Waxworks: Complete Game Manual WAXWORKS TABLE OF CONTENTS Warning: Danger Ahead ...................... 1 lust the Basics ............................ 5 How Do I Move Around? .................... 5 What's All This Stuff? ................... 7 What Do I Do With The Stuff? ............. 7 Main Screen ................................ 8 Exhibit Window ........................... 9 Who am 1?................................. 9 Where am 1? .............................. 9 How am I Doing? .......................... 9 Display Box............................... 10 Text Box ................................. 10 Activity Icons ........................... 10 Object Actions ........................... 11 I Need a Break (Pause) ................... 11 Get Me Out of Here (Quit) ................ 12 Things Look Grim ISave and Restore) ...... 12 Interacting With The Inhabitants ........... 13 Fighting For Your Life ................... 13 What to Do With a Dead Body .............. 15 Let's Talk................................ 15 Help Me, Uncle Boris ....................... 15 WARNING: DANGER AHEAD Still dazed from the strange and terrifying events of the past week, you pause at the cold, forbidding entrance to Uncle Boris' eerie stone mansion. Inside awaits the Waxworks You really don't want to be here. You want to turn on your heel and flee this vile, revolting place, never to return But you can't. You must master your fears and go on. Remember that only you can free your possessed twin Alex from the dreaded curse of Ixona and save the world from the diabolical forces of evil he is preparing to unleash. You must face the horrors that await you in the Waxworks. And you must face them alone. Lifting the curse of Ixona and saving Alex will not be easy. You'l] need extraordinary skill and cunning to avoid the flesh-rending traps and solve the mind-perplexing puzzles that await you. You'll need heroic courage and superhuman strength to face the ruthless fiends that lurk within the bowels of the perilous Waxworks. Take heart. You'll have the benevolent spirit of Uncle Boris to guide you if you falter. The forbidding doors slowly open with a low mournful wail. Your flesh crawls as the faint smell of the musty old wax museum pervades the air around you. You find yourself staring into the lifeless eyes of a huge, creepy apparition in a butler's suit. He escorts you through the halls leading to the exhibits. The corridors appear harmless but you stil] feel uneasy. Things are not as they appear. There are four dangerous, challenging quests to master and survive before you can save Alex. You will journey to the mysterious land of the Pharaohs to explore the Great Pyramid and rescue a beautiful princess. You will have to tread the dark menacing streets of 1888 London to confront the murder- ous lack the Ripper and foil his malevo]ent plot. You will also be required to descend into the treacherous iron mines to battle a huge mutant plant with an insatiable appetite for human flesh. And you must enter an unworldly graveyard to confront and vanquish the evil Necromancer and the rotting, mindless horde of zombies who do his bidding. The time has come for you to enter the exhibits and face your destiny. Chances a,re you won't survive. You'll probably be horribly tortured and gruesomely mutilated, before this is over. You may even lose your life. We wish you luck. You will need it. JUST THE BASICS Your ult'imate quest is to discover the secret of the Waxworks and lift the curse of Ixona that plagues your family. Try to ignore the gnawing fear in your gut, the feeling of impending disaster that threatens to overwhelm you. The ghastly exhibits inside hold the key to your fate. You have to explore the intricate passages, alleys, and tunnels that make up the Waxworks. Be warned that once you enter an exhibit, the only way out is to solve the puzzle, win a terrible battle, or die a horrible death. When you complete an exhibit, you will be transported back into your Uncle Boris' wax museum, ready for your next adventure. How Do I Move Around? It's time for you to take action. You can't lift the curse if you're just standing there. Start by checking the directions you can go with the Direction Arrows. If you prefer to check direction with a compass, position the pointer over the Compass icon in the right corner of your screen and click. The Direction Arrows change to a Compass (Fig. 11. Possible directions are highlighted. The top of the Direction Arrow display or the Compass represents the direction you are facing. Use any of the following methods to move: Press the arrow key on your keyboard that corresponds to the direction you want to move; ù or move the pointer to the edge of the Exhibit Window toward the direction you want to move in. When the pointer changes to a direction pointer, click (Fig. 2); ù or using the Direction Arrows or Compass, position the pointer on the direction you want to move in and click. If you want to turn around to see what''s coming or where you've been, click on the center of the Direction