Part 11: XI - Bad Blood

Gallery Noir. We've walked past it a bunch of times, but there's always been no way to get in. The front door's locked, but now there's a chubby cop standing in the alley next to the building. He might be our way in.



This sliver of alley two feet from the sidewalk is private property. This guy is part of the problem. We might get him to become part of the solution, though...

[Seduction] Wow. The way you said that, it was so... commanding.

[Boastful, hiking up his drawers]Huh. Well, missy... that's just a natural response that people have to someone in my kind of position, huh. The risk, the prestige, the authority... it's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it.

Wanna know a secret? Power is a real turn on to me.

[A bit shocked, but keeping up the ruse]Uh... yeah, you know, you'd be surprised how often I hear that in this line of work. Heh. It's the uniform, you know. Women just can't get over the uniform.

Oh... don't stop talking.



How about we get to know each other better right now.





He drops the key. We can now enter through the front entrance. An option for a stealth-oriented character is to enter further down the alley through a small entrance in the parking garage, and lockpick the back door.



Jeanette hinted that there would be a trick to slashing these paintings.



Let's take a closer look at one of these.



Caine, the first vampire. Our Sire's Sire. We have to put slash these painting in historical order. We all know which one comes first. We have to slash these with the knife, just so you know. Nothing else works.



Caine Slays Abel




Caine Cursed by God




Caine Meets Lilith




Caine Spurns Lilith


After slashing all four paintings...







Something forms in the middle...



It's a vampire made from blood!

Watch Boss Fight:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVtE7aqTc8A



The blood guardian is the toughest boss fight yet.



His attacks deal moderate damage, but the kicker is that they stagger you back every time you're hit. It looks like the blood guardian is using feral claws.



The best thing to do is strafe around until it attacks, then use the opening to land a hit or two. It's still difficult, since you're likely to get hit in the process of forming a combo attack.



It will occasionally land a critical hit on you, as well.



More dots in fortitude would have helped to soak some of that damage, but we get the job done anyway.



The guardian melts into a pool of blood that dissipates pretty quickly after forming.



Jeanette told us to steal the charity box. It's an optional thing to do.



But if we do, we suffer a humanity loss in addition to gaining $250. There is a way to avoid the humanity loss which I didn't take:


We'd have to head back to Jeanette either way.

* * *





Hopefully she'll be pleas--



Er -

The museum! That was MY event! Did you think I wouldn't find out?!?

That explains the Vampire themed paintings, and the fact that Therese had an "Art Coordinator" in her contacts.

Wait -

Shut up! I thought I could control my sister as long as Tung was out of the picture, but nothing's changed! I should've expected that you'd succumb to Jeanette's influence like all the others. But how dare you!

This dialogue takes on different forms depending on your level of trust with Therese.

I didn't do it! I swear!

We're forced to lie here, for some reason.



Excellent! I'll take that. However...



Yes.

There's only one problem. If Tung gets word that I threatened Jeanette, which he most certainly already has, it's not likely he'll believe me. So, in order to call off the feud, you're going to have to convince Jeanette to forgive me first.

For Santa Monica's most powerful Kindred, I'd be happy to.

I made some threats against my sister - idle threats - involving fire and her impious satin sheets. She took them quite seriously and is avoiding me. I want to meet with her and explain that they were said in the heat of the moment.



I've been calling Therese the prince of Santa Monica, but she's actually an anarch equivalent: a Baron. This is in striking contradiction to the principles of anarchism, where everything is organized from the horizontally, in federated structures, rather than top-down, hierarchical ones. A structure more compatible with anarchism would be where delegates are given binding mandates to fulfil -- which they themselves play a role in forming -- are always subject to immediate recall, and always return to the community to which they originate. To prevent any sort of new ruling class from forming, in addition to further making political activity a normal part of life, the delegate position would be rotated between as many who are willing as frequently as possible. The anarch movement doesn't have this, and the writers seemingly don't know about this:


The writers forget that "real leadership" is not equivalent with hierarchical structures. A further example:


This "moderator" class would form the new ruling class if any real Kindred revolution were to occur. Even though the writers insist that a baron isn't really a prince, it is obvious that a baron is a ruler that simply can't get away with having as much power as a prince. This has nothing to do with anarchism. The writers forget that, for anarchists, freedom [in means] is the indispensable prerequisite for freedom [in ends]. To quote Kant, of all people, in his defence of the French Revolution:

A fuller examination of the anarch movement will come later in the let's play. Moving on...

