Mood music!
Disturbing message from George Kain posted:
I ask you to visit me at the Horns at the first opportunity. We have a new misfortune, and again it concerns the man for whose sake you came such a long way. I calm myself in the hope that our sorrow is still not indifferent to you.
Kain
"It seems like I am destined to receive bad news every morning, like clockwork. At least the Horns where he lives is very close by. I decided to eat breakfast before I left. After sharing with Eve whatever I had left from yesterday, I have almost no food left. I will have to visit some of the food stores today."
[bad draw distance dot jpeg]
It's hard to see very far with all this dust in the air.
[horns; george, the usual]
VERSUS
Bachelor: Tell me what's wrong.
George: The house where Rubin lived and worked is covered by the stains of infected mold and the rooms inside are in ruins. Neither Rubin nor Simon's body were there. Our messengers have searched each corner. Some of them already pay off for it, they are infected by the Sand Plague.
Bachelor: Do you know why Simon's body is gone?
George: It's obvious that when the infection started to spread near the house, master Rubin took the body away to some place that he considered safe. But since he hasn't returned to us, it is possible to draw only one conclusion... Rubin may be dead.
Bachelor: Could somebody have stolen the body?
George: It is possible that someone would steal the body and use it to blackmail our family. Then the silence and absence of Rubin speaks that he has gone off to pursue thieves.
Bachelor: What can I do to help you?
George: Help us return the body, doctor! We are already infinitely obliged to you since you uncovered the cause of Simon's death. It is not your fault that the truth appeared so unfavorable for all of us. Now I beg you once again to the help us. Find the body of my brother!
Bachelor: It will not be easy. Where shall I begin to search?
George: Someone could have seen what happened. Don't you have some useful contacts with the people in the town slums? Perhaps some of them know something? Consult my brother Victor. He is better in solving practical issues.
Bachelor: I will let you know if I find something.
New Task: Body of the Immortal posted:
The Kains are concerned by the disappearance of the body of Simon. Could it be that Rubin has fallen victims of some thieves? Victor will know where I should begin my search.
"Victor had some strange charts on the wall. Almost like it was his idea of a painting. I can't quite make out what they are about. Physics, perhaps?"
[kains]
VERSUS
Bachelor: I'm looking for the body of your brother, Victor. Do you know anything about what has happened?
Victor: Yes. The first one you should talk to is the son of Olgimskiy. Young Vlad, sometimes called Charon. They have some mutual affairs with Rubin. He should know the places where Rubin could bring the body.
Bachelor: Have you asked him about it already?
Victor: I tried to. But we are in a difficult position. Since we are on bad terms with his father, we can't ask him for favors...
Bachelor: It seemed to me that yesterday you agreed to stop all the disputes between the ruling families.
Victor: The arguments between our families can never be stopped. Like day will never unite with night. But I feel that Big Vlad's actions are related to the root of all our troubles. I do not like this silent Apiary! Isn't that the place where the notorious murderer, Isidor's son, is hiding?
Bachelor: Your brother was lost to the illness, and so were many of the townspeople. I do not think a murderer ever existed.
Victor: Some stranger has come into our town. Whether it was Shabnak or a human, it's all the same. I cannot tell if he is involved with the death of Simon directly or indirectly, but I am sure there is a connection.
Bachelor: Why?
Victor: Maria revealed in her dream that the Apiary conceals something that was the cause of Simon's death. I am going to find out why Big Vlad so persistently does not wish to open it. You should ask Young Vlad just in case.
Bachelor: Okay, I will try to ask him.
Victor: Young Vlad is a faithful son. He is cynical, but at heart he follows his father. He does not have a reason to hide a crime, but he will never help us if he knows that we will work against his father. However, I do respect him for his principles.
"Task Update: Body of the Immortal posted:
Young Vlad may know a lot. Where could Rubin have taken the body? And is the son of Isidor Burakh, also known as the Ripper, somehow involved in all this?
"I get the feeling that the whole Kain family are losing the grip. It must be hard on them to give up so much authority, especially with Simon Kain dead, after being used to getting their way all the time. They are not bad people, but they seem to jump to conclusions based on what they want to be true. Still, Rubin is important to us all, and I need to find him. I will visit Young Vlad after I take a stroll though town to pick up some supplies."
I decided to take a bit of a detour at this point, checking out stores and dumpsters in the central part of town. It took a lot longer than I expected, but since we started so early this morning it isn't such a big deal. I should probably have waited until after all the tasks were done. Well, not much to do about it now.
