MYST V (End of Ages) – Noloben Island Dome Puzzle Solution (Demo Version) By: Mark Prigoff If you ever played the MYST V Demo game, you would soon find yourself arriving at an island called “Noloben.” In the full version of this game, it actually takes much longer to get to this place, but I played the demo version many times before playing the full version, and the Noloben challenge was a good test of skill in solving a logical and/or decoding scenario. As with previous versions of this game in the MYST, Riven and Exile (or, MYST III) Series, it helps to be patient, observant, take detailed notes, and even draw little diagrams and maps along the way. The game actually suggests keeping a journal, just as the characters did in the game as part of the story line. I find that these type of computer games offer a challenge to those who have the patience for solving a problem, even if it takes a long time to figure out the solution to just one small section of the game, (and the full version has many problems to challenge even the best of role players). As always, the demo version is not complete, thus the solution to Noloben in the demo version ends when you find yourself able to enter the interior of a dome which appears to be located on top of the island’s plateau. The player’s movement through the game is considered to be a “point and click” type of gaming technology, but you can also look up, down and around with a right-click feature. As part of the MYST and Riven “Saga” (or story), once again, you are there to come to the aid, or resolve a problem left behind by Atrus, members of his family, or even civilization. To make the story line just a little more complicated than just solving puzzles, you also are warned about trusting the advice or behavior of certain characters within the story. In the original MYST game, you had to learn about Atrus’s sons and whether to trust them or not. In Riven, you had a trust issue with Atrus’s father, Gehn, and the lure of rescuing Catherine (Atrus’s wife) from Gehn’s prison island, and then freeing the rebels of the Moiety Tribe who were also controlled by Gehn. And so it was with other game sequels. In MYST V, (the demo), you first meet a man, Esher, who appears to be willing to be your guide and narrator in a place called Direbo, an “Age for resting.” He tells you many things and admits that he has tried to help before you, but has regrettably failed in doing so. He also looks a little like Gehn, so your willingness to believe everything he says is a bit shaded by this. He mentions Atrus’s daughter, Yeesha, and advises you not to give your tablet to her. Nevertheless, after his lengthy speech and advice, you enter a magic bubble, touch a pedestal, and off you go to the Island or Age of Noloben. The island is rather quiet and peaceful, and there are only some remains of dwellings from the villagers who once inhabited this refuge. The sun is shining in the sky over a sunlit sea, but it looks like it could rain at any given moment. As you walk along the shore, again you meet up with your host who has more to tell you, and then he vanishes, leaving you completely alone, well, almost. There are other creatures who come into view now and then, including birds, snakes and insects. In previous games, the method of travel and a desired item to have was a linking book. These books actually allowed you to “link” or travel to another land or “age,” simply by placing your hand over a picture of the destination. In this game, the linking method is done through a tablet which you can draw on by using your mouse. You can also draw an icon which serves as a command to those who find it, if you leave the tablet on the ground. Both the tablets and the linking bubbles are part of some strange culture and alien power which is beyond your total understanding. But at least, you know how to use these items to get through the game and achieve certain results. Your host has mentioned to you that if you drop a tablet with a certain instruction on it, and walk away from it, a strange creature (called the Bahro) will look at the tablet and obey your instruction if it is correctly written or drawn (as a symbol). If not, the creature will not use the tablet. In some cases, the

