I knew this battle could not last much longer… the Inquisitor and General Blok’s army had gotten involved, and the disease was just as powerful as ever. The Haruspicus and Devotress both had their own ideas of how to bring down the epidemic—none of which made any logical sense. There was too much rivalry between all the power-players, and it was going to lead to our downfall.

Yesterday I was finally allowed into the Polyhedron by Victor Kain’s son. The epidemic had been unable to breach the walls of the Polyhedron, so I thought I could discover a solution to the disease inside. What I saw was a giant staircase, walls made out of paper, and the children... They explained to me that the Polyhedron was created from the dreams of its occupants—it was no place for my adult mind… I simply could not see “beyond the facets”.

I did realise that the Tower plays a key role in the epidemic, and I hope to unravel this mystery in the next three days… I woke up early, and before the day began, went to speak to Inquisitor Aglaja about recent events.

She has told the Haruspicus of our hypothesis—that the infection had originated from the earth deep below the town, and that something was strange about the town’s soil. He has gone back underground through the Abattoir to investigate.

And we discuss General Blok and his rivalry with Aglaja. She tells me that Blok considered himself to be betrayed. That he has realised—being sent to this godforsaken town by the Authorities—how expendable he is…

“Why, Dankovskiy... All of us were thrown into a fire to hope that we shall burn down in it and thus we shall extinguish the fire with our bodies. Here’s what is interesting to me—the declared intention to destroy the town—is this his personal initiative or the order of the Authorities?”

So Blok is conflicted. Even with orders to raze this town, he can be reasoned with, manipulated… by the side with a better argument. “Mass artillery fire or a single blow—both will end this circus.”

DAY 10



The death toll has risen

The Inquisitor's evening letter calls me back to discuss my findings on the Polyhedron.

At the Cathedral, Inquisitor Aglaja gives me 5000 coin for yesterday’s preliminary survey of the Polyhedron, but she needs a more comprehensive report. If I can get her the documents surrounding the construction of the Polyhedron, she’ll be able to validate my claims about the Tower to General Blok and the Authorities. This means, I’m to talk with the Tower’s architect, Petr Stamatin.


Petr Stamatin’s house



Petr lives in a two-story house at the north-east fringe of the town, aside the river. I’d met his brother Andrei at the steppe a few days ago, where he was looking for his lover Eve Yahn (the day she had committed suicide). When I reach the house, I find that it has been ransacked and occupied by soldiers. The walls are covered in schematics of the Polyhedron. Petr is nowhere to be found.

Speaking to one of the men, I hear that Petr has been accused of killing four military guards, and that he is now on the run. They demand I take them to him, or at least share my knowledge of his whereabouts. I tell them I will do no such thing… I don’t believe Petr had committed those murders. I make a quick exit.


Andrei’s crimes

I wanted to ask Petr’s brother, and I knew he usually hung out at the tavern. We make our introductions, even though I’d seen him before… and he tells me of his past.

“Andrei Stamatin, fugitive in four countries, at your service…! You won’t believe it, but they sentenced me to death for my creations!”

I had heard that the Stamatins’ designs were capable of driving a man insane—such as Petr Stamatin himself—so I asked if Andrei knew where his mad brother was.



The Stamatin family had built these ruins all over town, as part of their eternal obsession to overcome the force of gravity. Petr had felt compelled to revisit his creations once again. From what Andrei tells me, Petr was blocked by a group of soldiers who started abusing him—and Andrei stepped in and killed them all with his blade.


The mad architect



I find the ruin I was looking for… the entrance was blocked by flames, and so I jumped the fence. There was an Executor standing at the front—but it is here the game gets a bit strange.

The Executor had Petr’s avatar, and for all intents and purposes he is Petr Stamatin.



“At last I realised that the building was such a combination of planes, lines, rhythms and temperatures which can be an ideal repository for a certain soul. No, not a human soul—another one! Such soul with which a man cannot enter into a dialogue as this soul has no form, cycle, voice… I did not know this soul at that time—only felt that it exists, and I loved it in advance. When this passion achieved the maximum point of heat, I understood that I could not live like that anymore. I wanted to speak with it in its language, wanted to perceive it!”

“And then I gradually began to try. I started to design constructions not similar to the buildings: the chambers in which people could not live—everyone twisted a finger at a temple and said: ‘he is mad’, ‘he has no talent’… But I designed not for people—but for this wonderful soul… I constructed one project after another, but all of them were projects which contradicted the laws of terrestrial physics and geometry. Obviously, my beloved soul could not find a permanent shelter on this ground…”

“Then I was given this whole alive town—thirsting, striving up, aspiring the stars—the town which wanted a crown—and I gave this crown to it!”

He meant his brainchild, the Polyhedron.

“I have built it from prisms and mirrors! I managed to seize an especial focus with them. Yes, so! I am a magician! I have focused the aura of magic—as a lens focuses solar beams! And now this town perishes… and impregnates with poison my precious crown, my crystal bud…”

I ask what the Polyhedron is able to do.

“This cannot be explained by words. It was tested only by children. They will tell you that it enlivens their wishes, continues their games, dreams, carries them to another’s imaginations.”

“But the Kains will tell you much more! They will tell you, that the most precious substance can be kept in this vessel—the centre of the spirit… And even they do not understand what I created for them… I do not understand that myself. Such cannot be made again… I am dead.”

I think back to the events of Simon Kain’s death. He was the supposed immortal, and a mayor of this town. Before he died, I heard from his family that he retreated to the “Inner Chamber”—a place where no-one could enter. I think it might be linked to the Polyhedron, and it might not entirely be a “real” space.

Petr agrees to hand me the Polyhedron’s design documents, if I bring him five bottles of twyrine (an alcohol). He doesn’t want to drink anymore, he wants to set himself alight—he wants to die. I can’t convince him otherwise, and for now I just need to salvage those documents… I bring back the bottles from the tavern. When he hands me the papers, a new graphic appears.



I take the papers to Aglaja. She asks me what I know about Petr. Not much, I say.

“Has he even told you that you were similar? That you could appear on his place, and he—on yours? That ingenous people are constantly the victims of circumstance? I ask you to be exact. Your answer can resolve very much.”

Aglaja wants me to return tomorrow when she’s done studying these documents. Petr Stamatin thought he had channeled a magical power in his designs--but metaphysics aside, I know there must be a practical logic to things. Hopefully the Inquisitor and I should be able to decipher his insanity.

Today’s quest is completed, but it is barely noon. As I leave the Cathedral, I receive a letter from Catherina—the mad wife of Alexander Saburov, who was the town’s commandant through the early stages of the epidemic. The letter reads: “Horrible news. I cannot write, my palms shiver. He appeared again…”

What could this mean? I make my way to the Saburov house.

Summary of events
- Inquisitor Aglaja needs a more extensive report of the Polyhedron, regarding its immunity to the epidemic. I’m to retrieve the blueprints of the structure from the architect, Petr Stamatin.
- He has been framed for the murder of several army guards, and I found him wandering among his past creations—the “stairway to heaven” ruins. He wants to die… his impossible creations have been driving him insane.
- He speaks of designing these monstrosities to appease a soul (not a human one) which he had fallen in love with. He claims to have been able to erect his designs through magic. I take the designs back to Aglaja, hopefully we can figure his secrets out.
- Catherina Saburov has sends me a letter, with the words “he appeared again... I need you."