Part 29: Friends in High Places

Part 29 - Friends in High Places










Well, if this is to be the end of the road, at least we have a decent shot at going surrounded by some pretty decorations. That's better than what most people can hope for around these parts.



Just, too bad about the company.

I suggest you keep your smart-ass remarks to yourself this time, elf. Mr. Telestrian isn't some streetmeat you can impress or intimidate. He's the brains behind the throne of Tir Tairngire and one of the richest men in Seattle.

And he holds your leash, right McKlusky? You his lapdog?

[His eyes say, "I'd love to kill you now" but his mouth continues to smirk.]

I got one of the richest an' most powerful men in the Pacific Northwest takin' care of me, dumbass. Wadda YOU got?

Indigestion.

You're dumber than I thought. Enjoy your chat. I'll dispose of your body later.

We really need to talk our way out of this somehow, there's no way in hell we can let this guy get the satisfaction. Not in a million years.



Wouldn't be an ultra-rich guy's mansion without a dapper-looking butler to go with it.



I am Mr. Quoth, Mr. Telestrian's Head of Household. Mr. Telestrian is expecting you. You will find him in his office.

Quoth in the streets, the Raven in the sheets am I right buddy

This is an extraordinary estate. May I look around before I see him?



Great, maybe we can find a secret passage which leads to the outside or something. All millionaire's mansions have at least one or two, right?



Man, but this place really is big. Feels like you'd get your daily exercise in by just walking to the bathroom and back.

Somebody else is here too from the looks of it.



Now wait a moment. I'd recognize that smug mug anywhere!



You run in some pretty different circles, don't you, Aljernon?

I do not "run" at all, Amazon. I go where I am needed. I am needed here.

Okay, my magical friend, explain yourself.

No. I do not explain. I provide a service. Seek me out after you have spoken to James Telestrian. Then perhaps I can be of service again.

Yep, that's Aljernon alright. As clear and forthcoming as ever.



There's nothing else to look at and we have no luck finding any secret passages either, so walking directly into the lion's den looks to be our only available option.



Now what kind of a monster has two statues set perfectly symmetrically on both sides of their desk, only to have one of them face a different direction from the other?!



This guy's who. James Telestrian III, CEO of Telestrian Industries and owner of the tallest damn collar in the city of Seattle. Probably employs a private hit squad for the specific purpose of making sure it stays that way.

I have been reviewing the results of your... visit to my Seattle office last night. I admit, they are impressive.



Haha, we got Silverstar fired. We might end up dead or imprisoned because of it but at least something good came out of that mess of a run. We did James here a favor, honestly.

How do you intend to settle your debt?

Would you take a check?



Oof, tough crowd.

There was also a Corporate etiquette choice here where we could've offered to work off our debt to him.

You have one piece of information which you might use as a bargaining chip in the little time you have left to live - why you took what you took. I am interested to know why you and your team of criminals fought your way through my security teams up to my private office to access the Matrix and uncover the location of a simple research project.

We could lie to him and say we're just an ordinary thief, but I get the feeling that trying to deceive this guy would be an exercise in futility and not entirely unlikely to get us killed. Besides, if he had Aegis created to kill the bug spirits and we tried to steal it in order to do the exact same thing, lying about our motivation seems like it'd only serve to make things worse for us whether he believed us or not.

So you know what, screw it, if he wants to know the truth then let's just lay it all on the table and see where it goes. Not like we have much to lose at this point.

It goes like this: Your half-brother, Sam Watts, hired me to find his own killer. He had a Dead Man's Switch. When I find the killer, I get paid.

You impress me, ma'am. My father's bastards are intentionally not well known, even to themselves. Nevertheless, I fail to see the connection between this "Sam Watts"'s death and a raid on one of my office buildings. There is no connection between the research project and the dead man that I am aware of.

Sam was killed by your half-sister Jessica. Jessica is protected by giant bugs. Aegis kills giant bugs. Kill the bugs. Kill Jessica. Get paid.

Did we mention the part about getting paid?

As a sidenote, one of the available dialogue choices if you try to lie seems to have an incorrect flag assigned to it, and picking it immediately skips this entire scene and moves on to the next one with no explanation.





Well well, things might be looking up for us after all.



It's you! You're the woman who helped me escape from the Universal Brotherhood! How did you get here?

[Telestrian cuts in quickly.]

Thank you, Marie-Louise. You have confirmed the identity of your rescuer and given me a reason to forgive her for her trespasses against me.

[She looks hungry for your help.] I'm glad you're here.

This guy's your father?

Apparently there's a bit of a discrepancy in the canon here, and other Shadowrun sources have Marie-Louise as James' younger sister rather than his daughter.



You can relax, Marie-Louise. You are safe. It is over.



And that sure worked out great for everyone involved. Hell, I'm half-convinced we would've been better off contacting Telestrian ourselves instead of getting tangled up in the Baron's questionable schemes.



In any case, it's looking like we might've finally gotten our lucky break. Having this guy and his buddies on our side sure as hell beats having them against us, we have enough problems as it is without being actively hunted by another major corporation.

I would be delighted.

I don't know if that is sarcasm or not. Just... behave.

Fade to black!



It may not look like it at first glance, but this small library we're standing in just might be the most dangerous room in the world right now.

