Part 14: "Sexless Old Women"

Update 13 - "Sexless Old Women"



In with the new, out with the old.


It should be obvious, but in case it isn't, there's no way to get Elvis back. This robot will have his freedom.

You won't be sorry you let me in on this.



Charley doesn't have a response. I'd be a little freaked out, too.

Ellen hasn't said anything so far, but Charley acted like she protested to his offer to join Stark's party. Does she have any new dialog, now that he has?



Please accept this gift. It's 5,000 dollars. It's all I have left after Charley's medical bills. Thank you again. Charley's already been talking about going with you. This little setback hasn't slowed him down a bit. We both can't wait to get out of this awful place and away from that horrible nurse Karl. God only knows what he does to these patients when no one's around?

She's doing that valley girl thing of adding unnecessary question marks to the ends of sentences.


Do we even need money? There's nothing worth buying!



Ellen's gone from BloodNet forever. Strangely, Charley had absolutely nothing to say to her.

Earlier, I mentioned that there was a locked cabinet in the other room of the hospital. We've now got a set of electronic lockpicks, so let's see what we can do.



Those three items are left from our first trip here. I didn't pick them up.



Now we have to search the area to find the new items.



Most of this is just useless shit that we won't pick up (Pharmaceutical kit, First aid kit *useless when you can just rest to heal*, Flexi cast, House call gel), but there are two quest items.


That's the anti-depressant drug we need for Larisa Mayne. Since it needs to be injected, we also need a Syringe, which we also find from that cabinet.

Now, the next logical step would seem to be to head back to the plaza hotel, since we've got a ton of quest items to bring there, but there are a few things I want to do before then.



Remember the instapigment I bought?


There are two places we'll be attacked in unless Stark's vampiric nature is masked by this. The first is obvious: the Red Crosse Knights. We learned about them from Tackett's journal in part 3.


We absolutely need to go there if we want to finish the game, and it's not an easy fight if you go there without using instapigment. The second place isn't so obvious.



We're attacked on sight by some vampire hunters, without using instapigment. You'd think a cemetery is where vampires would conglomerate, but if there were any, they were driven out (or killed) by the vampire hunters. You also might be wondering if Timmy Goldfarb had anything new to say since getting the morph codes, and the answer is no. Even if we didn't destroy the morph spawner, the answer is no.



Right away (before this gif) one of them confronts us.




She would yell "The undead walk before us! Kill the hellspawn bastard!" if we Stark wasn't wearing his makeup. He's just that ugly.

Any reason why you're digging up graves and chopping up those bodies?
Where have you been? We find a lot of vampires among the new dead in this cemetery. Vampires breed more vampires that way, don't you see? A vampire can't perform its evil unless its body is intact. And you can bet none of these are gonna walk the streets of New York tonight.
Here, take this garlic. At least you can protect yourself. And spread the word--the vampire plague is upon us. It's every citizen for himself!


This garlic, along with being the only one of its kind in the game, is useless. If the game was competent at all, I would have attributed it to the game making a statement that these vampire hunters just don't know much about vampires. But that's not the case.

Going here isn't required for anything, but I thought it might be interesting to show off the dialogue.




Who's getting buried here anyway? I thought this place was filled up centuries ago. Anyway, everybody gets cremated since there's no land left anymore.
Yeah, well the rich have found a way. They keep digging up the old graves, cremating the remains, and using the earth for the new dead. They're going right to hell, I tell you.
And what you're doing is that much better?
Hey, I'm just a working man. I spend ten-hour workdays in the silicon sweatshops. I got no power, no money, no say in anything. I can at least protect my family from vampires. The family of this corpse should thank me, too. I'm saving their loved one from eternal damnation.


There a line of dialogue in the game's files that explains why we get this stake: "You should protect yourself, too. Here. Take this stake. You may just have to use it to drive through the heart of a vampire. I ain't never really seen one myself, but I know they come up on you when you least expect it." But the coding messed up so that never plays. The only way to kill a vampire (minus Stark, since he's only half vampire) is to pierce their heart with something. A stake can accomplish this, but there is a better weapon we don't have yet.




Innocent vampires are being oppressed.


_{Pictured: the average Something Awful goon}

At this point I should talk about the items on the ground.



