Questioning Melusine and Answering Machine

Requirement: complete World Quest A Fontainian Message

List of Acts[]

1. Act I - Vagrants and Scamps
2. Act II - The Red and the Black
3. Act III - Questions and Answers

Summary[]

Act I - Vagrants and Scamps[]

The Traveler and Paimon settle an argument between the Melusine Talochard of the Marechaussee Phantom and the editor Jenck outside the office of The Steambird. It turns out that the steambird Sir Arthur has gone missing and Talochard has come to help out with the case on her own accord. The Editor-in-Chief Euphrasie arrives with Agent Curve, a Suppression Specialist Mek created by the scientist Mosso Lombroso which belongs to the Marechaussee Phantom and which Talochard has been using for special investigations. The Traveler and Paimon decide to help Talochard and Curve solve the case.

After the investigation begins, the Traveler's group identifies four suspects from the clues left behind at the crime scene, with the most reliable lead being a man named Rocher. The group goes to Rocher's home, where they defeat the debt collectors "Intrepid Valberry" and his gang and find Rocher hiding in a crate. Although Rocher denies ever being near Sir Arthur, his dog Lombroso identifies him as the person who left a used wine bottle the day before at the crime scene. Rocher finally admits that he had been drunk that night and had fallen asleep near the entrance of The Steambird's office with Sir Arthur in sight. However, when he woke up, he saw a small figure running away from the scene, and Sir Arthur had gone missing.

The group then follows the lead to a troublesome boy named Kevin, whose behavior is attributed to his father's absence. Kevin's mother, Madeleine, tells them that she saw Kevin carrying a knife after returning from The Steambird's office, which matches a knife found at the pedestal of Sir Arthur. After being confronted, Kevin admits that he had been to the Steambird early that morning, but Sir Arthur was already missing. He was then approached by a drunken man (Rocher) and panicked, taking the knife from the pedestal to wave Rocher off before running away. The knife's origins can be traced back to the Elegant Tableware Confrerie, a group of con artists and the same people who were collecting debt from Rocher earlier. The Traveler and Paimon prepare to assist Talochard and Curve on their investigations the next day.

Act II - The Red and the Black[]

After having breakfast with Talochard and Curve, the Traveler and Paimon continue their investigation into the disappearance of Sir Arthur. Following their current lead from the previous day, the group heads to the base of the Elegant Tableware Confrerie. They eventually catch the con artists by giving them Talochard's "unique" Poissonchant Pie. However, a fight breaks out between the "Boss" and "Intrepid Valberry". After settling the fight, "Intrepid Valberry" reveals he had attempted to break into The Steambird's office the night of Sir Arthur's disappearance and wreak havoc as revenge for the paper's expose of the Elegant Tableware Confrerie. At the scene, he saw a drunkard that acted like Rocher and discovered that Sir Arthur was missing. Unable to kidnap Sir Arthur himself, he left a knife behind as a warning. "Intrepid Valberry" then went to the Fleuve Cendre to look for a locksmith to break into the office, but encountered a member of the Fatui who was looking to do the same thing.

The Traveler, Paimon, Talochard, and Curve head to Fleuve Cendre and find the Fatui officer Baulard, a peripheral intelligence officer who has been tasked to find Mosso Lombroso's research base. Knowing that The Steambird had information about Mosso he needed, Baulard provided Fatui intelligence of the Elegant Tableware Conferie's crimes to Jenck, who ran the story in the Steambird. However, Jenck refused to pay Baulard for the favor with more information about Mosso, so Baulard had been attempting to sneak inside The Steambird's office to get additional information the night of the break-in. However, when Baulard arrived at the paper's office that night, he noticed that Sir Arthur was missing. Near Sir Arthur's pedestal was an envelope containing a threatening letter, signed by an unnamed person known as "Crow or Blackbird?"—it claimed that its writer had kidnapped Sir Arthur, and demanded that the Steambird exonerate Dr. Mosso of his crimes. Baulard had taken the letter with him, so no one had been aware of the threats until now. Talochard, who has been pinning the blame on herself for failing to identify a suspect so far, suddenly wants to give up on the investigation and offers to take the Traveler and Paimon to Hotel Debord for dinner.

After dinner, the group reaches a breakthrough and decides to play out the scene of the crime based on which suspect came first. Rocher, who had been drinking that night and fell asleep near The Steambird's office had come first, followed by Baulard, who then discovered the threatening letter and that Sir Arthur was missing. Baulard then took the letter, so no one at The Steambird was aware that Sir Arthur's disappearance had to do with the Mosso case. "Intrepid Valberry" came next and placed the knife at the Steambird's pedestal as a warning to the paper after their expose on the Elegant Tableware Confrerie. Kevin arrived last and accidentally woke Rocher up; in a panic, he took the knife "Intrepid Valberry" had left as a threat to defend himself. Rocher watched Kevin run away and discovered that Sir Arthur was missing.

It turns out that the charges against Mosso Lombroso for falsifying evidence thirty years ago were tied to the present case of the missing Sir Arthur. Thirty years ago, The Steambird had published a story which claimed that Mosso had falsified evidence to prove the correctness of his lie detector technology. This had led to Mosso's downfall, as he was soon arrested and died in a duel rather than stand trial. The group plans to contact Euphrasie for information the next day.

