Part 8: A Night at the Market

Part 08 - A Night at the Market




I like these loading screen descriptions, they add good flavor without interrupting the actual gameplay.





In case you've already forgotten, our goal here is to find Coyote, the disappeared bartender. Her boyfriend Paco might be around too.

The immediate first thing we notice in the area is a couple of men shouting to the crowd outside one of the many large buildings.



Aaaand it's these bozos again. This is off to a promising start.



Ah geez. Guess it's best to just play along, these types don't take no for an answer.

That sounds GREAT! Tell me MORE!

WONDERFUL! The Universal Brotherhood is a family encompassing ALL metahumans, sexes, and sexualities. We all strive to be the very BEST we can, to live more fulfilled, happy, and productive lives, and to support each other doing so.

The FIRST step is to simply come and listen. Tomorrow night, Lynn Telestrian will be speaking about "The importance of Family in the Sixth World". Please join us tomorrow... and the secrets to a better life shall be revealed to you!

[He smiles, and turns back to the crowd.]

Yeah sure of course wouldn't miss it for the world. We'll definitely be there, present, in that thing about the stuff. See you again never you damn weirdo.


Moving on...



This sign is a real life landmark, although the giant monster skeleton unfortunately doesn't seem to exist. Also, Orks & Forks is a real good name for a grocery.



A little ways to the southwest, we find this young man.



Watch yourself, dandelion eater. What you want?

Whoa, hey, that's just uncalled for. We're more of a chicory kinda gal.

Careful, kid. You Paco?

What the - who the hell are you?

I'm the one who's going to pretend you have better manners. I need to find Coyote.

Every time I see a Paco in a video game, I'm reminded of this real dumb youtube video about Heavy Rain where everyone just says "Paco" over and over again. It's a curse I'll carry for the rest of my life.

And I need YOU to tell me why you think that's my problem. I'm not her boss. Find her yourself.

You literally just said you were looking for her yourself, come on.

I was just at the Union. She's missed two shifts, and Mrs. Kubota hasn't been able to reach her on her comm.



Coyote's missing? Oh man. That would explain... She was supposed to meet me here over an hour ago. Look, sorry for getting in your face like that. What else do you know? If she's missing, I need to find her.

Ever heard of a place called Maury's Meat Market? Coyote had a receipt for some zebra meat from there.

What, you been rummaging through her stuff? Yeah, that shop's just down the block. What the hell she would need zebra meat for, though... beats me.

What about a fixer named Mr. Delilah? She had a meeting with him a few days ago.

I know of him, sure. Blake doesn't allow any Cutters to take side gigs though, so I got no reason to deal with him. Coyote hasn't said anything about taking new work... wait a minute... drek! I know where she went. Damn, why couldn't she wait. Damn it!

Paco, slow down. Where did she go?

The Royale Apartments. The landlord, Stevie J, runs a drug ring outta that hellhole. Coyote grew up there... doesn't like to talk about it much. She's been looking for a way to settle the score with that guy for years.

I wish various hellholes weren't so rapidly starting to become our primary travel destination. I'd be perfectly willing to settle for a few places that were just "kinda crummy".



I'll help you get Coyote back, but you'd better be able to handle yourself in a fight. Things might get ugly.

Of course I know my way around a fight. Stevie J better be ready for a world of hurt.

[Paco curls his hand into a fist.]

Now let's get moving - the Royale is just a few blocks from here.

Great, I hate having to always take the bus to my local den of murderous junkies.


Paco joins the party, so let's take a look at what he's bringing.



The one thing that immediately stands out is his insanely high Charisma, apparently this guy radiates an aura of pure sex or something. I don't really see it, personally.

Beyond that he's a fairly decent shot and while that's pretty much it, it's also pretty much all we need right now.




Equipment-wise there's the classic bat and the Uzi III which is one step above the Beretta Model 70. There's no real reason to use the former, but all video game gang members seem to be legally required to carry a baseball bat at all times so who am I to argue.


