Welcome back people! Today we are going to continue Corvo's journey through Coldridge Prison. So after his epic escape from Coldridge, what will happen to him in the sewers? Will he get riddled by rats? Gutted by guards? Well, let's find out!
Dunwall Sewers
As I made my way through the sewers, after a short while I found a locked door, and a few crates stacked on top of each other. One of these crates had a note stuck onto it. It said that if I read this note, that means I've reached the sewers. It said that I would find some useful gear stashed up ahead, and that outside of the sewers, I would meet a guy named Samuel, who would ferry me in a boat to these anonymous helpers. After reading the note, my path was then blocked by a locked door and a swarm of rats. And in the room that this locked door leads to, there was a swarm of rats, and the only thing blocking the way between me and them was the locked door.
There was no key whatsoever that would unlock the door, and the only way forward was through the room's ceiling (there was a small gap big enough for me to fit in). The ceiling was "holed" big enough for me to both walk through it and see what was happening in the room at the same time (so basically the room's ceiling was made of jail cell bars). And so I was just strolling along the ceiling, peering at the rats (that also scurried along the room as I sneaked across the ceiling) as I did so. Then I heard a few guards speaking. It went something like this; "Look out. There are rats down here," a guard said.
"Good. Then maybe some of them will get Corvo," the other guy said.
"You're afraid of him? He's from Serkonos. It's all merchants and %#0&=$ down there,"
I forgot the rest of the conversation, but then something awesome (and somewhat disgusting at the same time) happened.
You know those moments in movies that the characters are introduced to a new threat, right? Then the characters will look at the threat and say, "C'mon, seriously, what's so bad about that?" and then suddenly something passes by, alerting this new threat. The threat sees this "something" and totally destroys the "something". For example, in the movie The Croods, there is this swarm of beautiful, presumably harmless red birds that are revealed to be carnivores and are seen devouring a whale in a matter of seconds, leaving nothing but the whale's skeleton behind.
Same case here with the rats. As rats and guards come face to face, the rats quickly munch the guards' bodies tp death, giving them only a few seconds to scream their last words before their gruesome fates. And after the guards have been put out of their misery, the rats strip their uniforms and their skin off, leaving a skin-less body behind. And AFTER THAT (yes, the cycle's not done yet), the rats finish off the whole body. Limb by limb, the body is ripped apart until there is nothing but a puddle of blood left in the place where the corpse used to be.
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| To help rid you of that gruesome mental image, here's a picture of a cute puppy. If you want to see the actual gory activity, feel free to search it yourself.
So by now you should know that rats are actually flesh-eating beasts that will seriously #^(* up anything that gets in their way. I made a mental note to myself never to meet a group of these tiny, scurrying critters. After that display of flesh-eating, I dropped down from the ceiling and down to the floor, where there was a door waiting to be opened. By the way, here's a small profile to give you a bit more insight to these unpleasant little animals:
Pandyssian Bull Rats (as The Academy of Natural Philosophy names them) or just "rats" for short
These really nasty creatures that feast on flesh are also the carriers of the Rat Plague. Therefore making them responsible for the Rat Plague that is currently destroying Dunwall. These rats hail from the Pandyssian Continent, hence the name. They are aggresive in swarms, but are harmless in small numbers. They are usually found in dark and isolated places or where corpses are present. These rats can sometimes be a problem for me, blocking my way or prohibiting me to explore an area freely. Fortunately, I have found a few methods to remedy these pesky pests, although my personal favorite (and effective as well) is to chuck a grenade into the swarm and watch 'em explode. They are pretty powerful, capable of taking down a watchman in a matter of seconds (groups take longer to take care of and have a better chance of neutralizing the critters before they get eaten).
Deeper into the Sewers
After I opened the door, I instantly came face-to-face with (surprise, surprise) ANOTHER rat swarm. Fortunately there was a river of sewage water separating me and the animals (although there was a bridge that the rats and I could use to cross to the other side) and I didn't want to take any chances. Fortunately the river was short, allowing me to dive into the water and ascend from the water to the other side without suffering so much as a scratch from the rats. Then I proceeded to the next section of the area, and that's when things got a little more complicated.
As I went into an open area of the sewers, I found a swarm of rats blocking my way to a crank wheel, which I had to turn in order to open a door leading to my destination. I was bamboozled on how I was supposed to get to the crank wheel and turn it with all the rats guarding it. Suddenly, as if on cue, the answer fell out of the sky (literally) in the form of corpses. Up above, I heard some dialogue from the guards (off-screen) who were dumping the bodies. "Aren't we supposed to dump these bodies off at the Flooded District?" one said.
"Yeah. But screw that. That's too far. Let's just dump 'em here and hope the rats eat 'em." his pal replied.
Well, thanks guys, you just provided the perfect bait for my little friends here. There were quite a few corpses lying around, so it wasn't much of a problem dumping them on the ground, where the rats would eat them. Now while they were occupied, I was free to turn the crank wheel! YES!!! Unfortunately, my plan didn't work out so well. Even AFTER occupying the rats with some crunchy corpses to eat, they saw a living guy trying to turn the crank wheel blocking his way. They gave in to their natural instinct, which was, of course, to feast on the living guy. I ended up dicing a few ten rats and losing some health. But nonetheless, I managed to render the rats harmless (killing most of them so the rest would be scared off) and move on. After grabbing some loot in the area, I quickly jumped up a chain that led to a higher level of the sewers (good luck catching me HERE rats :P).
