Dracula Unleashed - Won!

Written by Joe Pranevich

Welcome back to this somewhat delayed finale of Dracula Unleashed. I won! I actually won some time ago, began drafting this post, became bogged down because the post became too long, and then was swamped by real life events including a bout with COVID that left me exhausted for weeks. Most veteran writers here can attest that you must get your thoughts down quickly before everything slips away and I had long since passed that point. Too many things conspired together to make it difficult for me to get to the finish line and wrap this up for you. I am sorry. 

The good news is that we’ve made it to the end! Last time out, Alexander fell asleep while guarding Juliet and Anisette. Dracula chose that moment to attack, killing Juliet and leaving Anisette with a gaping neck wound and an immediate need for a blood transfusion. Professor van Helsing chased us out of the apartment while he and Dr. Seward raced to save her life. As I was uncertain if this was a plot death or due to my mistakes, I played the third day’s events over and over again to try to save her. That failed. I am starting this post on the morning of the fourth day: It’s December 31 and we’re only a few hours from the scene in the introduction when Alexander will sit in a graveyard pondering his Bowie knife. Soon, we will have to find a way to bring an end to Dracula’s curse.

What should we do first on such an auspicious day? Buy a newspaper. Read on for more. 

I should really spring for delivery.

The First Attempt

Let’s get this out of the way: it will take me a few attempts to beat the game. For most posts in this series, I narrated each day’s events in two posts: the first was a straight play-through until I hit a roadblock, and the second was a more aggressive push to find the secrets to get me to the next day. Since we’re at the end (and I am eager to put this “Halloween” game to bed before summer), I will narrate the attempts together and hope that this post doesn’t become too long. While this is written sequentially, I took breaks of a few days between attempts. This makes for at least one occasion where I should have remembered something because it happened only a few paragraphs ago, but it was much longer ago in reality. I’m not a moron, I swear!

The newspaper has some good news: Scotland Yard is on the verge of catching the killer! That combined with this being New Years Eve and the dawn of a new century has made the newspaper salesman almost chipper. For it being such an auspicious New Years Eve, the game has barely mentioned the holiday at all, instead focusing most scenes on it being the Christmas season. This could be a difference in the way the holidays were celebrated in the US vs London at the turn of the century, but I suspect that the exact date of the game hadn’t been tied down until late in the production. This is also one of the few genuinely funny scenes in the game as the salesman rambles off all of the ways that life will improve over the next hundred years: we will have world peace, cured all diseases, ended famine, and be riding around on the moon. The actor was clearly having a good time with it.

The newspaper articles have less to say, but Lord Godalming, aka Arthur Holmwood, penned a letter to the editor:

To the Editor of the Times,

Sir, – The century is rapidly reaching a close, and most Londoners are viewing it with trepidation and fear. It seems that violence and murder are becoming an everyday occurance in our fair city. I, for one, see the new epoch as a chance for England to lead the world into a reign of Enlightenment. This bloodshed that curses humanity will end, and England will shine as a beacon. 

God Save the Queen,

Lord Godalming

Put a pin in this because it’ll make more sense by the end of the post. 

Time to discuss strategy.

Checking my notes, I recall that van Helsing asked us to meet at Harker’s office “tomorrow morning” so I head there first. When I arrive, Jonathan, Dr. Seward, and van Helsing were already present and discussing plans. Holmwood is attending his coachman’s funeral and so unable to join us. Harker helpfully adds that Juliet’s own funeral will be at noon. Not stated here, but there is a superstition that people bitten by vampires must be buried nearly immediately to prevent them from rising again. That may be why her funeral is planned mere hours after her death, while Mr. Bowen and the coachman had to wait longer. Dr. Seward checked in on the Holmwoods the previous evening and found them to be fine. He seems relieved that, for now, Dracula is not targeting them as much as Alexander and the Harkers. 

We are interrupted by a messenger from Dr. Seward’s asylum. It’s on fire! One person is dead so far and several others are trapped. He runs off immediately. Professor van Helsing pauses the meeting and asks that we come together again at Anisette’s home after the funeral. He also asks Alexander to locate a mallet and wooden stake and bring it with him. 

An approved psychiatric tool?

