Alone Against the Dark Walkthrough Call of Cthulu

 You're probably here because of this reddit link

https://www.reddit.com/r/callofcthulhu/comments/1jif7sv/alone_against_the_dark_walkthrough/

So strangely enough before you even look at my "spoilers" section below (scroll down to "spoilers" in big bold letters)  I encourage you to play through this book not once, but twice, starting with professor Grunewald and again when Professor G inevitably dies with the second investigator, Holt.    

There's a reason they give you four investigators to run through this book is HARD to win there's no doubt about that :) .. as the adventure book states you start out with the first investigator (Prof G), when he dies (the book assumes this is practically inevitable and they're not wrong) you move on to second investigator Holt, when he dies you move on to third investigator Lau and when she dies finally fourth investigator Wilson and hope between those four pregenerated characters one of them actually succeeds at beating the adventure and saving everyone.   

There's another section below spoilers called "mega spoilers" ... read this only if you've already read the spoilers section, tried playing after that and are still thoroughly frustrated and ready to give up on Alone Against the Dark.   The major spoilers section talks about "automatic win" scenarios although even in the case of automatic wins not all of them mean your investigator makes it out alive.. depending on what you personally consider to be a "win" an investigator dying but still saving the day may be satisfying for you as a player regardless.

Below the "mega spoilers" part there's another heading that talks about the order the pyramid pieces go in if for some reason you're having a hard time with this if you investigate the pyramid in Egypt.

I do have some recommended house rules however that I think you should read before starting the adventure at all even with your very first investigator, Professor G.   

HOUSE RULES 

My first house rule isn't so much a house rule as a clarification.. minor spoiler here but a necessary one ..regarding the cairo museum and which heading you read depending on the date on page 94 of Alone Against the Dark.. depending on where you get to in the pyramid in Egypt the presence (or absence) of an item in the museum might be a bit confusing.. I would just interpret that to mean that just because an item vanishes on a certain date it doesn't necessarily mean that said item appears at a different location on that exact same date (that absolute could happen in CoC mind you :) , just not in this particular circumstance) and it might take some time to transport the item from one location to the next.   

Also in Egypt if you go to investigate the pyramid in Tell-el-Armana the book keeps asking "did you leave your car with a guide?".. I was bewildered by this and the book doesn't do a very good job of explaining what they mean by "guide"... in Egypt it's possible to go to Fuzira Marketplace and from there it's possible to hire a guide or to simply rent a car and drive there by yourself (or possibly with professor J).. I think that's what they mean by that though it's confusing as to whether or not you need to go to Fuzira Marketplace in order to get to the pyramid to begin with.  

It looks like the adventure assumes (although it doesn't flat out tell you this in Egypt, an oversight on the writer's part) that you need a taxi to get to places in Egypt (entry/heading 103) or else you'll need to spend an extra hour getting from place to place (so takes two hours instead of the usual one hour).   I'm not sure if the taxi will also take you to the pyramid or if you need to go to Fuzira Marketplace first in order to do that but it seems logical to assume some sort of vehicle, whether a cairo taxi (entry 103) or Fuzira Marketplace (entry 134) will be necessary to get you to the pyramid given the info on heading 320 which you discover after going to Fuzira Marketplace and asking for caravans and travel.. "It is a rough drive upriver to Tellel-Amarna; a massive late flood of the Nile has closed both the railway and the regular passenger ship that runs up and down the river. The trip takes exactly 48 hours each way."

Alone Against the Dark gives no option for taxis in Arkham but does mention taxis in other locations (New York, Athens, Egypt... no taxis required in Bremen and you'll see why when you get there).  The adventure does state you need to spend an hour going from location to location (page 7) but it's uncertain whether or not getting a taxi counts  towards that hour limit.. personally I'd house rule it as not counting as an hour's worth of time but that's up to you.   Strangely enough neither CoC Keeper's Handbook nor CoC Investigator's Handbook (7th edition) mentions the cost of taxis in their equipment lists for the 1920s although streetcar fare and bus fair is listed at ten cents and five cents respectively page 245 CoC Investigator's Handbook.    Online research shows taxi fares ranged from twenty to forty five cents per mile

https://chicagology.com/notorious-chicago/1920taxiwars/

which seems to be well within the "spend $10 per day no questions asked" territory for professor G, Lau and Wilson and definitely not a problem for Holt if you use my suggestion below.

This falls into spoiler territory at this point (though I'll keep the spoiler as light as possible here) but there's a mistake in Alone Against the Dark as far as Lau when and if (assuming she survives that long) she arrives in Antarctica heading 520.. in order to join one of the search parties and be able to progress in the adventure it calls for a successful skill check in either navigate, pilot (aircraft) or survival none of which Lau starts out with.. while in theory you could argue the writer is saying " Oh you didn't pick any of those three skills with the 150 skill point allotment you get to spend on whatever skills you desire?  Sucks to be you game over you lose."  And while that's very much in the spirit of "life isn't fair" in the C of C world :)  from the player's point of view this can be incredibly frustating (note that Prof G and Holt aren't required to make any such skill rolls no doubt to their social standing/status while Wilson at least starts with two of those requested skills).  

