Ugh.
Apparently, a lot of people like this game. And apparently a lot of people don’t. I’m in the latter camp, and I haven’t actually met anyone else who doesn’t like this game, but surely there must be more of us out there. Come find me, my people! Because I think this game is just silly. It’s just too far-fetched, for me. Nancy Drew might get mixed up in international mysteries every now and then, but at heart, she’s a detective from a small town who runs around solving shit like missing clocks and ghost horses. The idea that her mom was a spy for the Scottish government, and that Nancy’s on the government’s radar, seems beyond the scope of Nancy’s character. The game itself is alright — the environments are beautiful and the puzzles are fun — but I just can’t get over the plot. I don’t like it at all.
The Nancy Drew books and the Nancy Drew games have always been very different animals, especially by the time this game had come out. The Nancy books have honestly never been that great — they’re a long-running series pumped out by a rotating door of ghostwriters, and like a lot of book franchises (The Baby-Sitters Club and Sweet Valley High come to mind), all the characters are mostly archetypes that each ghostwriter interprets a different way. Later books gloss over any serious issues that come up; earlier books were just flat out racist and classist. In the books, Nancy’s mom died in a car crash, and it pretty much never comes up except in Nancy’s introductory spiel and also whenever she uses it to awkwardly bond with a suspect. (Some things never change!) As someone who grew up reading the books and started playing the games later, I have an affinity for their sort of hokey, irresponsible attitude towards mystery-solving and character development, which probably colors how I view this game.
The Nancy games, on the other hand, had really started approaching and exploring darker themes in their stories at this point, mostly successfully. I imagine that if you were introduced to the games first, you were probably less put off by a more serious, worldly take on Nancy’s backstory. And really, this game is genuinely emotional in a lot of places, and handles the story that it chooses to tell very well. It’s just…not a story choice I can get behind.
Anyway, we open at Nancy’s desk. She’s received a letter from the MI5 in Glasgow, telling her that her mom’s (“Kate Drew”) death wasn’t an accident, and they want her help to investigate. You’d think this would be the one time Nancy consults with her dad before running off halfway around the world, but nope. See ya, Carson! Maybe we’ll tell you that we’re investigating your wife’s death after we land!
We’re equipped with a plane ticket, a hotel key, and a picture of Nancy’s mom. Hey, that hair color is not titian! I want my money back!
Nancy has a flashback to hearing herself on the phone — oh, no, wait, that’s supposed to be Kate Drew, except she’s also voiced by Lani Minella and they sound the exact same. You’ll recall that Kate is also who Nancy got her iconic titian hair from. So did Carson even contribute any DNA here, or did Kate clone herself?
Anyway, Nancy remembers that hearing her mom talk with someone named Moira once. Kate says that the line isn’t secure, and they can’t talk now. Hmm.
We cut to “Wyvern’s Gate Station.” Nancy muses that we’re here because this was where Kate was in the photo we have. Wait, Nancy’s entire logic was, “My mom had a photo taken of her here once, ergo it must have clues”? I don’t know if I can trust you anymore, Nancy. She then wonders what we do next. Now — on the one hand, the idea of Nancy being out of her element and being brought down to normal is kind of cool. The uncertainty in her voice is definitely very novel. On the other hand…this game chose such a weird, outlandish scenario with which to do it.
Aaaand within five seconds of landing, someone steals Nancy’s suitcase. Man, thief guy, Nancy’s mom is dead AND you stole her supply of horse shirts and mom jeans. Can you have a little sympathy? Anyway, this dude here tries to chase after the thief, but doesn’t catch him. He offers to track him down, and Nancy’s like, “That’s nice and all, but…you’re like just some rando I met in a train station.” The guy introduces himself as Alec, and says he’s a “skiptracer” — his job is tracking down people who go off the grid. He’s a particularly good finder! As we have Important Clues in the suitcase, we accept his help. He tells us to go check in, and he’ll find our suitcase. Thanks, Alec! Gosh, people in Scotland are so friendly.
We cut to the hotel. Wow, when was the last time Nancy was in a hotel room? (I’m not counting SAW, because that was a ~ryokan.) I forgot how you can explore all the little hotel room things, like getting up close with the electric sockets. We can look at the building across the hotel and down into the courtyard; there’s also a safe in the closet.