Arrows or Compass. This turns you around 180 degrees without affecting your position. As you progress through an exhibit, you may find you can go up or down to other levels. At that point, the up or down arrow will light up. Caution: Its not a good idea to stay in one place too long. Beings hungry for your blood can come up from behind, stun. and eventually slaughter you if you aren't paying attention. If you see stars, you better make a quick 180 degree turn and see who's beating on your head. Then you can pause and think about what all this means. For details. see Interacting with the Inhabitants What's All This Stum Each exhibit contains lots of objects you can look at, pick up, and manipu- late. Plaques, papers, and other objects may have something for you to read. You can use some objects/ like swords and knives, to perform actions. An object may contain other objects. Some objects have a hidden purpose, so you may have to examine things more than once and spend some time to thoroughly evaluate what they do. Even mutilated bodies may hold some secret, so don't be too squeamish about rifling their pockets. To look at something, move the pointer over an object. A brief description appears in the Text Box. Click once and the Object Actions appear on the right side of your screen. Object Actions tell you what you can do with the object and allow you to examine objects in greater detail. You can EXAMINE the ob ject by clicking on it again. Extra information is shown in the Display Box (Fig. 33. Sometimes when you click on something, like a large object, corpse, or in jured inhabitant, the Exhibit Screen shows a close-up of the item you clicked. You can tell it's a close-up because a large R appears in the right corner. When you are done examining and performing other actions within the object, position the pointer over the R (return and click. The Exhibit Screen returns to normal view What Do I Do With The Stuff? You can take almost anything you can touch with your pointer, except large, heavy objects, things fixed in place, and decomposing corpses. Some of the stuff is useful, some is not. For instance, you might want to grab a weapon at your earliest opportunity, in case something hungry for fresh meat comes your way. Some objects combine with other objects to form a third, more useful object. Other times, you may try to use one object on another object to see if anything interesting happens. The bottom line: ob jects are not always as they seem at first glance. Tip: If you can't find what you need, you may have to combine items. What Do I Do With The Stuff? (continued) Before you can do something with an object, you must possess it. There are several ways to do this. One way: Move the pointer over the Hand icon and click. The pointer changes to a hand. Move the hand over an object and click. The object is added to your inventory. Another way: Move the pointer over an ob ject and click. Move the pointer over the Hand icon and click. The object is added to your inventory. Yet another way: Move the pointer over an object. While holding down the left mouse button drag the object into the Display Box. The object is added to your inventory. The Display Box shows objects you have taken and added to your inven- tory (Fig. 3). When you have more stuff than fits in the Display Box, use the arrows that appear on the right side of the Display Box to move the display up and down. Exhibit Window This is where all the action takes place. Each time you move, the Exhibit Window shows your new location. Use it to watch for creepy inhabitants who might walk right up to you and start hacking away. Use it to find objects you'll need to solve the mysteries that await you. Use it to play Waxworks. Who am l? When you step into an exhibit, you become an inhabitant of the exhibit, a character in the time period you have stepped into. The Character Box in the top left corner of your screen shows who you are (Fig. 3). Where am l? That's a good question. When you're running around dark alleys and twisting corridors, things can get pretty confusing. You may want to take some extra time and create a map of each exhibit as you go along. How am I Doing? The Status Line across the bottom shows you the state of your current character (Fig. 3). It shows the following four very important pieces of information: HP Hit Points: Goes up with your level. (;oes down when you are under attack from some nasty inhabitant. If HP reaches zero, you're dead and it's not a pretty sight. Uncle Boris may be able to help you increase your HP if you are in jured, and have the items he needs. LEV Level: Goes up as you gain experience; other powers increase allowing you to gain more HP and fight fiercer, scarier opponents. EXP Experience: Goes up as you explore the exhibits, solve puzzles, and kill things. As EXP reaches a certain point, your level goes up. PSY Psychic Energy: Reflects how much psychic energy you have to contact your Uncle Boris using the Crystal Ball Decreases when you get hints, information about the game, or healing