There's still a lot of time until I'm supposed to meet up with Burakh. According to my map, one of the nearby districts were recently locked down due to risk of looting. I should head over there and see if the guards needs some help.
The captain of the patrol guard told me that several groups of marauders had already occupied the nearby houses. While they couldn't safely escape as long as the guards were surrounding the area, it would be too dangerous for the unarmed guards to try to force their way in and arrest the looters. Since my revolver has proven to be quite suited for just this sort of action, I offered my help.
As long as I keep my cool I can defend myself quite easily. A bullet to the head and they drop dead, just like anyone else. It seems like one man in each group is always tasked with guarding the entrance, and they are extremely agressive.
Seems like there's always one marauder on each floor. I can use this fact to my advantage if I'm being cautious. If I sneak up the stairs I can often catch a marauder off guard. They are working very methodically in looting the place, but it seems like they mainly pick up money as well as jewelry, and ignore almost everything else.
They do get the occasional hit in, and when they do it hurts like hell. I'm lucky I haven't had any bones broken, because then just a bottle of painkiller wouldn't be enough.
Ah, finally something that's useful. There's quite a lot of medicine stashed away. I can only guess why the original owners of this house didn't use these when the area first got infected. I'll put them to better use myself.
This twyrine stuff. It seems like the guards value it quite highly. I still don't really dare trying it out, so I traded a bottle for some supplies.
Damn it, these clouds of poison are spreading faster and faster. I almost stepped right into one when I went up to talk to the guard. Everyone in the patrol guard is so reckless. Even if they have been taking a lot of medicine, that's no reason to expose themselves to this kind of danger.
I'll need some time to rest and recover before it's time to meet with Burakh. The best spot would be with Alexander Saburov. If I'm lucky then he won't know about me getting Burakh out of prison. But how could he? There were no witnesses... At least none that got out alive.
Even if he suspected something, he didn't say anything about it. He did let me borrow his bed for a few hours. Maybe he was just thankful that I didn't bring more demands and work for him this time.
I only have a short time to rest, so I decided to bring out the most potent painkiller I had. This type must be rather hard to come by, because I haven't seen it in any stores in the capital and this is the only bottle I've come across in this town.
This stuff is amazing! The pain just melts away. Unlike the morphine, I can still think very clearly. If I only had a good supply of these I could handle anything! I'll just rest for a couple of hours, then it's time for some action.
I wonder what they make this stuff from...
Etorphine is one hell of a drug. It is loosely related to morphine, but it is MUCH MUCH stronger. It is often used to sedate elephants, and even then you need to inject another drug to get them to wake up.
The bottle probably contains an extremely diluted form of this drug, because otherwise we'd be dead by now. Still, it's rather funny that our dear Bachelor is downing at least a bottle of narcotics each day. He'll have some serious problems once this is over. That is, if we survive.
One thing that doesn't make sense is that in the game, Etorphine doesn't have any effect on your Exhaustion meter. It brings back about 40% of your health right away, and then 25% for each hour you sleep. So in just 2 hours we get back to full health! By any rights we should be passed out on the floor by now, but Daniel instead gets really focused and alert from it.
I used it here because we are on a time limit, and I spent a bit too much time dealing with the marauders. I was expecting better loot from there. We might not see another bottle, though. But if you are in a bind due to a time limit and you just need to rest, it will get you back in action very quickly.
Man, I feel great! I better run off to see if Burakh has found some fresh corpses to cut open. It's not really time yet but I bet he'd be happy if I helped him out a bit. He worries too much about the guards finding out. But Alexander is too scared to do something about it! I'll just bust my good pal Burakh out of jail myself next time.
Hey, these clouds are out to get me! Trying to block my way like that, who do they think they are? I better take another way around. It's a shame these fences are so high, otherwise I'd just jump over them.
And yes, the clouds ARE out to get us. They appear in spots where you need to walk close to them, or where there's something else that you might want to walk up to. Be very careful, because you might not notice them until you are standing on top of them. Daniel has the visor, so use it. If you are playing as another character, you will have to find out where they are the hard way.