I rush to the asylum to check on Dr. Seward, but find only the burned out husk of the building. An attendant lets us know that Seward is busy dealing with the situation and won’t be available for some time. Alexander pokes around the remains and discovers both a mallet and wooden stake in the debris. What a coincidence! As the asylum is near the cemetery, check there briefly to see if I can attend the coachman’s funeral and speak to Arthur Holmwood or his wife, but it’s the usual “nothing here now” scene with the gravediggers. I could have missed it or perhaps London has multiple graveyards after all. 

Why are none of these candygrams? They had been invented in 1874 in Rock Ridge.

I review my notes. The other carryover item from the previous day is that we’re waiting for Briarcliffe’s analysis of the manuscript from the secret room in the bookstore. I stop at home to see if it has arrived. It has! Even better, we have a second telegram as well:

• Briarcliffe relates that the manuscript describes an “amulet of power” that allows someone both to rise from the dead as well as disguise themselves as someone else. It can only be used by someone with existing magical talent however. He asks that we come to his office to discuss further.
• The second telegram is from Dr. Seward to update me on the fire at the asylum. The building has been destroyed and several patients died, including Renfield. He includes dictaphone tubes of an interview with Renfield taken the previous evening. I will need to find a dictaphone player to listen to them.

The reveal that the amulet allows shape-changing opens up possibilities. If we are really dealing with Dracula, it means that he could hide anywhere and be anyone. Alternatively, it means that some other villain with magical abilities could use it to masquerade as Dracula and even be able to transform into a wolf. I doubt that explains how we have seen Anisette and Juliet as vampires in the death scenes, but surely Dracula isn’t the only vampire? I remain suspicious of Professor van Helsing only because he showed up in London before my telegram could have reached him (unless Harker contacted him first), but Horner could be a suspect as well. He was strangely drawn to the blood when I cut my hand… We’ll have to consider this further.

I expect better calligraphy from Dracula, honestly.

Following his invitation, I go to meet with Briarcliffe at the university. Alexander arrives to find his office door open and his bloody spectacles on the floor nearby. He races inside to find a box with a note scrawled in blood, “For Alexander”. Inside the box is Briarcliffe’s severed head. Alexander screams and is still screaming when the scene ends. 

How could this have happened? Other than our investigation, Briarcliffe was nearly unconnected to Dracula. We know that he had some relationship with Horner, but he doesn't know the Hades Club or the Harkers. In his journal, Alexander struggles to understand what led the monster to the professor. He’s worried that he’s being watched and everyone around him is at risk. Everything suddenly seems more dangerous now. The stakes feel higher. 

You’d expect more blood, but Dracula has a way of dealing with blood spills.

Just in time for another funeral.

It’s 11:20 AM. The funeral is at noon so that might be enough time to check the dictaphone tubes before heading over. We saw on the first day that Harker keeps a dictaphone in his office and so I head there. It should be unsurprising that he’s not there and there is no longer any time to waste. I beeline to the funeral. 

Unlike Mr. Bowen’s funeral, Juliet’s takes place inside of a crypt. I never learned much about her, she was just always staying with Anisette. She never seemed wealthy so the rich burial may be Goldacre’s doing. As the service ends, everyone places flowers on her casket, except Goldacre who puts cloves of garlic on it instead. We know what he’s worried about! As Alexander escorts the recovering Anisette out of the crypt, the camera pans over to a pair of gravediggers. They lament that no one attended a funeral for a “headless corpse” earlier in the day. We know from the newspapers that there have been several decapitation murders in the city so it’s not clear which one they are speaking about. If this was Holmwood’s coachman’s funeral, then Arthur and Regina should both have been there. Were they secretly doing something else? I’m not sure what to make of this information, but it’s clearly supposed to be important. 

Alexander listens to his voicemail.

I rush back to Harker’s office to check on the dictaphone tubes. He’s not there, but his assistant lets us in to use the machine. On the tube, Seward interrogates Renfield as to why he attacked Professor van Helsing and whether he not he values his own life. Renfield immediately responds to that word, “Life? What do you know about life? The esteemed doctor knows nothing about life! There is life AFTER life, after life, after life, after life.” He goes on like that for a while. I doubt he’s talking about Christian reincarnation, but he seems to expect to be brought back. Maybe he didn’t really die in that fire after all? 