from Uncle Boris. Displag Box Shows critical information about exhibits, objects, and inhabitants you encounter during your quest Fig. 3). It allows you to: Look at what you~ve collected Find out more about an object Receive messages about your progress Talk to the inhabitants Text Box Displays a brief description of the object on which the pointer is positioned. Activity icons let you manipulate objects in Waxworks. To animate a par- ticular icon, move the pointer over it and click (Fig. 4). Compass Icon To toggle between the Direction Arrow and Compass Indicator (located on the left side of the screen), move the pointer over the Compass icon and click. Hand Icon Picks up and moves objects. The pointer changes to a hand. Position the hand over an object and click. The object is added to your inventory Crystal Ball Icon Contacts Uncle Boris. Uncle Boris guides you on your journey by providing hints, information about your objective in each exhibit, and healing. Using the Crystal Ball will cost you Psychic Energy. Inventory Icon Returns the inventory display to the Display Box. Use after a message, when searching a large object, or any other activity which causes your inventory to disappear from the Display Box. Axe Icon Gets your weapon ready for use. Displays all weapons from your inventory that you can use to fight. See Fighting For Your Life for details. Sword Icon Use the sword icon to engage in a fight. The pointer changes to a sword. See Fighting For Your Life for details. Object Actions Object Actions appear on the right side of the screen (Fig. 3). They display what you can do with an object. They appear when you move the pointer over an object and click. Some common Ob ject Actions are EXAMINE, USE, OPEN, CLOSE, LOOK IN, and DROP. Move the pointer over the action you want and click. I Need a Break (Pause) At any time, you can take a break and think about the latest life-threatening problem you've encountered. Iust move the pointer over the ZZZ icon IFig. 3) and click. The game pauses. When you are ready to continue, click on CONTINUE or press any key. Get Me Out of Here (Quit) You can leave the Waxworks at anytime. To do this, move the pointer over the Disk icon ( Fig. 3) and click. Move the pointer over the Quit option and click. If you change your mind, click on any blank area within the Quit box or click on the word NO. Note: Considering saving your position before you quit. Then the next time you play Waxworks, you can start from where you left off. Things Look Grim (Save and Restore) Death can come swiftly and painfully in Waxworks. When you face a vicious foe, or have completed some complicated series of actions, you'll probably want to save your position. 1 Move the pointer over the Disk icon (Fig. 3) and click. 2 Move the pointer over the Save option and click. 3 Enter the name (up to eight characters) for the position you want to save. Pick a name that wil] later help you remember what the position represents. Press Enter to save the game. Note: Any previous saved-positions appear on your screen. You can update a previously-saved position with your current position. To do this, move the pointer over the name of the previously saved position and double click. After you have saved your position, you can return to it at any time. To Restore a Previously Saved Game: 1 Move the pointer over the Disk icon (Fig. 3) and click. 2 Move the pointer over the Restore option and click. 3 Move the pointer over the position name you want to restore and click. To return to the game without saving or restoring a position, move the pointer over the word EXIT and click. Note: If you have more than 26 saved games, Waxworks will create a second page of saved games. To retrieve a game from the second page, position the pointer over the word MORE and click. The select the position restore and click. INTERACTING WITH THE INHABITANTS You are going to encounter many strange inhabitants while you are wander- ing around the exhibits. When you see someone, you can: Fight them; the most common form of interaction in Waxworks Search them; for interesting ob jects, if they are dead Talk to them; ask questions to obtain useful bits of information Fighting For Your Life Trying to figure out when to fight and when to talk? If you're confronted by a monster or a guard, chances are your opponent won't want to talk. He may want to chop off your head, or cut out your heart, but it's unlikely he'll have chit-chat in mind. Which means you're going to have to fight--a lot. Be on the lookout for effective weapons, such as axes,.spears, and swords. You may even have to make do with an object like a shovel until you can find or make something better. After you've picked up a weapon, you need to ready it for fighting. To do this, position the pointer over the Axe icon and click. All available weap- ons in your inventory appear in the Display Box. Positjon the pointer over the weapon you want to use and click. Then, move the pointer over the Object Actions labelled USE and click. As soon as you see an