A chain of deals

Note: From this part on, I'll be resizing images so that I can upload them and view the pages faster. If you find the lower quality images distracting, drop a comment and I'll see what I can do.

As our heroes make their way back to the marketplace to see Hans, they spent a few seconds watching two civilians beating the snot out of each other, then walk away as if nothing's happened.

Blacky doesn't have anything to say. How about "Sorry I wasted your time and almost screwed up your mission."?

Hans is still patiently waiting near Martha's shop.

It turns out that Hans doesn't know anything about the shuttle, but he knows a guy who might have a clue, his future son-in-law.

Here's our tour guide, Mammoth. This guy doesn't look that big, does he?

Hans: Mammoth!!! Come here.
Mammoth: Mammoth. Came.
Hans: Bring our friends to Pampasovo and come straight back. Understood?
Mammoth: Mammoth. Understood.
Mammoth: You. Go. Follow Mammoth.

Our tour begins at Pampasovo, the lumberjack village.

Mammoth says his goodbye.

Boar: Boar. Thank. Mammoth. Be. Careful.

Here's Andre, who's supposed to be Martha's fiance. I didn't take a screenshot of it, but if I select the flirting dialogue with Martha, she will warn Boar that she's engaged to an "important man". This guy doesn't look that important to me.

He agrees to let us know about the shuttle. With a condition, of course.

In the original version, the drug is referred to as Roly-Poly (as in the toy that always stands upright no matter how you push it over).

This one.

Why it get changed to Niagara and what's the implication here is anyone's guess.

Anyway, a new location is unlocked: Academician's house.

The house is surrounded by two dozen creatures, consisting of Porcupines and giant Slugs. Not sure how this Academician guy can live here.

Boar gets critically hit by a Slug and falls over.

He suffers a critical injury and a poison effect from the Slug. Nothing a good sleep can't solve.

Here's a close up of a Slug just before it gets a bullet in the head.

All done, let's meet our resident pharmacist.

Kruger: I hope those things we just killed aren't his pets. That's gonna be awkward.

Boar: Man, Is this guy Hunchback's twin or something? Better keep my mouth shut about his brother.

It turns out that an important ingredient for Roly-Poly is the venom of battle ostriches, which he doesn't have any. So it's up to our heroes to find some.

Our heroes get another lead, Jindu (Zintu) village.

Note: The backstory involving Jindu, Mombasa, Biao-Ji and ostrich hunting was covered in the Backstory Part 2 post.

This is the house of Biao-Ji's, the great ostrich hunter. It's the second nicest house in the village.

He's not inside (duh), instead, Boar is greeted by his apprenticeYu-Yu.

As our luck would have it, the decoy ostrich has just been stolen...

Aaaand... we got yet another lead at Mombasa village

Here we come, Mombasa village.

There's a few dude dancing by the fire...

... some cages

... huts

... more huts

... and we meet Legba Junior, the village's new shaman, in the biggest hut. How does Yu-Yu know this guy is connected to the missing stuffed ostrich?

Then comes a lengthy exposition, involving coma-inducing ostrich venom, an antidote that cause hyperactivity and aggression in healthy humans, voo-doo rituals, etc.

Long story short, the shaman will give back the ostrich if we bring him two syringes of antidote.

So, to sum things up:
- Andre trades info about the shuttle for some Niagara.
- The Academician makes Niagara for free, if Boar can get him Ostrich poison.
- Yu-Yu needs the stuffed ostrich to lure the real ostriches and get their poison.
- Legba Jr. will give back the stuffed ostrich that he stole in exchange for two doses of poison ostrich antidote, a.k.a "Alarm Clock."
- And we'll have to go to Stoneguard and do who knows what to get our hands on those "Alarm Clocks."

Let's get to Stoneguard first. Now we've unlocked most of the major locations on Sailor's Silence.

Stoneguard

Or is it?
Our heroes arrive at the west outskirt of the town.

Back when Boar found him (in part 6), Sullen mentioned that Demon was captured and taken here.

Sullen: The fortress I told you about is west of here. That's where Demon must be.
Boar: We cannot go further without Demon.

Then they notice that in front of them, a Legionary is strung on some thorny tree.

This is Boar, being the considerate guy as always.

Bad choice of words, Boar, bad!

Legionary: Don't go there... The fortress is under siege...
Legionary: Local citizen, all enraged!
Legionary: Put me down, my friend, I want to die like a warrior.

Boar: Sorry, buddy, it's gonna hurt even more. Bear it as well as you can and don't scream.
And he cuts down the poor guy, who apparently gets impaled on the tree's thorny root.

Legionary: Long live the Legion! {draws his last breath}
(Our three heroes cover their nads and wince)

No time to mourn, guys.

The battle was over quickly. The locals with knives and sledge hammers are no match for three space commando cadets.

This guy have a rocket on him. Where's the rocket launcher?

The (rather) big fight

Our heroes are standing at the Western district. It's not possible to travel to any other area at this moment. This means we have a problem. A big one.

Without warning, Boar, Sullen and Kruger gets attacked by the locals. Every few minutes, a locked door opens, about half a dozen rush out and make way to our heroes.

Again, staying indoors is our tactic of choice. Bizarrely enough, it's possible to rest (as in, sleep to recover health for free) between waves.

To spice things up, I order the guys to rush outside and stay behind a large building. They get overwhelmed really quickly.

Then Kruger gets hit by a grenade and dies.

Boar and Sullen follow Kruger shortly after. Gotta reload now.

This time we'll just stay in the houses.

Then the bodies start piling up.

We move to another house, to avoid the bodies stacking on top of each other.

My biggest worry, though, is that Boar will level up, and Demon will lose a few skill points.

As our heroes run inside the large house at the southern edge of the area to take cover, a grenade hits and kills Kruger again.

Boar and Sullen make their stand upstairs. Next to them, the occupants (we later learn that they are Capulians) calmly chat with each other.

After the finally enemy is wiped out, our heroes take a moment to catch their breath. Also seen in the picture is the start of a Romeo and Juliet parody that, like the original, won't end well.

Kruger: So what was that all about? Why did those guys go crazy and attack us?
Sullen: (shrugs)
Boar: (shrugs)
Me: Gotta Google-translate the original Russian dialogue, see if there's any clue.

Stoneguard

(For real this time)

This is the "actual" Stoneguard fortress. All the surrounding areas are set up later by dealers and traders from various ethnicities, mostly Asian and African.

That's one big door.

These guys would parade all day and night. Talk about discipline.

By the way, this is what Josheph's Notebook looks like.

Boar presents his free pass into town.

They even get an escort, Zopuh!

This big, fancy house is the Aryan, er... I mean Legion office building.

That's right, folks. They just bring any stranger straight to one of their top ranking officer, no background check needed. Boar doesn't even have to put his weapon outside.