Eagle-eyed readers will observe that I made a mistake at this point: I was supposed to go to Anisette’s home immediately after the funeral to continue our morning meeting, but I focused on the dictaphone tubes and forgot.

In case you were wondering what one looked like.

Since I am nearly at the end of the game and out of time for unnecessary digressions, I’ll pause here to mention that in our world the Dictaphone wasn’t invented until 1907. Harker is clearly using one of these gadgets (pictured above) and I applaud the developers for nearly being historically accurate. Including an invention eight years too early is not nearly as big a logical leap as having telegrams deliver physical objects across Europe in minutes.

(Update: As commenter "zxcvb" points it, only the term "Dictaphone" was not around until 1907. The technology existed since 1888 or earlier. You can find a good summary on the history of the machine here.) 

I’ve heard of “naughts and crosses”, but that’s a bit crazy.

Looking for nearby places to check, I take a cab to the Saucy Jack. While drinking, we stumble on a napkin with a strange drawing left by a previous patron. It consists of a square with diagonal lines, like the way they draw cube blocks in The Legend of Zelda. Fifteen crosses are drawn inside in various locations, but a circle with some design. Could it be a ward or a spell? We ask the barmaid and she tells us that “your friend, Mr. Goldacre” left it. How does she know Goldacre? How would she know that I know him? What is a high-society guy like him doing in the same pub where the local laborers drink? Alexander says that the design makes “little to no sense” but he pockets it anyway.

At least he kept his head!

Having completely forgotten the afternoon meeting, I wander aimlessly and check more locations but find no events. I finally find something new at the bookstore: Alexander spies Horner emerging from his secret passage… and rushes in to attack. They both tussle for a moment before crashing behind a desk, striking both of their heads. Some time later, Alexander wakes up next to a bloodied Mr. Horner. He’s dead. Even worse, it’s hours later. Alexander writes sourly in his journal that at least we know Horner isn’t a vampire, but it’s clear that being a murderer doesn’t sit well with him. 

We don’t need to live with that feeling very long. No sooner do we emerge from the bookstore that Juliet spies us. She’s already risen from her grave! I don’t think the garlic on her tomb helped much. She sings her song at Alexander as he stares agape, either too shocked or too powerless to move. She asks what we are doing out in the streets alone. “If you were mine, you’d never be all alone”. She moves in for the kill. 

Admit it, you like Goth girls.

I bet Goldacre does.

The Second Attempt

After putting the game aside for a few days, I resume from the fourth morning. This time, I resolve to try a different path to see what I missed. It is very easy to miss an event or a clue because all of the scenes are time-sensitive. 

Immediately after picking up the daily paper, I go to the Hades Club instead. There, I discover Goldacre in a panic. He implores Alexander that we cannot wait for the funeral: we must bury Juliet immediately. This reinforces my theory that we are rushing Juliet’s funeral and my idea that you must bury a vampire victim immediately may not be off the mark. He reminds us that her funeral is at noon, but that is “too late”. Alexander doesn’t listen and Goldacre runs off screaming, “Not even the demons of Hell will stand in my way!” I hope he remembers to buy a shovel on the way. I check the cemetery immediately after but just get the stock scene. If I am to help bury Juliet early, I am either too early or missing something. 

The power of the cross compels you!

I half-remember that I am supposed to go to the meeting at Harker’s office, but I go to Harker’s home instead. Mina is there and delivers a present: the consecrated cross promised by Reverend Jenkins. I spent more time than I should googling and I believe this is a “Saint Olga’s Cross”, a style that would have been more common in the Eastern Orthodox traditions of Eastern Europe. If you search for “Romanian crosses”, several similar ones show up. Good job, art department! Why the London-based and most-likely Anglican Reverend Jenkins would have such a cross is left as an exercise for the reader. This is not the cross he was wearing at Mr. Bowen’s funeral. 

At this point, I seem to be too late for the meeting but I try to carry on anyway. I pick up the mallet and stake at the asylum (despite not being told that it burned down), but when my telegrams arrive I do not get one from Dr. Seward and therefore don’t get the dictaphone tubes. 

The picture of innocence.

