A Walkthrough of Infocom's Journey: The Quest Begins

This is not an attempt at exploring every minor possibility of the game. There is a lot of background information to read. There are several ways you can lose party members, which will affect how scenes play out. But since losing party members is always (?) a failure, it's not interesting to explore those options here. This document focuses on how to find all the necessary clues to get to a successful end of the game.

Table of Contents

• Part I: The Four Stones
  • The Beginning
  • Alternative 1 - The Southern Route
  • Alternative 2 - The Northern Route
  • The River
• Part II: The Two Stones
  • The Spirit Stone
  • The Earth Stone
• Part III: Zan
• Part IV: Misty Isle
• Example Walkthrough
• Appendix I: The Spells
• Appendix II: Amounts
• Appendix III: Conserving the Essences

Part I: The Four Stones

The Beginning

You should now have 7 Air, 0 Fire, 9 Earth, and 0 Water.

You start the game with Bergon (carpenter and leader of the party), Praxix (wizard), Esher (physician) and Tag (apprentice food merchant, keeper of the inventory, and narrator of the game). Your starting inventory is a rope and some magical essences.

Enter Webba's shop. The only important thing here is to get the map. Have Praxix examine the map, and reply when Webb asks you if you are going to the Outlands. This will give you the clue that the runes on the map used to be glowing but that he added some runes of his own to make it look "more official". Have Tag buy the map. Leave Webba's shop and proceed to the tavern.

Enter the tavern, and have Esher look around. Leave the tavern. Esher will rejoin you, and Minar will greet you and ask to join your party. Accept his offer.

Leave Lavos. You are now given the choice of going Left or Right. Left is the more direct route, but if you send Minar to scout, he will discover that there are bandits lurking that way.

Note: It looks like it was originally supposed to be random which path had the bandits, but if Minar has scouted for you it's alawys the left path. If he hasn't scouted, both paths will have bandits.

Before making any decision, you may as well have Praxix tell you what he knows about Wizards and Magic. Telling about Magic, he will mention that some spells use a pinch of a third essence. This is a clue, though not a necessary one. He will cast Elevation (-1 Air, -1 Earth) to demonstrate, assuming that he has the necessary essences. Make a note of the color and texture of the residue on your hands.

You should now have 6 Air, 0 Fire, 8 Earth, and 0 Water.

Alternative 1 - The Southern Route

You went right, avoiding the bandits. Scout the area. You will find a cairn with the remains of Garlimon's party. Have Praxix examine the bodies. He will discover some magical essences (+2 Fire, +1 Water). Proceed to the High Plain.

Scout the area. You will see smoke. Follow it to find a hut. Knock on the door to enter. Tell the hermit the truth, then look around. You will discover that the hermit is Garlimon. If you have done both of these, he will throw a small leather bag at your feet when you leave.

Have Praxix examine the bag. Apart from some essences (+2 Air, +3 Fire, +4 Earth, +3 Water), you will also find a blue-green powder that you don't recognize. Make a note of Garlimon's words: "The water that heals, the fire reveals, the earth..."

Proceed. Have Esher examine the stream. He will see what he thinks is gold in the water. Try to find gold twice. The water rises, so cast Elevation (-1 Air, -1 Earth) on Tag to save him from the flood. Otherwise, he will lose the map. Praxix will find some magical essence (+3 Water), and find yourself at a lake.

Minar is automatically lost in the lake. Looking around does no good, so all you can do is proceed. Cast Glow on Praxix's staff (-1 Fire, -1 Earth) and enter the cave. Proceed to the pool.

Dive into the pool, and leave the tube to reach the underground chamber where you will find the lost party member. Hide. (You can still complete the puzzle if you are spotted, but it will impose a time limit.)

Take the wide path to the junction, then go left to the smelly pool. Unlike the other rooms, the torch here can be picked up, so do that. Go back to the juction and proceed to the treasury. Here you will find a blue amulet.

The blue amulet is apparently protected by some magic, because if you pick it up you cannot leave the way you came. You can, however, proceed further into the treasury if you have the torch.

Pick up the cover. You can't escape through the pool, because the passage is too narrow for you, but the amulet is small enough to pass through. Go back to the junction and the smelly pool.