We get a phone call from our contact at the Scottish spy agency, which is called “Cathedral.” Our contact’s name is Ewan and he has a bad head cold. He tells us that there’s a case file in our room, and we’ll need to know all the information in it to stay alive. Not ominous at all! Then he’s like, “Cool, I have better things to do,” and hangs up on us.
We open up the case file, and literally the second sentence is, “You have been led here under false pretenses.” SPOOKY! Apparently the Scottish government never needed our help investigating our mom’s death, because fucking duh, why would they need the help of a teenage girl who was just a kid when her mom died and also would be way too close to the case to be helpful. Instead, Nancy has been lured here by a terrorist organization called Revenant. They tried to attack Scotland a long time ago, and Kate was part of the operation that stopped their attack. Cathedral believes that they’re out for REVENGE! Oooh, and now I get to use my “revenge!” tag for something that’s not a telenovela.
The letter tells us to make contact with a reporter named Moira Chisholm, who was suspected of being involved in the Revenant attack, but they never confirmed anything. OMG, could this be the same Moira that Kate was talking to in Nancy’s flashback?
The second page in the case file runs down who everyone involved is: Cathedral is an “outpost” of the MI5 in Glasgow; Revenant is a shady organization that’s responsible for lots of terrorist activity in “the past few decades”, they are also weirdly connected to a lot of counter-terrorist activity. Nobody knows what the organization wants. Their attack on Scotland involved a mysterious bioweapon, but Kate supposedly destroyed all the records of the formula. I bet she didn’t.
That’s it for the hotel room. We can try to call Carson, but he’s not there. Carson, we are out here dealing with terrorists and investigating your wife’s death. You could pick up the phone!
So we leave the room, and we immediately get jumped by this lady. She chirps at us that she’s Bridget, and she’s sooo excited to meet us. She has something very important to tell us, and she’ll be in the courtyard. Nancy’s like, “O…kay.” We already looked around our room, so we don’t have much else to do but follow her outside.
So Bridget has hauled us all the way down the stairs and outside to tell us…that she really loves Americans. “Some people say you’re ignorant, entitled slobs. But not me!” Thanks, Bridget. You can really tell that this game was made when Obama was president. Bridget chirps that she wants Nancy to teach her our cool American ways. Oh, Bridget. Nancy’s not wearing these mom jeans ironically, you know?
Bridget is Scottish, and she gets hella hype when we guess that she’s from Glasgow. She’s actually from Bumfucknowheresville, and she’s excited that we think she’s from the city. We ask if she can tell us about Scotland, and she’s like, “Ooh, I have a book!” and runs off to get it.
We take this opportunity to completely fucking ditch her, because I’m a bad person. We pick up a newspaper, and COINCIDENTALLY, this issue is running a story about the terrorist attack that we’re investigating. Handy! We can also check out a Robert Burns quote on a park bench, because Scotland, and there’s a cookie stand nearby that we can work at when we need money.
Let’s go to the train station and see if Alec has found our stuff. He hasn’t. What the fuck, Alec? Are you a boy detective or not? Anyway, he starts creeping on Nancy, asking why we came to Scotland alone. He’s all, “Surely you have a family! Or a BOYFRIEND!” Alec, are you asking if Nancy is single?
We ask if Alec knows anything about Revenant, and he’s like, “They’re not really a terrorist group. More of an obscurist group.” Nancy’s like, “So…what do you know about them?” and he’s like, “Nothing.” But you just said — “I know nothing, and neither do you,” he says. Oh. We’re doing that thing. I got it. I’m picking up what you’re putting down, Alec!
Anyway, since he’s so good at finding things — what? Nancy, we asked him to find our luggage and he hasn’t even left the train station — we task him with finding Moira, the reporter who knew Nancy’s mom. That sounds like it’s in his wheelhouse. “What’s a wheelhouse?” Alec asks. Nancy: “I think it’s in a boat. Or maybe it’s a baseball thing.” Alec: “Double useless.” Oh my God, this is the crack team that’s gonna take down a bunch of Scottish terrorists.
