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Z the IVth posted:So that Aztec corp lady just dropped a third of a month's salary to get her place of work blown up? That sounds surprisingly cheap. Well, maybe. She's probably in the 10k nuyen range, and corps tend to pay their internal employees in scrip as opposed to nuyen - the exchange rates are deliberately bad, to keep them spending in-network.
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May 3, 2020 17:10
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System Metternich posted:The rules give numbers for the monthly expenses runners can/should have and what sort of lifestyle they buy. According to this, 2000 nuyen/month means belonging to the lower classes - you are poor, but unlikely to starve and you've got a roof above your head. 5000 per month means belonging to the middle class, 10,000 is the upper class and 100,000 is simply called "luxury" There's an optional rule that lets you permanently buy a lifestyle with no further costs if you can front 100 monthly payments. So you can optionally retire in the upper class if you manage to bank a million without getting caught.
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May 3, 2020 22:26
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paragon1 posted:without getting caught. See, that's the tricky part. Corps have very long memories when it comes to the kind of runs that pay enough to retire off of. There's many a shadowrunner whose managed to live the dream, get enough and retire to a lovely high rise apartment in a nice city. And then five years later they've lost their edge and get hit by the wrong identity check. A week later one of the local corp offices files an invoice for 50 nuyen worth of ammo with accounting, one of their security teams puts in an hour of overtime, and an old file gets closed.
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May 4, 2020 00:58
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Stroth posted:See, that's the tricky part. Corps have very long memories when it comes to the kind of runs that pay enough to retire off of. There's a really poignant little side paragraph in Gibson's _Neuromancer_ about that. One of the main characters talks to the protagonist about how she and her boyfriend once scored a big hit on what turned out to be the Yakuza, and thought they'd gotten away with it. But it turned out the Yakuza were just waiting for them to have something worth losing. So they "got away clean", got themselves a nice apartment in a nice suburb somewhere, and one day when she came back home her boyfriend was sitting on the couch and his head was sitting on the table.
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May 4, 2020 11:36
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And his name was Johnny Mnemonic.
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May 4, 2020 13:34
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Hannibal Rex posted:And his name was Johnny Mnemonic. Whoa. (Gibson protagonist have pretty variable luck after their stories conclude, from being brutally murdered to happily retiring and getting entirely out of the game. Johnny's big mistake was continuing to blackmail people after the initial mess ended. Extortionists are the classic victim in detective stories for a reason.)
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May 5, 2020 03:05
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I think I've read a few stories about Shadowrun games where the PCs were hired to "retire" someone who had retired. At least, there's the idea of a rocket launcher fired into a penthouse from an adjacent rooftop in my head, and that feels very Shadowrun. It might be the setup for a d20 Modern adventure, though, I was looking into both systems at around the same time.
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May 9, 2020 15:18
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I think it's generally bad form to pinch other 'Runners, but it certainly does happen. It's most likely a Johnson wouldn't explain who was getting geeked: they'd just hire it out as a regular assassination that pays a little extra. But Penthouse-to-penthouse RPGs aren't that uncommon, if you don't mind going loud
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May 9, 2020 16:15
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Best move in that deal is to cut a side deal with the runner to be geeked, and fake their death really convincingly.
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May 14, 2020 18:44
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habeasdorkus posted:Best move in that deal is to cut a side deal with the runner to be geeked, and fake their death really convincingly. I'm now trying to imagine a campaign where the runners have been hired to carry out their own assassinations.
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May 14, 2020 18:46
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Soylent Pudding posted:I'm now trying to imagine a campaign where the runners have been hired to carry out their own assassinations. I have heard stories where the PC's decided the best course of action was to fake their own deaths in such a way that they could collect their own bounties.
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May 14, 2020 18:57
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I dont know posted:I have heard stories where the PC's decided the best course of action was to fake their own deaths in such a way that they could collect their own bounties. I was thinking something along the lines of the hot being subcontracted from Johnson to Johnson so many times the sub sub sub sub contractor doesn't realize they hired the targets to carry out a hit on themselves. And neither to the players for a while.
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May 14, 2020 19:37
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Soylent Pudding posted:I'm now trying to imagine a campaign where the runners have been hired to carry out their own assassinations. I had a campaign where the runners got a 2 million bounty put on their heads, and then the person who put the bounty on their heads became a political prisoner in the JIS. They ended up getting hired by the original bounty placer to bust them out of prison in exchange for withdrawal of the bounty and a cool million.
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May 14, 2020 19:40
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Can I just say, Kanfy, that I got an account here just for this LP and that it makes the whole situation outdoors a bit more bearable for me? I look forward to your updates every day because they make me smile and forget about the world outside. Also, you inspired me to finally start DMing my own Shadowrun campaign which, due to an unforeseen influx of players, is currently featuring a 7-person party of total misfits. So... thanks, I guess.
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May 14, 2020 20:07
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Jernaugh posted:Can I just say, Kanfy, that I got an account here just for this LP and that it makes the whole situation outdoors a bit more bearable for me? I look forward to your updates every day because they make me smile and forget about the world outside. Glad to hear it's making things at least a little easier for you and I hope you'll have fun with the campaign on your side too, though you know times are tough when Shadowrun becomes one's main destination of choice to escape the bleakness of reality.  I had kind of an unproductive last couple of weeks myself, but we'll have the next update sooner rather than later.
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May 15, 2020 09:25
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Dareon posted:At least, there's the idea of a rocket launcher fired into a penthouse from an adjacent rooftop in my head, and that feels very Shadowrun. That was Gibson. Either Count Zero or Mona-Lisa Overdrive iirc.
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May 15, 2020 10:14
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I dont know posted:I have heard stories where the PC's decided the best course of action was to fake their own deaths in such a way that they could collect their own bounties. I heard a story about Dark Heresy where the players were posing as the crew of a starship while trying to hunt down a group of assassins; the captain was oblivious to the whole scenario. Eventually they realised that the problem they were having was that the assassins were always able to use the terrain to their advantage -- so they figured, best to lure them onto their ship where they'd know the layout better than the assassins. But the only way the assassins would turn up was for a mission, and they'd need a sufficiently high-ranking target or it'd lack verisimilitude. And that's how a party of PCs ended up taking a hit out on their own captain.