By the way, around here I noticed I had been hit by a weird bug which led to inflated companion stats. Paco here for example had 4 extra in everything except for Body. Turns out Jake had been affected by this too, which explains why he was so strong compared to Amazon.

As a result I started over from the beginning, and also shuffled our Karma around a bit in order to show off what really makes our drone friends shine:



4 points in Drone Control allows us to equip two drones at the same time, practically doubling our available firepower. While activating both ends up with Amazon having 0 AP (for now), it's still well worth the tradeoff and we can always turn them off to heal or move if necessary.

The one caveat here is that as a Decker we'll need one equipment slot for a cyberdeck, so we're forced to burn some Karma on either Ranged Combat or Melee Combat as three points in either unlocks the third weapon slot. We'll go with Ranged Combat because screw melee.




Following a smaller street to the northeast, we eventually come across the aforementioned meat shop.



[As soon as he notices Paco, the proprietor's eyes become hard and angry.]

What do you want? You know we can't afford any more!

Relax, man. My friend just has a question.

Everything cool here?

Yeah... everything's swell.

[He continues to stare daggers in Paco's direction.]

The name's Manny. Now what do you want?

What's your problem with Paco?

Why don't you ask him.

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

It means that your gang likes to stroll through here and relieve us merchants of our nuyen. My dad stood up to them... and he's still in the hospital.

Guess that explains why we're not talking to Maury himself.

Look, that's not my problem. I'm at the bottom of the Cutter ranks anyway - I couldn't do drek about that even if I wanted to.

Tell that to my dad.

I don't have time for this. We need to find Coyote.

We will, in a minute. Manny, what would someone want to buy zebra meat for?

Some people eat it... but I wouldn't recommend that. Tough as nails. We mostly sell it to corp security teams who use it to reward their Hellhounds. The flamers go crazy for the stuff for some reason.



Okay, I can see where this is going already.

Whatever. Anything else?

I have this receipt for an order of zebra meat. You still have it?

I'll look it up... Yeah, got it right here. Two days past the pickup time, didn't think anyone was going to come for it. Here - it's all yours now.



Lovely.

Thanks, we'll be leaving now.


A little further down the street, we suddenly spot the flashing of police lights and a sizeable crowd surrounding a small fenced-off area.



Oof, now that's just plain unpleasant.



Wait, what? You can't be serious.

Paco, breathe. Now take a closer look. Is that her?

[Paco steps forward and breathes a huge sigh of relief.]

No... no. It's not her. Thank God.

Goddamnit Paco.

Look, let's not hang out here too long, alright? Too many Lone Star pigs around.

[Paco looks over at the victim again.]

It's too bad, whatever happened here... I'm not going to let anything like this happen to Coyote.

Dude, she's been missing for days already and you haven't done squat. Your big hero act is way behind schedule.


Despite Paco's suggestion to just move on (which we could actually do), this seems extremely relevant to our original murder investigation. Hopefully the cop standing there will let us through, I don't see a donut vendor nearby this time.



What happened here, officer?

Homicide. Now move along, please.

Hmm, maybe a name drop here will help.

I'm here to see Coroner Dresden.

And who might you be?



You know what John, you're alright. Still kinda weird, but it's starting to look like that's about the best one can hope for in this city.

[The officer looks at you with poorly-concealed skepticism.]

Okay then. Make it quick.


By the way, we could also try this Security etiquette choice here...



...but she just immediately asks for your SIN and badge, forcing Dresden to vouch for us anyway. Poor Landers, you deserved at least a proper portrait for showing some minimal competency.


We take a quick look at the body first.



How do you even gouge someone's eyes out "cleanly"?

That was a rhetorical question, by the way.



Coincidence, believe it or not. I take it I've stumbled across another Ripper murder?