Along with the coffin, there's some dirt, and something called Jellied Gas. You might be wondering if we could have used this coffin for Renfield's quest, instead of the coffin from the museum. To answer that question, let's see what happens if we try to use the other piece of dirt we got from central park.



Nope, and there's no way to get rid of holy water. In the world of BloodNet, you can't just clean a coffin.

There's one last person to talk to.




Ah, no thanks.
You know, it's guys like you that are letting the vampire horde take over this city. We've all got to do our part, and you're not pulling your weight. Who's to say these bodies aren't roaming the earth at night taking victims or that these poor souls aren't soon to be taken as vampires? Get out of my sight. It's apathy like yours that's the ruin of New York.

And that's it for the cemetery.



Now we'll head to the Red Crosse Knights. This place, similar to the hellfire club, is a complex with multiple rooms.



Play these guys straight, Ransom. The Knights probably take a lot of flak over their outfits, but they look like hard guys to me.

Like the hellfire club, a guard starts a conversation with us just after we enter.



Word on the streets is that the Red Crosse Knights are vampire killers. That puts us in the same line of work. I'm here to see your leader. Maybe we could pool our efforts. I, uh, see my source wasn't kidding when she called you fellows knights. You guys an S.C.A. chapter in your spare time?

S.C.A. stands for Society for Creative Anachronism. If you have to look up something to get a joke, it's not a good joke.

I ignore your insults. The protection of the Lord extends even to street scum such as yourself. You may enter.


It looks like they're all wearing that old-style crusader armor. Christof would be impressed. Should we ask them about it?

Excuse me for staring, but I haven't seen many people strutting around in garb like that. Very authentic looking.



So you're not a big believer in this thirteenth-century stuff?
The approach is all wrong. People--especially the young gangers--don't crank on armor and antiquated ideals of decency. Man, this city's suffering from all manner of lust and cruelty slickly packaged and sold by the companies. Whatever you want--the real shit or mind blowing simulations--you dial 'em up from cyberspace. All by yourself, too. Who needs to touch a friend, when you can skim the matrix with a data angel? Why read a book when you can plug into a sim deck and live it?
You want a change, huh?
Have to change if we're going to keep up. When evil appears richer, slicker, and smarter than good, good had better upgrade its ass.
Hey, I hear you. Stick close. I might have a use for a guy like you.

That last line makes me think that the designers wanted Sir Dean to play a role in some quest, if not be an actual companion. But he plays neither role.

There's one of the knights gardening on his knees. What's up with that?



What gives with this place? I feel like I walked into the thirteenth century.
Yes, we have preserved the ancient ways. The Order of the Red Crosse is a hybrid of medieval knighthood and monasticism. We are paladins of the lord, the defenders of the church, crusaders for Christianity.

We're professional LARPers.

I'll buy that, but why the armor and cloisters?
Evil thrives where tradition wanes. This city is proof. The effects of technology have been centrifugal, so that all is fragmented and nothing is permanent and valued. But we aren't Luddites in medieval trappings. We show that technology can be embraced without sacrificing tradition.
Well, good to know you're keeping a sharp eye out for vampires.
You'll find the archabbot inside. We take our orders from him.

The archabbot isn't the one we need to talk to, here.



You got that right, Gawain. Aren't many places a guy with my kind of enemies can turn.

Gawain was a knight of the round table in that old legend. The writers are making the incorrect assumption that the player is familiar with these old references. We're not, and it's only a bad writer who will make these assumptions.

If you grapple with the unholy, you would do well to visit Sir Sebastian. He is a seer, a mystic. Though blind, his vision is great due to his advanced psionic ability. Surely the hand of God has touched him. Though he cannot see your face, he can see into your heart and into your soul. Despite his age and infirmity he is one of our most important members.
How useful is an old psionic against a vampire?
Without Sebastian we would not have our most potent weapon against the vampires, the soulblades we each carry, energy sabers bonded to and powered by our very souls, a lethal merging of quantum physics and metaphysics. Sebastian is the only one of our number able to perform the bonding ritual.

Here, Chrystostom reveals the only purpose of St. Sebastian in the game. We need to get some soulblades for him to bless. If he can see into our "heart and soul", as Chrystostom suggests, then I'm not sure that our instapigment is going to cut it with him.