Alec leaves, and then we get a MYSTERIOUS PHONE CALL! There’s no caller ID, but they do have a little “R” picture for their name, so I’m gonna guess that this is some dudes from Revenant! What up, guys! Our Revenant caller is disguising their voice, but it sounds like a dude. Also, he’s surprisingly easy to understand, given that he SHOULD have a thick Scottish accent mixed in with the distortion. But he doesn’t. Is this a clue, or just the game forgetting where it’s set for half a minute?
They tell us get an envelope from one of the lockers in the station, and to take it to the Ten Raven pub in Giffnock. Then they play a recording of Kate Drew saying, “The Colony Operation has been terminated!” “Was that Mom?” Nancy gasps. Nancy, please don’t ask a bunch of terrorists to give you therapy.
We can fish the envelope right out without having to solve any puzzles, and take the train to Giffnock. The envelope contains a save the date for July 14th. Nancy’s journal is like, “A bunch of terrorists want me to drop this invitation off. Should I do it?” Not that you have a choice; dropping the envelope off is the only way for the game to progress. After we put the envelope in the mailbox, we get another creepy call from Revenant. “You deserve a reward,” they creep at us, and we get another recording of Kate. She’s saying, “I’ve left a trail. Card is for Cathedral, the rest is for back home. Figure it out!”
The Ten Raven pub is closed for a private event (probably closed for CRIME!), but we can check out the menu outside. Blah blah Scottish food blah. Nancy will pocket the menu when we’re done reading it, because it’s free and just asking to be stolen. Near the pub, we can also pick up a pair of cutters and a screwdriver. With that done, let’s go back to Glasgow.
We go back to talk to Alec here, who says that he found Moira. That was fast! But where the hell is our luggage, Alec? Maybe he’s not really a particularly good finder after all.
Before we set off, we can ask if he’s the one sending us messages. Alec is like, “No, Nancy, I’m not passing you notes. This isn’t seventh grade.” He cottons on that Nancy’s referring to something more sinister than “Do you have a boyfriend? Check yes or no” notes. “If anyone is threatening you, I need to know RIGHT NOW,” he says. Well, he definitely sounds like a random suspect who just happens to want to help us! Surely he doesn’t know who Nancy is and isn’t involved with this spy thing at all!
We ask if he’s really who he says he is, and he says no, in a roundabout kind of way. But we should be nice to him, since he saved our life and all. “Agreeing to find my suitcase was nice. I’d hardly call that saving my life,” Nancy says. Heh. That’s actually the exact joke I was going to make. These games have become so self-aware! Anyway, Alec says that he’s on our side, and that’s all that matters. He adds that if we want to know about him, then we need to be more forthcoming about who we are. What? Alec, you’re involved with at least one of the two organizations spying on Nancy. How do you not already know shit about her?
So we can make a deal with Alec that we’ll answer his questions about us, if he answers questions about himself. Except not really, because we get like two questions in before he shuts us down. We tell him that Kate Drew died here mysteriously, and we’re trying to figure out what happened. Then we ask if someone’s paying him to watch us, and he’s like, “Aaand that’s all the questions you get.” I should’ve known that this game was rigged, like all games in this series. (I’M NOT OVER LOSING SCOPA LIKE FIVE TIMES IN A ROW TO FUCKING ENRICO TAZZA.)
So our next move is to find that Moira lady. Alec tells us that she’s in Bearsden, so we can take a train over there. The train will leave us right in front of her house. That’s handy. I can’t believe the terrorists haven’t found her earlier when she’s right fucking there.
We knock on the door, and Moira’s all, “I hit you once, I’ll hit you again! Are ya looking for a smack?” She’s so feisty and Scottish, guys. She snarks that she’s not interested in visitors unless they’re bringing food — so if Nancy goes off and gets her some, she’ll talk to us. Wow, can you do that with visitors? I’ve just been letting people come into my house for free like a chump 🙁 Anyway, Moira snarks that Americans don’t know anything about Scottish food, so she gives us some “simple names”, in a fake American accent. Moira, it’s not my fault your people like to eat sheep innards.
