I’ve spent the past week or so playing through The Master of the Land by @pseudavid — what a wonderful game! I did a playthrough a day and think I’ve gotten a lot of the story, though there’s definitely things I haven’t seen yet. At some point I started taking notes, and wanted to document here what I’ve put together so far.
For others who played this game: what storylines did you focus on? Anthing interesting that you found and I didn’t? Feel free to spoil me.
Spoilers below:
Twenty years ago, Napoleon tried to invade this canton and was driven out. Since then they’ve been ruling themselves, and is one of the few places in Europe not under an absolute monarch, though still beholden to a distant King in some way. There are two major factions, the monarchists who want to draw closer to the king, and the republicans who advocate for self-governance. There is prejudice against French-Cantonals, who are linked with the republicans? There’s an incorrect belief that the French-Cantonals helped Napoleon and the monarchists want them to leave.
The protagonist Irene and her family are on the republican side. Clara runs a salon where republican ideas are discussed, but is afraid of something and hiding her real sympathies. Gloria is still a mystery to me; she’s at the party with her husband Laurentin, seems to be avoiding Irene. She talks to the cook at the start of the evening. Irene’s last panic attack was at her house.
The mayor says: ‘There’s a lot of stubbornness in every side, but I think it’s obvious which side is the weakest, the most probable loser, and that’s Gloria.’ I think the “sides” are the monarchists vs republicans, but have no idea what Gloria’s role is.
There is a monarchist conpiracy to murder Irene’s father and spark anti-repubican sentiment by falsely blaming the murder on them. The conspirators, calling themselves the Ring, have a secret meeting in the Council room shortly before midnight. They are Travia Longine (whose brother had a heated political debate with our friend Iuvens earlier), several unfamiliar men, and a fake Burbur in a red cloak. A snippet of conversation:
‘I thought you knew I was in the Ring,’ Tavia says. ‘After we leave this room, stay away from me.’
‘So. What’s the name of the hand?’
A man says: ‘Elefantino.’
‘And what message must we pass?’
‘David Victor,’ Tavia says.
Novus, the young nobleman who beat someone up, got off because his uncle is the judge, and who interrupted the Wheel of Grievances and sparked a riot, is maybe involved.
After midnight, the murderer will run to the cellar (through a secret passage behind the Treasury), apparently having an “appointment with a lady”. Soldiers follow him there and kill him. There’s no other woman in the cellar so it seems the conspirators are expecting Irene to be there? Or maybe the lady in question is Travia?
Irene’s Aunt Crissina is also involved in some way. She has a condition where she contracts strange illnesses after dreaming about them, is a target of much gossip and ridicule. She is also running around as the Burbur wearing a necklace of keys. At 8:30 in the garden she fights with the red-cloaked fake Burbur (one of the conspirators), who tries to unmask her. During dinner she talks to the premier and his wife, and Lady Severin leaves with her. At 10:15 she turns up in the Blue Pavilion?
She knows about the murder plot. If you do the violin quest she intimidates the premier’s son into taking Irene to spy on the conspirators’ meeting. At some point she taught children a disturbing nursery rhyme, about someone being murdered on Burburam Day, “after the murder no one will complain / because everyone knew…”
Late in the evening there is a fight in the first floor where soldiers arrested people. At some point, there appears a red stain on the door to the premier’s apartments. At 11:45 a woman tries to jump out a window on the 1st floor and there is fighting inside? I haven’t been able to get more info on the fight, or whether all these events are connected.
Then there’s the crying man and the poet Andropol. People can hear disembodied crying but Irene can never find the source. The poet, who attended Clara’s salon, claims this is a figure from a poem he wrote who came to life (connected to the aunt, who also has dreams come to life?). He’s crying because of a murder, and will show up to intimidate / make a fool of the rich. It seems this happens by making everyone in the dining hall spill their drinks, but everyone ignores this? Unclear if they genuinely do not notice or are wilfully ignoring it.
During the Wheel of Grievances, there is an altercation between the crying man and a second, real man in the Covenants Office. Irene can hear fighting but there’s no physical trace, and the 2nd man walks out ignoring her. We know there’s a secret passage way between the Covenants Office and the Council Room though, so possibly whoever was there exited that way.
Following the crying voice at midnight leads Irene down to the cellar, but she can’t see anyone and eventually the murderer shows up.
Questions I still have:
- what’s up with Gloria?
- how to talk to Aunt Crissina?
- what is happening on the 1st floor, seems like multiple fights happened
- how exactly is the poet’s crying man connected with the political conspiracy?
- what’s up with the missing butler, and the dust?