Part 31: Pieces to the Puzzle

Part 31 - Pieces to the Puzzle







We've gotten paid and learned more of our teammates' increasingly traumatic pasts but a shadowrunner's day is never over, especially in a game where you never sleep. And as we all know, when you can't sleep the best thing to do is sit in front of your computer and browse message boards. First though, we cast our paydata lure into the information sea and wait for a bite.





For the record, our Alice Fund is currently sitting at ¥28,750 out of our goal of ¥50,000, though we have no intention of sinking any of our personal income into that particular cause.

Now, let's see what today's hot topics are.




- Tolstoi <09:47:18/11-13-54> [Really attention grabbing headline, right? That's how the local news has been spinning it. Truth is, the schoolhouse was abandoned years ago and was being used as a Humanis recruitment and training complex.]

- AlexTusk <10:13:58/11-13-54> [You're kidding me. A friend of mine was going there after class and he said it was just a community center.]

- Jast <10:54:23/11-13-54> [I know none of you are fans of Humanis, but that entire chapterhouse got wiped clean. There were probably some kids in there off the street who were just looking for a hot meal. Screw Humanis for exploiting them, but they didn't deserve death.]

- Maelstrom <10:55:01/11-13-54> [Good riddance to those assholes. Streets are a little safer now that they're all buried.]

- Ruby <10:58:33/11-13-54> [Went trolling on the Humanis board and that place was totally wiped out. Volker Stahl was in charge of that chapterhouse, good riddance to that piece of drek.]

- Jast <11:02:02/11-13-54> [Heh, just got offered a job to geek one of Humanis’ lieutenants. Seems like Stahl is dead and a power struggle is already underway.]

- ProShot <11:12:43/11-13-54> [You taking the job?]

- Jast <12:17:52/11-13-54> [Not my kind of work, but I gave the Johnson an address to one of your ‘trix dead drops.]

- ProShot <12:19:12/11-13-54> [Cheers, mate.]

- BlueBeerd <14:58:01/11-13-54> [Just finished up drinks with a chummer who was doing some biz up there. The real story is Humanis did not want to pay for services rendered and some hired muscle went crazy and took them all out.]

- WraithLike44 <15:55:01/11-13-54> [So the muscle decided taking the whole place down would get the nuyen back? Well that’s one way to make a living I guess.]

- Jast <16:12:01/11-13-54> [Even if your “friend” did get screwed out of a bit of nuyen I don’t think Humanis would even be worth the bullets. Especially that many of them.]


We never touched Stahl so they might be referring to Beckenbauer's promised retribution, but either way it doesn't sound like that particular branch of racists will be causing any trouble in the near future.

As a neat touch, since the game takes place over several days, the specific posting dates change depending on when you do the Humanis run.




- NeoRevolutionaryAlpha <20:12:07/11-13-54> [The time rise up against the corporations is now! Fight for a free Berlin!]

- WraithLike44 <20:19:12/11-13-54> [You just fall out of a time warp? The war is over and we won.]

- Jast <20:26:31/11-13-54> [Hard to imagine Berlin any freer. Maybe you just need to switch to decaf?]

- NeoRevolutionaryAlpha <20:32:02/11-13-54> [As long as ANY corporation is active ANYWHERE in the F-State we are all at risk. WE MUST ACT!]

- WraithLike44 <20:46:07/11-13-54> [Corps are good for business and keep in their little corners. Why do you think we would help you?]

- NeoRevolutionaryAlpha <20:49:21/11-13-54> [How naive to think they will stay there forever. Don’t you see that they are taking the freedom we all hold so dear? Plans are being made across the F-State... with the shadow community on our side, we shall prevail!]

- Tolstoi <20:59:16/11-13-54> [The F-State has its own way dealing with those who step out of line. Take your politics somewhere else... around here, we've got bills to pay.]


A fine cause I suppose, but we have bigger fish to fry at the moment. Else we're likely to get In Soviet Russia'd and end up in the pan ourselves.




- Maelstrom <20:40:15/11-14-54> [Scheisse, what a thrill. Had to do a simple data steal on a S-K branch office, turned into an O.K. Corral shootout. Never seen first response team arrive that fast in my life! Had a decker off site running damage control, managed to distract the second team to a different building while we jacked the car the first team came in. Lesson learned, “simple” when it comes to S-K means something else.]