After a brief detour to see Briarcliffe’s grisly end, I take the cab to Holmwood’s home. Regina welcomes me inside and offers a cup of tea. Arthur is at a business meeting and she seems completely in the dark of all of the supernatural happenings. We ask her about the coachman’s funeral and she replies that the ceremony was touching. She takes comfort in the priest’s words, that there is “life after life”. My ears perk up immediately: this is the same phrasing that Renfield used! Since we don’t have the dictaphone tubes, Alexander is unaware of this connection. Maybe it’s just a common phrase, but it also may be a clue. Has she been compromised in some way? Is she falling under Dracula’s thrall? Is Holmwood sheltering her from the supernatural events causing her to not be on her guard?

I zip around to check more places for new scenes before realizing that I missed Juliet’s funeral! At this point, I decide that the day is shot but I might as well explore and see what else I can find. 

A nice scene fakeout, actually.

At the Salty Jack, we have a clever fakeout: when there is nothing at the bar, Alexander walks in, looks around like he cannot remember why he went in, and then leaves. We get nearly the identical scene, but as he leaves Rebecca, the barlady, grabs him. (I would have clicked off the video by now! I am lucky I didn’t miss it.) She explains that Arthur Holmwood left a note for us, in case we came by. It says that he’s found something “of urgent interest to the both of us” and asks that we meet at his place at 9:00 PM. 

That turns out to be more difficult than I expected. Although I do not commit the murder at the bookstore again, Juliet kills me before I can meet with him. I’m thinking that Arthur’s meeting may be what triggers Alexander to go into the cemetery with the bowie knife and finding a way to defeat Juliet is essential to meet with him. Still, I screwed up too many events on this attempt so I start over and try again.

They really needed Google Calendar back then, or even Outlook.

The Third Attempt

With two failures down, I resolve to learn from my mistakes. This time, I retrieve the cross from Mina, gossip with the newspaper salesman, and then meet Goldacre at the Hades Club. I hoped that having the cross with me would calm him somewhat, but there is no change and I still cannot help him dig an early grave for Juliet. I otherwise followed what I did before, except this time I didn't miss the meeting at Anisette’s home after the funeral. 

Unlike the morning meeting, Holmwood was able to attend. We arrive as the discussion is already in progress. Alexander is disgusted by Professor van Helsing’s suggestion: they must all go to the cemetery that night to stake Juliet in her tomb before she awakens. They also agree that they have no leads on Dracula. Jonathan laments that he has not followed any of the patterns from his previous adventure in London and he has been unable to track him at all. Seward confesses that he is too weak for the mission tonight: the attack at the asylum left him mentally and physically exhausted. Holmwood offers to stay with him; together they can keep Regina and Anisette safe. He believes that as Anisette has already been attacked once, Dracula is less likely to come for her again. (I vaguely think the original novel contradicts this. Didn’t Dracula go after Mina more than once?) Van Helsing says that the rest of us must meet at the cemetery later in the evening, “before dark”. 

A secret room? But how to get inside?

Continuing through the day, I retrieve the telegrams and find Briarcliffe dead. On my way back, I detour to the Hades Club and discover a new scene. As Alexander peruses the club’s well-stocked bookshelves, he hears speaking from a hidden room– it’s Goldacre and Horner! Horner admits to his friend that they are “trapped by their own hands” and they “never should have freed him”. They need to find a way to control the monster they released. Goldacre just laughs maniacally. Alexander does not find a way into the room and the scene ends. This confirms at least that Goldacre and Horner are the ones responsible for reviving Dracula. We don’t know how or why, but it suggests why Juliet may have been a target. 

Continuing the day, I end up at the Saucy Jack again. This time, I get Goldacre’s napkin again instead of Arthur’s message. I am not sure what triggers one versus the other and it may just be timing. I’ll have to come back. 

I see dead people!

I enter the cemetery promptly at 5:00 PM. Goldacre sits just outside of Juliet’s tomb, sobbing. She appears in the doorway behind him, floating ethereally down the hall while singing that same song she’s been singing the whole game.  We must “progress into a dark and silent place… with dreams miraculous”. It sounds like a hymn. Juliet comforts her beau, and asks him not to cry… but it’s all a ruse as she quickly lunges for his neck. She draws blood before Professor van Helsing appears and drives her off with a cross. She retreats into her crypt and levitates down into her coffin. I won’t claim these are “good” special effects, but for a game that usually only hints at the supernatural, there is a lot here! 

