King's Quest V: Absence Makes The Heart Go Yonder! VGA

It has been over twenty years since Graham resuced the treasures of Daventry and became king. He takes a walk around his kingdom but does not realize that something terrible is amise. The evil wizard Mordack appears on a hill overlooking the castle and starts casting a spell. All of a sudden, the castle and all the inhabitants disappear!

When Graham returns to the site of the castle, he can not believe his eyes! Suddenly an owl, Cedric appears and tells Graham what happened. He then explains that Crispin, a powerful wizard, will be able to help him. Cedric uses fairy dust to help Graham to fly to the land of Serenia where Crispin resides. Crispin greets Graham but is unable to tell him why Mordack took his family. However, he gives him magical whitesnake which would help him understand the speech of animals, a magic wand that had to be charged, and Cedric (who's comments turn out to be more annoying than useful).

Graham and Cedric start traveling the countryside. ("Graham, watch out for that snake!") They go into Serenia town but are not able to buy anything just yet. Graham understands that he has to have some kind of finances in order to get what he needs in order to cross the Great Mountains and continue to pursue Mordack. Graham ends up heading towards the Endless Desert, meets up with a group of bandits (who were sleeping), takes a staff from them and journeys to a temple. There, he uses the staff ("Open, Sesame"...predictable, huh?) and enters the temple. He quickly grabs some treasure and heads back towards Serenia.

Pretty quickly, Graham comes to a fortune teller. He goes in and Madame Mushka shows him in a crystal ball his son, Alexander clasped in the clawed hand of the wizard. He hears Mordack, "Look at the treat for you, Manannan, my brother. See how it wiggles and squirms. Look what you have done to my brother, princeling. Look. Only you can transform him back into his real form. Only you!" Alexander tries to deny his knowledge of magic, but Mordack does not believe him. He informs Alexander that soon he will start feeding the cat, beginning with his mother, Valanice, followed by his sister Rosella.

Graham and Cedric continue their journey and soon see a weeping Weeping Willow. Graham determines that they must cheer her up, but to do so, they must find her heart which the local witch had stolen. Graham enters the dark and gloomy forest alone. Soon he encounters the witch who stole the willow's heart. He gives her a magic bottle, which was inhabited by an evil genie. As soon as he was free, he made the witch reside in the bottle and they disappeared. Graham finds the home of the witch, where he finds a key. The key leads to a door in a tree which holds the heart. Graham, being galant, takes the heart to the willow and she becomes human again. (Along the way, he met some elve, but that just makes this summary even longer).

Hmmm, how to keep this from getting too boring or too long?? Well, soon, Graham does some trading and gets a sled, a fur-lined cloak, and a cobbler's hammer. He also gets some mutton from an inn after he had been captured (and broken free with the help of a rat).

Graham and Cedric head towards the Great Mountains. They climb dangerous ice-covered cliffs, jump wide chasms, and slide down snowy hills. Eventually, Graham meets the Ice Queen, Icebella. In order to save Cedric (who had been captured by Icebella's wolves), Graham plays a harp, which softens her heart, but in order for Cedric to be released, Graham must kill the Yeti. He heads ot the cave and uses a custard pie thrown into the yeti's face to kill it. Then he takes a crystal from the cave.

Eventually, they come to the ocean and a boat. They use it to visit an island. Turns out, it's full of harpies! Again, Graham must rescue Cedric and uses the harp to entrance them. As they're fighting over the harp, Graham and a wounded Cedric escape and sail back to land. Graham gives an old hermit a conch shell and the hermit heals Cedric in no time at all. The hermit does not know how to get to Mordack's castle, but provides the aid of Pearl, a mermaid, to help them.

In no time it seems, Graham and Cedric are at Mordack's island. Cedric, the scardy-owl that he is, stays outside, but Graham comtinues through a maze in the basement of the castle. He comes to a pantry and enters into the kitchen. There he sees a slave girl cleaning the floors. While she is scared, Graham gives her a locket he found on his journey. The girl tells him that she is Princess Cassima of the Land of the Green Isles. Mordack kidnapped her when she refused his offer of marriage. After Graham tells his story of woe, Cassima informs him of where he can find is family...and not to let the cat see him!

As Graham continues through the castle, he comes to Mordack's study (just off of Mordack's bedroom). There he finds a book on casting spells. He does not understand exactly what the spells are, but knows they will come in handy very soon. He does not realize how soon. He turns around and sees Mordack has fallen asleep on his bed. Graham walks in and takes Mordack's magic wand. He then walks into the laboratory and sees a huge piece of equipment on the balcony. For some reason, Graham decides to put each magic wand on either platter of the machine and starts it. The magic in Mordack's wand transfers to Crispin's wand...just seconds before Mordack wakes up and is in his laboratory!

Even though Mordack's wand is useless, he is so powerful that he transforms himself into some type of flying scorpion. Graham recalls the spellbook he saw earlier and transforms himself into a tiger. Mordack then became a dragon, and Graham a bunny; Mordack a cobra, Graham a mongoose; and finally, Mordack a fiery ring, and Graham conjures up a rain cloud.

While Graham had no idea how to restore his family and castle back to their original sizes, Crispin appear. With no trouble at all, he is able to correct what Morddack did. He returns Cassima to her homeland, but not before Alexander begs an invitation to visit her; Castle Daventry back to it's original resting place; Cedric to full health; and Valanice, Graham, Alexander and Rosella find themselves on a hill overlooking Daventry...home sweet home.

Hey, whatever happened to Alexander and Cassima??