Part 18: Madness and Mercy

Part 18 - Madness and Mercy







(This is technically a new track as it's the last part of Shoot Straight we haven't heard, though the only thing I can really say about it is that it kinda makes me feel like I'm going through a dungeon in Skyrim. There are some very cool ambient tracks in these games though! Eventually!)




The atmosphere immediately feels welcoming and warm. Maybe the latest studies indicate that being able to see things is bad for your mental health.

Let's make our traditional check to see who's watching our back before we go any further.





Shannon hasn't changed one bit Karma-wise, but since she was already above average last time she can carry her weight fine here as well. Her items are similarly identical, with two Level 2 Earth Elemental Fetishes and a medkit.





She has upgraded both her pistol and her Haste spell, and added Slow 2 to her arsenal. Haste 2 lasts three turns rather than two, making a good thing even better. Slow is of far more limited use, but it can be nice against melee fighters.





Seemingly called to the job in the middle of a Naruto convention, Savoy Marchetti is the first Physical Adept we've had in our group. Adepts... don't really get to shine until the second and third games but they're not completely useless here either. In these games they usually focus on melee combat, and are also the trickiest archetype to build Karma-wise as they rely on a variety of different stats and skills.

Mr. Marchetti has been pretty efficient with his Karma for a hireable runner, and he's also cheated a bit by somehow increasing his Dodge past his Quickness. Must be his amazing ninja reflexes.



Savoy swings an axe, obviously big on classic dwarven traditions.



Several Adept spells have passive effects which can be temporarily boosted by using them. What makes his skillset a little awkward is the fact that Savoy's offensive spells are tied to unarmed attacks...



...but his skills require using a weapon. Ultimately his punches are slightly stronger when Killing Hands is active but treating skulls as firewood works better when it isn't. He's also carrying a couple of pretty good grenades, some Nitro and a medkit.





Verbena Vie takes Gallowglass' place as the group's mage. You can never really go wrong with mages in any of these games, they fit in pretty much every group composition due to their flexibility and many things they're capable of can't be replicated by anyone or anything else.





Her spell selection is more offense-oriented than Gallowglass', most notably lacking his accuracy buff and heal. The big names here are Flamethrower 2 and Blindness, with the latter being amongst the strongest methods of crowd control in the game.



The entrance ahead is closed so we might as well do the logical thing and start by talking to the receptionist.



Please don't mind the heavily armed drones, they're for therapy purposes.

I'm here to visit a patient.

Which patient would that be?

We didn't plan this far, better think fast and come up with something believable!

Dunkelzahn.

Nailed it.



Hold on. I'm investigating a murder.

The most natural of segues too. I guess being deemed mentally unstable ourselves is one way to gain entrance.

Oh? We take security here very seriously. We haven't had a patient escape in over 60 years.

60 years? Who was the last one to escape?

I'm sorry, do you have a badge? Who sent you?

I'm a freelancer. I'm working for the family of a victim.

I see. Well, I'm afraid our policy prevents us from discussing such things without a Corporation backing the investigation. Surely you understand.

I understand. Is it possible I can speak with the hospital administrator?





We could've just asked to see Dr. Holmes from the start but where's the fun in that when you can try and lie for no real reason instead.



Might as well look around a little while we wait. The nearby guard warns us not to wander, but the doors at both ends of the hallway are locked anyway. The western one leads to the infirmary according to the sign on the wall.



Not the coziest cafeteria I've ever seen, plates have been lined up real nicely though. There's an inviting-looking computer by the door, but it's probably best not to raise a scene until we've confirmed that the Ripper's actually here.

There's a couple of things to look at, firstly a machine of some kind:



And a barely visible old clock.



Ah, 2014. A more innocent time.



The door here is locked remotely and there's no sign of the good doctor yet, so we'll engage in some small talk to pass the time. There's also somebody clutching their head and weeping to themselves nearby, they were probably out of muffins or something.



