Welcome to the Captive Curse walkthrough! If it’s your first time to play any Nancy Drew game, then start on Junior Detective because the puzzles are easier. You might also light to check out the “How to be a Detective” book on Nancy’s desk for guidance on how to become your very own detective. However, if it’s not your first Nancy Drew game, choose whatever difficulty you want. All spoilers that appear in this walkthrough will be in red, italicized, and have the word “spoiler” in front of them.

A Frankensteinian Beginning

Nancy’s at Castle Finster to find out what’s really behind the strange stuff that’s going on. It appears that the monster in local legends is real and has come back for something. But is there something behind the sightings that is more sinister?

After the cut scene, Nancy will walk up to the gates of Castle Finster. Ring the doorbell and notice the letter G above it. Lukas, the kid and local prankster, will call down to Nancy through the window that’s above her. He’ll let Nancy through only if she matches monsters. He’ll lower a bucket with a piece of paper in it. Grab it and look at it. To figure out which monster looks exactly like another monster, look for similarities like the faces and color of the clothes. After Nancy’s done, she’ll put the paper in the bucket and tell Lukas that she’s done. He’s going to give Nancy another test, but is stopped by Karl, the Burgermeister. Karl will let Nancy in and will tell her to go to his office on the second floor.

Spoiler: Here’s the matches. Junior Detective: First row, third on the right and first in second row. Senior Detective: Second from left in first row and second from left in third row.

Go into the courtyard and up the stairs that are on the left of the entrance. Pick up the dull shears next to the door at the end of the hallway. Then head back downstairs and through the castle entrance. Go up the stairs on the left and into an area with more stairs. Nancy will receive a call from Ned. It won’t go well. Then head up a second flight of stairs and follow the red carpet to Karl’s office. Walk into the office and find Karl playing with some dolls. Look around the room before Nancy talks to Karl. Turn to the right and look at the cards. Nancy will accidentally knock them over and will have to put them back on the trays. Each one has a magic, a hero, and a monster card. The trays have to match the lines on the wall behind them. Nancy can use the raid card book to figure out which card is monster, magic, and hero. Notice that the sparrow has a key sign underneath the picture. The cards go in the same place in both detective levels.

Spoiler: Left: Sailor RedBraid, Donkey King, Fairy Trigger. Middle: Fenarius Wolf, Professor Sparrow, Enchanted Mirror. Right: Robber, Bonaparte, Golden Hunter.

A note will come out when Nancy puts the cards back in order. It’s in German and Nancy will need to translate it, but it’s from Marcus, the person who hired Nancy to figure what’s going on. He also owns and runs the castle. Go to the sparrow painting on the other side of the room and look behind it. Take the key and then look at the locked cabinet next to Karl’s desk. Then talk to Karl. He’ll tell Nancy that he was playing with action figures, not dolls. He’ll also say that he’s making a board game and will give an option for Nancy play or not. He’ll pay Nancy euros if she play with him and give feedback. Leave the office to go find Nancy’s room. She’ll get a call from Frank, but the lines will be so bad that she’ll have to

call from the landline phone. The landline is the only phone that gets the best signal anywhere. The cell phones get extremely bad signal.

The American Inquisition

Take the stairs up and follow the hallway to Nancy’s room. Go to the nightstand and pick up the German-English dictionary. This will help Nancy translate the note that Markus left. Look at the note and use the dictionary to translate it. Read it in English and then go to the phone on the desk. It looks like a cuckoo clock with a sticky note on it. Call Frank and Markus. Nancy can either press the numbers herself or click on the name and/or number on the sticky note. Frank will ask about what happened between Nancy and Ned. Markus will want an update. After talking to them, go down one flight of stairs and go towards the door that’s opposite of the red carpet. Go through it and enter the dining hall. Turn left and read the newspaper—the Castle Cryer. Then go to the stained glass and grab the blue tile.

