billiards cue
when managing a difficult shot is called a rest (it is attached to a stick and
bridge for stability and reach). So the place is the rest room, which is
upstairs, south of the Library.]
E
N
U
U
E
SE
S [Rest room]
BEHIND CURTAIN
[*CLUE 28: "Morebod 2 (ANAG) in top drawer"]
[This is "Bedroom 2", obviously.]
N
W
NW [Bedroom 2]
IN DRAWER
[*CLUE 29: "Save a politician on time"]
[This follows the same gimmick as Clue 02: if "look at a politician" was
"observ-a-tory", then "save a politician" is "conserv-a-tory". This is
where to
go next.]
N
NE
D
D
E
SE
E
N
E [Conservatory, there's a kettle here]
GET KETTLE [Will be useful later]
ON CLOCK
[*CLUE 29: "Maybe on a train going SE to Glastonbury or Glasgow"]
[Don't be fooled: the clue here is that both places begin with "glas". The
command is just telling us to inspect the window (which is something that
certainly trains have). The place is the one with SE on its name, which is the
SE corridor. Well, to be fair it could have been either the SE attic or the SE
study (which we haven't yet been to), but no, it's the corridor. Then again,
a train can have a corridor, but neither an attic nor a study. Maybe I'm reading
too much into clues.]
W
S
SW
SW [SE corridor]
ON WINDOW
[*CLUE 30: "5 deep thinkers behind a curtain"]
[This has been used before: it means Study 5.]
NW
W [Hall]
DROP KETTLE
NW
W
NW [Study 5]
[*CLUE 31: "2 dutys (ANAG) in chest"]
[Again, Study 2. We'll need the key from here (it is possible to enter without a
key from the west, but we'd have to take a long detour).]
SE
SE
SE
GET KEY
W
SW
UNLOCK DOOR [Study 2]
IN CHEST [A note: "Y-U- W-L-", complete the passwords to open chest]
YOUR WILL
[*CLUE 32: "Cul de sac - you must hack"]
[This is literal: we need to do some hacking in a dead end location. There are
not a lot of them, but this is misleading, because it is not really a dead end:
it's the end of the subterranean tunnels under the gamekeeper's cottage. It can
be reached from the north and east though, so the clue is really not a good one.
I had to try a number of locations before finding this out.]
GET PICK [This is the hacking instrument, which is conveniently here]
E
NE
E [Hall]
GET GAS
UNLOCK DOOR [To East dining room]
D
S
S [To wet dripping tunnel]
HACK WALL
[*CLUE 33: "Maybe on a SW train looking out"]
[Following the logic used in Clue 29, this should be the window in the SW
corridor. And so we plough on.]
N
N
U
W [Hall]
DROP GAS
DROP KEY
DROP PICK
W
SW [SW corridor]
ON WINDOW
[*CLUE 34: "Ice catts (ANAG) in bag"]
[This is supposed to be an anagram of "SE attic", but it has an extra C. It'd
have been far better to say "Tie cats in bag" instead. I can only assume the
author was tired at this point. To say nothing of the player.]
NE
E [Hall]
GET HOOD
WEAR HOOD [This will help with the bats in the attic]
N
U
U
S
SE
SW
N
N
E
S [The bats let us pass]
IN BAG
[*CLUE 35: "Room for food (CRYPTIC) No helfs (ANAG)"]
[This is the opposite of cryptic in fact, since it's a straight definition: the
room for food is the larder. No points for the anagram either, which is "on
shelf".]
N
W
S
OPEN DOOR
D
D
N
N
E
E
NE
E [Hall]
N
E
SE [Larder]
ON SHELF
[*CLUE 36: "It's not the zoo now that you must go / But plenty of animals will
be on show / In this one you may go poking / The next location you are hoping"]
[The animals on show refer to the wallpaper in the nursery (the description at
least hints at this). The command is the difficult thing here, as it's not
hinted at in any reasonable way. I spent a lot of time trying things. The one
that works is, believe it or not, INTO ROOM. I would have understood POKE ROOM,
even if nonsensical in-world, but at this point we have abandoned all pretence
that the game is well constructed or fair.]
S
S
S
INTO ROOM
[*CLUE 37: "Don sowed mash (ANAG). No nicerr (ANAG)."]
[This translates to "Woodman's shed, in corner".]
NW
NW
W [Hall
GET AXE
N
N
N
W
W [Woodman's shed]
CHOP WOOD [We remove the log, opening a useful shortcut for later]
DROP AXE
IN CORNER
[*CLUE 38: "Certainly no light in here under sink"]
[There is a dark room fitting the description. Actually the room is not dark,
in the sense that no light source is needed there, so it must be it's just
painted that way. Which is funny, as there are dark locations in an adventure
sense. We'll just go through one if we take the shortcut we just opened.]