I'm Amazon. Who are you?

Name's Donny. That's my name. DONNY. D. O. N. N. Y. I knew I didn't recognize you! I know everybody in this place. Everybody. Well, everybody on the first two floors...

Anyone I should look out for... Donny?

No... not in THIS floor. Only us calm one are allowed up in the cafeteria. If you're violent, you have to eat in your room.

How long you been here, Don?

It's DONNY. D. O. N. N. Y. An' I don't know for sure. What year is it?

2054. Two-oh-five-four. You don't know the year?

We could screw with him and say it's 2070, but maybe we're above picking on the mentally ill. This time.

They only let us watch pre-approved trideo discs. Some of the patients can have violent reactions to seeing the outside world again.

Isolating the population of an entire mental hospital to this kind of degree seems a touch extreme, but then I'm not the mental health professional here.

I'm looking for Doctor Holmes.



What's that supposed to mean?

Around here, you don't want to attract the attention of the doctor. If you stay quiet, life is much easier. Much easier.

I'm actually doing a health and safety check for the corporate office.

Amazon is actually just a compulsive liar.



Heh, not a bad one, Donny.



Let's see what this lady has to say.



I don't think so.

I know right! I haven't seen him in days. Dr. Philipe told me not to worry about it. He says I worry too much. But who am I supposed to play chess with? Donny over there can't suss more than match-four.

What's so important about this Josie character?

He's a GREAT GUY. I mean, everybody likes him. Sure, he LOOKS like a meat-head but once you get to know him he's a real thinker. He's got a Super Brawl GOLD RING he always wears, from when he played for the SCREAMERS. And he's the only guy on this floor who knows how to play chess.

The Super Brawl is the North American championship event for the sport known as Urban Brawl which originates from France. It's pretty much like American football if the rules were completely different, it was played on the city streets, both teams carried firearms, one guy drove a motorcycle and goals counted even if the ball carrier was cut in half at the time of touching the goal.

I could see an ex-brawler becoming a celebrity around here, sure.

He's got GREAT stories. They don't let us watch sports in here. Violence and triggers and stuff. But listening to Josie talk about his games, it's almost as good as the REAL THING.



The day we'll pass up on an opportunity to snoop around without permission is the day we deserve to be locked up in here.

Null sweat, I can do that for you.

Really? Really? Great! I wish everybody was as nice as you. Not like my mom...





We make our way to the infirmary door while the guard is distracted.





Well that's not good. What's with all the arms lying around lately anyway?


[A severed arm lies next to the zipped body bag.]



Guess Lorraine's going to have to switch to solitaire.





We haven't been above grabbing stuff from corpses before and we sure as hell are not gonna start now.



Doesn't seem like standard psychiatric hospital equipment, it's almost like this place might not be all on the up-and-up.





A compulsive liar AND a kleptomaniac, Amazon has a promising career as an adventure game protagonist should this RPG gig ever fall through.



Somebody left the cyberterminal on. According to the screen it's the patient information for one Josiah C. Dawson.

Two options here, "Medical history" and "Attached notes".





Who would've guessed, there's definitely something shady going on in this mental hospital run by a serial killer.



There's nothing else of interest at the infirmary, so we return to deliver the bad news to Lorraine.

So? Did you see anything?

I'm not sure how to put this...

Is he sick? Why won't they let me visit him?

Well, it looks like Josie's gonna be playing that Super Brawl in the sky from now on.

H-he's dead? But I just saw him... I... do you know what happened to him?

Nothing conclusive.

Well, thanks for the help...

Now, we do have the option of giving her the ring but I mean, it's not like she ever asked for it and she's not a family member or anything either. I say finders keepers.

[The noise of a scratchy PA system blasts through the room.]



Impeccable timing, though how he knew our name when we never gave it is a mystery.

We walk back to the hallway. At last, the true identity of the Ripper will be revealed!



No... Could it be...