In Lau's case when you get to heading 520 although some might consider this cheating I would argue the following... let Lau make either a Fast Talk or Psychology roll, both of which are skills she starts out with, or maybe even an art/Craft (copy writing) skill check roll.. if she passes it Lau successfully convinces the expedition leaders that she'll write a glowing review/article about their heroic exploits in her newspaper.  If she fails the skill checks then of course that means they weren't impresssed and Lau basically fails the adventure at that point since she can't progress any further.   

Or you can just take this as a warning to make sure Lau spends some of those 150 skill points she's allotted on survival (the survival skill potentially comes in handy for Lau at other points in the adventure anyways depending on what choices Lau makes) .. oddly enough the adventure appears to "loop" you back and forth between entries 520 and 528 so it's possible I'm mistaken and the writers intended for you to simply keep trying your skill check over and over again until you finally pass it and someone agrees to take you with them on one of the expedition parties.   

If you're like me you might overlook the hospital entry completely to begin with - don't do that if your investigator has been injured.   Sure you heal one hit point per day naturally but a trip to the hospital certainly can't hurt (pun intended) if you're injured.   As far as the cost to stay at the hospital per day, Alone Against the Dark doesn't list this so you could take one of two approaches.. either the hospital agrees to "bill you later" and trusts you to pay said bill (which I'm sure your investigator faithfully does if your investigator doesn't die before the adventure is over at some other place ventured to after the hospital stay)... or you could check this link

https://libraryguides.missouri.edu/pricesandwages/1920-1929

and credit for discovering that link goes to this guy right here on reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/callofcthulhu/comments/19ejaqd/source_for_1920s_prices_that_i_found/

If you scroll to the health and medicine prices 1920-1929 of the libraryguides link above (adventure takes place in the year 1931 but eh, close enough) you'll see it costs about six to seven dollars a day for a room at the hospital.. if you're using my suggested rule where you can freely spend at least $10 a day ($50 in Holt's case) without any record keeping not a problem, you're not doing anything else while you're at the hospital so no other places to spend your money at.  Note as well there's a hospital available at every location you go to so.. again take advantage of this I'm sure the writers of Alone Against the Dark planned on you doing this.  

Minor spoiler but .. if you're playing Professor G or Holt when you get to Bremen there's something worth fighting for in the Inn.   If you're playing Lau and Wilson maybe not so much.   You'll see why if you decide to follow this advice.

The first recommended house rule (the above I consider more to be "clarifications to mistakes the writers made) just to make all the bookkeeping easier (you'll be very busy just keeping track of the date and times alone though to me that's part of the fun of the game) is to use the rules for buying stuff on pages 45-47 of the 7th edition of the Call of Cthulhu Keeper Handbook.  You could just simply use the starting cash given for each investigator on their character sheet and keep deducting costs for everything.. meals, staying at a hotel, buying ammunition for guns, buying a gun in the first place, light sources, rope and so forth ... from said starting cash.   

As an alternative though you can look at the credit rating for the investigator and use the rules from pages 45-47 CoC Keeper Handbook to determine cash, assets and spending level.   So  with professor Grunewald for example his credit rating is 35 percent.   Per the CoC Keeper Handbook this means Grunewald can spend $10 per day (page 47 "table two cash and assets" and also page 46 "spending level") without any need for record keeping (in other words you don't need to deduct it from your cash if it's under $10 a day)... same applies to Lau and Wilson based on their credit rating while Holt being rich gets a very impressive $50 per day spending level.

Alone Against the Dark does say on page 7 under "equipment and supplies" not to bother with record keeping to begin with but is still rather vague about it  .. looking at the cost of equipment from the 1920's (Alone Against the Dark takes place in the year 1931 so I defaulted to the 1920's cost of equipment) from pages 396-405 the cost of stuff was crazy cheap... $10 a day will buy you a lot of stuff!  Though as page 7 of Alone Against the Dark says you shouldn't go crazy and carry a ton of equipment with you either due to the amount of weight you can carry. I would argue you should buy the $3.45 heavy shoulder canvas bag on page 397 of CoC Keeper Handbook to justify how you're able to carry around light sources or matchsticks or ammunition ...buy bullets they're cheap!  See firearm ammunition prices page 398 and grab a melee weapon like a dagger, also page 398, while you're at it.. see heading/entry 38 in the book it flat out tells you that you can buy a handgun and/or a melee weapon.  

But what if you want to buy say a handgun given that Professor Grunewald doesn't start out with one (unlike the other three investigators) to give Prof G a fighting chance (literally)?   Page 402 of the CoC Keeper Handbook mentions say a .45 revolver will cost you $30 which is way more than $10.. looking at page 47 of CoC Keeper's Handbook it says that the cash on hand is your credit rating times two or $70 in Professor G's case.. so he could blow $40 of that $70 on a gun (and trust me he should, it comes in handy).   Obviously you'd want to spend some of the 150 skill points Prof G is allowed to spend (in addition to the skills noted on his character sheet) on the firearms (handguns) skill.   I would stay away from the automatic fire listed handguns (and just plain assume something crazy like a submachine gun) as something Prof G simply wouldn't be allowed to buy  (see web links below regarding dynamite... yep, dynamite).. I would just use the guns available and listed on the other investigator's (Holt, Lau, Wilson) character sheets as a guide to the guns Prof G could buy too.   

