The Travels of Doctor Thomas Galvani
I returned to my lavish home and place of business on the nineteenth day of the Month of Songs, after three long months on the Pandyssian continent, collecting Pandyssian bull rat specimens for my many tests. It was a stormy evening, so at the door, my maid, Mrs. Benson, greeted me. She took my coat and hat, and I had some of the City Watch guards assigned to my house assist me with the parcels, fresh off the ship from Pandyssia. They grumbled amongst themselves about the ravages of the Rat Plague, but a quick glance from me shut them up. I arranged the bull rat fetuses in jars strewn carefully about my laboratory, and then I took the one live rat I had brought back, a plague-ridden four-year-old female, and brought her into my secret space behind the tall bookshelf.
I began the preparations to perform a vivisection on the rat, then made an audio log on my travels to Pandyssia and the chief differences between rats native to the Isles and those native to Pandyssia itself. I closed the door to the lair not a moment too soon, for Mrs. Benson came up the stairs, intent on cleaning the laboratory. I could not risk anyone finding my secret room.
"Doctor, I might remind you that you made an appointment at the Golden Cat for fifteen minutes from now," said Mrs. Benson
I replied "Why, thank you Mrs. Benson. Can you prepare my coat and hat for my departure?"
With that, the woman went back to the first floor. I made sure, as I exited the lab, to scrub my hands thoroughly. I wouldn't want the rats to get their vital essences from me. With that, I left the house and headed up Clavering Boulevard towards the Golden Cat Bathhouse.
Once I arrived, I was greeted at the door by Madame Prudence, a vile, ugly old hag who took over the Golden Cat after Melina Durham, the previous owner, died of the Plague in its early days.
"Mr. Galvani, will you have Rose or Shelley today?" Prudence inquired.
Said I, "I am here on business only, Prudence. Can you tell me where Captain Curnow might be?"
She replied, "Captain Curnow has canceled his appointment today on account of a visit to our High Overseer Campbell."
So, I resolved to sit down in the steam room and have a nap. I woke up an hour later, and left the Golden Cat. As I watched, in quick succession, alarms went off, Curnow and his watchmen raced down Clavering Boulevard from Holger Square, and Overseers chased down Curnow's men. He and his squad fought them off with fire and steel, and then I resolved to talk to Curnow and ask what happened.
"Curnow? What happened? Why was there a ruckus?" I inquired.
"Oh, hello, Doctor. I went to pay Campbell a visit due to an incident in Treavers Alley over in the Legal District. We went into the meeting room, where he offered me a glass of Tyvian red. We took a sip, and he keeled over. The guards were summoned, and the Overseers thought that I had poisoned him. My squad and I had to make a run for it, and a masked man helped us escape. I meant to thank him, but he was gone before I had the chance. It looked like he just disappeared. I know it sounds crazy."
"Wow, Geoff. Sounds like quite the experience. Stay in touch."
"I will. Goodbye."
With that, he and his men went back down the street to investigate a disturbance at an abandoned apartment on the waterfront, next to the Bitterleaf Almshouse. Word was that some Bottle Street thugs were slaughtered by one Granny Rags. Oh well. I might as well not worry about it. I went back to my house. As I went in, I saw the four Watch guards assigned to my house lying in a pool of their own blood on my rare antique Tyvian carpet. I was more shocked than anything, but I was pretty mad about that carpet.
I went upstairs and found Mrs. Benson cowering on the floor of the living room. She told me about how a masked man broke in, killed all the guards, and went upstairs to my lab. She said she thought she heard something heavy being moved. I helped her up and took the stairs up two at a time.
Sure enough, the bookcase was open. I went inside, and found that the viscera of the rat I was going to vivisect had been taken. Someone has a very sick mind. Or is trying to cure the plague as well. I retired to my quarters.
The next day, I woke up, breakfast made by Mrs. Benson resting on my bureau. During the night, we had caught an intruder, one of the Bottle Street men. He was trying to find out who had poisoned their bootleg elixir still. We laid him on the table in my lab, along with an audiograph he had made using my machine. Anyhow, there was a bowl of Serkonan grapes, a Morley apple, two Tyvian pears, a steaming pot of Essence of the Isles tea, and Serkonan blood sausage, along with some of Pratchett's famous jellied eels. I dressed myself, and went out onto the balcony. It was shaping up to be a beautiful day. All of a sudden, the doorbell rang and Mrs. Benson scrambled to open it. Four new Watch guards and one Officer walked in, saying that after the events of yesterday, they had been assigned by the Regent to protect the area. Two of them went up to my lab. The other two took the living room. The officer went onto the second-story porch.