Then go talk to Renate, the travelling storyteller. She’s in the corner of the room by the fireplace. She knows Nancy by name, but won’t tell Nancy how she knows her name. She’ll also tell Nancy a story about the monster getting a girl who went into the woods for her sister. Her sister was the only one who came out of the woods. Keep talking to Renate until Nancy doesn’t have any more questions. Then exit the dining hall and keep going straight until Nancy reaches the foyer. Look at the coffee table and pick up the odd looking round key. Read the book and then go talk to Lukas. He’s playing on the floor next to the gift shop entrance. Play a game of Monster with him. He’ll explain the rules to Nancy and will do an example round. After talking to Lukas, go into the gift shop and turn left. Talk to Anja, the castellan and Lukas’ aunt. When finished talking to her, turn around and get a piece of cake from the vending machine. Then go to the glass blowing section and look at the book. Grab the message on the page inside of the book. Then go to the postcards and buy the one with the girl reading the book. It’ll be sent to Nancy’s room and put in the wardrobe. Nancy will need the postcard and the cake later.

Go out the back way, which is by the t-shirts. Head down the hallway, turn right, and head down the stairs to the glass workshop. This is where the glassblowing happens, but Nancy can’t get inside because it’s locked. Go back to the gift shop and ask Anja about the glass display and the workshop. She tells Nancy that the glass is blown at the castle in the workshop and that she won’t let Nancy into the workshop. Head back to Karl’s office and talk to him about the workshop. He’ll give Nancy the key to it. Go to the dining hall and give the cake to Renate. She’ll fall asleep after eating it. Nancy can look through Renate’s bag, but will have to be quiet so Renate won’t wake up. Nancy can’t have the objects in the bag make too much noise so she can see what’s in the box that’s under all of the stuff. Here’s one solution to how it should look like at the end:

Junior Detective:

(Photo from CAP’s walkthrough on Nancydrewmania.com)

Senior Detective:

(Photo from CAP’s hint and tips page on UHS-Hints.com)

Read through the book and take the legends page that’s inside. Look at the box. Nancy needs to figure out which four colors go in which order to get it unlocked. The yellow lights will tell Nancy that it’s the right color, while the green lights will tell Nancy that it’s the right color and the right position. There’s really no solution to this puzzle because it randomizes. When Nancy solves the puzzle, the box will open up. Take the map inside. It looks like Renate has been keeping tabs on the monster sightings. The map also shows that there’s a dungeon in the castle.

Glass Workshop and Monster Attack

Go back to the workshop and use the key to unlock the door. Look at the workbench on Nancy’s left. Take the prybar, scoop, and the tongs. Open the buckets that are near the door. A fake snake will come out of one of them. It’ll land onto the workbench. It’s another one of Lukas’ pranks. Then go to the box at the end of the room. Open it and grab the green tile. Turn around and plug in the grinder. Use the

grinder to sharpen the shears that Nancy found outside in the courtyard. Then look at the furnace. Put the metal shield in front of Nancy because she’ll burn up if she doesn’t have it in front of her. Open the furnace and notice the letter that’s engraved in the fireplace. Then close the furnace and leave.

Head back to Nancy’s room and open the door. Call Ned. After talking with him, Nancy will hear some knocking. Open the door and Karl will be there. There’s been a monster sighting and a fire has started in the courtyard. Nancy and Karl will go to the place where the fire is. Karl will tell Nancy that it’s not safe anymore and that he’s going to call Markus about it. He’ll leave without putting the fire out. Go to the well and get a bucket of water. Kill the flames with the water and grab the burr that’s on the door. Notice that there’s a letter close to the door.

Then head to Karl’s office and talk to him about the burr. He says that those burrs can be found in the woods outside the castle. Leave the office and Nancy will get a call from Markus. Go back to Nancy’s room and have the full discussion there since the reception is really bad. As Nancy goes into her room, a bucket of water falls on her and drenches her. She’ll need to find some clothes to put on. Head over to the bed and put on the traditional German dress that someone left there for Nancy. Nancy will put her drenched clothes on the bed. Then call Markus on the landline. It’s about what happened with the monster and the fire.

