You know a thing I adore? When someone I've never seen before likes the first chapter of this work and I keep seeing a steady flow of likes from that person throughout the entire day as I check on the website.
It happens somewhat often but it gets me every time
[X] Plan: Tunnels of 2Fort
-[X] Ask Wympe for the money.
-[X] Look for the smuggler tunnels in the sewers
-[X] [Taskforce] Investigate Rhine Labs' latest moves.
--[X] Silence. Saria's contact Muelsyse hasn't contacted you yet. You're getting nervous, look into what the various Directors have been up to.
-[X] [Taskforce] Investigate the local authorities.
--[X] Wympe. Continue cultivating her unknown insider in the police force and bribe the cops she thinks can be bought. Find information on the local smuggling routes, and any reports that relate to Alvar and Mr. H.
-[X] [Taskforce] Investigate the local underworld.
--[X] Capone. Meet up with the smugglers. Fish for information on Alvar and Mr. H under the guise of wanting to do business. You want to do so for a fair cut, but the stability of their operations seems questionable. You've heard that some prominent smugglers have been disappearing lately, so how can they guarantee you aren't just flushing money down a hole?
-[X] [Taskforce] Gauge the status of the local Infected.
--[X] Saria. Keep on keeping on while we wait for her contact Muelsyse.
-[X] [Taskforce] Deal with the matter of Ifrit.
--[X] Sieghart. The kid has a voice in her head? See if you can find out more. Offer to trade secrets. You'll tell her about Abel if she tells you about her assignment-pesterer and why he's getting louder.
-[X] [Taskforce] Snoop around Rhine Labs' base.
--[X] Nicole. Our stealth specialist has the best chance of pulling this off. Scout Rhine Labs HQ for potential ways to get inside along with the various security systems you'll have to deal with during entry and escape. If she can steal building plans, passwords, keycards and the like? All the better.
4.6 - Phone's Always Ringing
"I told you already- I don't know who lost it. I just buy things from the scrapyard every now and then."
Seems that the pawn shop owner isn't that spineless. You spit out a plume of smoke.
"Bloody things?" you say. He frowns.
"It's a hard business, those days. Pawn shops aren't what they used to be. You have to pick up what comes by." he says, but he knows he's losing this one.
The man by the counter takes the bundle of cash you left on the table. You tap the hidden mechanism by the side of the hammer you've just bought, and you hear the soft, minute click that comes with the activation of the momentum-storage battery inside. You click it off again.
The safety wasn't unlocked, and the battery's empty. If he had lost it while fighting, the momentum-storer would be still activated, wouldn't it? Was it a surprise strike? Did he lose it to throw someone off his trail? You recall that one case with the blood-hunting serpents- it might have been something like that. Or maybe you're reading too much into it. But the mechanism wasn't locked back in the scrapyard, for sure.
If it was, they'd almost suredly have found about how valuable the hammer actually is, and it would be in some laboratory instead of sold as a pretty relic because it has carvings in the handle.
You take another cigarrette from your pocket and light it- your headache clears just a bit.
"...fine. Tell me who sold it to you. Give me his address. And his number." you eye the glass windows of the building. Slightly cracked. Indeed, the place is not in a good state. But the shelves of the shop are all full of goods- even if they're not especially worthwhile ones. "You buy a lot from that place, don't you?"
"I-"
His hand moves towards the mystery box in the counter. It's full of junk that wouldn't sell on its own, but you think he's hidden something in the drawer below it. You give him a look- and his hands quiet.
"Less then legal things. We both know that already."
He's stressed. You turn your head towards the floor- specifically, at the cache of weapons he's hidden beneath the floorboards.
"You..." his anger mounts- then fades, as he realizes just what you're looking at. "Oh."
"Yeah. I've seen the weapons. I don't care about them." you say. You're speaking the truth, but he won't believe it. "I just want the info. Give it to me, and I'll leave you alone."
He slumps. Well, you think you've won. He's probably going to rat you out to someone- but you couldn't care any less.
Hey, Koshelna. Good morning. Are you still there?
Are you awake?
The snow's falling outside. You can't see it, but it's falling.
Hundreds of miles covered by pristine snow. Nobody's there to see it fall. I can just hear the Blades outside talking about it. In their raspy voice...
I can't talk to them. They're not like you and me, or like anyone, really. They've become closer to things I'd rather not think about.
