Hello,
I've think I've been "skipping steps" in the sense that I've gotten two of the slates onto
the pedastals at the Keep without finding/doing everything in the corresponding age. For example, with the spacey age (Todelmer) I only had one white glowing symbol on the tablet when I tried drawing a plus sign circumscribed by a circle in an effort to get the tram-thing to work. The Bahro brought the slate to the keep and I got Escher's congratulatory speech. Similarly with Noloben
I had 3 of the 5 white symbols on its slate when
I chanced upon a drawing that got me into the
Keep.

Question 1: am I correct in assuming that there
are five symbols to be achieved on each tablet?

Question 2: if I don't achieve all 5 symbols,
will this give me problems in the end game?

Question 3: (sim to 2) I am currently poised to
unlock the tablet (because I've gotten the
symbol I need to get the 4th slate on the Keep).
Will I be able to complete all of my unfinished business given that I won't have any slates
to draw on???

I am afraid that I may have prevented myself
from discovering everything in the ages by
putting those plates on the Keep pedastal!

thanks for any reply

JPinkny, it appears that you have indeed incountered the dreaded slate bug. This happens when you experiment by drawing symbols on the slate that aren't proper slate symbols. Proper slate symbols are found inside outlines that match the shape of the slates. To try to answer your questions;

1, There are three or four symbols that can appear on the bottom right of the slates and one on the bottom left. The ones on the right are from the pedistals and the one on the left is the action symbol. How many each slate will take can be seen by the number of empty outlines.

2, I believe that you can still complete your game if you haven't been to every pedistal, you just will have missed parts of those ages.

3, Once all the slates are locked in the Keep, you find yourself back in K'veer with no way back to the ages so, no, you can't complete any unfinished business (If I'm wrong about this, someone will post).

Hope this helps. Dave

Thanks for the reply Dave,

I guess I can always restore the game to a
previous time using the "photo-album". I
really want to see all there is to see because
thats why I like these games! (Not so much
"winning" as the exploration.)

One specific question: for Todelmer, will I
be able to get the last 3 symbols without
the slate from Todelmer? I have only the
slate from Laki'ahn, but from my experience,
a slate from another age just gets taken back
to that age by the Bahro.

thanks again,
Jason

As far as I know, JPinkney, you need the slate from the age to finish that age. You can't use a slate from another age. Dave

Hmm I was just gonna start looking for the missing slates in Todelmer and Noloben