Black Cat
Magister
Chapter the eighth; Where did the fog go?
In which our heroine evades many cops and angry mobs while talking with NPCs and picking lots of things not nailed down with which to solve inventory puzzles. Then she faces against Jack the Ripper, who's pretty easy.
Hello, once more. So far we have faced three of Uncle Boris magical waxworks, and today we will do the last one. This is a quite cool level in that it is mostly an adventure game in which we will run around solving inventory puzzles and evading capture by both the police and the mobs that go around Whitechapel with torches and a bad mood, looking for us. Because of this, however, this level is pretty much about hunting pixels or, in this case, tiles: Many places where you need to enter you will not notice until you are looking straight at them, so the only way to find a character's house is to walk through the street you know their house to be while stoping every single tile to look at both sides and check if any door is interactive.
We enter the waxwork, then, and enter our new meatpuppet in what looks like the scene of a crime: A dead girl's on the floor, her bag not very far away. We examine the girl so that Anus Pounder may smile again: Her throat has been sliced open and she's very dead. While we do so we hear the sound of a police whistle, in the distance. We should start going: I pick the bag and run away across a side alley. After some twists and turns I come to what looks like a bar.
I enter the bar. Or, more precisely, I enter the space between the outer door and the inner one. The, uhm, airlock? In any case this is a quiet place in which to save, catch our breath, talk with Uncle Boris, and go through the dead girl's things. We begin doing that last one, finding a bit of change and a diary in her bag. The diary is in a kind of sorry state.
So we are going to need a pencil, good. Now, I summon Uncle Boris.
You sure take me to meet nice people, Uncle.
Meeting with pimps, then breaking and entering? You sure are a good influence, Uncle.
Shall we add stalking to the list of your vices, too?
Now we save. Since we are here I decide to enter the bar, mostly to show you how right was Uncle Boris when telling us to find a disguise: We are recognized as the guy who was near the dead girl's body and they decide to call the police. We then leave running, but are caught short afterwards. A small text that I forgot to screenshot tells us we are hanged the next day by the crimes of our ancestor. Another failure of the judicial system.
We reload, and this time do not enter the bar. Instead, we leave. Almost immediately we come across a cop, and we run away. While doing so we get around knowing the neighborhood, and we discover there's indeed a tailor not very far away. One of the plaques on the door belongs to one M.A.Sample, the tailor. The other to some law firm. We will be breaking and entering on both, though not through the main door.
We also come across a locksmith who's also a cobbler, and it is obvious we will have to pay this shop a not very lawful visit. Further away, near where we got caught the first time, we come across a pawnshop and a policeman who never moves from that place, and to the right we come across the entrance to the pawnbroker's backyard, protected by a dog and with a barrel next to it.
One or two steps from here we come across another backyard door, unlocked and opened. Inside we only find a barrel with a rope on it, the door to the house being locked and not very interactive given there's nothing of importance in there.
We go back outside and, being careful not to be caught by any of the many patrolling policemen, go now along the same street but on the oposite direction until we find another unlocked backyard, this one's containing a ladder that goes up to the roof. But we do not go up yet. Instead, we exit and keep going through the same street and on the same direction until we find a third unlocked backyard, this one holding another barrel and, inside of it, some animal guts. Ewww.
We leave and keep moving, but before long we come face to, uhm, many faces with another danger! Naturally, we do nothing but sit and wait for our meatpuppet to be kicked to death, yay.
I reload, and I didn't lose any progress given during this stage I save in every safe spot we come across, like the unlocked backyards. I leave and go back to exploring whitechapel. I come across a post office that is of no importance to the quest that brought us here and a dark underpass thingie that's pretty foreboding. Those separate diferent, say, areas, of which there are three: The area in which we are now, with all the stores, a dockside area with the warehouses and a residential area between both, which has nothing of interest and is there only to give more space in which to be ambushed by angry mobs.
Before going through one of those, though, I want to finish exploring the area I am now. And it bears fruit: After a while I come across yet another unlocked backyard. There's nothing inside, but the door in this one case is interactive, though locked. We will need the key, and indeed I have an idea of where we may find it.
Back to the streets we also come across the chemist shop, to which I believe that backyard we just went in belongs to. Then, first I try to go explore the area around the murder scene but the police is already blocking all entrances to that alley. After some more exploration and some more evading angry cops and angry mobs, I decide to go back to the backyard with the ladder and go up the roof.
Up there we find only two things of interest. The first's a gap between this house and the next one that can't be jumped, so I will need to find some other way to cross beyond. The second a strong and sturdy chimney.
