Part 21: Episode XXI: Roger's Résumé

Episode XXI: Roger's Résumé



What is this...?
Wow. What a mansion!

Welcome to Patrick Hayward’s manor. We’ll be spending the bulk of Disc 3’s remainder scouring the depths of this mansion and its secrets, whatever they may be. It’s 1898, surely it doesn’t hold a secret Umbrella monster overrun alchemist laboratory anywhere within it. Corny puzzles and traps are another matter altogether. They just go hand and hand with mansions, you see. Old tradition.





The front entrance to Patrick’s Quarters actually leads back out to the central courtyard where Koudelka began this disc. From here, it is possible to retrace our steps back to the church and go fight the Gargoyle properly. Seems the party reunited has enough constitution to not immediately run for the hills. The Gargoyle is Koudelka’s optional superboss enemy. But doing that now with our current levels and equipment is... ill-advised, to say the least. We’ll tackle that at another time and disc...



For now, let’s enter the main mansion hall and begin our exploration. To the right of the stairs, next to the entrance to the mansion from the Charlotte’s Cell corridor, is this extremely cumbersome set of steps, clearly meant for some manner of giant being, leading to a door at the top. We’re going to go check this out first.



That carpet is hideous. If Elaine decided on this mansion’s décor, I’m glad she’s dead... Shit's atrocious. Anyway, this hallway has a couple of doors on either end. We’ll investigate the one in the bottom left in a moment. We’re just going to make our lives slightly easier by heading through the top-right door first. Doing so unbolts it from this side.



This just leads to the top of the main hall’s staircase. The only other door up here is held shut by a boss battle checkpoint. So at least we know the direction of progress whenever the party forcefully exorcises another ghost or fights the Tyrant or whatever else might go down in this mansion.



The top of the stairs here is noteworthy solely because of a brief random battle the party encountered here. The enemy in question was just palette-swapped upgraded version of the Shadow ghost balls we’ve already seen. It died in a single magic cast. The enemy itself isn’t the important part.



What it randomly dropped was important. It’s a new piece of armor! We can finally equip James with something in that inventory slot, half-way through Disc 3 of 4. The (Air) Robe grants 5 Luck and a very respectable 16 PIE. Though James’s deficiency in stats is physical, not magical, so this robe is fairly useless overall. Still, it’s nice we could finally equip our third party member with a proper shirt some eight hours after we acquired him.



Doubling back the way we came, there’s more to this corridor. The door at the far end gives us the above prompt. Surely we’ll need to gather three or four emblems or maybe seek out a valve handle to sort out this troubling obstacle.



Oh... or we can just look at the statue directly to the right of the door, click a button and the door immediately unlocks. Well... I guess that works too... Tch. If you want to be boring about it. Back in my day if you weren't melting statues to obtain precious jewels within or remembering colored sequences of flashing lights to input at a latter time, a place wasn't even worth exploring. Alas... Let’s gather our party before venturing forth and enter to find...



Roger Bacon how did you manage to get in here? We had to make a full loop across half the monastery grounds through caverns, cut through a ghost child’s room and solve a very complex puzzle to get this far. And you just... walked in off-screen earlier? I’m calling foul.



<cracks bones and searches through books> Hmm... I know it’s around here somewhere...
<notices party approaching> Hmm... What took you so long?



Roger, I have a—
<interrupts> Isn’t he the mummy from the coffin? Since when have you two been acquainted?
Since when I was wandering alone after some certain brave gentlemen ditched me with a demon in a certain church...
Oh... well.
...... <walks off>



I am no mummy! My name is Roger Bacon and I’m just like any normal old man.
Hey! I’ve been around for twenty years and I have yet to run across an old man as abnormal as yourself.
Hmm... Twenty years? Very impressive! You made it to the double-digits... Don’t hurt yourself now.
I see... Well I have been around for more than six hundred years and I have seen plenty of ABNORMAL people just like myself!
...... <backs away off screen>



My dear old man... Might you be related to the great warlock, Roger Bacon, who made such a name for himself in the thirteenth century?
<turns to James> Oh hoho! Yoooou are very knowledgeable! Hm. I am that warlock, Roger Bacon, that you speak of!
You mean to tell me that you were born in 1210 and have remained alive and well until the present day of 1898?
Actually... to be precise I was born in 1214.
I’ve had enough birthdays. Don’t need to latch on a couple extra ones to my years, now do we? Hehe.
......
Koudelka, what type of a joke is this...?
That’s my question.