You telling me these blades are magic?
I prefer to think of it as spirituality, but surely a man with vampires for enemies cannot doubt the existence of the supernatural. The soulblades will kill a vampire only if the blade is ritually bound to its owner and is effective only for that one owner, unless it is once again bound to a different knight.
Where did you get these things? I've been around some, and I've yet to meet an arms dealer hawking soulblades.
Decades ago, Sebastian and a brother knight named Simon sealed themselves in a sub-basement of the cloisters for months, emerging only for food and to change clothes. When they were finished, they presented the archabbot with the prototype for the soulblade, but while they readily shared the basic technology with the order, they refused, to the great anger of the Rector, to divulge the blades' other secrets. Sebastian is a great man. Go to him, but do not try to conceal anything from him. He will see through your efforts and become contemptuous.

AKA he's going to tell if you're a vampire. I'm getting flashbacks to something we saw a while ago...


We need to find out what this possession is, and maybe that will stop Sebastian from detecting Stark's vampirism.

The other two knights in the room are guards that don't have much to say, so we'll head into the upper left room.




We're not going to pick up the useless items in this room.



You have a reason why you chose this life?
I don't have a personal vendetta against vampires, but I feel like I'm doing something to rid this whole city of the filth and crime that's destroyed it. I lost a brother to the crime of this city. He was tempted by narcotics, the devil's poison. Went off with a gang of addicts, and I haven't been able to find him since. Even paid a private investigator to hunt him, but no luck.

You've found the right guy for the job. It's not like Stark has anything better to do with his time than search for a lost kid... oh wait

Maybe I'll run into him. I haven't exactly been knighted here yet. What's his name?
His real name is Stewart Tolchinsky, but I doubt he's going by that name. He's a good-looking kid, eighteen. Before he left home, he was having a real problem with red lifters. The kid couldn't get enough of them. Guess they made him feel invincible. He was always broke. God knows what he's resorted to now to support his habit. If you brought him home, I would make it worth your while--25,000 dollars. I hope God will lead you to save my brother's soul, stranger.

We can find him, but we haven't yet been to the area where he is. The other person in the room is called Lady Remington. Maybe a cousin of Sir Shotgun.



Sorry, didn't know there was someone praying in here.
I wasn't praying. I was putting on these kevlar boots. I'm taking every precaution against these vampire dogs. And I'm training with every weapon I can. They say we're supposed to impale their hearts, but I do more than that. I toast them and rip their hearts out of their bodies and eat them. I live to hear those bastards suffer and see them die like the beasts they are.
I guess some of you guys take this sacred quest stuff more seriously than others.
That sacred quest stuff is crap. I'm here for one reason and one reason only--to get revenge for what those dogs of hell did to my mother. She was taken right on the streets of Manhattan. They drained the life out of her and left her body in the gutter. You know what people of this city did? Nothing. People watched it happen and left her body to die on the streets. I swore that day that I would spend the rest of my life killing as many of the helldogs as I can. In time, I'll get the one that killed my mother.

Hardly any of these knights take this supernatural junk seriously. They're just using the red crosse as means for their vampire killing fetish.

You should protect yourself, too. Here. Take this stake. You may just have to use it to drive through the heart of a vampire. I ain't never really seen one myself, but I know they come up on you when you least expect it.


Now you gotta get out of here. I got guns to clean, ammunition to stock up on. You mind giving me a little room to breathe here?

We'll give you the whole room's worth of space.



Now we'll try the second path from the left.



There's Sebastian. He's got some beads sitting on the floor, next to him.


This is what Cyril Thorpe was referring to as the possession. It's hard to tell without trial and error, but these are what we need to place next to Cyril's physical body back at Cafe Voltiare. Or we would, if Sebastian can actually tell if Stark is a vampire. Is it true?



gangrenous scars. Ohhhhhhhh! Your soul faces unimaginable damnation. Be gone, hopeless one, begone!

It's really hard to tell from that mess of a rant. Maybe he's just off his medication, or really sexually deprived. In any case, we can't get him to bless any soulblades until we do what Cyril says. But before that, we can't get him to bless any soulblades until we actually have soulblades. So we'll go back out to the main cloister and go into the next room in search of some.



