The Calm Before the Storm

**The Calm Before the Storm** is the first of six chapters in Pathways: Jacob's Fortune.

## Synopsis

Silvan ruler Qow Bryagnol sails to an island off the coast of his country, hoping to build a death camp there. However, Bryagnol’s ship is attacked by revolutionaries led by Clip, a cannibalistic bandit who wishes to overthrow Bryagnol. While the battle is tense and results in heavy casualties, Bryagnol ultimately kills Clip by impaling him through the head with a sword. Soon after, the revolutionaries find themselves outnumbered and jump ship, leaving Bryagnol’s forces with a victory. Bryagnol breaks his sword’s blade while trying to remove it from Clip’s head, and ultimately kicks the cannibal‘s body off of his ship. Clip‘s corpse sinks to the bottom of the sea, joining many others.

2,100 years later, Robert Jacob, while fishing on a wooden boat, is attacked by a gigantic Bacculite-like creature. The Bacculite reprimands Robert for killing the Wyvern and taking her egg from the Wyve dimension, stating that he has destroyed the balance in nature. Confused, Robert fends off the sea monster by blasting one of its tentacles off with a blunderbuss, but not before his boat is destroyed. Jacob jumps on a piece of debris and tries to hold on, only to get hit by a massive wave. After getting tossed across and under the sea, Jacob blacks out.

Hours later, an unconscious Jacob washes ashore on a sandy shore, before waking up. Noticing that his hand is sinking in the sand, Jacob abruptly pulls it out, before exploring the beach. Robert soon finds and enters a village, where he is politely greeted. Robert meets Robyn Jacob in the village, both of which lived unaware of each others' existence. Despite this, Robyn is aware of Robert’s involvement in the world, claiming that she knows Venturians who were just recently resurrected. After Robyn lets Robert in her hut, he ultimately deduces that bringing the Wyvern’s egg to the earthly realm caused the mass revival. Starting to worry that he has ruined the future of Planet Venture, he is reassured by Robyn that the Venturians weren't supposed to go extinct. Robert disagrees, stating that the Venturians went extinct for a reason and that he has undone the work of potential deities. Robyn walks off, disturbed, as Robert rests in one of her beds for the remainder of the day, wishing that he worded things differently.

The next day, Robert sets off from the village, thanking the villagers for their kindness and shelter. After an hour of walking, Robert comes across a savage, terrifying village. Jacob finds a group of tribesmen and asks where he is, but one of them mutters something incomprehensible. Robert leaves the village, but as he walks away one of the tribesmen pulls out a blade made of bone and tries to attack him. Jacob quickly reacts, pulling out his blunderbuss and killing the attacking tribesmen. This causes the others to attack Robert as he tries to fend them off. Getting alerted by a horn, many of the tribesmen converge where Jacob is, upon which he decides to flee. Jacob runs through the village, going through dwellings and running atop rooftops. Eventually, one of the houses explodes, leaving part of it without a wall. Jacob runs up to the damaged house, uses a ladder, and leaps out of one of the windows. Robert lands outside of the hut and slides down a smooth hill. Some of the tribesmen continue to pursue Jacob as he skids down the slope, brandishing giant cleavers. After landing, Robert saddles and rides a native Hideulater, before getting it to run away from the attacking villagers. Atop the creature, Jacob either outruns the tribesmen or kills all of them with his blunderbuss, before escaping from the village.

Returning to the village of Pathways, Robert Jacob ultimately realizes that most areas outside of Pathways and its neighboring towns of Endeavors and Untergang are unsafe. Guided by Robyn Jacob, Robert meets the villagers and learns of the systems in their society; the villages include institutes for a variety of majors and simple occupations are present, operating under a social market economy. Money collected by certain businesses enables them to hold public celebrations and other events, a hallmark of the Three Divisions of Untergang. During the "moon" of Aytuba, the festival of Night-Mare approaches and a themed gala along with it; businesswoman Evette Taaqtam organized the event after getting enough funding from her Venturicano Trolley business, dedicated to selling the addictive, caffeinated Venturicano brew. The event is themed after a horror story from Venturian history; the Bastard Busker, a tale of a shape-shifting street performer who murdered and fed on minors.

As Robert Jacob grows tired of living with his daughter, he seeks out easy income to buy his own shelter, having left any valuables that could function as currency on another landmass. A shady figure offers Jacob an Alexandrite crystal if he promises to overturn a poll in favor of Taaqtam's Night-Mare gala being a public access event with minimal screening for weapons. Initially reluctant, Jacob agrees and is able to successfully overturn the poll, but tips off the Pathways National Guard, warning them of possible threats. As the event opens up, Robert and Robyn Jacob attend, enjoying the festivities until Robert's client arrives with the Alexandrite crystal. Jacob is initially given the crystal, only to unexpectedly fall over and have a poison-induced seizure; the client takes the crystal back as Robyn gets her father back up, horrified. As an attendee walks over to investigate, he deduces that Jacob was scammed after seeing the client hide the Alexandrite in his pocket. Halfway through speaking up about what about happened, the attendee has his fingers cut off by Jacob's conman, before getting stabbed in the heart and killed; a guard shoots the conman in the head before he can hurt anyone else, but this leads to the Clipiwana revealing themselves among the guests and starting a massacre.