opponent, click on the Sword icon. The Sword icon activates whatever weapon you've selected and prepares you for fighting. If you haven't selected a weapon, you'll be fighting these unruly inhabitants with your bare fists. Not a good idea. You might want to run away and find a weapon. However, some opponents will chase you around, forcing you to fight them eventually. Tip: Seeing stars? Someone's behind you knocking on your head. Fighting For Your Life (continued) When you are ready to fight, your pointer becomes a sword. Now you can thrust or slash, hacking away at your opponent until one of you dies. Where you position the pointer on the screen determines whether you thrust or slash and the body part you attack. For example, when you position your weapon in the upper left corner of the Exhibit Window and click, the weapon slashes from the top left to the lower right, making a crosscut on your opponent's body (Fig. 5). Also, the body part you click on can make a big difference in a fight--a well-placed, quick blow may remove an enemy's arm or some other offending appendage. Blood gushes from your opponent when you score a hit. Of course, blood gushes from your wounds when he hits you But spurting blood isn't the only indication of what's going on. The boxes on the left and right bottom of your screen become active when you engage an enemy (Fig. 6). They tell you about the damage per swing. The gruesome monster on the right shows the damage that you take when an enemy strikes you. The heroic character on the left shows the damage you cause when you strike him. Hit points (HP) go down each time you are hit. This continues until you kill your opponent, run away, or your hit points reach zero and you die. By the way, fighting is to the death. What to Do With a Dead Body There are going to be lots of dead bodies Iying around, some killed by other inhabitants, some of your own making. You can search any corpse you encounter and take whatever is on the body. When you fight a foe, you share your position with him. When you kill him, he falls at your feet, disappearing from view. To see the body, you have to move away from the position you share with the corpse. Take a step for- ward, then turn around 180 degrees. Now that you can see the body, you can search it. When you want to search a body, position the pointer over it and click. Select the SEARCH option from the Object Actions and click. You better hope he's really dead. Let's Talk Not all inhabitants are out for your blood. Some may provide you with useful information. Others may follow you around and help instead of bludgeoning you into unconsciousness. However, it not always going to be real obvious who's who. If you think one of the inhabitants wants to get chatty, position your pointer on the inhabitant and click. If he's interested in talking, a conversa- tion appears in the Display Box. If not, he'll probably take a swing at you. When you're talking with an inhabitant, you may be given a series of questions or answers to select from. Position the pointer over the question or answer you wish to communicate and click. HELP ME, UNCLE BORIS Dying a horrible death doesn't stop someone like your Uncle Boris. He's around to provide you with advice and assistance just as if he were alive. To call him, just position the pointer over the Crystal Ball and click. You can ask Uncle Boris for three kinds of help: Information; only Uncle Boris knows what he had in mind when he created these exhibits. He is more than willing to communicate this information to you as you need it. HELP ME, UNCLE BORIS (continued) Hints; if you're having trouble solving some aspect of the : Waxworks, Uncle Boris can share his vast knowledge with you. He can help you solve complex puzzles and face challenging situations. Healing; your abi]ity to obtain special powers usually depends on you having some object in your possession and having achieved a specific level. Asking for help costs Psychic Energy. The amount of energy depends on the kind of help you request. Note: Talking with Uncle Boris is just like talking with any other inhabitant of the Waxworks. The Curse of the Twins Your life changed the day Uncle Boris was buried. The omens were bad right from the start of that cold, wet morning. You'd been up all night on a red-eye flight, dreading this your first visit back to your birthplace since your twin brother Alex had disappeared so many years ago. You'd been a teenager the day Alex and you had gone off to explore one of the myriad dank tunnels that honey-combed the earth under Vista Forge, the coastal mining community where you were born. A cloud of bats had suddenly swarmed out of a side shaft, knocking the flashlight out of your hand. When you finally found the light and turned it back on, Alex was gone. A week-long search by the police and fifty volunteers had failed to find your brother. He had simply vanished, as if the earth had swallowed him whole. Yet, deep in your heart, you had never been able to accept Alex's death. Like all identical twins, there