The team, van Helsing, Alexander, and Jonathan Harker, approach her coffin. Juliet awakens again and her eyes glow. She transforms into Mina and implores Jonathan to save her. She then appears as Anisette and pleads for Alexander to spare her. If she appears as someone in van Helsing’s life, we don’t see it. Alexander seems confused for a moment as van Helsing implores him to “do it now”, but before we do anything, Juliet rises and strangles him. Game over. 

Good thing I brought this with me!

Oof. I forgot to equip the stake in my inventory! I play that scene again and it goes just as before, but now Alexander seems less confused. When the time comes, he drives the stake into Juliet’s heart, ending her for good. 

Goldacre’s fate is unclear. He was bitten, but was that enough to turn him? He seems to be losing his mind, but he is still alive. I’d feel bad for him except he brought this on himself. 

Not this again!

With the nasty deed done, we return to Anisette’s place but when we arrive we find the worst possible outcome: Seward and Holmwood are sprawled out asleep on the chairs outside of Anisette’s room. If I were Alexander, I’d feel less bad about now, but we all rush into the bedroom. Anisette has been attacked again. Professor van Helsing asks us all to leave the room as he wants to try to hypnotize her to learn what he can about Dracula’s plan. (He suggests that he did this to Mina in the novel, but I do not recall for sure.) Holmwood says that doing that will tip Dracula off to our plan, but van Helsing doesn’t care. “What plan? We have no plan!” I replay this scene a few times while holding different items, but nothing changes the result.

Alexander was offended by tea with Regina, but Mina he’s fine with?

While we wait, I stop by Jonathan’s home to speak to Mina. They share tea as Mina explains that she can still feel Dracula’s presence in her mind. Even after ten years, she still feels her connection to the count but it is “as if through a fog”. Alexander asks for help and she considers, offering only that he is “different than before but familiar” and “close to us… very close”. That’s not scary at all. 

I don’t have too much time to ponder it because I’m killed a short time later while wandering the streets looking for something to do. This time, Dracula comes in the form of a wolf. 

Good doggy?

The Fourth Attempt

Let’s go again! The previous passes, I was lax with my notes and missed things. This time, I would work out a plan and try to see each and every scene from the previous attempts in one go. Given the large time penalty and Alexander’s negative note in his journal, I am going to skip killing Mr. Horner, but will do everything else. I’m calling this the “fourth” attempt, but I’m also letting myself do more save-and-restores to check locations while I go. My narrative will seem a bit cleaner than it really was, but you’ve already read (or skimmed through) 4,000 words. Let’s finish this together. Once I get back to the scene where Anisette is attacked a second time, I’ll revert to playing as usual. 

With a smidge of trial and error, here is my path:

• Start by meeting Goldacre at the Hades Club and listen to him talk about burying Juliet early. I still have not found any way to help him do that, but I’ll leave that plot thread dangling for now.
• At Harker’s Home, retrieve the cross from Mina. 
• On the way back, stop at the Newstand to get the daily paper. It doesn’t seem necessary, but I do it just in case.
• At Holmwood’s Home, talk with Regina about the funeral. Arthur is at a business meeting.
• And then finally make the morning meeting at Harker’s Office. I’m cutting the timing close, but it works. Strangely, we are still told that Arthur is at the funeral even though I already met with Regina after the coachman’s funeral was over. Is that a clue or a timing glitch?

That gets me to the morning meeting on time. The next major events are Juliet’s funeral and the post-funeral meeting, but I cannot do everything on my list before noon. Using the map carefully, I pick the tightest path I can:

• I go to the Saucy Jack immediately after the meeting to get the note from Arthur Holmwood asking us to meet him at 9:00 PM. We have a tight connection here because we have to come after the pub opens but before Goldacre arrives to scribble on his napkin.
• I return Home to collect the two telegrams and the dictaphone tubes. This would let me see Briarcliffe, but there’s not enough time. 
• Since it’s noon, I rush  to the Cemetery to attend Juliet’s funeral. 
• At this point, I should go immediately to Anisette’s flat for the post-funeral meeting, but we’re right next to the Asylum. I quickly stop by to collect the mallet and stake.
• Finally, I return to Anisette’s Home for the Juliet-staking meeting. 

