Part 11: Meeting the Locals

Part 11a - Meeting the Locals









Moooom, we're home!





I'm sorry, Mrs. Kubota. I had a run that went... bad.

So ka! I can see that, your arm is a mess. Was this your crusade again? Do not answer. It will only upset me further. You caused me to worry about you, Coyote, and that distracted me from my business.

Hai, Mrs. Kubota. My apologies again.

Cherry, take her downstairs to Dr. Castle.

Yes, ma'am.

And tell Castle to put something new and shiny where that arm used to be.

Mrs. Kubota, I can't afford a cyberarm...

I am aware of your financial situation. When you are healed, we will discuss the concept of "giri" - the debt of honor. Now go. Bleed elsewhere.

Yes, ma'am.

Coyote and Cherry Bomb walk off.





She rewards us with 1,000 nuyen, not too shabby at all.

I am honored, Mrs. Kubota. Thank you.

You are most welcome. And I offer more than simple lodging. You will find that there is more to the Union than meets the eye.



Well, that's not exactly what they say. Dropping most of the slang in the later games, even if it was due to the change of location, wasn't a huge loss.

This place is a safe house too?

Indeed. Normally, I require a percentage of the runner's income for the use of this facility but as I said, you are family now. Consider it on the house. To gain entrance, play G-A-F-F-C on the piano.

After this we can ask her a few more questions.

Is Mr. Delilah here tonight?

Yes, he's in the back bar. That's usually where he does business.

You mentioned Coyote's crusade. What is it?



With weapon skills that low, I'm surprised it took this long for something to go wrong.

If you don't mind me asking, how did you get involved in all this?

I'm a former runner. Now, I provide a safe haven and a marketplace for runners who need a trustworthy place to congregate and do business.

Are any Johnsons or Fixers here tonight?

(Mr./Mrs.) Johnson is a common pseudonym used by corporate employers who hire Shadowrunners. The exact moniker used varies depending on which part of the world you're in.

In addition to Mr. Delilah, you may wish to speak to Van Graas. He is often stage-side. Van Graas is most often a 'receiver of found articles' but he occasionally has work.

Thank you, I'll be going now.



Sure enough, we find the man short ways away.



Mrs. Kubota said you're a Fixer.

[He still hasn't looked at you. He's going a mile a minute.] Nothing for you tonight. Sorry. I'm doing a thing right now. Important thing. Talk to you later.



We do have those gems from earlier, but just selling them off probably wouldn't please this Delilah guy who asked Coyote to steal them in the first place.



Back in the back, Johnny just repeats what Kubota said about the piano (which is right next to him) so we'll chat with Kluwe instead.



Paco and I tracked her down.

Always wondered what she saw in him, but I guess he ain't all bad. I'm just glad she's back, couldn't stomach losing anyone else so soon after what happened to Sam.

I'm pretty sure that with a CH of 8 all he needs to do is keep picking the Charisma checks in their conversations and they'll be together forever.

You're just a big old sheepdog, aren't ya?

Not the comparison made of most trolls, but I'm happy to defy expectations.

Mind if I ask you a few questions?

Haven't minded so far.

Let's hope it stays that way, anyone who doesn't enjoy answering random questions will probably get sick of us real fast.

You hear anything else about Sam's death?

People are saying it was the Ripper. But people say a lot of things about what they don't know, or what they don't understand.

How long have you been working for Mrs. Kubota?

I crawled in here after I gobli... after I Awoke. Mrs. Kubota took me in and gave me a job. I've been here ever since.

He was going to say "goblinized" which is the term used for people who turned into orks and trolls back in '21.

Do you have to pay extra for a manicure on hands that big?



Sounds extremely unhygienic.

I should be going.

Catch you round.

Afterwards we take a look at the piano.



We can inspect it further:



We can play "Chopsticks" on it:



Screw you janitor guy. Finally, we can play the notes Kubota told us about :



G-A-F-F-C is apparently a reference to the film 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'.

Down we go.




(For whatever reason, this track is not present in the official soundtrack at all. It also sounds a bit like a callback to some older track, but I'm not sure which one.)