D [North bank of underground river]
E
N [Everything is dark here, but this is not the dark room]
U [We pop through the trapdoor in the Smoke room]
NE
NE
NE [Dark room]
UNDER SINK
[*CLUE 39: "To open combination lock on reception box complete the combination
words, I-T- -O-. When open: Remove with steam to loosen the glue / Then turn
over to reveal the next clue"]
[This gives straight instructions: there is a box in the Reception which can be
opened with a password. Let's get that first. The password is INTO BOX, as we'd
have surmised.]
SW
SW
NW
W [Hall]
GET KETTLE [A source of steam]
SW [Reception; a closed box and a note are here]
INTO BOX [An envelope is inside]
[The note says the same password clue, though it omits the steam instruction.
GET ENVELOPE
STEAM STAMP [Not the envelope, for some reason]
[*CLUE 40: "Sleeping space for 6 in pot"]
[This is, naturally, Bedroom 6.]
DROP KETTLE
DROP ENVELOPE [Not needed anymore]
NE
N
U
U
SW
S
SW
W [Bedroom 6]
IN POT
[*CLUE 41: "Chiken tteas (ANAG) in pan"]
[East kitchen it is.]
E
NE
N
NE
D
D
E [E kitchen]
IN PAN
[*CLUE 42: "1 Boredom (ANAG) in basin"]
[Bedroom 1, so upstairs again. The game keeps us fit, that's for sure.]
W
U
U
SW
IN BASIN
[*CLUE 43: "Pan up high - reach & try"]
[Where are pans stored? Several places come to mind. Kitchens, stores, or the
pantry are possibilities. I'll save you the time of trying each: it's the pantry
this time.]
NE
D
D
E
SE
S
S [Pantry]
ON SHELF [More or less logical, as the clue says "up high"]
[*CLUE 44: "Lay about in time"]
["In time" means the clock, as in other clues, but where is "lay about"? If we
think about it, this is a synonym for "lounge", so this must be it. The lounge
can't be directly reached as the hound guards it, so we need to pick the rats
first.]
W
NW
W [Hall]
GET RATS
SE
NE
NE
E
S [The hound lets us pass]
[There's an unlighted sulphur candle here. The candle can be used to bypass the
wasps under the Garage, but we won't need it.]
IN CLOCK
[*CLUE 45: Concentrate on 4 in corner"]
[This is Study 4.]
N
W
N
NW
W
W
S
SW
IN CORNER
[*CLUE 46: "Drink below sink"]
[Short clues can be tricky. "Below sink" is plainly the command, so "drink"
must
be the location hint. We haven't visited it yet, but there's a wine cellar,
which is a fine match for it. It's one of the dark locations, so it's time we
used the lamp.]
NE
SE
SE [Hall]
DROP RATS
GET LAMP
GET OIL
FILL LAMP
DROP OIL
GET BATS
NE [The raven lets us pass]
GET MATCHES
SW
DROP BATS
SE
LIGHT LAMP
D [Cellar 1]
E
N [Wine cellar]
UNDER SINK
[*CLUE 47: "In drink below again"]
[This one is devious. In fact it's telling us to go to a room below this one,
and that the clue is hidden in the water, but we can't know this in advance. The
description of this room mentions a grandfather clock though, which is unusual.
This is where previous exploration pays returns.]
ENTER CLOCK [We pass on to a dimly lit secret cavity with stairs leading below]
D [The sub cellar, several feet dep in water]
[I confess I spent a long time with this one, but had to cheat and examine the
game's code logic in order to unravel it. It turns out that we must THROW CORD
here, which is clearly a bug, because we don't have any cord, and none has been
ever mentioned except in relation with the boat (which had a hook attached, if
you remember, so this makes sense). The problem is that cord is not a separate
object, it comes with the boat and serves no purpose there. You can't take it,
cut it, or do anything with it; and the logic doesn't check at any point that we
have it. So this doesn't make any sense. I can only think that the author had
the intention of making the cord-and-hook a separate object that could be
carried for this puzzle but forgot about it, no proper testing was done, and
nobody else cared. A sad state of affairs, but not uncommon for the British
budget micro scene in the 1980s.]
THROW CORD [A box is retrieved from the water]
GET BOX
OPEN BOX [*CLUE 48: "Where this whole thing began under the floor"]
[We began at the Lodge, and there we must go.]
DROP BOX
U
S
S
W
S
E
SW
SW
SW
SE [Lodge]
UNDER FLOOR
[*CLUE 49: "If you have succeeded in finding all the clues then take the fifth
from the second, the second from the eighteenth then the third from the
twentyfourth, the fifth from the eighteenth and the third from the twelfth. Put
them in the right order and the will you shall find"]
[This rigmarole is telling us to take the corresponding words from the numbered
clues, which are respectively UNDER, ROOM, SEAT, BOX and IN. In the right order,
this reads IN BOX ROOM UNDER SEAT.]
NW
W
N
N
N [Hall]
GET RATS
N
U
U
NW
SW
W
S
S [Box room]
UNDER SEAT [You have found the will, congratulations! Score is 100%]
[End of game.]
