Now that we know what our objective actually is, it’s time we got ourselves a puppet.
To do that, we first have to possess Quella again.
Most of the other characters who are capable of talking to Alton will have the first dialog option unlocked. Only Quella’s special ability can unlock the second one. There is one thing I do want to talk briefly about here, and that is the writing. We could have attempted to fully possess Alton without ever going into the Captain’s room - in fact, it’s doable as soon as Quella is unlocked. This is something I want you to keep in mind, as there’s a potential sequence break that occurs here pretty soon.
: “I don’t know… I just…”
: “I’m such an idiot. I should have seen this coming.”
: “Yeah… sort of.”
: “That obvious, huh?”
“That my mind is too fast for eyes. You’re done in… but now , time to send you your last surprise…”
Wait, wrong game. Should’ve seen that coming!
: “I really liked her. I just wanted to help her out, you know…”
: “And she just used me! That’s the only reason she kept me around in the first place!”
These options all pan out to the same thing, so I just picked one.
: “Yeah there was.”
: “This always happens. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
: “Why else would she have spent time with me? Nobody actually likes being around me.”
: “Well… well yeah, I guess.”
: “But it’s really my fault. I should have known.”
: “I’m just this stupid guy that’ll do what she asks and can be tricked…”
: “I guess I could try… what’s the worst that could happen?”
I’m not entirely sure why Alton flashes green here, because we still haven’t actually unlocked the ability to take total control of him. It might be a hint as to what we’re supposed to do next: namely, possess him and have him go talk to Xu. Just a note, for conversations that do not actually have branching dialogue, I’m going to just stick to dialogue portraits rather than cutting out the individual selection boxes.
: “…Okay… let’s talk.”
: “Why? Why would you steal from me?”
: “I’m really sorry… really, really sorry.”
: “I didn’t mean to…uh… y’know.”
: “It’s kinda hard for me to talk about.”
: “What were you planning to do with that stuff? Sell it?”
: “…Yeah. Look, I…I really need the money. Really badly.”
: “And that makes it okay, or something?”
: “Well, not everyone has it off as well as you do, Alton.”
: “You’re here because you wanted to take a long vacation. But others are here because it’s the only way they’ll stay fed.”
: “If I didn’t have this job, I’d be screwed. Same with Marc.”
: “And they know that, so they pay us shit for honest work.”
: “Meanwhile, you get to sit around all day doing nothing, and for way higher pay.”
: “What if I told you there’s a whole world of people living under you?”
: “That you are so privileged over, you aren’t even aware of them?”
: “I… I didn’t realize things were so bad.”
: “Well… they are. I’m stuck here, you know?”
: “You can leave here, get a real job, move on with your life. But not me.”
: “I’m going to spend the rest of my life in this awful place. I just know it.”
: “Look… I’m sorry about what I did. I just want you to know it wasn’t personal.”
Finally, we need to bring Alton to Quella, then possess Quella and talk to Alton again.
: “You seem… even worse off than before. What’s wrong?”
: “I had a talk with Xu. It turns out she hates my guts, and always has.”
I’m just gonna go out on a limb and say it, Alton is an asshole.
: “Maybe the two of you just aren’t a good fit. It happens.”
: “Maybe you’re right.”
: “She was always so nice to me. Just really sweet and friendly. But that was a complete front.”
: “We were never on an equal level. She sees me as more privileged than her, or whatever.”
: “I never should’ve taken this job.”
: “What do you mean?”
: “I thought on this ship, I could travel. Meet lots of people. It’d be great.”
: “But instead, everyone sees me like some kind of useless parasite.”
Well I mean, you ARE a DJ… on a ferry.
: “I have the easiest job here. I’m an abject failure at it, and nobody likes me.”
Christ Alton, what are you, five? Quella, punch him. God dammit I don’t have total control so I can’t make you punch him.
: “This whole thing was a mistake. I should be back home. I was stupid to leave.”
And now we’ve got our puppet. Who knew that the key to Alton’s personality is that he’s whiny and kind of an asshole? Unfortunately, he runs off before we get a chance to dangle his chains.
By holding the possession button, the ghost charges up to a purple color, allowing her to take total control over anyone with that ability unlocked.
When fully possessed, each character’s dialog changes to be exactly the same - and this is where the game design kinda breaks a little bit. We need Alton puppeted to be able to make progress… but it’s possible to do this without looking in the captain’s room and finding out the ghost’s real identity. This happened to me on my first playthrough, and while I had my suspicions, the whole thing seemed like a giant sequence break.
