15:04 on Day 3

It seems that I will have to venture into the infected district. It's just north of here, past the Apiary.

Wow, ace living conditions.

I bet the rent's good, though.

 "This building is huge! There must be room for thousands of workers in there. It seems to be an awful place to live in, though. It's just a big box of concrete and stone."


"Ah, there is the edge of the blockade. Seems like the guard is having their hands full preventing anyone from leaving the quarantined area."

Pretend you can't see the Cathedral in the background there.

"They have put up these awful wooden structures, to use as markers for the locked down areas. Past this is the infected area. I made sure I have some emergency supplies like immunity boosters and bandages with me.What I have should be more than enough. I don't plan on staying here very long anyway. The air just beyond the marker is foul and it seems even the sun is afraid of being here."

You may notice that I do not actually use the pills at this time. If you're careful, you will not exactly need them if you know what you are up against. I think maybe I'm becoming a bit overconfident, though, and that will come back to bite me later. In the video, I do use them but not early on as I should have, which turned out to be a mistake.

"When I got closer, one of the patrol guards stopped me."

Patrol Guard: Entrance to the infected area is strictly prohibited. It is fatally dangerous to enter.
Bachelor: I have special permission. The Commandant should have notified you. I am Bachelor Dankovskiy.
Patrol Guard: Of course, sir. Come through, but keep in mind that the people inside are insane. Taken by the devil. If they attack you, run for you life. But do not kill anyone. They are innocent tormented souls.
Bachelor: Interesting... Why would they attack me and not you guards?
Patrol Guard: Well, you are a doctor. The patrol guards have nothing for them but a good blow on the head and we won't let them out. A lot of them have tried, you know. We taught them a lesson. We have defense against them, thanks to you.
Bachelor: What defense?
Patrol Guard: We've been given some tablets. They said it was on your order. Boosts the immune system if you take a lot of them, they say. Ruins the heart, however. If you get injured, the blood don't stop flowing, instead it sort of bloats the veins and keeps spilling out. But it's better than getting infected.

[missing image]

"I told the patrol guard that I had battled with some of the robbers the night before. When I mentioned the strange razor-knuckles I found on them, he told me that Saburov offered a reward in exchange for those. Some desperate people have taken up robbery or stealing and the patrol guards can't handle them at the same time as the plague quarantine. The razors acts as proof that I have defeated a low rank thug. I received some ammunition, and was told that the other guardsmen would have more ammo or even food rations."

[dead lady.]

"This poor woman was trying to escape from the quarantine. Her clothes were all in tatters and I could see bandages across much of her body. The guards were very effective in dealing with her. It's sad, but there is very little we can do at this point to cure the people living in this part of town, and it would be a disaster if even one of them escaped."

[DAMNED RATS]

"Rats! Big, vicious animals. I had to defend myself with my knife. It was like it was crazy, desperately rushing at me and trying to bite me."

[plague time]

"Those of the plague victims that are still alive don't give me a better welcome. When they see me they start moaning loudly and try to grab onto me. But the pain in their bodies seem to slow them down considerably. I just need to make sure I do not get surrounded or cornered by any of them. When the patrol guards noticed me having trouble, one of them ran to my aid."

All the infected districts are filled with danger. Just staying in there for a long time will make your Immunity drop, but it takes quite a long time for that to become a problem on it's own. But that is of course not all.

The rats will die in one hit from the knife, but since you need to crouch down to reach them you'll have to be rather quick to hit them before they bite you. While recording, I seem to have tons of troubles with the rats for some reason, so you can see me get hit a few times. Yes, the rats are infectious but they don't really hurt that much. It's just really annoying when you are doing something else and they run up to you from behind and start biting you.

The victims are slow enough to outrun, but will frequently get in the way if there are many clumped up. Do NOT attack them, you will lose reputation because of that. Instead you can lead them to a guard if you for some reason really want them dead. Otherwise, do your best to avoid.

There's a third type of enemy, which you'll have to watch the video to see.

[oh hey we found the npc]

Idler: Oh...
Bachelor: Idler?
Idler: Ah... That's me... How do you know me?
Bachelor: Kapella told me.
Idler: Does she know that I am here? Oh! Listen, tell her that I didn't go anywhere special and that we just casually met here? Ok? That is, not here, but over there by the river?
Bachelor: If you run away from here right away. But give me the powder first.
Idler: I was told that at this place there are tongues of dirty lumps that creeps out from under the ground, and the air is heavy. Right at the place where you are standing now!
Bachelor: Never mind that. Give me the box so I can see that it's all there.
Idler: Oh! Actually, it feels like I have a fever. Let me take the powder, ok?
Bachelor: Leave and tell the others that I have forbidden them to eat the powders. Instead of helping against the plague, they will kill you. If the other children asks, I'll tell them that you are a brave boy.
Idler: All right. It seems there is no need to argue.
Bachelor: Give me the box. You should not poisoned yourself.