The Camp and Going Underground

Go outside and enter the forest on the left. Then follow the paths until Nancy gets to a patch of burrs that’s just like the one Nancy found on the door. If she’s having trouble finding the place, then follow these directions: forward, right, left, forwardx2, left, forward, left, forwardx2. Cut the burrs using the shears Nancy sharpened in the workshop. Use the shears until all of the burrs are cleared and reveals a camp. Take the flashlight and the hexagon tile.

Head back to courtyard. If Nancy has trouble getting out of the forest, then use these directions: right, forward, rightx2, left, forwardx2. Go to the well, attach the flashlight to the rope and lower it. Nancy will stop lowering it when she sees something odd. She’ll go down on the rope to check it out. It’s another puzzle and it’s missing a piece. Take the hexagon tile and put it in the empty space. The goal is to match the symbols from one tile that are connecting to the same symbols on the other tiles. In Junior Detective there’s one tile that won’t move, while all of the other six do. In Senior Detective, all of the tiles move. The solution is the same for both Detective levels. Here’s what it should look like when it’s done:

(Photo from CAP’s hint and tips page on UHS-Hints.com)

When Nancy’s done, a door will open. Go through it to reveal a maze of passageways. Explore through the passageways. Nancy should find stuff while she’s exploring. She needs to find these things on her first trip in the passageways: A piece of paper about the legend, two copies of the castle newspaper, a coded message, and a map of the passages. The map will help Nancy find her way in and out of various exits. After finding everything, exit the maze. It doesn’t matter which exit Nancy uses. If Nancy can’t find the items, use the picture of the map below:

(Photo from CAP’s hints and tips page on UHS-Hints.com)

Then return to the castle and go to the workshop. Head over to the furnace and put the shield in front of Nancy. Then open the furnace and pull the red lever using the tongs. A hidden door will open up in the wall. Go through it and find out that it leads to the dungeon. Pick up another legend page while Nancy’s down there.

Nancy’s Clothes and the Security Booth

Head back through the workshop and go to the dining hall. Talk to Renate, who’ll be upset by what Nancy’s wearing. Go back to Nancy’s room to see if her clothes are dry. She’ll find out that her clothes have been shredded! Head back to Renate and tell her the news about Nancy’s clothes. She still doesn’t like what Nancy’s wearing, but there’s nothing that Nancy or Renate can do about that. Then go to the foyer and talk to Lukas. Agree to help him in a prank aimed at Karl. He wants Nancy to distract Karl and then tell him that it’s okay to pull the prank. Head to Karl’s office and tell Karl about Lukas’ intended prank on him. He’ll agree to be an unknowing victim. Go to Lukas and tell him that Karl’s “distracted.” He’ll leave Nancy there to pull the prank. Grab the piece of paper underneath the chair that’s near Lukas’ play area. It’s in code, but that shouldn’t stop Nancy. Nancy can decode it by changing the letters in each column. The word will go dark when it’s the correct word in the correct space. Start with the smaller and most common words first (i.e. the, and).

Spoiler: To open the security booth, play the glockenspiel. Notes are hidden around the castle. Find them and then play them in the order of the list. The hidden locations are listed below.

Nancy has to comment on each of the sites in order to play the glockenspiel. Nancy’s already been to three of the sites, but that won’t count. So go back to the gate and have her comment on the doorbell. Then go to the door that’s near where the fire was and have her comment on the letter above it. Then go to the furnace and have her comment on the letter that’s in it. Head upstairs and go to the little table that’s close to Karl’s office and have Nancy comment on the letter engraved in it. Then go to the portrait that’s on the way to Nancy’s room. Head downstairs and go to the glockenspiel that’s in the corner opposite of the gift shop (the corner that isn’t attached to a door). Play the notes in order of the decoded message.

