The Scientist Route

The Scientist Route is one of the three storylines playable in the game. In order to play this route the player has to choose the Scientist at the beginning of the game. The male and female route are just slightly different.

Prologue
The scientist is at the academy. He already graduated and received his doctors degree. The next step on the path to becoming a real scientist is the research expedition. The scientist is waiting for the permission to begin his expedition and a research to get assigned to. In the meantime he helps out Prof. Sigamoore by lecturing. The game starts with a lecture about phlogiston.

After the lecutre a few students come to talk to the Scientist about the upcoming exam. A gofer interrupts them and asks the Scientist to visit Prof. Sigamoore, who tells him that the dean approved his expedition and even decided on a field of research: The Scientist shall investigate a sinister phenomenon in the village Ineston.

Main Quest: A journey to knowledge
The Scientist and the two fellow researchers Hinz and Kunz have to travel to Ineston to investigate the imminent collapse of the local ecosystem. Recently villagers also show symptoms of asthma and bronchitis. In order to get to Ineston the Scientist has to follow the west route from Arriffa.

Once arrived in Ineton a devastated scenery awaits the travelling party. The Scientist has to talk to the villagers and investigate. One boy called Enris, who is a farmer, catches his attention. With enough evidence to get a clue it suddenly seems so clear, that the reason for the damaged ecosystem is the collapse of the local flora, probably caused by a poisonous gas. The team has a brief meeting and decides to request analytical instruments using the telegraph.

Research Quest
In the meantime, until the requested devices are being delivered, the Scientist wants to dig into research of his own interest. He has to choose among three fields:

Quest: Poison
shabbabariba

Quest: Explosives
Ores, ores, ores!

Quest: Healing
Some fungi and shit

Main Quest: Aiding the aids
By the time the Scientist is back from his exploration trip he gets informed by his colleagues that they received a distress signal, probably from the units escorting the requested equipment. The party leaves, rescues the escort, that was attacked by wolves, and fetches the equipment, which unfortunately was slightly damaged. After the Scientist found a fitting replacement for the damaged part, he uses that machine to detect ozone.

After reflecting the Scientist talks to the villagers about the result of his analysis and asks whether anyone could possibly know the source of the dangerously high ozone concentration. In a conversation Enris gets really upset. Immediately the assay agents showed a positive result. The Scientist assumes that the strange phenomenon has something to do with the farmer boy. After running a few more tests on Enris the scientists persuade him to follow them back to Arriffa after they finished the report.

In the evening the Artisan enters the village. He ist just passing through, since his destination is a town called Tikvica. Still the sun has set and he needs to rest. In the village he noticed the poor condition of the settlement, the devastated crops and the gloomy mood. The Artisan investigates, but he doesn't find anything out, since the Scientist asked the villagers to remain quiat about the recent events. The Artisan gets suspicious and starts a conversation next morning with the Scientist himself. The Scientist left the village to finish his report in peace, but as soon as he came back he received a lot of complains about the annoying and nosy Artisan. To drive him off the Scientist can either talk (Making the villagers hate the Artisan, threaten him or actually persuade him that there is nothing fishy going on) or set a trap (Injure him, break his cart or leaving early and taking a dangerous route, so he won't follow). Each choice affects the story and provides skills, boni or items.

Main Quest: Home is where the lab is
The Scientist reports back. The journey takes two days. In the night the Mercenary joins the camp and they talk a little bit and they seem to get along well. Back in the academy the Scientist reports his results and gets dismissed until he is called again. In the meantime he visits his lab and reads his protocol that he gatherd during the research quest in the village. The Scientist begins to synthesize.

Later he meets Enris somewhere in the academy building. He looks rather down, so the Scientist asks him what had happened. He complains about being forced to stay because of further investigation and experiments.

Main Quest: The burden of submission
The next day the Scientist is sent to another city's academy to to introduce himself. He is supposed to lecture during the next semester. On the way back to Arriffa the Scientist passes through Enris' village again. Apparently it was destroyed. The Scientist decides to look for the culprit or to report back.

Look for the culprit - Boss #1a: The Artisan
The Scientist takes a good look around. No enemies or battles during this instance. Mere dialogue, exploring and puzzle. He finds some things that might be useful to identify the culprit. After further investigation the Scientist encounters the Artisan again. Assuming that he burnt down the village a boss battle starts. After the battle it becomes clear that he is not at fault and that he also suspected you of destroying Ineston. As soon as the Scientist arrived in Arriffa he meets Ebenezer, the hobo clock maker. After reporting back and bringing the bad news about Enris' home the boy loses it and the Scientist witnesses his powers again.

Report back - Boss #1b: The Mercenary
The Scientist decides to report back. He finds some important evidence and take it along. Back in Arriffa he meets Ebenezer. Enris hears what the Scientist said about Ineston at the deans office, bursts in, loses it and shows his powers unconsciously. The Scientist gets new orders and has to examine Wnris. While taking a night walk the Scientist finds himself being ambushed by the Mercenary. He fights solo, but is about to lose. Just right in time Ebenezer joins in battle and saves him.