It's worth noting that unlike Professor G the other investigators start out with a handgun listed right there on their character sheet (Holt is carting around a rifle too!).... Don't forget the skill descriptions for firearms in CoC keeper's handbook too, firearms (handguns) and firearms (rifles) are considered two different skills although there's a default "no training" skill score for each your investigator will have too if you don't have any skill points in it and/or don't spend skill points on it) ... At some point in the adventure it asks if you brought any rope with you but doesn't specifically offer you the opportunity to buy rope in any of the adventure entries/headings .. I would take this as open license to be able to buy things from the equipment list that you think would be useful.   

What about if you want more than $70 for Professor G to be walking around with?    Entry 3 in the book is interesting in that it states , in professor Grunewald's case anyways, that at Arkham First National Bank Prof G can withdraw any amount up to the cash amount listed on his investigator sheet which is a whopping $2,200 ... which I say again is a LOT of money in the 1930's!  This is either a mistake or the writers of the book just being generous since page 47 of CoC Keepers Handbook mentions your total assets are your credit rating (35 in Prof G's case) times 50 or $1,750 but.. if the writers are going to be nice why not just go with the $2,200?  :)  .. I would take this to mean Prof G can take out say a loan from the bank up to his maximum assets and maybe even beyond that to get the $2,200.   

In what appears to be an oversight on the writers part there is no bank entry listed in New York on the location table on page 93 for Holt or Lau (investigators two and three who start out in New York) .. as a house rule I would just say you need to spend an hour of time travelling to a New York bank and can pull any amount in cash up to the amount listed on your character sheet.   Or since the writers didn't list New York bank as a location maybe just assume Holt or Lau simply start out with the cash on hand in their wallet or purse or whatever listed on their character sheets no bank trip necessary.   In the case of travelling sailor Devon Wilson his starting entry on heading 554 says to just pick up any equipment or supplies you want (again within reason given his available cash.. $2,500.. and his credit rating of 30 percent) so you could simply say Wilson keeps the entire $2,500 on him in general while travelling perhaps in some lockbox he carries with him given the wandering life of a sailor.

What about the cost of lodging and meals? (which as per page 7 Food and Sleep section are absolutely a requirement).  Alone Against the Dark does say you need to eat two meals per day (although I think the writers are more concerned about making sure you note the two hours you spend on meals each day or night i.e. each 24 hour period).   Page 396 of CoC Keepers Handbook mentions breakfast will cost you $0.45, lunch $0.65, dinner $1.25 and $0.75 for a flea bag hotel for the night or $4.50 for a average hotel for the night or $10 to just rent a room at the hotel for a week including room service (meals in the hotel)... so on his first day in a city (Arkham, New York, Boston, Athens, Egypt locations) Prof G could easily buy his two meals, stay at a fleabag hotel within the $10 he's allowed to spend each day without any record keeping and then on day two in that location just plunk down the $10 for a week.. easy peasy, Prof G now has meals and a place to stay covered for a week without any need for record keeping.   

In actuality Alone Against the Dark describes hotels as either having room service (you can buy a meal there too or maybe it's included in the rent) or not but even without room service pretty much all the locations have a place where you can go for a meal.   The pricing for meals and hotels above is quoted onto to illustrate that if you are using the "don't bother to record keep if it's under $10 ($50 in Holt's case) per day" suggested rule that you really don't have to worry about keeping track of meal or hotel prices.. or taxi prices for that matter.

It gets a bit more hazy how much Prof G would pay to "seek other lodgings" in Egypt as opposed to staying in an Egyptian hotel so you'll have to make your own decision there - I'd just treat it the same as the situation I described above (same cost as if you were staying at an average hotel maybe?)...and for the sake of simplicity not bother with conversion rates between US dollars and say Athens or Egyptian or Brennan currency and just treat everything as if bought via USA prices, i.e pages 396-405.

Some of you might be looking at my suggestion at buying a gun for Prof G right off the bat and asking " Um, how do you know he has a permit for that?"  And sure in our modern day times you'd probably need a permit.   But insanely enough you could order a gun.. or even dynamite for that matter.. from Sears as early as 1902.  See the links below

https://www.reddit.com/r/callofcthulhu/comments/ty61tn/how_hard_would_be_to_get_acces_to_explosives_like/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/1bhuuvm/1902_sears_roebuck_catalog/

flip through all three pictures in the damn that's interesting link above

https://www.classiccitynews.com/post/dynamite-was-once-a-mail-order-item

https://www.reddit.com/r/callofcthulhu/comments/hqlu8e/buying_weapons_in_1920_question/

https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/guns-were-much-more-strictly-regulated-in-the-1920

So basically it looks like while automatic and semi automatic weapons were hard if not impossible to buy (see page 114 CoC Keeper's Handbook for the benefits of an automatic gun in-game) buying an "ordinary" gun of the type listed on Holt, Lau or Wilson's character sheets was just a matter of walking into any general store (any of the heading 38 listings available in pretty much all the locations you go to in this adventure) and buying a gun, typically a handgun or rifle.   

Hilariously enough investigator Holt is listed on his character sheet as starting out with a rifle that he presumably just carries around throughout the adventure without anyone bothering to question him about it (then again Holt is rich as seen by his credit rating so maybe he just bribes anyone who gives him trouble about it .. with his credit rating of 50 percent that works out to a spending level of $50 per day he can blow without any record keeping which was an enormous amount of money in the 1920's or 1930's for that matter).   

