Part 45: Pacifist Playthrough – Dan’s Bandits

Pacifist Playthrough – Dan’s Bandits



Kosoy can reveal a bit more about the organization if you try to play it safe about where you got the thief’s passport. (I actually did this the first time around - a similar introduction to the thieves in Arcanum can go wrong if you go into detail about things you don't know)





Dan has a couple of really mean enforcers. The divide between “we’re really mean assholes, mwahahaha” bandits and “hey, legitimate exercise of force by a quasi-feudal warlord just makes perfect sense in a post-apocalyptic world and only superficially resembles organized crime” bandits doesn’t DO anything, even though it would be really easy to…. well, we’re not there yet.

: No interesting rumours. Although once, lying in the bushes in ambush, I heard a funny story about insolent farmers who refused to pay to Dan. I was ready to laugh. Two old men were talking to each other. One said, "Have you heard, brother? A walking mountain is moving towards us! A giant! He has a machine gun swinging from his neck, but he's so confident of himself he rarely resorts to it and prefers his spiked mace. Woe betide anyone who got under its heavy blow! He'll be nothing but holes! He'll fall and lie still right where he was standing..."
So I listened to the end, left the ambush and said, "Wow, so these are the tales people tell about me! What is it if not fame?" Oh how they fled! But I was quick! Whacked the storyteller on the back, hit the listener on the legs... And once I was done with them, it was hard to tell which was which...

: You're scary! My respect. What about another question...

: While I find the game’s prose essentially functional and have zero problems with verbosity or (heavens forbid) descriptions of appearances and action, I do find the PC opinionating in dialog without my input outright infuriating. I should be the one to determine whether or not my character fears, respects, or is disgusted by anything in the game world, not the “more questions \ cease dialog” prompt.



The helmet isn’t really worth crafting.



Aleksei Smirnov in Operation Y and Shurik’s Others Adventures. At the very least, I can see the point of the resemblance.



Awing the demon-worshipping trader with the presence of a real demon







You can’t work for Dan if you refuse to disclose your name. Which means we can’t get the coveted “No Name, No Slogan” achievement. That’s fine – you need to share your real name with companions either way, so it's a no-go for a pacifist playthrough.




He can pull that shit in response to other offenses as well.



Sparing Grishka results in more content related to him, including this modest payout.



Of course our pacifist character is going to be a huge douchebag, trying to hurt as many people as possible.
(As an aside – I’ve checked, and cutting the ropes automatically turns the camp hostile even with max stealth)



How you treat the prisoner doesn’t actually matter – as long as you explain to Dan that you enjoy violence for its own sake.

Let’s head over to the moonshiner farm and be an asshole to people.





Despite insulting this poor freier (this is one situation where I would have accepted “ya’ poor mug, myeah!” as a streetwise translation), the narration informs us that he’s taken a liking to us. Which might be a point being made, or just parts of the dialog tree not communicating with other parts.



On to the moonshiner boss. I mentioned he’s part of the old poacher trio, and if you phrase the offer he can’t refuse in acceptable terms, you can follow up on that sub-quest \ side-story.




You don’t even need any skill checks if you get him to explain how dangerous the area is (The Virgin Springs farm just had a mysterious disappearance – exactly the sort of thing Dan’s protection would definitely prevent).




We’re not doing that.



Dunya’s father is working as a guard at the moonshiner farm.

: Nonsense... No, she was abducted. That's a fact... I've been looking for them for a long time. I found their camp, well, what was left of it. But the bastards themselves weren't around anymore. Ahh... I followed their trace. I saw so many horrible things in the Wasteland, I went through a lot...
I found a Factory not far from here that the bandits had occupied. But I couldn't get inside it, no matter how much I've tried. The guardsman at the gates only told me that they had no women there... But where else should I look for her? The gangs of the Wasteland are uncountable...
So the grief made me start drinking... I came across this hut… And sort of made myself useful here. So, that's my story. That's my beef as you put it.






KSR is corrupt as shit




Put our luck to good use curing a local hypochondriac. With our business at the moonshiners completed, Grishka is waiting for us back at the factory:




Obviously, Grishka is a highly competent and honest thief, so getting involved with his schemes is going to work out just fine.



Bit of foreshadowing about the Roaring Forest




We can now break into the bandit’s storeroom. Some rare bullets (not that we’ll find a weapon that’s capable of firing them in the next 10 hours), grenades, supplies.



Time to get high, reeking of body-spray and drunk on pre-war Cogniac (30% chance of +1 to Charisma) to get it on with Dunya

: [Talk to the mustached guy] It's fine, man! [Turn to Dunya again]There's nothing "wrong" with it! You're an interesting person, and I would just love to get to know you... better...

: [Dunya looks you in the eye and bites at his (sic) lower lip. Then she shoots a quick glance at her guard, turns back to you and smiles, almost surprised]
If you say so... There's an abandoned gas station nearby. We can have our... conversation there. I'll show you where it is!




And the bearded guard who is weirded out by his attraction to the masked “boy”.








This is totally puerile and juvenile. I’m amused.




The bearded guard remains at the gas station ever after, but killing him at this isolated location still turns the entire factory hostile. Neither participant has dialog referencing the threesome, even though the bearded guard should have made some conclusions as a result.