Part 8: Update VIII - Because This Game Wasn't Heavy Enough Yet

Update VIII - Because This Game Wasn't Heavy Enough Yet



Last time, we had some flashbacks and the plot went all timey-wimey on us. Now, it's time for some sidequests in the sewers and out of town, but first, there's a few things we still need to do in town.



Our first stop is the guard station, because we still need to talk to Thar.



You're back again... what's up?
I want to get out of this town!
Then you're going to need a travel permission to travel to Königsberg. You're not from here... how did you get into the town without a travel permission anyway?
1) I beat up the guard! 2) ...over the wall. 3) I misplaced my permission. 4) I'm not sure myself.

As amusing as the last option sounds, we want the first option. There's a few ways to resolve this chain, but this one way is the easiest.

The guardian? Singular? There's only one exit that's guarded by only one guardian - the southern gate! Did you come from the Eastern Marches?
1) Yes. 2) No.

Of course we did.

How did you make it past the warrior guarding the pass? He's supposed to be invincible.
1) We beat him up, how else? 2) We bribed him! 3) He was just out for a moment. 4) He let us pass.

We need to stay truthful here - he let us pass.

Why would he let you of all people pass? That hasn't happened in twenty years!

1) He's my brother. 2) He's my uncle. 3) He's my godchild. 4) He lets the duke pass!

You can see where this is going.

What do you mean with "the duke"?
Grandy, do you really think it's a good idea to tell him everything?
1) Yes. 2) No.

Sure, why not? It's not like we need to stay undercover or anything.

Listen to me Tharand, this inconspicuous old man behind me is Dankwart Dengelbrack! The true duke of Düsterburg!
You're joking! That can't be! ... ... No, your companion really is the duke! I was but a child when I last saw him, but I've never forgotten his face. It always stood for the hope that better times can still come! How can I be of service, my lord?
We urgently need a travel permission for Königsberg, could you issue one of those for us?
The permission can only be issued by mayor Drombusch. However, I can give you a recommendation. That should solve any problems that could arise. But be careful, Deppert Drombusch is loyal to Wahnfried! If he were to find out who you really are...
We are aware of the dangers, chief. It probably can't be more dangerous than staying in Düsterburg for an extended time.
You are of course right, my lord. Here's the recommendation.

It really is weird how playing the "respect Dankwart's authoritah" card works out well more often than not. Anyway, regardless of the recommendation, the mayor still wouldn't let us out.



So instead, let's head to the Polished Armor and progress the plot.



Hello! You're back! How can Roncarlo Ti Paroli, hero and adventurer, help you today?
We've gotten acquainted with your father. He's not well off. Maybe you should drop by?
He wants money from me... and I can understand why! The problem is that I gambled everything away!
A little tip from my guidebook for adventures (due to be released next year): "When you come back home from your adventure (loaded with money of course) never go to the turtle races in Düsterburg!"
Well... I've still got to work on the phrasing, but otherwise that's a pretty good tip.
Did you really lose everything?
Every last bit! And I didn't give a cent to my father!
Listen, Roncarlo - you need money, and we need a good swordsman in our group! Where we're going, there's plenty of money, and it's for a good cause!
You'd take me in? Wonderful! You don't need to tell me more, just tell me where to hit.



And we've got our next party member!



Alex here isn't exactly extraordinary, but he can hit shit good enough, I suppose. He gets the set of fruit I saved.



When we get back down, it seems like the law is on the move trying to get something out of somebody.

A group of boneheads! I better stay back!
Two men, a redhead and a dog! Come on! We know they entered the city! And a group like that is hard to miss!
We've already answered you! Nobody in this room has seen these people!
Umm... I...
(Say one thing and you can be carrying your manhood around in your pocket from now on!)
Elwys? You want to contribute something?
Umm... no! It's just my weak bladder. I wanted to ask if I could go to the bathroom...
Alright, Lazalantin, if you insist on your testimony... however, if it should turn out that you were lying...
I know what happens in that case, don't worry!
Onwards, folks, there's nothing here! We're moving out!



