After many twists and turns, my journey is nearing its end. I should think I only have two stops left. Time must pass before I make my next move, though. Striking out now would be most unwise. I'm taking time to lay low and recover my strength. In a few hours I'll make my move on the Hound Pits Pub and find Lady Emily. Then, I take the fight to Havelock, Treavor Pendleton, and High Overseer Martin themselves. I don't know where they are held up right now, but more on that later.
Looking over my last entry, I was a bit optimistic with things. Most of that is due to the fact that I was surprised to be alive in the first place. I took quite the gamble to ensure my survival, and Samuel turned out to be just the kind of man I suspected him of being. I'll need to invite him over for dinner at Dunwall Tower at some point when this is all over. The man deserves whatever kind of retirement he wants, whether that's going and doing some more work on the river, holding a small office job like he was looking into before all this started, or simply enjoying the rest of his days. Whatever he wants, I'll be sure to make it happen. If nothing else comes about this, even if Dunwall falls due to the plague introduced to us by Hiram Burrows, know that Samuel Beechworth was responsible for giving the city its final and greatest hope. If we should survive all of this, he'll go down in history as the lone boatman who saved the empire.
I snuck out of my cell pretty easily and began looking about the place for my equipment. It was left in a whale oil refinery, the Greaves', of course. We were far into the Flooded District now, the old Financial District that has really gone downhill over the last year or so. Built alongside the Wrenhaven river, a series of old barricades were all that was keeping this place from becoming a watery graveyard. Well, those old walls hadn't been cared for in quite some time and since the rat plague broke out, there was even less attention being paid to them. No money being sent from the Lord Regent to fix anything, the walls gave way and the entire district is now sunken down, becoming one with the Wrenhaven river.
There used to be all sorts of refineries around here. They called it the Financial District for good reason. Business was booming down here, and none were more successful than Greaves' Refinery ran by Ebenezer Greaves himself. That's where Daud and his men found me half dead in a boat, and that's where they left my gear behind, tossing it into the pits below.
Looking back on things, I feel like there was good reason that Daud didn't take my equipment for himself. He had the chance, but chose to leave it within my grasp if I so desired it. I think that the man knew what he was doing. More on him later.
My first stop was the old refinery. My issue was that I was stuck in a mostly sunken building with assassins on the upper floors, blocking my escape. Daud's men are a strange bunch. They wear the old uniforms of Greaves' men, but they added black hoods and an assortment of tools to the mix. Moreover, they each seem to possess the powers of the Outsider to a certain degree. It's bizarre, but they can all utilize an ability similar to Blink that they call "transversal." After watching Daud's men when compared to their leader, though, I don't think that they are all carrying the same Mark that Daud and I possess. Maybe, by some strange means, Daud is able to share his powers with his entire group of assassins. That would make a lot of sense in regards to a few specifics that I learned about Daud himself when I finally confronted him, again, more on that later. But it is definitely food for thought. Although maybe I shouldn't be questioning the inner mechanics of magic itself.
I couldn't figure out a way out through the upper floors of the building, so I took a look down near the ground level to see what there was to see. A small gap was visible in the walls at the bottom, underwater, but I couldn't fit through there. It was at this time that I decided to try out yet another one of these powers that the Outsider seems so keen on giving me whenever the whim suits him. I had a vague understanding of what this power would do to me, more or less, but I couldn't base that knowledge on anything I had ever seen. There was something that I read in a guard report, I think a small note I found back at the Boyle Estate, but I had no idea if it would work or not. Rationally, I should add. But I had a feeling in my core that this was going to work. I got out of the water and peered down inside it, looking for movement. I spotted a fish swimming around at random and I used my powers to Possess it. I could feel my form rushing towards the fish, colliding with it, and temporarily overpowering it completely, allowing me to swim about the waters as a small fish.
