Lobotomy Corporation Part #202 - BCP 31

Part 202: BCP 31 - Red Wolf Heaven

X-394 is a big facility, full of mysterious creatures known as Abnormalities. Many of these Abnormalities can do very bad things if they're handled improperly, and it's vitally important that our agents know just what may happen if they're careless. What's a manager to do?

Episode 31: Red Wolf Heaven

Music: trailer

Hi! I'm Paul! Just your everyday plucky employee of Lobotomy Cobotomy, here today with a special two-in-one Abnormality episode!

We've been working very hard on it just for you! So without further ado, let's begin covering a famous pair of Abnormalities with…

Dun da-da duuuuun!

Big and Will be Bad Wolf!

Big and Will be Bad Wolf, or Big and Might be Bad Wolf, is a WAW-level Abnormality which takes the form of a cartoonish wolf.

It seems really friendly! But even I remember the old stories with wolves in them! That's a facade, isn't it?

Good instincts, Paul! Good thing we have a volunteer to work with it today.

Gee golly! I really appreciate having a day off.

Watson here will be aiming for a Bad result on any non-Instinct type work. Doing so will trigger the Wolf's special ability, in addition to lowering its counter by 1.

Gulp. Ability?

Exactly!

For its ability, the Wolf swallows the agent whole!

Lunching lupines, Miss Hod! It's just like in my speculative children's fiction books!

While it's swallowed an agent, the state of Big and Will be Bad Wolf changes.

Oh no! It's got a tummyache!

This tummyache will persist until an agent gets a Good result with Instinct work. When this is done…

The agent will be freed.

He sure looks like he's had a bad time, Miss Hod!

He probably did, Paul! Next, we'll show something significantly more interesting. There's a unique E.G.O gift associated with the Wolf.

Unique gift? Sounds fancy! How's it work?

Well, the first step is to get eaten by the Wolf again. This time, its Qliphoth Counter will lower all the way to zero.

Woah! What was that?!

That's Big and Will be Bad Wolf's breaching form. It takes this form when its counter is reduced to 0, and begins to roam the facility. As it does, it heads to the location of its blue moon symbol.

And the agent's in their belly?

That's correct! They're eaten just before the breach.

Yowsers! So how do we get them out?!

We call in some assistance.

Oh, like the Rabbit Team, Miss Hod?

...Not quite.

Little Red Riding Hooded Mercenary is a WAW-level Abnormality which takes the form of a woman in a red hood. Each time an Abnormality escapes (aside Punishing Bird), her Qliphoth Counter decreases by 1.

So she wants to join in on the fun!

She does live for battle! In place of Attachment work, she has a special work type.

The Request work type, when selected, brings up an interface that lets the Manager select an Abnormality to target.

It looks like she charges for the help, though!

Well, she is a mercenary! She charges 40 energy per risk level of the Abnormality we ask her to face-from 80 for a TETH to 200 for an ALEPH.

But Miss Hod… we don't have 160 energy!

That's alright. All we have to do is wait.

Wait?! Why are we waiting, Miss Hod?

The Wolf and Red really don't like each other. It's so powerful that if any agent works with one, then works with the other, the second one will smell the first on them and their Qliphoth Counter will decrease by 1. In fact, just being injured by Red Riding Hooded Mercenary and entering the same hallway as the Wolf will reduce its counter by 1-and if she enters its hallway, then it will breach automatically.

So we're going to be able to get her to work for free?!

That's right! Like many other wolves, this one has a tendency to howl. And when it does, if it's where Little Red Riding Hooded Mercenary can hear, she'll instantly breach and hunt down her old enemy.

There's the howl!

It deals White damage to all employees in the department, and now that Red's heard it she should be on the way!

Um… Miss Hod? We have a problem.

She's not standing up?

That's uh, that's right Miss Hod. She's just staring at a pillar of fire-and we can't interact with her containment cell anymore-she won't accept any works at all!

_{What? That's not supposed to happen! Th-this isn't covered in our training materials!}

_{I'm calling an audible-break her out through any means necessary. That should resolve the error.}

_{Y-yes sir!}

Umm, Miss Hod?

You see, Paul, this is a very rare error! It basically puts Red in a state of being both breached and not breached at the same time-and the key to fixing it is going to be our next Abnormality!

Another new one? But we were only doing the two-

The Burrowing Heaven is a WAW-level Abnormality, taking the shape of an eyeball and flesh tree.

Oh! Eye see the plan here! Is Watson volunteering to work this one, too?

Well, he's still in the Wolf's belly, so…

Aww, phooey. I'll get right to it!

When working with The Burrowing Heaven, the only rule that the Manager needs to keep in mind is to keep it somewhere on the screen.

So it's like an inverse-Schadenfreude, but way more traumatizing! But what happens when it escapes?

Upon escaping, it will instantly warp to somewhere offscreen and attack for high Black damage.

Wowsers! Those clerks are trees now!

Every three seconds it's offscreen, it'll warp to another empty room which has employees in it-though it prefers agents, and deal the same damage to them.

Then how do we stop it, Miss Hod?!

Luckily, that's the easy part.

The Manager just has to look at it, and it won't be able to do anything. Our agents can easily suppress it after that.

Wowsers! The staff of Lobotomy Corporation sure is the elite few, way stronger and better than the outside! I sure am proud to be a member!

Ah, yes. Speaking of which…

Yowie wowie! I'm a tree!

The agent who is working with The Burrowing Heaven when it breaches is instantly killed. Please make sure to keep it in your sight, Manager!

Well, this breach reduced her counter to just 1. We need one more before she'll get out, though!