[town transitions]
I found myself near the house of Lara Ravelle and decided I should stop by and see what had happened to the shelter she was setting up yesterday. There were quite a lot of people inside her house, but Lara was looking worried.
[sup lara]
VERSUS
Bachelor: I am a bit hungry.
Lara: You probably know that our stores of rations were ordered to be destroyed? They said that the cause of illness was the infected meat. Now we are short on food. We only have what we managed to buy before all this began. I have almost nothing to give you, only milk and bread.
Bachelor: I'm grateful for whatever you have.
So all our efforts completing that task yesterday has netted us a bottle of milk and a loaf of bread. Well, not bad for free food. This is an example of a reason to do as many tasks as you can. Even if they don't give you an immediate reward, they can set off events later on. It just takes a bit of searching to find out exactly what.
"Heading back south, I soon reached the building where Young Vlad lives."
[lil vlad]
VERSUS
Bachelor: I have been informed that some areas of the town have been closed off. I need to have a map made showing these infected areas.
Young Vlad: You may be surprised, but I have already taken care of this. I have ordered my men to make such a map and update it each day. There are some costs in making it, so I am afraid I will have to charge you a small sum for them. About one thousand.
Bachelor: I am ready to buy it right now.
[plague map.]
The plague has spread across a large part of town by now. Each day, certain parts of town are infected. You can buy a map from Young Vlad for one thousand per day, which isn't much for the Bachelor. Everything that's marked in red is closed off and infected. We are allowed to go there, but it is a VERY bad idea.
If you chose not to buy the map, you will have to find out the hard way which routes are safe and which are infected.
The infected districts changes each day at exactly midnight. If you sleep in Vlad's house, you can pick up the map during the night or when you wake in the morning and use it to plan your day.
Bachelor: Rubin has disappeared. His house is infected and has been plundered. There was no sign of him or Simon Kain's body. Do you know where he could have gone?
Young Vlad: I do not know. I haven't seen him. Do you assume that Rubin is dead?
Bachelor: That is possible.
Young Vlad: But if he wasn't found in the infected house, that mean Rubin has attempted to move the body of the Keeper to another place. I can't see a reason why someone would break into houses and steal infected bodies.
Bachelor: So do you have any idea where he could have gone?
Young Vlad: There are some places where Rubin could bring the late Simon. I can order them to be opened, but I will need a favor from you first.
Bachelor: Okay, if it will not take too much of my time.
Young Vlad: I would like to settle the disagreements between us and the Kains regarding our unwillingness to let anyone in or out of the Apiary. I do not know what the Kains are imagining, but we have not locked up anything in there that could be a threat to them.
Bachelor: Then why would you refuse an inspection of the place?
Young Vlad: It is dangerous to open it at the moment. There is a revolt going on inside. I have spoken about this before. Also, my father will not submit to the orders of the younger Kain. If this goes on then soon we shall have to obey the orders of ten-year-olds!
Bachelor: Fine. What is your plan?
Young Vlad: The Kains hide something. They have just the same skeletons in their closet. Our closet is stuffed by our workers, theirs is filled by children. If the Polyhedron is all right too, then that mean the Apiary is good too. It is an enclave. A chamber.
Bachelor: Is the Polyhedron closed too? Did that happen after the Apiary?
Young Vlad: Yes, and it was much closer to Simon Kain, where the infection started to spread.
Bachelor: I shall examine the Polyhedron and talk to Victor. I think he will be convinced by your reasoning. In return I shall ask you to help me with the search of Simon's body.
Young Vlad: Just hold back the anger of the Judge and his brother Victor. It seems like they have decided to get my father killed somehow. I am sure that whatever my father has done, he is not guilty of a crime. If you do that I will help you out.
Bachelor: Agreed.
Task Update: Body of the Immortal posted:
Younger Olgimskiy, the respectful son, is able to put on a good face even when he's losing the game. He agreed to give out the necessary information to me in exchange for Victor's promise to withdraw the accusations against the Olgimskiy family.
"Young Vlad spoke in riddles, but I am sure I could see through all this. If I got everything sorted out, the Olgimskiy family is responsible for the meat production, and the Apiary, the big blocky structure to the east where all the butchers and other meat workers live, is under their control. They cannot directly dictate everything that's going on in there because the workers are from the steppe and can be very unruly, but they have total control over who and what comes in and out of it. Accusing Big Vlad of intentionally mistreating the workers in the Apiary and endangering the town is not something the family will take lightly. They think it is their own right to do as they see necessary."
