Part 34: Update XXXIV - Endspurt

Update XXXIV - Endspurt



Alright, let's see if I can't get my shit together and finish this before I have to take another larger break. When we last left our heroes, we had went to taverns, fought dudes, fought monsters, and got hit on. In the bigger picture, this was pretty much of no consequence. Now, we find ourselves in Klipping, and we're being set upon by a whole bunch of cats.



Stay away, you little hairy beast!
What does it want from me?
They probably have it in for that smelly fish that you've been carrying around all this time!

Believe it or not, carrying the fish around until it starts stinking was part of a sidequest. We need to attract the cats, because then, as we take a step forward, we hear a dog barking!

THAT WAS JULIE!
That came from the little shed over there!



JULIE! HEEL!



And there we go, there's the monster cat that's been going around Königsberg. As you can tell, it's pretty fucking big, and backs up my reasoning of this being a big fucking deal.



And now, Julie is back in our party, bringing us back to the full four members.



She also learned some new tricks while we were gone - she can now go for an enemy's jugular, which is basically just a stronger attack. She's still completely AI-controlled, so it's still random what she does, but now she at least has some more powerful moves. The demon cat doesn't last that long, though it's a hell of a lot tougher than the crap we went through last chapter.



Julie... you followed us all the way to Königsberg...
Well, of course! A dog always follows those that give it its food.
I'll pretend I didn't hear that...
The poor thing... she's just skin and bones...
We'll give her something to eat later...

No, we won't. Normally, dog food is how you heal Julie - normal healing items won't work. But spells work just the same, so we'll just do that instead. We've still got shit to do, after all.



For instance, we've got to deal with this black priest going around throwing curses on people and shit - we can't have that!

This must be the house that warrior of the order told us about.



You again? What do you want this time?
We know about everything going on here, you pale twerp! Dark cults, human sacrifice, all that...
Who put those ideas in your head? I don't know about any cults in my house.
The young warrior you cursed with your illness!
Then he's still alive... and you're here to save him, is that right?
You're really quick on the uptake, aren't you? Now show me the way to your high priest, or I'll chop you into little pieces!
I'm truly sorry, but I've pledged my soul to the Dark God. I can't let you pass!
1) Then die! 2) Wait! Let's talk!

You know it's going to be good when the game gives you the option to talk it out, so let's do that right away.

There's nothing to talk about. You know too much. You can't leave this house alive under any circumstances.
1) Alright, then die! 2) What did they promise you?

Let's keep probing, there's got to be something here.

Nothing more than what nature has promised every other human. The ability to lead a life like everybody else... without this disfigured face.

Now, Malthur steps forward.

WHO ARE YOU?
Didn't they tell you about me? About Malthur, the Bringer of the Gospel?
They did, but I thought that was just a legend!
A legend? And then why do you believe the other things the dark priest told you?
But I had no choice!
No, you have a choice! I myself was also thrown into this world with an immense burden - with pure evil coursing through my veins.
But I took my life into my own hands and gave it new form! I know the true nature of the Dark God - he always takes, he never gives!
And if it seems like he might have given something, then he is cheating you! For what he has given, he will take back thousandfold!
But... but... what can I do now?
What is your name, my son?
Naggash... Naggash Izzar.
Go out into the world and give back that which you have taken from it in the years you have served the Dark God.
And one day, the world will respond and reward you for what you have done.
Good... you're right. For months now, I've been plagued by a bad conscience and nightmares... you should know this: The master is down in the basement. He has a prisoner with him.
We'll handle it.
Farewell... and... thanks!

And he leaves. Scenes like this are why I love Malthur as a character. Atoners are occasionally seen in games, but there rarely is one that feels as genuine as Malthur - but I guess that can mainly be attributed to the game just being very well written period. Now, let's head downstairs and see what's what.



The breath of the Dark God hangs over this place like a blight. This cult must be incredibly powerful.
Yes, even I can feel it.
We have to be very careful.

Well, let's step forwards a bit more...



...and stop!

Holy smokes! They have a girl chained to that altar!
Look at her! That has to be the girl Genji told us about!
That's a sacrificial altar!

What, the girl? Dialogue's a bit stilted here because Libra's line is optional - after all, you could have made it here without hearing about Kati from Genji. Anyway, our group retreats.



What should we do now?
If we just storm the place, they might just kill the girl!
I know! Anybody have an idea?
You're the leader, Grandy. You decide!
1) We storm the place! 2) Let's let Malthur do this. 3) Libra... fireball!

Storming the place can work out, and I can't remember how the fireball exactly works again, but the safe option is letting Malthur deal with it, so let's do that.

Can't you trick them somehow? I mean, these guys worship your father, right?
It seems worth a try to me.



With that, Malthur walks all the way to the middle of this pentagram as the others just watch.