The snow... maybe one day I'll see it. Maybe one day I'll touch it with my own two hands...
When this is all over, do you want to see it with me?
You've hearing me ramble for so long. I hope I wasn't too much trouble, Koshelna.
I hope I helped you find your way.
Do you want to hear a story, Koshelna?
Cutouts of newspapers, interviews, notes and letters from old contacts. Addresses, testimonies, legal documents and statements. A clutter of evidence you just have to sort through.
Wympe and Silence, sitting around the table, sort through the material the other one brought. Capone's still busy- arranging a visit to the smuggler's tunels.
"Did you get anything on the smugglers?" you ask Wympe. She pauses.
"Not much, sorry, boss." she passes a document to your hands. "There seems to have been a lead on the smuggling operations a month ago, but the case's went cold. Not many, just one or two."
"So the force doesn't know where they are?" asks Silence.
"Oh, no, they know. I'm pretty sure they do! It's just that, uh, I couldn't get the location in such a short while. I searched a bit through my contact's house while she was blackout drunk, but didn't found much."
Silence moves away from the table, to get some more coffee. While her attention'd elsewhere, Wympe makes a so-so gesture at you. She found something, but not directly connected to the case. You tilt your head. You make a few signs. Blackmail?
She nods. Blackmail on the force. On her contact? No. She spreads out her hands. Wider.
On the force? A thumbs up. Evidence of bribes? Yes. Great. Something big, it seems, something Wympe thinks it's best for you two to keep to yourselves.
You smile, and give Wympe a thumbs up right back. Great job.
"The Rhine Labs directors..." Silence starts to say, returning with her coffee cup- "Some of them aren't doing anything of note. But a few of them..."
"Went completely dark." you complete.
"Yes. No public appearances, nobody's seen them anywhere. I thought there'd be a police investigation by now." Silence throws a glance at Wympe, who shakes her head. "No luck, then..."
You check up on the photographs. The ones who are missing, so far- whose current location nobody knows at all- are... Ecology, Energy, Structural, and Originium Arts seems iffy to you.
Muelsyse. Saria's contact. Ecology. The clearest evidence of foul play in this scenario. Did someone know you were coming, and take her down before she could reveal some critical piece of information to you? It seems too perfectly aligned that she vanished right before you got here, investigating two people famous for stealing from her company.
Ferdinand Clooney, Energy. You don't know much about him, and neither does Silence. Saria didn't say much either. It seems he wasn't directly part of the founding team, but rather brought in a bit later. Seems to have proeminent links with the Columbian military, so it might have been for that. Known as good with money, too.
Rose to proeminence after Saria's "retirement," so she might have a grudge. Last time he was seen was during a scientific conference in... Southland Bay, not very long ago. Something involving particle physics.
Ahrens Parvis, Structural. The longest time incomunicable, it seems. Last known appearance was in the very same headquarters you can see from the window, in the distance. Went to work one day and never came back home. Silence's face when presenting the file was more... worried.
No, a different kind of worry. She knows him personally, but she's conflicted about him? Something like that.
It still seems this isn't a coincidence to you, but it could be someone targeting Rhine Lab directors- a purge? It can't be an assassin hired by an outside party- if there was one, the other directors would already be mounting defenses. Was this some way to get rid of incovenient detractors? Some risky proposal or project? You've seen similar events happen inside some Wings.
You recall very well that when you took a contract for the old, well, older L-Corp, it was always a different Head of Third-Party Employment giving it. Particularly bloody office politics are not new to you, but going by how surprised and alarmed Silence seems it doesn't extend to the lower-to-middle ranks.
Abel's presence begins to fill the back of your mind. Ah, he's awake already.
You slow down time and mutter a mental greeting.
"Ah, good afternoon."
How's his day been?
"Good. I have attempted to penetrate Rhine Laboratories, but I am... not very good at it without a trail to follow."
So Carmen hasn't been very active there, at least?
"The issue is that the Light in Terra has grown denser. It is nearly impossible to know. If you showed me someone, and they allowed me to enter their mind, I might be able to locate signs of her influence. But that is not very useful."
Yes, if someone consented to that they would most likely consent to telling you about being visited by Carmen, at least.
"Well, theoretically, I wouldn't need consent. Just a state where the target cannot resist."
Uh, really?