I already thought that you had it in for the duke, but I didn't dare address you directly.
Not being careful cost many their life here already.
I want to head to Castle Düsterburg and take care of that bloodsucker! Can you help me?
I think so... but I'm not going to discuss that in public! We're going to meet tomorrow in Rank's weapon store. Sleep well - tomorrow will be a very strenuous day!

And that means we're done for this day as far as the main plotline goes, so time to meander around and solve some side quests! First off, I bought some holy water, so let's test that out.



This bonehead up on the wall will make a great test subject.



So, Dankwart will be throwing one...



...and Alex... wait. Why can't he throw holy water? Weird. Could it be some error that he can't use throwables?



Oh well, it blows chunks anyway. Dankwart's magic is a hell of a lot better, and the other party members are better used doing other things. Let's move on.



Our next stop is the priest's home.



Your presence poisons this holy place! Out the door with you!



Can somebody tell me what that guy's problem with us is?

Weird. I guess we have to come back some time later.



A manhole cover! Looks pretty dark down there!

Our side quest bonanza leads us into the sewers.



Like we've seen before, it's pretty dark and murky.



There's a bunch of zombies shambling about, but they're not really a big obstacle, all things considered.



While wandering around, we stumble over this zombie that looks a bit different than the rest and doesn't walk around, so let's see what his deal is.



Oh! Oooooohhh!!! Who disturbes my suffering?!
Whoa... what the hell are you?
I am the king of the dead! I watch over the deceased! Oooohhh! Ooooooooohhhhh!!! This terrible suffering!
Just be happy that you're a king and stop your moaning!
But I'm so ALONE! Oh! OHHHH!!! This eternal loneliness! This suffering! Ooohhh! OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!
Oh god, my ears are ringing!
What can we do to stop your screaming?
I'm looking for a companion. Find me a companion! PLEASE!
Well, to be quite honest, I don't know any woman that would be lusting after a moldy guy like you!
Then find me a woman that's just as moldy as me! Please! Do it for this poor, old ooooooohhhhh!
I can try! But these moldy types usually try to make mincemeat out of me instead of trying to talk.
Show my future bride this crown! She'll hear the call and follow you. Then return here!
Alright, I'll see what I can do.



And then we find one that fits the bill just a little bit to the north.

Whoops! Don't step too close, dear! I'm allergic to rotten meat! Come on, follow the crown!

With that, she follows us (for given values of "follow", she kind of meanders in our general direction) and we can bring her back to the king.



Of course, it doesn't go without problems - we run into the tougher of the two enemy types in this sewer. They're still not a threat to our party, but they take a lot of MP use to take out.



Here's Alex's attack animation, it's rather neat, and I look forward to seeing it a lot in the future.



Oh! Oooohhhh!!! You're back! Did you find her?
Yep, there she is, staggering in this direction!
Oh! My heroes! You put an end to my eternal ailing! Now I can finally have my marriage!
I hope you don't need us to be your best men. We've got a lot of things to do.
No, the rats of the sewers are enough. But still, allow me to reward you!
I'd love to. We usually like presents!
Take my old sword! When I was a king above the manhole covers, it served me well!

And we get a bastard sword from him, which is a decent upgrade, but we're getting something even better in these sewers. Next step is to meander around a bit more...



...and find a little something.

Hey, this carcass has a ring on its finger... 1) Take it with us... 2) Leave it there...

Rings are valuable, and this guy's not going to miss it, so let's grab it!

Wait a moment... there's something engraved on the inside...



"One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them!"
Oh my, I believe we've got an entirely new problem now!
No, that was just a joke, Dankwart: There's only a name: "Magda".
That's the name of the old lady whose husband is missing...
You're right, Dankwart! Oh god, we found the mortal remains of her husband.

Well, we'll be returning that later. For now, more walking around and shit.



While we're bopping around, Grandy hits level 20, and he learns how to pick locks. For some reason, the game gives us an alternative failsafe, although I have no fucking clue why you'd need it.