I go up to the chimney and tie my rope around it, then climb it down until I find an open window through which to enter the building. Catburglar, nya! Once inside we find ourselves in a smallish corridor with one door an a stair on each end. This floor's room, a small victorian one room house or something, has nothing at all, not even random hotspots. We go to the one floor above but find a similar situation, with a very dilapidated room and only one hotspot: The coal scuttle. Bah.
So we go down two floors, to the one directly below the one we entered to. The door in that one has a plaque for a law firm: Frock, O'Banion and Bowlheaver, Lawyers and Commissioners for Oaths. That's the same law firm we saw on the door to the tailor's building, meaning we already know whose backyard was the one with the ladder. Inside we find some things of interest: A filing tray on a desk contains a map of the area, for example. And a letter on another desk, mentioning some trouble with Customs and a dockside warehouse full of import tea, contains also a key to the place. This will surely become useful later.
Next floor down has nothing on it. The stair ends on the next one, in an entry hall. One of the doors is sealed, meaning it will never open and it isn't important to the quest. The other one leads into the tailor's shop. In there I pick a bulky jacket and, this being Fair Codexia, a Top Hat.
This is our costume, so as long as we wear those things we can go visit the local bar. However, this is not the moment to do so, yet. We go back to the open window, climb back to the roof, and then descend again through the ladder. Once in the backyard, we take a moment to study the map we did find on the law firm.
The murder scene in which we began was almost in the intersection of Coulston Street and Wentworth Street. The bar is the square marked as Inn, the backyard with the ladder is on Charlott Street between Union Street and Plumber Street. The backyard to the pawnbroker, the one with the angry dog, is also along Charlott Street and almost touching Union Street, to which the pawnbroker's shop opens to. Most other backyards also open to Charlott Street, but not the one with the locked door we needed a key to open. That was on the easternmost side of Old Montagu Street. Maps make those Let's Play thingies so much easier.
Before leaving I also take the chance to talk with Uncle Boris once more, given I have yet to see anything resembling a portable bridge and I have already checked almost every single tile on the first of the three maps.
So to the docks it is. I go down by Union Street, then Albert Row, then Ellen Street, then St. Katharine Way. It was pretty simple, through once or twice had to evade angry mobs. Once we reach the docks we notice that while it isn't marked on the map there's another pub down here, but we will leave going into it until later. There are also many dark and foreboding alleys, yikes.
After looking around for a while I notice a street where the warehouse's doors and their padlocks are actually interactive, instead of being just there for show as elsewhere: Wapping Lane. There are three warehouses there: The easternmost is locked and we do not have the key. The westernmost is unlocked and empty. The middle one is locked but it is also the one we found the key to in the lawyers' office. Inside there are many boxes, but only one of those is interactive. We do not have a way to open it yet, so we leave it be. There's also a door leading to the river, but we can't go out there given there's no wooden dock thingie like in the other warehouses.
Then we go into the westernmost one, which has no padlock on the door. It is dark and empty, but on the far side it has a gate leading to a little dock thingie above the river. This is what we were looking for! We steal a loose plank so we can continue our thieving ways, then leave.
So we return to the tailor's shop backyard, evading policemen and angry mobs, and go back to the roof. Once there we use the plank to bridge the gap and cross through to the roof of the neighboring building. There we find a badly closed attic window we use as our point of entry.
All doors but those on the ground level are sealed. Once in the entry hall, however, we find an open door leading into the cobbler and the locksmith. First I steal all their tools, expecting them to be of use later. They weren't. Then I get two keys from behind the locksmith table: A skeleton key and a small security key. Then I turn around, to the cobblers table, and steal a broom, just because witches and brooms are like bikers and, like, bikes, and a smallish pencil located between the notepad and the cashier. Naturally, we go back to the victim's diary with it.
We should look for this Molly girl, I guess. Before doing so, however, we leave through the roof and then go back to the pharmacist's backyard to open the door we saw before with our newly acquired skeleton key. The only thing we need from here is the package of medical supplies i am pointing at in that screenshot, with which we poison the animal guts we have from before. You can use an actual poison on it, but the game goes moralfag on you and if you murder evil dog instead of just sleeping it the police will notice something is wrong, catch you, and hang you.
So we leave and go back to the intersection of Union Street and Charlott Street, and from here to the backyard's entrance. A police almost caught us here but I managed to climb the barrel and the wall before he did so he just gave up and, imagining me to be just a normal burglar instead of Jack The Ripper I guess, went away or something. We will never know. In any case, however, I throw the guts to the dog and once he has fallen asleep I unlock the bolt keeping the door shut and go back on the barrel and to the street, then quickly turn to the wall, given this area is crawling with cops, and enter the backyard.