"...yes. I have attempted to force myself within the mind of an animal through my physical Light-form, for testing purposes. It was something I had considered before, but I have only obtained a proper body with your assistance, so it was a moot point."
How did it go?
"Not very well. Irreversible neural damage seems to be the norm, even if I did extract some information. But as they were animals, it was not useful information. The brain of a... "squeakbeast" does not contain a great amount of usable memories. It will likely be useful, though, if we have someone we will be killing already, and who has information we might like."
It's something to be used sparingly, but yes, it is very, very useful. Very good job on his part. You will certainly be using this at some point.
"Now, what were you saying about cutthroat office politics?"
You tell him what you've found.
"What about Originium Arts? From what I'm seeing, she has been missing too, if for a much smaller amount of time."
Hmmm. Dorothy, Originium Arts. She is, as far as you know, inside the Site-359 experimental laboratory in the one of the outskirts of this town, but she hasn't come out since then. It has only been a week, but... well. You heavily suspect she won't come out, either.
"Perhaps a targeted action, yes. Unlikely to be an outside agent, as well. I suspect, as you noted, a culling."
It could be a culling. But who is responsible? Kristen Wright, seeking to purge opposition? But why now, specifically? Have the other directors blocked or vetoed something she saw as particularly important? No, the other directors would be making more obvious moves. Are they all in this? All the remaining ones? A plan for a coup, and the purge is meant to get rid of Wright's supporters? But she would have done something, and she hasn't. Or at least she seems to not be doing anything.
Ugh, you just have too little information. What is exactly going on here? You need to learn more.
Hm, did Ayin ever have to purge executives?
"Yes. Oh, yes he did." Abel chuckles. "Not his executives, though. He mostly delegated that part, I suspect, but he did oversee the executions of the old L-Corp's CEO and his inner circle."
It seems Abel has started calling those actions Ayin's actions, not his?
"Hm. I am not entirely sure on who is guilty. Yes, I have myself not done those things. But one way or another, I am Ayin. Am I not responsible, in some way or another?"
X would disagree. No Manager had a choice, did they?
"I did have a few. To give up was a choice. Had I completed the Seed myself, a considerable amount of suffering would have been avoided. Angela would have been spared the most..." He goes silent. The meaning is obvious. A sort of "let's not talk about this."
Time resumes.
"We'll probably go through the smuggler tunnels first. I sent Nicole to try and investigate Rhine Labs more directly-" you turn around and try to pay attention to your surroundings. You study the walls for hidden cameras. You look back at your subordinates, then take a deep breath. "-and so we'll wait for her findings while we keep investigating. You're sure the other directors are fine?"
"I am. If you see right here, it's the last public appearances of each one of them. Jara Wilson even gave an interview on the radio yesterday."
Jara Wilson. Human Resource Investigation. Responsible for human resource management. Celebrity and former movie star.
"Anything of note?"
"Nothing at all. The reporters didn't raise any questions the disappearances, though."
"Oh, yeah, bought and paid for." mumbles Wympe. Silence sighs.
Your name is Ahrens Parvis.
You're not that old- you're only 63.
But there's no denying it- that's already too old.
You're losing your mind already. Every day, a little more of you slips away. There's no escaping it, either.
Your desk is full of encyclopedias, notebooks full of notes. Just a year ago, you remember knowing all of this by memory. Yesterday, you caught yourself checking a book you yourself wrote for your old research on Arts frequencies. You took immense pride in knowing from your heart. But now, you just don't.
All those years focused on the pursuit of progress, and soon you'll barely remember any of it.
Your star pupil is somewhere far away. There's still time for her- she still has her entire life to change the world. What do you have? Not much. And what you have left is already slipping through your fingers.
No.
You have something.
You do have something.
You have hope.
It's a faint, desperate flicker, but you have it. You have her.
When you first heard it, you thought you had finally went mad. That there was- that there wasn't any time left. The only thing worse then the horror was how... lonely you felt.
But you were wrong. You aren't mad, even if you're closer and closer to it.
She is real.
And she is a different sort of mind. Like that person you held in high esteem. Someone of conviction, brillaint- but not weak of heart, like a certain former Director of Defense. She is not cold, nor is she high in the sky, unreachable. Her wisdom is not thoughtless, her charisma is not uncaring. She is warm, radiant, like the sun.
The design she left for you- through the pool of dark water that sits in the corner of your laboratory- is marvellous. Constructing it will not be simple- the technologies and principles that it relies on centuries ahead of you in some places, and bafflingly primitive in others.
