I head into the bar
to begin my first assignment, and my new life. Havelock is there
reading from what seems to be some sort of journal. He tries to
encourage me, saying that “sometimes good men need to do bad things
to make the world better”, but I think he realizes both of us see
through the bullshit. With that said, he gives me three objectives.
My first target is High Overseer Baldy himself. As he announced it, I
couldn't help but grin. In stories like this, the cliché is that the
ones most directly involved are the last targets. Unlike those
stories, the second-in-command is will be my first. Once the deed's
been done, I'll need to loot his black book, where he keeps all his
blackmail secrets, from his body. The final objective will be to free
Martin, an overseer who decided to join up with Havelock's group.
From what the Admiral says, Martin is the brains of this entire
operation, so freeing him will get me that much closer to Emily.
Neither one of these tasks seems terribly complicated, so I don't see
much reason to worry. Getting their seems like the hard part, but
Samuel can get me close enough so that I can do the rest.
Before catching my
boat, I take a look at what Havelock was reading. It appears to be a
report from one of his spies. The message claims that it's no
coincidence that the Mole took control after Jessy died. No shit,
Sherlock! I figured that out almost immediately after it happened.
What have you been doing the past six months? Continuing on, the
report mentions what are referred to as “Tallboys”, special
guards on stilts who are heavily armored, wielding incendiary bolts.
I recall the vignettes from my trip to the Void, in particular the
one of the stilted guards shooting two innocent civilians. If this
text is correct, then the guards in these suits are drugged so that
they feel nothing. Let's hope these guys aren't terribly commonplace,
else I may be in for some trouble.
Since I've already
stocked myself at Piero's shop, I head to the boat in order to embark
on my mission. Before I reach the vessel, I am stopped by the woman
whose voice I didn't recognize on the audiograph earlier. She
introduces herself as Callista Curnow. I recognize her last name, as
her uncle Geoff and I go way back. My recollection of Geoff seems to
be a crazy coincidence, as her request involves him. My old friend
has been invited to The Abbey of the Everyman to speak with Baldy
himself. According to Callista's sources, the High Overseer has
ordered a quantity of exotic poisons that are impossible to trace.
She suspects that the two facts are related, and fears that her
uncle's life my be in danger. I accept her request and vow to protect
her uncle, after all what friend would I be if I let him die,
especially to Baldy of all people. Since the poison intended for
Geoff is untraceable, I think I know of a good way to kill two
proverbial birds with one stone, or in this case switch the target of
the stone from one bird to the other. Anyway, it's about time I
departed this place and made myself useful. I speak to Samuel and we
head out.
As we touch down
near the Distillery District, and out of sight of the City Watch, the
boatman primes me on how the area's changed in recent months. He
tells me that the guards and the gangsters have been fighting over
the territory for some time. The guards have establish Sokolov's
“Walls of Light” so that non-guard who passes through them is
disintegrated. Meanwhile, the Bottle Street Gang has taken control of
the Distillery, likely where Slackjaw is making his diluted plague
elixir. Lastly, Granny Rags has recently appeared in the fringes, and
who knows what the old hag is thinking. This information will no
doubt come in handy.
Before I begin to
pursue Baldy, I move away from Samuel, who has taken up camp nearby
so that I can make a quick escape, and pull out the Heart. It points
me to two Bone Charms and two Runes in the area. The closest thing to
my location is a Bone Charm in the guard tower on a small island
outcropping nearby. There are watchmen on the bridge dumping the
bodies of plague victims, so I'll have to swim around into order to
get to it. When I pull myself out of the water, I see that the Bone
Charm is out of my reach. Then, I spot a chain with which I can pull
myself up towards it. Rather than risk the jump, I Blink onto the
ledge. The Bone Charm is next to a body and a pouch containing 100
Coins. This charm has the effect of tricking rats into thinking I'm
one of them until I get closer, so I hook it to one of the holes in
my belt.
Once more, I follow
the Heart to a Rune nearby, swimming back to shore and walking down
the streets to get to it. One guard doesn't even notice as I creep
directly behind him and back into the shadows, until he returns to
his patrol route. Rather than chance future encounters, I Blink to
the top of a nearby pillar and decide to take to the rooftops as long
as I am able. On the rooftops rafters overlooking the streets, I see
a gangster's corpse on a rooftop, apparently keeping watch for
Slackjaw until he died. Next to him was a pouch of money that I
decide to take with me. It was then I saw Granny Rags herself,
talking about feeding the birds. It should come as no surprise that
her squat happens to be the one with Poncy's Rune in it. If I'm
careful, I can in and out of here before she even realizes. Sneaking
past her, I notice that the Rune sits atop a shrine to the ponce
himself. Taking it from the shrine is enough to summon him into this
world because apparently he's so interested in speaking at me. He
tells me things less about Granny Rags than I already know, then
wonders out loud how I intend to take out the High Overseer. It's
amazing how dull chaos incarnate can be.