Another house rule.. if your first investigator dies (and Prof G will almost certainly die at some point in the adventure it's that dangerous, Holt too more than likely, more than likely Lau and quite possibly Wilson as well) .. does the second investigator know everything the first investigator discovered? Or is it more in the "spirit of the gamebook" to assume the new investigator knows nothing that the now-dead investigator found out and has to visit the same locations as the now dead investigator all over again, make the appropriate skill checks all over again and so forth?  Alone Against the Dark hints at an answer to this when it says on page 5 "Since each investigator communicates with the next, it is reasonable and proper to design succeeding investigators in the light of what has happened in the past, as well as to suggest the particular investigator’s backstory and experience."

Let's be honest, as players we're probably going to cheat especially given how hard this adventure gamebook is to beat :) ... or to put it another way as the player we're probably just going to act on the knowledge we already uncovered from our adventures with our first investigator (Prof G) prior to his death, then act on the same knowledge uncovered by Holt, then Lau and .. well by the time you get to Wilson that's the fourth and final investigator before you run out of pre generated investigator characters to kill off anyways.   

To make yourself feel better I would take note of the starting heading for Holt entry 36 on page 15 of the book.. Holt talks about how the telegrams from the first investigator, Prof G, have ceased.. I would take that to mean that Prof G routinely fired off telegrams to Holt letting Holt know of Prof G's findings .. as the adventure progresses and becomes increasingly more dangerous it would seem more than reasonable for Prof G to take this into account and send "here's what I know" telegrams to Holt because Prof G now knows there's a good chance he won't survive his adventures.   

It mentions in entry 36 in the adventure gamebook that Holt contacts Lau and although they don't say it out loud they both have a sinking feeling that Professor G is in trouble or even possibly dead.. it stands to reason that Holt would continue the pattern of sending telegrams to Lau.. Lau in turn being a professional reporter muses about her upcoming adventure being "possibly dangerous" in entry 37 (starting entry for Lau) and as Lau runs into increasingly dangerous situations of course she's going to let her boyfriend.. fourth and final investigator Wilson.. know what's going on (entry 37 mentions telegrams can reach Wilson even when he's at sea doing his sailor thing).  

In other words I would argue that there's no need for you to go back to say a library that previous (and now dead) investigators have already been to in order to uncover information that you the player already know.. if you wanted to go back to the library to attempt a skill check a previous and now dead investigator failed sure, do that, but I wouldn't feel obligated to repeat a skill check already passed by a now dead investigator to gather the knowledge the successful skill check netted you.. just assume that info was passed along via telegram from the now dead investigator whose footsteps you are now following in.

SPOILERS

Okay so you've tried beating this book twice now, Professor Grunewald died, Holt died.. and maybe you're starting to get a bit frustrated like I did especially with all that record keeping the adventure requires.   You can read these spoilers and in my opinion still enjoy surprises in the adventure.. if your third investigator Lau died on you and you're REALLY getting frustrated you can if you like scroll down to the big bold heading called "MEGA SPOILER" to find the  big prizes in the game that will practically guarantee that you win.. although I would argue reading it robs you of a lot of the satisfaction of beating the game on your own so the "MEGA SPOILER" should be an absolute last resort if you're beating your head against the wall and feel you just can't win (too many failed skill checks alone will doom you for example regardless of whether or not you make the right choices).

If you have access to the CoC investigator's handbook (7th edition)   look at what they have to say about dynamite on pages 152-153 and the archaeologist career entry page 71... they definitely seem to feel that dynamite is at least an option against impossible odds and not as uncommon in the 1920's (or I would assume the year 1931 which Alone Against the Dark takes place in)  as one would think by our modern day bias and perspective 

See also 

https://www.reddit.com/r/callofcthulhu/comments/ty61tn/how_hard_would_be_to_get_acces_to_explosives_like/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/1bhuuvm/1902_sears_roebuck_catalog/

flip to third picture in that post 

https://www.classiccitynews.com/post/dynamite-was-once-a-mail-order-item

So you can see it was absolutely possible as early as 1902 to buy dynamite via mail order from Sears if nothing else and at $2 a stick per the CoC Keeper's Book page 405 pretty darn cheap.   And very helpful hint here, dynamite will help you a LOT at various points in the game and the book even flat out asks you "do you have dynamite and do you wish to use it" throughout the game (see below).. I would argue the game is practically impossible to win without it.    And the cost for dynamite is listed on page 405 of Coc Keeper's Handbook so as far as CoC is concerned it's possible to buy it - heck you could order it by mail from Sears for crying out loud!  (at least back then..it was advertised as being a great way to blow up tree stumps in the sears catalog! ).   Buy more than one stick of dynamite, seriously, I'd say at least 5, maybe 10 sticks.... or to put it another way never let yourself be in a situation where you don't have at least one stick of dynamite left on your person.   

The big question is .. would dynamite be available at any general store in the adventure book?  I would argue that if you're in a big city (say New York or Boston) at the very least the general store has connections with a Sears warehouse that has dynamite and you could house rule that if the investigator waits say two days it gets shipped to the store.  