Spoiler: GDBGA.

If Nancy’s having trouble playing the notes, here’s a picture of what order to play them in:

(Photo from CAP’s walkthrough on Nancydrewmania.com)

A knob will appear in the wall opposite of the stairs. Go to it and open the door. Nancy’s now in the security booth. The monitors will be blank because there’s no power. Look at the phone that’s on the control panel. Translate the signs on the handle and the rectangle indent and learn that this is how Anja

and Karl are alerted of a monster sighting. That’s the perfect way to get them distracted when Nancy needs to search their room. Insert Nancy’s phone in the indent and Nancy will be alerted of a monster sighting. Look at the power up guide and then look at Lukas’ picture. Then go to the central panel and insert the round key that Nancy grabbed off of the coffee table in the foyer into the indentation with the three holes in it. Turn it on and then open the Zap-Up panel. The goal is to get all of the numbers fully charged. The power will only come on when Nancy gets all of them to full capacity.

Spoiler: Junior Detective: Press 10, 8, 2, 7, and 6 (or press 14 until all of the numbers light up). Senior Detective: Press 9 and 15.

All of the cameras and monitors will be activated. Press the buttons underneath the monitors until Nancy sees Renate in the gift shop. What’s she doing there and what’s she hiding? Look at the enigma machine and notice that it’s missing two dials. Nancy needs to find those and put them in place in order to figure out what the messages with the pictures means.

Monster Alert and Finding the Dials

Go to the gift shop and pick up a piece of paper that Renate dropped. It’s on the shelves under the clocks. Then head upstairs and look at the book that’s on the table that’s near Karl’s office. Put the piece of paper over the pages Nancy opens to. It should have the message “third clock from left, nineteen twenty one” in the slots in the paper. Then go to the other table in the other niche that’s down the hallway past Karl’s office. Look at the box. Nancy has to put the colored squares in the correct spots according to the picture beside it. She has to layer them correctly too. Pay attention to where the squares are and how they’re layered and Nancy will be able to solve it. If she needs help, then look at the pictures below.

Junior Detective:

(Photo from CAP’s walkthrough on Nancydrewmia.com)

Senior Detective:

(Photo from CAP’s walkthrough on Nancydrewmania.com)

When Nancy solves the glass puzzle, a compartment will open up to reveal one of the missing dials. Then go to the security booth. Change one of the monitors so Nancy can view the courtyard. Nancy will see that the monster is there! Head to the courtyard and Nancy will watch the monster from a distance. She’ll also go after the monster after he goes through the gate. The gates will close down on Nancy and she’ll be stuck in between them. Go towards the outside gate and the monster will appear. It’ll look at Nancy for a little bit and then leave. Turn left and look at the doors in the middle. They’re locked. Look at the discolored bricks above the doors. Open it and take the key. Then use the key in the lock on the doors. Slide the bars so that the blue, green, and red ones can slide across and get to the same colored spaces. After Nancy finishes the slider puzzle, the gates will open up. Look at the gate that goes outside the castle. Take the piece of cloth that’s hanging at the bottom of the bars.

Head back to the security booth. Distract Karl by pressing the button by the phone. Go to his office and look at his desk. Look at the brochure and translate the calendar. Open the locked drawer with the key that Nancy got from the sparrow portrait. Look at the love notes and the locked notebook. Nancy will open it up later. Move the pencil holder and take the key. Leave the office and go back to the security booth. Distract Anja the same way Nancy distracted Karl. Go to the gift shop and look behind Anja’s desk. Look in the drawer and unlock it using the key from Karl’s des. Look at the printed emails and take the key. Go to the third clock from the left and use the key from Anja’s desk to turn the clock to 7:21 (AKA 1921). Take the dial from the clock and then go back to the security booth.