It was a highly disorienting experience, to be sure. I've never been a fish up until that moment, but there was a certain kind of instinct that compelled me to move in a certain way. Perhaps that's an added benefit of this unnatural power of mine. I swam through the hole in the wall and made my way out to the other side. The Possession period ended and I found myself bursting forward from inside the fish, it seems. The poor thing died in the process of letting me out, but there was nothing to be done about it, I suppose. I went from there, climbing up a neighboring building after checking to ensure the coast was clear of assassins, and continued to make my way to the backstreets toward the refinery.
I reached the old block without much trouble and I was making solid progress on my way up the structure. I didn't want to utilize my powers too much at this point. They had taken all of my equipment along with my stash of Remedies, so I wouldn't have anything to fall back on if I were to push myself too hard. At the side of the building, however, was an old staircase mechanism that was designed to rise and fall whenever new crews were coming in, preventing anyone from breaking into the building after hours to steal trade secrets, I'm guessing. To my surprise, one of the old whale oil refueling stations still worked. I grabbed a tank, filled it up, and placed it in the emergency backup power generator. Using was little power the machine had left, I lowered the staircase for one last climb.
As I was nearing my way to the top, I overheard a few of Daud's men discussing me. They knew I had slipped out, but didn't know where I had gone to. One of them asked if they should stand guard in case I came around but the other cut him short, saying that I'd have to go through the Railway Station if I wanted to see Daud personally, so it would be best if a group of them awaited me there. My path ahead was looking difficult, but I could worry about that after I collected my supplies.
I found a chain firmly secured to the ceiling and after testing it to make sure it could support me, I climbed down to the bottom of the old refinery. I stopped along the way at the sighting of three weepers, but they were all keeping to themselves, so I kept going. I reached the bottom where another weeper was a bit more agitated. He was roaming around the place, moaning and swatting at the empty air around him. I grabbed the case that contained my gear and choked out the weeper, setting him aside to rest. I nearly cried aloud when I saw his face though… The weeper here with me was the former High Overseer, Thaddeus Campbell himself!
Things had not gone well for Campbell after receiving the Heretic's Brand. I found a journal of his last words near the stairway. He wrote about being shoved out of the Abbey of the Everyman in a cruel, unforgiving way. Though he did curse himself for not banning the practice of the Heretic's Brand, he did admit that he was planning on using it on a few people in the long run, including Hiram Burrows. Upper level politicians are all the same, I suppose. They all have their grand views for what the world should be and would kill anyone who gets in the way of their goals. This whole situation is a mess.
Campbell found a place here in the Flooded District to hold up in the meantime. He felt himself growing sicker and sicker over time and gave in. At the end of his journal, as he describes the sanity trickling out of him, he writes out a fairly horrific curse on me. Maybe it made him feel a bit better about things, made him fall asleep a bit easier that night. As for me, I don't really care either way. Thaddeus Campell deserved worse than this. He had a week of life after receiving the Brand at my hand. And he was responsible for the deaths of countless men, the blackmail and torture of many many more, and he was partly to blame for taking Emily away from me. I do not regret my actions of the past, and my mind drifted to the Pendleton twins, Morgan and Custis. Still, I did what had to be done. I am no saint of a man, despite what others might tell you. I got my revenge on them, plain and simple. Assassinating them wouldn't have been enough for me, you see. They hurt me, killed the love of my life, and took my own daughter away from me. Death would be a kindness to release them from my wrath. What some might call a mercy doesn't come from such a warm place in my heart. After seeing what happened to Campbell, I could understand that much. I am not a good man. I was wronged and so I have exacted revenge, just as they were planning to do on me. I simply played the game better.
I will tell Emily all of this when she is old enough to know. She must be better than me.
I gathered up my things, all of which were accounted for, and left to the Railway Station to pay Daud a visit. Along the way were several groups of his men, making the trek more than a little difficult. I was able to get by mostly relying on Blink and a few well placed sleep darts. The group in front of the gate leading to the station had maybe four or five men patrolling at once. I took one of them down and slipped by the others undetected, using the key I took from the unlucky one to open the door and slip through.