Dive into the pool. The torch apparently works even better under the water, and you will find the blue amulet among the debris on the bottom.

My interpretation of this is that the pools are simply some sort of waste disposal system. Anything that is dropped into one of the pools goes through the pipes and end up at the bottom of the pool. The only place wide enough for you to reach the bottom is the smelly pool outside the treasury. The other two are too narrow.

Return to Minar, who has now regained consciousness. Return together to the cave. Unfortunately, you can't handle both him and the torch, so the torch is left behind. Proceed to The River.

You should now have 7 Air, 4 Fire, 10 Earth, and 7 Water.

Alternative 2 - The Northern Route

You went left. You are attecked by bandits, but they don't take you by surprise. Send Minar to flank the bandits, and fight them. You will win without taking any losses.

Scout the area. You will find a cairn with the remains of Garlimon's party. Have Praxix examine the bodies. He will discover some magical essences (+2 Fire, +1 Water).

Proceed twice. Scout the area. Minar will disappear, and Tag will get separated from the rest of the group. Look around to discover some strange lettering chiselled in the stone. Get help. Praxix will recognize it as dwarvish. As they discuss, the gate will open by itself. Enter.

It is dark, so cast Glow on Praxix's staff. (-1 Fire, -1 Earth) Proceed three times, and you will encounter a group of dwarves. They are not hostile, so parley with them and tell them the truth. Accept their offer to escort you, and Hurth will join your party.

Have Hurth tell you about the elves. This will teach you two elvish phrases: "Hurth-la Av-Agrith", which means "Hurth is here, the son of Agrith", and "Va'len, b'ran", which means "Come, friend". He also mentions that the elves still count Agrith as their friend.

Proceed to the stairs, but do not take them. Instead, proceed further to where a single rune is carved into the stone. If you let Hurth examine it, he will tell you it means "Prison". Before trying to enter, Proceed until they do not dare go any further because of something evil nearby. When you return, Praxix stays behind to confront it.

Cast Tremor (-1 Earth). The cavern will collapse, and Praxix will find some essence in the rubble (+2 Water).

You are now back at the stairs again, so proceed back to the prison door and enter it.

This place is a maze, where you'll keep walking in circles. You can either cast Flare, or you can drop an object. In the latter case, Praxix will cast Flare automatically, so the end result is the same. Make a note of the color and texture of the residue on Praxix's hands. (-1 Air, -1 Fire).

Cast Elevation on a party member (-1 Air, -1 Earth) to escape the prison. Take the right path to discover that Minar has been captured by orcs.

Attack the orcs. Have Praxix case Mud (-1 Earth, -1 Water) and have one of your other party members flank the orcs. You will recover Minar, but Hurth is killed in the fight. Agrith appears to claim his body, and gives you a brown amulet, telling you to show it to Astrix.

Go back to the stairs, and go up. Take the left path to the broken stairs. Cast Elevation (-1 Air, -1 Earth) on any party member, and then Wind (-1 Air) to propel him across the chasm. Make a note of the color and texture of the residue on Praxix's hands. Leave one party member behind, and climb up.

Look around to find a broken spyglass. Have Tag pick it up, and then return back down the stairs. This time, take the right path and exit through the gate.

You will arrive in the High Plain, where you can scout the area and follow the smoke to Garlimon's hut. This plays out the same way as on the Southern Route. (+2 Air, +3 Fire, +4 Earth, +3 Water).

Proceed to the stream. This plays out the same way as on the Southern Route, except if Tag is caught in the flood it's the brown amulet that's lost, not the map. (-1 Air, -1 Earth, +3 Water)

You arrive at the lake. This plays out the same as on the Southern Route, except it's Bergon who's lost in the lake. Praxix's staff is still glowing, so you don't need that spell this time.

Proceed. Minar is bitten by a snake. Split up the party. Bergon won't find anything, but it makes more sense if he tries so proceed twice, then try to return. He will be caught in the snake trees. The game switches to Praxix.

Proceed. You will stumble over a tree stump. If you examine it, you will find that it's hollow. At this point, you can use Blaze, Lightning or Tremor to open the stump. You will have plenty of Earth, so Tremor is your best bet. (-1 Earth). Go down. There is no time to explore, so take the passage back towards the camp. You will find some westflake on your way. This can be used to cure the snake bite, but you won't have to.

