Guest Game 1: Circuit's Edge - Won!

Trickster's Note: The below post (and indeed all posts for Circuit's Edge) was written by guest blogger Zenic Reverie.

Final Night: "I've uncovered the identity of Tamara Carter. With this knowledge I wrapped up the whole affair of who was behind the death of Kenji Carter. I'm now sitting at the side of Papa, enjoying a nice dinner as he contemplates her fate. I sit, eat, and soak in the events of the week keenly aware of how dangerous a world the Budayeen is when in the company of Friedlander Bey."

Now here's how I imagined the conversation going the first time.

So, as I left off the last post, I found myself at a dead end. Not truly a dead end, but one enough that I reached out for help. Luckily I found the issue, as the hints provided weren't precisely what was missing; in fact they were exactly what I was doing. I considered the fact that I had broken the game, or at least found a bug in the game, where I reached a piece of dialogue from such a disconnected location that I feared I'd missed a trigger in the code. In anticipation of this I visited the nurse, and used the holoviewer in her presence. I thought this was enough, but it wasn't. I needed to use the show command instead.

She was so excited to get a snake!

The earrings delivered to the nurse freed her of ethical obligations as she revealed Tamara Carter was now going by the name of Arissa Lockhart. I get a good description of her new appearance before I head out to the best place for information, Chiriga. When I arrive, I just so happened to run into none other than Arissa. In fact, I think I've seen Arissa here many times throughout my journey. I'm sure there was another trigger in all this that allowed Arissa to open up, but when I confronted her about "Tamara" she confessed that was her true identity.

A notebook I could have found if I knew where you lived.

She confessed to killing Marco Herrera after he threatened her. Of course, the sole reason she was in his presence was to confront him about killing her father. Abu Salah seems to be the main killer behind all this, or at least the one who employed the other Herrera brother. Arissa flitted off to procure the notebook tucked in her apartment. She promised she'd call when she had it. I tried to finally rest for the night, but was awoken once again by my belt phone. "Meet me at my apartment!" Arissa invited. Great, not this again.

At this point I'm fairly sure it would be entirely expected.

Inside the apartment I found it obscenely disordered. The only thing of note was a note addressed to me from Abu. "Meet me at the warehouse where Manny died, I have the girl and the notebook," it said (paraphrased). Thus began the ending sequence. Upon arrival Abu Salah launched into a monologue where he laid out the entire plot. The notebook is one of Friedlander's workbooks where he details many of his dealings. He fears keeping such information in a computer because it's so easily infiltrated. So, this notebook came into the possession of Kenji Carter who felt the need to blackmail Papa.

Oh, and did I mention Arissa was strapped to some torture contraption?

Abu decided that he could control Papa with such information, and set out to retrieve it from Kenji, killing anyone who got in the way. Kenji and Manny were in cahoots with Abu at first, but instead of giving it to Abu were about to sell it back to Papa. The McDix were roman numerals all along, and the connection to Mack Dixon was a red herring. 1409 was the combination to the safe in Arissa's apartment that contained the notebook, a fact completely irrelevant to my interactions. Strangely 1409 is said to be the birth year of Papa... is this a different measurement of time or is this game based in the past? With the back story completely wrapped up to this point Abu levels his pistol at me, and the fight of the century begins.

Just kidding, he was a pushover.

Abu slumped to the ground, dropping the notebook. Arissa pleads to be released, but the only thing immediately available to interact with was the notebook. Picking it up, or attempting to, causes Abu to revive just enough to activate the torture device. As it whirs to life, a timer starts to countdown. Seems it needs about an hour to reach full torture potential.

Oh! You mean this black key I've been carrying around for half the game?

Dangle it in front of the lock for the next 58 minutes? Sounds like a plan...

I'm really not sure how it takes an hour for me to cross the room.

Injecting such tension when there's really none seems par for the course. The game enters its final moments with the grace of a hippo in heat. Saving Arissa causes her to collapse into my arms whimpering. Then in a strange turn she suggests we meet up later on so she can properly repay me. I'm fairly sure that won't happen though as the game appears to be wrapping up. Last step is to report to Papa.

Maybe if Marid asks nicely he'll be able to question her.

Papa is pleased I kept Tamara alive for questioning, and returning the notebook is what this whole sordid affair was about. To summarize the rest of the exposition, it's a rough life to live in the shadow of Papa, but Marid may come out of it a little better with the knowledge of what happens when you cross Friedlander Bey. After all this an epilogue scrolls by, a letter from the project director to Lt. Hajjar. It reads as an advertisement for the author's next book.

In fact, it ends with one.

And that concludes the adventures of Marid Audran for this blog. I'm fairly sure this is the only game entry for this series. If there is another, I won't be jumping at the chance to delve into it any time soon. This game just did not click with me in any way. Thank you for reading through the posts, and I hope you found something to enjoy about it. Sorry to have dragged it on for far longer than it deserved. I'll leave it up for comments to decide if I should wrap it up properly with a PISSED score.

Session Time: 0 hours 30 minutes
Total Time: 13 hours 00 minutes