So we have to go back to Glasgow, because I guess there isn’t a single restaurant in all of Bearsden. We go back to the train station and then back to the hotel.
When we arrive, our phone rings, and it’s Carson. He’s not happy at all: “You’re in SCOTLAND?” he barks at us. Well, yeah. You would know that, Carson, if you ever parented Nancy at all. What, did she just buy a plane ticket with his money and he didn’t notice? Anyway, he yells at us that we’re in a dangerous situation, and we need to come home right now. Nancy’s all, “Whatever, Dad! I do what I want!” Carson says he won’t help us, because if we get in any deeper, we’ll just get closer to whoever lured us to Scotland.
Still, he’s the only person we know who knows anything about this whole mess, so let’s ask him. He doesn’t like Moira at all, but backs down when Nancy mentions that Cathedral wants us to hang out with her.
We ask if he has any of Kate’s notes, and Carson tells us that he shredded them. “Remember when you picked the lock on the filing cabinet?” he asks. Nancy: “Which one?” Heh. Carson says that he knew Nancy was going digging for her mom’s notes, so he shredded them. Nancy’s all, “How could you?!” and Carson’s like, “SORRY, I didn’t realize you were going to try and get involved with a bunch of international spy organizations. MY BAD.”
Since we’re on the phone, let’s call Ned, too. He’s like, “Uh…so your dad wanted me to book a flight to Scotland.” Heh. Damn, Carson moves fast. But what exactly did you think Ned was going to do about this, Carson? He can’t even stop Nancy from cheating on him, much less take down a terrorist group. Nancy says that her dad thinks she’s in danger. “And he’s just NOW noticing this?” Ned asks. Ha! Carson is a shitty parent, but we knew that.
We can give Ned the rundown on our case, so let’s do that. We tell him about our bag being stolen, which means that we’ve lost Kate’s copy of “Jabberwocky.” Ned suggests that we just replace it, but Nancy tells him that Kate had marked it up in a strange way, and we’ve lost whatever clues were in her annotations. Apparently Carson had locked up the poem, and Nancy made a copy that we were carrying with us. “The original is still there?” Ned asks, and I was really sure that the game was going to have me ask Ned to steal it for us. Join us in our life of kleptomania, Ned! But we don’t.
Let’s stop by and say hi to Bridget. She gives us her book on Scotland, and asks if she can follow us around a whole lot and learn our American ways. Bridget, all you’re going to learn is how to ask insensitive questions and mispronounce foreign words. Nancy shuts her down. You’re not cool enough to hang with us, Bridget!
We can buy Moira’s lunch at the food stand near the hotel. If you need to translate her food descriptions back to Scottish, you can check the pub menu for descriptions of what all the food is. Moira wanted oatmeal parfait, turnip and potatoes, haddock, and fudge. So we want to buy cranachan, neeps and tatties, smokies, and tablet.
With that done, we go back to meet Moira. Nancy’s like, “I have your food, and by the way, Kate Drew was my mom.” Moira opens up the door all, “Dude, if you had just TOLD me that, I wouldn’t have made you go buy me lunch.”
We tell Moira that we’re here on vacation, and she calls us out: “Your mother would shrug a bit whenever she was lying. Now I see it’s genetic.” Heh. Nancy’s all shocked that Moira knew her mother. What? Nancy, you had that flashback when they were talking on the phone and everything. Whatever. Moira shows us a photo of Kate and baby Nancy, and Nancy’s like, “OMG, that’s me?” In fairness, it’s hard to tell, because you can’t see Nancy’s face, like in all photos of her. Moira regales us with stories about what a holy terror Nancy was as a kid, and we’re all having wacky reminiscings until someone knocks on the door. Moira freaks out that someone might’ve followed us. Nancy’s like, “I didn’t see anyone!” but at least three culprits have followed Nancy to the buried treasure that they were looking for, so maybe that doesn’t mean shit, Nancy.
We hide in a closet in the back hallway — if you pick the wrong place to hide, you get a game over — and Moira tells us to look under her teapot and in her safe for directions to a safe house. Then she opens the door and tries to be all snarky about how these dudes must be here to abduct her. They gag her and drag her off before she can get any zingers in.