Whether or not the investigator has the connections to be allowed to buy the dynamite is another question entirely .. Holt in addition to being wealthy is listed as an industrialist so I would argue he would have no problem getting a hold of dynamite given his business connections and social standing.    Wilson as part of the navy is military and assuredly could spend money to buy some as well (even if he's illegally swiping it from say the navy's storehouse :P  .. but he should still pay the money for it to be fair).   Professor G given his reputation as a scholar could simply declare he's been asked to consult on an archeological dig (again see page 71 Investigator Handbook archeologist entry) and tell the store clerk to call his employer (the university) to confirm he's a professor there - the answer of course will be yes Prof G is a professor there and presto Professor G has his dynamite.

Lau might be more questionable as far as "would she be allowed to buy it" given her lack of connections compared to the others but given the "anything is available for sale in Egypt" I would argue the retail store in Egypt would let you buy dynamite there if nothing else.  Entry/heading 38 says quote "You can buy most any item. You also can buy a hand-to-hand weapon or a handgun." so I would argue dynamite is definitely a possibility.

But would it occur to an investigator to buy the dynamite in the first place?   At the risk of repeating myself see page 71 archeologist entry Investigator Handbook - if nothing else the moment the investigator decides they're heading to the pyramid or is even considering it I would argue it wouldn't be unreasonable at all for the investigator to go shop for dynamite in Egypt.   

Also I would argue if Professor G survived an encounter with any one of various supernatural entities encountered in the game and/or was marked for death by one (yes that can happen too) that info would absolutely make it into a telegram to Holt (see proposed house rules above).. none of the investigators are stupid, they all have high intelligence scores and in a situation like that I would argue Holt would undoubtedly buy some explosives like, say, dynamite.  Or to put it another way if Professor G tells his good friend Holt "Yes supernatural beasties are real and they tried to kill me" I could see Holt's natural reaction being "Holy crap" followed by "Don't know if dynamite will make a difference but I'm buying some anyways and I'm going to blow one of those spooky suckers up if I come across one!"... as the links above mention dynamite was surprisingly, readily available during this period in time.

Holt in turn would pass that information about said supernatural entities on to Lau via telegram who would in turn let her boyfriend Wilson know, all via telegram.  If nothing else if say an investigator was planning on going to the pyramid in Egypt it would not be unreasonable to assume dynamite might be necessary to force an opening (again see the archeologist entry in CoC Investigator  Handbook).. so if say Prof G communicated his intention to investigate the pyramid to Holt via telegram and Prof G subsequently vanished I'd argue it's pretty likely Holt would buy some dynamite to bring with him and telegram Lau to let him know about his intention to visit the pyramid, Lau in turn would let Wilson know and so forth. 

About that pyramid in Egypt.. it's a fun puzzle for sure and yes you really do have to print out (or photocopy if you bought the physical paper copy of Alone Against the Dark  or scan it into your computer then print out the scan or whatever) pages 91-92 but it was a bit confusing (to me anyways maybe I'm just dumb :) ) .. page 92 is just trying to say "Look, of the triangle pieces you cut out the first piece is the top of the pyramid.. level two of the pyramid consists of three triangle pieces of the pyramid that go next to each other.. level three of the pyramid is five triangle pieces that go next to each other and level four of the pyramid is seven pyramid pieces that go next to each other.. also these are the directions east, west, up and down in the pyramid since the descriptions of the areas in the pyramid ask if you want to go west, east, up and/or down".   

Page 92 also points out the "starting piece" location of the first part of the pyramid so lay that starting piece you cut out there (location 4 on the map.. the adventure book will tell you what letter of the pyramid piece you're supposed to put there but helpful hint it's letter "K", not much of a spoiler there since the book tells you that right off the bat when you get into the pyramid anyways).    

Note that the pyramid pieces have a little arrow saying "up".. there's a reason for that.. you'd lay piece "K" for example at position 4 on the page 92 map such that it points .. well, "up".. in the direction the piece is indicating.. if you look at piece K you'll see it mentions "399" in the corridor in that piece.. that corresponds to entry/heading 399 in the book, and when you read 399 it will give you options as to where to go next in the pyramid then will say "You've arrived at pyramid piece A" (or "B", or "C" or whatever) and you put that pyramid piece next to piece K at starting point number four on the page 92 map.   That pyramid piece in turn will lead you to other pyramid pieces you put on the map and so on until the map is completed.. or you die in the process.

Dying in the process of exploring the pyramid is very, very likely to happen by the way.  By all means go ahead and explore the pyramid it's a lot of fun but assume that when your investigator goes in there's a 99 percent chance your investigator isn't making it back out alive.. seriously it's that dangerous.   That's if you find and go into the secret entrance in the pyramid, the "open to the public we charge tourists for admission" part of the pyramid isn't a "you're sure to die" sort of situation.

Strangely enough the pyramid doesn't even yield any items or clues that are vital to beating the adventure and can be skipped entirely.   It's basically a great big red herring but a fun one at that.   If you make the right choices such that you're not killed in the pyramid and succeed at a lot of skill rolls there's a chance you can use dynamite (told you it would be useful) to get out of the pyramid alive.   Having said that I would have your first investigator Professor G visit all the areas except Bremen first (and hopefully survive the trips to all the other areas before the pyramid) and save the pyramid in Egypt for last so when the good professor dies in the pyramid at least you've uncovered as much info as you possibly can before moving on to Holt.   

