Part 12: Stephansdom
It appears the reason we had to wait until morning to progress was because our party couldn't climb over a gear that was in our path.
Ok, come on. You're telling me that they couldn't climb over that gear with those gaps between the teeth? Or use those wooden planks for leverage? Or just boost each other over?
Lasombra ghouls are the main enemy of this dungeon. They're nothing special. If they're not using melee weapons, they're using crossbows to attack from a distance.
The gimmick of this dungeon is that the sunlight can hurt us.
Like that. It doesn't do that much damage, and since the sunlight seems to be confined to small areas, it seems like this shouldn't be a problem.
Until we have to go outside. This gimmick is more annoying than anything, so I don't know why they thought it was a good idea to make the majority of the dungeon full of areas that will kill us. Remember when Wilhem said they in order to rest, we should find a room where absolutely no sunlight could enter? Well we seem to be fine as long as we don't touch the sunlight.
The AI for our party members isn't smart enough to avoid the sunlight. We can somewhat counter this by switching to defensive mode -- so they don't run out to engage enemies in the sunlight -- but they'll still walk into the sunlight when following the controlled party member.
So, we'll leave them back in the hallway and send Christof ahead.
That's what Theft of Vitae looks like.
Unfortunately, there's no way we can avoid the sunlight up ahead. We can't just jump down from a higher ledge.
Downstairs...
There's another tome. Though we can use these on any of our party members, I find it fitting that Christof uses them because of how much he's built up to be an ace at whatever he does.
One thing I should have brought up when we were at the northern quarter was something I read on tv tropes.
quote:
Anachronism Stew: Though the manual says he's unusual in respecting Jews, this isn't merely unusual for the Crusades, it's significant to the point that Christof wouldn't have been hailed as a hero, but considered morally compromised in the Church's eyes.
To be fair, I couldn't find any mention of Christof's treatment of Jews in the manual, but he did treat the Jews in the northern quarter with respect.
This is the hardest enemy in the game. This swinging pendulum will take out 90% of your health when it hits you, and also freeze you in place, which results in being hit a second time and dying.
It's not possible to get past the pendulum without using celerity.
Too bad I haven't put enough dots in it to matter.
Let's get everybody caught up with Christof.
This is incredibly weird, but when I reloaded the game, the pendulum was glitched and swinging in a different direction. I couldn't get a good shot of it, so here's a video of the pendulum attempts.
Somehow Wilhem survived.
That's what the glitched pendulum looks like after pressing the switch to stop it.
This was something I found in a treasure chest next to the tome of dominate. Not that useful.
We have to make it so the levers on the far right and far left and pulled down. I figured out by trial and error. I don't know if there's anything in the game explaining it.
Our party travels with us, thankfully.
You should remember what plague wind looks like from the fight with Mercurio, but here it courtesy of Serena.
There's Shambling Hordes in action. Too bad he dies after one hit.
Vigor Mortis lets us take control of a dead body...
But he dies after being shot with one arrow.
I'm not seeing the purpose of using Aura Perception.
If left to her own devices, Serena will use Plague Wind on any enemy, even when it's not in a group.
Who leaves bottles of werewolf blood in a chest?
We can see the reflections of our party in the mirror.
Man, that's so clever.
After pressing the right buttons, the gate goes away.
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What? What are you talking about, Christof?
Upstairs...
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Nothing short of poetry.
The shadows are nothing special. Serena felt the need to use plague wind on this one, but feral claws is more than adequate for taking them down.
Erik is now an elder. I have no followup.
More rare blood found in treasure chests.
Luther Black must be pretty fearsome to have so many ghouls guarding him.
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But we could see all of you in the mirror! If Wilhem meant Lasombra specifically, you'd think he would have said so.
The next puzzle in the dungeon is that we have to make dinner for Christof.
This 'Plate' really isn't useful until much later in the game. But we'll find out about that later.
The extra protection against elements isn't as useful as the extra lethal protection we get from our studded leather armor.
I wonder why they decided to make the shadows look like ink smears or something.
Finally.
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Orsi the betrayer?
You know, you'd think that if Luther was causing as much trouble as Orsi said, he wouldn't be asking to die.
Does the church have an official stance on vampires other than 'kill every one you see'?
Christof Romuald, paragon of goodness.
Who also seems to be making this shit up as he goes.
I haven't heard a better argument than that.
Luther hasn't either, apparently.
What does Christof do? Vote here!