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May 15, 2020 12:26
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The Lone Badger posted:That was Gibson. Either Count Zero or Mona-Lisa Overdrive iirc. end of count zero had that, but it was a sequence of shells rather than a single RPG and for some reason i'm picturing just a single big blast
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May 15, 2020 15:35
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Is it possible to save the kids without Marta? Or is Marta essential to making sure the kids get out?
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May 16, 2020 17:59
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gyrobot posted:Is it possible to save the kids without Marta? Or is Marta essential to making sure the kids get out? Marta isn't essential for anything, she just helps avoid clashes with the acolytes if you explore those rooms after she's joined. Whether or not the initiates (and any surviving acolytes) are saved is entirely determined by whether you go for the redemption or revenge path. She gets like one short line at the end of the redemption path, the default assumption was clearly that for most players she would've either died or fled by that point.
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May 16, 2020 21:02
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Re: Aztech retaliation. I always thought of it as being a sliding scale of how hosed you are. If you hit a third level subsidiary in bumfuck nowhere for a sneak peak at their quarterly reports the response is going to be different depending on the corp - ARES might just chalk it up to the price of business, beef up security, and maybe circulate CCTV images to other local sites, etc. If anything they're going to be more interested in who commissioned the run. But if you did the same to Aztech their corporate culture demands that the manager of that facility is getting screamed at by his regional manager to find who did it and put a bullet in them. They're not sending their tier 0 blood mage hitsquads from the black sites in Tenochtitlan to shoot your dog - but they are absolutely putting discreet feelers out on Shadowland and trying to buy hits on you. It's the sort of retaliation that is going to make you think long and hard about taking that run, but not a guaranteed death sentence for a competent and professional team - or for a team that has nothing to lose and is prepared to ditch town afterwards. But if you take a run against Aztech in Aztlan itself? Lol.
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May 19, 2020 20:22
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communism bitch posted:But if you take a run against Aztech in Aztlan itself? Lol. There are much better ways to end your life, like maybe kicking a dragon up the arse.
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May 20, 2020 08:26
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An Extras section longer than the actual update, what hath science wrought.
Kanfy fucked around with this message at 20:23 on May 20, 2020 |
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May 20, 2020 20:15
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Part 62 - Going Software NEW MUSIC: .jpg) (Guess it's the better of the two ambient Memories, though not exactly the longest or smoothest loop even by the standards of these themes chopped off of larger tracks.)     A straightforward plan, a soft target, no Johnson involved to conveniently leave out critical information, what more could a runner hope for? Well payment, sure, this is more of an investment towards the main course, but it's pleasant to do some plain dishonest shadowrunning work without a dozen strings attached. Let's get things underway, starting from finding this service door.  All quiet in the hallway. This isn't some military bunker or top secret research facility so being spotted shouldn't be the end of the world, though clashing with security is something we'd rather avoid even though it's not strictly required. A triggered alarm is just one of those things which actively makes everyone's day worse regardless of which side of the law they stand on.  Oop. Speaking of...  At least it's not a guard. What to do about this guy though?  Stealth isn't really our forte, unless you count every witness being dead as a technical success on that front. We're pretty good at flapping our gums though, so maybe we can simply convince him we're supposed to be here. Surely nobody who was really up to no good would be so stupidly brazen as to just stroll up to an employee and say hello. Let's just approach him.   It's like a CYOA book over here already, or an RPG of some sort. Let's just keep it cool, wait for him to turn around. Confidence is key here.   Whoa now, somebody's feeling twitchy. Come now, we're not carrying any visible weapons and we're even wearing a suit, we couldn't look more like a wagesl-, er, an esteemed employee of this fine company if we tried. Which we didn't, proper disguises just never seem to fit in our budget.  (Charisma 4) Sorry to've startled you! My name's Julie. I'm the new contractor. Just wanted to stop by and say hello. Oh! Well. Hello, then. I'm Klaus.[He glances at his PDA.] Good God, I could've clocked out an hour ago. Well, pleasure meeting you, Julie... and good night. G'night, Klaus. Well that was easy. Herr Klaus strolls out of the building none the wiser of our intentions, and we even pick up a free Karma point for cleanly avoiding an alarm. There's a door off-screen behind where he was working, but we should probably join with our team before wandering around too much.  We do take a quick peek at the room behind us though, which reveals a security checkpoint watched by a pair of combat drones. Kind of nostalgic, even though they're clearly no Prime and Jade Rabbit.  Even the drones seem a little on edge in this place. We got that fake ID from Paul but it doesn't seem to be good enough to fool these tin buckets. Just as well for the time being though since that's not where our team is.  Continuing down the hallway, we see a meeting room through a window and another door behind it. Maybe something to check later, for now we'll head on towards the service door which should be right through here.  Very good, the storage room at the back is as empty as a wageslave's hopes for the future. Let's get that door open.  That's step one complete. Now we at the very least have the firepower to brute force this thing should poo poo end up hitting the fan.  And apparently some higher power is already preparing to take aim with a wad of fresh produce as immediately after we get our crew members inside, a nearby door opens and an employee enters the room.   Oh, excuse me! You startled me there. Who are you, exactly? And how did you get into this building?Unfortunately our pet project of training cybernetically enhanced moles to dig entrance tunnels for us is still at the concept stage, so for now we remain stuck using doors. But that's probably not the answer you're looking for. (Corporate) We're new... they just brought us on as QA testers for the Ares project. Oh! Well, welcome aboard... from what I've heard about QA testing, I don't envy you. The guys back in the server room will appreciate your presence, I'm sure. Oh, I'm sure that we'll make quite an impression. Thanks! What was your name, by the way? I'd love to tell Management how helpful you've been. Oh! I'm Jessie. Jessie Sanders.[She waves at you.] Pleasure meeting you! I'm sure I'll catch you around. We're so slick we could probably get into politics and start committing some real crimes, but we'll make do with another point of Karma. Let's accept Jessie's invitation and check the door she came in through.  