By the bowels of the lord! Has the day of the arrival come, for the Dark Lord to send his herald?
You and all the other worms may cheer, rejoice and wallow in the mud, for today you will meet your Dark Idol!
Then the day has finally come when he will conquer this sphere. What joy!
Sorry to disappoint you, you slug, but it will be you that will take the trip.
You are confusing me with your strange talk, sir... or are you maybe not who you claim to be... a fake, even?



No, idiot - you are not mistaken! I am Malthur, born only to spread HIS belief.
Just see my sword Thanatos. Who else could carry it, if not Malthur, the Dark Prince?



And kaboom!

Idiots...



Not bad, Malthur. Why don't you do that more often?
It was the dark energy in the center of this hexagram that gave me this power.

Oh well. It would be nice if we could just blow people up like that more often.



Oh, there's something in his pocket.

And we get a key. This surely will be useful later.



Did you come to save me?

Does she look familiar? Because she should. I told you to remember her. I'm not sure you can call this foreshadowing - more a nice little bit of continuity.

For what else would we have come?

And we free her.

I don't know what to say - I'm still so confused. I already thought I was dead. My name is Kati. When you're at the Flying Fish, the drinks will be on me. But now I have to get to work!



And there she goes. Let's follow her, we need to talk to that order guy.



I'm so grateful! Drink as much as you want!

And now we can drink beer for free. But of course, we've already established that's not a good thing.



There you are! Look at me! The illness has fallen off of me!
We found the priest and made demon mincemeat out of him!
I am forever indebted to you! Here: Take my weapon as a token of appreciation.
A battle staff? We've already got one of those.
This is no ordinary staff. It was blessed by the priests of my order.
The scum of the seven hells will quake in their boots when you pull this weapon on them.
Thanks. That's just what I need.

Meh. Considering that I haven't had Libra attack in melee this entire chapter, this is pretty useless. I guess it could be considered a backup if Libra ran out of MP, but that should never happen, given that she's the only source of easy healing. So yeah, meh.



Kati told me that you rescued her! I'm so grateful! You can drink until you fall over!

NO.

Say, Genji - now that Kati is back, wouldn't you like to ask her out?
I'd definitely like to, but I don't know how she'd react. She must have plenty of admirers with how pretty she is... I'm sure she doesn't want to hear from a fatty like me.
Don't worry, son. I'll deal with this.

I don't like the way you're looking, Grandy. What the hell is your plan? So, we go over to Kati...

Hey, Kati, I've got a question...
Oh dear, I can already imagine what this is about judging from the look on your face... I have to disappoint you - my heart already beats for somebody else, even if you'll always have a special place in it.
Wipe that grin off your face and start over, dear!
If you say so...
I'm sorry, but I don't understand...
Umm... it's about Genji. You know, he's completely head over heels in love with you, and it might be nice if the two of you went out for a bit...
Real subtle there...
But how could you tell?
Tell? Tell what?
That Genji is the boy my heart beats for. I never told him because I always thought he only thought about the tavern...
I don't know, myself. I can just feel something like that.
Braggart...
Anyway, he would really like to meet up with you, too. Just tell me when and where, and he'll be there.
Best right now! ...but we still have to work... then tomorrow! A walk along the cliffs together would be great!
I'll go and tell him!

...and back to Genji.

And? ...have you accomplished something yet?
Of course, Genji. She wants to go for a walk with you to the cliffs of Klipping tomorrow.
Really? Wow! You're a great guy!

And we get some experience. Yay for sidequests! Now, time to bop around the city some more, putting off what we actually want to do.



Locked...

As you may have noticed, the dark priest we killed looked kind of familiar, right?

Wait a second, this key is just as dark as this lock.
There we go!

And in we go!



Let's see what the dark priest has hidden here...

Looking around, we can first find a little chest at the top (you can barely see it in the above shot, right at the top of the "h" of "hat").

Let's see what's in this little chest up here...

And we find a cool 6000 bucks. That'll help for sure. This is actually a Bad Thing if we didn't visit this guy during the daytime, and I don't get that at all. I have no idea why we need to visit him during the daytime to figure out that the guy holding the key to this house is probably the guy the house belonged to. I mean, we didn't find any corpses, so they probably didn't sacrifice somebody else before that and the guy took the key from him, and if it was further back, why would the money still be there? Don't get this at all.

The "black bank"...

And then there's something in the closet down at the bottom right.

What's this? A helmet?
That's Amorath!
Amo... what now?
Amorath. That helmet there. I lost it back in the battle of Rabenstein.
Those guys probably used it as a relic for some sort of dark ritual.



Still not a great defense value, but given that Malthur doesn't get any other upgrades, it's quite welcomed.



Now, let's check out this house again.



Nobody home? Let's check upstairs.



Uh-oh, looks like somebody was hungry.



The jugular is completely torn apart...

Hm, let's check back downstairs...



Why hello there!



