Distress Signal

*All that glisters is not gold, often have you heard that told...**This article is about The Dark Pictures Anthology's first installment,* ***Man of Medan***
***.***

## Chapter Guide

**Distress Signal** is the second chapter of Act 3 in *Man of Medan* and the twenty-first overall.

The player controls Alex/Conrad (Theatrical Cut) and Fliss/Julia/Conrad (Curator's Cut) as they travel to the bridge deck to use the radio.

## *Weather Deck, 3:43 A.M.*

The surviving protagonists leave the control room and go through the weather deck to the main control room of the ship. Along the way, the group may find:

* An anti-aircraft shell casing. The protagonists will assume that these are the same bullets used to shoot down the plane Alex and Julia were diving into.
* A boat with holes. The protagonists will remark that if the boat was intact, they could have used it to escape.
* A corpse with a gas mask hidden in a metal cabinet. Next to him will lie a note about gas mask instructions.

Having found the destroyed staircase, the group collectively makes their way up. Passing by the control room, Fliss/Brad and Conrad will notice that they were already here when the former chased the latter in. Once inside, the group can calmly explore the control room and the room Fliss/Brad ran through and find:

* Ship's Logbook. Scrolling through it, the protagonists can find part of the name of the ship "*SS Ourang-*".
* The door that Conrad closed while running from Fliss/Brad.
* A picture.
* Nautical Chart. The protagonists will note that the map shows the strange route of San Francisco and assume that the military did not want anyone to know where they were going.
* Navigator's Notebook.

Going into the radio room, the group finds the radio operator's corpse, his suicide note, and the radio itself, which luckily still works, and by tuning it, they manage to contact the military. The protagonist at the radio may panic and ask for help, or keep calm and tell their coordinates.

* If the protagonists were able to find out the full name of the ship, they will tell the military about it.

Suddenly the radio goes off, followed by the lights going out. While the group is inspecting the radio, one of them notices a hole in the floor and informs the others. The protagonists decide that someone will go down to find the generator and restore power while the others stay in the radio room in case they get a message from the military. Conrad says he can't go down because of his injuries and the player will be given the opportunity to choose two protagonists from among the rest:

* If four protagonists are alive, the player will be given the choice of two pairs, Alex or Brad and Fliss or Julia.
	+ Alex says he's obviously going, but Brad intervenes, saying he can do the job. Alex will either praise his brother for his bravery or scold him, after which he has to make a choice:
		- If Alex is resentful, he will insist that he go down.
		- If Alex relents, he will let Brad go down.
		- He always relents in Curator's Cut.
	+ Julia says she's going too. Alex is against it.
		- If Fliss is alive, Julia replies that he won't always be around and that she can stand up for herself. Fliss can comment:
			* If Fliss is assertive, she will say she will go down as she is still the captain.
			* If Fliss is sarcastic, she'll say Julia can handle it since she says so.
			* In Theatrical Cut, Fliss is assertive if she has a has a high Assertive trait and is sarcastic otherwise.
		- If Fliss is dead and Brad is alive, Julia chooses her response:
			* If Julia is assertive, she says Alex isn't in charge of her and she is going.
			* If Julia is reluctant, she backs off, allowing Alex and Brad to go down.
* If three protagonists are alive, the player will be given a choice in one pair while a character without a pair automatically goes down.
	+ The only exception is in the case of Alex, Brad, and Julia, where Alex can either forbid or allow Julia to go down with whomever he picked.
* If two protagonists are alive, they automatically go down without the player's choice.

Once two protagonists have been selected, they begin to descend into the hole. However, the floor around the hole begins to collapse, causing the duo to fall down screaming.

## Collectibles

### Secrets

* Anti-Aircraft Shell Casing - Can be found on the left side of the weather deck, on a crate.
* Gas Mask Instructions - Can be found on the right side of the weather deck, in a rusty cabinet.
* Ship's Logbook - Can be found near the bridge entrance, on a table.
* Nautical Chart - Can be found in the bridge on a wall.
* Navigator's Notebook - Can be found before outside the radio room, on a table.
* Radio Operator's Final Message - Can be found in the radio room, on a table near Cooper's corpse.

### Pictures

* Loose Cannon - Can be found on the left wall of the bridge.

## Trivia

* Depending on Alex's status, the game finale branches off in one of two ways.
	+ If Alex stayed in the radio room with another protagonist, the last chapter will be Matters of the Heart.
	+ If Alex is dead, went down to find the generator, or is alone in the radio room, the last chapters will be Olson and Flooded.
* If the only living protagonists at this point are Conrad and Julia (due to a bug in the Curator's Cut of Revenge), Fliss will come back to life to accompany Julia down the hole. She will revert back to being dead after Flooded.