Let Tag explore the stream path and approach the wood elf there twice. Talk to her. What you want to convey is that your name is Tag, and that you are a friend of Agrith. Hurth provided you with clues for this earlier. You can only use two word sentences, so first type "Tag la" and then "B'ran agrith". She'll understand, and follow you back to heal Minar.

Follow Bergon's route. It's important to do this first, or he will die. When you find him, use the Lightning spell on the snake tree to free him. (-1 Fire, -1 Water). Make a note of what Praxix tells you: It's a pinch of Earth essence that gives the spell its punch.

Follow Praxix's route. If you hadn't done the Bergon bit, you could have demonstrated the Lightning spell to Tag here, but now the stump is already split open. Climb down, then proceed. Have Esher examine the walls to find hawkbane. This will be useful later. Walk around some more until Praxix finds some essence. (+2 Fire) Walk around until Praxix's staff stops glowing. You will notice a way up, so take that and then go to the Elf Home.

Once you reach the Elf Home, there will be a forest fire. Follow the elves, then have Praxix cast the Rain spell. (-6 Water) The elves will give you a green amulet, and you automatically proceed to The River.

You should now have 3 Air, 4 Fire, 5 Earth, and 1 Water.

The River

Go as far upstream as you can, build a raft and launch it. That gives you enough time to cross the river before the raft goes over the fall, without having to use the Wind spell.

Once you're on the other side, you enter the foothills. It is theoretically possible to solve it without the map, but if you take a wrong turn you will encounter traps and probably lose another party member.

Cast Glow on the map (-1 Fire, -1 Earth) to reveal which runes were originally glowing, then have Praxix examine it. This will automatically take you on the correct path to Praxix's tower.

If you took the northern route, you already have all three stones (Nymph, Dwarf and Elf), and Astrix provedes the fourth one (Wizard). The game then proceeds to Part II.

If you took the southern route, you only have the Nymph Stone. Astrix will send you back to the entrace to the Dwarf caves. This, and the subsequent encounter with the elves, play out almost identical to how they play on the northern route. (-4 Air, -1 Fire, -5 Earth, -6 Water).

Minar will leave your party. (Technically, it's possible that he will stay if there are less than five characters in your party, but I don't know if it's actually possible to lose a character and still make it this far.)

Part II: The Two Stones

The Spirit Stone

Regardless of which route you took, you should now have 3 Air, 3 Fire, 5 Earth, and 1 Water. Therefore, there seems to be no real advantage to the northern route, and all you get is an additional puzzle.

As an historical aside, the source code has a function called PART-TWO-CHEAT that was presumably used by the author to skip ahead to part 2 during development. This one would have given you 3 Air, 4 Fire, 4 Earth and 2 Water which, it says, is "About the best you can do after the first part..."

Scout the area. The northern route appears to be the more direct one. Not only that, you don't have the equipment you need to successfully complete the southern route yet. So north it is. This will take you, again, to the entrace to the Dwarf caves.

Enter. You will see something moving in the shadows. Whether you choose to confront or ignore it, it will turn out to be Hurth, back from the dead. Unless you messed up earlier, he will join your party. There is nothing more you can do on this level, so head down.

The stairs down have collapsed, so you need to explore this level. You will hear a pack of orcs, so send Hurth to scout the area. There's still more to explore, so go around the orcs first. The left path is guarded by more orcs, but the right one leads to an iron gate.

Unlike other runes you've encountered, the ones above the gate are not dwarvish. Praxix recognizes them, but is uncertain of the translation:

The trick here is to realize that the text is written right-to-left, so the message probably goes something like "Storage room access: To open door, say only 'please'". So the magic word for opening the gate is "lorem". Inside, you will find some magical essences (+3 Air, +2 Earth, +3 Water).

Return to the orcs, but this time try to go past them. Praxix will have an idea to create a diversion. There are three different spells that work here: Flare, Tremor and Wind. But Air essence will be in short supply, so I don't recommend using Wind or Flare. Earth should be plentiful, so cast Tremor. (-1 Earth) Then immediate cast Elevation on Praxix to hide from the orcs. (-1 Air, -1 Earth)

The orcs are still on your trail, so proceed. Unfortunately you are at a dead end. Have Praxix prepare a Tremor spell (-1 Earth) while the rest of the party keeps the orcs at bay. After a few turns, the floor will give out and you will be swept away. Bergon will be wounded in the fight, but all party members will survive.