Act III - Questions and Answers[]

The next day, The Steambird receives a second threatening letter from the same anonymous author "Crow of Blackbird?", which says that Sir Arthur has been dismembered. The letter also provides the three locations of Sir Arthur's parts, and claims that those parts would also be buried with the treasure hidden in Mosso Lombroso's base. Euphrasie guesses that the person behind the threat letter is Mosso Lombroso's granddaughter, Melo Lombrsoso. While Euphrasie contacts Melo, the Traveler and Paimon split up with Talochard and Curve to go to the locations marked by the letter.

The first location is near Kevin's house, where they find a dog named Baulande who looks exactly like Rocher's dog Lombroso. Kevin, who has turned over a new leaf, assists them in finding Sir Arthur's wing with Baulande's help. At the second location, the group finds "Intrepid Valberry" fighting "Boss" again over the treasure, with Rocher begging them both to let him have the Sir Arthur part in the chest. Everyone eventually agrees to let the Traveler take Sir Arthur's body. Rocher discovers that the dog he had befriended and had been calling Lombroso actually belonged to Kevin.

At the final location, the Traveler, Paimon, Kevin, and Rocher find Talochard, Curve and Madeleine fighting the Fatui. After the Traveler helps to defeat them, it is revealed that both Kevin's mother Madeleine and his father are members of the Fatui. Kevin's father is actually Baulard, whose real name is Baulande and who works for one of the Eleven Fatui Harbingers and has Sir Arthur's head in his possession. The group convinces Baulande to hand over the head, and he leaves with the rest of his family to escape the Fatui. Rocher then reveals himself to be Melo Lombroso's husband, and vehemently denies that Melo is behind the threats. The Traveler, Paimon, Curve, and Talochard go back to The Steambird's office to report to Euphrasie.

At the office, the group finally meet Mosso Lombroso's granddaughter, Melo Lombroso, but she has an alibi proving that she cannot be the true culprit behind the threatening letters. Euphrasie questions Melo about the location of Mosso's base, but Melo denies knowing anything about it. She also reveals that the sensationalized articles about Mosso from thirty years ago were actually submitted by Mosso himself; the Steambird had published the articles at Mosso's behest. After Fontainians began rioting over the prospect of lie detector technology being developed in Fontaine, Mosso sacrificed himself to divert all the negative attention to himself and save Curve, who he saw as the culmination of his research. After Mosso was "exposed" for falsifying research and died against a duelist, Curve was taken in as evidence by the Marechausee Phantom and sat in storage for thirty years until Talochard rediscovered him.

The Traveler then takes out one of the clues they had found throughout their investigation: a locket with a photo of Melo as a child inside, which Rocher had traded away earlier for cash. Upon shining the photo under the sunlight, the map to the research base appears.

The Traveler, Paimon, Talochard, and Curve follow the map to Mosso's underwater research base, where they find the letter by Mosso to the former Editor-in-Chief, which reveals the truth behind the incident thirty years ago. However, both Jenck and the Fatui arrive at the base and interrupt the group. Jenck reveals himself as the mastermind behind the missing Sir Arthur case, having allied with the Fatui to displace Euphraise as editor-in-chief of the Steambird and take her place. Jenck then activates the research base's self-destruction system.

Curve, who claims to be able to turn off the self-destruction system, advises the Traveler to remove his core and place it in the control panel. However, upon placing the core and later moving to the emergency room, the doors close behind the Traveler, Paimon, and Talochard. The three of them flee the research base as it self-destructs behind them with Curve still inside and reach the surface. Curve had told his first lie—there had been no way to stop the self-destruction sequence, and his core could only make the doors to the emergency room open. He had knowingly sacrificed himself to save them. Talochard becomes anguished and seeks revenge on Jenck, but the three are unable to find him.

A few days after their escape from the research base, the Traveler, Paimon, and Talochard are called in by Euphrasie regarding Jenck's fate. He had been left kneeling on the stage of the Opera Epiclese, and had apparently gone insane. His tongue had also been cut out, with a note placed in his mouth that said something to the effect of making amends to the Traveler, Paimon, and Talochard for Jenck's actions. The Traveler then wonders if the Fatui Harbinger behind Jenck's capture and the apology note is "interested in machine intelligence".

After the case has closed, Euphrasie adds a special memento commending Talochard in the newly rebuilt Sir Arthur's voice library—an audio recording of Curve telling Euphrasie that according to his analysis, Talochard would be the best agent in the Marechaussee Phantom. The Traveler and Paimon conclude that Curve had achieved sentience long before he sacrificed himself for them, and that it was only due to Talochard's handling of him that Dr. Mosso's dream was fulfilled.

Characters[]

15 Characters appear in this Chapter:

• "Curve"
• "Intrepid Valberry"
• Baulande
• Baulande! Lombroso!
• Boss
• Euphrasie
• Jenck
• Kevin
• Madeleine
• Melo Lombroso
• Paimon
• Rocher
• Sir Arthur
• Talochard
• Traveler

Total Rewards[]

950 Adventure EXP

120 Primogem

90,000 Mora

9 Hero's Wit

6 Mystic Enhance­ment Ore

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