I have to mention that as I went outside for the second time, the loudspeaker fired up and this announcement came on:
"Attention Dunwall citizens. John Clavering Boulevard is now a restricted travel area. Any pedestrians will be assumed hostile with malicious intent unless proper identification is shown. The High Overseer Thaddeus Campbell has been killed by an enemy of the state. May his spirit ascend and blend with the cosmos. During this time of spiritual crisis, the Overseers have initiated the Feast of Painted Kettles until such time as a new High Overseer is appointed."
So that would explain the heightened guard presence on Clavering. The waterfront entrance, once a wall of light, had been boarded up. There were two watchtowers, one overlooking the destroyed Clavering Bridge, and the other standing sentinel over the entrances to Holger Square and the Golden Cat. Also, the City Watch was here in high numbers, perhaps numbering fifty men. I resolved that I would travel to my friend Pratchett's home on Kaldwin's Bridge. The trip alone would take an hour. I finalized my packing and placed a strange artifact carved from whale bone in the glass case in my secret room. We found the artifact in the intruder's pocket. It seemed to make a strange noise. I closed the bookcase and wrote Mrs. Benson a letter concerning her cleaning of the bookcase. I advised her not to.
As I walked down Clavering to my barge, the Pendleton twins rode by in a railcar. I had heard they were to be in this district today. Yet another reason for heightened security. They were snobs, but they were rich snobs. That is why the City Watch cared about people such as myself, not to mention Sokolov, Lady Boyle, Bunting the Art dealer, Pratchett, and Barrister Timsh. I knew if the coin was not paid in full, the City Watch would turn on them at the drop of a hat.
Pratchett's house on Kaldwin's Bridge was nice. Smaller than mine, I might add, but he canned eels and whale meat, while I cured the plague. Still, he was a good man, with a good sense of humor. He sat me down for a meal of brined hagfish and Old Dunwall Whiskey. A vial of Piero's Spiritual Remedy finished off the meal. A placebo, no doubt. Piero Joplin was a quack physician. Anton Sokolov, Piero, and I had graduated from the Academy in the same year. But I humored Pratchett and gulped down the sticky blue garbage. We talked money for a while when a courtesan from the Golden Cat came calling. Pratchett ushered me out, and I retreated to my barge and set sail for home.
When I returned, the street was in chaos. I stepped over the bodies of several Watchmen as I made my way to the door. Officers in plague masks searched for the villainous scum who did this. Reports were that the two Pendletons had been slaughtered at the Golden Cat, along with everyone else at the bathhouse that day. Once again, I returned to see the four Guards and one Officer slain on my floor, and Mrs. Benson cowering in my room. I helped her up, and she told me about how the same masked man had come in, killed all the Watch, and taken the corpse of the intruder toward the old Distillery. Oh well, no matter. I went back to my room and slept.
The next day, I woke up to the same thing as before: hot breakfast, beautiful sunlight streaming in through the window. I thought that today, I would take a pleasure cruise around the Kaldwin's Bridge military installation. Just for the heck of it. Unexpectedly, I ended up having a lot of work to do, so I embarked at around 6 o'clock in the evening. On my way to the Bridge, I almost had a collision with a small boat called the Amaranthe. Aboard were a thin man with pilot's gear on and another larger man, clad entirely in black, a silver skull mask on his face, an occult mark tattooed on his left hand. I thought nothing of it and continued to sail on. In the midst of my cruise, just as I was passing near the arches under the Royal Physician's home, I saw the Amaranthe again. I decided to dock near there and keep a vigil, just in case the masked man was the same one who terrorized my home. Sure enough, not fifteen minutes later, I saw him appear (He didn't even walk, mind you; he just appeared) next to the Amaranthe, carrying a sleeping man over his shoulder. They headed off in the direction of the Old Port District. Thinking it best for my safety, I did not follow them, electing instead to put Kaldwin's Bridge to my rudder and head for home.