Now, at this point, the logical thing to do would be to go to Ferdinand as Alton and tell him that the Captain is missing. We know from Xu’s examination of his pockets that he has keys to the entire ship, so he’s the one person who could confirm it. However, even if we do this, he won’t do anything about it. I feel like the writer dropped the ball there.
Instead, we need to possess Gwen and have her talk to Ferdinand.
: “I, um, heard you over the intercom.”
: “As the first mate of this ship, I must attend to any and all concerns of my passengers!”
: “Is there anything that concerns you?”
: “I think I’m being followed.”
: “Goodness! On this ship? What makes you say so?”
: “It’s hard to explain. But I can tell. I can sense it - him, watching me.”
: “I know how that sounds, but you have to believe me.”
: “Please, miss, be at ease. I understand.”
: “Some people, such as yourself, simply have a highly attuned… intuition.”
Again, I’m pretty sure Gwen was originally written to be psychic.
: “Our instincts often see danger before our eyes do. As a sailor, it is vital that I trust my instincts.”
: “To be honest, I have felt a dark presence on this ship. But I have kept quiet, to avoid alarming others.”
: “What do you mean, dark presence?”
: “I suspect that the passenger Donovan - if that is his real name - is up to no good.”
: “Yes, I sense in him a great ill will.”
: “It is as if he is on this ship in pursuit of someone.”
: “What are you going to do?”
: “I’m not sure. If only I could learn more, maybe I could do something…”
Okay so as an aside here, the first mate of a ship usually has full access to almost everything. If Ferdinand really wanted to, I’m sure he could just go ahead and look in Donovan’s room.
: “If he could be lured out of his room, there’d be an opportunity to go inside and look around.”
: “But my advice to you is to stay away from him. He could be very dangerous.”
: “And stay away from his room, B201. You know, the one downstairs, up and to the left.”
If I didn’t know better, I’d think Ferdinand knows about Gwen’s axe… and her knife.
This is why we needed to puppet Alton - right now, he’s the only one capable of luring Donovan out.
This gets Donovan out of his room, but the door is still locked… as is the door to Gwen’s room to everyone who isn’t Gwen herself.
This is where Sunshine comes in handy. Gwen’s room is locked, but the room directly next to hers is empty.
It also links up to the same air vent that Donovan and Gwen’s rooms do.
Fortunately, the door can be unlocked from the inside, allowing Gwen an easy way in. I’ve GMed enough Pathfinder to know never to question a player who asks if his animal companion can unlock a door… or climb a ladder… or in one case, pilot an airship. I have weird players.
It’s entirely possible that Donovan has video footage of the captain’s murder, given the amount of spy hardware he has. Unfortunately, his laptop is locked down.
Finally, there’s the mystery key on his dresser.
Once we’ve examined those three things (the spy hardware, the laptop, and the key), we can go back to Ferdinand.
: “Ah yes, Donovan. Please tell me you have stayed clear of him.”
: “Actually, I, um… took a quick peek in his room.”
: “Young miss! I expressly warned you that it was much too dangerous!”
: “And yet you still went, putting yourself in direct danger!”
: “…What did you find?”
Strangely, Ferdinand doesn’t seem to care much about the first two options, but when we mention the key to him…
: “An engraved golden rod? That must be the…”
: “…Thank you for your aid, miss.”
: “I am now more sure than ever that this man is up to no good.”
: “Do you think he’s following me? What can we do?”
: “Well, to be honest, Gwen… I think it might be worse than that. Between you and me, the captain hasn’t been around recently. I haven’t been able to find her.”
: “I am beginning to fear the worst.”
: “But don’t worry - I have a plan that will sort this all out.”
: “In the meantime, please keep our little discovery between the two of us.”
: “Above all, do not trust anyone else on this ship, especially not Donovan. Can you do this?”
: “I don’t like this at all. Shouldn’t the others know about the captain?”
: “I want nothing more than to tell the others, and yet…”
: “I worry that there is someone behind the captain’s sudden absence.”
: “I need time to carry out an investigation. Until then, we must be discrete.”
So now we’ve unlocked Ferdinand. Ferdinand has two special abilities.
First, he’s the only character that will touch any of the panels on the bridge, or the ship’s wheel.
Second, he can make dumb announcements over the intercom. You would think this would be used somewhere, but I’m just gonna spoil something and say that no, it’s never useful.
Next update, we’ll advance to the next day… and get some more puppets. You can never have too many puppets.
Ferdinand’s Steam trading card.