There's clearly nobody here, either Mandy got hit by sudden stomach cramps and had to bolt or the janitor's been wearing inadequate protection around chemical fumes. There is the meeting room door we saw through the window earlier, a couple of locked doors and a jack-in point though. Now we could have Blitz use that last one to open the Executive Door leading to the server room, but that'd require fighting through some cybersecurity which is always a wearisome affair so we'll leave that as a Plan B. Instead we backtrack to the room where Klaus was working and investigate the door that was past him.  Behind it we find a small personal office with all kinds of things to look at. Let's give our eyeballs a workout.     Nothing of any obvious value so far.  You're the only one who can redeem this room and deliver it from mediocrity, desk. Don't let auntie Rosa down now.     Oh? Got something to hide?   Breaking things is definitely fun, but sadly we literally cannot do it as it requires 5 Strength and this is one of those times where we're arbitrarily incapable of just having Eiger do it for us.   That sure was the least useful Intelligence check in a while too seeing as the terminal's the only other thing we can interact with anyway.   Unlike with Eiger and the desk we could just have Blitz crack this thing, but let's see if we can't figure this out ourselves first in case he sets the building on fire somehow. First, we need to figure out the correct username for which we're helpfully provided a list of choices.  Obvious enough, seeing we already know this desk belongs to a Steven Williams. No clue if there are some kind of references in these names aside from the obvious one for Mr./Mrs. Johnson. Next is a 4-digit passcode.  This one's easy enough to guess as well, after all it was literally circled several times on the wall right there. That girl's birthday was June 29th so it should be "0629", though it's a little weird that he'd write the month before the day like some UCAS heathen. Maybe it was for extra security, lord knows these companies and their reliance on 4-digit passkeys and single-word passwords could use some of that.  Magic, diplomacy, computers, we're practically a full team of specialists all on our own.     Very nice, this should hopefully get us past those electronic watchdogs in the other room and spare us the trouble of having to hack open that Executive Door.  Hopefully they don't have the capacity to be suspicious of our meteoric rise through the company ranks.   Don't mind if we do.  ...And we get to take about two steps into the room before being spotted by some actual guards. Rats.  Oh this guy's definitely a rookie, nobody maintains that level of passion for security work for long before the ennui inevitably seeps into their soul and erodes it from within. We could probably fool him with the badge we stole, but it could get awkward if he examines it too closely in his protective zeal. Let's see if we can't simply talk our way through this as well. (Security) I don't have a company ID. I was sent here by Knight Errant Dispatch to check on the status of the patch. Dispatch?[The guard sounds both confused and frightened.] Look, it's my first day, but... the Captain didn't say anything about-- I don't question Dispatch, son. They say jump, I jump. But I-- Look, you wanna step out of my way? We need to jack in to that console behind you and verify that the patch is ready for release.[After a long pause, he stammers out a response.] Yeah... yeah, okay. You go ahead and do what you need to do. But don't leave this room, you hear? I want to keep an eye on you. Don't worry, we won't. And so we've made it to the belly of the beast and convinced everyone we totally have the owner's permission to take a sharp stick to its innards. There's that Executive Door we saw from the other side earlier, alongside two other doors.  The northern one leads to the drone control center, but seeing as the only drones we've seen are perfectly chill with us we don't seem to have much business there.  No label on this one. Maybe those guys won't notice if we...  Look, I really need to get through here. Would you mind...? I can't help you, ma'am. You're cleared to be in this room, but only under direct supervision, and we can't leave our posts to escort you into the other room.[He sounds uncertain - and suspicious.] You just stay in this room, all right? Check your software from where you're at and leave, or I'll have to call this in to Central.If he does that we're busted for sure. It was just idle curiosity anyway, if Blitz can access the file through the Matrix here then we have everything we need already. Ease down. I'll do what I need to do from here. Alright Blitz, don't gently caress this up for us. Gotta say though, there's something extra satisfying about committing crimes right under the watchful eye of those whose job is preventing them. If only we could always live in such mutual harmony.   Short ways into his cyberjourney Blitz finds himself harassed by some White ICs, because every pleasant picnic needs its mosquitoes to put a damper on the experience.  They're not a major threat against the power of friendship of course, even if the friends in question are digital fabrications and one of them only really exists to explode violently.  Much like with actual mosquitoes though, you can swat them all day but new ones will just keep appearing to annoy you.  Out of the way now, Matrix combat continues to not be very interesting so let's just get this over with as fast as we can. Which is less fast than anyone'd like because these things seem weirdly durable today, taking a whole bunch of hits before going down.  Ah come on, three waves of IC in the first room? We did such an admirable job avoiding having to kill anyone in the real world too.  Another few rounds of bits blowing bits into bits later, Blitz first heads through the area's southern pathway.  On the other side is a data node and, you guessed it, more IC. This habit of forced combat even when taking a non-combat approach is at least one of the things Hong Kong improved upon somewhat.  As before fighting them off is more tedious than difficult, though the Exploder ESP does fall victim to their shots before getting to go out with a proper bang. Oh well, that thing only has 50 IP and all IC attack it pretty much exclusively regardless of distance or hit chances, so it was there largely as bait anyway.   Been a while since we last got our hands on some paydata. We also earn yet another point of Karma for some reason, they just really like drip-feeding that stuff in this mission.  Backtracking to the previous room and taking the northern gateway leads to today's target... and more IC, this time two melee and one charging Sparky.  As a side note, while we've been skipping all the actual fights against the IC in the LP itself because it's really not interesting, it was mentioned earlier that the IC here seem strangely hard to kill.  The reason for that is that all the basic melee and ranged IC in this mission sport a flat 80 boost to their IP. The extra fun part is that Blitz deals exactly 75 damage per hit with most of his attacks, so a boost of 80 is just enough to make every IC take two extra hits from him to go down. And with a common base of 150 IP at this level they often survive with exactly 5 points which is just plain rude. But, Blitz perseveres, slowly grinds through this final batch, and clears his way to the node.  Except approaching the node from either side actually spawns one last IC to block his way. Why?! A single IC isn't even a threat, it just makes this take very slightly longer! Screw whichever designer was feeling extra dickish the day they were tasked to put this Matrix bit together.  Get out of here.  With the final pesky obstacle out of the way, Blitz reaches the node for real this time.  And with remarkably little fanfare he erases the data or whatever it was he did, and we are finished here. All that's left is to escape.  And seeing as we never triggered an alarm, we "escape" simply by waltzing out the service door right past building security. Not exactly a flashy movie finish, but you can definitely appreciate the occasional low-key ending in this line of work.  .jpg)  We get additional 4 Karma for finishing the run for a total of 7, not bad for a night's work indeed. We're just making a quick stop here before moving on to the main course though.   As soon as you're finished resupplying, I'd recommend heading directly to the Jewühl District. Jewühl District? A commercial district shared by a variety of competing corporate interests. Aztechnology controls the largest share of the district, including the major utilities that serve it. You will find the facility that you'll be raiding there. Got it. Once you arrive, I'll do my best to keep you appraised of Knight Errant's movements. Finding a quiet way into the facility will be your job... without eyes on the ground, I'm afraid that I won't be of much help. So in other words there's a "no party deaths" -clause for this one. Hasn't really been an issue so far anyway, especially in this age of auto-triggered Trauma Kits things have already gone pretty far south by the time someone goes down and nobody manages to revive them on time. No medevac for this run. Got it. ...She recorded us having a conversation about razing down an Aztechnology building? Lady better be real goddamn sure that won't end up in the wrong hands, which in this case encompasses practically all the hands imaginable. What does that mean for me? If our client is to be believed, you will have the necessary access to open the door. The rest of your team, however, will not. When you reach that door, I'd recommend grouping up. Only you can open it, and there's no saying what you'll find on the other side. Frau Müller didn't tell you? Unfortunately, no. Since your meeting, her messages have been... erratic. In truth, I'm not sure that she knows. But she was very clear about one thing: you're going to have to get past that door to reach the generators. I'm not crazy about all of these new details coming in. She should have briefed me about all of this earlier. Agreed. Our "Frau Müller" is clearly out of her depth. That said, we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place. We desperately need the money she's paying for this job, and we've already committed ourselves by attacking OTK. Despite her lack of professionalism, we need to press forward, and that means that you're going to need to get past that door. Go now, Rosa. We need to strike while the iron is hot. I'm on it. Just a quick stop in the shadowy lands before we get going again.   Post and make money, ain't that the dream.  Alright, let's do this thing.  Crew's the same as before. Bringing a decker is outright mandatory this time though let's face it, you kind of want a decker in practically every run anyway.  Not only is this looking to be the biggest job we've done to date, if all goes smoothly it will also be our last one before we can finally pay Alice what she's asking for. If all doesn't go smoothly, well, then you can cut that sentence off at "our last one" because whether we're caught in an exploding building or by the azzies themselves, our remains won't have enough intact bones left for Firewing to use as a toothpick.  We'll have a little more in-depth of an Extras sections than usual, partly since the run itself was so simple and also to show off the fact that they managed to stuff a lot of dialogue and interaction into a pair of portraitless NPCs.  First of all, just to quickly cover the loud way of doing things, if you at any point trigger an alarm or don't have a decker with you, your only option is to manually destroy the servers located behind that one door we weren't allowed through while facing several waves of enemies.  This is also where the drone control room has relevance as an enemy rigger will attempt to use the console within to send additional drones into the fight. A friendly rigger can also make use of it to have the two drones next to the physical servers destroy them, to destroy hostile drones themselves by overloading the system, or to turn the drones against the guards, in increasing order of Drone Control difficulty. Once the servers are destroyed escaping the building will finish the mission as before, just with a lot more harassment from security. Now on to alternate dialogue and other choices which weren't covered, and we have a couple of serious heavyweights with us today. We'll start with Klaus. If instead of approaching him or trying to sneak up on him, we simply ignore him and keep going:  Nothing happens, though he also doesn't go anywhere so the supervisor ID remains out of reach until he's dealt with. Launching ourselves at him in an attempt to take him out is an option pretty much at every stage, but let's cover the stealth approach a.k.a. Hitman: The Text Adventure here first, starting from trying to sneak up behind him:  This is more or less the same situation as if we had approached him normally. If in response we turn and run:  This locks us out of the room and turns the place hostile from the get-go which is not exactly optimal. If we're sneaking (as opposed to having approached him) we can instead take a Quickness 4 option to duck and hide behind the nearest desk:  Now we can continue sneaking toward the wageslave:  Here we have three more choices. With Close Combat 4 we can choke him unconscious:   As a sidenote this is one of the approaches which allows us to take his lab coat and use it as a disguise for later. Instead of choking him, we can also break his neck (which interestingly does not have a stat or skill requirement):  Finally, we can tap him on the shoulder:  [Offer him your hand to help him up.] Sorry to startle you! I'm new here, and I just wanted to introduce myself. You're going to give somebody a heart attack, sneaking around like that! Not the best way to make a first impression.[He rubs his knee with a scowl.] All right, new lady. What's your name? Julie. I'm a contractor. Look. I've been here for 36 hours, and I was supposed to clock out 45 minutes ago. Do you need something from me? Because if you don't, I'm out of here. Nothing that can't wait until morning. Go get some rest. You look like you could use it. Now we can simply let him go like before, but let's instead of show off the less subtle method which as mentioned one can go for more or less at any point. We launch ourselves at him as he turns his back.  Again with Close Combat 4 we can try to knock him unconscious:  Or alternatively attempt to wrestle him to the ground:  Something to note is that this approach does not allow for taking his lab coat (nor does it award Karma), presumably because of the blood. Now interestingly there are two more choices here and they're somewhat unusual in that instead of skills, they require certain mage spells. We can cast the AP-draining Stunbolt: quote:
Or the damage-dealing Manabolt (not to be confused with the Mage base weapon Powerbolt): quote:
Alright, now we're finally done tormenting poor Klaus. The only thing left to cover about him is a slightly different variation of the the Charisma 4 choice we took after having approached him normally: quote:
Now let's move on to Jessie the janitor. There are basically two main paths with her, one where we have Klaus' lab coat and one where we don't. We'll start from the former which was the case in the update proper. quote:
Now attacking her is an option, but that just immediately triggers an alarm. We used the Corporate etiquette to easily sway her before, but there are two other choices as well of which each branch a bit before eventually merging. Here's the first: quote:
Three choices here, of which #1 and #2 lead to the same outcome: quote:
Two options here. #1: quote:
An alarm and snark from the narration, ouch. #2: quote:
Three choices from here (which is going to be something of a pattern), though all with the same result: quote:
And that finishes the conversation with no alarm and a Karma point in the bag just like before. Now let's go back a couple of steps and take the third option which is a little more convincing: quote:
Three choices here, of which #1 just leads to her reaching for the alarm again: quote:
#2 is a Charisma check: quote:
Another successful conclusion. #3 goes on for a bit longer: quote:
Here's a neat thing about this choice: It works (and leads to the "she lets her guard down" conclusion from above) immediately if, and only if, you're doing the mission solo: quote:
Otherwise it doesn't fly quite as easily: quote:
Three choices, again, of which #1 leads to her reaching for the alarm, again: quote:
#2 and #3 both work better: quote:
Lastly we hop back to the beginning of the conversation but instead of lying about being the dev lead's dorm buddy, we go for a different lie: quote:
#1 is the obligatory alarm panel pick: quote:
Weak. #2 works and pretty much jumps to the end of this conversation: quote:
#3 is a more involved path: quote:
And three choices again. How do we get to the alarm panel this time you ask? #1: quote:
The other two lead to the same successful conclusion we've covered already, just from slightly different angles: #2: quote:
#3: quote:
And both lead to quote:[She offers you a weak smile.] Phew. Okay, one more thing to cover with her, the path where we took Klaus out and are wearing his lab coat. Again, this path would skip some steps were we doing this solo.  quote:
Three choices (plus attacking her) again. #1 and #2 both jump ahead to the part where she'll ask about our teammates: quote:
quote:
#3 takes a longer way there: quote:
Three choices, two of which work right away. #1: quote:
#2: quote:
#3 is more involved: quote:
Three choices as is tradition, except this time both #1 and #2 lead to alarmpanelville: quote:
Only #3 avoids that: quote:
One last set of three choices, two of which end the conversation: quote:
And third which fucks it up at the last second: quote:
And that's it for the chatty janitor. Almost there! The last person to cover is the server room guard and he fortunately has much less to say because we're running out of space here. He also doesn't care about either our disguise or our party size. quote:
We used the Security etiquette to fool him but there are two other options (plus attacking him right away). We can simply show the ID we stole which does indeed work somehow: quote:
Or else: quote:
And to wrap up this record long Extras section, trying to insist on entering the server room despite the guard's threats: quote:
Kanfy fucked around with this message at 11:12 on Jun 18, 2020 |
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May 20, 2020 20:16
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drat, that's pretty in depth! And if you're going to show off that much for this run, I feel like you're really having your work cut out for you once this hits the main show.
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May 21, 2020 05:17
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bewilderment posted:drat, that's pretty in depth! Eh we'll scale things accordingly, there isn't that much else going on in this run so might as well be thorough with it instead and show off just how much they stuffed into two generic NPCs here.
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May 21, 2020 07:32
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Was this run original game content or written by someone different? Because it feels a lot different than some of the other stuff, which might be Director's Cut related. The boosted HP on the proliferating IC especially feels like a newbie mistake one does because "this is an end-game mission."
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May 21, 2020 08:14
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It was in the original release.
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May 21, 2020 17:48
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There are definitely different people writing different missions which I can tell by the fact that some (like this one) use ’ instead of ' as apostrophes or the single … instead of ... as ellipses, and the former gets caught in editor's spell checker. As minor trivia there is an older and simpler version of the Klaus interaction/dialogue tree in the files, though that's there in the original's editor as well so I'm not sure why no one bothered deleting it any point.
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May 21, 2020 21:12
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It's weird how many diverging paths this mission has considering its small relevance to the plot. I was mildly curious about what I missed since it's so thorough, and even though it's a quick one I never bothered because... Well, we're about to run on Aztech. Both times I played I wanted to be done with my vegetables so I could get to the dessert already. The wonders of an LP!
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May 22, 2020 10:38
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By popular demand posted:There are much better ways to end your life, like maybe kicking a dragon up the arse. I imagine you'll get away with it by the sheer audacity stunning everyone into thinking it never happened until Lofwyr interrupts a stockholders meeting to declare "HE DID KICK ME UP THE ARSE!"
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May 22, 2020 13:56
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Kanfy posted:There are definitely different people writing different missions which I can tell by the fact that some (like this one) use ’ instead of ' as apostrophes or the single … instead of ... as ellipses, and the former gets caught in editor's spell checker. In the commentary for one of the HK missions I think the designer remarks that he was responsible for the first draft of the entire mission, from concept to layout to encounter design. Possibly script too? The impression I got was that this was pretty standard - so maybe the story would call for x numbers of missions with vague themes and objectives, and then those broad concepts would be farmed out to individual designers who would have to implement basically everything themselves.
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May 23, 2020 11:24
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So the reception for this office is down the hallway from the entrance, through the supply room, after the main office areas?
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May 23, 2020 21:09
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HardDiskD posted:So the reception for this office is down the hallway from the entrance, through the supply room, after the main office areas? Look, when that one hypercorp that does Feng Shui starts building their offices like that, you don't just blindly assume that the blueprints your runner snaffled were placed in an intentionally low security datanode as a honeytrap. Alternately, we came in an employee entrance, reception is obvs for clients.
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May 25, 2020 09:58
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Dareon posted:Look, when that one hypercorp that does Feng Shui starts building their offices like that, you don't just blindly assume that the blueprints your runner snaffled were placed in an intentionally low security datanode as a honeytrap. We definitely waltzed in through the front, it says as much in the beginning. There are definitely some discrepancies in this mission, it's possible the layout ended up different than was originally planned and the dialogue didn't get changed to reflect that. Amongst other things there's also the mention of the janitor "standing in a hallway" even though we encountered her when she walked into the storage room, and a fair amount of dialogue focusing on her letting us in through the door to the reception even though the door isn't locked, there's another open door nearby leading to the same room, and there's nothing of significance in that room anyway if you find the supervisor ID.