Yeah, that's what it looks like. As you can see, the Ripper went for the eyes this time. Pretty clean work. I gotta hand it to him, our Ripper knows what he's doing. Or she, I suppose.

As before, there's a whole bunch of things we can inquire our dwarven buddy about.

I thought you ran the Redmond franchise. Isn't Pike Place a little far from home?

Yeah, well, I don't really mind the change of scenery.

[Dresden laughs.]

The coroner for the downtown branch is out on maternity, so I told management that I'd cover for her on this one. Plus, I want this sicko caught.

What do you know about the victim?



Can you tell if she was subdued in some way, before her eyes were removed?

That's the strange thing. There don't seem to be any signs of a struggle. Not a single bruise on her body. Yet, she was clearly alive when the eyes were taken... died of blood-loss shortly thereafter. As to what knocked her out, I won't know until I can run some tests back at the lab.

Well hopefully she was knocked out, having your eyes gouged out while you're fully aware of it the whole time ranks pretty damn high on the ol' nope nope list.

What about the bite marks on her arm?

Ah! Completely unrelated. It appears some wild dogs dragged the body out here from the alley, some time after her death.

Please don't play fetch with your dogs using eyeless corpses, people. It's highly unsanitary and overall just kind of uncool.

Any sign of magic use here? There was evidence of an unusual explosion in the alley where Sam died.

Now there's an interesting thought. No, nothing obvious though. I'm sure when McKlusky shows up he'll call in a full magical forensics team though, just to be sure.

So... the Ripper takes Sam Watt's liver, and this woman's eyes. Any theories?

Trophies of some sort, I suppose? Probably of some symbolic significance to the killer. Beyond that, I couldn't speculate.

That's enough questions. Thanks, Dresden.




There's also a completely new face here, overlooking the scene.



I take it you and McKlusky don't exactly see eye-to-eye?

Let's just say McKlusky and I have... conflicting interests.

What can you tell me about the murder that took place here?

Not much, really. We know it was about three hours ago, and we know that her eyes have been surgically removed. Didn't need Dresden to figure that much out. He's been looking at the body though, so he might have more. Me, I've been scanning the rest of the scene and looking for witnesses, but no luck so far. Damn Ripper might as well be a ghost.

People sure seem to be forthcoming when it comes to what I assume should still be classified information. Not that I'm complaining.

Do you have any leads on this Ripper that I should know about?

Ha! Plenty, if you ask McKlusky. But the truth is, we're as clueless as you probably are.

Thanks for your time, Officer.



The Lonely Orphans Fund?

Yeah, see... you make a contribution to the fund, I put you on a list and let you know the next time we find any... orphans... that you might be interested in.

It's not often that you see police corruption work to the benefit of the player in a game but hey, I'm all for it.

Well, I'm always interested in finding out about any new... orphans... you discover.

Excellent! Shall we say, 300 nuyen?

Even 100 nuyen would make a big difference for an orphan, these days.

[He makes a face.] Yeah, well, some orphans have more expensive tastes than others. 200, you can take it or leave it.

Deal.

A lot of bartering going on lately. We give Aguirre the money and our commlink code, it can't hurt to have more info to work with.




Now, there's one last thing of note here.



Something's odd about this one elf, you can tell from the speech bubble above his head.



Who's asking?

[The elf giggles - a strange, high-pitched warble you would not expect to emerge from his misshapen face.]

Hmm, I can't quite place my finger on what exactly it is, but there's something subtly villainous about this guy.

Oh, I'm no one of consequence. Never mind that though. A good evening to you and your friend the coroner.

Oh okay, my mistake. The inconsequential elf runs off, surely never to be seen again.


We go back to Dresden one more time to see what he has to say about our new acquaintances.



Sergeant Aguirre over there seems pretty friendly. Can I trust him?

[He chuckles.] Yeah, that sounds about right. Any opportunity to get in McKlusky's way, he'll take it. A bit sleazy, sure, but I'd take Aguirre over McKlusky any day of the week.