This is where one of Garlimon's clues will come in handy: "The water that heals." Mix the reagent with water essence (-1 Water, -1 Blue-green reagent), and use the mixture on Bergon to heal his wounds. Then proceed. You want to keep exploring, so even if you try to follow the river the game will return you to the tunnel. Enter it.

You will hear the sound of someone chipping away at rock. Scout the area to find out that it's coming from the left path. Let's explore that one first.

There are two mines here: One new and one old. Interestingly enough, it seems that you can use the old mine to get the same reagent that you got from Garlimon earlier, and the game even checks to see if you actually did get that reagent. But if you do, Hurth will get killed if he's still in your party, so the only way this would be useful is if you didn't get Garlimon's bag (can you even get this far without?) and if Hurth never rejoined your party. So this whole thing seems to be one big red herring? Still, just entering and leaving it should be safe enough if you want to explore it.

The new mine is more interesting. Enter it to find a cleft through which you can hear the tapping sounds more clearly. But when you enter, there is no one there. If Hurth examines the walls, he'll find marks from a pick-axe. Leave, and the tapping starts again. Re-enter. Still no one there. But this time, if you stick around to examine the walls the mysterious miner will appear.

Ask the miner about the anything. He won't answer the first time, so just do it again. This time, ask about the mines. He will show you some of his findings, and accidentally drop some red rocks on the ground. Pick them up. There is nothing else to do here, so go back to the stairs. This time, take the right path.

The ornate path leads to a locked door that you don't have the key to yet. Take the crude path. You'll come to a dead end with a crack leading down. Go down. You have to jump the final bit. Hurth is the only one who will be able to both find what's down there, and be able to get back out. (Esher can find it, Praxix can get back out, but only Hurth can do both.) Once he's down, look around to find a key, and then climb back out.

Now you can go back to the locked door. Open it. Inside, there is a stone vault with dwarvish runes. Even Hurth doesn't see any way to open it, but this is where Garlimon's second clue is useful: "The fire reveals". Mix the reagent with fire essence (-1 Fire, -1 Blue-green reagent) and use the mixture on the vault. It turns out to be just an illusion. Examine the coffin, and take the white stone. Now go back outside.

You should now have 5 Air, 2 Fire, 3 Earth, and 3 Water.

The Earth Stone

You emerge from the Dwarf mines into a forest of snake trees. These are the same ones that Bergon encountered earlier. Proceed until you can go no further, then case Flare to clear the path. (-1 Air, -1 Fire)

Proceed. Praxix will be separated from the rest of the group, and encounter a talking tree. You can ask it about the paths to find out that one is the "Milky Way" (it leads to a mill), one is the "Road To Ruin" (it leads to a ruined castle) and one is the "Garden Path" (it's guarded by orcs). You could go straight to the ruin, but you're dangerously low on Fire essence so take the Milky Way. Examine the mechanism to find a passageway leading down. You need to use your last Fire essence to cast the Glow spell on your staff first. (-1 Fire, -1 Earth)

Once you go down, your way back up is cut off. Apparently there are walkthroughs that claim the following puzzle can only be solved with trial and error. They are wrong.

There are three pits and a control room. For the purposes of this walkthrough, I'm going to refer to them as the near, middle and far pits.

Those are all the pits you can reach. The device in the control room is some kind of teleporter. It can move objects between the different pits. Each rune corresponds to a pit, but how do you find out which is which?

Cast the Wind spell to clear away the dust. (-1 Air) This will reveal runes next to the near and middle pits. Unfortunately the rune at the far pit has been worn away.

Go to the control room. Set the left dial to the middle pit's rune, and the right dial to the near pit's rune. Press the button. Go to the near pit and climb down. This will move the pick-axe (which was at the bottom of the middle pit) to the bottom of the near pit. Note that it takes a little while for the machine to warm up. If you walk straight to the near pit and climb down, the pick-axe will arrive at the same time as you do. This is a clue.