- Tolstoi <20:45:31/11-14-54> [You stole the corp's response vehicle? Don't they have trackers on those things?]

- Maelstrom <20:49:12/11-14-54> [Of course they do. Dumped it off the side of the road with a primed grenade in the back seat just to be safe.]

- WraithLike44 <21:46:07/11-14-54> [Nice one!]

- Ruby <21:58:13/11-14-54> [Bragging about a nearly failed run on S-K? Is it worth them paying a decker to backtrace your Shadowland account?]

- Tolstoi <22:40:15/11-14-54> [Any idea what valuable data they were hiding in that branch office?]

- Maelstrom <22:47:15/11-14-54> [No idea. Money was too good to take any chances with it. Safely delivered it and the transfer cleared.]


Hopefully we'll never have to piss off Saeder-Krupp, we sure as hell don't need Lofwyr's attention on top of our existing dragon problems.

That's all there is to see on the BBS, so we'll check our 4 personal messages next.






Hey there, "muscle." Not sure if Tuck gave me the right address, but I figured it was worth a shot. I don't know if you heard, but our favorite policlub got hit from all sides by the F-State today. It was glorious.

[He raises a hand in salute.]

Anyway, just thought you'd want to share in the good news. And thanks for your help back there... I don't think we'd've made it out of there without you. Take care, Rosa.

Seems our private mail address is just another drop in the great information flow of the Flux. Well, guess that explains the buzz on the BBS. Humanis probably isn't going anywhere, but maybe this'll at least slow them down some. And speaking of that unpleasant bunch...




>>*Alexander*
>>to: Rosa

Hey, Rosa. Uncle Dietrich told me that I could message you here, so I figured that I should. He probably told you that I'm living at Samuel's, huh? Well, that's where I am. It's different, I'll give it that much.

I like that I don't get pressured to hurt people here. So that's good. And nobody smacks me around, even though I can tell that a lot of the trog- uh, the "orks and trolls" want to. I do get yelled at a lot, and called a lot of names. But I guess that making me feel bad about that kind of thing is all a part of the plan.

Life kind of sucks right now, but at least nobody is going to make me kill anyone. Uncle D says that it's going to get better, and maybe it will. I dunno. Anyway. What I mostly wanted to say was thanks for not killing me back at the Humanis compound. I had a gun on you, so you totally could have. But you didn't, and I'm really glad about that.

Thanks,
Alexander


You're welcome, and let's hope you can turn things around, kid.

Also it's a slight pet peeve of mine when in games you have a character supposedly writing a message by hand and they have stuff like "uh, I mean" or s-stammering or other such things in there. Unless they're using some voice-to-text program, it doesn't make any damn sense. Stop doing that!




>>*Ezkibel, Dr. Xabier*
>>to: Rosa

Come see me at your earliest convenience. There is a matter that we need to discuss.


Now there's an unexpected caller. Greedy bastard better not have already changed his mind about that ghoul deal... Guess we better pay him a visit once we're done here.






Hoi, Rosa! Just wanted to tell you that I've met with limited success in working on that stack of DVDs... it's a thorny problem, but at least I'm making *some* headway. If you look on the table beside your DVD player, you will find another recovered disc. I wasn't able to salvage all of the files on it, but I think that you might find what I did recover to be of interest.



Hey, great. We're all done here, so we might as well check it out right away.



We waltz over to the ancient device, put in DVD number three, and are greeted by the usual menu track list. We haven't hit that porn stash yet, let's hope our luck holds.





From twelve years back. More innocent times...

I, uh... I was thinkin' about Adrian today. Not as he was when he disappeared... not as the fabled dragonslayer, or the big-time CEO of Diehl Defense. I was thinking about when we were kids.





In today's geography lesson, Poel's this lil' crab-claw shaped island near Denmark. Ain't it cute?



You saved my life that day, Adrian. I'll love you forever for that. And I *will* find you. I owe you that much.

[Winters disappears, and you find yourself back at the menu screen.]