This next block was a difficult situation to deal with. The old station was crawling with Daud's men. He obviously pulled them all in close to protect himself, to add a bit of warning for when I was coming for him. He seemed absolutely certain that I was coming for him, too. I guess that only makes sense. He left my supplies in a place that he knew I could get to. I wouldn't be surprised if he also planted Campbell there after he turned into a weeper to test my resolve. That seems like something this man would come up with. Daud wanted me to come for him. I think that deep down he was excited at the idea of fighting another man who was blessed in the same way he was. It would be exciting to test our abilities against one another and see who the Outsider favored, if he so favored one of us at all. For some reason, I doubt that.
Anyway, I made my way into the railhouse after nearly being spotted a few times. I utilized a rat of all things to get in there, slipping through a vent on the ground via my new Possession power. The inside of the place was picked clean, more or less, with Duad taking an old official's office on the floor above. There was a newcomer to the group there as well, going through training exercises with one of the senior members. I learned a great deal about their transversal power then. They don't need to be able to see their target like I have to, they simply have to envision it in their mind's eye and they can appear there at will. A bit unbelievable, if you ask me, but I suppose that I've seen and done weirder things today. One of them mentioned that they received their powers from Daud, though, confirming my little theory. It seems that he trained them in the ways of the Outsider and somehow managed to share some of his abilities with them. That made sense, as far as I could tell. I was able to use Bend Time to sneak past many of them out on the streets. Something tells me that Daud won't be so easy to get past, though. If he had a similar power to me, then I don't think that he would be caught off guard if I stopped time.
My chance came right after sneaking around the training session. I came up to Daud's office in time to see another one of his men reporting to him. He informed Daud that I had escaped custody, recovered my equipment, and had returned power to the refinery without being seen at all. I smiled a bit, a sense of pride bubbling up deep down. Daud confirmed that I did my job better than any of his assassins could and started lecturing the poor lad on a few things. I Blinked up to a cabinet nearby, confident that Daud hadn't quite seen me, and then I decided to take my biggest risk. I used Bend Time to stop time and was relatively unsurprised when Daud continued his lecture, albeit a bit slower. The power didn't affect him as much as his men. But it was still plenty of time for me to Blink down next to him, steal his key and a bone charm he had on him, and Blink off without being seen. Time began running as normal and no one was left he wiser.
I suppose I should jot down my thought on why I didn't kill Daud when I had the chance. It was my chance, after all, to murder the man who killed Jessamine and started this entire thing. I just didn't feel the need, I suppose. Daud wasn't really at fault in any of this. He did his job, as he was hired by Hiram Burrows, and killed Jessamine. It was a man doing a job to feed a family of assassins that he had grown himself. I sympathized a bit with that. The men obviously respected Daud completely and relied on him in all things, but it seemed like they did have a bond with one another that went beyond fellow assassins. They were friends, they formed a group with a tight knit sense of loyalty and respect. Oddly enough, they were a closer group than the Loyalists ever were. They cared for each other and did their best to look out for each other. I suppose I wish that our group could have been like that.
I didn't want to leave such a group leaderless for no reason other than a petty grudge that had nothing to do with him. My enemy was Hiram Burrows, and he'll rot in Coldridge Prison for the rest of his life. Thaddeus Campbell was a weeper bleeding out the eyes and moaning until his last breath. The Pendletons were in the mines working themselves to the bone, cursing their lives and their dear brother. I had done enough. The desire for revenge no longer dwelled in my heart. I had all the power in this situation, though, I had all along. I needed to let Daud know that. Taking that bone charm was my way of telling him that I had surpassed him and his band of assassins. While I was superior to them in the moment, I also chose not to kill them as a sign of respect for what he had built for himself and how he had managed to maintain a sense of humanity after all this.