So interestingly enough the adventure book asks several times during the pyramid "do you have dynamite and do you want to use it?".. yet the only place you can get dynamite within the game that the book specifically lists dynamite as being available is at the steamship "The Dark Sea" in Bremen 

(and honestly it's just random luck - just happening to pick the right spot on the ship to look - and passing the appropriate skill check to get dynamite from the ship, there's no clue given saying where the dynamite is in the ship so - literally just luck, you either choose the right place in the ship or you miss out and the chances of picking the correct spot are slim).. 

....and .. spoiler alert.. once you get aboard the Dark Sea steamship that's it, you're not going back to the pyramid in Egypt or any other location for that matter, it's full steam ahead to the climatic conclusion of the adventure.   So that's why I would argue that the writers of the book assume that the player may very well choose to buy dynamite for an investigator to be carrying around (the writers are asking if you have dynamite at the pyramid in Egypt despite the only place where the book specifically says you can get dynamite is a place where it doesn't give an option to go back to Egypt).   

I mentioned the pyramid is a red herring (but one that's fun as heck) but see the reddit link below where one (justifiably in my opinion) enraged reddit user talks about the mistake made in the pyramid on the part of the writer but DON'T read this reddit link until you've decided you've had enough of the pyramid (in other words you've had so many investigators die and/or get trapped in the pyramid never to escape that you don't even care about the pyramid anymore because the link below contains massive spoilers for the pyramid)

https://www.reddit.com/r/callofcthulhu/comments/1f7lbyy/did_i_break_alone_against_the_dark/

If you read Antura V's helpful commentary that will clear up some confusion but basically to recap the most helpful part in my opinion without reading the spoiler reddit link above... taking the "special item" (you'll know it when you see it in the game) out of action while you're in the pyramid doesn't mean you automatically win the game, the device is simply a means to an end for the bad guys and by the time you get to that point in the pyramid one way or the other the bad guys have already gleaned the information they needed from the "special item" to advance to the next stage of their plans.   

You should be able to piece together the pieces of the pyramid puzzle based on the entries/headings given in alone against the dark as you explore said pyramid but in case it's confusing for you there's a heading "order pyramid pieces go in" towards the end of this guide you can look at where I tell you what order the pieces go in.  

Here's another red herring for you as far as going to 

https://www.reddit.com/r/callofcthulhu/comments/lb36vi/a_question_about_alone_against_the_dark_spoilers/

The reddit link above talks about how the ring in athens from Parthenon does nothing useful for you... even in the case of professor J in Cairo's university the chance of him accompanying you (very useful guy to have around while in Egypt although you can kill him off right along with you if you take him into the pyramid)  has nothing to do with whether or not he agrees to accompany you.. this is something I missed at first but Professor J's  spot hidden check is to see if you're wearing the ring and if you are it impresses him.. but if you make the right conversation choices he follows you around regardless long as you're in Egypt ring or no..  so basically don't assume that the ring from Parthenon is the vital item you need to win this adventure-book, you need to look elsewhere for that.   

Regarding investigator three Lydia Lau.. to be honest with you her science cryptology (page 75 CoC keeper handbook... science of decoding coded messages) is completely and utterly useless during the entire adventure.. the adventure talks about the possibility of you just writing up your own investigator instead of using the pregenerated ones they give you but in my opinion it's a lot easier to just adjust the existing investigators they give you.. by the time the adventure book has killed off investigator one (Prof G) and investigator two (Holt) it will be apparent to you as a player that firearms (handguns) would be a much more useful skill to have and Lau's character sheet flat out lists her as starting out with a handgun... while science (cryptography) absolutely makes sense for a journalist like Lau and while one might consider it "cheating" to just eliminate that skill entirely and just assign those 20 skill points to her existing default 20 percent score in handguns that any investigator has whether or not they have training firing a handgun (see page 64 CoC Keeper Handbook) to give her a far more respectful 40 percent chance to hit with her handgun, I would do just that... if it makes you feel better you could argue she simply relies on her impresive 65 percent in copyrighting skill (arts/crafts) for journalism and devon williams her boyfriend insisted on teaching her how to use a gun (the 4th investigator,a  sailor who knows how to use firearms)... also in Lau's case I would swap fast talk for persuade and leaving it at the 45% Lau has for fast talk (persuade is also a useful skill for a journalist and the need for it comes up far more often than fast talk in the adventure).

Of Lau's 150 "free to assign" skill points I would flat out give her 70 skill points (thus a score of 70 percent) in Jump and 70 skill points (thus a score of 70 percent) in Climb for reasons that will become very apparent in the dramatic conclusion to the adventure book.   Which I admit is hard to rationalize for a journalist but perhaps you could argue boyfriend Devon Williams insisted on "survival training" for Lau after witnessing (or even hearing about from his fellow older sailors) the horrors of World War One (which took place from the years 1914-1918, the adventure starts year 1931 ).  If nothing else definitely give Devon Williams the 70 skill points in climb and 70 skill points in if Lau dies, which probably makes more sense for him as a military (navy) man anyways.