Also, all the bopping around is starting to take a toll on our MP stock, we're almost out of MP restoring items, and we can't go home to rest to restore it, as that advances the story. So it's time to get more potions! ...except they're not sold in Düsterburg. So it's time to head to the Marches!



Folks! That's a whole lot of walking for no rhyme or reason! I'm not going that way!

OK, Alex. We'll just leave you here and then come back after buying some stuff.

...

...what do you mean we're not leaving?

...

GOD DAMNIT ALEX, I HATE YOU. I HOPE YOU DIE. HORRIBLY SO. AND THAT'S NOT ENOUGH, SO I HOPE YOU END UP A ZOMBIE TOO.

...

FUCK. Alright, back into the sewers, let's hope we can pull through with the MP we have.



Back in the sewers, we find something else of interest:

Somebody wrote something on this wall!

2 - 10 - 6 - 4 - 12 - 8

I bet that's part of a puzzle, but we need to find the puzzle first. Kind of a weird setup - usually you find the puzzle first, then find the solution.



Finding the puzzle involves a lot more meandering through the sewers...



...until we finally find this pentagram with six switches. So then we simply hit the switches in the order outlined on the wall, the numbers representing the o'clock position of the switch...



...the screen starts shaking a whole bunch over here...



...and then the water becomes passable. So it's time to head over there.



On the way there, we beat up on some old man zombies too. All the zombies down here are nothing but touched-up villager sprites, which is actually kind of a nice touch.



And then, in a chest, we find one of the best things in the entire game! The Vampire Splitter is one of two magic swords that Grandy can use, and they kick ass!



Look at that attack increase! Not only is it very mighty, but it deals magic damage, and fucking murders vampires, and considering what we'll probably be doing a lot of, that's a great boon! The bastard sword is also a big step up from the long sword, so now Grandy is kicking several flavors of ass.



With that done, we're finished with the sewers for now, but we've still got the biggest sidequest in the game to do! It's time to dig up this grave and head down the passageway to see where it leads.



We've been stumbling through the darkness for over half an hour now! I hope we'll make it some day!
I wonder where this leads. Did you notice that this passage has been ascending for quite some time now?

Well, no way to find out where it leads than following it! It's pretty much as straight as it goes, so we can't get lost.



We can, however, get nailed by magic traps that deal a good bit of damage to the entire party! Looks like we need to find a way around.



And while taking a look at the walls...

Hey, the wall at this place looks kind of...

A secret passage!



Wooo, I'm a ghost! Actually, now we're just phasing through the wall, because that's how secret passages work.



After that, there's nothing keeping us from the exit, so let's see where this leads:



Well, it looks like we found some sort of raised plateau with a grave and a house.



This must be the plateau north of Düsterburg. People say there used to be a path that led up there. But since the days of my ancestor, Dokulbert Dengelbrack, no way of accessing it has been known!

Dokulbert is not a fucking name. That's ridiculous. I know there's some sort of "fantasy clause" that allows this, but still, this is just ridiculous. Anyway, it looks like we found some sort of secret area. Who knows what could be hiding here?



There's something we can get there, but we first need to fumble around looking for the secret passage.



However, there's not too many options.

The remains of a human! They're already half decayed! 1) Search them? 2) Bury them and say a prayer?

Let's get some free stuff! The haul is a crowbar (useless), a healing herb (useless, we found half a dozen just lying around), and a long bow (might be useless). Weak. We can then bury his remains anyway.



That's everything we could do for this poor guy...

Basically, we got some stuff and a wee bit of experience. If we had just buried him, we would have gotten more experience. Might have been the better choice.



Moving on, we found this weird golem creature blocking the path.

HMMM... WHO ARE YOU? YOU'RE NOT PART OF XANJA'S PACK AND YOU'RE NOT KNOWN TO ME OTHERWISE. REVEAL YOURSELF TO THE GUARDIAN!
Umm... we're just a few wanderers, Mister guardian... we don't have any bad intentions.
THEN TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT OF ME!
1) We'll hack you into rubble! 2) We want to be let through! 3) We want to know what you are! 4) We just want to move on!