After we leave the meeting, we have until 5:00 PM to squeeze in the remainder of the planned events before we have to stake her. Wait too long after dark and she’ll awaken and kill me. 

• We hit the University next to discover Dr. Briarcliffe’s body and the bloody note. 
• From there, I visit the Hades Club to overhear Goldacre and Horner discussing Dracula’s release and to practice maniacal laughter. 
• I grab a pint at the Saucy Jack to collect Goldacre’s mysterious napkin. Whatever he was discussing with Horner probably relates to the strange design. 
• At Harker’s Office, I listen to the dictaphone tubes. Our journal now calls out that we have heard this phrase (“Life after life”) recently. It must be significant that Regina and Renfield are both parroting it.
• I drink tea with Mina at Harker’s Home and she imparts her concerns about Dracula being close by. 
• And finally, I go to the Cemetery with the mallet to stake Juliet. Goldacre is injured.
• For our post-staking debrief, I rush over to Anisette’s Home to find Holmwood and Seward asleep and Anisette bitten for a second time. 

That’s it! That’s every event that I found so far.

We meet at last!

The next bit is more challenging than it should have been. I cannot find anything to do and I eventually get killed by the wolf, but that is only because I consistently forget the obvious answer. Professor van Helsing asked us to give him time to hypnotize Anisette. Instead of finding some other event elsewhere in the city, I only needed to wait around and return in an hour or so. Perhaps the game left some time there if I were less diligent about seeing every scene, or perhaps there is still a scene or two that I am missing. 

I arrive back at Anisette’s home to find Professor van Helsing under attack. It’s no wolf or “bloofer lady” this time, but Dracula himself. The man looks decayed somehow, more like a walking corpse than Bela Lugosi or Gary Oldman, but still pretty dapper in his tux. We are able to run him off together using a cross and a shotgun. He transforms into a wolf and flees out into the London streets. Jonathan Harker shows up and says that Mina will watch over Anisette but that the rest of us should rush over to his house for a strategy session. 

A standing statue of ash.

It’s after 9:00 PM now and while I should go straight over to Harker’s home, I have my invitation from Holmwood to consider. I stop by his place on the way. But why didn’t he tell me directly? Is this all a trap by Dracula?

The answer is… yes? Maybe? Alexander lets himself into Holmwood’s home and sees Regina from behind, except it isn’t her… exactly. He finds a statue of Regina made of dark ash. As he approaches, the statue tips and shatters into a million pieces across the floor. I don’t get it, but Alexander seems to. He writes in his journal that it looked like Regina has been dead for months, her body simply decayed in place. Dracula has been reanimating Regina’s body for months and using it as a macabre puppet. What about Arthur? Is he also dead? Would he not notice if his wife was acting odd? Does that mean that Dracula was also puppeting Renfield? (He did die in the novel.) I have so many questions.

A festive Christmas season!

At Harker’s home, van Helsing is being treated by Dr. Seward. His battle with Dracula almost killed him, even stopping his heart for a time. While we are talking, Mina appears… and everyone panics because she was supposed to be watching Anisette. She explains that Goldacre came and told her that Jonathan wanted her to come here. She left Anisette with Goldacre, not knowing that he’s not on the side of the angels. (If only we had better communication!) We rush back out of the house to see what Goldacre is up to, but as we do van Helsing tries to talk. “Holmwood! Holmwood is…” He cannot quite get it out.

Holmwood is what? Dead? We don’t know. Alexander writes in his journal that things are getting critical and we have very little time left to rescue Anisette and keep anyone else from being killed by Dracula. It is nice that even when rushing out the door to rescue his fiancée, Alexander stops to write in his journal.

The room has been tossed.

Back at Anisette’s home for the fourth or fifth time today, she is nowhere to be found. It looks like a struggle has taken place, but whether it was between her and Goldacre or earlier when Dracula was attacking is unclear. Alexander looks out the window at the London sky. 

Our journal states simply, “Anisette is gone. But where?”

I get it in one guess: the Hades Club.

Time to find that secret passage.

I’m sure that I am missing scenes or other locations because I’m zipping from place to place, but there is no time to waste. I return to the Hades Club where once again Alexander hears talking from behind the bookshelf, only this time it is Goldacre and a struggling (and gagged) Anisette. Alexander searches the shelf and discovers a hidden catch to open it. It works just like the secret door in Horner’s bookshop, a fact which may be more than a coincidence. 