The door to the building is also locked, but that's nothing our skeleton key can't fix. Inside the pawn shop is kind of weird and messy, but there are many things we need in here. From the box with the canes and the walking sticks I take a silver topped sword stick. From beyond the counter I take a shotgun and two shells, which I then load. From around there I also pick a silver pocket watch. I then pull aside the clothes on the right side revealing a safe, which I then open with the security key I got from the locksmith. Inside there's a gold pocket watch, which I also keep.
Now we return to the local pub, and this time I am free to enter without fearing for my life. I first speak with the pimp next to the two girls.
I'm a very poor cat burglar.
Whatever. Next I go towards the bar. There's a guy drinking on a stool, and also the barman. I speak with this later one, first.
*sigh*
The game doesn't check if I already have the map, so there's no way to jump this part. Given you can't come into the bar until after you have broken into the tailor's shop and that the map is in the same building this is kind of duh.
At last something useful. Naturally, we talk to that fellow next. The game labels him as Willy the Dip, Jesus. Uncle Boris really is my ticket to meeting celebrities and going to the best places around town, yessir. Totally so.
Why do you think a charming and well bred neko like me would talk with... someone as reputable and famous as you, man? I want something stolen and I'm a cat burglar, I got no points in pickpocket! Now hop to it.
Jesus almighty, why is almost every single NPC on this game a total jerk?
He leaves for a while, then comes back.
He leaves the bar and we do as well. Once in the, uhm, airlock we take the time to examine the key, which the label tied to it identifies as opening Molly's house, and read the address book, and by doing so learn Molly Parkin lives in Treacle Lane. There we go, next and, after some looking around, we find an interactive front door. The key unlocks it, and we are in. The house's mostly empty of hotspots, and only in the top floor, and after exploring all the other rooms and the backyard, we do find something of interest: A small letter above the fireplace.
We take it and read it, discovering it is the letter the girl whose diary we found wrote she was going to write to Molly. On it is writen she, the murdered girl, believes she knows who Jack the Ripper is and has made an assignment with him in Coulston Street. What the fuck? Oh, man, if I get killed by Jack the Ripper i'm surely making it to the history books! Immortality, here I come!
Being that there's nothing else of interest in Molly's house we leave. Our next stop is the dockside pub we discovered before. The level of this one place is even lower than the one before: The only patrons seems to be unsavory types, and everything looks uglier. As soon as we enter the guy in the hat goes to the bar, leaving the other two on the table. I try talking to them but they aren't in the mood for conversation, so I move to bar instead and talk to the barman.
I click on him again.
Question for someone who knows English grammar and stuffies: Is saying I is correct or just a touch of colour for the character of the lowly bartending commoner?
We give him the diary and the letter to read.
There's not enough soap in the world for that, though. Just look at him!
We leave and, once outside, we notice the three guys from inside are waiting for us on the alley. If we move to another alley, they will be there instead. If we try to leave to dock going straight to the street where the warehouses are we will find, instead, there's a cop in a fixed position blocking that way. Hmpf. There are two ways of solving this problem: One is with a whistle I forgot to pick. We blow it, the cops will believe it to be one of theirs, they will come running, we will run inside the bar, and they lowlifes will run away scared of the police. The other way is the one I'm going to use: You place yourself in the mouth of the alley there are in and shoot the shotgun we did find and load before. The cartridges are blanks so no one will be hurt, but the police will come running all the same, we will run into the bar to wait for them to go, and the lowlifes will run away scared of the police. If we had no way to solve the situation we would get mugged and lose all of our inventory, basicaly meaning we need to restart the stage.
Now we can go around the police watching the warehouses and enter the one we unlocked before, using the lawyers' key. We go straight to the interactive crate we found before and thanks to the crowbar we are now able to open it. Inside there are many packages of fine chinese tea, which is wasted on such an establishment but whatever. We pick the boxes and take them to the dirty guy at the bar.
We go straight there, unlock the padlock, and enter. The warehouse is kind of empty, so we move straight to the other side and there, next to the gate leading into the wooden dock thingy and the river, we find Molly.
Be my guest, Anus will totally love it. Maybe that'll make Jack more tired once it is my turn to try, too.
Screw this game. ¬¬U
It's spanking time!
We save and go out. As soon as we do so, Molly slams the door shut, yay. Then we turn to the side to face Jack the Ripper himself, as we prepare our sword cane to fight him. Before, however, we will let him kill us once. And prepare to be disapointed: He's weak. His attacks do somewhere between 02 and 06 damage, meaning to kill us he will have to strike us many times.