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May 25, 2020 10:45
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Part 63 - Out for Blood .jpg)  Well, here we are. This is one job that's guaranteed to make some headlines, the only part still up in the air is whether that'll be in the news or the more literal kind on the wall of some Azzie executive's gold-plated trophy room.   Quiet out here. [He shakes his head.] That ain't livin', love. It's a slow death. Makes my skin crawl just thinking about it.Starting things off with talk about dying slowly is really not the mood we're looking to set here, Dietrich.  Our main objective is finding and overloading the building's on-site power generators, supposedly located in the sub-basement which is protected amongst other things by a voiceprint recognition system. Protected so well in fact, that even our client doesn't know exactly what else is going to be down there. Taking into consideration the nature of our target and "Frau Müller"'s nebulous horror stories about this Bloodline project, it's probably not where they're running their illegal high-stakes bumper car circuits. Also no medevac because there's not gonna be enough intacts bits left of anyone to carry back once the building goes, meaning no one's allowed to go down permanently. We didn't bring our medic but we're otherwise pretty loaded with medkits and trauma kits, and we're going to do our best to avoid fights anyway. We don't really need to add a KE High Response Team on our pile of problems and our earlier delay tactics will only keep them away for so long. Of course none of that is relevant until we figure out a way to get inside the compound, so let's start by working on that.  First things first, we were once told to keep an eye out for pay phones in strategic locations like this one, and sure enough...  Message from the Schockwellenreiter posted:
 By project data, are we talking that project data? As in, the project supposedly so dangerous to the world at large that we're here to raze an entire corporate building in order to bury it? Guess technically we're only getting paid to bring down the structure itself, but if this thing really is bad news on that kind of scale then releasing it to the public just might be stupid enough to outweigh even our own greed for the reward money. Guess we'll see.  A few moments later, as we're walking towards the building...  Oh, great. What, the Lodge want their greasy tendrils on Bloodline too? Also, not buying that bit about "sonorous voice", no way this muppet's voice resembles anything but a seagull on helium.  You are in an Aztechnology facility, yes? Well, that facility is also home to an executive. A small man who foolishly believes that he is beyond our reach. In this, he is mistaken. We would like you to deliver a message to this effect. What kind of message are we talking about here?Is this a "message" in the same vein as that trip to Hermes Eurocom was supposed to be just for "surveillance"? Granted, this time we're looking to blow up a lot more than just one office, but at least the word "explosion" is clearly spelled out in that plan. We underlined it with a red sharpie ourselves. It's a good word.  And that's all there is to it. A simple job, but an important one. I have already marked your target's current location on your PDA. We have great faith in you, Rosa... please don't disappoint us. Are they aware that if the guy is indeed inside this building, he's about to be considerably further out of reach than he is now? It's probably safe to assume that they do, in which case maybe this request serves no other purpose but to gently caress with this corp executive and make him sweat a bit more in his final hours. ...We can kind of get behind that, actually. Didn't expect to get a more agreeable request from the Lodge than the Schockwellenreiter, but here we are.  As we reach the building's front entrance which somehow manages to look even more forbidding than Feuerstelle's, we get another call.  All right, Rosa. That's the Aztechnology complex, just in front of you. You'll note the heavy security posted at the front door. Those are Aztechnology employees. Dangerous, to be sure, but you could probably take them without too much difficulty. Unfortunately, the Azzies have also contracted Knight Errant to protect this facility. They're the ones that we need to worry about. We're well aware Paul, we didn't pay a visit to OTK just for the metacommentary on the harsh realities of video game development. If you do need to go loud, give it everything you've got. You're going to be reducing the building to a smoldering crater anyway. But I'd highly recommend stealth over a frontal assault. We won't start shooting until we run out of words. Good woman. I'd begin by trying to find an alternative path into the building... something out of sight. Once the facility calls for help, you're going to be on a tight timetable. Let's try some of our famous words on the captain here, maybe she happens to have an open door policy.  This is a secure facility, ma'am. Show your ID or move along.Maybe not. We actually do have the option to throw the plan in the trash right away and go for an open frontal assault, but let's avoid giving Paul an aneurysm and look for a quieter way in. Maybe we'll find an Elixir in the stairwell. No worries, ma'am. I was just out for a walk.  Following the good captain's friendly advice, we continue on until we find ourselves at two divergent paths. It's not really in the direction of where we're supposed to be going, but while we're scouting we might as well see if there's anything of interest past the open gate to the southeast first.  This definitely ain't it, by the looks of it the only explosion this dive could help induce is of the intestinal kind. Nice solar panel setup though.  Some people out here too, and not corp employees either from the looks of it.     On the streets, yeah. But against the Azzies? I... I just don't know.Oh? What's this about the Azzies now?  She'll be okay.[Brave words, but her tone tells a different story. It's plain as day that she's worried sick.] Oh, man. I don't know what to do, Mira. And I still say that messing with the Azzies was a *bad* idea. What else were we supposed to do? That compound of theirs is lit up like a goddamned Christmas tree. They've got more power than they know what to do with.Well it's their lucky day, because we're here to show them this one crazy trick on utilizing excess energy to considerably cut down all future project expenses by fundamentally rearranging their corporate structure from the ground up. And the ground down. We need that juice, Heimer. Our solar collectors are *garbage.* If we can't keep the lights on after a few days of cloud cover, how do you think we're going to survive the winter? I know, Mira. I *know.* But couldn't we have just bought some secondhand panels? They can't be *that* expensive. [She sighs.] We could have, sure. Before Danni spent our last handful of nuyen on those forged keycards.[She straightens up. Puts on a brave face.] She'll be fine. She'll be back any second now. Just you wait.Sounds like we're not the only ones interested in Aztechnology power sources tonight. Maybe we can help each other out.  Evening, fellow conspirators.  Couldn't help overhearing you two. Going up against Aztechnology, huh? We're not "going up against" anything.[She gestures broadly at her own body.] Do we *look* like shadowrunners to you?Maybe? We don't exactly have official uniforms in this line of work. Hell, apparently one runner stopped a serial killer in Seattle not that long ago while sporting a full tourist getup for some reason, gaudy Aloha shirt, socks in sandals, the whole shebang. All kinds of weirdos out there. We're just, uh, improvising. Trying to stay in business.