No, you are not left behind to linger in your own decay, not like you were before.
The insights she provides! You fill pages after pages of notebooks with her notes on mental frequencies. She whispers secrets of impossible technologies and you feel something twist and turn beneath your skin. You pratically monopolize the simulation room with your scans of human brains- the way they react to Cogito is baffling and fascinating.
You feel iight. Your mind is clear. And it is all because of her. You can barely wait for the gift she said she had for you- you are sure it will be as brilliant as the rest.
Oh, heaping praise on her sounds uncharacteristic of you. But really, she is brilliant.
What you wanted- what you've always wanted- is almost within your grasp. It will be here soon.
Your tendrils slither through the wooden floor, finding breaches and holes in the rotten wood planks.
It's dark in here. The tunnels' smell is fetid- after all, those are still sewers, even if they're abandoned. Below the building, is the entrance to an entire network of tunnels. Abandoned section of the city's waste management.
Your body- your real body- is mostly bone and skin by this point. But it looks normal from the outside, so it can carry on a conversation- as long as you don't move too much while the tendril connected to your foot examines the tunnels below the dilapidated house the smugglers have stablished their hideout in.
"I want proof that you're not screwin' me over on this." you spit out. One of the smugglers' all twitchy and nervous.
The other one snaps his fingers, throwing a glance at the canister of Oripathic suppressants you've brought. People 'round here call him Vic, and it's easy to guess why.
"If you're an Infected, there's never enough of this about even if you hang about the clinics asking for it. There's some money to be made there. Quite a bit of it." he says, the accent pretty damn clear. "Sure, the coppers do come around from time to time to look around at, what was the name? People, heh,"diverting critical supplies." But it's easy enough to get round them, if you know what you're doing."
"Yeah, yeah, you know what you're doing. I'm pretty surprised there's even space on the pipes to move those things, like you said before."
...hm. By what your tendrils are noting, there's quite a bit of space in the tunnels. This place got remodeled, didn't it? Feels a bit wide for a sewer.
"...eh, you know, there's lot of shit going on." Vic says, laughing boisterously.
Industrial materials, you note.
They've been moving those sorts of materials. You can smell them. A few empty bottles of keton colloid line the insides of the walls, hidden behind the tiles. Good job on that, by the way, but not anything that could fool your senses. There's also... salt. Yes, salt? Industrial quantities of salt. You can smell more, but it's in smaller quantities- solvents, cutting fluid.
The tendril's getting a little stretched. You dissolve your liver into more tendrils. You feel a bit nauseous as your stomach's pushed around, but you'll manage.
The things you are seeing are rare, and immensely valuable. If you had to guess, they're being moved out of the town- those sorts of reagents don't seem in line with the more commercially avaliable ones you saw in Rhodes Island. They're proprietary reagents. From tech companies. They get them from them- with insiders? Some people looking to make some extra money, perhaps. They move them out of the town through the tunnels. That's pretty interesting, at least...
You're getting closer and closer. The boss' guys were highwaymen- selling tech, weren't they? That's a bit above industrial materials.
"So, we got a deal?"
"As long as you don't up and disappear." you note. "If you vanish on me and leave me holdin' the bag when the cops come, I'll be pretty pissed."
"Tch. You think we're going to stab you in the back?" says the other smuggler. He hasn't given you his name.
"Given how a lot of you guys have been vanishin' to god knows where recently, yeah. You don't get very far in this line of work flushin' money down the drain."
Your tendrils begin to retract. You think you've searched the room below enough by now.
"Alright, alright. You made your point. I can see you're a smart one." says Vic. "I can assure you I'm not going to run on you, but we all know how much that's worth. Let's talk price- if you don't believe my word, at least you'll believe my money."
The trapdoor in the room next to this one- before you leave, you should get a mold of the lock. A tendril slithers into the complex mechanism, rooting itself into the tunnel's ceiling. It twists and turns to assume its perfect shape, and soon enough it sprouts a key, the chunk of bone blooming out of the appendage like some sort of horrific fruit.
Then, it slowly slithers back into you through the hole in your shoe. Very slowly, but discreetly enough to not be noticed as you continue to discuss the terms with the smugglers.
Just as soon as the mass rests inside you once again- the trapdoor key hidden safely within your ribcage.