Poor Anisette, attacked by Dracula twice in one day and now this.

Inside the secret room, Goldacre stands next to a bound and gagged Anisette. She is chained to the wall. He initially thinks that I am Dracula, but it’s still too early yet. (How Dracula would know about the secret door is left as an exercise for the reader.) He reveals that this is all an elaborate trap and Anisette is the bait. Dracula is still weak and he needs Anisette now in the same way that he needed Juliet. Goldacre has “baited the trap” and intends to show Dracula “who the true master is”. How he intends to do this is unclear. It seems that staking Juliet further weakened Dracula, but he’s already drunk from Anisette once since then. I’m not clear on why she makes particularly delicious bait compared to everyone else in the city.

Alexander is not letting his fiancée be used this way and attacks. He initially has the upper hand, but Goldacre knocks him over the head with a candelabra. Quincey’s bowie knife slips out of Alexander’s coat and clatters to the floor. Goldacre retrieves it, but hears a noise out in the main hall of the Hades Club before he can go in for the kill. He runs out of the room…

It’s Arthur Holmwood!

… only to stumble back into the room moments later with the knife in his back, courtesy of Arthur Holmwood. Anisette is relieved to see her friend, but Alexander has it figured out: that’s not Arthur, it’s Dracula! With that realization, Dracula transforms back into his undead-looking self. “I slew him and his wench months ago. Now no one can hear your screams, Alexander, as I flay the very flesh from your body. And you, my dear Anisette, with you by my side, I will be ready to reign again, ruling the night for all eternity.”

Anisette is looking worse for wear. (Perhaps a stunt double?)

 Alexander breaks out the special consecrated crucifix and holds it out… but it has no power over Dracula. “I am lord of the Nosferatu… Do you really believe this trinket can stand in between me and my bride?” As if to make his point, Dracula grabs and crushes the crucifix in his hand before reaching out to throttle Alexander. 

As he struggles, Alexander knocks over a piece of wood that was in front of the wall. Behind it is not one, but dozens of crosses of all shapes and sizes. Dracula recoils in the holy light and lets go. Perhaps realizing the meaning of Goldacre’s napkin sketch, Alexander races around the room to uncover the dozens and dozens of hidden crucifixes placed there by Goldacre and Horner. Although he seemed fine with a single cross, Dracula can only howl in pain, transfixed in the middle of the room.

Here’s some more!

Dracula pulls out his amulet of power, but seems helpless to use it. As he screams, the building begins to shake around us. Alexander grabs Anisette just in time to watch a wooden beam snap and impale itself into Dracula, a massive “stake through the heart”. 

Oh no! My amulet isn’t helping for some reason!

That has to hurt.

As the Hades Club crumbles, Alexander leads Anisette out. He kicks aside the amulet of power as he goes. We see it come to rest just beside a very dead Goldacre. Dracula may be defeated, but there’s a hook here for a potential sequel! Alas, we know now that no sequel was ever made. 

Dracula was reduced to a skeleton after being staked.

Goldacre eyeing a sequel.

Some number of days later, our band of adventurers emerge from the Holmwood family crypt, apparently after a funeral for Arthur and Regina. Professor van Helsing is glad that they have all escaped their adventure alive: Alexander, Anisette, Jonathan, Mina, Dr. Seward, and himself. (Although not mentioned or present, presumably Horner also survived.) Dracula is defeated forever!

The end.

The gang emerges victorious.

There were also a full set of movie-like credits. I added them all to Mobygames, but they have not been approved yet.

Time played: 3 hr 05 min
Total time: 19 hr 25 min

We’re finally done with Dracula Unleashed! There was a lot of story packed in a small package and was more difficult to document than I expected. Overall, I had a lot of fun with it… but I’m going to resist saying more until I’ve had a chance to digest and work on the final rating. I did confirm with the hint book that this is the “best” ending (of several that I could have seen) and I am pleased that I won’t need to do it all again to see it. 

Our next post will be three things: an overview of the scenes that I missed including the other endings, what cut scenes and material that we know about, and the PISSED rating. After that, maybe I can finally start Plundered Hearts! See you soon.