Well, damn. This is some scary shit.
So we go look under the teapot, and see the numbers “164.” Then we can look around and steal some shit from Moira before we leave. There are wires in the wardrobe and a book on various clan tartans lying on her table. While we’re poking around, we get a text from Bridget, who has apparently sweet-talked the hotel into giving her our number. Now we can text each other all day! We’ll be besties! Bridget, please. We don’t have time to be sending each other memes right now.
Then we go back into the closet and look for the fuse breakers behind the clothes. We have to flip the breakers so that they add up to 164. Ugh. Math. Why does it always have to be math?
After the breakers are correctly flipped, the safe will open, revealing a key. Nancy will note that the safe house is in Loch Lomond. We also find a locked box, that we can’t open yet, and a file full of letters between Moira and Kate Drew. We through a bunch of them — the first is from Kate, saying that it wasn’t Moira’s fault that everything “went south”, but she’s probably not coming back. There are a couple of pages of diagrams that are probably clues, and then Kate starts getting curious about a pattern Cathedral’s seeing. She asks Moira to send her the numbers, and then the next thing you know, she’s all ready to be a spy again. In another letter, Kate is babbling on about how they were both reporters together. Apparently she asked for Moira’s help with something — probably some spy shit — and it sounds like Moira refused because she was still depressed over the death of Michael. Her husband? Kate’s like, “He’s dead, you’re not, so get back out there and start living again.” I see where Nancy gets her tact from! She then mentions selling used garden equipment, and asks if Moira thinks she got the numbers right. The fact that the next note is Kate pressing if Moira thinks the numbers are okay makes me think that she wasn’t actually talking about selling used garden equipment. The next note is Kate saying that the situation is bad, and then we get a drawing of a TV with the instructions, “Tune in to the Declaration of Arbroath.” HMMM.
So we set off for Loch Lomond. The game cuts to a flashback of Nancy on a walkie-talkie with Bess, who sounds weirdly Southern. I can’t tell if she’s meant to be joking, or if the game is trying to be cute about the fact that Bess’s first voice actress sounded like a forty-year-old woman from Arkansas. Anyway, Nancy’s parents are fighting — Kate wants to go to Scotland, and Carson’s yelling at her that it’s selfish for her to leave Nancy. Whatever, Carson! You were totally fine with ditching Nancy when she was in jail that time!
After the flashback ends, we arrive in Loch Lomond. It’s a really pretty location — I remember being impressed with the safe house design the first time I played this game. There are two buildings — to the left is the cabin where we’re saying, and to the right is a gym, where we can hone our spy skills.
So we can look at this table with information on the spy skillz we’ll need to learn, which apparently includes archery. The Hunger Games was big when this game first came out in 2013, and I remember everyone being really hype for the archery portion of the game. So we read up a bit on different bow types, and we can also check out a book on bagpipes. Because Scotland.
We also find bagpipes, because of course we do, but they’re missing a part.
Let’s do a bit of archery, for fun and also because we have to. Walking over to the archery practice section will set you up with a bow and arrow, and then you have to strike the target while it’s moving at various speeds and distances. The goal is to get the high score, and when you do, we get our very own bow and arrow.
Let’s go check out the safe house. When we get inside, it will just appear to be a normal cabin until we follow the instructions for the TV. Remember how Moira’s notes said to tune into the Declaration of Arbroath? So let’s break out Bridget’s book about Scotland, and find the Declaration. It took place in April 1320. So we put in 041320, and the cabin transforms in to a SPY ROOM. Hell yeah! I always wanted one of these ever since I saw Spy Kids when I was like, seven. I watched the shit out of that movie, until the VHS broke.
Turning on the spy room will trigger a call from Ewan. Remember him? The Cathedral guy? I know, I kind of forgot, too. A lot of shit’s been happening, Ewan! Anyway, he tells us that it’s time for us to meet with him, and there’s a key to Cathedral’s base in our safe. The password is our room number times the price of haggis outside the hotel.
After we hang up with him, Moira texts us telling us that she’s okay. So…what, they just kidnapped her for like half an hour? It’s unclear. She tells us that the situation is worse than she feared, and we should be careful if we’re staying.