Eventually, the matter's settled. The money- more then you expected, less then you're used to- comes in an envelope, with a note suggesting a list of medicines that would be highly sought after.
All in all, a good run.
Wympe's find is rather notorious.
After Silence leaves, she takes out a second folder of information- something she thinks is important enough to keep hidden.
It turns out- the cops have an... insider in this very clinic.
The picture of "Walter Roberts," one of the nurses you see work with Saria, stares back at you from the dossier.
"I got my contact to get it for me." says Wympe. "Well, kinda. She just opened the door, I got everyone distracted and sneaked in, and then I had free reign to search the commissioner's house."
"You went to the police commissioner's house?"
Wympe looks rather cheerful.
"Well, I got the address from hearing her complain- she does a lot of that. A bit of nudging, and she started ranting about how she had to drive all the way through the city to get a document from the commissioner, because he always has people drive to his house so he can keep working from home as much as he possibly can, and that was history."
"Then, I asked if she did that a lot." Wympe is searching through the folder- she takes out another picture. The nurse, at another angle. "A bit more poking and she agreed to have me meet one of her coworkers that she kinda tolerates- she likes him a lot, but don't tell her I told you that."
"The guy's a total yes-man." she notes, before showing you one more picture. A lanky, dog eared man in a dress shirt. "Agreed to basically everything she says, he's sucking up pretty bad. I got them to complain a bit more, then I pretended to leave, and he himself had to leave for a meeting with the commissoner. Very good opportunity."
"...it was a hunch. He looked very annoyed when he went to his car, mumbling about the fuel cost getting worse and worse, but the precinct was rather close. I made a guess and went to the commissioner's house. And he was there! So I took advantage, sneaked through the windows while they were talking, and rifed through the commissioner's things without anyone being any wiser."
"The fun thing is, one of those documents I stole is some evidence for the case of the murders. A testimony transcript. It hasn't been added to the system yet, the guy was just getting to that- and he passed by the commissoner in part to pick it up. I swiped it off the folder, he probably didn't notice until he got home to do his job. And then he's going to have no way of doing it, because it was one of the only copies and the original is going to be a pain to get since it's with an archivist who seems to be very obstructive. And everyone I've talked to confirmed. The guy was so nervous! Delaying the job until it was too late and now it's going to bite him! He was asking about raises, too, in that little conversation!"
Oh, delaying jobs is something she's never been fond of. The poor bastard.
"And in that, well, I think for the yes-man it will have to be a no." Wympe's eyes are very bright when she's being ruthless. She then passes you the dossier and the testimony- both are an enlightening experience.
The testimony is in regards to the murders. A homeless man was interrogated for being the last remaining person to see the murderer- according to him, he found the soup kitchen that he frequently had dinner in completely trashed- smashed, unrecognizable splatters of gore covering the walls. He was not attacked by anything, but he could remember a deformed, broken human skull involved somewhere, something he thinks the killer was wearing- a mask of some sort. The rest isn't very clear- the man is clearly in the verge of panic and afflicted by some substance or another.
Hmmm.
The dossier is interesting. It turns out the cops have been using their authority in a rather complicated scheme. First things first...
"Their insider is swiping medicine from the clinic?"
"Yes. Lot of it, too. Fudging records, apparently, with someone's help- I couldn't get that one, though. Questioning the insider might do the trick."
"And what's the plan with that? Are the cops just selling it at a markup?"
"Kiiiinda. As you can see, boss, they've made things more difficult for the most vulnerable Infected to move to through the city- to get their medicine the normal way- so they can force them to pay some stuff. Protection fees, extortions. There's patrols moved to block routes and traffic, and I imagine that the most desperate Infected don't look very presentable! That and the general perception of Infected as a danger, and they get caught in the patrols more often then not, get some time in jail unless they open their pockets. Or some time just shaken down. It's pretty clever, if rotten."
"I see why you wanted me to hide this. You have a plan, don't you?"
She adjusts her hat nervously.
"W-well, I did, if you want to hear it, but-" she stammers out, before you give her a smile. "Uh, okay, I want to throw this on them. I want to use this against them- it's big blackmail to have on the police commissoner. But if I told that to Silence or Saria, they might just throw out the guy who steals the drugs! I'd still keep what I'm doing, but way better. With something this big? I can basically muscle the guy into whatever I want! I have proof! Rivers of proof. I have his own signature five times over! I have so much info. And with that I can get even more."
