LogFAQs > #905278731

Turns out I was much closer to Meridian than I thought, just have to walk across some bridges. Apparently merchant traffic is being searched at the gate, which I guess is not normal, but luckily for me I'm not a merchant so I can just walk on in. This place looks neat from a distance, kind of reminds me of...I can't think of the name. Actually I'm not entirely sure where it even was, I think somewhere in southern France. Anyway when I was younger my parents and I went on a lot of vacations around Europe (we lived in Germany for four years) and at some point we went to a monastery or similar religious building that was really old and well known for being scenic and requiring you to like, cross bridges and climb a hill to get up to it (and you couldn't actually go in anyway). I'm struggling to remember details but for whatever reason it came to mind. This isn't a "oh this game is set there" prediction, the surroundings are all wrong (this is a desert, that place I'm pretty sure was on the coast), just pointing it out because...I have no idea! Moving on.

Some generic NPC said the city is on lock down due to a murder. See, generic NPC from ages ago who asked me why I thought you'd say anything of value? THIS IS WHY! We get to the city gate and find out...okay, the former leader of the Vanguards (which sounds like basically the Carja Secret Service, I guess?) was killed by "Shadow Carja" forces. Hmm...Erend, the dude we met earlier and who is the brother of the woman that died, is now the leader, conveniently shows up to say hello to Aloy and let us into the city, and also is kind of drunk. Best time for a conversation - when the other person is too out of it to lie! Except he probably could lie if he wanted to, it's still a bit too early in the plot for dramatic reveals to happen. What a shame. Aloy decides the best way to handle this is to just kind of outright demand to see Olin, insisting he's a traitor. Uh, Aloy, you realize all you actually know for sure is someone used his Focus to track you, right? Very confident he knew. Granted he was shifty as hell so it's probably at least mostly true, but still, got to love video game characters always knowing things for sure with minimal evidence. Regardless, we're off to search his house.

When in doubt, just break a hatch open by dropping metal on it. Convenient placing but it got me in. Olin is being blackmailed into helping the killers, who have kidnapped his wife and son. See Aloy, he's not so evil after all. After a brief conversation with Erend about how Aloy can figure these things out, he is made aware of the power of PURPLEVISION and wants us to help him figure out exactly who killed his sister. Kind of a nice scene there. Guess I'm off to investigate a murder now. Somehow I expect this to lead to trouble...
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Meow!