Decoding Two Messages and Karl’s Office Part Two

Put the dials in the enigma machine. Nancy can now decode the two messages that she found in the gift shop and the well maze. To set the dials, Nancy needs to know the German words for the pictures on each message. She should have the words from the three Castle Cryer newspapers that she’s seen in her notebook. For the first message—the one with the sun, moon and comet on it—put the letters S (Sonne), M (Mond), and K (Komet) on the dials. Then type the letters and Nancy will have the decoded message. It should say “Karl's dayplanner - eight, two, six, one.” That’s the code to the day planner in his office. Now it’s time to decode the second message—the one with the bat, castle, and knight on it. Put

in F (Fledermaus), B (Burg), and R (Ritter) in the enigma machine. Then type the message to decode it. It should say “The Freiherr's daughter is step one.” Distract Karl and then go to his office. Look at the day planner and use the code from the first message to unlock it. Translate the planner and then notice the color coded entries. Then go look at the raid book by the cards and look up the entries. The entry refers to the characters that he uses in Raid. The color references a certain trait of the characters that Nancy will look up. Red=strength, Blue=magic, green=health, and yellow=wisdom. Write down the numbers using the entries. Go to the locked cabinet and open the molding to reveal a key pad. Put in the numbers that Nancy got from the day planner and the Raid book.

Spoiler: 5, 13, 15, 11, 9.

When Nancy puts in the numbers, the cabinet will open up. Read and translate the files, especially Anja’s. Go back to Nancy’s room and call the number on Anja’s resume, which is Castle Cast. Nancy will need clearance from Markus to ask questions about Anja. Call Markus and he’ll call Castle Cast to get Nancy the clearance. Then Call Castle Cast again and ask about Anja. Jordan—who picked up the phone—tells Nancy that Anja lied on her resume.

Before talking to Anja about her resume, look at the painting upstairs of the Freiherr’s daughter. It’s the same picture that Nancy part of the code for playing the glockenspiel. Use the dictionary to translate the sign next to it from German to English. It says that this is a restoration of the picture, so some of it is different than the original portrait. Now go to Nancy’s room and look in the wardrobe. That’s where all of the goodies that Nancy buys (except the snacks) go when she buys them from the bookstore. Grab the postcard and take the price tag off it. There are different letters on the postcard than what’s on the portrait. Nancy will take the postcard.

Talk to Anja about her resume. She admits that she lied about her previous job, but she really wanted to be castellan. Keep talking to her about everything that Nancy can. Then go talk to Lukas and Karl until Nancy doesn’t have any more questions.

The Necklace, the Cloth, and Chasing the Monster

Go to the campsite and notice that the boulder is the same one in one of the legend page pictures. Look at the ground near the boulder and use the small shovel to dig up the ground until Nancy finds the necklace. The necklace from the legend! Then go into the passageways/well maze. If Nancy has gone out of the woods exit in the passageway, then she can get into the passageway through that exit. If she hasn’t, then use another entrance (see the map above) and go to the woods exit, but don’t exit into the woods. Either way, look at the barrel that’s located near the woods exit. Pry it open with the prybar and notice the cloth that’s inside. It’s the same one as the cloth from the monster’s clothes that Nancy found at the gates. Then go to the dungeons and put the necklace in the indentation. Turn it clockwise to open the trap door and counterclockwise to open the door to the passageways.

Leave the dungeon and Nancy will receive an alert that the monster’s inside the castle. Go to the security booth and turn on camera 15. It’s in the glass workshop! Go to the workshop and notice the footprints in the sand from the knocked over bucket. Follow the footprints up the stairs. Nancy will run

into the monster and it’ll spin out of the control and fall to the floor. Whoops! It’s Lukas pretending to be the monster. He says he really isn’t the monster, which is proven by the monster going past the window. Lukas is scared and runs off. Talk to Karl and Anja about what happened. Karl wants evidence that Lukas isn’t the monster and that the real one is still out there.

