[Spoilers] Death Scream Trauma

[ohmecha]

I finished the game, and my trial went swimmingly. I convicted everyone according to my truth. However, there was one piece of evidence that I just could not fit into the narrative of my truth:

The Death Scream Trauma auditory weapon.

I found the weapon by the Paradise Gates. It contained a recording of Witness' Death Scream Trauma, and it was pointed across the water at Henry Division. It was clearly used.

I assumed that Witness was going to use it to cause Henry to escape, and use Henry's escape as a diversion. However, I'm fairly certain Akiko broke Henry out on Carmelina's orders. Is this part of Witness' plan that just didn't work out for him? Did he use the weapon, but Carmelina/Akiko beat him to Henry and so it don't work as planned?

[Modus Pwnens]

(Spoilers obviously)

First, bear in mind that Carmelina and Witness had separate conspiracies - the fact that they were both messing with Henry was a coincidence.

Witness wasn't trying to break Henry out to use as a diversion. He didn't need a diversion, since all he had to do was make a quick, silent call with his phone. Everything else had been set up two days in advance.

Witness set up the recording to play so it would free Henry, scaring the Syndicate by showing them that Henry's demon was still dangerous and they weren't as secure as they thought - just like he wanted the killer demon to scare everyone. From Doom Jazz, it's unclear whether the Death Scream would actually be enough to overcome the inhibitor. Aside from the demon in the council chamber, it's also unclear to Doom Jazz whether Witness is actually concerned with security or is trying to cause an incident. So I think for Witness, the Death Scream was a side project that was win-win: if it overcomes Henry's inhibitors (at the same time as the demon attack on the council), then that bolsters his claim that they are vulnerable to demons, and if it doesn't overcome the inhibitors, then he knows they're relatively safe and Henry won't just break loose someday, which is something he seems to be legitimately concerned about too.

[ohmecha]

Originally posted by Modus Pwnens:

(Spoilers obviously)

First, bear in mind that Carmelina and Witness had separate conspiracies - the fact that they were both messing with Henry was a coincidence.

Witness wasn't trying to break Henry out to use as a diversion. He didn't need a diversion, since all he had to do was make a quick, silent call with his phone. Everything else had been set up two days in advance.

Witness set up the recording to play so it would free Henry, scaring the Syndicate by showing them that Henry's demon was still dangerous and they weren't as secure as they thought - just like he wanted the killer demon to scare everyone. From Doom Jazz, it's unclear whether the Death Scream would actually be enough to overcome the inhibitor. Aside from the demon in the council chamber, it's also unclear to Doom Jazz whether Witness is actually concerned with security or is trying to cause an incident. So I think for Witness, the Death Scream was a side project that was win-win: if it overcomes Henry's inhibitors (at the same time as the demon attack on the council), then that bolsters his claim that they are vulnerable to demons, and if it doesn't overcome the inhibitors, then he knows they're relatively safe and Henry won't just break loose someday, which is something he seems to be legitimately concerned about too.

Thanks! The Witness conspiracy seems such a mix of meticulous planning (regarding the Day Breaks and the two day setup) and sloppiness (like the auditory weapon or the demon maybe/maybe not killing everyone on the Council). It's like Witness was very good at planning and hiding things, but his ends goals were more nebulous. Whereas Carmelina was more focused in her goals, but also more sloppy in her execution.

[Aquillion]

Lady Love Dies explains at trial (and IIRC Witness confirms) that Witness' conspiracy wasn't necessarily intended to kill anyone. He was fine if it did, but the purpose was to scare the council, not to slaughter every last one of them.

Witness didn't care about power himself, and Lydia / Sam intended to leave, so as long the council changes direction as a result of the demonic attack he's happy.

Also, part of it probably stems from the fact that the Day Breaks are highly experienced, highly-skilled assassins, but they don't really care about the outcome as long as Witness keeps his side of the bargain and gets them out; whereas Witness isn't nearly so competent. So what you have is the extremely skilled Day Breaks carrying out a fundamentally scattershot plan made by Witness.

(A bigger problem that just occurred to me - why did the Day Breaks trust Witness when he said he could get them out? There's no reason to think he could, and the plan wasn't structured to put them or him in power, so there's no particular reason to think they'd have someone in a position to release them afterwards.)

[darthkiwi]

I think that, although Witness did not necessarily want absolute power, he figured that scaring the council would make them finally pay him some heed. According to Carmelina, Witness had become very erratic and aggressive during council meetings and sometimes just turned up to rant religious stuff at them. If the mood of the council swung more towards religious fervour and concern over demons, fuelled by Witness's powerful "I told you so", the council might start to look to him as the trend-setter rather than Monserrat and take his ideas on board. (It's also possible that they would have done no such thing and that Witness is kidding himself.)

I have to wonder whether Witness planned on presenting the syndicate with an ultimatum: "The job of the syndicate is to revive the gods. If you're in, that's your goal. If you don't want to do that, leave." That gives the Daybreaks the perfect opportunity to peace out of there along with presumably half the council, leaving Witness with a more religiously "pure", focused syndicate.

I think Sam and Lydia might not have fully trusted him, but after tens of millennia on the islands I think they're just tired, and they'd rather risk whatever Witness had planned than stay in this hell for another dozen island cycles.

And bear in mind: they didn't really know what was in the box. I'm not sure they knew that the crime Witness was plotting would be punishable by death. It's possible they even figured, "Hey, if we get caught maybe we'll just get exiled."

[Aquillion]

Exile means what happened to Lady Love Dies (sent to a tiny island where nothing happens), not released.

[Bro_Coz]

This was my biggest confusion as well, and the only part of the trial I got wrong (I think). I thought the device meant that Witness was the one who helped Henry escape, so I accused him instead of Akiko.

[Ruka]

Originally posted by Modus Pwnens:

(Spoilers obviously)
Witness set up the recording to play so it would free Henry, scaring the Syndicate by showing them that Henry's demon was still dangerous and they weren't as secure as they thought - just like he wanted the killer demon to scare everyone. From Doom Jazz, it's unclear whether the Death Scream would actually be enough to overcome the inhibitor. Aside from the demon in the council chamber, it's also unclear to Doom Jazz whether Witness is actually concerned with security or is trying to cause an incident. So I think for Witness, the Death Scream was a side project that was win-win: if it overcomes Henry's inhibitors (at the same time as the demon attack on the council), then that bolsters his claim that they are vulnerable to demons, and if it doesn't overcome the inhibitors, then he knows they're relatively safe and Henry won't just break loose someday, which is something he seems to be legitimately concerned about too.

That's a nice theory. Any way to actually get this confirmed by Witness in court ?