We find another set of Kate’s notes on the computer. She’s worried about what Revenant is planning, and what exactly the Colony operation was. She was thinking that Revenant might have attempted a bloodless coup, and are trying to wage war via manipulation instead of violence. These notes are actually quite well-written — there’s a strong sense of feverish, disjointed speculation. Kate’s last note says that the “scientist and family” have to get on a plane, and then whoever’s reading this — Moira, I presume — should “play the pipes”, and read the letters from left to right. “Live or die, this is goodbye.” Spooky!
Ah, and now it’s time to ask Ned to do crime for us. So we call him and recap what we’ve learned so far — Kate didn’t really die in a car crash like everyone who read the Nancy Drew books thought. Nancy tells Ned that she feels guilty, and thinks she should’ve made her mom stay. Ned’s like, “You were like, five.” He then muses that this might really be too dangerous for us, and maybe we should come home. Nancy says, “Ned, there’s a reason I called you and not Frank Hardy.” Just kidding, she actually says “someone else,” but whatever, you totally thought it too. “It’s not the charm?” Ned asks. Nancy: “It’s never the charm.” Damn, Nancy! Anyway, she tells Ned that she knows that he’ll be willing to help her find THE TRUTH!, even if it means putting her in danger. Ned agrees, as long as she at least tries to stay alive. “Have I ever missed a date?” Nancy asks. Ned says, “Yes. All the time.” Heh. Someone’s still bitter about Germany.
We finally ask him to steal Kate’s Jabberwocky poem from Nancy’s house. Ned’s like, “Why can’t Bess and George do it?” and Nancy BSes that they’re out of town. Of course they are. And they didn’t invite Nancy? There’s an alternate universe where we’re in Utah solving the mystery of a ghost cat or something. That would probably be a better game. Anyway, Ned deadpans, “If your dad catches me, do you think he’ll still be my lawyer?” Heh.
Let’s also check out the fireplace. One of Kate’s letters to Moira had a drawing of this fireplace, so clearly it must be important. There’s a book about Mary, Queen of Scots lying nearby, and a note in the book says, “Fireplace – plastic.”
Kate’s note to Moira had each stone around the fireplace labeled with letters, so we want to click on the stones that spell out “plastic.” A safe rises out of the fireplace, but we don’t know the code for it yet.
So now we have to haul ass all the way back to Glasgow, because I guess we’re not in so much danger that we can’t just hop on the train and chill at our hotel. Bridget’s all mad that we we went off without her. She snaps at us that she didn’t know if we were out having a party or out being murdered. “Either way, it would’ve been nice to be invited.” Bridget, please be less thirsty. This is embarrassing. NED has more dignity than this.
We tell her that we went to a cabin, and she thinks we went there to hook up with Alec. WHAT? He’s like forty, Bridget. Nancy is suspicious about how Bridget knows Alec, especially since she doesn’t give us a direct answer when we ask. On the other hand, dude basically lives at the train station, so I’m assuming everyone who passes through Glasgow runs into him.
Before we go into the hotel, we get another call from Ned. He’s not nearly as much of a super-sleuth as Nancy, and he got busted breaking into their house. Did you learn nothing from Alibi in Ashes, Ned? Ned’s like, “In my defense –” Carson: “Shut up, Ned.” Heh. Ned speechifies about how he didn’t stop Nancy from rushing into danger because “[his] faith in her is stronger than [his] fear for her.” And just like that, the caption for a thousand Tumblr photosets was born.
Carson sighs and tells Ned to get the Jabberwocky poem.
So now Carson and Ned are both on our side. And when we go to the closet to look at the safe, we see that our luggage has been returned to us. Everything’s coming up Nancy! Thanks Alec!
On second thought, wait, no thanks. Nancy looks inside her suitcase and realizes that all of Kate’s stuff is gone. “Did Alec take it?” she wonders.
Let’s think about that later. We put in the code for the safe, which is 3635. Inside, we find a key card for Cathedral’s secret base. Exciting stuff!