Task Update: The boy went out to battle posted:

Thankfully, the boy Idler didn't ingest the powder and I got to him in time. But without testing it we will not know it's effects. Dare I try it out myself?

"God, the air here is awful. It's like I'm breathing fire. Idler was right, it feels like something is seeping from the ground at this very spot.I quickly stepped away. I hope Idler didn't get infected by this. How stupid of him to even come here, and thinking the powder would save him! Surely it would just kill him even faster. I know Kapella would like to know the effects of the powder, and so would I, but there's no way to know now. Unless it's the only option left, I wouldn't want to ingest something like that, and I'm not THAT desperate yet."

Talking to Idler will give you a hefty dose of Infection. 50% on top of what we already have! There's no way to avoid it, and we got a powder out of it, which we'll hang on to. Since you insisted on it, we'll handle this with our good old friend modern medicine instead!

[dead butcher dot jpeg]

"There is one of the butchers! It seems the patrol guard found him and now he's dead. This is bad! If the patrol guards suspects me of being involved with this, I'll be in deep trouble. But I need to talk to him anyway. Maybe the butcher managed something before being discovered?"

[hi guard guy]

Patrol Guard: We have killed the bastard. Don't worry!
Bachelor: Were you ordered by Olgimskiy to hunt him down?
Patrol Guard: No. He attacked us when we approached him. Maybe he through that Big Vlad sent us. But something seems crooked here!
Bachelor: How so?
Patrol Guard: It's worse than that for this man's victim. The beast cut him open and then waited for someone. He was waiting for the Ripper! He still wanders here, the murderer of old Burakh. But he didn't come. The butcher was collecting bodies for the Ripper!
Bachelor: Why do you think so?
Patrol Guard: The body was cut open just like the Ripper did a few days ago. By the looks of it, the butcher was going to meet the Ripper here. It's good that we managed to prevent this. If he'd be hiding somewhere else we probably wouldn't have caught him in time. It's a shame I have to stand guard here, because in the meantime the Ripper will escape!
Bachelor: And what happened to the body of the victim?
Patrol Guard: It was given to his relatives. They will bury it properly.

Bachelor: You did the right thing.


Phew, they don't know it's me. I prefer to keep it that way. The Ripper that everyone is talking about must be the son of Isidor Burakh. But Vlad seems very confident that he's innocent, and I have not heard anything reliable that points to young Burakh being a murderer. He's certainly a shady character, but I do not want to be the cause of his death. Regardless, I can't possibly interfere with a proper funeral and demand to get the body. I better find the other butchers before it's too late.




Patrol Guard: Oh, how this villain cut his victim open. He knows his business. It's like he was butchering an animal. We have already taken the mutilated body away.

Bachelor: Where to?

Patrol Guard: To the cemetery. Where else would it be taken? To prepare for the burial. Why are you asking, sir?

Bachelor: Why wasn't he given to his relatives?

Patrol Guard: He doesn't have any. Now Laska will console him.

Quest Update: Imperceptible enemy posted:

A body cut open by one of the butchers was recently brought to the cemetery. I better hurry there before they bury it.

This is a good chance for me! I do not know who this Laska is, but I know the way to the cemetery. Maybe I can sneak in and take a sample of the corpse without any trouble. Since it's being handled by the guard, I do not think they'll have time to do a proper funeral.


Here is a video of the infected district. I strongly suggest you watch it, because the mood in there just can't be shown with screenshots alone.




Ah, fresh air! Everything seems so vibrant once I left the infected district. But I still have this burning feeling in my chest.



The infection has now spread enough for us to lose health at a steady rate. Our Health meter is slowly dropping until we find some antibiotics.



The shop had a good stock of antibiotics, and considering the circumstances they weren't too expensive either. I purchased a few doses, in case I needed more later.



Damn, these are strong. Downing this many at the same time can't be good for my body. But I can already feel the disease weakening.



Taking pills reduces your Health, and it's already at a very low level. In an emergency, you can use bandages to recover a bit of health. It's not nearly as effective as painkillers and sleeping, so I only use these if it's that or dying.

And yes, you can use bandages regardless of what caused the injury in the first place. Bullet wounds, fatal diseases, even starvation can be solved by the use of bandages! That is why I have stocked up on a lot of these. They really are life savers in a lot of situations.

You will notice that my health is going up and down in the rest of the screenshots. This is because our Exhaustion meter is now full, and we slowly take damage from that until we rest again. Since we have a lot of running left to do, I opted to use a bandage or two and then sleep once we're done with everything. There are no other negative effects of having a full Exhaustion meter.



