Private's Notes

The Private's Notes are a series of interactables located in Nothing Passage, Lempo Isle, Nod-Krai. They describe the experiences of Private Pyotr Dmitriyevich Orlov, member of the 6th Fatui Company during the mounting rivalry between two kuuvahki researchers, which resulted in tragic consequences for the entire team.

The Traveler experiences the results of the experiments in the World Quest Series Colors of Emptiness. Another interactable found in Nothing Passage, Someone's Research Notes, shows the perspective of Anton Zarkovich Karnatsky, one of the researchers who caused the incident.

Locations

• Private's Notes (I) — location unlocked during the World Quest Blues of the Old World in Series Colors of Emptiness

  

  Private's Notes (I) location

  

  Private's Notes (I) location context

• Private's Notes (II) — location unlocked during the World Quest Crimson Cleansing in Series Colors of Emptiness

  

  Private's Notes (II) location

  

  Private's Notes (II) location context

• Private's Notes (III) — location unlocked during the World Quest Blues of the Old World in Series Colors of Emptiness

  

  Private's Notes (III) location

  

  Private's Notes (III) location context

Interactables

Private's Notes (I)

...It's been three weeks since the Poruchik posted me up here. Compared to our recruits, who're stuck collecting materials for the Design Bureau, I suppose I should count my blessings — it's not like there's anything else to do around here. Forget about bandits, I haven't seen so much as a shadow in these godforsaken mountains. All I can do is write in my diary and stare at the foliage. If those two professors would hurry up and finish their blasted research — who knows what they're doing — then I could receive letters from my dearest Parashka once more. I wonder how she's doing at the military academy. I hope those stuck-up silver-spoon-sucking scum aren't making life difficult...

...Elena has too much time on her hands. She's been sneaking out of the camp to hunt. Every bit the lady of Morepesok, that one — absolutely no regard for the rules. Captain Volkov caught her red-handed. Gave her a real tongue lashing, too. "Dereliction of duty" was the verdict. After that, we all ate a healthy serving from the goat she brought back. Maybe it's been too long since I last ate meat, but that goat tasted better than any I ever had in the capital. Maybe that's why those rough and ready frontier folk choose to live in this awful backwater...

...The professors are openly at each other's throats at this point. In a place like this, watching them fight is our only entertainment. They're both high up in the Armory Palace, and they both refuse to give an inch, especially when it comes to researching moon fragments — they both want to be the first to make a breakthrough and earn high praise from the Tsaritsa. Professor Karnatsky doesn't even try to hide his contempt for Professor Preobrazhensky — he openly called his daughter's fiance [sic] a lunatic and said the only reason Preobrazhensky has reached the rank he has is down to (...). Well, that old git was so taken aback by the tirade, his face went bone white — he looked like he was going to faint. Then he started reeling off some diatribe in Fae. I couldn't understand a word of it...

...At least the goat around here tastes good. Captain Volkov should be the one to go hunting next, then we can all lay into him for dereliction of duty...

Private's Notes (II)

...Something's not right. Petrenko said he heard a blood-curdling wail in the night — somewhere between the ragged breathing of a vile beast and the dying screams of a wounded man — he swore on the Tsaritsa's name. None of us heard it, not even Elena — who was on watch — but we found strange marks near the camp, as though someone had dragged something through there. Whatever it was, it can't have been alive — no living creature leaves marks like that...

...Captain Volkov suspects Professor Preobrazhensky and his underlings of playing tricks. He got us to set up a bunch more traps around the camp and even activated those defensive robots — the ones that are more valuable than all of us combined. I have no idea how he's going to explain the resource expenditure to his superiors when this is all done, but I'm sure he'll think of something...

...Professor Karnatsky's research seems to be progressing smoothly. He even found time to expound upon one of his discoveries to us rank-and-file soldiers. Up to now, he's only ever referred to us as "dim-witted lackeys." His emaciated face was flushed red behind a shower of spittle, like a dying man gaining one final moment of clarity. There was something unnatural, even detestable, about his expression. He talked about how he had extracted "the purest primal light" from the moon shard and how he would tear open the veil of the world, igniting the first spark for Her Majesty's wishes. I didn't understand what he was saying, so I nodded along and wished him a swift conclusion to his research...

...I asked Captain Volkov if I could be the one to hunt today — I need something to distract me from my thoughts. The temperature these past few days has been unusually cold, and the air is filled with the putrid smell of mold and decay. The goats were abundant when we arrived here, but now it seems they're all in hiding — perhaps our hunts are to blame, or maybe they're sheltering from the cold. Even so, I didn't have to travel far from the camp before I finally found one.

...Found is the only word I can use — it certainly wasn't hunting. By the time I arrived, the goat was standing transfixed, like a deliberately posed corpse, a very ungoatly expression frozen on its face. Its eyes were cloudy and protruding outwards, puffed up like a pair of fish eyes. But it wasn't a corpse — it was alive. Until the moment I cut its chest open, its heart was pumping blood... Until the moment I slit its chest open, my blade plunging into its heart, its foul-smelling blood spraying across the ground, gleaming inky green in the moonlight... Until the moment I opened its chest, it stood there, motionless, its swollen eyes staring into space, unmoved by its impending death, as though even the peace of the grave was not its to own...

...May Her Majesty the Tsaritsa forgive me. I haven't told anyone else what I found — I didn't see any reason to worry them. The goat was delicious as ever — that itself was enough. As soon as Professor Karnatsky is done with his research, we can leave this accursed place behind...

Private's Notes (III)

To...

Well, I don't know who I can even write to. Maybe I should address this to myself. To prove that — before this land and its abominations consumed me utterly — my pitiful, fragile mind was, for a moment, still my own.

My name is Pyotr Dmitriyevich Orlov. I hail from the 6th Company, deployed to Nod-Krai in service to Snezhnaya and our Tsaritsa. I am the second son of Dmitriy Sergeyevich Orlov and Yevfrosinya Ivanovna Orlova. I am unashamed of my birth. Our entire company was wiped out here. Only Private E. Smirnova escaped the gorge at the cost of Fourrier A. Volkov's life to send the Design Bureau a distress call from dead men and women. If you find this piece of paper, please hand it to my superiors. Inform them that Private Smirnova was no deserter — nor was she complicit in the calamity that befell us here.

A. Z. Karnatsky and V. A. Preobrazhensky... it was their dastardly experiments that birthed the catastrophe here. They are dead. May Her Majesty curse their deaths — may they never rest in the pure snowfields. I don't know what blasphemy they committed, nor do I wish to. That... "color" devoured everything. There's nothing left. Nothing at all. They were inside those damned rocks at first. Those detestable rocks. Those detestable rocks that fell from the moon. Karnatsky and Preobrazhensky awoke them, each in turn... (This is followed by a dozen or so counts of barely legible and base vulgarities.) I don't know what they want. They are coming. Dearest Paraskeviya, my Parashka, please forgive your big brother. Your Majesty, forgive me in all things... They are coming. Save me. They are coming. I don't want to die I don't want to die I dontwanttodieidontwanttodiedontwanttodiedontwanttodiedontwantto

Trivia

• The full version of A. Z. Karnatsky's initials, Anton Zarkovich, is revealed in Preobrazhensky's Messily Written Note, found in an area unlocked during Blues of the Old World.
• An offhanded reference to this incident is made during the World Quest The Shoemaker's Children Go Barefoot in Series East of the Moon, West of the Sun. The Design Bureau's archives contain a volume entitled "Staff Casualty, Reward, and Punishment Records," and the Traveler internally remarks that "the section about Nothing Passage is quite intriguing."

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