In The Crimson Diamond we play as Nancy Maple, an aspiring mineralogist who travels to the remote town of Crimson to investigate the discovery of a large diamond found in the belly of a fish.
In Chapter 1: Introductions of The Crimson Diamond, we will travel to where Nancy plans to stay during her investigation, Crimson Lodge. On the train journey there, Nancy bumps into Kimi, a birder who also happens to be traveling to the lodge to see the cormorants nesting there. Nancy and Kimi then travel to Crimson Lodge and meet with Jack, an employee at the lodge who is at the train station to pick up Albert, a mineralogist who has been hired by the federal government to investigate the area too. The four travel together to the lodge, where Jack breaks the news that it’s actually off limits to the public as its owner, Evan Richardson, has decided to retire. Nancy and Kimi are allowed to stay the night however.
Note: If you’re looking for further details into the characters and setting of The Crimson Diamond, try typing ‘look’ into the text commands to bring up a description of the room or ‘look at [enter object or person]’ to get a description of a specific object or person. Typing ‘examine’ rather than ‘look’ will sometimes give you deeper insight too. You can also ask characters about certain topics or people by typing ‘ask about [enter topic]’ and they will sometimes give you further detail.
Introductions
When you arrive at the lodge, Nancy decides to go around and introduce herself to everyone there. Speaking to Kimi, she will point out that there are brochures in the curio cabinet next to the desk.
Approach the cabinet and type into the text parser commands ‘search drawer’ and ‘pick up brochure’. You can now type ‘map’ into the text parser commands to bring up the lodge’s indoor map, unfortunately this does not include the outside area.
Nancy now has to go look for the other characters around the lodge and talk to them, their locations are below:
- Margot – Go inside the Innkeeper’s Quarters and take the door on the bottom left
- Albert – Servant’s Quarters
- Nessa and Corvus – Parlour, before you enter the room Nancy will hear voices coming from the doorway. Type ‘eavesdrop’ to listen in on the conversation
- Nathan and Evan – Conservatory, you can eavesdrop on this conversation too… this appears to be a habit of Nancy’s
- Jack – Kitchen
Note: For shortcut commands, type ‘hint’ into the text parser which will greatly reduce the amount of typing you’ll need to do in the game.
After you have spoken to everyone, you can go into the dining room and a dinner cutscene will start.
Eavesdropping Mischief
After dinner, you can either pass the time straight away by going into the kitchen and typing ‘help Jack’ into the text parser, or you can listen in on the below conversations for more information on the storyline and characters:
- Nathan and Evan in the study – Enter the study and type ‘hide behind tapestry’ to listen in on their conversation
- Nessa and Corvus in the bar – This conversation has two parts. Open the bar door from the hallway and type ‘eavesdrop’ without entering the room to listen to the first half. Then go and help Jack in the kitchen and return for the second half
On her way to bed, Nancy can also pay a visit to the Innkeeper’s Quarters where she can eavesdrop on yet another conversation before bed. Margot and Jack are in the room she was in earlier, the only problem is the door is closed, so Nancy is going to have to up her eavesdropping skills to listen in on this one.
Go back into the kitchen and approach the cabinet to the left of the sink and type ‘search cupboard’ in the text parser and then ‘pick up drinking glass’. Bring the glass back to the Inkeeper’s Quarters and type ‘eavesdrop with drinking glass’ into the text parser.
Note: Often characters will announce that they’re about to discuss something with someone in another room. Keep note of this as it means you can follow them and listen in on the conversation for more story bits.
After Nancy has completed her nightly routine of intruding on the private conversations of strangers, she’ll happily retire to bed and that completes the first chapter of The Crimson Diamond.