These pills are making me very drowsy. I am having trouble even staying awake. But I can't stop yet. I need to get to the cemetery!








: My life is so hard... It's not enough to just feed them all. I have to talk to each of them too. Need to find words to comfort them. Only then will they reply with tenderness and happiness. Now they are all anxious, everyone single one of them is mumbling something. Do you understand now why I look so tired?

Bachelor: Who are you talking about, little girl?

Laska: I'm talking about the dead. You mustn't think that people die forever. Some don't go away at all, while others live underground for some time before fading away. You have to keep knocking from this side, so that they don't lose their way.

Bachelor: Are you crazy?

Laska: No. It's high season for the twyre. We sleep in the very heart of the steppe. I'm all green because of it. Can you hear the way the air is ringing? That's twyre.

Bachelor: Terrible. The rulers should do something about it right away.

Laska: I shall not allow you to touch the dead! Go away from here now.

Bachelor: Are you crazy? What would I want one of your dead for?

Laska: People told me today of a terrible doctor who will go around the town and drag the dead from their graves, even though he isn't allowed to. That sounds just like you.

Bachelor: Laska, I do what is necessary to defeat the illness. I do not want to harm you.

Laska: Then go defeat it. Give the pills and powders to the infected. I know that they work. They helped when I was ill five years ago.

Bachelor: Tell me, please!

Laska: I was helping my father. He was dealing with the funerals of those who died from the illness, and I sprinkled the tombs with twyrine. We both got infected from that. Then the girl named Mishka brought three powders to me. I took one and recovered. I gave one to my father, and he survived too. I still have the third one.

Bachelor: Give it to me, please. I need to examine it.




This place is depressing. I wonder where Laska actually lives. There's no bedroom or anything here, just this strange altar. I can't ask Laska outright if I can desecrate a body in her graveyard. She would probably just get enraged and call for the guard. I will have to find it on my own. It should only be guarded by some patrolmen, and I can get them to do what I tell them. Hopefully I can force them to keep quiet about it as well.




Patrol Guard: What do you want?

Bachelor: Was this body brought here from the infected district?

Patrol Guard: Yes, we are preparing it for burial. Why do you ask?

Bachelor: I need to examine it. It is vital for my work.

Patrol Guard: Well, well. Your work, doctor, is certainly important. Most likely you want it not for fun, but for the common benefit of the town? Is that so?

Bachelor: Yes, that's exactly right.

Patrol Guard: Ten thousand, and you can take it.

Bachelor: Are you crazy?

Patrol Guard: You heard me. I shall not make the same offer twice.

Bachelor: You will give it to me because I order you, in the name of Commandant Saburov!

Patrol Guard: Saburov? Commandant Saburov isn't my sergeant! He can't order us around. I am a volunteer, you understand? Or shall I explain it to you more clearly?

Bachelor: Shut up! Don't you dare refuse my order!




The man acted so quickly that I didn't have a chance to react and defend myself. He knocked me out cold. When I came too, I was in the residence of Alexander Saburov.




: Listen to me closely. I have told the guards that you are not the person who sent out butchers to cut open corpses.

Bachelor: Thank you. I am grateful.

Alexander: It was necessary to cover this up by claiming that a Ripper is in town. One who dared to both use his knife to kill and then desecrate the holy rest of the dead. I have convinced them that you aren't involved in this. And we are declaring a hunt on the Ripper.

Bachelor: But there is no real Ripper! Are you saying you are hunting that man down? What have I done...

Alexander: Nobody have mentioned a name. I do not know who you are refering to, and I do not wish to know. Do you understand? I do not want to get involved with this whole affair about the defilement of the dead. I have stated that anyone caught cutting open bodies will be punished. Be more careful from now on.

Bachelor: What shall I do now?

Alexander: The patrol who was guarding the cemetery have been sent to blockade the infected district. There isn't a replacement for them yet. I shall send the next detachment to the cemetery ten minutes after you leave. You only have an extra ten minutes, so hurry there.

Bachelor: Thank you, Commandant! I understand what this act costs you, and I appreciate it.

Quest Update: Imperceptible enemy posted:

The autopsied body is still in the cemetery. I need to get to it before the new ward of patrolmen arrives.

I do not know exactly why Alexander would help me out with something like this. I have insulted him and betrayed his trust in me, but it seem like Alexander is willing to take quite a few risks in this situation. Now I am in his debt. Maybe that is what he wanted all along. Regardless, he is helping me out and without him I probably wouldn't have been able to get anywhere. I will have to rely on him for now. My reputation with the guards has taken a big hit.

You can avoid taking a hit to your reputation (-30%) by forking up the cash. You also save some time because you don't have to run back from Saburovs. But 10k is a LOT, and we can increase our reputation again by killing robbers during the night, or using painkillers on people in the infected district.