Despite everything, you can't help but feel a bit bad for "Winters". We can't really forgive him for coldly sending Monika to her death, but it genuinely seems like he had no ulterior motive, he really was just that desperate to find his lost brother. In a world where everything is filled with dark plots on top of even darker plots all aimed at increasing one's wealth or status at the expense of others, there's something refreshing about such a motivation.





Found an old news article that mentions Adrian, from way back in 2036. It was printed in a financial magazine called "das Finanzwesen"... one of those chic print-based mags that they produced for the retro crowd. There aren't any clues in here, but it's good to see someone else acknowledge his existence.

[He clicks an off-screen button, and the image of Winters disappears. It is replaced by a digital scan of a magazine page.]



Three months later, long-held power positions within the SKI empire continue to empty as the dragon consolidates his power base. The most recent casualties of Lofwyr's takeover include:

Alexandra Kobayashi, former COO of Saeder Munitions;
Matthäus Doner, former Treasurer of Ruhr Datafax;
and Werner Harding, former CEO of Diehl Defense.

Harding stepped into the role to replace Dr. Adrian Vauclair, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances two years ago.



[Winters disappears, and you find yourself back at the menu screen.]

Not too surprising Lofwyr's dramatic takeover ended up stealing the spotlight for good. Also I totally missed it, but sharp-eyed forums poster IMJack pointed out that the magazine is dated 2039 which of course makes no sense as Vauclair's disappearance "two years ago" happened in 2034 and Winters himself just said that the article is from 2036. There's no deeper meaning to this discrepancy, it's simply a typo.

The contents of Tracks 3 and 4 are both identical garbage:



If there's a message in here from a sorceress sealed in outer space or something then someone smarter than us will have to figure it out. Let's just move on to the last track.



[A rattling sound fills the air as the disc grinds in its tray. A few seconds later, the screen fills with text.]



The supervisory board is not unsympathetic to your mental state. The trauma that you endured during your pursuit of the dragon Feuerschwinge must have been enormous. But your continuing obsession with the dragon - the *dead* dragon, I might add - has proven a negative influence on this company, and an unjustified drain on company resources.

The Board wishes you all the best in your future endeavors. We have prepared a generous severance package to assist you in this time of transition; if there is anything more that we can do to help you, please don't hesitate to ask.

-Werner Harding



Vauclair disappeared a few days later, guess single-minded and ultimately costly pursuit of one's obsession ran in the family. Kind of funny that a different dragon ended up sealing this Harding's own fate five years later though. No matter where you go or how deep you dig, it always comes back to the great serpents in the end.



Time to stop staring at screens and get social again. Sorry for just kinda walking past you without a word a few times there Paul, that was a bit rude of us. Guess you don't even know about the whole murder attempt business yet, huh.



[Upon seeing the expression on your face, Amsel's voice becomes grave.]

It can wait. Tell me what has happened.

I had some trouble on the U-Bahn. Somebody set up an ambush.

[He pauses, then gives a curt nod.] Truth be told, I've been expecting that something like this might happen. I'm just glad that you made it out alive.

If that shoddy excuse of an ambush would've been the end for us then let's face it, we were never going to survive this thing anyway .

One of the attackers dropped this encrypted PDA.



[He plugs the PDA in to his computer and goes to work. A few moments later, he lets out a grunt of dismay.]

Well, Rosa, I *was* able to recover a file... but unfortunately, that's all that I'll ever be able to pull off of this thing. All that anyone will, truth be told. It must have been running some kind of counterintrusion software. The instant that I gained access, it bricked itself.

[Amsel disconnects the useless PDA and drops it to the ground. It clatters to a rest on the metal floor.]

What did you manage to pull off of it?

Pretty much every time you talk with Paul you have the option of being a jerk to him for absolutely no reason whatsoever. This is one of those times:


A comm file. The audio is all here, but it looks like we've only got video from one side of the conversation. Let's see what we have...

[He opens the file, and a nightmarishly familiar face appears on the screen.]



Wait, Audran? Wasn't that... no hold on, the guy we're looking for was Adrian. Ugh, I can already tell we'll be getting these names mixed up.



As per your instructions, we're gonna try to take her out on her way back. She'll be more vulnerable that way. Hopefully injured and low on ammo, too, but only time will tell.

