Part 25: XXV - Caught in the Machine
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We have arrived back in Downtown. Your first inclination might be to report back to LaCroix about what happened at Grout's mansion. But think about it. Who did we see leaving the scene of the crime? Nines Rodriguez. We don't have any proof that he killed Grout, but the fact that Nines was leaving the mansion is still a little suspect. Reporting to LaCroix means fingering Nines, and before we do that we should confront Nines himself, for a couple of reasons. The first is that we might get to the bottom of the whole ordeal by confronting Nines. The second is that if we want to keep on good terms with the anarchs, we should go to them before LaCroix. They'll like that we're giving Nines a chance to explain himself before we tell LaCroix what happened.
The point is that we have to play this safe as to not piss off anarchs to the point of them losing their trust in us.
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Nines isn't here. Shit. Well, at least the anarchs will see that we're coming to them with the story before LaCroix. When, or if, we tell LaCroix, no doubt they'd get word before we even exit the Venture Tower.
As usual, the first Anarch we'll talk to is Jack.
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Jack is Jack: he been around a long time, he's got a lot of experience, he's seen a lot. But this is Nines we're talking about. If anything would phase Jack, it would be this.
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We saw Nines leaving Grout's mansion.... but could it really be a set up? We don't know if LaCroix enticed Nines into showing up to Grout's mansion, but this doesn't matter. The fact is that we saw Nines there. Maybe LaCroix knew about it. Maybe LaCroix got someone else to off Grout before Nines showed up, knowing that we'd be there to see him leaving the scene of the crime. Without Nines, he LaCroix might think, the anarchs don't stand a chance. But why would Nines be visiting Grout's mansion in the first place? Why would be kill him, if he did at all? Yes, Grout was camarilla primogen; Yes, Nines is an anarch. But what good would come from killing a paranoid Malkavian more interested in his own experiments than any political goals?
In any case, if we want to stay on the good side of the anarchs, we should nod our head and agree with Jack.
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Jack might not care if we finger Nines, but the others will. Jack is somewhat detached from the anarch movement -- the others are in the thick of it. We should talk to them before heading back to LaCroix, starting with Skelter.
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Nines is almost larger than life to Skelter and Damsel. They won't take this well.
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We can't ask Skelter what we should say to LaCroix. Maybe Damsel will be inclined to influence us.
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I'm sure the anarchs would love it if we didn't finger Nines, but they're not saying so. We now have to head back to LaCroix, but as usual we have to deal with Chunk before we head up.
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No doubt almost every smell reminds the chunky Chunk of food.
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Up we go.
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Candles probably burned around the time of Grout's first death. Now, coincidentally or not, they're burning around the time of his second.
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That's no longer possible.
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The shock in his voice is either genuine, or very well practiced.
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If only it was that simple.
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We're forced into fingering Nines. If LaCroix really is trying to frame him, not ratting Nines out signals to LaCroix that we're not to be trusted.
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We can't be positive it was, but that's the option that pleases LaCroix the most. And we've already fingered Nines.
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Predictably, even if we were on LaCroix's bad side, he'd give us this task.
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So we have our next quest, but before we leave we can utilize a dialogue option available to us because of our persuasion score.
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With a little higher of a persuasion score, we could say "That should permit me to more quickly bring the sarcophagus to you", further bettering LaCroix's attitude towards us.
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We don't actually receive the keys, because Melissa has a better idea.
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The Society of Leopold -- Christof Romuald had to fight his way out of their London Headquarters in Redemption.
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It might surprise you to learn that a blood hunt cannot be called off -- at least that's what was said to me in the Redemption thread. In one of the multiplayer chronicles, the players ended up having a blood hunt called on them, and the chronicle can end with its removal.
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Before we go, let's see the anarchs' reaction to what we've just told LaCroix.
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Let's see what Skelter thinks of business as usual.
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Not well, evidently.
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As if we have to ask.
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Splinter Cell: Double Agent had meters of trust for the two factions Sam Fisher had to schmooze with. It certainly would have been ambitious if Troika would have done the same thing in Bloodlines.
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Believe it or not, Damsel actually has nothing new to say. I'm surprised she doesn't have a new insult to throw our way.
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It's been a while. There should be a collection of money waiting for us at Confession.
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None of the money will be spent here, Venus.
Before we leave for the mission, we're going to head back to our apartment.
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Heather, being a ghoul, might need a fix. There's also our email to check.
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Just as predicted.
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That's right -- we've told Heather what we are, just not what she is.
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We're destroying her old life.
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Right now we have the option to tell Heather to return to her old life.... but even if it feels like the right thing to do, how interesting is it when compared to the alternative?
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Last thing to do in our apartment is check our email. There's only one that's new.
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TheMcD (which is a terrible forum handle, IMO) had a good post relating to who could be sending these emails:
TheMcD posted:
There's a theory going around that the "friend" sending us these chess-motif messages is actually Grout, who faked his death, knowing he wasn't safe in his mansion anymore. The recordings were a way to feed the player character information he should know and set up a picture that would both have Grout's death seem definite and set the PC towards mistrusting LaCroix (it's never confirmed the vamp Grout is talking about is LaCroix, but the connection is apparent). Assuming he knew there were both vampires and humans coming to get him, the fire the hunters would set would both wipe out the recordings (that would have proven his anti-Camarilla sentiments, which would have maken him a persona non grata at best and staked outside watching the sunrise at worst) and ensure whoever found his "remains" wouldn't have enough time to analyze them in greater detail. However, discussing this theory will have to wait, as a few spoilerriffic factoids also play into the bigger picture.
I believe in this theory, and the way I see it, the "Faustian bargain" was sacrificing his wife to the flames. For Grout, the last true remnant of his humanity/soul was his wife. He knows that if his faked death was to hold any merit, he'd have to leave her in the mansion, as otherwise, the assumption he fled would be obvious. So he gave up what was left of his soul for continued immortality. Sounds pretty Faustian to me. Mentioning that he took measures to save his wife was a red herring, laid out to make it seem like he was surprised by the assassins.
Now, off we go.
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Next time we tackle the Museum heist. Sorry about the gap between this and the previous updates. I had a week of midterms, and at the same time I started reading the Heechee Saga series of sci-fi novels in my spare time.