All these rooms look the same.



ahahahahahaha.

Here, take this. It's Nosferatutam. Since you're new, you need all the protection you can get. Take a dose of it, and your blood will be poison to a vampire. If you should be so unlucky as to be bitten, but have this sacred potion coursing through your veins, your blood should scald his heathen tongue, and you'll have time to get away. You can only take it twice. Your body's resistance builds up to it, and then its useless. But let's hope the fiends don't get close enough for you to try this stuff out.


As expected with this game, the Nosferatutam doesn't actually work. This game is a train wreck. I swear I had fun playing it the first time. It's just kind of a downer when you realize that it's even more of a broken mess than you thought at first.

In this room, we find the archabbot.




I talked with a knight outside. I think we're fighting the same battle here. I want this hell-trash dead as bad as you do.
Then welcome. I'm the archabbot of the Order of the Red Crosse. We're always looking for new people to join us in our fight against evil. Would you care to learn about our mission?

Get some more back story? Who wouldn't want that?

The Red Crosse Knights are defenders of Christianity and all that is right. Our enemy is Satan and his hellspawn creature here on earth, the vampire. We track them in various ways. We have a network of scouts throughout the city and have stockpiled sacred weapons to destroy them. Many of the knights are now at work preparing for the next battle. Are you interested in joining their fight?

It doesn't matter if we say no, but if we say yes, what we're going to do in a second will make more sense.

Yes.
It would, of course, take some time to be completely prepared. One does not earn the title of knight until after years of dedication to the cause. But my brothers welcome you. We will begin by arming you with the holy weapons.
You read my mind. Where can I find the stuff?
Return outside and take the door at the southeastern point of the garden. Sir Theodoric can help you there. Go with God.

That's where they store the soulblades. Before we leave, there's one more person to talk to. As with everyone else, he insists upon having a title attached to his name.



I'm curious--who puts together that list?
Well, we've established a network of contacts in the city, posts at high-risk areas. We even have a contact on the police force who gives us crime reports. Those suspected of vampire activity are tracked until a scout has proof--no one goes on the big list unless he's been caught in the act. Once you're on the list, we're gonna keep coming for you until we get you. Now, I'm sorry, but I really must get back to work.



In the fourth room, there's a knight who looks a little down on his luck.


You look suicidal, pal? What's the problem?

It looks like they accidentally put a question mark instead of a period, there.



He was killed? How did it happen?
In battle with our most deadly foes, Abraham Van Helsing and the undead who serve him. Last week, the Archabbot received intelligence informing him that a cadre of vampires had staked out Brooklyn Heights as its feeding ground. A squadron of us tracked these demons to an abandoned dance club. As we suspected, the beasts were of Van Helsing. We attacked them, killing several, but they were greater in number than we were led to expect. Several Red Crosses fell, and the rest of us were forced to retreat, leaving our fallen brothers behind. Randall was one of them. His right leg was broken in the melee. He couldn't escape on his own, but to linger and help him meant certain death. You must believe that I was willing to face that fate, but the others rushed me from the warehouse, saving my life, but dooming dear Randall. I only pray that they let him die, that they didn't make him one of them.
I sympathize. I'm not without some experience in these matters.
When a Red Crosse falls, his chest plate must be returned here for enshrinement. Until I am able to regain Randall's breastplate, I am a disgrace to the order. I'll not rest till that noble knight is honored.

If we bring that chest plate back to Anias--yes, we've had access to Abe's penthouse since the beginning of the game, but there's a reason we haven't gone there yet--he can actually join us as a companion.



Here is where the soulblades are stored.




Like he's one to talk, with that glowing yellow eye.

We have just what we need to solve this puzzle. It's not very intuitive--made even worse by the bad UI--but it's an okay puzzle. If we stand by the mirror as-is, and talk to Sir Theodoric, the entire base will go hositle against us because Stark will have been outed as a vampire. That's not good, since the speciality of the red crosse knights is to kill vampires. So, we have to make it seem like we have a reflection. Remember that holocam and the two rolls of film we got?



Oh, I'm sorry.




Now we left-click on the thing we want to record, which in this case, is Stark himself.