Poor Bachmeier never realized that he was in a video game where his target would have infinite ammo and automatic post-run wound recovery. All his life he was like "I have hopes and dreams! I'll be the most badass mercenary ever!" and he was just so excited about it all that no one had the heart to tell him that in truth he was just another faceless mook who wouldn't even get to die with his own name attached.

Good man. Proceed as instructed.

Will do. Kossmann is rigging up an ambush spot now. We'll try to make it quick.

[The ork with the nightmare face nods.]

Send me a comm when the job is done. Audran out.

[The image on the computer screen dies. Amsel turns to face you.]



Any chance this all has just been one massive misunderstanding? I mean do we actually know that dragons even exist in the first place, it's not like we've actually seen one. Maybe it's all one big conspiracy and this Audran guy is just a normal security captain who's really sore that he couldn't kill a bunch of low-level nobodies despite carrying a goddamn minigun? No?

[Under Amsel's patient exterior, you can feel the worry that's eating at him.]

Be on your guard. You, and the rest of your team. You made it through this attack relatively unscathed, but next time, you might not be so lucky.

At least now we have a name to put to the face. Audran.



You might recall that I said I'd dig into Audran's skin grafts. Well, I did, and that search has finally borne fruit. One of my contacts outside of Berlin handles the paperwork for private hospitals all across Germany. It's a dull, boring job, but it does have its perks.

[Amsel pulls open a file on his computer. A medical chart opens up on the screen.]

As it turns out, our scarred friend's skin grafts *were* performed at a legitimate hospital, after all.

Normally you have to ask Paul what the charts mean, but that's only if you're not aware of Biotech's secret status as a smartypants dialogue stat.

(Biotech 4) [Read the charts.]

[You glance over the the chart with a trained eye. A few salient details leap out at you.]



[Secondly, his injuries are described in great detail. The prognosis was fairly grim; at the time of admission, Audran had sustained third degree burns over sixty percent of his body. He had also been on the receiving end of massive blunt force trauma. Two of his ribs were broken, and his pelvis had been shattered.

On top of these terrible wounds, he was also suffering from radiation toxicity. The charts suggest that his body had absorbed over 5,000 millisieverts of ionizing radiation. Without treatment, he almost certainly would have died.

Finally, the date of admission catches your attention. Audran was delivered to the hospital on the 25th of September, 2039. The admitting nurse estimated his age at the time to be 25.]


Either this guy fell a couple of stories into a radioactive waste tank like some super mutant from Fallout, or he did in fact encounter a dragon in a certain radioactive hellhole. So much for that conspiracy theory theory I guess.

[Amsel studies your face as you step back from the computer.]

Your thoughts? Hold nothing back... I'd like to hear everything that comes to mind.

Well, those burns sound like dragonfire. But if the Firewing burned Audran, why would he be working for her now?



On Green Winters' second DVD, he mentions that there is a cult within the SOX that worships the Firewing. The "Disciples of the Cleansing Fire." I believe that Audran belongs to this cult.

That's bad news. There's nothing more dangerous than a zealot.

My thoughts exactly. A hireling can sometimes be bribed or reasoned with; a pawn can be liberated. But if the Firewing's soldiers look upon her as a goddess-figure, nothing short of killing her will deter them... and even that might not stop them.

There's that Cleansing Fire namedrop again... Bah, cults are just the worst. Easy to infiltrate at least, they're never very big on background checks or ID. Just put on a purple cloak or some other cult-like uniform and they'll let you waltz right in. Guess we're gonna have to dig up our old "I <3 Dragonz RAWR :3" -shirt again...

So... it is possible that Audran is a dragon cultist. This seems to fit with much of the other information that we've uncovered. Did any other red flags jump out at you?

Audran might have spent some time in the SOX. That radiation poisoning didn't happen on its own.



All right, so Audran was heavily irradiated, most likely from time spent in the SOX. What else does this tell you?

The hospital couldn't ID Audran. Either somebody covered his tracks for him, or he was living completely off the grid.

Indeed. If Audran were a denizen of the SOX - a glowpunk - his lack of identifying information would make sense.

[Amsel adjusts his glasses.]

It's a working theory, at any rate.



[Amsel pauses for a moment before continuing.]

In my mind, all of this reinforces one fact: we need to find Vauclair, and we need to do it fast.