Let's find out what this thing is, it's got to have some sort of purpose.

I AM THE GUARDIAN OF ETERNITY, DESTINED TO GUARD THE REMAINS OF MY MASTER FOR ALL ETERNITY!
OK... and who is... umm... was your master?
DOKULBERT DENGELBRACK OF FALKENBURG, A GREAT DUKE AND ALCHEMIST! HE CREATED ME! HIS REMAINS REST IN THE VALLEY TO THE WEST. I'M SUPPOSED TO MAKE SURE THEY ARE NOT DISTURBED!
Thanks for the explanation, guardian... could we ask one more thing of you?
IF YOU WISH. I HAVE AN ETERNITY!

Now we ask him to be let through, because this information gives us the right to pass as well!

Guardian, I am Dankwart Dengelbrack, the true duke of Falkenburg. I demand to be allowed to pass!
DO YOU HAVE THE HOLY REGALIA WITH YOU, SIR DANKWART?
The holy amulet of the family? Of course! Look, here it is!
IT IS AN HONOR FOR AN OLD GUARDIAN LIKE ME TO ONCE AGAIN GREET A MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF DENGELBRACK. YOU AND YOUR COMPANIONS MAY PASS!

With that problem solved, let's explore this new area.



There's something buried here!

We find another set of teeth, the same kind we got from the sabretooth tiger, which is worth a pretty penny. Not that we care about money at this point, but eh. Moving on...



Ah, now I remember! My ancestor Dokulbert and his wife Feba were buried here! He had the only way to this plateau destroyed because he feared the graves could be robbed!

Three guesses on what we're going to do now.



There's something written over the entrance: "Here lies my beloved monkey"! Must have been a big animal-lover...



Careful, Grandy! I wouldn't dare to imagine what would happen if we stepped on the wrong switch!

We have another puzzle, and this one's not that hard, although it might take some thinking. You'd have to note that "monkey" was written in all caps, then take each row of switches and treat every single switch as a letter of the alphabet. So we have A-F-F-E, which comes out 1-6-6-5, from the left...



That wasn't so hard now, was it? At least if you learned the alphabet in school!

The loot is surprisingly weak. 3000 bucks and an armored glove, which gives a minor defense boost. Let's check out the other one now.



There's something written over the entrance: "FEBA, my wife"!



Same procedure as last time, once again some mediocre loot: 2000 bucks and a mithril shield (which you can buy at Rank's, and if you abused the turtle races, you did).



In the northern part of this area, we find a whole bunch of wolves that look pretty dangerous.



However, that's all they do. They're weak to Dankwart's light magic and Libra's fire magic, Grandy also deals good damage with his multi-enemy attack, and they go down without much of a fight.



In the east of this area, we find a settlement with people living there! Now that's a surprise - I expected an abandoned hut or something like that.



Strangers? How did you get here? Strangers aren't allowed at Bernhelm's Fate!

We can ask her different stuff, but the result is always the same: "I'm not supposed to talk with strangers, talk with Xanja, she's in the house". Remember Xanja? You should - if you paid attention, that is! If you did, give yourself a gold star!



So here we are in the house.

How did you get here? Strangers aren't allowed to come to Bernhelm's Fate!

I'm getting deja vu here.

1) This one needs to get a beating! 2) Just stay calm and friendly...

Yeah, we can go and murder everybody here if we wanted to. We really don't want to, though.

Just calm down, miss! We come in peace! We're wanderers that just happened to find the way here.

Wanderers. Right. Wanderers that just happened to dig up a grave to find the passageway to this place.

Just happened to find it, eh... well, you're welcome here as long as you behave!

For a secluded, secretive society like these guys have it, they sure are trusting.

May we ask you some questions?
As long as I don't have to answer them...
1) Tell me of your flock! 2) Tell me about yourself! 3) Why "Bernhelm's Fate"? 4) I don't have any questions.

Let's get an explanation of that name, first.