This brings up another interesting question.. given the dramatic events in Antarctica if an investigator (Prof G, Holt, and/or Lau) makes it to the steamship leading to Antarctica then dies... what happens next?   Although the adventure doesn't make this clear, narratively it makes sense that it's an automatic fail for the adventure as a whole... I would argue if any investigators die on the steamship going to Antarctica the bad guys win - read heading 574 and start the entire adventure gamebook over again from the very beginning with Professor G the first investigator...or if that thought is (understandably) unbearable for you, having to start over from scratch, just hand-wave it and "rewind time" a bit such that the next investigator heads straight away for Bremen after stocking up on weapons and supplies at a store (assume the investigator who just died managed to fire off a telegram from Bremen stating they had arrived there) and for some reason the ship the investigator died on had technical difficulties and needed to turn around and head back to Bremen for repairs where the next investigator has a chance to get on 

I mentioned under house rules above as a (hopefully) minor spoiler that there's something worth fighting for in the Inn at Bremen.  If you succeed in said fight there's an amulet that can be useful to you - the problem is the writing on the amulet is in German.  Professor G and Holt both have a skill rating in German so they have a chance of translating it (Professor G especially) ... but Lau and Wilson don't start out with skill ranks in German and while you could assign either Lau or Wilson some skill ranks in it of your 150 "free to assign" points you're really better off assigning it to other skills as I mentioned above.   

Here's where things get interesting.. the heading where you find the amulet mentions the possiblity of bringing the amulet to someone to translate it for you... but when you get to Bremen the adventure doesn't really give you an option to leave Bremen.. I think the writers assume it to be "endgame" when you get to Bremen and one way or another you're going to go forward to the dramatic conclusion (and quite possibly your investigator's death) in the adventure.   What's really strange is that at the university in Cairo there's a languages professor who offers to attempt to translate any items you bring to him (50 percent chance of him pulling it off if it's a language other than Egyptian) .. so I'm wondering if this is some sort of oversight on the writer's part and maybe bringing the amulet to the university in Cairo is a possibility?   In theory looking at the entries/headings that get you to Bremen you could look at the time that they say elasped to get you to Bremen, add that time to the days elasped to get back to Cairo and just "house rule" that you're able to leave Bremen... whether or not you feel this is in the spirit of the adventure or what the writers really intended however is up to you to decide.

In what I consider to be a "dang that's cold on the writer's part" section of the book simply choosing the wrong expedition party after you leave the steamship in Bremen results in an automatic fail.   You have one of two choices here - accept defeat and start ALL over again from the very beginning with Professor G (which seems kind of harsh to me - one wrong choice and you have to start all over again from scratch?) or just cheat and look at the headings for the other expedition parties until  you get to the one you were supposed to join.  I cheated :P  but it's up to you if you feel this is a massive betrayal of the adventure or not.   

MEGA SPOILERS

Okay so Professor G, Holt AND Lau all died on you, you're at your final investigator (Wilson) and if Wilson dies you have to start this entire gamebook all over again from scratch.   Some players would be okay with that.. others like myself would be very frustrated.  Bear in mind however that if you read this section it basically details a lot of "automatic win" scenarios for you so read this only if you are thoroughly frustrated and ready to give up on Alone Against the Dark completely.   Also bear in mind for all of these "automatic win" scenarios you still need to pass the appropriate skill checks the adventure calls for or.. well you don't win.

Also if you like maybe stop after you read how to get one of the instant wins and go back and start the adventure over from the beginning with Professor G.   The instant win might make you feel good enough such that you don't mind starting all over again from scratch :) 

It's a bit anticlimatic but in the museum at Cairo you can try to steal the Karpathos device (although if you've seen it elsewhere other than the museum - you'll know where it's a very dramatic scene - then I would just go to heading 300 and treat it as if you're going to the museum after October 30th even if you haven't reached that date on the calendar yet).   If you successfully steal the Karpathos device and then try to destroy it (you write down "destroy it" as your intention after successfully stealing it) you win.  

Another instant win scenario can take place aboard the steamship leaving Bremen and going to antarctica.  It definitely helps if you're Professor G or Holt (in Holt's case make sure to try for a Charm roll, any other option isn't as good in that you get heading 501 instead) and you select the "seek information about members" option at heading 500 , look for still more info then succeed in the appropriate social skill rolls and intelligence rolls you get some vital info on crew members who recently joined the crew.   

Even without being able to select heading/entry 500 and you default to heading 501 ... whether it's heading 500 or 501 you end up you can still select heading 480 ... now here's where the luck of just randomly making the right choice comes into play (which some might consider frustrating) when you're playing Alone Against the Dark.  Although in all fairness you are on steamship 26 plus 1d6 days so that gives you enough time to try all 20 skill check rolls available at heading 480.. even then though only two of those options will help you towards an instant win and only if you pass the appropriate skill checks.   Spot Hidden and Psychology skill checks on deck C are your best friends here although in the case of Psychology you'll also need to make a successful social skill roll after that to get the info you're looking for.  Having said that you can gather the info on the crew member you're really after with either of those options.. from there at heading 460 you can search the sailor's decks on deck C (note that while entry 460 talks about the doors to the cabins on B deck being locked .. honestly if you equipped yourself properly with the appropriate items per my suggestions above it's not worth risking the consequences of investigating said rooms, it can lead to an instant failure situation for the entire adventure) and you'll note that heading 460 says nothing about the sailor's bunks being locked up... from there if you make the appropriate skill checks and pick the right sailor's bunk on C deck you can get an instant win.

The other way to win is to make the right choices when you get to antarctica (see above under house rules for my suggestions if you're running investigator Lau too so there's at least a chance of you being able to progress further in the adventure).    Make sure you join expedition team C or it's an instant failure for you.   