If the Baron of Santa Monica wants her sister back, I will get her sister back.

For all her unwholesome diversions and irritating disruptions, I should be less tolerant of her. She is my sister, however, and I suppose I'm obligated to forgive her her trespasses. I did sire her, after all. Please... be quick about it.

Alright. I'll take care of it. Later.



Giving the pendant to Therese has completed the 'The Ghost Haunts at Midnight' quest. We have laid the spirit to rest.

There are two new emails in Jeanette's laptop.

3 posted:

<Subject> re: Santa Monica is MY city!!
<From> Therese Voerman

I'm disgusting? I'm not the one that let that Nosferatu touch me! Can't you see that he is trying to tear us apart to take over the city?

4 posted:

<Subject> re: Santa Monics is MY city!!
<From> Therese Voerman

How could you? And now my gallery too? I'm going to show you a little something, Jeanette... the sun!

Back to the diner...



This is the last time we'll have to enter the diner.



The place is deserted other than those four in the corner and the one guy behind the counter. The phone is on the right.



The four start shooting at us as soon as we reach the phone!



Fortitude works wonders. Three of them have pistols, but one has a pump-action shotgun that really packs a punch at close range.



It's not too difficult of a fight.




The one problem with this shotgun, aside from the poor range, is that the fire rate is so low because of the pump action.

The phone in the corner is now ringing. Weird that it only happened after the ambush was finished.



I'm terribly sorry about that. My sister was just furious about your refusal to take part in her designs, so she sent those men to kill you. But I'm going to make sure it never happens again. Drop by, we'll take care of this Tung business.

Refusal to take part in her designs? But we already did...

She's crazy! HELP!

Oh shit! No time to waste!



Hopefully we're on time--



Therese? But where's Jeanette?



No...





You never gave me credit for anything, Therese! I was the one calling the shots! Bertram was dancing on my leash! How does it feel to know that I beat you?

Dialogue Options
1. What's going on here?
2. Therese?
3. Jeanette?
4. [Persuade] Why are you both fighting?

You can see that there are essentially three ways this conversation can go.

[Persuade] Why are you both fighting?

Isn't it obvious? I'm about to rid the night of this deviant, back-stabbing whore! Do you realize that, despite her condition, she still... fornicates - with kine, no less! So despicable... so unclean.

You're one to talk, dear sister, or should I say Daddy's little girl. Do you want to know just how depraved the Baron of Santa Monica can be?

Shut up, Jeanette!

You'd love the world to think you're a saint. When you thought I was asleep, I used to hear father come in at night. I heard him whisper how much he loved you in your ear before he -



Why it's so important to have a good level of trust with both Jeanette and Therese is if you don't have a high enough persuade skill to gain access to the blue dialogue options. If you are careful, switching between siding with Therese and Jeanette, while having a high level of trust with both, can have the same effect as the persuasion dialogue options.

[Persuade] Both of you stop.

Don't you want to hear what happened? How she became the pillar of the community she is today?

Shut up! Just shut up!

[Persuade] Stop it right now, both of you.

Don't try and stop me. I've had to overlook her treachery, her seduction, relations with my enemies - and the consequences of it - but I won't endure her any longer.

Endure me? Dear sister, you've done everything you could to smother me. You'd love to bury me in your closet, along with all your other skeletons.

I'm the good girl. You're the wicked one. You've done nothing but plot against me - when I had our best interests at heart. And despite that, I've always covered up your mistakes. I've taken care of you. And this is how you repay me?

Taken care of me? You've done nothing but keep me down, blamed me for every mistake. Did you expect me to let you rule my life until the end of time? No, sister, you've had it coming since our last sunrise.



We can see how this quest can play out. I'm going to let the thread decide our course of action. Do we side with Therese, Jeanette, or try to get them to make peace with each other?