Taking Pictures and the Last Message

Look at the map that Nancy got from Renate’s bag. Nancy can get evidence if she goes to the locations indicated in the map. Go to the tree in the forest. If Nancy needs directions then go: forward, right, left, forward, and right. Pick up the euros on the ground and then take a closer look through an opening in the roots of the tree. Wait for the monster to appear and pick up the piece of paper that’s on the rock. When the monster shows up, take a picture of it. Take several if wanted. Enter the passageways and find the pile of wood that’s on the map. Nancy should find a scarf on top of the wood. This is the scarf that Renate mentioned earlier. Take it to her and she’ll tell Nancy about her and her sister. They were the people in the story about the girl who was gotten by the monster in the story earlier. Then go to Karl and show him the picture(s) that Nancy took of the monster.

Go to the security booth and watch Anja leave the castle via courtyard camera. Then go to the enigma machine and look at the pictures on the last message that Nancy got from the woods. Put in M (Maus/mouse), D (Drache/dragon), and E (Einhorn/unicorn). Then type the message to decode it. It should say “Legend ending: Find young woman to cast as the victim.”

Finding Lukas and the Culprit… Ahem… Monster

Nancy should get a call from Karl. If not, check to see if Nancy has all of the legend pages. There should be five of them. Head up to Karl’s office and he’ll tell Nancy that Lukas is missing. Go to the foyer and notice the sand where Lukas normally plays. The only sand around the castle is in the workshop. Head down to the workshop and pick up the monster toke that’s next to the cabinet. Then go into the dungeon through the glass shop. Nancy will find Lukas in the last cell on the left. Open the lock to find another puzzle. The goal of the game is to get the bar from the left end to the right end by making sure it isn’t blocked by the knots when it’s time for it to go over them. The buttons on the bottom make the knots go up and down.

Spoiler: number the buttons from 1-4. Then press them in this order: 2, 1, 2, 3, 2. When Nancy presses #3, press #2 quickly after that.

When Nancy gets the bar across, the door will open and Lukas will go through the door to the glass shop. Nancy follows right behind him, but gets locked out. Try to get back to the castle by going through the passageways, but when Nancy goes around the corner the monster will knock her out. She’ll find herself trapped with an engraved wall in front of her. Look at the wall more closely. The rocks have specifically related to the castle. Press the rocks in the order of the legend pages that Nancy has.

Spoiler: Necklace, rocks, well, shield, trap door.

After Nancy pushes the rocks in the right order, the rocks will move and another puzzle will appear. This time Nancy has to spell the words written on the legend pages and the postcard: ENTKOMMEN (*ENTKOMMEN* in Senior Detective), which means “to escape” in German. The letters will slide from the space they were placed in to another spot. Nancy has to think about where and when to place each of the letters to spell the word. If she’s having trouble, then look at the pictures below.

Junior Detective:

(Photo from CAP’s hint and tips page on UHS-Hints.com)

Senior Detective:

(Photo from CAP’s hint and tips page on UHS-Hints.com)

Nancy will be able to escape when she solves the letter puzzle. She’ll be in the passageways. Go to the path that leads to the dungeon. Look inside the bag that’s now at the entrance to the dungeon. There’s an email and a book that Nancy should look at. Then head up the stairs and confront the monster. Correctly name the person who’s really behind the haunting and the culprit will reveal his/her identity. Nancy and the culprit will start talking to each other and the culprit will walk closer to the trap door. When Nancy points out that the culprit won’t get away, put the necklace on the indentation (Nancy’s right next to it) and turn it clockwise to put the culprit in the trap. Nancy will leave the culprit in the trap and tell everyone who it was behind the monster hauntings.

The End

Congratulations on completing the Captive Curse! If this is your first time playing, I hope you found this walkthrough helpful and the game super fun. If it is or isn’t your first game, hopefully it’ll lead you to play the other, fun Nancy Drew games done by HerInteractive. Thanks for playing! NDFan.