"But then we'll have to do this with more caution, won't we? I don't think Silence would take very kindly to letting someone keep stealing from the clinic, and people are going to ask "where did you get this info?" or "how do you know so much?" and things like that! But we'll be able to do so much. I think I can even get right on the murders thing. Get all the reports. Get all the testimonies. So, so, boss, you in?"
[ ] Take Wympe's proposal.
[ ] Reject Wympe's proposal.
Damn, Wympe, that's incredibly juicy. It's going to potentially jeopardize our relationship with Rhodes Island and more importantly, Saria and Silence, but mayeb we can solve that by just stabbing the Commissioner and our Thief in the back once we have what we need?
That aside, Parvis has Cogito and it sounds like Rhine Labs HQ is being locked down because of his experiments with it. Completely unrelated to Jesselton's distortion like I initially imagined.
Good thing we had Nicole sneak into the place.
[] Take Wympe's proposal.
Tempted to go for this. We won't stay long in Columbia anyways, and I think we can get what we need and then sell these people out at the end. Saria and Silence are women with uncompromising ideals, they won't approve of this even for practical reasons since a lot of what went wrong in Rhine Labs is because of people compromising their ideals for practicality's sake.
Damn, Wympe, that's incredibly juicy. It's going to potentially jeopardize our relationship with Rhodes Island and more importantly, Saria and Silence, but mayeb we can solve that by just stabbing the Commissioner and our Thief in the back once we have what we need?
The "get your cake and eat it too" solution seems to be planning to betray the commissioner once our business in Trimounts is concluded, yeah. The real question is whether we keep Silence and Saria out of the loop in the meantime.
The "get your cake and eat it too" solution seems to be planning to betray the commissioner once our business in Trimounts is concluded, yeah. The real question is whether we keep Silence and Saria out of the loop in the meantime.
We're going to need a pretty convincing lie for how we did it. Nicole stealing docs, or maybe Abel doing spooky ghost things to the Commissioner's brain while they're asleep since according to him, he can do something like that if they're not resisting?
I'm sure we can think something up. For now, this is too useful an asset to discard. We can ensure the Infected of Trimounts receive justice after the commissioner has done his involuntary community service, so to speak.
Man, this chapter really managed to hammer in just how different the City-folk are from ordinary people. The skullduggery, blackmail, and intimidation, alongside the actual drug deal and the casual disregard for the suffering of others got the point across in a way that none of the previous chapters did, including the one where Wympe excitedly tells a story about holding someone's family hostage to set up an ambush.
Maybe it was Capone's nonchalance towards the gangster's explanation of exploiting the Infected by selling them life-saving medicine at extortionary mark-up, or Abel chuckling while thinking about Ayin overseeing the execution of Old L-Corp's executive board, or Wympe's excitement at screwing over one nervous and overworked desk-worker cop in particular, but it's just starting to settle in that none of the main characters are actually good people.
You've got a real talent for writing these kinds of characters in a way that seems perfectly sane, normal, and reasonable from inside their viewpoint. Keep up the good work!
Not really, you just need to pick the option that makes you go ''Would a City person do this?'' or ''A City person probably won't do this, but would Sieg do it?''
Parvis has Cogito and is running experiments with it. Muelsyse is trapped in the Labs, likely as a hostage for Alvar and Mr. H. Dorothy is getting involved.
Aaaand it looks like Parvis is heading towards Distortion. Fun.
Not sure what the other Directors are there for. They're not really researchers...
They can procure resources, but can they do that while locked in?
Or are "they" the resources?
I mean, they are crazy successful researchers when they aren't doing backroom politics. Ferdinand has invented equations, had one of them named after him, and would not stop taking readings when threatened, at gunpoint, in a spaceship under fire by the Columbian military. We also know that cogito can produce absolutely absurd amounts of energy, I'm 50/50 on whether or not Ferdinand is even paying attention to the other stuff going on, he's got the kind of drive I wouldn't be surprised if he developed E.G.O. from it.
Secrets Of The Deeps (Unlocked at E1)
When damaging a target with Elemental Damage burst state, heal yourself for 40% of ATK (applies trait). If the target had Nervous Impairment, double the amount healed.
Secrets Of The Deeps (Upgraded at E2)
Has status resistance.