There went five minutes of my life. Now we reload, go outside, watch as Molly slams the door shut behind us, prepare our sword cane, and kick Jack's butt to the Thames. The most interesting part of the fight is that both you and Jack are able to parry during it: You must click when he's about to hit you to parry his knife with your blade, and he uses his bag to parry your sword cane. But given his attacks are so weak and how easy it is to parry him it's kind of a wasted climatic moment: You just unleash a flurry of strikes from all three directions until you overwhelm him and strike him. He will then step back once, you then follow him and repeat. Do it thrice and he will have nowhere to step back, so you will pierce his chest with your sword and he will fall into the Thames.
Cue lightshow, cue return to the magical museum. What awaits us now that we have defeated the four evil twins as our ancestors did before us? Next update our heroine's current adventure will come to an end as she faces the evil witch who got mutilated for trying to steal a chicken and decided to curse the villain who did her so. I should side with her instead but this is not one of those games, so we will defeat her, survive to watch a completely gratuitous plot twist, and free our family from the ancient curse, once and for all!
Also, cute birdie:
Now unto other things...
If there is a better clue I never found it, honestly. It's kind of similar to the London chapter when finding the doors to the backyards or the door to Molly's house: You step on a tile, turn left, then turn right twice, then turn back left once to be looking straight into the corridor and step into the next tile, etc. Then you notice one of the wooden props is actually somewhat burnt, which can be seen in one of the screenshots, and try to interact with it.
It wasn't so bad, though. The Elvira games, to which Waxworks is kind of a spiritual successor, have downright criminal bouts of pixel hunting, including going through a dark maze, tile by tile, trying to find the one tile in whose floor there's a two by two pixels thingie you have to interact with, with almost no hint about what to look for or even that you have to look for it in that maze. Waxworks, even at its worst, is friendlier and tender than that.
*ahem*
See this? It's my heart, broken. Thank you.
Of course I'm not. I'm just whiny.
That's actually a good point, you know? I'll be brooding over there.
Though it could be understood as what us witches do being more of Spagyrics while the properties of Coal being more of an Mineral Alchemy, thingie. That way, uhm, I can have some pride left, at least.
Yes, though I believe I missed one on the mine.
In which our heroine evades many cops and angry mobs while talking with NPCs and picking lots of things not nailed down with which to solve inventory puzzles. Then she faces against Jack the Ripper, who's pretty easy.
Hello, once more. So far we have faced three of Uncle Boris magical waxworks, and today we will do the last one. This is a quite cool level in that it is mostly an adventure game in which we will run around solving inventory puzzles and evading capture by both the police and the mobs that go around Whitechapel with torches and a bad mood, looking for us. Because of this, however, this level is pretty much about hunting pixels or, in this case, tiles: Many places where you need to enter you will not notice until you are looking straight at them, so the only way to find a character's house is to walk through the street you know their house to be while stoping every single tile to look at both sides and check if any door is interactive.
We enter the waxwork, then, and enter our new meatpuppet in what looks like the scene of a crime: A dead girl's on the floor, her bag not very far away. We examine the girl so that Anus Pounder may smile again: Her throat has been sliced open and she's very dead. While we do so we hear the sound of a police whistle, in the distance. We should start going: I pick the bag and run away across a side alley. After some twists and turns I come to what looks like a bar.
I enter the bar. Or, more precisely, I enter the space between the outer door and the inner one. The, uhm, airlock? In any case this is a quiet place in which to save, catch our breath, talk with Uncle Boris, and go through the dead girl's things. We begin doing that last one, finding a bit of change and a diary in her bag. The diary is in a kind of sorry state.
So we are going to need a pencil, good. Now, I summon Uncle Boris.
Greetings, mynephewniece, how may I assist you?
What can you tell me about this place, Uncle?
Very little that isn't already on the plaque. I have surmised, however, that you have been mistaken for your brother as your appearances are obviously similar. I would find some sort of disguise in order to fool the locals.
How can I assist you further?
Can you give me any magical assistance?
I'm afraid that will be impossible here. The magical field is too weak.
How can I assist you further?
Any ideas about how to find my brother?
Your brother, Jack the Ripper, murdered whores so I would think that your best bet would be to get in touch with some of the local pimps and investigate their appointments.
You sure take me to meet nice people, Uncle.
How can I assist you further?
Where would I get a disguise?
Try finding a tailor. You'll have to break in though as it will all be shut up at this time of night.
Meeting with pimps, then breaking and entering? You sure are a good influence, Uncle.
How can I assist you further?
I wish I had the missing page to the diary.
I saw an imprint of what it says on the following page.
Shall we add stalking to the list of your vices, too?
All you need to do is get some sort of pencil and rub over it for the writing to become clearer.
How can I assist you further?
Farewell, Uncle.
Farewell.