Take the pick-axe and use it to mine the rock. (+5 Fire, +5 Earth) Praxix will automatically climb back up. Next, you want to figure out which rune corresponds to the far pit. Go to the far pit and drop the pick axe into it. Then return to the control room. The right dial still points to the rune corresponding to the near pit. Leave it that way. Then try setting the left dial to different runes and pushing the button until you've managed to teleport the pick-axe back to the near pit again. Since you already know two of the runes, this should at most take four attempts.

Go back to the control room and swap the settings for the dials to teleport objects from the first to the far pit. Push the button and hurry back into the near pit. Both you and the pick-axe should now be teleported to the far pit. Follow the light to the exit. Praxix won't keep the pick-axe, so there's no need to pick it up.

You are now at the castle ruin. Cross the bridge. It will start to give away, but proceed anyway. You will have to find another way out anyway. Enter the tower. You can go down into the dungeon. You won't find anything there yet, but I think it's the only way to see that particular illustration.

Go up to meet a stranger called Umber. He was the talking tree you encountered before, so apparently you were hallucinating. (Or maybe not; Umber is a bit of an enigma.) You'll need his help, so accept his offer to join you.

Go down again. This time Umber will show you a hidden chamber with a large chest filled with precious stones. There is more to it than meets the eye, so mix the blue-green reagent with Fire essence and use it on the stones. (-1 Fire, -1 Blue-green reagent) This will reveal the Earth Stone, which Praxix picks up. (Umber doesn't mind.)

Now you have to find a way to signal your friends, so climb to the top of the tower. (Any outdoors room should do.) There are three spells you could use: Flare, Lightning and Rain. It's imporant to preseve your Air essence, so don't use Flare. Lightning and Rain both use Water, so you may as well save your Fire essence and use Rain. (-1 Water)

The game will switch viewpoint to the rest of the party, who sees Praxix's signal. Proceed. At this point, Hurth will have trouble breathing. Have Esher examine him. If you picked up hawkbane earlier, near the Elves, he will be fine. Otherwise, he will die.

Proceed again. Now Bergon will be caught in a trap. It doesn't matter if you try to free him or hide. The orcs will arrive to collect him. Praxix will be fine on his own, so follow the orcs. Once you reach the camp, check your inventory. The red rock you picked up earlier turns out to be a magical reagent. Use it to turn invisible. You will find the tent where Bergon is being held automatically. You don't want to waste the rest of the reagent, so make a run for it.

The party will now join up with Praxix and use the rope to get him across the moat. Umber stays behind, and the party heads back to Astrix.

You should now have 3 Air, 4 Fire, 7 Earth, and 2 Water.

Part III: Zan

Proceed. You will see a great white bird. Have Hurth examine it, and he will see it is carrying a dark rider. You need to hide. While hiding, have Praxix mix Air and Water to make a Fog spell. (-1 Air, -1 Water)

Proceed to a cave. There you will encounter Umber again. You can try to leave, but there are mudwargs lurking outside so you're stuck with him for now. He'll tell you there are mudwargs outside. Ask him about them, and he'll tell you that they are never seen during the night. This is an important clue. Ask him for advice, and he'll give you some before falling asleep. Once he's asleep, you can examine his sack to find a black reagent which you take.

And this is where the game gets annoying. You have to mix the reagent with one of your magical essences, but as far as I know the game gives you no clue whatsoever which one. So this really seems to be a case of saving, experimenting and then restoring. The black reagent seems to turn the essence into some kind of opposite: Air produces despair, Fire produces darkness, Earth produces cold, and Water produces illness. You need to mix the black reagent with Fire (-1 Fire) and use the mixture on Praxix's staff. Then you can go outside without being attacked by the mudwargs.

Once you've left the cave, the black reagent no longer works. Apparently it needs Umber's presence.

In Zan, you want to enter the curio shop at once, before it closes. Send Hurth to look around. The proprietor will ask you if you're looking for anything in particular. Reply, and he'll show you some stones. Praxix wants a gray, pyramid-shaped one, but can't afford it. Stealing the stone works temporarily, but will get you in trouble later. Instead, trade the spyglass for the stone.