This next part qualifies as a mega, mega mega spoiler so .. honestly I'd recommend at least trying with the third investigator you might be on now, Lau, and if she dies reading this only if you need to move on to your fourth and final investigator, Wilson and even then read this only if Lau tried and failed to save the day in antarctica during the final dramatic conclusion to the adventure-book

 (in which case you might want "rewind time" if Lau makes it to the dramatic conclusion to the adventure and dies in her attempts to succeed and just assume Wilson rather than Lau takes the steamship from Bremen to Antarctica and Lau died earlier on at some pointin the adventure prior to getting on the steamship.. or you can take the possibly more frustrating option of just starting all over again from the very beginning with Professor G and starting the adventure over from the beginning, which narratively makes more sense but could be very frustrating for a player).   

So during the final dramatic confrontation with the menace in Antarctica there's talk of an amulet.. but it gets confusing in that one of the heading/entries asks "do you have an amulet" whereupon other headings ask "do you have a rose colored amulet"... looking at the heading that describes what happens if you do have an amulet whether rose colored or not (the non rose colored amulet is something you can get from the Inn in Bremen) I would argue that both amulets basically have the same effect as far as an "instant win" scenario (although if your skill or ability check rolls are bad enough your investigator may still die in the process of saving the day but win in terms of beating the big bad nonetheless).  I would just go with what the entries/headings says confusing as it is since it's unclear what the writer's intention was here.. if it specifies a rose colored amulet you need to have the rose colored amulet, if it just says "amulet" then use either the rose colored amulet or the amulet from the inn.

But how do you get the rose colored amulet? There's a hidden city you get to in Antarctica.  See the map of said hidden city on page 83 of the adventure book.. you start at heading 543 when you first enter the city.. select the look at the buildings option 575... then heading 568 to follow a path you have found... touch the rose colored amulet and.. here's where things get a bit unfair in my opinion but in all fairness the CoC world is a place where the odds are against your investigator and you'll more than likely die so there's that :)  (can still get very frustrating for players in my opinion though at certain places in Alone Against the Dark)... the book encourages you to make a Dodge roll to get away and makes you think that you HAVE to make the Dodge roll.. to me this entry is poorly worded and it's possible what the writers really meant to say is " You can try to get away by making a Dodge roll.. or you can stay and try to talk to what you just summoned."    Talking to what you summoned will put you into instant-win territory... though remember what I said above, even the instant wins involve passing many skill and ability score checks to make said win happen.   The entry where you talk to the being the rose colored amulet summons doesn't make this clear but judging from the results if you use the amulet at the right time it looks like the being you summon can in turn summon it's minions to help you out rather than making a direct appearance itself. 

But what is a previous, now dead, investigator grabbed the amulet but died before they even had a chance to use it during that final dramatic encounter? (which can absolutely happen)... depending on how the investigator died (there's one method of death which makes it unlikely you'll be able to pry the amulet from the investigator's dead hand, I don't want to say more so I don't spoil things more than I already have) as the book says there's a chance your next investigator will be able to grab the items the previous investigator had on them, including the amulet (although again if it's the amulet from the Inn it won't do you much good unless you have the language skill German and pass that German skill check too) provided your current investigator makes a successful luck roll to find the dead body and said items (page 7 of Alone Against the Dark under "equipment").   Alone Against the Dark is surprisingly vague as to what areas of the book are a "public" versus a "private" place (the book seems to be saying if your investigator dies in a public place then the investigator's body is carted away by the authorities and their items seized as evidence or stolen before the authorities can even get there or whatever) but I would argue that if an investigator dies facing the "big bad" in antarctica it qualifies as a private place (the big bad and it's minions may not even know the dead investigator had the amulet on him).    

On the other hand you'd have to house-rule how long it takes the big bad in antarctica to enact it's nefarious plans to cause the "you lose" scenario described on heading 574 in the book.   One might argue that if an investigator dies facing the big bad that heading 574 happens automatically and you need to start the adventure all over again from the beginning with Professor G but I can see how this would be extremely frustating for the player.. perhaps you could say in this situation it takes the big bad a long time (two months maybe?  Looking at the calendar on page 49 of the adventure book I see that the last entry is December 31st so maybe you have until then before the big bad enacts it's plans).    And perhaps you could also say that another steamship heads to antarctica from Bremen you can get onto , just change the names of the captain and expedition crew (perhaps it's a new crew trying to find the missing crew when communications cease from the first crew... it's possible the big bad would track down and murder every last member of the first crew and expedition members) and just ignore all "instant win" scenarios that might happen on the steampship this second time around.     

ORDER PYRAMID PIECES GO IN

I encourage you to try to go through the pyramid on your own and discover how the pyramid pieces fit together (see also my notes above under "spoilers" starting with the sentence "about that pyramid".

Cut out the pieces from your printout of page 91 of this book .. making sure the "up" arrow is pointing up on each triangle arrange the pyramid piece cut outs as follows on page 92 of this book (which you should also have printed out or photocopied)

Pyramid piece A goes on the top of the pyramid.

From left to right arrange pieces J, I and K to create the second level of the pyramid.

From left to right arrange pieces C, N, E, D and L to create the third level of the pyramid.

From left to right arrange pieces H, P, B, O, M, F and G to create the fourth and final level of the pyramid.