2creature will take the tablet from you (once dropped) but then return it later at some other location in time. Thus, you need not to fear losing the tablet forever. When the tablet is dropped, it glows in a ghostly blue shade to represent its magical powers and thus you can easily find it in the dark, too. As you continue to look around for clues, you find a small structure which has four vases which form an X-like axis to a central stone or hub at the center of them. And if you look up, you see a canopy with four holes cutout to align over these receptacles. On the stone wall behind the table of vases, are various symbols which have been carved into the stone wall. In front of the table, there is a stone pedestal which has a symbol carved onto it. You eventually come to realize that this a symbol for rain (or raindrops), but that it appears upside down to you from your vantage point. Thus, you must carve this symbol onto your tablet in the correct orientation, and then drop the tablet and move away from it. You figure that if you can get the strange creature to magically invoke a rainstorm, then the water will fall through the holes in the canopy overhead, thus filling the four vessels on the table. In doing this, these four vessels will act like mirrors and reflect only certain symbols which are carved on the stone wall behind this structure. The symbol you draw are three circles in a row (representing three raindrops) and each has a vertical line rising from each, with the central one being a little taller than the other two lines. The symbol for rain (as drawn on the tablet) looks like this: Of course, all goes as planned. The Bahro obeyed your command from the tablet and the rain filled up the four vessels on the table. Once the rain had stopped, they now acted like mirrors and reflected one symbol from the wall for each vessel. As you take note of these symbols, you get a notion that you have seen this kind of symbol before. Yes, it does form an “X” or a cross, but it also reminds you of the four basic directions or points of a compass, North, East, South and West. And certainly, the symbols must mean something logically. Could they be some order of numbers or letters? Perhaps, if you have played any of the other games in this series, you remember that part of your “training” was to learn the D’ni language and numbering system, which is based on the number 5. The number 5 had a significance in the game of Riven as it was also a five-sided symbol which appeared throughout the game. There was also five islands in that game, (Temple, Jungle, Plateau, Paper and Prison Islands). But here, we have only four numbers which correspond to the four cups or vessels. Could the number system be based on the number 4 on this island? But wait, what about that stone in the middle? Add that to the equation, and you still have five items which are somehow linked together as represented by the spokes which connect the four vessels to the central hub or stone. Thus, we have four codes or numbers which must somehow “control the center.” However, at this point, we still don’t understand the complete significance of these symbols, nor the order in which they appear in light of our present view of them. But at face value, they seem to be some sort of numerical system as they are similar to cross-hatching or tallying. (See the next sketch for how they appeared.)

3 Now, if these are tally marks which combine with circles as part of the tallying process, we then might later learn how the complete numbering system works if we could just find more of these symbols in significant order. But for now, we might assume that the order of these numbers or symbols might be somewhat important, so in this case, I am going to number them clockwise from the upper left as symbol number 1, 2, 3 and 4. In Riven, the base-five numbering system of the D’ni language worked as a vertical line within a square meant “one.” The square around that vertical line was really just a frame for the vertical, so the square had no numerical significance. But the dwellers on this island are not of the same culture. In fact, based upon looking around, we see that they are somewhat more primitive than the D’ni. Perhaps they worshipped the sun (like many other primitive cultures did), so in their numbering system, the circle (perhaps representing the sun) did have some significance and was not just a place holder for the vertical or horizontal tally marks. Perhaps a circular stone might reflect the power of the sun in its circular design and shape, even if it is not a perfect circle. We have already witnessed the power of a stone tablet. Perhaps the stone in the middle of this map or diagram also has some strange power, too. But we must quickly take note of these images because this island is quite tropical, and the heat will soon evaporate the water in the vessels, thus defeating their mirroring capabilities in reflecting the symbols on the stone wall. And so, I mapped out this configuration on paper and continued to look around the island. I found an entrance to a cave which allowed me to walk through the island bluff to the other coast. I couldn’t walk completely around the island for some reason. But on the other side, I also found another passage way, but it was blocked with a stone wall. On the central part of the shore, on this opposite side of the island, I could walk across the shallow waters to another small island, which had a door which was also blocked or locked in a similar fashion. This door was engraved with a symbolic tree and other symbols which were quite similar to the symbols I had already seen. But as I turn around and look back at the main island, I then saw a large dome which was located on top of the island. It wasn’t perfectly symmetrical in shape. It looked like it had been carved from a larger piece of rock. At the very top of this dome, I also noticed some kind of circular scope or mirror. But how would I get to this? The Bahro doesn’t offer me any clues, nor have I seen any other passage or