[He gives Mira a significant glance.] The only way we can. You kids are gonna get yourselves killed. Look, lady. We're just trying to keep our business running. [She nods.] That place is everything to us. We live there, we work there. It's all that we've got. If we can't keep the shop open, all of that goes away. We're all out on the street, broke, in the dead of winter. We're doing this because we don't have a choice. Heimer! ...But she doesn't know the first thing about dealing with corp security. And Danni knows even less about splicing into power lines. Confidence can only carry you so far.[He looks down at Mira and shakes his head.] I'm sorry, Mira, but I can't afford to be optimistic. And to be honest, you can't, either. Danni needs help, whether you want to admit it or not.[The facade cracks, and Mira's face crumples.] ...Yeah. I know. So... can you help us? We need that power, and we need Danni back. I don't think we're gonna get either without your help.We're kind of in the middle of something, but guess we could spare a bit of our time to help pull their friend out of hot water. Could well be that they're going to need a new power plan soon anyway. If it's bad for the Azzies, it's good for us. We'll help you out.   This'll get you into the utility tunnel. Danni went down there about a half an hour ago. She said she'd be back in ten minutes. Find her for us, okay? Please, bring her back safe. Not going to make any safety guarantees we can't keep, but we'll take a look. This should be the utility tunnel hatch right here.    There we go. Not the first time we're descending into a dark tunnel in behalf of someone worried about their buddy who hasn't come back from there, let's just hope this one won't turn out to be a ghoul hangout. .jpg)  No one near the entrance at least, in one piece or otherwise.  They clearly knew at least something about electronics to have busted through this lock.  Hello? Speak up if you're still alive, we have a schedule to keep. You know how those corporate buildings are, they don't evaporate themselves.  Oh there you are. These friends of yours?     Look out for these two 20 HP drones? Yeah, pardon if we're not exactly shaking in our boots here.   Hell, we just take both out in a single turn by ourselves, earning a point of Karma for the most effortless rescue operation on our career. (As a side note, the combat theme in the utility tunnel is the combat section of Blood Hounds which is a cool track I'd forgotten ever plays outside of exactly one fight in Dead Man's Switch.)  Don't worry, you're safe from getting tickled to death which is presumably the only way drones that weak can really harm anyone.   Thanks for the rescue. It takes a pair to bring a weapon into Azzie territory... everybody knows that they shoot first if you're packing. I wouldn't have risked it. Life in the shadows is all about taking risks.We're not gonna pass on an opportunity to bust out the cool lines when we can. Also literally nobody has paid any attention to our weapons here or anywhere else, which is certainly a little odd now that you brought it up.  Anyway, yeah. I'll admit it... I got in over my head. But only a little bit. The drones wouldn't have shot me. I wasn't armed. But I wasn't looking forward to spending the next week in an Azzie interrogation cell... I've heard stories. They're true, love.[He shakes his head at her.] Word to the wise. If you're fool enough to try something like this again, carry a gun. Better to be shot than to let them take you. I'll take your word for it. I'm not planning on making a habit of this.[She slaps the side of the power conduit with a smile.] And I shouldn't need to. The tap's all hooked up and ready. Impressive. Heimerich wasn't convinced that you could pull it off. Yeah, well. It's amazing what you can teach yourself to do when your livelihood depends on it.[Blitz leans in to inspect her work.] Yeah... yeah, that looks like a pretty solid connection. Nice soldering job on those contacts, there. I'd say that you're good to go.[He straightens. Casts a glance back at you.] You know, chief... we *could* use this setup to our advantage. That... doesn't sound like an altogether terrible plan, actually. How distressing. [He shrugs.] Your call, of course. Just thought I should bring it up. We can make it worth your while. No. You can't. There's nothing you could give us that would make up for what you're talking about doing. So please, just drop it, okay?C'mon, we're going to blow up the building anyway, assuming we manage to get that far of course. Fine, guess we can at least look for other options first. You're right. Nobody needs that kind of heat. We'll find another way in. Just hope that we do find some other way in because between this and trying to charge in through the front, we know which one we have designated as Plan B. I'm gonna bail on out of here... I've been stuck in this tunnel too long already, and like you said, the others are worried. But if there's ever anything that we can do for you, come by the shop! You'll be welcome at our place for life.  We do actually have the option to overload the grid right away regardless of what we might've told her, but we'll keep our word at least until we've looked around the premises some more. Let's head back up.  Dammit Blitz, stop trying to hog the spotlight.  Thank you so much, ma'am. Thanks for bringing her back to us. Yeah. Thanks. And thank you for helping to keep the Azzies off of our tails. If Danni had been captured... It would have been bad.[Mira reaches up. Grabs Danni's hand. Clutches it tight.] Worse than "bad," babe. A lot worse. At least we did our good deed of the day if nothing else, hope they'll avoid the classic fairy tale ending of "and everyone lived happily for about two hours before a massive explosion buried them in flaming debris". Never really figured out what the Brothers Grimm meant to be the moral for that one, those guys threw real dark sometimes.  We return to the compound premises and this time take the other path, momentarily stopping to muse about how corporate art imitates corporate life.  After a bit we come across a loading area with a side entrance, though this one is also locked tight.  There's also a lone worker who seems to be having a bit of trouble with what looks to be an LTG panel. Perhaps we can offer a helping hand?  Incidentally LTG stands for Local Telecommunications Grid, the Matrix connection grid of a given localized area with its own area code.  Unless you're here to help me fix this panel, you'd better stay the hell out of my hair. Otherwise, I'll call Security and have them *drag* you out.Sounds like somebody's had a long day. Can't say we know much about this kind of stuff, but we did bring someone who ostensibly does.    We might be able to make use of that panel and you could clearly use a break, perhaps we can offer a mutually beneficial solution? (Charisma 5) Y'know, if you're that far behind, you could always go catch up on your other work... leave us to work on the panel. It'd be no trouble.[A confused scowl crosses her face.] I don't even *know* you, buddy. Why in God's name would I leave you alone with a panel that *I'm* responsible for?Because we didn't go hard on Charisma to not successfully convince people to do things they clearly shouldn't even consider. (Charisma 6) When did Aztechnology ever do anything for you, aside from working you half to death? Let us take care of the panel, and you can clock out early... I'll even spread a little spending money your way. Say, about a hundred nuyen? Good idea, take your time and have one for us too while you're there.  