Proceed. You now have the option to visit the taven, the inn, and the wharf. You need to charter a boat to the Misty Isle, and you need some place to stay for the night, but let's visit the tavern first. If you look at the other table, you'll notice some suspicious characters. You want to know what they're talking about, so cast Invisibility. This doesn't use any essences, but will use up the last of the red rock. (That's why you had to save it earlier.) Eavesdrop for as long as you can. This will tell you that neither the innkeeper, nor the ship captains can be trusted. Make a note of the name of the one captain who they didn't speak to because he was too drunk.

Leave the tavern and head for the wharf. Tell the harbormaster that you do have a particular captain in mind: the one whose name you just overheard; the captain of the Zephyr. One of the other captains says he's willing to take you to Misty Isle, but you already know they can't be trusted. It will have to be the Zephyr, and whether you lie or tell the truth he will only offer to take you to Estril. That will have to be good enough.

You know tha the innkeeper can't be trusted, so you want to camp outside. However, unless you've already lost a party member you are still being hunted and you will be ambushed during the night. You want to make it appear as if you're staying at the inn, so go there first and book rooms. Accept his offer, but don't stay there for the night. Leave the inn and camp outside. It's safe now.

In the morning, you'll find that someone set the inn on fire. The sheriff arrests you for arson (and theft, if you had stolen the gray stone earlier, in which case you won't be able to escape).

This is where the game gets annoying again. You need to mix the gray reagent with an essence, and again I haven't seen any clues which is the correct one. You can mix it with Air and use it on Praxix's staff to create a "foreboding" spell. The staff will glow deep red when there's danger nearby, but the effect is short-lived. You can mix it with Fire to create a "mind-bending" spell. That's the one you want to use. You don't want the sheriff to see you preparing the mixture, so do that first. (-1 Fire, -1 Gray reagent)

Now you need to get the sheriff's attention. Calling him is not enough, you need to use magic. The Flare, Tremor and Wind spells all work. You have plenty of Earth, so use the Tremor spell. (-1 Earth) When the sheriff arrives, use the mixture on him and he will unlock the cell and let you out. (Note: There is a case to check if you're using the invisibility spell, so apparently you can still have some red rock at this point. But the spell wears off before you can steal the key, so it won't work anyway.)

Part IV: Misty Isle

You should now have 2 Air, 2 Fire, 6 Earth, and 1 Water.

You automatically proceed to the Zephyr. There's little to do except relax. You are caught in a storm, the captain is knocked overboard, the crew abandons the ship, and you are lost in the fog. You need to find the direction to Misty Isle Climbing the mast is no use, but you can use Elevation on Tag to lift him above the fog. (-1 Air, -1 Earth). Now that you know the direction, you can use your last Air to cast Wind, and propel the ship to the island. (-1 Air)

As soon as you set foot on the island, you are confronted by the Dread Lord. Praxix has an idea, but will be knocked unconscious before he can do anything. Have Tag pick up Praxix's pouch to begin the final puzzle.

What you want to do is to cast the Lightning spell on the Dread Lord, but how do you prepare one? If you've seen Praxix perform the spell, it will remind you that it's Fire, Water and a pinch of Earth. There are three opportunities to learn this:

• If Praxix uses the Lightning spell to split the tree stump open. You'll probably open the stump while Praxix is on his own, but if you're going for an optimal run this may be the best time for it.
• If Praxix uses the Lightning spell to free Bergon from a tree. This is an optional scene, but it's the one that makes the most sense to me story-wise.
• If Praxix uses the Lightning spell to try and clear a path through the tangled forest. However, this is not a good idea since it just wastes the spell.

Furthermore, Praxix's pouch contains seven powders, not four. (If you still have any Air essence, there would have been eight.) Only four of them are essences, but which ones? Along the way, there have been a couple of times where a spell left a residue after it was cast:

• Casting the Mud spell unnecessarily will tell you what a mixture of Water and Earth looks like. Don't do that!
• Casting the Mud spell during the orc fight will tell you what a mixture of Water and Earth looks like.
• Casting the Flare spell in the tangled forest will tell you what a mixture of Fire and Air looks like.
• Casting the Flare spell in the dwarven prison will tell you what a mixture of Fire and Air looks like, whether you tell Praxix to cast it or he does it automatically.
• Having Praxix tell you about Magic will tell you what a mixture of Air and Earth looks like. Wasteful, but not catastrophic.
• Using the Wind spell to move another character across the chasm (after first casting Elevation on him) where you find the spyglass on the other side will tell you what a mixture of Air and Earth looks like.