When damaging a target in an Elemental Damage burst state, heal yourself for 45% of ATK (applies trait). If the target had Nervous Impairment, double the amount healed.
Potential Effect: Heal increased by 5%.
Brand-Rooted Knowledge (Passive)
ASPD +5-15, attacks deal an additional 15% of ATK as Nervous Impairment damage.
Each Mastery Rank increases ASPD by 5 and Elemental ATK by 5%.
Blood-Rooted Contemplation (Auto Recovery) (Manual Trigger) (15 seconds)
Initial SP: 0 (Increases by 1 with each Skill Level)
SP Cost: 23
Attack type changes to: Release an AoE explosion focused on the nearest Elite/Boss target in range (choose the closest normal enemy if there are none).
The explosion deals no damage, but inflicts 0.2-0.4 second of Stun (halved on Elite/Boss enemies) and deals an additional 10-40% of ATK as Nervous Impairment damage. For each debuff on the enemy (multiple stacks of the same debuff on the enemy count as multiple independent sources), inflict 2-5% additional Nervous Impairment damage with each explosion.
If the enemy is in a Nervous Impairment burst state, each explosion will increase their burst duration by 1 second and deal Elemental Damage equal to 40-100% of ATK, plus 5-15% extra damage for each debuff on the enemy, following the same rules.
Each Mastery Rank increases explosion damage by 5% (Nervous Impairment) and 15% (Burst state). Mastery 2 and 3 increases extra damage by 2% (NI) and 5% (Burst state)
Operator Module: (RIT-X) Seaborn Shell
Unlock Conditions:
Have at least 100% trust with Quintus
Raise Quintus to at least Elite 2 Level 40
Complete Quintus Module Missions
Module Missions:
Cause 20 Elemental Damage burst states with this unit.
Cause a total of 20.000 Elemental Damage with this unit.
New trait: When attacking a target afflicted Elemental Damage buildup (Necrosis, Nervous Impairment, the like), deal 10% of ATK as Elemental Damage of each type on them.
Startling Insight (Unlocked at E0)
When this Operator is assigned to the Reception Room, increases Clue search speed by 10%, and slightly increase likelihood of a clue that isn't in the board.
Lurking Insight (Upgraded at E2)
When this Operator is assigned to the Reception Room, increases Clue search speed by 20%, and considerably increase likelihood of a clue that isn't in the board. All other Operators in the Reception Room lose 0.1 additional Morale per hour.
Quintus' Token (Knot of Veins)
A bizarre sea creature's dried corpse. Their veins seem to have torn their way through their body, breaking through their shell before growing into and through each other. Quintus' hand shook as he gave it to you.
(Nervous Impairment: Explodes when at max (1000 for Normal and Elite, 2000 for Leaders), inflicting 5 seconds of stun, plus 15 seconds where the enemy's attacks have a 50% chance of missing (the 5s and the 15s overlap), and dealing 800 Elemental Damage per second during this period. 15s cooldown.)
Secrets Of The Deeps (Unlocked at E1)
When damaging a target with Elemental Damage burst state, heal yourself for 40% of ATK (applies trait). If the target had Nervous Impairment, double the amount healed.
Secrets Of The Deeps (Upgraded at E2)
Has status resistance.
When damaging a target in an Elemental Damage burst state, heal yourself for 45% of ATK (applies trait). If the target had Nervous Impairment, double the amount healed.
Potential Effect: Heal increased by 5%.
Brand-Rooted Knowledge (Passive)
ASPD +5-15, attacks deal an additional 15% of ATK as Nervous Impairment damage.
Each Mastery Rank increases ASPD by 5 and Elemental ATK by 5%.
Blood-Rooted Contemplation (Auto Recovery) (Manual Trigger) (15 seconds)
Initial SP: 0 (Increases by 1 with each Skill Level)
SP Cost: 23
Attack type changes to: Release an AoE explosion focused on the nearest Elite/Boss target in range (choose the closest normal enemy if there are none).
The explosion deals no damage, but inflicts 0.2-0.4 second of Stun (halved on Elite/Boss enemies) and deals an additional 10-40% of ATK as Nervous Impairment damage. For each debuff on the enemy (multiple stacks of the same debuff on the enemy count as multiple independent sources), inflict 2-5% additional Nervous Impairment damage with each explosion.
