Part 37: XXXVII - A Night at the Library

It came down to a flip of the coin.

Well, I tried to talk. Now we do things my way. The hard way.

Boss fight!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjOIh8XUaUY



The fight begins with a bang. The gargoyle instantly charges at us.



Thankfully he hits one of the wooden support beams instead. This fight does feature minor environmental destruction, but it doesn't affect anything drastically, like collapse the roof for example. The owners of the Metridome should have taken architectural advice from whoever Issac Abrams commissioned to build this place.



This is what the gargoyle's health looks life after two swings of the sledgehammer connect with his stone body. This fight is difficult, but evidently the problem isn't that the gargoyle has an insurmountable amount of health.



The problem is that he can dish out more damage to us than we can to him in the same amount of time; also that our attacks can't stagger him, but the reverse is the opposite.



The trick is to back away when he uses his stomp attack, to always keep moving in order to dodge as many of his attacks as possible.



Unfortunately that toddler-esque stomp isn't the only weapon in his arsenal.



He'll also charge at you like in the beginning of the fight.



This can be avoided, counter-intuitively, by charging at him simultaneously and using that twist-move with the sledgehammer.



He can also punch, but you can avoid that with a well-timed attack.

Strange, every movement this gargoyle makes reminds me of a baby: its awkward punches and stomps, not to mention that its ultimate attack, the quickly-stumble-forward maneuver. This gargoyle is a giant stone baby; the vampiric equivalent of this.



Dodge enough of the giant stone baby's attacks and land enough of your own, and that's it.





It crumbles into bits and pieces, whatever life-force previously holding it together having dissipated.



We're now three experience richer. Shoutout to WESP for decreasing it from the original six experience. Thanks for another nonsensical "enhancement".

Back to Isaac.



I've killed the Gargoyle.

I admit, I thought you'd come back here with a stone foot lodged in your backside, but I'm glad to see you've proved otherwise. You've got a lot of promise - it's a shame you're still working full-time on the wrong side.

I've got nothing against the anarchs.

Like I wrote before, I don't consider Isaac to be worthy of the anarch label inasmuch as the Kindred anarch movements relates to the very enumerical body of anti-authoritarian ideas called anarchism.

Isaac Abrams is a shining example of the superficial elements of the anarchs. His relation to this movement is wholly negative and minimalist in the sense that it can be encapsulated fully in opposition to other vampire sects, rather than as a positive and maximalist relation in the sense of articulating a new social structure among libertarian lines -- at least as libertarian a society can be when comprised of vampires. Abrams, an anarch, uses his domain over Hollywood in an authoritarian manner, consolidating his own power, authority, and influence at the expense of all other Kindred. The vampires in the Last Round, also anarchs, fight for the creation of a new vampiric society comprised along the lines of the old French motto, Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité.

These two contradictory elements cannot coexist in the same movement with any amount of cohesion. Thus the anarch movement taken as a whole is ideologically incomprehensible, comprised of differing and incomparable ideas united by the weakest of possible bonds: opposition to the prevailing, established order.

If the anarch sourcebook is ever revised, white wolf will need to come to terms with what truly makes an anarch an anarch.

But it's not like we have to tell Isaac any of this.



We also gain a masquerade redemption for telling Isaac the good news. We now have the option to inform Isaac of the gargoyle's creator, but I'm not doing that for reasons of game.





In order to fully complete the Gargoyle Removal Service quest, we have to inform Strauss about our actions.



So back downtown we go.



In other news, I'm using 9 of our 11 experience to put one more dot in Computer.



I'm then reading the Cowboy's Guide to Cyberspace by Case in order to increase our Computer skill to 5 dots. I'm unsure how vague descriptions of various colors and shapes helps us become a better hacker, but so be it.



Isn't that better? Maybe Strauss will think so.




I've resolved the issue with the Gargoyle, Strauss.

A vague enough statement to suit both possible outcomes of the quest.

You did? That's quite an accomplishment for one so young, neonate. And with discretion as well. Again, you impress me.

Just doing what I feel is right.



The Fae Charm increases our dexterity by one dot, not to mention it looks creepy as fuck.



Cool. See ya, Max.



That's the end of our interaction with Strauss for a time. If we were a Tremere, we would've gained a new haven in the form of the floor upstairs.




Now before we head to King's Way, there's one more thing we're going to take care of.


WESP's masterwork. As he told us, through Beckett, we need to use the sewers to get into the library.



Near the closest manhole to the library entrance lies an empty beer can on the ground. Or is it a beer can? Is it only a beer can because we think we see a beer can? Perhaps it's something more than a beer can; perhaps it's a corporeal manifestation of the Logos, the living information -- previously buried in the Nag Hammadi codices -- which is the true master of reality. Perhaps this beer can is really a satellite which fires pink beams of information-rich light down on the phenomenal, irrational, world created by the occluded God. Perhaps this is an example of what Heraclitus calls "latent structure", the true force that shape reality hidden behind the obvious structure.

Or maybe it's just a beer can.



Anyway, directly across from where we entered the sewers is the entrance to the Library.





Or what leads to the library, at the very least.



The music is all sinister, but the only challenge down here is the elevator -- it doesn't function.