was an invisible chord between you and your brother, a bond formed in the womb that acted as a conduit of feelings and emotions between you. Growing up, you'd felt the pain whenever Alex hurt him- self, and the paralyzing fear the time he locked himself in an old refrigerator. That link between you hadn't been broken, and sometimes in bed at night you would smell a musty odor, or taste something strange in your mouth, and you wondered...you wondered. There was another odd physical manifestation you were convinced was somehow linked to Alex. Often, just before you drifted off to sleep, you would suddenly have a very strong mental image of your brother and at that moment your toes would curl down under toward your heels so violently that your feet still hurt in the morning. The streets were slick and puddled from the rain as you drove your rented car away from the airport. You glanced at your watch and realized you'd be late for the service at the cemetery. Memories flooded back as you drove through town. It seemed like nothing in Vista Forge had changed; same houses, same storefronts, same dispirited looks on the faces of the people on the sidewalks. Even the trees and bushes looked like they hadn't grown an inch since you'd left. Nearing the storm lashed coast, you caught sight of Uncle Boris' eerie stone mansion set on a cliff overlooking the pounding surf. The house had been built over a yawning sea cave and you remembered the rumors that the wave-swept cavity was connected to the mine tunnels further inland. Even from a distance, the house had a weird look about it, a spooky aura that reflected the man who'd owned it. Uncle Boris had always been strange. He had a macabre fascination with everything evil, from torture devices to mass murderers. So obsessed was he with the demoniac netherworld that he d converted his lonely home into a Waxworks filled with witches, monsters and evil beings. Not long after Uncle Boris began his Waxworks, word began to spread through Vista Forge of horrible screams coming from the stone house, and fishermen spreading their nets offshore swore they saw monstrous shapes passing the lighted windows at night Everyone in the community gave the Waxworks a wide berth, and after one visit not even your parents would go near the ghoulish mansion. Once, you and Alex had played hookey from,school and a delighted Uncle Boris had given you a tour of the creepy chambers. You had shuddered at the sight of Jack the Ripper and the Egyptian mummy and other fiendish exhibits. Yet Alex had been both fascinated and fearless, and almost every week after that he would sneak over to the Waxworks and spend hours alone with Uncle Boris' collection of monsters After Alex disappeared, your parents were afraid the tunnels under Vista Forge would claim you too. They sold their house, vowing never to return, and the three of you moved far away. By the time you got to the cemetery, the rain was coming down in cold, sLanting sheets, running in rivulets between the gravestones. You were the last one to arrive, and the little knot of people at the grave site threw you accusing looks, obviously put out you'd kept them waiting in the downpour. There was no other family member there to say goodbye to Uncle Boris, only two unshaven grave diggers in oilcloth rain-slickers and a stoop shouldered minister who continu- ously coughed deep in his chest and wiped his dripping nose with a sopping, threadbare handkerchief. The pasty-faced minister droned through a brief prayer and had hardly said Amen before the grave diggers were pulling out the planks holding the casket over the grave. The wet ropes slipped quickly through their hands as they lowered the coffin into the ground. Suddenly a blinding flash stabbed down from the sky and a lightning bolt split open an old oak tree only yards up the slope. Startled witless, the grave diggers let loose the ropes and Uncle Boris' coffin plunged into the rectangular pit. As the coffin hit bottom, a tremendous clap of thunder shook the graveyard, echoing madly off the rain-streaked walls of the surrounding mausoleums. Before the echo of the thunder died away a nauseous slurping sound burst from the - grave, as if the water in a huge sink were being sucked down a tunnel-sized drain. The sickening sound grew louder and louder, and now you could feel the ground trembling beneath your feet. The grave diggers stared down into the hole in disbelief, their faces masks of revulsion and fear. Then they turned and ran, sliding and falling as they disappeared into the pelting rain. The minister stood there dumbfounded, his mouth open as you stepped carefully up to the side of the grave and peered down at the coffin. Only there wasn't any coffin. The bottom of the pit was empty Where the rectangular walls ended, a funnel shaped '' hole descended down into a black void. Like Alex, Uncle Boris had been swallowed up by the earth. Then, you couldn't be sure, but you thought you saw movement far below. The next moment there was a face in the dark gloom. Your face! For