This walkthrough is for the extra chapter after Scratches: Director's Cut
called Scratches: The Last Visit. It's not nearly as long as the previous
game, and takes place umpteen years after the original Scratches. The
chapter is almost teasingly short, but it ties up any loose ends you may
have felt after finishing Scratches. There are a lot of spoilers in this
little guide and at the end I attempt to tie up the loose ends for you in
case you missed a few things. In other words, if you don't want the whole
thing spoiled for you, then I suggest you stop reading now.
Right now.
You can stop now.
I'm going to really start laying the whole thing out for you so avert your
eyes from this text unless you absolutely really need to know what's
happening.
Still here?
Okay, take a deep breath and let's get started.
You play a reporter who has been assigned the task of investigating
Blackwood Manor before it is demolished in two weeks. While the obvious
solution would be to interview Michael Arthate, it turns out that he shuns
the press and any attempt to interview him has failed. Your only option is
to go to Blackwood Manor yourself and have a look around.
Go down the right path to the garage. You won't be able to go inside, but
on the ground is a can. Pick it up.
The paths that would lead to the greenhouse and chapel have been flooded.
You can use the can to try to empty out the pathway, but that'd be useless.
Best to keep a can of water instead.
The outside of the house appears to have some articles from the church
strewn in the yard next to an open hole. Investigating the hole reveals
something moving underneath.
Inside the house the place has been looted and stripped. Graffiti is
scrawled on the walls, but most of it is illegible. Going down the secret
passage in the fireplace takes you to the dungeon room discovered at the end
of the last game. The door that saved Michael has been torn from its hinges
and rests on the opposite wall. Investigating the large hole in the wall
reveals an object, but any attempt to reach it results in being attacked by
an "angry cat" in the wall.
The dining room has been sorely misused. The door to the front office is
stuck. Going into the hallway you find that the door leading to the kitchen
has had its doorknob removed. You can't use the stairs here so go back to
the front of the house and use these stairs.
The spare guestroom that Michael used during his brief stay has been looted
as well. The only thing left is his suitcase with a few shirts. Leave here
and go to the gallery. Nothing remains. The secret storeroom's door has
been removed, but there is no sign of the mask. The master bedroom across
the hallway has been stripped of everything. The only thing of interest is
a bottle of thalidomide. This drug was prescribed to pregnant ladies back
in the fifties and sixties for morning sickness, but was found to have
disastrous effects on the fetuses.
The bathroom down the hall is too dark to investigate due to our silly
reporter forgetting a flashlight. After you leave this room you can attempt
to go up the stairs to the attic, but nothing doing.
Go back outside to that hole. Pour the water down the hole and listen to
what happens. Do not forget to refill your can before you go back into the
house. Go back down the secret passage to the dungeon and get the object.
A doorknob.
Go into the kitchen now and down into the basement. It's still creepy.
Find the cleaning fluid on the floor next to the drain cover and the rag on
top of the furnace.
Go back up to the bathroom. Use the rag with cleaning fluid and water from
the can to wipe away the mud from the windows and illuminate the room. Now
you can investigate the bathtub. Guess what delightful souvenir you find
there?
Well there's nothing left here. You turn to leave. Familiar music calls
you back to the bathroom. That creepy African music that seems to be
provoked by the mask. You draw back the curtain to the bathtub. . .
You run from the bathroom with something following you. Its bald head is
malformed with a stretched out maw and jug ears. Rags hang from its gaunt
body. In the brief seconds you can stand to look at it before horror
overtakes you you can tell that it is clothed and vaguely human. It chases
you down the hallway. You turn to watch its progress and fall backwards
over the balcony.
Landing on your back you look straight up to see the thing leap over the
side of the rail and land in front of you just as the front door opens. A
mysterious old man calls the thing, "Robin," and says something about
wanting to see him again. The two embrace just as you make your escape.
TYING THE WHOLE STORY TOGETHER - MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!!!
