Slade Collins
and the Secret of Tahawus

Chapter 2 picks up where Chapter 1 ends. Slade drives north to Tahawus, an old iron town in the Adirondacks, looking for Jake and Tila. Everything he earned in Utica comes with him: Lucille, the Hammer, his grenades, his hearts and his money. This page follows the chapter in order. If you would rather find things yourself, stop reading after the first section.

Getting around Tahawus

• The Jeep. Slade starts beside it. Walk up to it and you can drive back to Utica, and back again, whenever you like.
• Saving. Joe has a second Cafe Cappelli here, near the Jeep. Talk to him and choose SAVE, the same as in Utica.
• The Map. Press Select anywhere: on the street, inside a building, in the woods and underground.
• Signs and people. Most of the town will only tell you that “Children wander.” Read the signs anyway. One by the church reads “Church of Tubal Cain”.

Step 1: The Sheriff and the ice cream shop

By day, Sheriff Merlock stands on the trail into the woods and won't let anyone past. Talk to him anyway. Once he has turned you away, Pookie in the ice cream shop steps aside and lets you out through the shop's side door. The path behind it leads to Abby's Camp.

Step 2: Abby, Greg and the Lantern

Abby Wescott is here hunting a graveyard shark. She sends Slade to find her camera man, Greg, who is in the stone shed by the Blast Furnace. Greg hands over his camcorder. Take it back to Abby and watch the footage with her. She gives Slade her Lantern and asks if he wants to wait until dark. Say no and you can carry on around town. Say yes and night falls; Slade and Abby are at the trailhead.

Step 3: The Dark Forest

At night the Sheriff goes home and the trail is open. The woods are pitch black except for the circle of the Lantern, so take it slowly. Hooded figures, wolves, owls and spiders live here. Somewhere in the forest Slade finds the Grappler beside a skeleton, along with a letter. Read it all the way through. Throw the Grappler at a hook post and it pulls Slade across water to the post. There is also a map of the forest, some money and a grenade cache to find.

Step 4: The Graveyard Shark

The woods end at the Cemetery, and the gate shuts behind you. The Graveyard Shark swims under the ground as a fin, then rises up to swipe at Slade. Hit him enough and he goes under; keep at it. When he is dead, take what he was guarding, and his heart. A stairway opens in the Cemetery.

Step 5: The Tahawus Underground

The stairway leads down into an ancient temple under the town. The Torch Hall's fires are always burning. The way into the Worship Room is locked. The Crypt has eight epitaphs on its tombs and a carving on the wall worth reading; walk up to each one and press A. Past the Crypt are two dark rooms, the Flooded Hall and the Sunken Vault, which you cross with the Grappler. Find the switch, and a Brackish DVD falls onto its platform in the vault.

The Stair Hall has a stairway up. It comes out through the wardrobe in the Newcomb Inn's shed. From then on that stairway is a quick way between the inn and the temple, and the Cemetery's gate opens again. Coming up through the inn is always morning, even if you went down at night.

Things to see in town

• The Innkeeper. In the inn's dining room, talk to the man by the painting. He shows it to you and tells you about the watchers who brought Tubal Cain the knowledge of iron.
• A nervous tourist is hiding in the gray house in the ruins. He has heard about a shark. Once the shark is dead, he goes home.
• The Iron Mine is across a broken bridge. Use the Grappler on the hook posts to get over the gap. A man in front of the mine won't let you in.

Step 6: The end of the chapter

With the shark dead and its treasure in hand, go to the ice cream shop. Abby, Greg and Pookie are waiting, and they have a lot to say. Pookie remembers a detective from Utica who came asking about Jake and Tila a long time ago. Then come the Chapter 3 cards, and Slade is back on the street outside the shop.

Chapter 3 is called “MINE YOUR OWN BUSINESS”. It isn't playable yet.

After the chapter

• Tahawus stays open. Greg has moved to Abby's camp, and Abby will still take you into the woods at night.
• To make it day again, talk to Abby at the trailhead and go back to the campsite, or come up through the inn's shed.
• The Jeep still runs to Utica and back. The detective Pookie mentioned is no longer at his old haunt there.