The Mystery of the Druids

Detective Brent Halligan, an inspector at Scotland Yard, is assigned to a string of brutal killings in Britain. His investigation draws him into the downfall of the British Order of Druids and eventually sends him traveling through time. The game was developed by the German studio House of Tales and published by cdv Software Entertainment, launching for Microsoft Windows in March 2001. On December 5, 2014, Nordic Games announced it had acquired the intellectual property.

Much of the gameplay involves finding clues and solving puzzles. Players move the mouse over objects on screen, clicking to add them to an inventory or learn about them. Puzzles often require combining items through drag and drop, then figuring out how to use the new object. Many actions, such as using a telephone, depend on completing these puzzles. Conversations with non-player characters use dialog trees, and major plot points are revealed through these talks rather than by exploring the environment.

The story opens with a dark ceremony at Stonehenge in 1000 AD, where most druids are consumed by fire in a supernatural glow. In 2000, at New Scotland Yard, Halligan investigates the "Skeleton Murders." He is aided by Dr. Melanie Turner, an anthropologist at the Oxford Anthropological Museum, and historian Arthur Blake. They discover the murders match cannibalistic sacrificial rites of Britannic druids. A demonic superior druid had seized power to force humanity into submission through a "final ritual" that would transfer druidic knowledge and power to five infants called the "Inheritors." The ritual was incomplete, but the Inheritors are strong enough to finish it.

While following a lead on a neo-Druid group called "The Circle," Halligan is captured by their leader, Lord Sinclair. He escapes but faints after witnessing a human sacrifice. He later awakens at dinner, unknowingly eating human flesh, which grants strength but makes him susceptible to brainwashing. Turner finds clues Halligan left at her museum and sneaks into Sinclair's estate, where she discovers the Amulet of Transformation, an artifact needed for the Final Ritual. Halligan finds her, they fight, and she knocks him unconscious. When he wakes, he realizes he was brainwashed and learns Sinclair plans to curse the world to enslave humanity.