Oh, while we're here, I remember that I said the virtual viewer was a disappointment. I thought I remembered the text box saying something like "You see a multitude of bright colors and shapes" or something, but it turns out you can't even use it.



Anyway, now we hit play instead of record.


It does that automatically.



Now we can trick Theodoric into thinking Stark's not a vampire. I'm glad he had his eyes shut for that whole process.



No, I'm not a knight. But I've got a fight of my own against the same enemy.
I guard the sacred items that we use to fight the vampire horde. I can arm you. You'll be ready to take on any hellspawn creature.
These sacred crosses will ward off vampires. You must, of course, have faith. If you don't have the strength of God behind you, they're useless in your fight.


The faith skill turns out not to matter at all when using a cross as armor.

Use these stakes to stab through a vampire's godless heart. Unless they are used by a believer, they too are useless.


Oddly, the wrong script triggers here. We should have gotten a plain wooden stake (and the faith skill still doesn't have anything to do with your chance to hit with them). Theodoric has some lines of dialogue relating to the soul blade that aren't used: "This is our most powerful weapon--the soulblade. It pierces the vampire heart with minimum effort, better than a wooden stake ever could. In battle against laser weapons, what good is a wooden stake? Each soulblade is only as powerful as the bearer's strength allows. It is also bound directly to the soul, so that the weapon becomes uniquely yours. You may have this one. Take it to Sir Sebastian, who can bind it to you. Mind you, his mystic powers sense evil. The soulblade will only work for you if you are truly pure in spirit. Take it. And go with God."

Anything else I should know?
These beasts will also try to use their will to weaken you. Be strong. Ward them off with the cross and counter them with your own will. Please, look through this cabinet and take all the holy weapons you need. I've been guarding them from intruders. You can help yourself.

He's giving us license to take every weapon the Red Crosse Knights have in their backlog. What a guy.

Thank you. I can't tell you what your help has done for the vampire fight.
Lord knows there's enough evil in this city. We could use more strong, able men like you to fight these demons.

After a search...



We'll be taking all the soulblades.


Back on our way to Cafe Voltaire, there's something we should do.



We ought to give that Rimbus Database to Shock Maraud.



Hey, I didn't sign on to bump against the Aggotts.

Charley might protest, but he's not going to leave.

I've got the dbase. I assume our deal's still on.



Should I come with you? Ya better be decisive. I've got partying to do, and if you don't take me with you now, I won't be here if ya change your mind.

He says that before we actually give him the database.



Whichever choice we choose, it'll be 3 in game days before the attacks start. If he joins us, he'll leave in 3 days. I'm not sure if we'll see the attacks or not.. we might finish the game before that happens.



He's a pretty good fighter.



Don't cover up those arms to protect from gun shots or anything.

There's also the question of Coover Tristan, that guy who spoke in quotes. We did what he asked, and we can recruit him if we want.



0 leadership. I suppose you'd expect that from someone with nothing original to say.



If you're wondering if these two have any dialogue, I don't know. I didn't recruit either of them the first time I played the game.

Voting time
Will we bring Shock Maraud into our party? If so, who will he replace?
Will we bring Coover Tristan into our party? If so, who will he replace?

Main Quests
Bring Chuck (Electric Anarchy) the TransTech list of Deirdre's associates
Incriminate Walter McCalaster for Bill Dougan, in order to help Mother Mary
Kill Abraham Van Helsing
Put St. Sebastian's beads next to Cyril Thorpe to get St. Sebastian (Red Crosse Knights) to bless our soulblades

Side Quests
Bring Coover Tristan (Kafka Conspiracy) the multi-channel transmitter
Go back to Larisa Mayne (Plaza Hotel) to cure her madness
Bring Bertrand Foucault (Plaza Hotel) the blood-synthesizing nanotech
Find out what's up with the two pieces of the amulet we are in possession of
Meet Emily Esaki at the Hellfire Club
Find Helvecticus' junky brother
Get the missing piece of Red Crosse Armor for Anias
Wyche Gibbons (Museum of Modern Art) will trade $4000 for the book, Mystics of Catal Huyuk, from the New York Public Library

We should go to these WELLs
MEDIUM is Cyril Thorpe's personal WELL
NYVAULT is the WELL of the New York Bank.