A man named Bernhelm was indirectly responsible for the founding of our flock. We don't know what happened to him...
On my travels, I have met a man named Bernhelm...
Really? Tell me about him!
He lives far away from any civilization in the Icy Wastelands with his kids, Dudu and Dada.
He told me he's been treated quite badly in Düsterburg, and your name came up in the conversation as well, Xanja!
Back then you tried to defend your people by going against everything that was different compared to you as well!
Bernhelm and his wife just wanted to live in peace. And now she's dead! Because of you!

Oh snap, motherfucker's on fire! Even though that's not the version I remembered... it went more like "Xanja tried to defend Bernhelm and his family, but eventually, the mob simply stormed them anyway". In fact, let's bring that story up again:


Grandy's not exactly the best with words, he shouldn't be leveling these accusations at people. Although I have the sneaking suspicion that other areas underwent a rewrite, and this area somehow wasn't changed. I'll bring this up again later.

You're right, and there's no night where I'm not tossing, turning and regretting my mistakes!

Xanja accepting the blame also plays into my theory. She has no reason to feel bad about things, she did all she could and was probably only dragged along by the masses.

But I'm trying to atone for our mistakes!
Could you give him a message from me if you make it back to the Icy Wastelands?
"If" we ever take that strenuous trip again, of course!
Tell Bernhelm that we have a pack here where there will always be room for him and his family. He'll know what I mean!
That's all well, but I don't know what you mean! Could you help me?

God damnit Grandy, this isn't hard to figure out. The fact they always avoid the human "family" in favor of the animalistic "flock" or "pack" should be a pretty big hint.

Well, Bernhelm trusted you, so I'll trust you as well. You know he's a werewolf?
Yes, he told us of that.
On the day Bernhelm's wife died, I led the mob that wanted to destroy his family.

Once again, that doesn't fit with Bernhelm's story. And he doesn't have any reason to omit the detail of "But whose side is she on?".

He tried with all his might to save his two babies. In doing so he injured me and a few others.

Once again again, that doesn't fit either! It was Brunhild who attacked the crowd, Bernhelm just grabbed the kids and ran!

The just punishment of the gods met us: We were hit with the same curse that struck Bernhelm's family!
I happened to stumble over the access to this plateau when I was a child.

So the Dengelbrack family can't find the burial site of one of their ancestors, but some random kid can?

Back then, the guardian of eternity let me live under the condition that I never tell anybody about this place.
But we had no choice! We had to leave Düsterburg. I took Radulf and Tika and fled to this place!
Once again, the guardian let us pass! For a man of stone, he is quite compassionate!

You know, the Dengelbrack family really needs to pick better guardians. While letting poor werewolves past isn't necessarily a bad thing, these stalwart defenders seem awfully easy to get past with a good sob story.

You don't have to say anything more, Xanja! We'll tell Bernhelm about this place!

But before we do that, we need to take care of something else - when we talked with Tika earlier, she mentioned that her kid, Punja, has gone missing. If we leave without dealing with that situation, she dies and we completely botched that subquest, so dealing with that is the #1 priority right now.



What kind of beasts are those?



They call them harpies! I've only read about them, myself: They're evil and talented in the ways of magic by nature!
They're chewing on something down there! Let's head down there - maybe it's connected to the disappeared girl!

And head down we do.



And then we predictably get into a fight. These gals are rather tough, but still, we seem to be quite overleveled for this part of the game (thanks to doing every side quest), and they go down without much of a fight.

Now, it's time to find that girl - she must have hid somewhere, and the best bet would be those crypts.



And in Feba's crypt, we find her!

Hello! I've never seen you before! That's really exciting!
Hello Punja! I'm Grandy, and I'm here to get you out of here! Your mother is worrying about you!
I just wanted to play with the rocks here... then those things came here! Evil birds! They waited out there to eat me!
Don't worry, little girl, we beat up those evil bird-women and got rid of them! You can come outside now!
Wow! You're really strong! Let's get out of here, it smells here!