Hey, Burakh should be here somewhere. He told me he'd be here, but I guess he's hiding somewhere. The sun is still out so I guess I'll just have a bit of a look around for a while.
Well, he's not here either. Oh, but I need to meet up with Vera as well. She should be here by now, but I don't think she'd need to hide. Probably waiting under a streetlight or something, just like in those cheap crime novels you can buy in the capital. Well, Burakh can take care of himself for a moment.
Maybe I can sort this out in one go and send off Burakh to guide Vera out of here? Man, I bet the Hump would be really scared if Artemiy Burakh knocked on his door. Blood all over his clothes and with the precious 'daughter' with him...
Hey, who's that over there?
Oh.
Damn it, how am I supposed to get my reward now? And how the heck will I find Burakh if there's been a murder? Who'd cut down a girl out on the street like this! Bloody cowardly robbers! Once someone sees this there'll be a lot of guards along right away. I better get out of here as soon as I can. Burakh be damned, it's not worth the risk.
Unless...
Artemiy Burakh, it's no wonder half the town wants you dead. You have an amazing way of getting the wrong people killed.
Well, no point in letting this go to waste. I better hide it really well and run back to Rubin. And then I better stay FAR away from the Hump.
Damn rats! They are everywhere in this town now.
The long run made me calm down a bit. There's nothing to do about Vera now, but at least I can make sure her death resulted in something good. Rubin quickly prepared a sample from the still warm heart, and we used the microscope to examine it.
:
It's ready, doctor. I think that this time it's the right stuff. It is
obvious that the bacteria are those slithering horn-shaped abominations.
Heh, you'll have something to show the Inquisitor when he arrives from
the capital. Well, at least we can now please ourselves with the ability
to feast our eyes upon it. we can even give it a name!Bachelor: Let's name it based on the Inquisitor, I think he'll cause us more problems than the disease.
Rubin: The vaccine will be ready by tomorrow morning. Where did you get this specimen?
Bachelor: Ehm, Burakh got it for me.
Rubin: The blood is quite unusual. Did you ask him about it?
Bachelor: No, he wasn't there when I found the corpse he had cut open.
Rubin: Hmm... It's very strange, Bachelor. I've learnt how to distinguish the blood of different people. For example, this is the blood of an egoist, this belongs to a poet, this is the blood of a person tired of life. But this one... this is the blood of someone who had a magnificent future ahead of him... This is no ordinary blood.
Bachelor: I don't really know anything about that. So what do we do now?
Rubin: Now I will make the vaccine. But how many hearts will we need to make it in the quantities required?
Bachelor: The main thing is the technique. We'll show it to the Inquisitor and let him be bothered with the problem of how to get the components of the vaccine. In fact, that is the reason that he is coming here.
Rubin: I agree. Come by tomorrow morning. The vaccine will be ready and you will be able to test it.
Bachelor: What properties will it have?
Rubin: I don't know for sure yet. We need to test it to be sure. Because it is not a proper vaccine it will only give full immunity to the person that has had it injected for a limited period of time. It won't last forever.
Bachelor: Well, it is much better than the medicine we have now. I'll see you tomorrow.
Summary: Well, we did get what we wanted in the end. We headed to the area where we were supposed to meet up with Burakh and Vera. Turns out Burakh either killed Vera or found her dead, and carved her up quite nicely so that we could get her heart. Vera was infected, but at the stage where it wouldn't show. That was exactly the sort of victim we wanted. There's no way to get Vera out of this alive, sadly. But it wouldn't be Pathologic if everything worked out fine.
All quests and tasks for day 5 are completed. Again we can start the next day early, which is always a good thing. Tomorrow we will see the arrival of the Inquisitor. That should prove to be... interesting.
Supply-wise, we are running a bit low on ammo, but everything else is okay. Money is flowing, so if you have any suggestions on what to do with it, let me know.
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