Oh, that's no trouble at all! We'll just have Mr.Black work with Meat Lantern, and…

There we go! When Red stands up like this, it means she's about to run out of the cell. When this happens, she'll pick a target to focus on.

How do we know who she's focused on, though?

A targeting mark appears on her target. While berserk this target will always be the Wolf, and when berserked a fiery aura will form around her.

Oh! That was the pillar! Her berserk must have been… berzoken.

Red will pursue her marked foe relentlessly. While she's being contracted normally, her attacks are perfectly safe to our agents. However, when she is berzerked like this, she loses some of her precision.

That means that she'll hurt any agents in the same room as the Wolf when she attacks-so look out for that shotgun! When she breaches normally, she'll also harm agents in the same way-so look out!

In addition to her shotgun, Red can also use her knife in melee, or throw it at an enemy. All attacks with this knife will make her next shotgun attack against the target deal additional damage-be very careful when fighting her, as she's an experienced mercenary.

Meanwhile, the Wolf only has its howl and its claws! Wowsers, it sure seems outmatched!

Well, there are a couple other tricks up its sleeve.

The first is that its howl gains a second effect when it's below half health-indicated by the blue moon icon turning red. While in this state, the Wolf's howl also lowers the Qliphoth Counter of all Abnormalities in the department it's in by 1.

But that's Safety! That means…!

Flummoxing fetuses! We've got a full scale mad baby situation!

It's important to subdue the Wolf quickly to avoid this kind of situation. Unfortunately, it has a second ability which complicates this as well.

Holy smokes! It just turned into smoke, Miss Hod!

Whenever the Wolf loses 15% of its HP, it will turn to smoke and attempt to escape to another department's main room-noted by the blue or red wolf moon. Once it gets to the main room it will rest for a moment before resuming its attack. During this period, it's invulnerable to all attacks.

How unfair! What are we supposed to do then?

It's as good a time as any to make sure that any threats it's let out are dealt with. Remember: Proactivity is productivity!

How insightful, Miss Hod! Now, how does all of this lead to an E.G.O gift?

Well, that's because there are two ways to save someone from the Wolf's stomach. The first is by Instinct work. And the second…

Is to have Red defeat it! Please note that if Red meets Wolf and doesn't defeat it, she will become very angry over having her kill stolen and turn on our agents instead.

Wow! She's like one of those guys who cares way too much about k/d ratio in my favorite shooty fun times game!

That's not wrong at all, Paul! Anyways, having an agent be freed like this will grant it a second, unique E.G.O Gift. Let's have a look!

Um… where is it, Miss Hod?

Sheep's Clothing is a unique E.G.O Gift, in that it doesn't show up properly on agents!

What.

It certainly exists, but for some reason its wavelength doesn't allow it to be picked up within the known visible spectrum. We do have an artist's interpretation of it, however.

Wowsers! That's adorable! But what happens to Red now that she's done fighting Wolf?

When breaching normally, or having her Wolf kill stolen, Red will rampage until she's put down. However, if her suppression is successful she will run back to her containment cell on her own and take a break. Please remember that the Wolf will breach if Red enters its hallway, so if her return trip will take her through its hallway it can lead to a never ending cycle of battle.

Any agents who she runs past will still try to attack her, so it is possible to suppress Red even while she's trying to return to her cell.

If she'd run by the Wolf, make sure you do just that! We don't want any more breaches!

Well, that's all the time we have today. Thanks for joining us! And remember…

Knowledge is just pain plus observation! Have a great day!

Music: Aspire

Good evening, future Managers. It seems we've unexpectedly had to do slightly more work today than planned. I do always say the key to proper management is reacting quickly to emergency situations. Angela, I trust you've prepared the graphics?

I opted to split things up slightly, given how many Abnormalities we're speaking of today. Wolf is… interesting. Should it breach it's all but assured to cause problems, but its suit is powerful and its E.G.O Gift is the best one in its slot-by default, as it's the only one.

Given that, I would say it is worth taking should you be willing to deal with the risk-but know that if it does get out, your life will become much more difficult. It's amazing for training an agent's Fortitude, however-even on a Normal or Bad result, it won't ever eat an agent performing Instinct work. Do not bother going for the unique E.G.O Gift. It's not worth it in the slightest. Next.

Red Riding Hooded Mercenary is best as a troubleshooter. For a reasonably priced amount of our energy gathered so far, she can distract attacks and attention away from our agents-and she can defeat weaker Abnormalities by herself. However, her tendency to breach on her own can make her troublesome to keep while holding multiple of those Abnormalities who breach on clerk death. Her suit is incredibly good, however, and her Gift is also in a rare slot-rivaled only by Forsaken Murderer, which gives a far weaker mask.

She is a passable Fortitude trainer, also responds well to Insight despite her Red damage, and if taken should be kept as far away from the Wolf as possible. No matter what, do not put them in the same corridor should you value your sanity.

Trust me on this.

Lastly there's our unexpected guest, The Burrowing Heaven. It trains three stats very well-and one of them is Justice. So long as it's in a central location-Central is, fittingly, very good for this-and we're keeping the camera zoomed as far out as possible it will never give us trouble. Should it be forced to breach by a Meltdown or similar effect, it also won't cause problems so long as it's on the screen.

The suit is splendid against Black damage, and while its Red weakness is an issue, I find it to work well for dealing with hordes of Sweepers. Its weapon is also fairly damaging, so it's not to be underestimated.

Come to think of it, I believe I've seen Gebura use something like it to suppress an Abnormality once. Truly, a fearsome Sephirah. It's enough to almost forget that she's simply a machine. Well, regardless… for now, this old man shall cease his ramblings.