MOMMY, MOMMY, MOMMY!
My little Punja! Where were you?
Don't be mad, mommy! I was hiding from those birds! And then those people came here and beat up those birds!
I don't know how I can thank you... my children are my life. I'll tell Xanja what you did! Come, my dear, let's go home!

Now, it's time to talk to Bernhelm. Yeah. We're going to change maps. Didn't you remember me bitching about Alex refusing to walk all that way? Well, turns out that he's not complaining now.



And that means I can go here too! LOOPHOLE, BITCHES! GIMME ALL THOSE MP RESTORING ITEMS, I NEED THEM ALL!



Anyway, we're back in the Icy Wastelands and are here to tell Bernhelm the good news.

Look, kids! The duke and his friends are back!
Bernhelm, we're supposed to give you a message from a woman named Xanja!
XANJA?! The leader of the city guard?
Those times are over! She's grieving over the things she did to you! We're supposed to tell you that there's always room for you and your family in their pack!
Then the curse hit them as well! Of course! I saw how she fought with Brunhild...

Now I'm really confused, because the stories are getting more tangled. Now Brunhild is the one inflicting wounds on Xanja, which would match Bernhelm's original story, but he reviles Xanja because of her apparent hatred of werewolves, which conflicts with the earlier story!

I will instruct Harkon to let you and your children pass one more time. I believe you should accept Xanja's offer, if only because of the children.
We marked the way to their hideout on this map for you!
Farewell, Bernhelm. I hope we'll meet again in "Bernhelm's Fate"!



Now, we're back, and Bernhelm's already here. This is where the real meat of the subquest starts - Grandy has to play psychologist, because Bernhelm's having troubles adjusting.

Oh... Grandy! Good to see you!
Greetings, Bernhelm. You look sad... what's wrong? Aren't you happy here?
Grandy, it's very nice here, and I'm very thankful that you showed us the way here...
But now that we're together with Xanja... and especially Radulf and Tika... the old memories are coming back! I miss my wife!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not holding a grudge. But there's something deep inside me that I can't fight against!
I understand, Bernhelm. 1) You can't isolate yourself! 2) Time will heal all wounds.

Now, I'm following the FAQ here, and it's a bit confusing. This entire fucking quest is a bit confusing, really, and that might be connected to that writing disconnect I mentioned earlier. For now, we'll tell him to sit it out.

I'll come back and visit you when it's all over.
I'm looking forward to it. Farewell, Grandy.

Leave and come back, and it turns out that wasn't correct. Bernhelm is isolating himself even more and is now hanging out near the crypts.



Bernhelm, what are you doing at this place of the dead?
Grandy! I didn't even hear you coming!
It's... Gudrun! As I came past our old house during our trip... and now all these familiar faces...

WHO THE FUCK IS GUDRUN? This entire thing is just a mess! If somebody can help me out, please, I beg you, shine some light into this darkness!

I understand very well, Bernhelm, but you must... 1) face the past! 2) wait until it gets better!

Now we tell him to face the past.

Go to the others and talk about everything that happened with them! You must go this path to be able to live together!
Even if it will be painful...
Yes... I fear you are right! We have to live through this terrible story once again...
Give me some more time. I promise I will listen to your suggestion...

That is code for "leave the area and come back". When we do...



Grandy!!! I'm so happy that you suggested I face the past!

While it's a bit hard to gather from this, this is in fact the good end for Bernhelm. He's faced his past, everybody seems to be happy. Now, there is a different good end buried within the game files...



You see, this engine is not hard to understand. Any idiot can figure it out given a bit of time, which is good for the purposes of this LP. Now, poking around in the code, I found a trigger - "Bernhelm in love" - next to all the other quest triggers like "Bernhelm wants to talk" or "Bernhelm getting desperate". I have ZERO idea how to trigger this. The FAQ doesn't have an idea either. This seems to be a complete mystery, and it just adds to the weirdness of this quest.



However, we have the magic of editing, and we can see this ending as well!



