I hear a voice,
stirring me from my sleep. She tells me it's time to wake up. That
voice can only be the voice of my daughter, Emily. Sure enough, when
I open my eyes and wake up, she's right there. As I rise from the
bed, I'm told that I make funny faces when I sleep. Emily says that
Callista is in the bath, so she decided to come up here to be with
me. With a worried expression, my little angel says that she was
ordered to come to my room if there was any trouble. Smiling, I
reassure her that she's always welcome to stay up here with me. I can
feel the tension escape her when she tells me to get going, since
Callista will pick her up when her bath is finished.
Speaking of
Callista, I check out her room to find an audiograph that she plans
to send to her uncle, Geoff. In it, she reassured him that while she
may not be present for the next few days, she'll be safe and fed
better than most of the people in Dunwall, which is as specific as
she can get under these circumstances. Heading downstairs, my
continued surveillance of Havelock and Pendleton yields nothing new,
so I'm a little disappointed. That's when I open the door to the
staff dormitories, where I find Piero looking through the lock into
the bathroom. Considering that Emily just said Callista is bathing in
there, that freaks me out more than a little bit. Since I still have
some vestige of my old honor left, I confront the dirty pervert. He
immediately thinks of a lie regarding making a new lock and quickly
realizes I'm not buying it, which leads to him coming clean. It's
then that I warn him that I don't take too kindly to this type of
behavior. He begs for me to not tell Callista, but that's just not
the kind of guy I am.
There's no way I
could live with myself if I didn't tell her that we have a peeping
Piero in our mitts, so I step into the room to do so. When she gasps
and goes to cover herself, I realize just how stupid it was not to
wait until after she finished her bath to do this. Before she
reprimands me, I apologize. While she seemed understanding, she asked
politely for me to leave. To the average person, this would be the
best idea. However, since I've navigated this situation so far with
the grace of a bull, I decide that the best way to save face is to do
what I came in here to do. Telling her about Piero has a very
noticeable impact on her. I believe the words she spoke were, “I
feel dirtier than when I started”. Rather than make the situation
any worse through my blundering, I leave as quickly as I possible
can, closing the door behind me. I've faced hundreds of opponents,
killed several well known people, and faced torture by one of the
most cruel men in Dunwall, but nothing has ever been more
frightening then the glare Callista gave me as I walked out of that
bathroom.
I decide that the
best way to get my mind off the death stare is to see what's happened
with Sokolov while I slept. From what I recall, Havelock said that he
was transforming the pits used for the dog fights around here into a
makeshift cell, so I head over to see how the interrogation is
progressing. Hopefully Sokolov reveals the name of Lord Mole's
financial backer. Without the support of Parliament, this mysterious
mistress is the only thing that gives him a steady stream of money to
fund his operation. Judging from what I hear when I walk in, the
interrogation is not going very well. They trade turns throwing
insults at each other, acting like petty school children. Havelock
insults Sokolov's need of the Mole, while Sokolov insults his need
for me. After awhile, the admiral comes out with the demand for the
name of our Lord Regent's mistress, which is summarily refused by the
royal physician. That's when I take the reins of the interrogation,
and suggest that we might be able to bribe the disgusting pig.
As much as I
dislike Sokolov, he's a smart man and when this whole thing
inevitably turns south, he and Piero could make for valuable allies.
When I announce my tactics, Havelock seems surprised, as if the
thought never crossed his mind. No wonder he couldn't get any
information. He used the stick without even bothering to think of the
carrot. There's only one man here who would know what could interest
Sokolov, his dearest rival Piero. I go to our resident
craftsman/philosopher. When I arrive, the very first thing he tells
me is that he understands my decision to rat him out to Callista.
After asking him to give me something with which to bribe Sokolov, he
tells me of a rare brandy that is sure to work for our purposes. The
mechanist just so happens to have the brandy in stock, but he wants
me to buy it off him. Fair enough, Piero. I understand. Whatever
helps you to get your petty revenge for me telling Callista about
your peeping ass. I hand him the money and take the foul-smelling
brew back to the other natural philosopher in this glorious hole we
call a bar.
When I return with
the booze, Sokolov is ranting about how badly he needs a drink. He's
lucky that I am a generous man, as I hand him the drink he's so
desperate for. Once the bottle trades hands, my new found ally seems
to suddenly become extremely generous with details. He tells us that
while he painted the mistress, “Lady Boyle”, he never learned her
face or first name as she was painted from the rear. Apparently, he
was invited to a masquerade party at the Boyle estate tonight. This
will be the perfect opportunity to strike, especially since no one
knows what my mask looks like outside of the group here. I can blend
in with the crowd to try to get close to my target.
