Nancy Drew 17: Legend of the Crystal Skull Hints

What am I supposed to do with the buzzard statues?

  • 1 of 11: Have you notice that something odd happens when you click on the heads of the four lower buzzards?
  • 2 of 11: The different buzzards make the feathers on the top buzzard move in different patterns, so you can use them to arrange the feathers however you want --
  • 3 of 11: -- if you know how to arrange them, that is. You can find this in a book you'll find in the secret room.
  • 4 of 11: Once you get into the secret room, read the book on the desk, especially the section called "The Key to the Statues." That will show you the pattern of feathers you need; all you need to do now is figure out how to arrange them like that. Read to the end of this hint for step-by-step instructions on how to get there.
  • 5 of 11: The pattern you want, from left to right, is this:
  • 6 of 11: As Nancy says, when you click on each buzzard, you can hear what it does to each feather as it goes from left to right. When it goes "tick-tick," that means it didn't do anything to that feather; when it goes "tick-beep," that means it moved that feather up a notch; when it goes "tick-clunk," it moved that feather down a notch.
  • 7 of 11: So if you click on the first buzzard on the left, you'll hear tick-tick, tick-tick, tick-beep, tick-tick, tick-tick, tick-tick. That means the third feather moves up one notch and the rest stay still.
  • 8 of 11: It's possible to map the effects of all four buzzards, but it's kind of hard, since it will only push a feather down if some other move has pushed it up. You may have to play with it for a while to get the effect you want; if you want to reset the feathers, walk away from the buzzards toward the fountain.
  • 9 of 11: Here's the easiest way I've found to get the feathers right:
  • 10 of 11: When you get the feathers in the right order, the upper buzzard will drop a key. Pick it up and turn around to see if you can see where this key might fit.
  • 11 of 11: Each buzzard is standing on a pedestal with an odd shape in it, the exact same shape as on the key you just picked up. Use the key in the four pedestals to get four glass eyes, numbers 20, 21, 22, and 23.