This part of the sewer was practically riddled with traps, which took some time to bypass. The "traps" in this game are simple but deadly; a launcher that is triggered by a tripwire. The launcher contains an incendiary bolt, which is shot when the tripwire is triggered. I try to avoid these bolts, as they take away about half of my health. On the bright side, if you can bypass it without triggering the tripwire, you can disarm the launcher, taking the incendiary bolt in the process (and this bolt is pretty amazing; it sets people on fire, creating a handy distraction whilst taking care of the target). I didn't even know why I collected these stuff since I was going for a non-lethal playthrough anyway. Oh well, maybe this stuff will come in handy in some point of the game...
So anyway, after taking as much loot and incendiary bolts as I could from the area, I focused on the main objective, which was to get my gear, which was in a chest lying in front of a locked door. There was a note on the chest, which told me about the gear and whatnot. So without even glancing at the note, I instantly swung the chest open and found a crossbow and Corvo's sword inside. I also found the key to open the locked door ahead.
After taking my badass gear and the key, I opened the door, and and saw a tripwire standing in my way. There was no gap I could go through to avoid it, and that was when the game showed me the sliding tutorial. I wasn't in the mood for sliding under tripwires, so instead I smashed a wooden barricade (that was standing in the way of me and jumping over the railing) with my sword. Then I proceeded to disarm the launcher. That's when I saw my very first locked safe. There was a note beside the safe wrote by some unknown dude. It went something like this: "Jelly, if you're too daft to remember, look at the whiskey, OK? Whiskey." I saw a shelf which contained some empty whiskey bottles. And there were three numbers written on the shelf: "451". When I used it to open the safe, it worked. Hooray! In the safe there were a few items worth 50+ coins. Great.
Oh yeah, by the way, did I mention that the sewers were literally LITTERED with corpses? Some bodies of women, men, and people in overalls. Apparently they're plague victims. Poor guys. In fact, I found a man and a woman who died hugging each other. I found a note beside their bodies. It was written by the husband, who wrote about their current condition. He and his wife had just caught the Plague, and they didn't have enough coins to buy the required supply of elixir in order to stave off the effects of the Plague. So they decided to spend their final moments together. I have to admit, I was quite moved.
Anyway, after cracking open Jelly's safe, I advanced and heard a few guards talking. They were in a level below me. Their conversation went something like this: "He won't get past me, sir," a guard said.
"You know who we're hunting here? Don't try to take him on alone," Another guy said.
"What if he catches me, sir?"
"Then make a lot of noise when you die. Knock something over if you can,"
"&@$+@%] (looks around the sewers). Smells like a dead weeper in here,"
This was when I started to take action. After saving the game in case of any failures, I collected the loot in the area before descending down to the lower level. This was one part of the game where I found myself in a bit of a muddle.
After dropping down, I landed on a tall rock. On this rock, I had three options:
1. Drop down on a guard below to use him as a cushion for an air assassination, making a sound-less landing but killing the guard, which I'm trying to avoid.
2. Drop down on the same floor as the guard. However this will make a loud sound and alert the guard, sending his friends to my position (I found this out the hard way). Also a bad option.
3. Shoot the guard with a sleep dart. This way he will be rendered unconscious, allowing me to proceed without killing the poor guy,
4. After a few save reloads and failures, I finally found the best way to eliminate the guard non-lethally without using up any of my sleep darts. There was a descending "staircase" of rocks that I could silently descend upon, choking out the guard below, saving my sleep darts for later.
Needless to say, I picked option 4. After eliminating all the guards in the sewer with sleep darts (I was too lazy and it was too hard to choke out the guys one by one), I collected as much loot as possible in the area and moved on. I met Samuel, who introduced himself as my boatman, and would ferry me to my mission locations. When he asked me if I was ready to go ye, I said not yet, mainly because I wanted to see if there were any hidden treasures I could find.
I started my search in the river the boat was parked to find any hidden treasures. I went around the river for a while. I glanced at the center of the river and... HOLY $#!+!!! The river was SWARMING with a ton of fishes that looked like a cross between a moray eel and a piranha. I leapt out of the river like a guy with his butt on fire. After I leapt out of the river, Samuel dropped this little bomb on me: "Corvo, are you OK? Mind the hagfish!". Right. Thank you SO much for telling me that now, Mister boatman. It's time I introduced you guys to a little dude who will act like the underwater rat swarm of the game...
Hagfish
Say hello to my little friend.
Enter the hagfish; the creature in Dishonored that will make swimming in the water a living hell. For me, one hagfish is as annoying as a swarm of rats, maybe worse. You can slash at rats, while underwater, you are defenseless since you can only swim. So it's like encountering an underwater swarm of rats. When I saw these terrible fishes swimming in the river, there were at least ten of them about to realize that a human has swam into their territory. This animal usually roams in open, unguarded waters such as rivers, limiting travel in the water. On the bright side, they make good possession hosts, and can be possessed to access certain areas that cannot be reached by Corvo (e.g. a hole in a grate).
Like rats, they eat corpses that are tossed into their rivers. Unlike rats, though, they do not have to be in a group in order to be deadly; they are a pest even when encountered individually (and believe me, encountering a group of these fishes are even worse). Oddly, Dunwall citizens use these carnivorous fish as food sources. In fact, it is common enough for me to find a few tins of brined hagfish lying around.
So anyway, after jumping out of those hagfish-infested waters, I dived into a deeper region of the lake again in order to continue my exploration and at the same time get away from those man-eating fishes. And voila, guess what I found at the bottom right of the lake? A TREASURE CHEST! It contained a war medal (worth 50 coins) and some powdered crystal (worth 30 coins). Jackpot! Afterward, after staking out the river for any more treasures (sadly, I found none) and consuming a few health potions while exploring (hagfish, remember), I left the river disappointed and missing a few potions. Oh well, at least I managed to get the treasure. I spoke to Samuel and we went on our way.
What happened next? Well, for sure Samuel is tasked with transporting me to whoever saved my butt, and that's what he did. If you want to know the full story, read the next post. Goodbye for now! |