I take a moment to
plunder a couple of heirlooms from this shack before I finally leave
once and for all. Even if Granny Rags finds them missing, she didn't
see me and no one will pay attention to her, so no matter what I'm in
the clear. I cross through Bottle Street on my way to the Abbey on
John Clavering Boulevard. On my way over, the Heart once again starts
to beat. It pinpoints a Bone Charm located in a nearby house, but
going for it seems to be a less than wise idea. There's a man being
blockaded by two members of the Bottle Street Gang looking for their
extortion fee. I can take care of them by summoning rats. However, if
I want to get to that Charm, I'll need to expose myself to the man
inside. He'll likely get grateful to me for rescuing him, but under
the interrogation he might crack, so while I feel sorry for him, I
have to ignore his pleas for help.
But just because I
can't help him, doesn't mean I won't do anything to the Bottle Street
Gang in response to this outrage. Instead of heading to Clavering
Boulevard, I make a split second decision to take a detour over at
Slackjaw's distillery. As usual, I take to the rooftops on my way
there. And, as I've come to expect, the Heart starts beating once
again, indicated the presence of a Bone Charm. I see a key on the
belt of one of the guards. Assuming I'll need this key, I wait on the
rooftop until just the right moment. As I wait, I hear a group of
nearby guards mention Daud, which gets my attention. Sadly, they
don't know anything I'm not already privy to. When the guard with the
key goes to relive himself on a nearby tuft of grass, I Blink down
behind him, nab it, and then quickly make my way into the distillery
proper. Aside from those two guards at the front door, the entrance
is barren. They have a locked gate barring direct access to the
control room, but the key I nabbed renders it moot. Once there, I
steal Slackjaw's recipe for the diluted elixir as some strange form
of revenge for the poor guy back on Bottle Street. Thankfully,
Slackjaw runs with the type of people who would do something like
that, so he'll likely blame his staff. And it's not like criminals
are known for calling the City Guard.
I decide to nab the
Bone Charm and then make my way out. The door to the room containing
the Charm is being watched, so I take to the top of the some nearby
pipes and wait for the patrols to pass before entering. Since I don't
know the guard routes in here, I am relived to find that the Bone
Charm is onto of the rafters, so I can hide there for a bit. This one
has the power to boost my speed while sneaking, so I immediately
attach it to my belt. After the guard below me passes, I make my way
through the distillery room back into the warehouse area. With haste,
I Blink back into the control room before someone looks in my
direction and slip back to the entrance. From there, heading onto the
roofs and back onto Bottle Street in trivial.
Sneaking back onto
the roofs, I utilize my powers to make it onto Clavering Boulevard.
From my vantage point on a nearby balcony, I can see a Wall of Light
under in the stone archway on the route to the abbey. Above it is a
sign that I know comes from the Mole himself, saying that “The
Boldest Measures are the Safest”. It's amazing how paranoid one man
can be. Rather than take a direct approach, I look around the area
for an alternate pathway. Remembering the powers I have at my
disposal, I have the idea to Blink onto a light fixture above the
archway. Though the move could be seem as rather reckless, it worked,
and soon I'm on the roof of the archway, above the Wall of Light. As
I complete my maneuver, I hear a couple of guards scream. I jumped,
not sure if they saw me or not. Luckily, they were being devoured my
ravenous mutant plague rats. One of them shook it off, then other is
too chewed up to be recognizable.
After that brief
amusement, I blink onto a nearby lamppost and again to another
condemned building that has the look of a seedy hotel. This new
rooftop gives me direct view of the entrance to the Abbey, but
something else gets my attention. I look down at a small guard post
and the Heart begins to beat in my pocket. Taking it out, it shows me
that inside that post is a Rune. With a running start, I jump forward
and Blink onto the roof of the post. Fortunately, there's a hatch on
the roof that leads directly to the Rune, so I drop, quickly seize
it, and teleport behind a section on cover on a nearby awning. In
order to make suspicion low, I make it back on to roof to close the
hatch before retreating back into my cover. Since no one will see me
from here, I take this time to strengthen my powers. With my mind's
eye, I envision my new ability. I see me, leaping into the air in
order to get to someplace high up. Normally, I wouldn't be able to do
so, but I see myself leaping again, seeming to push off the air
itself, in order to gain extra height on my jump. Pouring the energy
of the 2 Runes I've obtained here into this vision, I feel my
abilities strengthen. From this point, I teleport passed the guards
and stroll up to entrance of Holgar Square, where I'll find the Abbey
of the Everyman, and my first target....
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