Main Quest: What?
The Scientist meets Ebenezer on his way to the academy. Somehow the clock maker talks him into buying a broken watch. If the Scientist did not already get assigned with Enris' examination, now he will. He recalls what he learned about leading a research and quality analysis. One major question suited to be a goal was: What exactly are you observing? The Scientist digs into books about ozone and stories people who repusedly possessed supernatural skills. When he had enough he realised that he did not make any progress and still had no reasonable approach. Instead he repeated the ozone assay with a negative result.

Not knowing what to do he decided to visit Ineston again and to gather a few more clues. On the way the Scientist encounters the first Boss (Artisan or Mercenary) again. The tense atmosphere at the beginning relaxes a little bit and the two talk about their conflict.

If the Mercenary was the first boss: Apparently the Mercenary's house also is interested in Enris and so he was assigned with retrieving him. They forget their dispute and remember that they actually used to get along fairly well. They team up for a while.

If the Artisan was the first boss: The Artisan and the Scientist decide to team up, since they both now that a third party destroyed Ineston. They both are afraid that someone might want to get rid of Enris, knowing that two out of three houses are interested in him.

In any case the Scientist and his new companion travel to Ineston and search for objects of their interests. On the way back they are being ambushed by unknown attackers. Apparently Ebenezer is nearby, so he joins the party. Once the battle is won the Scientist finds one survivor. The party questions him. At one point the hostage tries to escape. The Scientist can either kill him or let him run. Suddenly Ebenezer vanished. The remaining two characters decide to head back to Arriffa.

Main Quest: Why?
Remembering the incidents during which Enris showed his powers the Scientist realised that probably strong emotions were the key to the mystery. Why is the phenomenon you are observing happening? He managed to manifest Enris' powers by either insulting, hurting or digging up a strong memory of the boy. Each approach rewards the player with different traits.

Research Quest
The Scientist has one week off. Enris, his subject, needs rest and so he has time to focus on minor researches of his own interest:

Quest: big #1
shabbabariba

Quest: big #2
Ores, ores, ores!

Quest: big #3
Some fungi and shit

Main Quest: Who?
If the last attacker during What? survived Ebenezer appears and tells the Scientist that he secretly followed the fugitive and found out the lair of the attackers. They are organized and will probably move out again. In the night before the Scientist's days off end he decides to visit Enris. He just arrives right to prevent an assassin killing him. If the Scientist does not make it back in one week Enris dies and the game ends.

The next morning the Scientist asks Ebenezer to become Enris' bodyguard. He aggrees after the Scientist promised him to help him sell his watches. Furthermore Ebenezer wants his competitors to quit business. There are different approaches to eliminate the two other clock makers in Arriffa. Ebenezer becomes Enris' secret bodyguard. Still the clock maker does not now who to protect the boy from.

Main Quest: What now?
The Scientist digs again into his examination and wants to finally find an answer to his first question. Now he understands Enris a little bit better and reads a little bit about the different manifestations of the boy's power. There are five approaches, but only two will lead to the correct trace: Emmitting waves, emmitting molecules as a product of metabolism, X,  creating a magnetic field or emmitting tiny particles. Chosing the wrong one will result in the loss of one day. The problem has to be solves within three days, else the Scientist will be assassinated.

If solved withing the time Ebenezer and the first Boss (Artisan/Mercenary) will aid the Scientist in the battle against the second assassin.

The next thing the Scientist wants to know is the frequence and the wavelength of Enris' magical rays. This one is just for fun and skippable, even though having the knowledge will come in handy during the rest of the game.

Main Quest: Where?
This instance will lead the Scientist to the second boss. If the first boss happened to be the Mercenary, the second one will be the Artisand and vice versa.

Boss #2a: The Mercenary
The Scientist receives an anonymous letter that asks him to meet up with a acquaintance in the forest. The obviously fishy situation apparently is a trap, so the Scientist asks the Artisan and Ebenezer to follow him. Finally at the meeting point the Mercenary shows himself. Offended by the lack of trust the Scientist showed by taking an escort with him the Mercenary explains that his house is interested in Enris and that he is going to retrieve him. Then he immediately attacks. After the battle the Mercenary is taken captive and brought to Ebenezer's place.

Boss #2b: The Artisan
The Scientist meets the Artisan again in a pub. The latter submits and offer to the Scientist. He lures him with an incredible amount of money into a shady job and finally out of town. Teaming up with Ebenezer and the Mercenary the Scientist makes it to the place where the fake job was supposed to be executed, but only finds the perplexed Artisan, who was planning on taking him captive and did not know that he would take the Mercenary and Ebenezer along. Nevertheless a boss battle begins and after beating the Artisan the party drags him to the Cocker Mansion to question him.

Main Quest: What?
The