If the enemy is in a Nervous Impairment burst state, each explosion will increase their burst duration by 1 second and deal Elemental Damage equal to 40-100% of ATK, plus 5-15% extra damage for each debuff on the enemy, following the same rules.
Each Mastery Rank increases explosion damage by 5% (Nervous Impairment) and 15% (Burst state). Mastery 2 and 3 increases extra damage by 2% (NI) and 5% (Burst state)
Operator Module: (RIT-X) Seaborn Shell
Unlock Conditions:
Have at least 100% trust with Quintus
Raise Quintus to at least Elite 2 Level 40
Complete Quintus Module Missions
Module Missions:
Cause 20 Elemental Damage burst states with this unit.
Cause a total of 20.000 Elemental Damage with this unit.
New trait: When attacking a target afflicted Elemental Damage buildup (Necrosis, Nervous Impairment, the like), deal 10% of ATK as Elemental Damage of each type on them.
Startling Insight (Unlocked at E0)
When this Operator is assigned to the Reception Room, increases Clue search speed by 10%, and slightly increase likelihood of a clue that isn't in the board.
Lurking Insight (Upgraded at E2)
When this Operator is assigned to the Reception Room, increases Clue search speed by 20%, and considerably increase likelihood of a clue that isn't in the board. All other Operators in the Reception Room lose 0.1 additional Morale per hour.
Quintus' Token (Knot of Veins)
A bizarre sea creature's dried corpse. Their veins seem to have torn their way through their body, breaking through their shell before growing into and through each other. Quintus' hand shook as he gave it to you.
(Nervous Impairment: Explodes when at max (1000 for Normal and Elite, 2000 for Leaders), inflicting 5 seconds of stun, plus 15 seconds where the enemy's attacks have a 50% chance of missing (the 5s and the 15s overlap), and dealing 800 Elemental Damage per second during this period. 15s cooldown.)
We could have that other Sea Fiend brain that Abel collected during Arc 2 be the 4*, unless something happened to it during Arc 3 and I just forgot about it
"Fascinating. You… you still have that neural sample I collected earlier, no?"
Yeah, you do.
"Keep it. I would like to perform some analysis later on, when you recover and we have access to proper supplies. It seems to be actively modifying itself towards a human shape…"
How can he say that?
"It is in the process of metamorphosis. These bulbs seem very similar to the underdeveloped brain of a fish or other similar vertebrates, but they are growing. You did not notice, but one of these bulbs is most certainly trying to shift into a full-blown parietal lobe! It is incredibly interesting. Could the sample we obtained, if given proper stimulus, attempt an evolution into a human shape akin to this one? There are many possibilities…"
We could have that other Sea Fiend brain that Abel collected during Arc 2 be the 4*, unless something happened to it during Arc 3 and I just forgot about it
While waiting for the next chapter, I just so happened to get an idea for what class the potential 4* Sea Fiend could be
Crusher Guard, this class aligns perfectly with the Sea FIend mindset of ''RAAAAAAAGH ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK''
Their talent would be something similar to Musha guards, they gain +2 ASPD for every 1 % of HP missing
god i hate EN translation for elemental impairment (circle bar) vs elemental damage (actual enemy hp)
Healing self when damaging burst enemy is nice. healing is low so this seems more like an ward against incidental damage, like poison mist- which as a sniperknights player is still very nice to have.
S1. aspd+15~30, deal 15~30% atk as impairment. Mastery notable since it over doubles elemental ips. 455 attack means 136 damage - thats 7 attacks for non-boss and 14 for boss. at 1.6 base before the aspd+30 I think that's fair; it's far too slow for regular enemies but will work well against elites. Also likely good versus stun-vulnerable bosses.
S2. first thing i see is elite/boss priority which I approve of, see above.
Guaranteed aoe stun, like hoederer. Niche for it to stunlock enemies but still very useful. m3 is 55% attack which is 250 - an even 4 attacks to burst an elite, and... assuming the scaling is final multiplier and not additive to the 55%, then it hits 2117 after 7 attacks.
50% miss chance is strong and +1s duration is +800 damage. under burst its 165% base? 145% + 20% from NI debuff. effective 1550 arts damage aoe every 1.6 seconds.
Seems about right for a 5* ritualist. S1 is good general use, s2 is more niche but I can see some really nice uses for it. (like sanguinarch imo)
will say: module trait bonus is kind of nothing. 10% is low and burst locks out and resets every single type.