Well this is no joke!
<starts stomping up and down cracking bones all the while> I AM the reputable Roger Bacon!
Very well, then. If you were truly that Roger Bacon, then you’ll be able to tell me with whom and where you studied.
Tch. That's easy. I entered Oxford in 1247 and studied under the tutelage of Robert Grosseteste. Although a good professor, I would not consider him to be a wise man.
But don’t tell him I said that...
Being dead for several hundred years, I don’t think that will be an issue.
Dead as a doornail since 1253. Hehe... But I don’t know if you’ve noticed lately, being dead hasn’t stopped some from skittering around. Most irritating. But I digress...
I penned my masterpiece Opus Majus as well as numerous other books on natural science.
<silently walks back over and tries not to make eye contact with Roger>



<notices Edward and yells at him> BEING A VISIONARY PIONEER!
......
Hmm.... I must say that my work has influenced generations of work that followed.



<both lose interest and start looking through the pile of books>
But alas, in hindsight, that work pales in comparison to the work I did copying the Émigré Document for the Pope.



The Émigré Documents... I figured you would know about that book.
Ohh... NOW he believes who I am. Hmph.
Of course! It took me five years to copy the book in its entirety. I know everything there is to know about the book.
Incredibly tedious to line the thing up on a bookshelf. The skull-shape is completely irregular. I don’t know what they were thinking...

Koudelka wanders back over.



What is it about? Is it—
Oh, it unravels the secrets of life that expand far beyond the largest field. It speaks... of the secret rituals conducted by the ancient race of Formors on... immortality.
<gets in Edward’s face> The Formors would claim the lives of the resurrected as their own...
O... K... What was a Formor, again?
An ancient race! Were you not paying attention!?
What...? Like a caveman? That doesn’t really explain the question.
MOVING ON!
They... reversed the laws of nature and the cycle of life. When the Druids took over the Celts, Alexander the Great penned the Émigré Documents in Greek for placement in the Great Library.
Resurrecting the dead... It is true...
<turns to Koudelka> Oh the Émigré Document has long been considered the most dangerous work of literature.
...... <wanders off-screen again>



It was safely guarded in the caverns of the Supreme Pontiff's quarters. But apparently, the book was not able to withstand the wears of time over generations and the Pope decreed that a new edition be created by copying the full text. That is where *I* came in... The Pope requested that I copy the book word-for-word. And when the work was finished... Apparently, I was supposed to be killed... Heh... Heh. BUT I AM NOT ONE TO BE DEALT WITH SO CARELESSLY! I secretly escaped and eventually I made my way to the sacred land referred to in the text of the Émigré Document. Heh...



And the secret rituals...? Don’t tell me...
You need look no further... than myself.
And you succeeded...
Hmm... Though I cannot perform the same on others... Yes! I have been able to escape the hands of death! But I have not been able to escape the roots of existence which are the seeds of change. My body... is not immune to change.
You don’t say? You don’t look a day over seven hundred.
Argh! I am ONLY 684, thank you very much!
You can see by... my hideous appearance. Hmm... I’ve have had nothing to do other than roam the earth for the last three hundred years!
Minus a hundred or so due to a nap that... heh... got out of hand, let us say...
I've seen... all I can take... of mankind's cruelty. So... I returned here. For some rest. Heh. Well... hmm... Enough of this gossip! I've got some research to do, eh!



<squats back down with books and looks over shoulder at Edward> May I ask to be left alone...?
<shrugs and wanders off>
<turns over should to James and Koudelka> Hmm? Hm?



And with that we’ll leave Roger Bacon to his reading in peace. Tune in next time as we uncover more of the mansion’s secrets, finally find a use for a key item you’ve probably all forgetten we picked up a dozen updates ago and perhaps get a lore dump on Patrick Hayward’s use of the Émigré Document and how he totally fucked up everything. All this and more as Koudelka continues!






Video: Episode 21 Highlight Reel (You should always watch Roger Bacon chew scenery.)





Koudelka Manga Formor Art – The Author of the Émigré Document that appeared in the non-canon Koudelka manga. This ancient race never gets brought up again. As far as mythology goes, Formorians were a race from Irish folklore that were giant (in the literal sense) asshole raiders that came from the sea or deep underground to stir up shit as an explanation for destructive forces of nature. They were similar to the Jötnar from Norse Mythology.