"Young Vlad said that the Kain family has their own dirty secrets. He mentioned the Polyhedron, which I haven't visited yet. It seems like some sort of tower a few stories high, a bit west of the town. Supposedly, the Kains let the children play there. Or maybe they put the orphans there, out of sight? The Polyhedron was then closed off, just like the Apiary. Are there still people in there as well? Did the Kains order it closed to prevent the infection from coming in? Or maybe prevent someone from getting out?"
"I need to talk to Victor Kain about this. If the Polyhedron and the western part of town are all right despite Simon Kain dying from the Sand Plague in that very area, then that may convince him that the Apiary is also free from infection since it was closed off earlier than that. In that case, the Olgimskiy family should be left alone to handle what they think is their own business."
"I left Young Vlad and headed back to Victor Kain. Along the way I saw more of these ruins. It's a shame the architect brothers don't build normal houses, because they would most likely be very impressive."
[ruins]
[walking]
[kains.]
VERSUS
ROUND TWO
Victor Kain: Every hour we have more and more troubles...Bachelor: I have news from the Olgimskiys. It concerns the Apiary.
Victor: Very interesting! What can you tell me?
Bachelor: Young Vlad asked me to tell you the following. The Apiary was closed before the Polyhedron, and there are a lot of witnesses to that.
Victor: Really? What does he mean by that?
Bachelor: He has no grounds to assume that the situation inside the Apiary is different from that inside the tower.
Victor: Witty. Damn it! All right, it will have to be this way. I am forced to leave him alone. But this is just temporarily! You can tell him that. He is left in peace only until we find proof that the Apiary isn't safe.
Bachelor: I only do this to make the Olgimskiys unlock the places where the body of Simon might be hidden.
Victor: While you were out, I didn't waste my time either. The information which the couriers delivered is awful. There is a Ripper lose in town. Some of the bodies found recently have been mutilated. Either this is a stranger who doesn't recognize our traditions about handling the dead, or this really is a messenger from the Steppe.
Bachelor: Who would this Ripper be?
Victor: Earlier I was afraid that Big Vlad was hiding him in the Apiary, but that doesn't seem likely anymore. He isn't locked in. I don't think he has anything to do with Simon's missing body, but you should be careful anyway. I believe he is the one that was accused of the murder of his father. The cursed, rebellious son of Isidor Burakh!
Bachelor: Why have you decided that it is him?
Victor: I have not decided anything yet. I only suspect. The end times comes when the sons cease to honor their fathers. They turn the land to emptiness. These rebellious children are keen on breaking down that which was built up by their parents. But they create nothing in exchange!
Bachelor: You speak as if you had a son of your own that behaved that way.
Victor: My son has founded his own kingdom inside the Polyhedron. There it is, towering above our guilty ground. He does not let anyone into his world, not even his own father. If you are interested in what's going on inside, you can try to enter. Maria thinks nothing will be impossible for you.
Bachelor: I'll consider your advice.
Task Update: Body of the Immortal posted:
Victor agreed right away to withdraw the accusations against Vlad Olgimskiy. He does not want to have to deal with the Polyhedron himself. There is something in there that the Kains does not want the rest of the town to see, but for some reason they are not hiding it from me. Something involving his son. At least it is not the Sand Plague. I should make my way into the mysterious tower on the riverbank. After that I can return to Vlad.
"This Polyhedron isn't marked on my map, but I think it's on the platform that extends into the river, near the Kains. There are a lot of strange marks on this map but the only thing near that spot is this insect-like picture and I can't make much sense out of that. I haven't see the tower on my walks, but the visibility has been rather poor lately."
Summary: Yesterday, Victor Kain was worried about Rubin, the man examining the dead body of Simon Kain, who hadn't sent any reports for a while. Today, it turns out Rubin's house was infected, and that both Rubin and Simon's body were gone. To find some clues about where to look for them, we went to Young Vlad Olgimskiy.
Before he can help us, we need to do him a favor and get Victor Kain to stop accusing Vlad's family of trying to cover up an outbreak in the Apiary. He told us about the tower called the Polyhedron, which for reasons of their own the Kains don't want to deal with and has closed off. They assured us that it was free from infection even though it was closed off later than the Apiary, so we used that argument to convince Victor that the Apiary is free from the plague as well.
Meanwhile, it seems like the son of Isidor Burakh (Artemiy, a playable character) has been seen around town doing suspicious things. Some claim he is cutting up people, some claim he's dragging away already dead bodies for some strange purpose. Is he a killer? Or are people just looking for someone to blame?
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