Eftsoon the momentous event of last time, the Guild Of Courtesans knows a worrisome state of turmoil; and so is now organised a meeting between the Traditionalist and the Progressive halves of the Guild.
A great number of people are here gathered, and we meet fashionable and augmented Jasen, long-time support staff for the Guild:
Mere feet further we meet Dejah Mars:
Evidently, some enmity lingers atween her and Zafra. Consequently, the latter storms out of the room but, well, her presence during the meeting would be preferable. So I follow in her steps, downstairs, and some guy explains to me Zafra has already entered a combat simulation room. Thus…
Yay, combat! It took a long time to finally get some, though admittedly I could have fought earlier but chose to resolve issues in other manners. Within the simultation I find Zafra highwrought and working her issues on some technological manifestations. After which she expresses a desire to fight me, and girl I am ready for you:
A bit of kiting, two well-placed uses of my Shaper abilities, and finally a quick Aimed Shot bring her down without my having to suffer the least damage. As head of security for my brothel, I expected Zafra to be thougher than this. On a side note: why has my character’s sprite suddenly changed to that of random dude wearing riot gear?
But no matter. Out the simulation room then upwards we go with Zafra, to the important meeting of the Guild. Diana, Windress, and Kore are waiting for us outside the meeting room—but something is wrong. Where are the guards? Why is it we hear but silence and silence alone?
Trusting in Zafra’s instinct, in we barge with birr, and find two masked dudes and a masked dudette, with people from the Guild dead on the floor, snipered through the windows. One of the masked men, quick to the draw, closes in and fires a burst badly aimed at Zafra, who takes minor damage. Concerning myself greatly with the endangered montuous breasts charming person of Zafra, I cast a spell:
Oh baby! One hit, one crit, one kill; what a way to start. Unfortunaly the combat then veers into true XCOM territory. Masked Initiate A shoots me with a downright nasty crit of his own, and down I slump like a wet noodle, apparently not even deserving to have my sprite remain on the screen, only the red of my life:
Then, the girls—understandably shaken to their ample fleshy core by my disappearance—proceed to completely miss not one, not two, nor three nor even four, but indeed their next five attacks! In the end, only Kore was left standing with a whopping 2HP, as the laser of her Support class brought down the masked leader.
With the three miscreants dispatched and their camisado partly foiled, we girls wisely decide that, were anyone to see us right now, we would look pretty much like mass-murderers. Pronto we exit room, only to find more masked men! Here, Windress the highly-mobile and evasive Vigilante, in tandem with Zafra the Soldier, really shined. They can quickly close in by using their Features (non mana-costing skill), and with blades and wide-hitting gunshots at their disposition are satisfyingly devastating when right up in an enemy’s face; thus in the end this fight went very well for us.
Unfortunately, the game then crashed, remaining stuck on that screen. But to be fair, the main menu clearly displays a disclaimer according to which alt-tabbing during combat raises the likelihood of a crash; and I did alt-tab a couple of times to take notes for this Let’s Play. No matter, as roughly fifteen seconds later I was back in the game, owing the auto-save.
Continuing with the spoilers…
The cacophony of fighting emanates from everywhere and spreads everywhither within the building; the Progressives are massacring the Traditionalists, and vice-versa. And where are those damn cops? They should definitely be investigating a giant gunfight with explosions. Unsure, I ask the girls for advice. Windress proposes we get in the thick of it, chose a side in the conflict right here right now. But Diana proposes we make for the control room, and from there call everyone in the building via speakers installed everywhere; and this I find reasonable. In the control room, we face the following situation:
Diana hails the women, some Traditionalists, asking them to let us use the speaker system. The women, on edge, answer, “Were it only you, Diana, we would lower our weapons. But we don’t know your friends there.” Having previously ingratiated myself to the Traditionalists via some dialogue, I manage to convince them of the goodness of my intentions.
An instant later, the situation inside the building dies down thanks to our efforts, and we get into contact with Jasen, who paints quite a picture:
The worst happened, but the absolute worst was narrowly avoided. We learn the cops, well aware of the fighting that happened, opted to stay out of what they perceive as only an internal conflict within the Courtesans’ ranks. But methinks there’s corruption involved, as well’s the nefarious meddling of yet-unknown volitions; Jasen and the girls agree on this, suspecting that people from outside the Guild have much interest in seeing it wrack itself.
Phew! Now the story really managed to get on track, and I gotta buy me a ticket ’cause I’m in for the ride. Consectary to such developments, ere long we’ll have a lot of informations to gather, secrets to uncover, alliances to make, and—I hope!—a plethora of pink-red throbbing parts to fondle.
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