Part 63: VII - Smoking Snakes

Well, after whatever the fuck happened last time, I sure hope we're going to have a return to relative normalcy.



We get some mad stacks from LaCroix alongside the mission to head to the museum, but we've got some other side quest stuff to do first.



First off, let's revisit Fat Larry's sidequest - now that we have an ace up our sleeve in the form of the healing factor, things shouldn't be that much of an issue anymore. I didn't bring any friends along, but still, since all we have to do is not die, things should be fine. Let's do this.



Things start off pretty good - as predicted, the healing factor can deal with pretty much everything that isn't aggravated damage or concentrated machine gun fire, and these thugs don't have either.



The triad members (or whatever they're supposed to be) are better armed, sporting shotguns and submachineguns instead of pistols, but it's still nothing that poses a major threat.



On a lower level, we find this character who was either hanged or hung herself. This is here because of reasons, I'm sure. I'm not going to even attempt to reason that out, though.



Important safety tip: Be very careful when swinging sledgehammers around cars.



They might blow up and nearly kill you.



On further lower levels, Sabbat get thrown into the mix because why not, obviously the Sabbat were also involved in this suitcase exchange.



In fact, they seem to be one of the two parties in the deal, not the triad guys and the gang guys, as they have one of the suitcases.



A lot of murder ensues repeatedly, and we eventually retrieve the proper briefcase and return it for some more mad stacks.



Moving on, we've got some gargoyle business to be doing. I am jumping ahead with this - we technically don't know how to get the gargoyle going yet, I think - but I believe I've already broken the quest in some way, so fuck it. I know that the three things we need are the Gargoyle Franklin Badge, the werewolf blood and Thaumaturgical Creatures, but what I didn't know for a while was where the gargoyle was. Turns out, it's actually at Gimble's place. If you recall the "orders" part of his computer, he says that he intercepted the shipment, now has the gargoyle in his possession and is experimenting with finding potent enough blood.



Basically, this thing is the gargoyle. Well, time to get to bringing this thing to life!



...I forgot the werewolf blood. Bollocks. I must have left it in the Santa Monica haven.



Alright, we're back. And now I realize I don't exactly know what to do, just that those three items are involved. I guess I put these two into the gargoyle?



Well, the screen faded to black, the gargoyle is now standing, and... I'm stuck?



Oh god, a pedestal materialized under me and now I'm fused to it! Noclip to the rescue!



So now we have a pedestal... I guess we put the book on it?



Oh, and now we can use the book, and it has a hidden compartment. I guess this is where the talisman goes. The talisman that is now in the gargoyle and I can't get at anymore. Bollocks. Reload!



Once we put the talisman in the book, the gargoyle springs to life and our character names it Rockbiter. That's a stupid name. Gargoyles doesn't eat rocks, they drink blood. A proper name is befitting of this new member of our army (or whatever I'm going to call it), and as such, he shall forthwith be known as Edward VII of Saxe-Coburg and Giovanni. He acts like any other companion, so we just send him to our haven for now, since next up will be sneaking.



So, next up, the museum!

...

Well, that's what I'd say, but as it turns out, I lost the footage for the museum. That's kind of a problem, but as it turns out, the museum actually didn't have any changes I could see, so it's not that big a loss. And yes, that means they added no combat segments. I know, it's hard to believe. All that happened was that I snuck around a lot, then made it to the last part with lots of cameras, where I proceeded to get caught a lot by single guards, cast Command on them, then snapped their necks from behind until I eventually made it to where the sarcophagus was supposed to be. I also picked up the fetish that Pisha was looking for and a skill book for Inspection. I went back to LaCroix and he sent me to Hollywood, so that's where we're going now. There should be more interesting things there anyway, so let's not dwell on the museum.

You know, the great thing about snapping everybody's necks and not getting detected by the cameras (because you turned them off) is that you look like a super-ninja that got the drop on everybody and silently dispatched them, not a klutz that got caught several times and relied on vampire magic to bail them out. Anyway, on to Hollywood!



Upon our arrival, we are accosted by the local Anarch community.



So we give the local Anarch community our regards. After shaking the cops, we go and check out the Red Spot for some new weapons or armor.



Somebody left some cash in the freezer. Well, I'm not going to compla-



Suddenly, robbery! Note: Over the next series of screenshots, pay attention to the subtitles. They're a thing of beauty.

Put your hands up, put your fucking hands up right now!



Open the register.



Wha... I...
I said open it, fucktard!



Oh god, oh god, don't hurt me!



God damn, you're pretty.
What are you doing, man?
Just having some fun...
Please... please, just...
That's right, bitch. Beg for it.



Look, leave her alone...
Shut your fucking hole and open the register!



A gas station robbery? This looks like a job for Captain Sledgehammer!



CHARGE! Victoria has officially gone full Chaotic. Not Chaotic Neutral or Chaotic Evil or anything like that, just Chaotic. Saving prostitutes in alleyways for no personal gain, then turning around and dominating people to just have them hang around her house - I'm really starting to realize just how much I'm playing this entirely based on random whims I'm having. Must be some sort of reaction on not seeing any reason in half the shit I'm encountering in this mod - I don't know why they do what they do, so why put thought into what I'm doing, right?



When we're done dealing out justice in the form of a sledgehammer, we get a cool 200 bucks as a reward...



...plus a free dot in Barter from the cashier dude here, who suddenly talked to me in a completely different voice. I wonder why...



We also pick up the spiffy new armor set and a nifty new submachinegun, the M3A1, AKA the "Grease Gun".