Now we save. Since we are here I decide to enter the bar, mostly to show you how right was Uncle Boris when telling us to find a disguise: We are recognized as the guy who was near the dead girl's body and they decide to call the police. We then leave running, but are caught short afterwards. A small text that I forgot to screenshot tells us we are hanged the next day by the crimes of our ancestor. Another failure of the judicial system.
We reload, and this time do not enter the bar. Instead, we leave. Almost immediately we come across a cop, and we run away. While doing so we get around knowing the neighborhood, and we discover there's indeed a tailor not very far away. One of the plaques on the door belongs to one M.A.Sample, the tailor. The other to some law firm. We will be breaking and entering on both, though not through the main door.
We also come across a locksmith who's also a cobbler, and it is obvious we will have to pay this shop a not very lawful visit. Further away, near where we got caught the first time, we come across a pawnshop and a policeman who never moves from that place, and to the right we come across the entrance to the pawnbroker's backyard, protected by a dog and with a barrel next to it.
One or two steps from here we come across another backyard door, unlocked and opened. Inside we only find a barrel with a rope on it, the door to the house being locked and not very interactive given there's nothing of importance in there.
We go back outside and, being careful not to be caught by any of the many patrolling policemen, go now along the same street but on the oposite direction until we find another unlocked backyard, this one's containing a ladder that goes up to the roof. But we do not go up yet. Instead, we exit and keep going through the same street and on the same direction until we find a third unlocked backyard, this one holding another barrel and, inside of it, some animal guts. Ewww.
We leave and keep moving, but before long we come face to, uhm, many faces with another danger! Naturally, we do nothing but sit and wait for our meatpuppet to be kicked to death, yay.
I reload, and I didn't lose any progress given during this stage I save in every safe spot we come across, like the unlocked backyards. I leave and go back to exploring whitechapel. I come across a post office that is of no importance to the quest that brought us here and a dark underpass thingie that's pretty foreboding. Those separate diferent, say, areas, of which there are three: The area in which we are now, with all the stores, a dockside area with the warehouses and a residential area between both, which has nothing of interest and is there only to give more space in which to be ambushed by angry mobs.
Before going through one of those, though, I want to finish exploring the area I am now. And it bears fruit: After a while I come across yet another unlocked backyard. There's nothing inside, but the door in this one case is interactive, though locked. We will need the key, and indeed I have an idea of where we may find it.
Back to the streets we also come across the chemist shop, to which I believe that backyard we just went in belongs to. Then, first I try to go explore the area around the murder scene but the police is already blocking all entrances to that alley. After some more exploration and some more evading angry cops and angry mobs, I decide to go back to the backyard with the ladder and go up the roof.
Up there we find only two things of interest. The first's a gap between this house and the next one that can't be jumped, so I will need to find some other way to cross beyond. The second a strong and sturdy chimney.
I go up to the chimney and tie my rope around it, then climb it down until I find an open window through which to enter the building. Catburglar, nya! Once inside we find ourselves in a smallish corridor with one door an a stair on each end. This floor's room, a small victorian one room house or something, has nothing at all, not even random hotspots. We go to the one floor above but find a similar situation, with a very dilapidated room and only one hotspot: The coal scuttle. Bah.
So we go down two floors, to the one directly below the one we entered to. The door in that one has a plaque for a law firm: Frock, O'Banion and Bowlheaver, Lawyers and Commissioners for Oaths. That's the same law firm we saw on the door to the tailor's building, meaning we already know whose backyard was the one with the ladder. Inside we find some things of interest: A filing tray on a desk contains a map of the area, for example. And a letter on another desk, mentioning some trouble with Customs and a dockside warehouse full of import tea, contains also a key to the place. This will surely become useful later.
Next floor down has nothing on it. The stair ends on the next one, in an entry hall. One of the doors is sealed, meaning it will never open and it isn't important to the quest. The other one leads into the tailor's shop. In there I pick a bulky jacket and, this being Fair Codexia, a Top Hat.
This is our costume, so as long as we wear those things we can go visit the local bar. However, this is not the moment to do so, yet. We go back to the open window, climb back to the roof, and then descend again through the ladder. Once in the backyard, we take a moment to study the map we did find on the law firm.
The murder scene in which we began was almost in the intersection of Coulston Street and Wentworth Street. The bar is the square marked as Inn, the backyard with the ladder is on Charlott Street between Union Street and Plumber Street. The backyard to the pawnbroker, the one with the angry dog, is also along Charlott Street and almost touching Union Street, to which the pawnbroker's shop opens to. Most other backyards also open to Charlott Street, but not the one with the locked door we needed a key to open. That was on the easternmost side of Old Montagu Street. Maps make those Let's Play thingies so much easier.
Before leaving I also take the chance to talk with Uncle Boris once more, given I have yet to see anything resembling a portable bridge and I have already checked almost every single tile on the first of the three maps.
