Brave the elements.
Not all woods are created equal. (See Gordian's notebook.)
Go out with a bang, but don't give up!
Who left the most toys?
If I were Calamitus, I'd enjoy Winter, where:
I could be rather cutting,
OR
the shinbone's connected to the . . .
Must be completed before Kal. Jan.!
1. Identify the Suspect.
To help identify your suspect, the final scrolls of all five characters will open simultaneously at some point during Saturnalia (after Id. Dec.). Each describes what he/she would do if he/she were the Calamitus and how to stop him/her. Check to make sure you have all the items they mention: the axe (Lucius -- but if you used the axe in Saturn, make sure you at least have the bone), the Regia tunnel key (Verania), the "water key" (Xanthus), the vial (Sibyl), and the counterweight (Gordian). Then look at the bottom shelf of your storage area; here are all the soldiers and horses etc. that you haven't had any apparent use for. But each different item is a symbol for each character, and Cornelius said in one of his scrolls that the person associated with the greatest number of crimes must be the Calamitus. The soldiers stand for Lucius (on his desk in the Wineshop), the acorns for Verania (on her desk in the House of the Vestal Virgins), the horses for Xanthus (on his table in the Lacus Curtius lair), the skull for Sibyl (in the back room of her taberna), and the stylus for Gordian (on his desk in the Tabularium). If you used the axe in Saturn, you should have 4 soldiers, 3 horses, 2 acorns, 1 skull, and 1 stylus. Lucius, then, is the Calamitus. If you didn't use the axe, you'll have 3 soldiers, making Xanthus look like a likely suspect too, but Lucius is the man. If you stay in the Forum long enough before going on to the next step, Sibyl exonerates herself in a final scroll, in which she says that Cornelius speaks through her "from beyond."
2. The Elements Door.
Go back to Gordian's destroyed temple site (through the rebuilt arch) and straight ahead to a courtyard. To the right is Cornelius's Elements Door. You'll need to click twice on each of two of the panels and once on each of the two remaining panels -- it doesn't matter which ones. For example, click twice on the first panel (upper left), once on the second (upper right), twice on the third (lower left), and once on the fourth (lower right). (Clue in Gordian's "Measures" notebook on the properties of wood -- he mentions what the door is made of, and in the chart of woods, the number of times "max" appears is the number of times you click. There's also a clue in the final scroll in Saturn, assuming you used the axe and got it.) Turn the door handle and enter. The Navitor promptly shuts down and explodes, scattering the five "stop the Calamitus" items on the floor, along with the first initial of each character's name.
3. Stop the Calamitus.
Clicking on the initials will re-play the "If I Were Calamitus..." messages. Click on your suspect's item to pick it up.
A. Lucius. If you're going with Lucius (as you should, but the other endings are fun to see), click on the axe or bone. You already know from his "If I Were Calamitus" message that he plans to blow up Cornelius's manure boat in the sewer (the one you cranked up at the game start, and which powers the Navitor), and that you can stop him by cutting the boat free with the axe. Go through the wrecked Ver door and to the left through the old Hiems door, where the conveyor belt is, and click on the belt. You'll be transported to the sewer -- the same sewer you entered the game from. If you chose to keep the axe, get over to the rope holding up the boat and click on the mechanism. The axe cuts the rope, sending the boat out of the sewer and into the Tiber, where it blows up. This ending I like best; you'll see the ancient Forum morph into the way it looks today, in modern Rome. If you went for the bone, go over to the skeleton and click on the missing thigh. The wall crashes forward, knocking the boat out of the sewer. This transforms Rome into an ancient technological Utopia -- the ending Cornelius would have liked, I think.
B. Xanthus. He's not the right man, but his ending is fun. Click on the water key and go out through the courtyard. You'll be transported all the way up the Via Nova stairs and through those mysterious wooden doors you couldn't do anything with. This is the Valve House. Click on the machine and the water key appears. Xanthus says that he can be stopped by rotating the water key "in the opposite direction" until it runs off the teeth. Remember the scroll in the Baths. If you turn the key counterclockwise, it causes a flood, and Byzantium takes over. If you turn it clockwise, Rome burns, the Goths take over, and Xanthus is made king.
C. Gordian. Click on the counterweight and try to go out the courtyard door; you won't even make it, for Rome burns, the Goths take over, and Xanthus is made king.
D. Verania or Sibyl. Click on their respective items; as with Gordian, you won't make it out the door. Rome burns and Byzantium takes over.