If you thought that the incredibly suspicious, ugly and evil-looking man whose laughter was described as "a strange, high-pitched warble" from Pike Place Market was too obvious a choice to be the serial killer we've been looking for, then boy don't you have an egg on your face right now.

Dr. Holmes, I presume. You're a hard man to reach, especially considering you're dead.



All right, if that's how you want to play it. Dr. Holmes, I have reason to believe you're involved in the Emerald City Ripper killings.

[Holmes forces a sigh through the plaster grin on his face.]

We see so many delusions in this place, and I still can be surprised. I suppose I shouldn't be. After all, this is a place for broken things. It's only fitting that a broken mind should seek us out.





You know in hindsight, at least being in the same room with our target before completely spilling the beans would've probably been the smarter way to go about this whole thing.







Holmes predictably runs off while the nearby guard rushes in. Ordering us to get down on the ground when he's already firing on us, what a guy.



He gets off exactly one shot before Verbena delivers a burn so wicked the universe expels him from this reality altogether, leaving no trace that he ever existed.



Aside from his key which we take with us.



Seems like the main entrance is barred again except we're on the other side this time.



You know you won't be getting paid after I kill your boss, right?

Good luck in the basement... Holmes and Pitezel are waiting.

Oh no, our genius plan of risking our life chasing the Ripper all over the city only to immediately turn around and leave the moment we find him is now in shambles!

Idiot.


Incidentally, while you can't directly target non-hostile characters in combat, they are still susceptible to area damage from sources such as say, grenades.



Greet that visitor, asswipe.



No point in trying to avoid attention now, so let's poke at the cafeteria terminal and see what falls out.



We actually start from full alarm this time, but it's only for flavor as there are no Black ICs anywhere.



Our first target is in the area we start in, guarded by a couple of weak ICs which pose so little threat I didn't even bother screenshotting their cyberdeaths.



This opens up the previously closed door near Donny in the cafeteria.



The southern archway leads to another node. There's a White Sparky here which makes no difference whatsoever.





From here we grab some pay data, the contents of which I'll cover when we have some actual context for it.



Back in reality, we head through the doors we just opened. There's a weak concussion grenade on the bathroom floor and a medkit in a locker which we both snatch to be sold later.



Taking the bathroom route leads us to the flank of the second guard who's busy watching the hallway door. Without a decker it's the only path you can take, not that it makes much of a difference.

Since this is the first time we've activated one, here is as good a spot as any to quickly go over what our new drones are all about.



Crow, our Strato-9 Attack drone, is a pretty standard offensive and defensive upgrade from the Dobermann - for the most part. Despite being able to fly, its movement has actually gone down by two compared to ol' Murphy. It has gained the ability to fire an aimed shot with increased accuracy every 3 turns, but all in all the mobility downgrade makes it a bit of a mixed bag.



Pascal is our new Robo-Doc model Support drone. Unlike Crow it retains Hello World's 8 movement on top of slight upgrades to its offense and defense, and has also gained the Overwatch ability which ends its turn in exchange for automatically firing on the first enemy that enters its sights during their turn.



The most significant difference between Pascal and its Smoker predecessor is the item loadout. It has lost the (mostly useless) smoke grenades but instead carries two very nice concussion grenades and a pair of Advanced Medkits, making it vastly more useful when it comes to actual supporting. A very handy little thing to have around, overall.



Crow double-taps the lone guard to death before he even realizes what's happening. Imagine this except with 7 shots per turn every single turn and you should get a pretty good idea of how strong specialized riggers can be.

And, well, that's it, we're done. You'd think the incredibly obvious alarm would've brought in more than two guards, but either this is a real low-security facility or they're occupied by something else.



One last thing worth mentioning is that when moving to the next area while in combat mode, each character exits one at a time and you can't proceed until everyone's out.

The elevator takes us to the hospital basement, where hopefully we can put an end to this Ripper business for good and finally get our well-deserved payment.