After she's gotten into her van and driven off, we earn 1 Karma and are free to take a closer look at the box she was working on.  This thing looks like what robots would post on shock sites after they'd justifiably overthrown humanity. Any chance you can get that door open with this, Blitz?   Excellent. That's our first objective met, next time we'll get around to seeing what the feathered serpent looks like from the inside. A decent amount of things for this section today as well, and we'll start by a brief jaunt to the ~Non-Canon Zone~ in which we cover taking the path of overloading the power from the utility tunnel, starting from the conversation after having saved Danni and Blitz having brought up the option. Ice cold Rosa edition, because why not. Whoa. Hold up! If you do that, they'll trace it! Aztechnology will find the power tap, and they'll come down on us! We just saved your life. You owe us. Yeah, you saved my life, all right. But now you're talking about doing something that'll get *all* of us killed! Me, Mira, Heimerich... he's got a little sister to look after! What happens to her if the Azzies take us away? (Overload the grid.) Not my problem. True. You and your friends should probably start running.[She screams at you. Her cheeks are streaked with tears.] Screw you! I hope that you all burn in hell! Back up on street level...  You goddamned heartless bastard![While Danni and Mira are clearly furious, Heimerich just looks tired. He shakes his head.] Why'd you do it? You know that we can't fight the Azzies. You *know* what they're going to do to us. You can do that? [He smirks.] Sure! Wouldn't be a big deal. I used to do it all the time back in Drogenkippe.[He raises an eyebrow at you.] Your call, though, chief. Obviously. If you could do that, I suppose it'd solve the problem on our end...Declining is of course an option: quote:
But agreeing leads to an additional optional objective: Sure. Why not? We'll make sure that you're taken care of.[Danni raises a hand and cuts in.] Wait! Tossing the logs won't be enough. They may not know where the power spike came from, but they'll still have questions. She's right! They'd come poking around, and we could still wind up on the hook for this. [Blitz shrugs.] Well, yeah. *Of course* I was gonna do that. I just, uh... y'know. I thought that it went without saying. [Heimerich nods.] All right. Yeah. You do all of that, and all is forgiven. We're golden. But if you don't, a *lot* of innocent people are going to get hurt.[He stares you in the eye.] Unless you want our blood on your hands, you *do* this. You hear me? For the love of God, please, just do it. It's definitely a land of optional objectives. It's also worth mentioning that if Blitz isn't around, a Charisma 5 check or the Street etiquette can also be used to receive this objective. Otherwise they're just screwed.  With the power cut, we can go back to the front to see the lights and turrets having shut off and to overhear a short conversation between the captain and one of the guards.  Ma'am... I've lost my link to Central. Is that even supposed to *happen* if we lose power? No. It's not.[She frowns.] But from what I've heard, this was a power spike. So I guess that the overload could've scrambled something... gummed up the works somewhere upstream.[Just then, her body language changes. Suddenly aware of your presence, she turns to face you.] You there! Stop where you are! Clear this area, or we will remove you by force! Hold your fire, I'm leaving!She's not kidding either, talking to her again turns her and the entire compound hostile.  There's also an extra guard along the path to the side door.   And back in the loading area, the LTG worker is arguing with one of the guards.  ...So what you're telling me is this: You were working on our LTG box. And then, all of a sudden, everything *magically* overloaded and went to hell, taking our communications along for the ride. And you had *nothing* to do with it? Look, pal. *You* are a security guard. *I* am a technician. And for the last time, I'm telling you, this was NOT. MY. FAULT. Yeah, but you were poking around in there...[She waves her arms in exasperation.] I wasn't even working on the power system, you dolt! How could I have done ANYTHING to the power grid? It DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT! I don't like your attitude, lady. I DON'T LIKE YOUR FACE, IDIOT!  And while the two lovebirds are having fun, we can simply sneak through the now open door (talking to the guard just turns the compound hostile again in case you're wondering). There are some benefits to this approach, primarily making certain checks easier later on. We'll cover any noteworthy differences when they're relevant. Now on to some miscellaneous bits and pieces. After having helped the LTG worker fix the panel on the non-power surge path (which by the way can also be done by the player character with Decking 4) and having asked to her leave with the Charisma 5 choice, she can also be bribed with ¥300 instead of ¥100 if one lacks the 6 Charisma needed for the latter: quote:
Or one can avoid spending any money whatsoever after having helped her fix the panel by asking her nicely using Strength instead of Charisma: quote:
Moving on to the down-on-their-luck cafe workers, one can respond to their plead for help by asking for compensation which they take poorly: quote:
Finally, Danni can die in the fight against the drones.  And by "can die" I mean "you can kill her with an area attack like an absolute loving monster" because not only are the drones incredibly weak, they don't even attack Danni. Guess it's possible you might whiff a grenade really badly, but it's a pair of 20 HP drones, there's no reason not to just take them out with normal attacks. Either way, the conversation after having returned from the utility tunnel having "failed" at the rescue: quote:
Finally, just for a less depressing finish, here's the second conversation with the Becks, the elderly couple who were ultimately cut from the Kreuzbasar. quote:
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May 27, 2020 15:45
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Hello again.
She made this neighborhood a sanctuary. A home. You ask anyone here why they came, and you'll get a hundred different reasons. But you ask them why they stayed, and you'll get one. Monika.
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I have a feeling this place can go off the rails very hard very early, even if you don't go Rambo Looking forward to whatever the inside of this lab is supposed to be
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May 28, 2020 01:30
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drat, the "extra" content moves into some real dick territory. Is that the worst we've been able to go so far? I thought most of the choices were pretty mild/do-gooder style options.
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May 28, 2020 02:38
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Lechtansi posted:drat, the "extra" content moves into some real dick territory. Is that the worst we've been able to go so far? I thought most of the choices were pretty mild/do-gooder style options. I'm pretty sure selling the cyborg to the lodge is up there. There's a lot of ways to be a real piece of work.
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May 28, 2020 03:20
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There is an achievement for being consistently mean to Monica's dog. Sure you're a payed murder, but mistreating a good boy is unforgivable.
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May 28, 2020 03:41
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