It would be nice to have something more concrete than just theories about our angry ork buddy and his circumstances, but since he seems unlikely to answer our calls and even less likely to voluntarily stop with this whole "let's mount Rosa's head on a wall" business, continuing on this path does seem like the best course of action.

Agreed.

Good. And that's all the more reason to gather Alice's fee as quickly as possible.

Alternatively:




I'm on it.


*RECORD SCRATCH*


I mentioned it in the last update, but there's a bit of a wrinkle to this particular assignment. The meeting with Frau Müller is unskippable, as in you literally can't leave the Kreuzbasar without attending to it first. The thing is that it also sets up a mission, a two-part mission in fact, which is large enough in scale that I personally consider it the most fitting run to do at the very end.

Now in normal gameplay this is no problem, but like with Blitz's personal mission, getting the briefing now and then doing the actual run 20 updates from now or whatever doesn't really work in an LP format. Not at my update speed in any case. So... I'm just gonna do that whole thing behind the scenes, and we'll skip it for now in the LP and come back to it when it becomes relevant somewhere in the distant future.


*RECORD STARTS MAKING RECORD SOUNDS AGAIN*







Alright, time to go see what that slimy Spanish doctor wants from us.



Heya doc, I got your message. What did you want to discuss?

Business. I have a job for you.

I'm always interested in hearing about new business opportunities.

Good. So let's get down to brass tacks, shall we?



***



Sorry for the interruption again, but there's actually a fairly large chunk of dialogue we just missed here, and the reason is simply because we and Ezkibel have gotten along alright. A variety of factors play into the potential dialogue in this part and I figure that it's significant enough to show off.

The first thing worth mentioning is that like with several other runs, coming here after Paul has pressed the "start endgame" button which locks you out of all side missions will result in a wasted trip:


I got your message. What did you want to discuss?

Well. It took you long enough. To answer your question, Rosa, I *wanted* to discuss business. Past tense. But I didn't hear back from you in a timely fashion, so I hired someone else for the job.

Who did you hire?

That's no business of yours. The situation is being handled, that's all that you need to know.

Sorry about that.

It's fine, my needs are being seen to... it's your loss, not mine. I'm just sorry that you weren't able to benefit from the opportunity that I had to offer.


The rest of the potential dialogue changes are tied to your relationship with Ezkibel. Specifically, whether or not you forced him to continue feeding the ghouls against his will back during the sewer mission. If you did, then the following exchange is available at any point when talking to him:


I hope that our recent misunderstanding won't have an impact on our ongoing business relationship.

"Misunderstanding," Rosa? I'm sure that I don't know what you're talking about.

Well, there were these feral ghouls in the sewers that were eating people because you stopped feeding them medical waste, and-

[Ezkibel's eyes widen. His voice explodes out in a harsh whisper.]

Shut up! Shut *up,* damn you! Do you want to get us both *killed?* On second thought, don't answer that. Don't say anything at all. Here's the deal. You keep your mouth shut, and we'll both just pretend that none of... what happened... ever happened. Deal?

Deal, Doc.


That decision rears its head again when you come and see him about this job he's offering. Instead of getting right into business, we can ask him about his motivations for choosing us:


I'm a little surprised that you want to hire me. We haven't always seen eye to eye.

That's true, we haven't. But I'm confident that you're the right woman for the job.

Why?

But wait, that's not all! Another factor comes to play here - our reputation. Had we screwed up the earlier Pharma run by killing Fuchs' men, the conversation would continue as follows:

Not your reputation, I'll tell you that much. Some of your past clients have been pretty vocal about their dissatisfaction with you... a "Herr Fuchs," in particular, wants your head on a plate. No, Rosa, you're my first choice for this job because I know something about you.

Yeah? What's that?

I know that you're in a bad spot. And I know that you're gonna need all the help you can get if you want to claw your way back out of it. As it happens, I can supply some of that help in the form of cutting-edge biotech. Very helpful stuff for a runner in a bind. But before I can do that, you'll need to do this job for me.

There's another run which we haven't done which leads to more or less the same answer if you mess it up.

Now had we maintained a good reputation but not have cut a deal with the doc in the sewers then the conversation would instead continue like this:

Your reputation. You get the job done.