an instant you thought you were going mad. Was there a mirror down there in the muddy pit? Then y~3ur throat constricted and you couldn't breath as you realized you weren't seeing a reflection of your face but a replica. "Alex!" you screamed, an instant before the face vanished again. Confused and frightened now, you staggered back away from the grave. The minister had disappeared. Drenched to the skin, your head splitting, you trudged off through the rain toward the cemetery office. When you got there the director was waiting, and the pale faced grave diggers were throwing back shots of whiskey in the corner. The bald, black-suited director wrung his bony hands as he apologized for the terrible incident. He knew this would happen some day, he said, wetting his dry lips, for like most of the Vista Forge the ground beneath the cemetery was a labyrinth of mine tunnels and shafts. A cave-in was inevitable. He promised to send some men down into the grave pit as soon as the rain stopped. They'd rebury Uncle Boris at the cemetery's expense. The explanation seemed logical, but still the grotesque incident had unnerved you. When you mumbled that you'd seen a face in the grave, a face like yours, the director had shrugged and said you'd undoubtedly seen your own face reflected back by a puddle down below. You clung to his explanation. A water reflection, of course, why hadn't you thought of that. That had to be it. By the time you reached the motel where you'd reserved a room, you weren't sure what had happened. All you knew was that you wanted out of Vista Forge. Fast. Your first impulse was to fly home immediately. But then, after a fitful hour of indecision, you decided you'd stay over for the night. You were scheduled to attend a reading of Uncle Boris' will at an attorney's office the next morning, and in his last letter the eccentric old gentleman had written that you were to inherit his entire estate. Nightmares plagued your sleep that night, terrible visions of the animated corpses of Alex and Uncle Boris wandering the perpetually dark tunnels below Vista Forge, their putrefying flesh scaling off their faces in rancid slabs. At 3 a.m. you gave up on sleep and lay there in your hotel bed thinking, remembering. You recalled Uncle Boris' one and only visit to your home several years after you'd moved away from Vista Forge. When Uncle Boris walked in the door that day long ago, he d stared at you for several long moments without saying a word. Then, when your parents were both off in the kitchen, he'd suddenly turned and told you how much you looked like Alex. The remark had unnerved you for Alex was dead, had been for years by then. Shortly afterwards, you'd all sat down to dinner. The talk had gradually shifted to the family history. Your ancestors on your mother's side had come from a tiny village in Walachia, a Rumanian province deep in the Transylvanian Alps. It was a region where werewolves and vampires were said to roam the countryside on moonless nights, and peasants feared nothing more than an evil curse. Your mother had tried to shift the conversation, but Uncle Boris insisted on telling of the legend of Ixona, a dark family secret for centuries past. During the barbarous days of the Middle Ages, he said, one of your ancestors had caught an old witch named Ixona stealing chickens from his farm. As punish- ment, he had cut off the screaming hag's right hand with an ax. Lying in the dirt of the farmyard, the ragged crone had drawn a crystal ball from beneath her blood-caked cloak and set it in the dust before her. "In every family there is dormant evil waiting to be awakened," she'd said in an agonized voice. "For spilling my blood, I shall call forth an ancient curse to poison yours." Your ancestor had brought up his ax to finish off the hag, but his pregnant wife had stayed his arm, terrified that killing the crone would rain evil down upon both of them. Her face twisted in agony, the witch had stared into the murky depths of the glass globe before her. "Two thousand years ago one of your Egyptian ancestors had twin boys. One was good, but the other was cursed by an evil pharaoh and turned into a monster." The witch had struggled to her feet, hate raging in her bloodshot eyes as she clutched the crystal ball against her. "I call upon the curse of the Pharaoh to return. Once more, in every generation in which your family bears twins, one shall belong to Beelzebub." The farmer's wife screamed in fright for the village midwife had told her she would have twins. Your ancestor had tried to smash the crystal ball with his ax but the witch had whirled out of reach and quickly fled to the safety of the nearby dark woods. Soon afterward the farmer's wife gave birth to twin sons. One, Druec, grew up to be a decent hardworking farmer, but the other, Vladimir, was corrupt and lusted after money and power. As the witch's evil curse took hold of him, it was said, his feet became cloven and he was forced to wear special boots to walk Gathering the miscreants of the province, Vladimir