That... didn't really answer our question, Dresden. Well, whatever. Seems like McKlusky being a huge pain in everyone's ass is winning us some easy allies at least.

By the way, did you notice a particularly ugly elf standing over there in the crowd earlier?

Huh? Where? [Dresden scans the spectators surrounding the crime scene.]

He's gone now... but he was asking about the body. Wondering which Organ Grinders facility it will be taken to.

Interesting. Well... there's some who might be interested in purchasing some of her parts, sure, but that's pretty poor form to inquire at the site of a murder. An ugly elf, eh? I'll keep an eye out. Shouldn't be hard to spot if he comes back around.

Y'know, I appreciate that the game actually allows you to mention the hilariously suspicious guy to someone and they even listen to you to boot.

Thanks again, Dresden.

Anytime.


On our way to the apartments, we pass by the place the murder victim had been working in and overhear a conversation.





I take it you knew the victim?

Yeah, what's it to you?

My condolences. Were the two of you close?

If you just say that you want to ask him some questions here, he promptly tells you to fuck off and won't talk to you again.

Thanks. Sorry, we're just not used to folks being too friendly around here.

[The ork wipes some tears away with a dirty napkin.]

Yeah... we were pretty close, as coworkers go. Blind Lucy and I worked here at the Shack for three years together. Started on the very same day.

"Blind Lucy"?

Well, Lucy wasn't completely blind... but she was legally blind. She had to wear these huge glasses and hold things right up to her face. But she got new eyes about a year ago.

Well it's like the say, easy come, easy go.

I see. Er, no pun intended.

[The ork looks up sharply - then lets out a sad laugh.]

Lucy loved the worst puns... that one was one of her favorites. I guess you can see why.

Haha yeah eye see what you did there. Getting blindsided and brutally murdered by having her eyes scooped out must've been one spectacle that she didn't see coming!

Any idea how she scored the new eyes?

No... she wouldn't talk much about it. Just called it her "stroke of good luck". I guess that luck ran out.

We ask a few more questions, but the only other new thing we learn is that Lucy had gone through an ugly breakup as a consequence of getting her new eyes. In fact, she had to file a restraining order against this ex because afterwards he wouldn't leave her be for some unknown reason.

We thank the man and turn to leave, but...



In my own way. Why do you ask?

Well... Lucy had a necklace. An intricate little carving of a dragonfly on it. Wore it everyday, said her mom gave it to her when she left Denver.

Sidequest instincts tingling!

Anyway, you know how Lone Star is. All of her stuff'll be bagged and placed in evidence storage until the Seventh World awakens. I just thought... Well, I just thought if I could somehow get that necklace back before Lone Star cleans everything up... I could send it back to her family. I feel like I owe her that much.

I dunno man, this update's running pretty long already and that's at least 15 seconds of backtracking.

Stealing evidence from a crime scene is a pretty serious offense. What's in it for me?

[He sighs.] I can throw 200 nuyen your way. It's all I can spare.

Fine, fine.

Alright, it's a deal.


Since it's not particularly interesting or relevant to the plot, I'll just give you the short version which is that Landers will stop you from just picking the necklace up. She'll happily take a 50 nuyen bribe though, or you can fool her with a claim that the necklace is a dangerous magical object with a Spirit Summoning check of 2. A Quickness check of 4 will allow you to just snatch it without anyone noticing.

Finally, you can straight up ask your good friend Aguirre to give it to you, which is what we do.



I like this guy already.


We bring the jewel back to the ork...



...and get the promised 200 nuyen alongside 1 Karma for our efforts.

The very last thing worth mentioning is that a junkie outside the Royale Apartments entrance will ask you for 5 nuyen. Refusing will get you in a fight with him and his buddy, but you don't gain anything at all from it so we don't bother.



Time to go see if Coyote's still in one piece. Well, next time.


Concept art - Renraku Arcology Skyline