From what I can tell, James Blackwood stole this horrible mask from the
Dhalmaar, a lost African tribe, because he was drawn to it. It wasn't until
later and after much research that he began to understand the Dhalmaar's
bizarre and vicious customs. The Dhalmaar were under the control of a
horrible and vicious god. They found a way to imprison it into the mask and
kept him there by offering him sacrifices of themselves. The Dhalmaar
destroyed neighboring villages utterly and completely to prevent anyone from
finding the mask and releasing the god and the evil that had been kept at
bay for generations. The Dhalmaar were so intent on keeping the god a
secret wholly unto themselves that they inbred and kept their numbers small.
They only sacrificed themselves.
Blackwood witnessed one such sacrifice and thought it horribly barbaric, but
still stole the mask. He brought it back with him to Blackwood Manor, but
could feel the evil emanating from it. He shut it up in a storeroom and
boarded and blocked the doorway leading to it hoping to forget about it.
His wife, Catherine Blackwood, got pregnant and was prescribed thalidomide,
presumably for morning sickness. Because nobody knew the disastrous side
effects at the time, when she gave birth to a deformed and demented child,
James Blackwood blamed it on the evil spirit that was now cursing his
family.
Robin, the child, had a nursery on the second floor with toys and a crib,
but didn't live there for very long, apparently, as this is the only
furniture you find in the room. His friend, Dr. Christopher Milton,
declared the child dead within a few days of birth and no one in the town of
Rothbury was any wiser.
Robin was probably showing violent tendencies as he approached toddler age.
At what point he was put into the dungeon, I couldn't be sure, but it was
definitely after he attacked his mother and ripped out her throat. James
Blackwood's reputation was nearly ruined when the maid of the house, Eva
Martiani, accused him of burying the body of Catherine Blackwood. She took
a picture of Blackwood digging a hole with what appeared to be a body next
to him. She told the police that she saw a wound on Catherine Blackwood's
neck that looked like it had been torn.
Despite Milton's efforts, the town buzzed with gossip and rumors. It took
the combined efforts of Blackwood and Milton to keep the police at bay so
they could not even conduct a proper investigation on the grounds or even
recover Catherine's body. In any event, before Blackwood could be brought to
justice, he died at the age of 56 of a heart attack.
Blackwood's death was faked by Milton. Milton stayed in the house for years
afterwards, presumably taking care of Robin. His diary alludes to him
losing track of time and being haunted constantly by the sounds of African
drums and scratching. He disappeared one day and no one knows what happened
to him, although because of the body you find in the crypt it's most
probable that James Blackwood interred his friend in his own family's crypt
under his name.
I can only speculate what happened after the documented events.
James found a way to reverse the curse, but was stopped by his wife's death
before he could complete the ritual. After he disappeared and Milton died,
the house appeared abandoned for all intents and purposes. Jerry's
unscrupulous business practices obtained the house under the pretense of it
being abandoned, but very much illegally, it turns out, as within three days
of Michael moving in, the police are ready to vacate him by force.
Robin sustains his life in the dungeon with leaking pipes providing water
and the rat skeletons proof of food. Years after Michael discovers him and
locks him back up, he has managed to scratch a small hole to the surface,
but does not attempt to escape through it. He chooses to stay in his lair
even after vandals have torn the door to his prison off of its hinges. He
has managed to silence a few of them, it seems, as outside of his little
hole there are articles belonging to the chapel that look as though they
were dropped in quite a hurry, but nobody has reported anyone or anything at
Blackwood Manor.
Robin does escape to the upper level of the house where it seems the mask
calls him to the bathroom. Once he sees the reporter, he gives chase until
he falls upon him on the ground floor and is stopped by his father, James
Blackwood. James says something about needing to see his son one last time,
probably because the house is being demolished in two weeks, but that's all
the dialogue you catch before escaping.
I would gladly welcome any further insight into the plot synopsis as I may
have gotten the dates of events a little muddled or missed an important
document. Please e-mail me at vixenwench@comcast.net and have something
pertinent to the game in the subject line.
