Laki'ahn (first to second pedestal)

When you arrive in Laki’ahn you will find yourself on another island, this one more tropical than Noloben. Esher is waiting for you in front of the house to your right. When you approach he says that he wishes that you could have seen the Age in all its glory. This was a place of courage and strength, he says, where battles were fought. He also tells you that the door to the building is locked, but that there is a back door that can be opened (read more).


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Looking through the second window to the left of the door (as you face it), you will see a piece of paper on a table with five geometric shapes on it; to judge from the triangle in the middle, you are looking at the piece of paper upside down.


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Walk back towards the sphere, this time taking the Slate with you—it will be useful very soon—then towards the ocean on your right. To your left is a stretch of sand, while off to your right you can see a wattle fence. Head towards the fence and walk the length of it; at the end pass between the two boulders. Turning right, you’ll see an area full of the skeletal frames of large sea creatures, and some sort of crane.


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To your left as you enter the area you will see a small animal of some kind that hisses as you approach (it doesn’t bite, despite those large teeth), and next to it, a glyph inscribed on the rock face, presumably this Age’s environmental manipulation glyph.


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Writing it on a Slate and dropping it for the Bahro to pick up confirms this to be the case; a savage wind will spring up and rage for 90 seconds, the sandstorm reducing visibility to a minimum.


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As you face the crane mechanism, you will see an exit to your left, opposite the one you entered by. This will lead you to a stream, on the other side of which lies a large, triangular gateway. Walk across the stream and through the gateway.


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The canal you are now wading up is lined on either side by walls and the tusks of some animal; notice that towards the end, on the left, the wall is broken and that you can climb out of the canal and onto dry land. Ignore that for the moment, instead continuing into what seems to be a giant cage.


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The cage, however, seems to be but the first of several. We’ll call this Cage A; the cage to the left, Cage B; the cage straight ahead, Cage C; and the cage to the right, Cage D. At the centre of the complex, at the far end of the cage in which you stand, there is a cylindrical cage. It looks as if it should possible to access the other cages from the one in the centre if you could figure out how to rotate it, as there are no bars separating it from the left-hand cage of the complex, Cage B. And if you look closely at the filthy water flowing through the cylindrical cage, it looks as if there is something submerged in the water, but you are unable to tell what.


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Go back to the broken wall and climb out onto the dry land, and walk around the circumference of the cages. As you turn the first corner, you will see an odd construction to your left with some kind of windmill at its apex—ah, the wind glyph! The snapshot below was taken during one of the frequent eclipses that happen in Laki’ahn.


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Continue walking around the circumference of the cages before you go and examine the windmill construction. As you turn the final second corner, you will see that a canal, again lined with walls and tusks, leads away from the third corner. This would be from the cage to the right of the one you entered earlier, so Cage D; and the corner gate is closed.


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Go back to the windmill construction now; walk to the back of it, and then up one of the ramps. This will bring you to a control panel of three levers and two buttons.


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This puzzle is arguably the most complex in the whole of Myst V: End of Ages, mainly because of the number of factors which need to be borne in mind to complete it; although in the final analysis, it isn’t too difficult. I've summarised the factors for consideration below.

  1. You know the central cylindrical cage in the middle of the cage complex has no bars on one side; this side currently faces into Cage B (To your right as you look out from the control panel);
  2. The canal from Cage D (to your current left) seems to be the only way out of this area;
  3. The gate leading from the Cage D is closed; you will have to open it in order to get to the canal;
  4. There seems to be something submerged in the water under the central cage;
  5. The panel in the windmill construction controls the central cage and the gate, but you need to activate the wind first, using the wind glyph;
  6. The small animal in front of the windmill construction keeps barking and hissing, which is enough to drive anyone to distraction (or at least it did when I did this puzzle first);
  7. On top of which, you have to figure out what the levers and buttons actually do.
And to figure that out, trigger the wind using the wind glyph—don't forget to pick the Slate up afterwards, because it’s a long walk back to the first pedestal—then return to the control panel. Going from left to right, pull or press everything once—no more, no less—giving yourself time to observe the results as best you can through the sandstorm. This is what you should see:
  1. The first lever activated the windmill, allowing the other controls to function;
  2. The second lever raised the central cage: if you squint, you might just make out the shape of a pedestal which had previously been submerged;
  3. The first button opened the gate at the corner of Cage D, leading to the second canal;
  4. The second button had no discernible effect (it must have opened the gate to Cage A, but it’s broken);
  5. The final lever rotated the central cage 90° clockwise: squinting again, you should see that the opening is now to Cage C (topmost cage from the bottom canal, and the one nearest to you now)—but that the pedestal now faces Cage A (the bottom cage, and the first one you entered).
The solution to the rest of the puzzle should hopefully be fairly clear:
  1. Go back to Cage A, via the the broken wall, and note down the glyph on the pedestal;
  2. Activate the wind again by writing the wind glyph on the the Slate and leaving it for the Bahro (remember to pick the Slate up afterwards);
  3. Return to the control panel and pull the first lever to start the windmill, then pull final lever (the one on the right) once to rotate the central cage 90° clockwise once more, so that the opening leads into Cage D;
  4. Then draw the glyph of the second pedestal on the Slate for the Bahro to transport it there;
  5. Return to the first pedestal and link to the second.

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Don’t try linking to the pedestal before you’ve rotated the centre cage once more: you’ll end up being able to get into Cage C, which goes absolutely nowhere, and then having to link back to the first pedestal all over again.


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Laki'ahn (1-2)