Then! As we leave, Nancy will wonder, “What’s that?” and direct us over to the window. We peek out, and we can see Bridget in her room. She’s waving something around and then looking at it. OMG, is she looking for ghosts? Anyway, Nancy muses that we’ll have to get a better look at her room.
We’ll do that later. First, to the secret base! When we step inside the elevator, Nancy tells us to insert the key card into the elevator. A button pops out when we put the card in, and pressing it takes us to Cathedral’s base.
I love how every spy base in every movie and game ever looks the same. Isn’t it kind of hard to do important government work in the dark?
We walk in and finally meet our contact, Ewan. He greets us, and tells us that Ewan is his code name. He’d rather have a cool code name like Shadow or Blizzard, but he got stuck with “Ewan.” Do they have Dairy Queens in the UK? That’s all “Blizzard” makes me think of. Admittedly, I don’t live in a place that gets actual blizzards. Anyway, we can talk about a whole bunch of stuff with him, so let’s run down the list.
Ewan tells us that we’re here as an “asset”, not a “player.” This means that Cathedral’s basically using us, and Ewan will help us out as much as he can, but if we die or something, they’re not gonna take it too hard. Nice. Ewan tells us that his job within Cathedral is to “protect the status quo.” You’re thinking it too. Ewan tells us that life is like a trolley. It’s late and breaks down a lot and sometimes people do drugs on it. Oh, wait, he means that most people are the “rails”, and they’re dependable and boring. But there are also people who are like the third rail, who spark things up and bring change about. If it’s good change, Cathedral’s all for it. If it’s bad change, Ewan tries to stop it.
We can also ask about the time Revanant attacked Glasgow, and why Ewan thinks they chose Glasgow. His explanation is…weird. He tells us that it wasn’t that Glasgow was super important, in the grand scheme of things, but someone here wanted to play a “risky game”, and Revenant wanted to…get to them…somehow. I don’t know what this means. Ewan, I’m not a spy! If you just had a missing family fortune, this game would be a lot easier.
We ask if Cathedral is part of MI5, and Ewan says, “It is, and it isn’t.” Then he starts waxing on about contradictions — “I love duplicity, and yet I hate it.” Then he adds, “I like your style. No, I genuinely do.” That means nothing from a guy wearing a shirt two sizes too big, but this game came out in 2013, so Nancy’s mom jeans were actually back in style by this point.
Ewan doesn’t know who lured us to Scotland, but he thinks they’re trying to get at whatever we know about Kate. Nancy’s like, “I literally just found out how she really died like a week ago, I don’t think I know any more of her secrets.” Ewan shrugs that we might. He’s been trying to track the weird calls we’re getting from Revenant, but they’re hard to crack. He tells us that Revenant is alarmingly decentralized, which makes it hard to figure out what’s going on. Then we ask what Revenant wants, and he gives us yet another bizarro explanation that doesn’t make very much sense. Ewan babbles on that in the olden days, kings would orchestrate wars to thin their populations and make it look like people weren’t dying of famine or whatever. “That’s what Revenant wants. They don’t want to take over the world. They want to keep it.” WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?
Okay, after thinking it over for a few minutes, I think they’re trying to say that Revenant orchestrates or takes advantage of chaos to seize power. I think. It’s still not really clear or explained very well.
We ask him to look into Alec for us — his full name is “Alec Fell”, which I don’t remember him ever telling us, but whatever. Nancy is oddly ominscient in this game. We also ask him for a way to spy on Bridget, and he gives us a zipline — if we can find a bow, we can use it to zip across the courtyard. What a coincidence, we won that bow in archery practice! Nancy asks if he thinks Bridget’s sus, and Ewan says that he ran a background check on her, but it came up clean. “Try not to let her become collateral damage. She seems sweet.” Man, Ewan is lonely, isn’t he?
WHEW. Okay, that was a lot. Ewan takes pity on us and gives us basic access to the archives so that we can find out more about Kate’s double life. So we’ll go through that in a bit, but since we’ve made it to the base and gotten briefed on the important bits, let’s take a break.
Up next: We find out that Cathedral’s been watching us for a long time. Nobody is what they seem, and tbh it’s especially a betrayal finding out that one of our suspects is into janky dubstep.
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