Using these clues, you should be able to correctly identify the essences you need. It's random, of course, but here is one example:

• Elevation (Air + Earth) left a medium textured orange residue. This means that one powder is yellow, one red, and that one is coarse, one fine.
• Flare (Air + Fire) left a medium textured violent residue. This means that one powder is blue, the other red, and that one is coarse, one fine.
• Mud (Water + Earth) left a coarse pale yellow residue. This means that one powder is yellow, one white, and that both are coarse.

From this we can draw the following conclusions:

• Both Elevation and Flare contain exactly one red powder. Both of them contain Air, so it has to be that one. That means Earth is yellow and Fire is blue.
• If Earth is yellow, the Water has to be white.
• Both powders in Mud are coarse, so Earth has to be coarse yellow, and Water has to be coarse white.
• Air has to be fine, so it's fine red.
• Fire has to be coarse, so it's coarse blue.

The solution, then, is to mix coarse blue (Fire) with coarse white (Water), and add a pinch of coarse yellow (Earth).

Cast the mixture. If you did it correctly, you will win the game.

Example Walkthrough

This example walkthrough doesn't explore everything, but should give all the necessary clues for a complete playthrough. This will make you appear a bit prescient. I have tried to include some of the unnecessary actions to get a more descriptive text, but in other cases I've skipped them. That's the price of following a walkthrough slavishly! If an action makes no sense, try looking around a bit and it should be clear. apparent reason, you would probably have gotten clues for it if you had done other things first, e.g. tried to explore an exit or scouted around.

In the few cases where I can't see any other option than trial and error, I have noted that.

Appendix I: The Spells

Regular Spells

Spells that use one essence use up one of that. Spells that use two essences use up one of each. The Fog spell is usually not available.

Special Spells

The old miner has some red rocks that he uses to turn himself invisible. Once you pick these up, you can turn yourself invisible too.

Garlimon will give you a blue-green reagent. This can be mixed with water for a healing spell (used to heal Bergon), and with fire for an anti-illusion spell (used to reveal the Spirit and Earth stones.

You will "borrow" a black reagent from Umber. Mixing this with an essence creates a sort of opposite effect: Air creates Despair, Fire creates Darkness, Earth creates Cold, and Water creates Illness. The mixture can be cast on Praxix's staff, but you can only do that successfully where you found the reagent, and only Darkness is actually useful. Though Cold seems to counter-act Darkness, for some reason.

You will acquire a gray reagent in Zan. This can be mixed with Fire to create a Bend Will spell, and with Air to create a Foreboding spell. At this point, you probably have too little left for experimenting, and only the Bend Will spell is necessary.

The Foreboding spell can be cast on Praxix's staff. It will cause it to glow deep red or light green depending on if there is danger or not. The effect only lasts for a few turns, and it doesn't seem particularly useful. Maybe to get a hint that the inn keeper will betray you, given the chance? It seems strange that the game didn't do more with this.

Appendix II: Amounts

The game doesn't tell you exactly how much you have of each reagent. Instead you are given an approximation:

If you ever manage to get 17 or more of a reagent (fat chance!), the game has no texts for how many spells you can cast with it, and will probably print garbage.

Appendix III: Conserving the Essences

You start out with some 7 Air and 9 Earth. On your way, there are several places where you gain more essence.

• Search the remains of Garlimon's party, under the cairn. (+2 Fire, +1 Water)
• Get the bag from Garlimon. (+2 Air, +3 Fire, +4 Earth, +3 Water)
• Look for gold in the stream. (+3 Water)
• Figure out the password to the store room. (+3 Air, +2 Earth, +3 Water)
• Confront the dark presence. (+2 Water)
• Search the warren under the tree stump. (+2 Fire)
• Explore the magic mine. (+5 Fire, +5 Earth). (Commented-out code suggests that you were originally supposed to get only four of each.)

So That gives you a total of 12 Air, 12 Fire, 20 Earth, and 12 Water.