No chaos when I returned; just a hot cup of tea and a letter. From Mrs. Benson.
It read:
"Dear Dr. Galvani,
I have left service to pursue my dreams of being an attorney for one Barrister Arnold Timsh. I have left my keys and a sum of cash on your bureau.
–Emily Benson"
I don't understand. I employed her perfectly well! Maybe that one time with the… Oh never mind. I went upstairs, recorded an audiograph, then went to bed.
It was the 22nd day of the Month of Songs. The three ladies Esma, Waverly, and Lydia Boyle had invited me to a grand ball that evening. Of course, I would not attend. Those things were simply not my style, plus it was my favorite day. I wouldn't waste it dancing. I had to make myself breakfast, but after a failed attempt at a Morley apple tart, I resolved to eat a tin of hot whale meat on toasted Dunwall Rye bread. I'm surprised that I even know how to toast bread. I sent a courier with a message to Captain Curnow, reporting my sighting of the Masked Man on Kaldwin's Bridge. As I handed the courier the letter, he handed me one from a Watch officer stationed on Kaldwin's Bridge, telling me that Pratchett had been murdered in an altercation at his house the night prior. No doubt the Masked Man was responsible for this. I kept an ear out for any type of information as to his whereabouts for several days, until I heard word of a strange small boat docked at the Dunwall Tower waterlock. I went to look for it and sure enough, it was the Amaranthe. I waited for the masked man to return, and then I followed the Amaranthe to its home dock.
The old Hound Pits Pub? It didn't seem to make any sense. Literally just across the water from Dunwall Tower, and the Regent didn't know? Shows how politics is these days. I peeked into the door that the Masked Man went through, and saw that he was woozy, as if poisoned. I resolved to leave his fate up to those who poisoned him. Likely some kind of crime boss, seeing as there was a huge ransom out for him and besides, who couldn't use a bit more coin? In Dunwall, things are always tangled up like a bag of snakes. Last I heard, he was captured by the crime boss Daud. Serves him right.
I went to the old Abbey on Kaldwin's Bridge to attend Pratchett's funeral. On the way home, I stopped along the river side of what was once the Rudshore Financial District. The Rudshore Chamber of Commerce building, with a huge statue of Jessamine Kaldwin, dominated the skyline. This was rumored to be the base of Daud. No doubt the Masked Man was on his way here. I motored along the river back to Clavering. The next day, I found out that the Regent had been arrested for high crimes against the City of Dunwall. Ha, what a jerk. He was the one who brought over the plague. Well, because of him, I have a job.
People rose to power and fell. Years came and went. The Masked Man was never heard from again. It was one day in Samara, in my late eighties, on the northern coast of Tyvia, that I encountered a tall man. He looked worn, as if he had been through a lot. He extended his left hand to shake mine, and I noticed something. It was emblazoned with the same mark I had seen on the hand of the man on the Amaranthe. I spoke up.
"I know who you are, Masked Man. I know what you've done."
He replied "Well, if it isn't the good doctor Galvani. I was Jessamine Kaldwin's Lord Protector, Corvo Attano."
Shocked, I replied, "Your secret is safe with me, Lord Protector."
And with that, he teleported to the rooftops and out of sight. Never shall I forget the Masked Man, what he has done, and his good heart. Thus, this is how I learned the truth of Corvo's fall from grace. May the Cosmos bless that man and honor his soul.
In the following months, I sat in my villa in Samara, a wizened old man. The sun rose and fell, and with each passing day I became weaker and weaker. One beautiful day, a troop of Overseers pounded on the door. I got up to answer it.
One man, obviously the leader, spoke up and said, "Doctor Galvani, we found the heretical artifact in your chambers back in Dunwall. As you might know, possession of such an artifact is a high crime in the eyes of the Abbey."
At this point, he drew his saber. He began to recite the seven strictures and plunged the blade through my chest. The last thing I saw before everything faded to black was a fair-skinned man in a brown coat. He had pitch-dark eyes.
His words to me were "Thomas, I've had my eye on you. Welcome to the Void."
6 The Travels of Doctor Thomas Galvani