Talking to Dr. Castle there is our primary objective, but let's look around first.



The northern part of the safe house is our local shopping center. The man behind the counter is Eric the outfit merchant we met earlier, but the other three are new acquaintances.

Let's start from the left.





Finally, someone who speaks our language. Upon request David can provide us with a bunch of poorly-concealed tutorials about decking, but let's just take a look at what he's selling.



The first cyberdecks Took a while, but then we haven't had any use for one up to this point anyway. Having one is required for entering the Matrix and it takes up one weapon slot. Higher Decking skill allows the equipping of better decks.

There's no real reason to ever buy the CTY-360 unless you're just lightly dabbling in decking and simply don't have the skill for the Kraftwerk-1. Going from 2 AP to 3 AP is worth the extra ¥250 by itself.



Combat in the Matrix is almost identical to normal combat, and Expert System Programs or ESPs act as temporary companions which the decker can summon using these "items". They're not very strong, especially without investment in the ESP Control skill, but they do automatically replenish between missions.

They're more of a luxury purchase than a necessity so we won't get any at least for now.



Last but certainly not least we have a truckload of different programs, which is Matrix language for "spells". They're dirt cheap, so there's no reason for us not to buy as many as we can equip.

Our final haul ends up being the Renraku Kraftwerk-1 deck together with the Blaster, Killer, Medic and Sniffer programs.


Oh I'm being rude, let me also introduce you to our resident decker and my good friend Johnny Clean.



I don't know about heat or invisibility, but teleportation certainly does seem to be on his list of superpowers.

Good to see you down here, happy to be of help if I can be.

We could ask him about decking and he'd give us a brief tutorial as well but we'll cover that when we get there.

Why are you dressed as a janitor?

Did I stand out upstairs? No. Janitors never do. When I was younger, I had a rep for getting in and getting out of systems so cleanly that no one knew I was there. Half the Matrix runs that earned me my rep were made possible because I was able to get inside the facility posing as a janitor. Now it's just sort of a part of me.

Is it true that you were part of the Echo Mirage team?

This question comes a little out of nowhere, huh?

The short version of the Echo Mirage is that they were a badass squad of deckers (amongst the first on that field) trained by the US government. Together with an AI they eventually stopped an immensely destructive computer virus around 2030, but they were so good at bypassing security systems that the same government wanted them dead afterwards.

Let me take this one. Listen, I've known the guy for over a decade and he's been smart enough not to tell me. So he is sure as hell not going to tell you anything about those days. For your health and his, best to let the subject drop.

Fair enough. See you guys around.

Moving on to the next fella.



[When he speaks, the ork's voice is soft and thoughtful, and he talks almost exclusively in numbers: calibers, ranges, rounds per second, arc of fire, razoring factor, tensile strength and, of course, price.]

I'd be real careful with my words too if I were him, you don't get to bite your tongue by accident more than once with fangs like that.

Bunker Buster Gruberman, at your service. Friends call me Buster. I also answer to Sergeant, Sir, and even Theodore on occasion. Anytime you're in the market for firearms, ammunition, or ordinance, I'm your man. How can I help you?

What exactly do you sell here?

Things that go bang in all shapes and sizes, plus other odds and ends, on occasion. Consider me your own personal armory. All weapons are guaranteed to meet strict UCAS military spec or your money back. In addition, I can handle routine maintenance, repairs, and upgrades, if you so desire.

"Strict UCAS military spec" apparently includes baseball bats and makeshit home-made shotguns.



His store is almost identical to Jin Parks' from before, but also with one weapon tier higher. Not much we haven't seen before and no bayonets either, so we just move on to the final new face.



Good evening, young elf, and welcome to this humble home that we call the Union. I am Aljernon Half-Dream. To ease your way through the Sixth World, I offer you the best in magical foci, spells and fetishes for the conjuring of spirits.



Like Noog from earlier, Aljernon sells strictly magic stuff for the spellcaster classes, none of which we can use at all. Very exciting.

Eric has nothing to say either, so it's time to go see how Coyote's holding up. But we'll leave that to the second half of this update.