You will need the following spells in Part I of the game:

• Glow to make Praxix's staff provide light. (1 Fire, 1 Earth)
• Tremor to find Water near the evil presence in the mines. (1 Earth)
• Flare to find the way out of the dwarven prison. (1 Air, 1 Fire)
• Elevation to get out of the dwarven prison. (1 Air, 1 Earth)
• Mud to slow down the orcs in the fight. (1 Earth, 1 Water)
• Elevation to get across the chasm. (1 Air, 1 Earth)
• Wind to get across the chasm. (1 Air)
• Elevation to save Tag from the flood. (1 Air, 1 Earth)
• Rain to put out the forest fire. (6 Water)
• Glow to reveal the runes on the map. (1 Fire, 1 Earth)

Puzzles with alternate solutions:

• Splitting open the stump can be done with Blaze (1 Fire), Lightning (1 Fire, 1 Water) or Tremor (1 Earth).

Optional:

• If you ask Praxix to tell you about Magic, he uses Elevation as demonstration. (1 Air, 1 Earth)
• If Bergon is trapped by the snake trees, you can use Flare (1 Air, 1 Fire) or Lightning (1 Fire, 1 Water) to free him.

You should let Tag see Praxix use the Lightning spell, so the optimal solution is to use Lightning to split open the stump, and have Tag be there to see it. But story-wise I guess it makes more sense for Bergon to get caught, and then use Tremor on the stump and Lightning on the snake trees.

For Part II you will need the following spells:

• Elevation for Praxix to avoid the orcs. (1 Air, 1 Earth)
• Tremor to evade the orcs in the subsequent fight. (1 Earth)
• Heal Bergon after the fight. (1 Water)
• Break the vault illusion. (1 Fire)
• Flare to get through the snake tree forest. (1 Air, 1 Fire)
• Glow to re-light Praxix's staff. (1 Fire, 1 Earth)
• Wind to clear the dust. (1 Air)
• Fire to reveal the Earth Stone. (1 Fire)

Puzzles with alternate solutions:

• Praxix can distract the orcs with Flare (1 Air, 1 Fire), Tremor (1 Earth) or Wind (1 Air).
• Praxix can signal his friends with Flare (1 Air, 1 Fire), Lightning (1 Fire, 1 Water) or Rain (1 Water).

For Part III you need the following spells:

• Fog to hide from the rider. (1 Air, 1 Water)
• Umber's black reagent to hide you from the mud wargs. (1 Fire)
• The gray reagent to get the sheriff to release you. (1 Fire)

Puzzles with alternate solutions:

• You can get the sheriff's attention with Flare (1 Air, 1 Fire), Tremor (1 Earth) or Wind (1 Air).

For Part IV, you will need the following spells:

• Elevation to reveal the direction to Misty Isle. (1 Air, 1 Earth)
• Wind to reach Misty Isle. (1 Air)
• Lightning to defeat the Dread Lord. (1 Fire, 1 Earth, 1 Water)

It's possible to use save-scumming to bypass at least two of the puzzles: You don't need to cast Glow on the map, and you don't need to cast Wind to clear away the dust around the pits. But let's ignore that here.

By my count, you need 11 Air, 10 Fire, 11 Earth, and 10 Water for the puzzles without alternate solutions. That leaves you with 1 Air, 2 Fire, 9 Earth, and 2 Water for puzzles with alternate solutions:

And the optional stuff:

Of course, there are other places where you can cast spells and get some interesting result. But these are the ones I think are sensible to use.

As you can see, if you want to hear Praxix's lecture on Magic, you absolutely cannot afford to use any spell that uses Air for these puzzles. That means no Flare and no Wind.

That leaves only Tremor as a valid option for distracting the orcs and calling the sheriff. But I guess you could get away with using Fire essence for splitting the tree stump (if you don't use Lightning to free Bergon from the snake tree, using Lightning on the stump is a good idea) or summoning your friends (but Rain is cheaper to cast than Lightning). Which means that Blaze is a pretty useless spell!

If you do the optional stuff listed above, and use Tremor or Rain where possible, you should be able to reach Misty Isle with 0 Air, 2 Fire, 5 Earth and 1 Water. You only need one each of Fire, Earth and Water for the final spell.