Still recovering from his poisoning, Jacob is promised an antidote if he returns the Alexandrite to the Clipiwana; however, Jacob decides that they are untrustworthy and fights back alongside his daughter in a bloody battle. Robert is able to successfully retrieve the diamond and the antidote, consuming the latter. However, a Clipiwana tribesman armed with a Scarlet Rock-powered chain-gun fires at Robert and Robyn, forcing them to escape from the building by shattering and jumping out of a window. As dozens more tribesmen begin to attack the village, Robert and Robyn try to stealthily retrieve the former's blunderbuss, while the latter reunites with her pet Mollis, Lady Robyn Girl-Hole II. After using LRGHII to sneak past a Clipiwana gunman and retrieve a chunk of meat from the roof of a Venturicano shop occupied by Mollis, Robert is able to attract his Hideulater mount and motivate it to help them escape. After attracting the attention of three Clipiwana thugs, the Hideulater mauls and kills them, before smashing through a rickety wooden gate and allowing the trio to escape.

As the trio tries to escape from the Three Divisions of Untergang, they encounter and battle a dozen Clipiwana Hideulaters, Jacob's mount killing all of them. However, the Hideulater is wounded by gunfire and ultimately decapitated by a blunderbuss shot, leaving the trio to escape on foot, soon making it to an anchorage. Boarding a pair of rowboats, Robert, Robyn, and Lady Robyn Girl-Hole II sail away from Pathways, looking on at a theater of war between the Clipiwana and villagers in fear.

## Walkthrough

### Celebration Slaughter

At the beginning of this section, Robert Jacob has been poisoned by the Clipiwana. While Robert recovers from the seizure he has in a cutscene, he is still weak; this section introduces the character-changing ability; you will have to complete almost the entire part as Robyn and there's not really any point changing back to Robert, even after you cure him. Robyn is a fairly versatile character here compared to in Venture, with more dexterity than her father, plus she can take advantage of her small hitbox.

As you work your way around the strip club, many villains show up, some armed. Kill them with the nearby skewers. Then, if any of them drop a crossbow, take it.

In order to escape from the ensuing massacre, you must find the gem; if you are caught with it or wasted all of your crossbow bolts, throw the gem to one of the Pathways guards to change to them. There are four Clipiwana thugs atop corresponding balconies in the club, who throw the antidote to each other; you must kill all of them to get the serum yourself; you can't kill them all at once, as they'll recognize your threat past the first kill and shoot at you until they run out of ammunition. The first gem is dropped by the last low-level one you kill, but it'll get taken from you after you kill the first bottle flipper, who will throw it to one of the other villains before he bleeds out.

***NOTE:** The order of which bottle flippers you kill doesn't matter, nor does it matter if they even have the antidote at this point, but you'll always get the gem taken from you, which includes the killing of whatever Pathways Guard you play as, assuming you're controlling one and not Robyn. The last thug will always drop the antidote since he has nobody to give it to.*

To get **Collectible #1**, go to the jukebox and move it to the right, before using it as a boost so Robyn can reach the item; jump in front of the wall and grab it off of there.

Move to the right of the strip club and open the chest; this is where the guy who took it from you last time hid it. Take the jewel and shoot one of the gangstas on a ledge.

Again, the thug will throw the antidote to one on another ledge, assuming he had it in the first place, and you'll lose the gem again. This time, the gem is hidden in the metal cabinet; stand on one of the pressure plates next to it and Robert will stand on the other. Snatch the gem from inside and kill the guy on the ledge above you.

The last Clipiwana is a jerk who drops the Alexandrite in a bowl of ice, scatters the ice all over the floor, and, if that wasn't enough, cuts a rope that opens a cage on the ceiling, scattering balloons and skeletons. Stomp on the balloons to pop them and search through the ice to get the gem. Then kill the last thug to get the antidote.

*In a brief cut-scene, the Clipiwana drops the serum, which Robert barely manages to catch. Robert downs the antidote just in time, as a swole guy breaks in from one of the balconies, whips out a chain-gun, and jumps down to the floor.*

Just skip trying to battle the gunman. All he does is blow your character into Swiss cheese and force you to restart from the last checkpoint. Instead, concentrate on getting the next collectible and getting the heck out of this place.

Go to the giant Wyvern skull on the stage and have both characters stand on a wooden pressure plate. The Wyvern will open its jaws, letting you take the gleaming emergency saber inside; move to the left side of the stage. Look for the bronze Agung a Tamlang hanging to the side of the stage and use the saber to slice it lose. There are Agungs on either side of the stage and you can use either, but if you go to the right, the gunman can and probably will shoot you to death.

Go to the Agung and use the button prompt to hide behind it. Use the new prompts to have you and Robert push the Agung along. ***Stay away from the stairs in the far right corner of the room until you are ready to escape.*** Going to the window will cause you to leave the area and you cannot return after you have left.

Move around the room, crushing all of the tables that are left. Doing so will cause **Collectible #2** to appear under the area that the table once stood on.

Also, if you have not already picked it up in the course of speeding around the club, grab the **Jade** next to the bar where the table in the middle was (where you started).

When you are done here, carry the Agung up the stairs in the far right corner and shatter the window to finish this section.