Yeah, but there are other runners out there with equally strong reputations. So again: why me?

Why are you trying to talk yourself out of a job?

[He rubs the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger.]

I can see that you still don't get it, so I'll be blunt. You're the best in town at what you do, full stop. And I need the best, even if that means hiring you. I don't like you, and you don't like me. But that doesn't mean that I'm unwilling to use you in order to become spectacularly wealthy. Does that answer your question?


That more or less covers it. Quite a bit of stuff you can miss without necessarily even realizing it, huh? Alright, back to reality where we jumped over all that and he was about to tell us about this job he's offering.



***



Back before I emigrated here from my native Spain, I worked in partnership with a Berlin-based R&D lab. The biotech that they were developing was very hush-hush, very cutting edge. Our arrangement was that I would bankroll their research, and that they, in turn, would provide me with unique merchandise to sell in my clinics.

Clinics? You had more than one?



...But then my name was slandered, and the fickle mistress that is public perception turned against me. An ugly business, I assure you. Even talking about my fall from grace makes my stomach turn... the injustice of it all is almost too much to bear.

Yeah yeah, you poor thing, the true victim of modern society. If you ever put this guy and Aljernon in the same room I'm pretty sure everyone else present would suffocate to death within minutes.

Just how was your name slandered? What did they accuse you of?



But that was then, and this is now. I came here to Berlin to escape all of that. Of course, I also moved here to be closer to the lab that I'd funded, and the merchandise that I am owed.

So let me guess. You want me to go fetch your merchandise.

Yes. And to find out what happened to the lab itself.



Don't much care about your personal property, but this mystery lockdown does sound pretty intriguing. As long as it's not a zombie outbreak or something.

The Turk, Altuğ, has been running surveillance on the site since I set up shop here. In that time, no one has entered, and no one has left. Whatever went wrong in there, it must have killed the research team. I want you to find a way into the building, recover the cybertech that they were developing, and find out what happened to the researchers - in that order.

A locked-down research lab working on some kind of experimental biotech with the fates of everyone inside unknown. Still hoping it's not a zombie outbreak, but...

If the building has been abandoned, I'm surprised that the lot it's sitting on hasn't been gobbled up by some corp or another.

Don't be. Back when I was a wealthy man... before my legal troubles... I paid the lease for a decade in advance. ...And before you say anything: yes, it was a huge expense. But what's locked away inside of that lab is worth ten times what I've spent on it. I don't want anyone laying claim to it but me.

If your merchandise has been sitting in this building for two years, why didn't you approach Monika about this?

Who says that I didn't? I had a... let us say, "tumultuous" friendship with your dear departed Monika. We had our ups and downs, you see. And on this subject, she was most certainly down. That was her choice. I am hoping that you will be savvy enough not to make the same mistake.

Wow, sure can't imagine someone not wanting to do business with the scummiest man in town. And in this town that's saying something. But we do need all the work we can get, assuming the payment's right.

All right. Let's talk compensation. What's in this for me?

I can offer you two thousand nuyen, plus first crack at whatever biotech you recover from the site. I will, of course, have to charge you for anything that you want to have installed, but I can provide it to you at a discount.

This is where the real gameplay consequence of the sewer decision comes to play. If Ezkibel was forced to feed the ghouls for no compensation he'll now withhold the 2,000 nuyen reward in its entirety, claiming he can't afford it due to a loss of "a good chunk of his revenue". He still offers the biotech discount though.



Alright, guess you've got our attention. We've already bought most of our best spells, so having some extra options for further self-improvement does sound worth investigating.

So what's it going to be? Will you take the job, or not?

All right, Doc. I'm in.





In case you were wondering, Absinthe has no prophecy to give for this run, or any other run introduced in Director's Cut (which this is one of) for that matter. Merchants also haven't updated their wares with anything we'd be interested in, so we're free to get started right away.





Bringing Blitz for this run is extremely recommended, and this time not just for decking purposes. Eiger is also in, and Dietrich sat the last one out so he'll also get to join us in exploring this mystery laboratory.



What will await us inside? Monsters? Mad scientists? Mutant ducks? Some terrible eye-rotting plague which we'll release upon Berlin as soon as we open the doors?

Whatever the case, this has the potential to be a very memorable run...