We stop by the Sin Bin, but there's nothing much all that interesting here - well, apart from one thing.



The dancer in the peep show now does full frontal. Well, I guess if there was one place to put that, it would be here. Otherwise, nothing much here.



We take a trip over to Vesuvius, and there's a lot less exposed tits going on here. Guess that's how a more high-class club works?



This dancer over here is offering us a private dance for a fat hundred bucks - this essentially means she's a hooker that costs double at the least, since we can only drink blood from her. Also, she only wears tassels and mesh pantyhose. I'm not sure if I would have to censor that, because I can't actually see anything, but I'm just not going to show a picture and solve the problem that way.



Well, that, and we can dominate her into servitude. So of course I do that and send her to hang around with Azara, Heather and Edward VII. Am I going to do anything with all these people I'm accumulating? Probably not. Meh.



Meeting up with Velvet, she's in such a hurry to get a private one-on-one with Victoria that she leaves afterimages on the way. We get the quest to take out the hunter.



On the way out, I notice this poster, which gives me a good chuckle. Yeah, no boobies here, not at all...



At the Sin Bin, we go through the motions to get everybody out - locking down the one peep show booth...



...stealing the quarters the other guy needs...



...and luring the other dancer away...



...adding her to my collection while we're at it, because why the hell not.



Finally, we get to beat up on the hunter, but apparently, I must have done something wrong, because Velvet bitched me out for being too loud. Is it the sledgehammer? When I reloaded and redid it, using the machete that time, everything went fine, so I guess that was it.



...hm, wait a second, why's the same "<More...>" prompt I saw with the companions here? Does that mean they have some new stuff there?



A special fantasy? I wonder what that's about...



Oh god. This is going to involve her drinking the blood from that creature that has the same effect as Dominate. I could add Velvet to my collection. That does sound enticing for absolutely no reason whatsoever, but if anything, it'll have to wait until we complete the other quest she has. So, we get that quest, and off to the Luckee Star we go.



The screenplay is gotten with little problems. And since we're here, we might as well check up on some other things.



There's a locked room here that contains a laptop, another Heart of Darkness (why?) and some pills. We grab the stuff and check out the laptop.



Under "for friend", we find two options - "sam j." and "don't forget".

don't forget posted:

Don't forget to check if you are followed.

sam j. posted:

I'm waiting for you in the Gallery Noir in Santa Monica.

And as soon as we read that second one...



A helicopter flies in?



Oh god, they're shooting at me! Why are they shooting at me? And why is Ride of the Valkyries playi-

...


You motherfuckers, I just got that.



We take out the helicopter crew, which leads to it exploding...



...and crashlanding in the pool, netting us a sweet 5 XP. So, this pretty clearly sets up a quest, right? Well, guess what happens when we go to the Gallery Noir?

Go on, guess.

Nothing. The questline isn't finished yet. God damnit, that actually had me intrigued there and now I'm not getting any payoff. I really hope that's finished in the next larger patch (which should come any day now from what I can tell, I think?).



We also continue the Southland Slasher quest. In fact, let's finish that off while we're at it, we need to go to Santa Monica to go murder Julius anyway.



On our way there, we find this weird thing on the toilet.



This is actually a pretty nice item, since it can just be activated and deactivated when you feel like it, and you only ever need Research to identify items and use skill books, things you can do from the safety of your haven, where the lowered Humanity won't faze you. I'm keeping this around.



Then I get bonked on the head by a falling car. God damnit.



We make it to the serial killer, and when we go to kill him, he turns into this. Was this what he looked like in vanilla? I feel like that's probably not the case, but I'm not sure.



This guy is a bitch and a half to deal with, even with the healing factor. He's utterly relentless when it comes to closing distance to melee, he's faster than you, and he deals aggravated damage. I had to quaff some blood packs to survive this fight, but eventually he goes down.



While I'm in the area, might as well drop by Mercurio's and pick up my SPAS-15.



Mercurio, where is the SPAS-15. You promised there would be a SPAS-15. So, as it turns out, they replaced the SPAS-15 with that NATO rifle I picked up in the Tremere haven a while back. What a load. With the shotguns having more punch in this mod, I would have loved to get the SPAS back, but nooooo, we can't have fun, can we?



So then I go and take my anger out on Julius.



Next, we head downtown and get the Odious Chalice from Pisha in exchange for that thing we grabbed from the museum.



We also get some more mad stacks from Venus. At this point, our cash is hovering comfortably in the 3000 range - a far cry from when I was bitching about not having enough money in the main LP. Feels pretty nice to just be able to shoot indiscriminately because buying ammo is peanuts.



Next stop, a trip back to home base to see how everybody's doing - seems like everything's in order. Heather kidnapped some guy for me to eat up, I'll do that later.



I also find that Misti, the girl we grabbed from Vesuvius, has a few different outfits - the nipple tassels and pantyhose she originally had, another outfit with nipple tassels and a thong, and then this nice evening wear. She'll be sticking with that - less complicated to think about when it comes to black boxing. It already comes with its own black box. We also get the quest to mess with the restaurant in Hollywood - just another item on the to do list.



Finally, we drop off the screenplay and tell Velvet that Julius is dead. Since I've been extra nice to her, I get her signed photo, which is worth a pretty penny if I were to sell it. I think that's a pretty good time to stop - next time, we'll continue bopping through Hollywood, doing side quests and shit. Also, I just realized that I'm coming up on the spot where I've originally taken over at the main LP. I'm coming full circle!



Also, here's Heather's new "sexy" outfit. Not a fan, really.