pillaged neighboring villages, and gradually gathered an army of cruel mercenaries around him. In 1448 he seized the throne of Walachia and instituted a reign of terror as Vlad IV. One of his first acts as prince was to send out his army to find the old witch who had cursed his family. She was thrown into the dungeon and repeatedly tortured, but she refused to lift the curse. Infuriated, Vlad had her impaled on a stake driven into the bottom of a swamp outside his walls. In the two days it took the old hag to die, the bog's snakes and snapping turtles stripped the living flesh from her body bite by small bite. In the years that followed, Vlad had his enemies in Walachia tortured to death, and then ordered their bodies impaled on stakes at the borders of his kingdom. History was to know him as Vlad the Impaler, one of the bloodiest tyrants ever to rule on the earth. The curse of Ixona persisted down through the centuries and whenever twins were born into your family one took to evil ways. It was said one twin was the head torturer during the Spanish Inquisition, another was rumored to be the Marquis de Sade and a female twin was burned at the stake during the Salem witch trials. When Uncle Boris finished his story, your mother looked at you and paled, for, though Alex was gone, you too were a twin. Uncle Boris saw her look and reached across the table to pat her hand reassuringly. She wasn't to worry, he'd said, for he'd found the way to finally lift Ixona's curse from the family. Uncle Boris leaned back in his chair and went on. As they all knew, he had built a Waxworks with recreations of some of history's most fiendish murderers and monsters. He had purposely surrounded himself with these demonic characters for he was convinced that by immersing himself totally in evil he could come to understand the sinister forces loose on earth, and thus know better how to lift Ixona's curse. And it had worked. One night, staring at the wax face of Vlad the Impaler, he'd had a vision of a dark bog pocked with broken masonry blocks. He'd flown to Walachia and within days had located the swamp he'd dreamt of close beside the north wall of the ruined castle. He'd hired workmen to drain the marsh and when the water receded there, sticking out of the muddy bottom, was the skeleton of a woman impaled on an oak stake. An iron box was hung around her neck with a chain, and in the box was the crystal ball Ixona had used to curse the family 600 years before. Uncle Boris explained that he had only begun to under- stand the powers of the ancient glass sphere. It would take him years, but eventually, he promised, he would find a way to lift Ixona's curse. That family dinner was the last time you'd seen Uncle Boris alive. At 7 a.m. the phone rang. It was the cemetery director. As soon as it was light that morning he'd sent men down into the grave to retrieve Uncle Boris' body. Just as he'd suspected, there was a mine tunnel under the grave site. They found the casket in the dark passage. The director hesitated. He didn't know quite how to tell you this, but the coffin had been smashed open. The body was gone. He had no explanation. Without a word, you hung up the phone, feeling a sudden compulsion to go down into the tunnels yourself. You would go in the same entrance you and Alex had used the day he'd disappeared years before. You bought a lantern at the local hardware store and forty- five minutes later you entered the old mine. You could tell by the thick spider webs and undisturbed dust that no one had been in there in years. The light soon faded, along with the hum of traffic from the nearby interstate, The only sound now was the dripping of water leaking in from yesterday's rain and the whistling of the wind through the narrow passages. Several minutes later you reached the spot where Alex had disappeared. All of a sudden, you could feel his presence, like warm breath on the back of your neck. As you swung the light around to search the gloom, the beam revealed what looked like a pile of dry sticks protruding from the dust of the tunnel floor. You knelt to pick one up and realized with a start that these weren't sticks but bones. Bat bones! How strange, you thought, that so many bats would die in exactly the same spot. Then something about one of the bones made you look more closely. Your heart began to beat wildly. There were teeth marks on the bone. Human teeth marks! There was another heap of bat bones nearby. And most of them, you could see, showed clear signs that someone had butchered and eaten the animals. Suddenly your eye caught something glistening beneath a thin layer of dust. You bent and brushed away the powder, then yanked back your hand in horror. It was a fresh fishhead, the remains of one of the saltwater fish that found their way into the tunnels from the distant sea cave. A sickly sweat coursed from your pores as you turned quickly for the entrance, looking back over your shoulder every few paces. Halfway back, a side tunnel led off to the right and you noticed fresh tracks in