Greetings, mynephewniece, how may I assist you?
I can't get across the gap above the clothes shop.
I would suggest finding a plank or something like that. There are docks near here, there might be one there.
So to the docks it is. I go down by Union Street, then Albert Row, then Ellen Street, then St. Katharine Way. It was pretty simple, through once or twice had to evade angry mobs. Once we reach the docks we notice that while it isn't marked on the map there's another pub down here, but we will leave going into it until later. There are also many dark and foreboding alleys, yikes.
After looking around for a while I notice a street where the warehouse's doors and their padlocks are actually interactive, instead of being just there for show as elsewhere: Wapping Lane. There are three warehouses there: The easternmost is locked and we do not have the key. The westernmost is unlocked and empty. The middle one is locked but it is also the one we found the key to in the lawyers' office. Inside there are many boxes, but only one of those is interactive. We do not have a way to open it yet, so we leave it be. There's also a door leading to the river, but we can't go out there given there's no wooden dock thingie like in the other warehouses.
Then we go into the westernmost one, which has no padlock on the door. It is dark and empty, but on the far side it has a gate leading to a little dock thingie above the river. This is what we were looking for! We steal a loose plank so we can continue our thieving ways, then leave.
So we return to the tailor's shop backyard, evading policemen and angry mobs, and go back to the roof. Once there we use the plank to bridge the gap and cross through to the roof of the neighboring building. There we find a badly closed attic window we use as our point of entry.
All doors but those on the ground level are sealed. Once in the entry hall, however, we find an open door leading into the cobbler and the locksmith. First I steal all their tools, expecting them to be of use later. They weren't. Then I get two keys from behind the locksmith table: A skeleton key and a small security key. Then I turn around, to the cobblers table, and steal a broom, just because witches and brooms are like bikers and, like, bikes, and a smallish pencil located between the notepad and the cashier. Naturally, we go back to the victim's diary with it.
We should look for this Molly girl, I guess. Before doing so, however, we leave through the roof and then go back to the pharmacist's backyard to open the door we saw before with our newly acquired skeleton key. The only thing we need from here is the package of medical supplies i am pointing at in that screenshot, with which we poison the animal guts we have from before. You can use an actual poison on it, but the game goes moralfag on you and if you murder evil dog instead of just sleeping it the police will notice something is wrong, catch you, and hang you.
So we leave and go back to the intersection of Union Street and Charlott Street, and from here to the backyard's entrance. A police almost caught us here but I managed to climb the barrel and the wall before he did so he just gave up and, imagining me to be just a normal burglar instead of Jack The Ripper I guess, went away or something. We will never know. In any case, however, I throw the guts to the dog and once he has fallen asleep I unlock the bolt keeping the door shut and go back on the barrel and to the street, then quickly turn to the wall, given this area is crawling with cops, and enter the backyard.
The door to the building is also locked, but that's nothing our skeleton key can't fix. Inside the pawn shop is kind of weird and messy, but there are many things we need in here. From the box with the canes and the walking sticks I take a silver topped sword stick. From beyond the counter I take a shotgun and two shells, which I then load. From around there I also pick a silver pocket watch. I then pull aside the clothes on the right side revealing a safe, which I then open with the security key I got from the locksmith. Inside there's a gold pocket watch, which I also keep.
Now we return to the local pub, and this time I am free to enter without fearing for my life. I first speak with the pimp next to the two girls.
I might be interested, but do you have any others?
I've got the names and addresses of the prettiest girls in London right here in my pocket. I'm sure I can find one to your liking for only 2 pounds.
I'm sorry but I simply can't afford that much.
I'm a very poor cat burglar.
Then we have nothing further to talk about.
Whatever. Next I go towards the bar. There's a guy drinking on a stool, and also the barman. I speak with this later one, first.
Nothing, thanks, but I do need some information.
Certainly sir. But surely you would care to partake of some of my fine ale first, sir. I brew it myself and its the best you'll get around these parts.
*sigh*
You persuaded me. I will have a pint.
You won't regret trying some of this stuff, sir. That'll be half a shilling, please. Here's your drink sir. I don't remember seeing you around these parts before?
I'm looking for some entertainment.
Ah! You are talking to the wrong man, sir. You want the chap over there in the tweed jacket.
I've already spoken with him, thank you.
Well, sir, if he can't find you some entertainment I don't know who can! Before you start roaming the streets I'd get myself a map. All the streets look the same at night.
Good idea. Where can I get one?
The game doesn't check if I already have the map, so there's no way to jump this part. Given you can't come into the bar until after you have broken into the tailor's shop and that the map is in the same building this is kind of duh.
