The Fugitive

The Fugitive
◄Eamon adventure #92►
Author	Don Doumakes
Released	March 1985
Revised	3 November 1988 (DOS) 3 June 1994 (ProDOS)
EAG number	92
EDX number	12-10
EDX set	Best of the Classic Adventures
Native format	Apple DOS 3.3
Files	Eamon 92 - The Fugitive.dsk Eamon 92 - The Fugitive (ProDOS).dsk

The Fugitive is an Eamon adventure written by Don Doumakes.

Premise

From the introduction:

While minding your own business at the bar in the Main Hall, you chance to overhear a conversation between two slightly drunk men at the next table.

It turns out that these two work for Lord H. R. Bottomsmith, a man whose utter lack of scruples is at least as famous as his great wealth. As they talk, you realize they are paid assassins!

You hear one of them say that his boss Lord Bottomsmith has contracted them to kill an Artisan's Guild leader in the nearby town of Hobnail Junction. Just then, one of them looks up. You avert your gaze, but not quickly enough to keep him from noticing your staring.

As you are leaving the hall, someone hits you from behind and knocks you unconscious!

When your vision clears, you find yourself in a cheap hotel room. Beside you lies the dead body of the aforementioned guild leader. His blood is on your favorite weapon.

You realize the assassins have decided to kill two birds with one stone by framing you in the murder they have committed!

The only way to clear your name is to travel to Bottomsmith's castle, find the proof of his murderous conspiracy, and carry it to the local judge, before the soldiers can arrest you. If they find you before you can get the proof to the judge, you'll hang!

The soldiers are coming. You had better get out of here quick!

Walkthrough

Adventure map by Huw Williams

Per the introduction, your mission is to get out of the town of Hobnail Junction without being apprehended, infiltrate Lord Bottomsmith's castle, find evidence of his crime, return to town, and deliver the evidence safely to the judge. The biggest impediments to this are the bands of soldiers that patrol the streets of Hobnail: if at any point you share a location with them, they will immediately arrest you and you'll be executed for the guild leader's murder. Fortunately you can see them coming before they see you, and since the town has no dead ends (every building has two exits) you'll never be cornered if you pay attention to their movements. Lord Bottomsmith's castle and its environs are also patrolled, but unlike the town's soldiers the castle guards can be attacked and dispatched.

This walkthrough gives only the steps necessary to complete your mission and doesn't take you through every room or to every monster or artifact. To find and collect everything, please consult the map.

The town

First exit the hotel room west onto South Main Street. So long as you avoid the patrols you're free to explore the town, which consists of three east-west streets (Armory, Market, and Jeweler), three north-south streets (Iron, Main, and Bronze), and sixteen buildings. The most important location to visit is the general store, located northwest of the intersection of Main and Market streets. Examine the shelves there to find some torches that will be necessary once you reach the castle.

There are various other places of interest in town which you can hit in any order:

• The tavern, located southeast of the intersection of Market and Iron streets. The three armed adventurers you meet there will join your quest to bring Bottomsmith to justice.
• Cavielli Brothers Weapons, on the southeast corner of Armory and Bronze, where you can acquire armaments, a chainmail tunic, and a smoke bomb.
• Vashtar Magic Shoppe, on the southeast corner of Armory and Iron, where you'll find healing potions.
• The jewelry store, on the northwest corner of Bronze and Jeweler. The glass display case holds a valuable necklace, ring, and brooch.
• McLoohan's house, on the northeast corner of Jeweler and Iron.

When you're ready, take Main Street north out of town and follow the road.

The castle

The road leads to Bottomsmith's castle which consists of two connected levels and has two separate entrances. The slightly less dangerous path is to use the main entrance, which you can reach by just following the road north. This walkthrough instead takes you through the side entrance, which involves a little more challenging combat but is more direct. Note that some of the castle's guards can move around and may be encountered in different places.

1. Take the dirt path that branches east off the main road and follow it to a door.
2. Go north through the door into the castle's lower level.
3. Light a torch.
4. Go west and you'll encounter what seems at first glance to be a cave rat. However, once defeated the rat regenerates into a snake, then into a hyena, and finally into a man-bear. Killed, it finally reverts to its natural form as a slimy green mutant.
5. Go north, then east. Dispatch the drooling cave beast.
6. Go north to the intersection, then north again into a side chamber and fight the slime. Examine the room and you'll discover a slip of paper bearing a three-digit code.
7. Go back to the intersection, then follow the hallway east and south to reach the bottom of a secret stairway. Kill the orc guarding it.
8. Climb up and examine the room to discover a peephole that lets you peek through to the tower entrance.
9. Climb up again to reach the top where another peephole gives a view into the tower. Go west into the tower.
10. Climb the tower stairs to the top level (Bottomsmith's office).
11. Take the painting from wall to reveal a safe, then use dial to enter the three digits. Open the safe and collect Bottomsmith's diary, which contains the evidence you need to prove your innocence!

The return

Once you have Bottomsmith's diary, exit the castle and follow the road back south toward town. If you're with the adventurers from the tavern, they'll inform you that the judge's house is on the northeastern corner of the intersection of Main Street and Jeweler Street. Unless you need to divert to avoid patrols, follow Main straight south until you get just beyond the hotel, then go east into the private home and meet the judge. He'll agree to read the diary, and once convinced of your innocence will write you a safe-conduct pass (and issue an arrest warrant for Bottomsmith). You head home knowing justice will be served.

Location

Hobnail Junction may lie somewhere north of Evenhold, given that the road back to the Main Hall leads south out of town. Observing the landscape from the tower of Bottomsmith's castle, the adventure sees its many well-tended fields, suggesting the area may be agricultural.

Trivia

• The Fugitive was a popular 1960s television series about a protagonist (Dr. Richard Kimble) fighting to prove his innocence against a charge of murder.

External links

• EAG Online: Master List
• The Interactive Fiction Database: The Fugitive
• Interactive Fiction Reviews: The Fugitive