Attempting to activate the switchbox causes the vacuum tube -- yes, VACUUM TUBE -- to explode. What do we do now?



The solution to this impossible task is to pick up the replacement vacuum tubes in the corner of the previous room, then replace the busted one. Does this remind you of an incredibly simple puzzle you find in the very beginning of an adventure game? I think I know the reason why.

The patchlog for the 8.4 version of WESP's patch states that WESP himself designed the puzzles for the library level. I'm unsure to what extent any of these assets were originally made by Troika. The patchlog previously mentioned hints that the library level was entirely a fan-made creation. In any case, we know that this was WESP's idea of a good puzzle.



I like to think that WESP thought the Los Angeles public library is powered by vacuum tubes, a technology that's been mostly phased out since the 1960's.



We take the elevator up, and as the door opens we're assaulted by a very unlibrarylike song.



This song, "Come Around", is never used in the vanilla game. Rik Shaffer, the composer of Bloodlines' music, revealed in an email with WESP that:


Instead WESP decided to use it here.



This place looks very odd. More like a shopping mall than a library.



I decided to try to take it stealthfully and avoid detection. Notice that the Los Angeles public library has no entrance other than a service elevator from the sewers.



There's honestly not much to say about most of the library -- though we haven't seen most of it yet. It's mostly just empty space. The patchlog says that this entire area was not made by Troika -- it was created through a collaboration between WESP and some other guy.



We now enter the main corridor of the library. There are four doors here, but only two of them aren't just painted on the wall, i.e. operable.



Again, I'm trying to avoid detection.



Behind door number one lies a plethora of paintings. I remember reading something WESP wrote about how he added these painting onto the model Troika left behind. Who knows.



Paintings.



More paintings. (Surely a museum wouldn't have those paintings on their wall).



Ancient and priceless artefacts, like that Sumerian bong on the right.



Enough of that. There's another door to go through.



This powerup is a Braid Talisman, which increases our Wits score by one.



Mumbly Joe looks suspiciously gaunt. Maybe he's a vampire in disguise.



Anyway, the important thing in the room is that computer. Maybe it's also powered by vacuum tubes.



The only thing to do with it is shove your library card in some nondescript orifice. We don't have that yet, and surprisingly it's not two feet away in the same room.



So back to the central corridor.



Behind one of the desks lies this note. We were in the storeroom, so presumably you need to also enter a password in addition to a library card. Two layers of security, similar to how there are two cops guarding this place.



Behind door number two is one giant area containing almost nothing to interact with.



The only purpose to this room is that it contains the library card.



Do I need to remind you what this is for? Back to the corridor.



At this point I got fed up with being stealthy.



There's no point. I know WESP, speaking poorly through Beckett, said that we shouldn't coat everything or blood or whatever, meaning don't kill anybody. What he doesn't tell you is that there are absolutely no repercussions for killing the two guards in the area.



Killing the first guard alerted the second. He's easily taken care of.

Back to the computer.



We "enter" the library card and input the password awaken.



>unlock



Switched unlocked? What?

You'd be at a loss as to what to do next if not for the quest log. WESP tells us that we unlocked a "secret switch", and that there could be a "hidden chamber" nearby. Why this switch had to be unlocked by a computer and why it would necessarily lead to a hidden chamber is a mystery.

Yet simply unlocking the hidden switch doesn't reveal this hidden chamber. We now have to find and activate this hidden switch. Where is it, you might ask?



WESP gives us the most meat-fisted of hints by showing us this graphic on the floor. In the previous room was a painting with the exact same graphic, but larger.



WESP should not be making puzzles. The secret passage is back in the room with the computer, where the hint for the switch was.



You'd only know where this is by stumbling upon it.





One very spooky passage later...





We're lead into a giant chamber. Apparently this is where the "weird things" WESP told us about are happening.



Control is taken away from the player as their character moves toward the edge...

Watch this piss poor Cutscene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qYYa4qYmPA



Who?



Huh?



What?



How?



"Victim" then obfuscates away. This cutscene was entirely fan-made, though I think that goes without saying.

The vampire behind us speaks:



Oh, that's right.


IT ALL COMES FULL CIRCLE!!




This is awful. Everything about this is awful. The voice acting in particular.

Boss fight!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_gPwL_DEAU



This is actually a really difficult fight. The LaSombra has a new UZI that can wreck your health. This is after two seconds or so right at the beginning of the fight.



It goes without saying that you'll want to stick to ranged combat. I had to use some of the blood packs we've accumulated since the beginning of the game.



To make matters worse for a melee-oriented player, the LaSombra has the ability to teleport around the chamber when his health gets below half.



You'll be able to land one or two hits on him before he teleports away. Again, stick to ranged combat, unlike what I did here.



Better yet, just don't install the plus patch.

On the plus side, we did get two new useful weapons:



The broadsword is our best melee weapon yet.



And the IMI Uzi is very useful.



So, to summarize, the "weird stuff" happening in the downtown LA library was some sort of Sabatt ritual. What the ritual was, why it required such a huge chamber, and WHY it had to be below the Los Angeles library is one big question that has no answer.




Oh and on our way out



:WESP:


Back in our apartment:



Goodbye to all that.