The only one I've seen around recently is in the lawyer's office across the street. They open at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning, for your information.
See you later, when I've had a look around.
Fare ye well, Sir. Oh, by the way, Sir. I'd watch my valuables when sitting next to this gentleman. He's rather fond of the odd pocket watch or two. Fare ye well.
At last something useful. Naturally, we talk to that fellow next. The game labels him as Willy the Dip, Jesus. Uncle Boris really is my ticket to meeting celebrities and going to the best places around town, yessir. Totally so.
To talk about a little business...
What sort of business?
Why do you think a charming and well bred neko like me would talk with... someone as reputable and famous as you, man? I want something stolen and I'm a cat burglar, I got no points in pickpocket! Now hop to it.
I need something acquired for me.
I can't help you, I'm afraid. I don't do that sort of thing any more.
I'll pay you well.
I ain't interested in money. That comes easy to me these days. But I may be persuaded to help you in return for a nice pocket watch. I collects 'em, see. I doubt if there's one in this part of the city I ain't got already. Only nice ones mind you. I don't bother with rubbish.
Jesus almighty, why is almost every single NPC on this game a total jerk?
Here's a nice gold watch for you.
This is a very nice one. What would you like me to do for you?
I need you to steal an address book from the pimp.
No problem. Wait here a moment.
He leaves for a while, then comes back.
Easy pickings. There's a key here as well. Pleasure doing business with you. Fare well.
He leaves the bar and we do as well. Once in the, uhm, airlock we take the time to examine the key, which the label tied to it identifies as opening Molly's house, and read the address book, and by doing so learn Molly Parkin lives in Treacle Lane. There we go, next and, after some looking around, we find an interactive front door. The key unlocks it, and we are in. The house's mostly empty of hotspots, and only in the top floor, and after exploring all the other rooms and the backyard, we do find something of interest: A small letter above the fireplace.
We take it and read it, discovering it is the letter the girl whose diary we found wrote she was going to write to Molly. On it is writen she, the murdered girl, believes she knows who Jack the Ripper is and has made an assignment with him in Coulston Street. What the fuck? Oh, man, if I get killed by Jack the Ripper i'm surely making it to the history books! Immortality, here I come!
Being that there's nothing else of interest in Molly's house we leave. Our next stop is the dockside pub we discovered before. The level of this one place is even lower than the one before: The only patrons seems to be unsavory types, and everything looks uglier. As soon as we enter the guy in the hat goes to the bar, leaving the other two on the table. I try talking to them but they aren't in the mood for conversation, so I move to bar instead and talk to the barman.
Where do I go around here for entertainment?
What sort of entertainment would you be requiring?
I'm looking for a girl for the evening.
You have come to the right place then, sir. I've got a few girls that'll take your fancy, I've no doubt.
I'm looking for a girl named Molly Parkin.
I errr... don't believe I have a girl by that name on my lists, sir. Perhaps you'd better try somewhere else. Goodbye.
I click on him again.
Sir, I've told you I know nothing about Molly Parkin. Will you please stop pestering me.
Sorry, friend, but you're a poor liar.
I is telling the truth, sir. I ain't never heard of her.
Question for someone who knows English grammar and stuffies: Is saying I is correct or just a touch of colour for the character of the lowly bartending commoner?
I think I have something you should read...
We give him the diary and the letter to read.
So the Ripper's next victim is Molly Parkin. What a terrible shame for the girl. I wish there was something we could do.
I think I'd better tell the police.
No! I mean. Why bother involving the police in something like this. Mollie is just another stupid whore, no one will miss her.
I think it's time you come clean!
There's not enough soap in the world for that, though. Just look at him!
OK OK. She is one of my girls. I'm very sorry about this but the man she has an appointment with is one of my best clients. This evidence is very vague anyway. If I were you I would go about my business and forget I ever got involved.
I think you'd better tell me where they'are meeting.
And ruin one of my most profitable business relationships? Not likely. If you can find some way to compensate my loss, then I may consider it. For example, I had a shipment of tea confiscated and put into storage. If you can bring me some back so that I can serve my better off customers, then I'll help you.
Ok, I'll find your tea.
Take this crowbar to open the crates it's stored in. Farewell.
We leave and, once outside, we notice the three guys from inside are waiting for us on the alley. If we move to another alley, they will be there instead. If we try to leave to dock going straight to the street where the warehouses are we will find, instead, there's a cop in a fixed position blocking that way. Hmpf. There are two ways of solving this problem: One is with a whistle I forgot to pick. We blow it, the cops will believe it to be one of theirs, they will come running, we will run inside the bar, and they lowlifes will run away scared of the police. The other way is the one I'm going to use: You place yourself in the mouth of the alley there are in and shoot the shotgun we did find and load before. The cartridges are blanks so no one will be hurt, but the police will come running all the same, we will run into the bar to wait for them to go, and the lowlifes will run away scared of the police. If we had no way to solve the situation we would get mugged and lose all of our inventory, basicaly meaning we need to restart the stage.
