Let's Play Shadowgate: final episode! Expect Yorick to not be terribly useful for hints, grabbing a new piece of goblin armor, familiarizing ourselves with proper crossbow handling, and finally opening one stubborn locked door.
Let's Play Shadowgate bonus episode: a few of the puzzles we missed
Youtube Video
Like I alluded to, there are more "secrets" (achievements and ways to use items or puzzles to kill yourself) we could do with a guide in hand, but there are (almost) no more items/puzzles/hidden deaths that haven't been covered.
Two exceptions:
There is one way to use one of our items that isn't for just fun: the tempered dirk. Removing the loose gear (to uncover the intended hint, shown in the video) requires a proper implement. Normally, this implement could be the sword (or even the regular dirk on "easy"). On Master though, the sword and regular dirk won't work, only the tempered dirk and the metal bar. Grabbing the metal bar (from the flooded 'Epor' room) requires solving one of the gear combinations, so the intended gear solution (i.e., without trial and error) requires discovering and using the tempered dirk early in the game. Since you can't safely explore the furnace yet (no crystal orb to defeat the fire drake) the only source of hot fire you have at that point is the big brazier (with the hook legs at rickety bridge). Interestingly, on the easier difficulties you both don't need the tempered dirk and you can put out this fire using vials of water. On Master, the brazier is now a useful source of fire, and likewise the game doesn't provide the water elemental to extinguish the brazier until you find that gear combination.
The clue to let the lights go out in the catacombs is relevant for an optional puzzle that gives a "Master Investigator" achievement and some easter eggs. You need a lit candle in your inventory (so you can relight your torch) and you need to extinguish your torch at two locations in the catacombs ("the Pit" first, then the "Mine" near the hollows). By doing this, special items "from a different time and place" appear that you have to examine: at the Pit you find a trilby/fedora hat and at the mine you find a "coat of arms" with the letters "PI" on it (it looks like a police officer's bronze badge). You have to examine them, but your hand passes through them when you try to take them.
Everything else is a red herring or only has "just for fun" uses. For example:
The keys we didn't use don't have any purpose.
The gems and gold bar we found in the catacombs don't have any purpose.
Magj'ryk & the enchanted hammer is only for the two hidden deaths that use it.
Exquish is only for the "cast all spells" achievement.
Some achievements require otherwise useless items and actions (and they don't seem to involve any leftovers clues to make them feel like puzzles.) For example:
There is an achievement for praying/speaking to every statue.
There is an achievement for using every weapon to kill something (including the black axe).
There is an achievement for killing every goblin (including the hidden death where you shatter frozen Yorick).
There is an achievement for finding all the special interactions with Yorick: you can feed him the otherwise useless gold coins, you can let him smoke the pipe, you can show him the female skull, and a bunch of other stuff...
Phew!