4stairway leading to the top of the island. I was then feeling quite alone in this world, with many questions to answer. Perhaps I needed to walk back and look more carefully. There must be a way to reach the top of the main island! I can feel that this is true! But neither the Bahro or Esher are around to help me find out. I must solve this quickly before another rainstorm sets in. I walked back to the main shore and then through the tunnel which lead me to this side of the island. I walked around the shore again, but this time, I noticed a small handle which was hanging from the hilltop. I reached up and pulled the handle, and to my surprise, a rope and wooden ladder opened up and slid down the side of the hill for me to use to climb up to the top. However, I found that I must drop my tablet in order to climb the ladder. When I reached the top of the hill, it was covered with tall grasses, but I could see the large dome directly in front of me. I also saw a smaller stone pillar off to the side. I decided to walk to small pillar first. The pillar had a domed-shaped top portion with various symbols carved onto it. When I touched this piece, I could turn it in either direction, left or right and different symbols appeared as I did this. I also heard some grinding sounds like stones moving against one another when I turned the top. But these symbols do not match the ones I found on the shore. In fact, they were quite different in nature. Even so, perhaps there was some correlation between these symbols. The sun was directly behind me, but it was reflecting off of the great large dome which loomed ahead. I walked up to the large dome and saw that it had all sorts of symbols carved all over it, from bottom to top and all the away around it. However, there were a series of little squares which had just one symbol in each of them. When I touched them, they would open and allow me to look inside. It wasn’t completely dark inside, so there must have been some light coming in from the top of the dome, just as there was some light in the tunnels from shafts in the ceiling leading up to the top surface. Inside, there were some rustic-looking machinery made of wood and other materials, but I also notice some symbols above each interior window which did look like my original tally marks in my notes from the vessels on the shore. I decided to walk around the dome to count the number of windows and I found there were 15 of them. I left the first window open to mark my place and when I reached the 7th window, I opened that one and looked across the dome interior to find that it was directly opposite from the first window I opened. I also noticed three other pillars around the great dome which behaved in a similar fashion to the first one. Eventually, I opened all of the 15 windows so I could look into each one of them. As I continued to look inside, I began to see a pattern in the interior symbols. Yes, these were in a logical order!, and yes, these were also a basic numbering system starting with one vertical line, then two, then a third line crossing the two verticals to make three, two horizontals crossing two verticals to make four, etc., but what was the number 5? A circle by itself. And then the process repeated with a vertical across the circle to be the number 6, two verticals crossing a circle to be 7, and so forth. The number 10 was then two concentric circles, and 11 was another vertical across the two concentric circles. The pattern repeated again up to 15 which was just three concentric circles and no vertical nor horizontal lines. So, now I knew how to count from 1 to 15. Then it dawned on me that this was like a Rosetta stone. A “translator” of one set of symbols into another. What I needed to do is to pair up the number symbols on the interior above each window, with the symbol which shown on the exterior when the window was closed. I guessed it was “map time” before “nap time” again! In this game, “When in doubt, always make a map or diagram!” Well, why not? Isn’t “a picture worth a thousand words?”

5I made a circle on a piece of paper representing the dome, even though the dome was not a perfect circle, but probably more elliptical. I also drew the relative positions of the four columns around the dome. I then took note of the original symbols which were set by these columns and drew them in the center of each column. In that way, I could bring them back to their original position, if needed. Then I marked off where the windows were located around the dome. Since 15 is not an even number, it was a bit difficult to establish the distance between each, or to use the four columns to space them evenly between these windows, so I just approximated their positions by spacing out 15 coins around the large circle of the dome. I used the sunlight to distinguish between the four columns as each cast a shadow in a different direction. But I also numbered these in a clockwise manner, from 1 to 4. Using the existing numbering system on the interior of the dome, I numbered the first window which is closest to the entrance ladder as being number 1. Then numbered accordingly to the left (as this pattern followed on the interior) when viewed by the opposite side of the dome. I would close only one window at a time, taking note of its exterior symbol, then walk around to the other side to see what number was above that closed window on the interior, thus giving me 15 sets or pairs of symbols. So in effect, this dome was acting like a translator, and a decoding device at the same time. I then selected the four new symbols which corresponded to the four numbers I now had learned from the vessels. This gave me the coding to set each column to, accordingly. By turning these stone capstans, I was actually opening four closed doors which originally blocked that passage underground which lead to the center of the dome’s base. I decided to leave all of the windows of the dome open so that I would have ample light inside. I set the codes and then when back down the ladder to the shore. I picked up my tablet which was waiting for me, and went through the passage which lead to the opposite side of the island. I then located the other entrance and proceeded through this time, now that all of the doors were unblocked. When I reached the base of the dome’s inner stairway, I had completed the end game of the demo. Here are my maps and diagram of the dome solution: The layout of the island showing the dome, pillars, ladder, beach and position of the Sun:

6 My hand-drawn diagram of the symbols on the dome and the four vessels and pillars:

Mark Prigoff (See next pages for some screen shots).

7 Bahro reading a dropped tablet next to the linking bubble on the shore of Noloben.

8 A view of the dome at the top of Noloben:

9 My first view of the dome from the cove ladder:

10 Another view of the dome in shade:

11 Interior view of the dome (only seen in the full version of the game):