Now we can go around the police watching the warehouses and enter the one we unlocked before, using the lawyers' key. We go straight to the interactive crate we found before and thanks to the crowbar we are now able to open it. Inside there are many packages of fine chinese tea, which is wasted on such an establishment but whatever. We pick the boxes and take them to the dirty guy at the bar.
Here's your tea.
Thank you. Although its against my judgement I'll help you. It'll save on girls at any rate. This is the key to the end warehouse on Wapping Lane. Molly should already be there. She took the other key and was going to meet the man inside the warehouse. Come and tell me the result - if you're still alive. Farewell.
We go straight there, unlock the padlock, and enter. The warehouse is kind of empty, so we move straight to the other side and there, next to the gate leading into the wooden dock thingy and the river, we find Molly.
You must be Molly Parkin.
Who told you my name? ANd how the hell did you get in here?
I have my methods.
You won't stop me from killing Jack the Ripper. I demand the satisfaction of watching him die.
Be my guest, Anus will totally love it. Maybe that'll make Jack more tired once it is my turn to try, too.
I'm sorry but Jack the Ripper is my brother.
Screw this game. ¬¬U
Your brother... That monster is your brother?
Yes, and I have the right to punish him.
It's spanking time!
Yes. You must be given a chance first. But if you fail then I shall take his life from him. Good luck.
We save and go out. As soon as we do so, Molly slams the door shut, yay. Then we turn to the side to face Jack the Ripper himself, as we prepare our sword cane to fight him. Before, however, we will let him kill us once. And prepare to be disapointed: He's weak. His attacks do somewhere between 02 and 06 damage, meaning to kill us he will have to strike us many times.
There went five minutes of my life. Now we reload, go outside, watch as Molly slams the door shut behind us, prepare our sword cane, and kick Jack's butt to the Thames. The most interesting part of the fight is that both you and Jack are able to parry during it: You must click when he's about to hit you to parry his knife with your blade, and he uses his bag to parry your sword cane. But given his attacks are so weak and how easy it is to parry him it's kind of a wasted climatic moment: You just unleash a flurry of strikes from all three directions until you overwhelm him and strike him. He will then step back once, you then follow him and repeat. Do it thrice and he will have nowhere to step back, so you will pierce his chest with your sword and he will fall into the Thames.
Cue lightshow, cue return to the magical museum. What awaits us now that we have defeated the four evil twins as our ancestors did before us? Next update our heroine's current adventure will come to an end as she faces the evil witch who got mutilated for trying to steal a chicken and decided to curse the villain who did her so. I should side with her instead but this is not one of those games, so we will defeat her, survive to watch a completely gratuitous plot twist, and free our family from the ancient curse, once and for all!
Also, cute birdie:
Now unto other things...
GarfunkeL said:A question though - was there any hints to use that coal, beside the cryptic "improve a filter"? And how big was the pixel? Not cool if the only way to find it, seriously, is to go pixel hunting like that.
If there is a better clue I never found it, honestly. It's kind of similar to the London chapter when finding the doors to the backyards or the door to Molly's house: You step on a tile, turn left, then turn right twice, then turn back left once to be looking straight into the corridor and step into the next tile, etc. Then you notice one of the wooden props is actually somewhat burnt, which can be seen in one of the screenshots, and try to interact with it.
It wasn't so bad, though. The Elvira games, to which Waxworks is kind of a spiritual successor, have downright criminal bouts of pixel hunting, including going through a dark maze, tile by tile, trying to find the one tile in whose floor there's a two by two pixels thingie you have to interact with, with almost no hint about what to look for or even that you have to look for it in that maze. Waxworks, even at its worst, is friendlier and tender than that.
Fowyr said:But this is common knowledge what activated carbon may be used as filter for many gases.
*ahem*
See this? It's my heart, broken. Thank you.
Crooked Bee said:You're quite ... nitpicky, BC.
Of course I'm not. I'm just whiny.
Crooked Bee said:But aren't witches actually sort of chemists, with all that potion-brewing business they're usually engaged in?
That's actually a good point, you know? I'll be brooding over there.
Though it could be understood as what us witches do being more of Spagyrics while the properties of Coal being more of an Mineral Alchemy, thingie. That way, uhm, I can have some pride left, at least.
Cenobyte said:Hehe, still showing all possible ways to die?
Yes, though I believe I missed one on the mine.