Dishonored’s Brigmore Witches DLC teased with in-game adverts and doomy diary

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In just under three weeks, Dishonored’s last planned slice of DLC will be plated up and served hot on Steam. In the meantime, we’re stuck in one of those elastic never-want-it-to-end, can’t-come-soon-enough fidgety periods. To ease the ear-popping pain of temporal fluctuation, Bethesda bring artwork freshly ripped from the walls of Dunwall, and a journal entry nabbed from the desk of somebody who was probably standing right there.

It’s brilliant business as usual from Arkane’s art department, who seem to specialise in adapting ornate early 20th century branding to their purposes. More surprising is ‘Mortimer M. Hat’, proprietor of a hat maker’s. How many silly names have I failed to notice in however many hours with Dishonored?

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The other two adverts point to faraway Karnaca, previously only a name on Dishonored’s world map, and Bundry Rothwild, last spotted in The Knife of Dunwall as the first link in Daud’s journey of (possible) redemption.

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And finally comes the diary of Thomas, disciple of Daud:

Our troubles began with a name. Delilah. A mystery given to Daud by the face he sees in his dreams and whose voice he hears when kneeling at the shrines hidden in the lost parts of the city. None of us have ever heard this voice, but we know its power. It spoke to our master, telling him of his coming doom and saying that solving this riddle was the only way to escape.

We knew nothing of Delilah, except that we found a whaling ship by that name. A tenuous connection, but where the Outsider’s word is concerned there are no coincidences. We discovered the ship was named after a woman who once walked the halls of Dunwall Tower with Jessamine Kaldwin. Later she became a painter – an apprentice of Sokolov himself – until she snared an aristocratic patron named Arnold Timsh.

We met with Timsh’s niece, who offered us information on Delilah in exchange for eliminating her uncle. Removing aristocrats was our specialty, so our master agreed. With Barrister Arnold Timsh gone, his niece divulged everything she knew. Delilah was much more than a painter and she was hiding in the old Brigmore Manor outside the city.

But by then we were too late. Delilah anticipated our threat. For some time she had been working her corruptive influence on the best of us: the assassin Billie Lurk. Delilah turned Lurk against us and together they sold us out to the Overseers. When we returned to our hideout in the Flooded District we were swarmed by gold masks and hounds. But Daud is quick and wise in our trade. In the end, he kept us alive, though there were losses.

Now our resources are strained. Some of the men are grumbling. I see the strain on Daud’s face. Killing the Empress, handing over her daughter – those are not easy burdens to bear. And Lurk’s betrayal weighs on him heavily. His sleep is troubled by curses and shouts.

Now we make preparations to strike back at Delilah. She is planning something in Brigmore, something that affects everyone in the Isles. And she will be expecting us. Like our master, she shares her gifts from the Outsider with those who follow her. How many are they, I wonder?

I have no secrets from my master. My loyalty is without question. But I fear these may be the last days of the Whalers. Perhaps the last days of Daud.

Oo-err. Are your feelings similarly mixed about Dishonored’s final chapter, The Brigmore Witches?