Back at the cemetery, I was able to extract some blood from the corpse. I cannot do anything too obvious, like taking a whole organ, or they will notice when they bury the body.



I took a shortcut through the factory district to get to Rubin's hideout.







: At last! Have you succeeded?

Bachelor: It all depends on the results from the sample.

Rubin: The microscope is at your disposal, colleague. It should be you that examines the sample first.

Bachelor: Thank you.



Rubin: Well, what? What did you see?

Bachelor: Everything in the sample is dead. It seems dead tissue can't contain a living culture of the plague. We can try to provoke some breeding of the microbes, but in my opinion there is nothing to start from here.

Rubin: This is bad...

Bachelor: No, colleague. This is very good. We have discovered something that brings us hope. The Sand Dirt cannot live in dead bodies. It kills and then leaves at once. To survive it needs warm blood saturated by oxygen.

Rubin: And how do you think this bacterium works, Bachelor?

Bachelor: It seems to mainly affect the blood. It finally affects the cardiac muscles. Most likely the actual death comes from an infarct.

Rubin: So, to get a living and active culture of the microbe we need a beating hard of an infected person. That's too much to ask for.

Bachelor: You said you had your own... unique source. We can try to work out a vaccine with that first.

Rubin: Yes.

Bachelor: So we have made significant progress today.

Rubin: What can we conclude so far?

Bachelor: We know that insulated houses offers good protection against the plague. Also, the life cycle of the plague is very short, so the spreading of the illness is limited. As soon as it kills the carrier, it dies itself shortly after.

Rubin: So we can defeat it?

Bachelor: Yes, I hope so. While our enemy is invisible, it is not as invincible as it seemed. We have found at least one week spot. Make your preparations for tomorrow.

Quest Completed: Imperceptible enemy posted:

Dead tissue does not contain the plague. It perishes together with te carrier. This means we can limit the spreading of the lethal disease. Strict isolation is necessary. If we order everyone to lock themselves in their houses and not open any windows, the plague shouldn't be able to get inside.

There isn't more I can do today. I will have to report back to Kapella and George about their tasks, and then I will need to sleep. It's not even dark outside and I feel like I have been awake for days.






: I'm worried about my father...

Bachelor: I have found the boy. He didn't have time to try the powder. However, I think I got infected. I have supressed it with antibiotics. We still don't know the effects of the powder.

Kapella: I warned you!

Bachelor: I should have followed your advice better.

Task Completed: The boy went out to battle posted:

It was not possible to help Kapella. We still don't know what the powder actually does to your body.

We have failed this task. I do not think there's any reward involved, but it gives you a chance to try out the powder. And of course if you don't use the powder you have to buy antibiotics instead. Still, the end result of this is one box of powder extra. That puts us at 4 in total.

All these boxes better be useful for something, because they are a lot of pain to get.






: I will load with money the person who finds the body of Simon, and I shall squeeze all the blood out of the one who has stolen him!

Bachelor: I have found the corpse-thieves. They were skilled butchers.

George: Have you found the body they took?

Bachelor: Yes. It had been disfigured, but it wasn't your brother. I shall show you the building in which I found it.

George: Despite the bad news, I thank you for your effort. I will send my people there right away.

Bachelor: Be careful. I hope I will have better news for you next time we meet.

Task Completed: Body of the Immortal posted:

It's bitter to bring bad news. The body I found was tormented and disfigured. While it wasn't the body of Simon Kain, George was grateful for the information. The house will be investigated. It's quite a bloody story.

Back at Eve's house, I told her that I would need some rest to get the after effects of the medicine out of my system, but that I would like to eat a very late dinner with her if she could wait until midnight. She accepted, and helped me up the stairs and into my bed. I must have looked very scary, but Eve seemed to have other things on her mind and didn't seem to care.

[stats!]

This is the vitals screen. Everything looks really bad, but notice that we completed the day 5 hours early, and can use all this time to rest up. We'll get a good start on the next day, even if we visit the theater as usual and maybe do some fighting or shopping during the night.

Summary: We have survived day 3!

We have managed to get a sample of blood from an infected body, and we have discovered that the plague is very short lived and needs to aggressively infect others in order not to die out. This mean that if we keep up the quarantine, those areas should be safe in a few days. Unfortunately, this mean that most of the people living there will be dead by tomorrow.

Rubin has some other lead on how to make a vaccine. He will prepare, and then I will meet him tomorrow morning.

We know, from experience this time, that the first phase of the plague is not contagious. This mean we never have to worry about ourselves infecting others via breath or touch, because once we get to the contagious phase we will get a game over anyway.

We have visited an infected area and got some experience in how to survive in there. It's possible to take short cuts through infected areas, but it's always a bad idea, so we will grab a map each day to avoid them.