On top of the Big Gold Dome, you’ll find a most curious setup. You’ve heard talk of “fire marbles”… well, here they are. Those little colored balls sitting next to that big grid. Agreed, they don’t look all that exciting, at least not exciting enough to earn their moniker. But you’ll make the best of them, we’re sure.

Look carefully at the grid, and you’ll see an outline of the five island shapes you just played with on the topographical map machine. The challenge here is to place the right colored marble at the exact location on each island where a dome belongs. If you studied the topographical map carefully, you’ve got the five grid locations right. But how do you figure out which color goes in which grid position?

Remember the viewer on the underground throne? Six colors, six symbols. And you also found each symbol on a spinning dome on one of the islands. So if you took careful notes, you can correlate a color with each island. If you’re the persistent type, go wander the islands in search of any colors or symbols you haven’t found yet, and test them out by placing the marbles on the right grid locations. If you’re the impatient type, the solution’s right here.

Fire Marble Positions (1,1 is lower left corner)

Orange-6,4 Red-9,9 Purple-2,22

Green-16,25 Blue-22,25 Yellow-unused

Now take a step back and pull the lever on the wall, then push the white button. You should get quite a bang. The small gold domes now each have power. Go find one. Any one. Pronto.

You’re now facing a small gold dome, with those irritating little sliders. Fortunately, you have the code from Gehn’s lab journal. But do you know Rivenese numbers? You should know 1-5 from your lesson in the schoolhouse, and hopefully 6-10 as well. Did you realize that 1-5 are the same as 6-10, except that 6-10 have an extra bar going across? For the mathematically curious, this indicates a base five numbering system, where the symbols in one direction mean “add this digit” while the same symbols in the perpendicular orientation mean “add this digit multiplied by five”. You should take the time to understand how Rivenese for “6” is actually the symbol for “1” combined with the symbol for “1” tipped on its side, meaning “multiply me by five”. 1+5=6. You can get all 25 numbers you need the same way.

Or, just decode the numbers using the table on the right. Cheater. Notice that the black writing always represents the numbers 1-5, and the red parts are the black parts tipped on their side, meaning the 1-5 are to be multiplied by five. I hear that people who hate math despise this part of the game. People who get really bad migraines when trying to decode these numbers. People who think “base five” is where the government hides UFOs that crashed in the New Mexico desert. Folks, this walkthrough’s dedicated to YOU. God bless.

Move the sliders to the appropriate numbers, and press the button. If you have trouble with the sliders, first, make sure your Rivenese translation is right, and second, use the big notches (5, 10, 15, 20, 25) as guides. The dome should close itself up around you when you push the button with the sliders set properly. You can now open the book before you, and touch it to travel to Gehn’s age.

[Beginning] [Golden Dome] [The Forest] [The Village] [Boiler Island] [Lagoon] [Rebel Age] [Survay Island] [Fire Marbles] [Endgame]