I listened in on an audiograph Daud was recording in his office after I left. It was a letter of sorts addressed to Hiram. Daud told him that he was going to come after him if things had carried on like they had for a bit longer, but that Hiram poetically fell to the same thing that gave him power, courtrooms and angry mobs. It must not be fun to be on the receiving end of something like that. Though I did feel quite good to hear that people were more focused on the exposure of the Lord Regent and not so much on me.
Daud mentioned Jessamine closer to the end of his recording. He told Hiram that he's regretted the job every day since then. No one should have to kill an Empress.
That was what ultimately made me decide to let him live. There was nothing for it in the end. Daud knew that he had done wrong, despite taking the contract and receiving payment for it. He wasn't the man that I thought he was. With all this regret, who knows, maybe he wanted me to come in and take him out. Well, I would have to deny him that pleasure for the time being. I pray we never cross paths again. I'd hate to think about what would happen if we came to blows. I wouldn't want to see which one the Outsider favored more in a match like that.
I used Daud's key to sneak out on my way to the sewers. I had to cross a yard where they were carting plague victims along. It was a terrible sight to see. Three or four Tall Boys patrolled the place and I realized that I wasn't going to be getting out of there on foot. I doubled back and went into the local apartments to see if I could find a way up on top of the plague cart itself.
On the way I saw two men near the drop zone. One, dressed in clothes that could once be called nice, was holding the other who was garbed in a torn up brown jacket and some slacks. The second man couldn't see anymore. He was going on about being in a hospital's basement to receive treatment. The poor thing was delirious and the first man tried his best to keep his friend sane. He told him that they were in the outskirts of the old Flooded District, that they were sent there in order to make sure nobody else got sick, but the second man didn't listen to him. His voice grew fainter with each breath, more distant, until he finally died in his friend's arms. The first man gave his farewell and sat there, holding him. I left to give them privacy, though I was never seen while doing so.
In the apartments, I ran into a sick woman who helped me get up to the roof. He had received a note from her family, begging her to return to them. They knew that she was sick, but they still wanted her to come back despite all that. If that wasn't love, I don't know what is. It's just another heartbreaking example of what this city is doing to its people. The plague is destroying families constantly and there's nothing that could be done. I took her advice and went on my way. The poor woman, she'll be dead in a few days at best.
There is one thing that keeps bothering me when I run into plague victims like these. None of them ever dissolve into the state of weepers. They die peacefully in the arms of their friends and families. From Damien and his lover Amanda in Dunwall Sewers to the woman and her family on Clavering Boulevard to the poor young man here in the Flooded District. Time and time again I see people dying before weeping. How is this the case that some weep while others don't? Maybe these questions are best fit for men like Sokolov and Piero and less for men such as myself. I'll bring it up with them if I ever see them again.
From the top of the building, I managed to jump down onto the plague cart as it passed by. It made back for the city and I rode along until I saw a Wall of Light on the road. Realizing that my time was running out, I waited until the very last second and used Bend Time to stop time and Blink to the other side, ducking into a maintenance tunnel. The flow of time resumed, the cart went on by, and I gulped down another one of Piero's Remedies. I needed to stop getting myself into situations where this technique was necessary. It was a great help on the field, but the ramifications of it were unpleasant to say the least.
From there I worked my way into the Dunwall Sewers yet again, lucky me. This would set me on the path to get to the Hound Pits Pub, where I could evaluate the situation and go from there.
I would keep going from here, but I fear I must rest. Between the poisoning and the journey I have just been through, I'm quite worn out, and I still have quite a bit left to write about today. An unfortunate encounter with two of my old friends from Clavering Boulevard will make up the bulk of the next entry. I need to rest for now and eat. I have a friend with me here and I'd like to catch her up on what's happened as well and review the situation with her before I head out and see what this place is like now. I'm not looking forward to what I must do here soon, but it must be done.