The only real
problem I can foresee is in finding the target. While the party is at
the Boyle estate the key issue is that there are three women in
Dunwall who can refer to themselves as “Lady Boyle”. The Ladies
Boyle will all likely attend their own party, so I will need to find
the correct one and take them out in a way the makes it look like an
accident. This is much easier said than done. As I make my way out,
Lord Pendleton tells me that while I am at the party, he would like
me to deliver a note to a man named Lord Shaw, who will be wearing a
wolf mask. Knowing Pendleton, there's more to this than meets the
eye, so I think I will take a moment to meet Lord Shaw before
considering his favor. I smile as I head to Samuel, because I pass by
Emily asking Havelock to share stories of the open sea. What a girl.
She's so very much like her parents. Anyway, since the Boyle estate
is quite long ways off by boat, I ask Samuel to shove off as soon as
possible.
By the time we
arrive, it's already nighttime. As befitting the Lord Mole's
mistress, the Estate District is on high patrol to avoid interlopers
at the party. It's here that I get my first glimpse at the fabled
tallboy, and that is clearly and enemy I do not want to fight. Those
stilts look like they'd take me out in one blow, and the armor looks
extremely tough to penetrate. All of this on top of the explosive
crossbow bolts they wield mean that directly confronting them is a
no-go. When I touch down, the Heart begins to beat with a force,
revealing the presence of 2 Runes and 2 Bone Charms. 1 of these Runes
is on the other side of the river, so swimming to it and jumping back
to shore isn't exactly difficult. Climbing up a set of stairs close
by, I use Blink to make a series of maneuvers ending with a landing
on a nearby rooftop and out of sight of the patrols.
According to the
Heart, I inadvertently got closer to the other Rune. When I jump onto
a roof of higher elevation, I see the Rune perched atop... an
Outsider shrine. There's a weeper nearby as well, but the question is
if the Rune is worth listening to Poncy's rants. *sigh* I do
need more power, so I sneak behind the weeper to stab it and look
around for any other of its ilk. During my search, I find 1 of the
Bone Charms that the Heart sensed earlier, so I snag it even though
the effects are useless to me. Afterward, I eat shit and pick up the
Rune, summoning Poncy to rant at me again. Nothing he says is even
remotely useful. The only mildly noteworthy things he mentions is
that either I kill Lady Boyle tonight, or she lives out her days
without ever throwing another wild party. This could not possibly
interest me any less, so I am more than happy to Blink out the room
once he's finished and begin scouting the party grounds, looking for
a way in. I notice that the patrols outside only consist of one guard
and a tallboy. For once, I take the near direct approach. Instead of
taking the streets, I use Blink to navigate the top of the bridge
support beams and once again to teleport passed the gate separating
the Boyle estate from the streets.
Now that I'm on the
estate grounds, I put away my gear in order to avoid arousing
suspicion. As I approach that doorman, one of guests loosens their
grip on their invitation, letting the wind take over from there.
Since it lands in a nice, out of the way place, I snag the invitation
in order to gain entry to the Boyle manse. Before I show my
invitation to the guards, I swipe the wallets off a few nobles
outside the gate, adding to the pool of funds I can use to buy things
from Piero. Once I do give him “my” invitation, the guard opens
the door for me and invites me to enjoy the party. That's when I get
the idea to steal the key to the guard house and use it to take
blueprints for Spiked Grenades. I don't think it'll get much mileage
out of it, but Piero will appreciate the gesture nonetheless.
Proceeding into the
manse, I hear two nobles talking about how all the Ladies Boyle are
dressed in similar, yet differently colored costumes. It's part of a
game where the guests are supposed to figure out the identity of each
of them. Great. This will make my job that much more of a pain in the
ass. Just as I approach the door to the mansion's interior, I notice
a man wearing a wolf mask. This Lord Shaw seems to be talking about
Lord Pendleton in a disparaging tone, so I decide not to give him the
note in order to keep attention off of me. I am now ready to enter
the mansion. It's a tough task ahead of me. Not only do I need to
figure out which of them is the mistress of the Lord Mole, but I also
need to figure out which costume the correct one is wearing. This
might be a decent challenge for other people, but I've overcome
tougher ones before, so I think I can pull this off if I'm extremely
careful not to look suspicious.
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