So, it looks like Trudel got turned into a vampire as well, but it must have happened recently, since she was out in the sunlight just a few days ago. At least that's what I think I'm supposed to infer from "Trudel shows up, then disappears, then her husband is killed by a female vampire with the same hair color". Anyway, she goes down pretty fast, but I'm sure going down fast isn't anything new for her.

I'm sorry, I just couldn't help myself.



Strangely enough, she ends up doing the whole "return to coffin" thing as well, which should imply that Wahnfried made her into a vampire - I think. I still don't have a grip on the siring logic in this world.



Thankfully, we can just find her and her coffin down in the basement.

There's that wench!
Come on, Grandy! Grab your hammer and finish her off!
How about you do it this time, Malthur? I'm sure you're more experienced in this matter.
Practice makes perfect, Grandy.

And we stake the shit out of her, just like the one in Wahnfried's mansion.



And before we leave, there's one more thing to do - since we know this guy is going to rise up as a vampire himself, we might as well just kill two birds with one stone.

What do you think, Grandy? Sarabian fire?
1) What else? 2) We might still need it.

Using Sarabian fire could be a Bad Thing if we used too much of it and the game had to restrict us to make sure we still have enough for Wahnfried's coffins. But since we have more than enough, we can blow this guy up for some extra XP.



Now, for what is basically the main event of this evening.

Locked...

Hm... I'm sure Bloch is out again, drinking heavily...
1) Open the door with the lockpick? 2) Nah...

Let's do this!



There's a few interesting things here. Let's check them out. First, some cupboards, closets and bookcases.

All sorts of coats, a fur coat and a rain coat... everything extra large!
Did you expect anything else?

A collection of all the cases Bloch has treated. Meticulously sorted by name and symptom.
The good doctor should probably invest in a better security system. In the wrong hands, these notes are worth a fortune.

Sedatives... could we use something like this?
I prefer not being TOO relaxed when going into battle.

"I'm A Pig - You're A Pig", "How To Make Enemies", "The Art of Hating"...

Wonderful literature. And then there's that letter on the desk.

A shopping list with a whole bunch of strange things I've never heard of... must be medicine for his patients.
Wrong, Grandy. This is an assortment of chemicals, mostly used by tanners and embalmers.
What would he need that for?

Hmm... let's go upstairs.



Nothing interesting up here, except that door.

The door is nailed shut... 1) Break it open? 2) Better not.

Oh come on, stop teasing, let's see what's in there!



Oh god.

What's going on here?

Let's ignore the elephant in the room and instead check out the surroundings - there's a cupboard that has some interesting stuff, and some books.

A whole bunch of letters...
No, Grandy. Those aren't letters. Take a closer look. These are all shopping lists, cleaning schedules and the like. All addressed to "Robert". And not very politely written.

A whole bunch of cheap novels. "Physio", "Only Without My Mother", and "Throw Mommy Out The Carriage".

We're getting rapidly less subtle as we go along. Now, let's see what's up with this body here.

She seems to have been sitting here for a few years now...
Completely mummified... the poor old lady...
While we're on the topic of "lady", shouldn't Bloch's mother be up here somewhere? I mean, we heard her voice.
I fear we're standing in front of her...
Are you serious? So we're dealing with another ghost? But it was daytime when we...
I don't think it was her voice we heard. I think it was Bloch, who disguised his voice.
Bloch himself? Why would he do something so absurd?
I don't know myself, but on my travels through the Kostakian highlands I heard a similar story.
A young hostel warden named Namorn Setab and his mother...

Rapidly less subtle as we go along. Suddenly, we hear a door slam, and this music kicks in!

What was that?
Bloch is coming home.
Grandy, I'm almost certain that Bloch killed his mother. If he finds us here, he definitely will want to stop us from going to the guards with this knowledge...
But regardless of what happens, we can not kill Bloch under any circumstance! He is still a respected citizen of this city!
Understood...

And as we exit the room...



Oh god! Now Bloch is wandering around, trying to murder us, and if he touches us, it does a decent amount of damage, but not enough to bring us into real danger. Our objective is then to walk in and smack the shit out of him - there is no risk of killing him, we're just beating him unconscious.



HOW? WHERE? WHAT?
Have I gone nuts or something? What's with that absurd costume? What's with the knife? And most of all: WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?
Believe me, Grandy, you're better off not knowing...
How am I supposed to take that, now?



After we leave the house, we automatically head to the guards.

...you know, I should send you to jail for a day for breaking and entering and assault...
But on the other hand it really seems like Dr. Bloch killed his mother.
However, for now I have to forbid you from leaving the city.
If your suspicions end up being untenable, you can be sure that you'll be brought to justice for it!
Alright, sir Krähenschwinge. Just one question: How did nobody notice that the mother went missing?
You don't think that I'm going to give classified information like that to just any random adventurer, do you?
Understood...

Once a twat, always a twat. Well, that'll be enough for this time. Next time, we'll actually do what we were planning to do this night!