Grandy, it's great that you came to visit us again! Finally, Dudu and Dada have a real home!
Bernhelm has forgiven Tika and Radulf for Brunhild's death...
It was hard for me, but they didn't know that we weren't murderous beasts like those other werewolves.
Don't forget the invitation!
Invitation?
Umm... yes... you know... once you finished your tasks... then Xanja and I would like to...
Umm... well, we would like to...
We would like to invite you to our wedding!
Whoa! That went pretty fast!
Well, in our situation the number of potential husbands is rather small...
Umm... XANJA!
It was just a joke, dear!
Of course we'd love to come!

Aww, they're getting married. Isn't that nice? You got those nice, warm, fuzzy feelings too? Well... get ready to throw those out, because there's a bad end as well. This is what happens if you tell Bernhelm to wait it out twice. He becomes even more of a recluse, and then...



Bernhelm's situation is still bad. You'll find him upstairs.
What's he doing up there?
He wanted to go and repair something! He took a rope with him...
A rope? Xanja, what could he possibly want to repair with a rope?

Well, maybe he needs to tie something up so it doesn't collapse or something or... oh, fuck it, you know where this is going. We then hear something fall over.

That came from upstairs! What was that noise?

We run upstairs...



Gods, help us! BERNHELM!



WE HAVE TO GET HIM DOWN FROM THERE!




Step aside, Grandy! I studied medicine!
PLEASE, DANKWART! GIVE IT YOUR BEST!
He's dead, Grandy... there's nothing I could do for him... the poor children...
Oh no... Bernhelm... no, no, NO!



I was too late! I'll never be able to forgive myself!
I thought it would be a good idea if Bernhelm came to us... I did everything wrong!
We both did, Xanja... we both did...

Jesus fucking Christ. This scene really hits hard, because despite this being a fantasy RPG game with vampires and werewolves and shit, it's still a really relatable story. Family gets infected with terrible illness, gets shunned by society as a result, wife of family dies due to illness and society, society catches the illness themselves, father tries to reconcile with society due to their shared fate, but can't find it in his heart to do so and commits suicide, leaving a really depressed society and really depressed children behind. Fucking hell. You know, the whole baby-eating thing wasn't enough of a punch. Let's have the poor guy that couldn't harm a fly and has been beset by a horrible fate commit suicide, and let's make sure that he'll never be able to really get his happy ending because the game literally won't allow it! How much more worse can this get?



...anyway, after that, it's time to advance to the next day, we've got to continue the plot.



Now, we're supposed to head to the store, but for some reason, I head south instead. No, seriously, I can't remember why I went south instead of to the store. If we did, we'd have a bit of a lead-in for the following...



By the gods! LAZALANTIN!!!

Lazalantin! He's bleeding out!
No, Grandy. He's already dead.
Why did nobody see him lying here? Why does nobody here ever walk along the streets?

What was that noise?
I didn't hear anything...
It came from down there... I'll get that guy!



And then Roncarlo blitzes away in the direction of city hall.

Oh well, he knows this city, he'll know what he's doing!

So we've got a crime scene, suppose least we can do is investigate.

You're an expert in these things, Dankwart! What do you think?
A stab with a slim blade or something like that. The outer rims of the wounds are strangely lacerated. What weapon could that have been?
1) A rapier maybe... 2) Maybe a long claw... 3) Could it have been a spear? 4) I have no idea...

Doesn't really matter what we pick here.

The attack came from the front, so he must have seen his killer! Yet he didn't draw his weapon... what do you think, Grandy?
1) The killer was faster. 2) He knew the killer. 3) The killer was invisible. 4) No idea.

Once again, doesn't really matter.

He's not been laying here for long... death came an hour ago at most.
However, I can't say much more under these circumstances!



What's going on here?
The city guard, finally! Chief, Lazalantin has been killed! We're currently looking for clues in the surroundings!
That won't be necessary. Darion, the barman of the Polished Armor has contacted us! He managed to observe the crime!
Could he identify the killer?
You'd like to know that, wouldn't you? Yes, he could! And I bet you know very well who he identified...
What am I supposed to get from that?



It was your companion, Grandy. Libra! You're all arrested!