the dust. They hadn't been there when you came in, you were sure of that. You swept the light over the tracks and froze. They were the imprints of cloven feet! You knew now. Someone-- something--was living in the tunnel, eating bats and fish to survive. You ran as fast as you could back down the tunnel and out into the light. On the way to the lawyer's office, you couldn't shake the feeling of horror that gripped you. Who could be living in the tunnels? Who but...Alex. The lawyer looked the part, a tall gray haired man in a pin- striped suit surrounded by lawbooks. Being the executor of Uncle Boris' estate would net him only a small fee and he looked profoundly bored. You were the sole heir, the attorney said, something you already knew, and Uncle Boris had left you all his holdings. There was a small bank account, a ten year old Dodge, and, of course, the Waxworks. Finally, there was a sealed envelope from your uncle that contained a letter and the keys to his eerie mansion. The attomey volunteered to handle the sale of the Wax- works, which he assumed you'd want to dispose of as soon as possible. It was an unsavory place, the lawyer said, though he'd never been inside. The stories about the Waxworks, he added, kept most people from visiting the chilling mansion. If it were up to him, he'd tear the place down and sell the land to developers. You thanked the attorney and left, the envelope from Uncle Boris in your coat pocket. Back at the hotel, you decided to read the letter later and tossed it on the dresser. You called the airline and reserved a seat on the six o'clock plane, then changed into a coat and tie for the trip home. As you were knotting your tie in the mirror, your eye strayed to the envelope and curiosity got the better of you. Sitting down on the bed, you slit the seal, took out the keys to the Waxworks, and then unfolded your uncle's letter. "My Dear Sister's Child," the letter began. "What you will read in these pages will shock you, and you will feel revulsion and horror at what you learn. Yet, I must tell you all, for now that I have gone over to the other side you are the only one on earth who can stop the evil that is to come. "You must know first that your twin brother is alive., all these years he has dwelt in the tunnels beneath Vista Forge, emerging from his dark lair only at night. He was preordained from birth to come under the curse of the ancient witch Ixona and that day he disappeared he was taken by the forces of evil. Now, he belongs to the dark side and does the bidding of Beelzebub. You must neither hate nor blame him, for his will is not his own. "It is still not too late to save your twin, to free his tortured soul from the evil curse that grips and drives him. Yet, do not deceive yourself that his salvation will be easy. He will fight you with the ferocity of Beelzebub himself, and he has terrible powers undreamed of by sane minds. "You see, your brother has been given dominion over the demons of the past. His unholy mission is to use his nefarious powers to resurrect the evil beings that have tortured and murdered through history. Unless you stop him, innocent men, women and children will fall prey to these fiends and monsters, and the entire world will inexorably come under the control of his zombie slaves. "I will help you all I can, appearing to you from the swirling mists within Ixona's crystal ball. You must waste no time. Go to the Waxworks at once. But go prepared for a journey through the supernatural, a trip back through time. You will be surrounded by evil, beset by fiends, yet you must not falter. Your brother's salvation and the fate of the world is now in your hands. Uncle Boris." Slowly you put down the letter, your mind reeling. The suspicion, the feeling you'd had all these years is true. Your twin brother's alive! But in what form? True, he has a face, you saw that in the bottom of the grave, and it was like looking in the mirror. But what about the rest of him. You shudder at the thought of the cloven footprints in the mine tunnel. An overpowering urge to flee comes over you. All you can think of is getting on that plane and leaving Vista Forge and the Waxworks and your cloven-footed brother as far behind you as possible. Yet, you know you can't leave. You've inherited the Waxworks, and with it the terrible mandate handed down to you by Uncle Boris. With dread in your heart, you put on your coat and drive slowly toward the Waxworks. The rain has returned and your heartbeat seems to synchronize with the rhythmic sound of the wiper blades thumping back and forth across the windshield. It's dusk when you reach the Waxworks. As you park your car, a lightning bolt pierces the rapidly darkening sky and the air feels charged with electricity. The clap of thunder that follows is even louder that yesterdays booming storm over the cemetery. As you walk toward the door of the eerie mansion you know Alex is somewhere inside. And with him, his zombie slaves, the most evil cast of murderous monsters ever to walk the face of the earth.