Part 16: Hi there. Are you lost?

Dismal Land is the last "proper" location we're going to visit before venturing inside Satan's stronghold. Yes, we're that far into the game already.



One recurring, um, situation on Hell's level three is that guards sometimes don't attack us until we try talking to them.



Interaction with 2 Police Dudes



I'd love to avoid the fight, but how would I otherwise capture the screenshot?



The cops destroy Alan's Demon Fork, alas.



We turn east and follow the city wall.





Let's talk to the punk!



Must be Sammy Hagar, not the other Hagar.

Well, yeah, anyway. Alan's already got the Swimming skill covered.



Dr. Jekyll is yet another recruitable companion.



This is one of the quests we've been carrying a Dark Pistol around for.



I wouldn't call Jekyll a valuable addition to the party.



The "gather some things around my office" part is a trap.



See those star circles? Now if we try stepping on them without Jekyll in our party, nothing happens:



Not so with Jekyll in.



Richard permanently loses some of his passive skills as we step on the circles.



For one, his Rifle skill is completely gone. Choices and consequences!



Only two of the six circles are harmful in that way. Stepping on the other four doesn't seem to lead to anything at all.





Jekyll's only unorthodox skill is Chemistry. I haven't been able to discover any use for it, though.

We leave Jekyll be and explore Dismal Land further, stumbling on another recruitable NPC:



The infamous Blackbeard.



"I sure am glad I'm not in his shoes. You want me to join your party?"

No, I'm afraid we don't.




Blackbeard is nothing special anyway.



Interaction with 5 Murderers



Even murderers shun us. Truly we've grown notorious.



Interaction with 7 Crazy Guys



At least the crazy guys still look up to us!



Interaction with 1 Moaner



Now what Captain Bligh says doesn't make much sense. There is no General being held in a supply depot. Unless Bligh means Code-Warrior, who joins our party as "Code", "Warrior" being in that case "the rest of him". No idea if he would qualify as a general, however.



Interaction with 1 Tormented



Scrooge, assigned to give things away for free, hands us a Phreaker Box. It is a plot-critical item we need to get inside Devil's Fortress.



Interaction with 3 Street Dudes



In contrast to Scrooge, the street dudes aren't very helfpful.



Interaction with 2 Soldiers



I thought this was supposed to be a Christian game.



We cross a great lava field and enter a lonely house.

Interaction with 1 Sword Guy



Hammurabi's in here, and he isn't exactly happy.



We can grab a clay tablet from the garbage can, but there seems to be no way of helping poor Hammurabi. Giving him Holy Water (or any liquid for that matter, or using Ice Beam) has no effect. I also tried using the tablet near the pool (as well as in the bathroom) and even activating Jekyll's Chemistry skill, but to no avail. If there is a puzzle here, it's a really obscure one.



Swimming in the pool is a way of increasing Richard's skill.





Not by much, though.



Another, more efficient way is to learn from a trainer.

Interaction with 1 Diver



Good thing we still have that Dark Pistol. (Actually, we don't need to improve Richard's Swimming skill since Alan's is already high enough, but whatever.) We put it on the table.





We learn Swimming, but also an intriguing piece of info: a student tells us Alison isn't in fact being held inside Satan's Fortress, but rather in a cave to the northeast of Dismal Land.

That merits investigation, so we exit the city and look for the cave.



I wonder what awaits us in there...

BONUS SECTION

So yeah, as I said earlier...


So let's do just that!





Guderian has Bureaucracy of 20, which should help us in Beelzebub's Bane.

The anti-Hitler conspirators don't in any way react to Guderian having been set free, by the way:



Such a shame.

Hitler himself does react, however:



Now we have to free the guy again. :P



And to Beelzebub's Bane we go.





The clerk is, unfortunately, as stubborn as ever. Activating Guderian's Bureaucracy manually doesn't help either.

But we're stubborn too.



Interaction with Code



First we try ditching Guderian and replacing him with Code-Warrior. Let's see if that helps.



It does help to a certain extent...



But Bureaucracy is missing.

So we reload and give Alan the boot.



Okay, let's give this a go.





We went through all this, and all we got is a lousy laptop. There's still no way to access those chests.

Which means the side quest is only there as an alternative way to obtain a Laptop we need to hack our way inside Satan's Fortress. We already grabbed one in the City on the Edge of Eternity earlier, however, so Alan can stay.

Next time: please, Richard, don't kill us!