Lady and gentlemen, this is... Amazon. She is the elf who saved my daughter and the only one who has faced our common enemy in combat. Herr Brackhaus, what does the representative of the Great Dragon Lofwyr have to tell us about the magical insect this... shadowrunner uncovered?

Lofwyr is, as mentioned, a golden Great Dragon and both the CEO and sole shareholder of the largest corporation in the world, Saeder-Krupp. Saeder-Krupp (which was originally BMW until Lofwyr somewhat dramatically took over and restructured it) is based in Germany and is involved in a huge variety of fields, either directly or through their many subsidiaries, ranging from heavy industry to telecommunications to banking and much more besides. They're the biggest and baddest fish in the corporate pond and their power and influence are practically unparalleled.



Of course this also makes Lofwyr, who has absolute control over S-K, the single richest and one of the most powerful beings on the planet. Lofwyr's best known for his calculating nature and the fact that he's rumoured to personally eat people who fail him. It's precisely because of him and his ability to always come out on top in the end regardless of the situation that "Never, ever cut a deal with a dragon" became a core rule of shadowrunners worldwide. Lofwyr can't really be considered an out-and-out villain though, and being in his employ can be quite lucrative provided you don't screw up, but he's definitely just about the last guy whose personal shitlist you want to find your name on.

My lord Lofwyr has witnessed the insect spirits' physical manifestation before - roughly 9,000 years ago. As you are aware, magic ebbs und flows from the Earth, cycling from peak to peak over the course of 5,200 years. As the level of magic grows...

Mr. Brackhaus' intimidating presence is somewhat undermined by the fact that the writers felt the need to include his German accent in his dialogue.

Actually, since it's not really relevant to the main plot and tiptoeing around it is a little annoying for everyone involved I'm just going to tell you right now that Brackhaus here is, in fact, Lofwyr himself. It's not really a secret and you're pretty much told as much if you ask about it later on anyway, but I think the dialogue here is more interesting if you're aware of the fact from the start. Him being here personally is a good indication that we're dealing with some Serious Shit with these bugs.



And speaking of powerful beings... where to even start with this guy. To put it very briefly, Harlequin is an eccentric and immortal elven mage born back in the Fourth World some five thousand years ago. Especially at the time this game takes place (2nd edition Shadowrun) he's more akin to a living plot device than a character to the point that he officially didn't have character stats assigned to him until later, and the limits of his power are pretty much whatever the plot happens to demand. Similarly to ol' Elminster in D&D, despite his considerable powers he rarely gets directly involved in things unless he considers it absolutely necessary, instead preferring indirect assistance served with a large heaping of cryptic hints.

Incidentally, this isn't his first appearance in a Shadowrun video game as he also appeared to help out Joshua towards the end of the Sega Genesis game. He wasn't exactly a looker in that one though.



(Image courtesy of Turtilicious' LP)

In any case, we'll have the opportunity to have a more in-depth chat with both Sephiroth and Kefka here after this meeting is done.

I believe that would explain why I wasn't able to damage it. The spirit itself is extra-planar.

Academic etiquette choice here, allowing us to sound all smart.

[Aljernon eyes you keenly.]

Bravo. That is precisely the idea, the insect spirit exists on both planes simultaneously. I have been impressed with you for some time, Amazon. It is good that you are here.

Now an insect spirit can't simply thumb a ride through astral space and show up on Earth late for dinner - dinner in this case, being us.



I think it's safe to assume Aljernon was feigning ignorance when we asked him about insect spirits back at the Union, though I suppose in hindsight he never directly denied having knowledge about them. Sneaky bastard.

The best candidates are the disaffected and the disenfranchised. In short, the weak-willed. Their minds are the most susceptible to suggestion, which is helpful in making the transformation. As you may imagine, these are the sort of people easily attracted to a cult - such as the Universal Brotherhood.

Finally, by performing what has to be a truly disgusting ritual, the shaman serving the insect totem implants the spirit into the host - willingly or not. Then it's feeding time.

Har'lea'quinn iss correct. The insect spirit will then slowly consume its host, while transforming it into the spirit's own insectoid body, thus manifesting itself fully on this plane.

I don't like the sound of this.

You shouldn't. It's bad. Really, really bad.

The initial bugs prepare a nest for the summoning of a Queen. Once a nest has its Queen, she literally explodes with newly-manifested insect spirits. They swarm out of the nest, feasting on all the flesh they can find and implanting more insect spirits into the fresh corpses. Again, and again, and again.

Of all the potential ways for the apocalypse to come to pass, everyone being eaten by spooky bugs would be an especially lame and gross one.



This is not an infestation, Amazon. It is an invasion.

My lord Lofwyr knew this day would come, but he did not know precisely when nor where. Your rescue of Mr. Telestrian's daughter has exposed the existence of an insect spirit for the first time in this cycle of the world.

So you're early to the party this time. That gives you the upper hand, right?



Herr Telestrian's biotechnology and agricultural divisions worked with my lord Lofwyr's thaumaturgical engineers and designed Project Aegis to destroy an insect spirit once it is released from its host. The formula, a fluorescing astral bacteria strain, exists in the physical and astral plane at once and can thus affect the insect spirit.

Now that was a mouthful. Did you memorize it or are you reading it off of index cards?

Harlequin is fully aware of Brackhaus' true identity, which makes his casual jabs at the guy pretty hilarious.

My Director of R&D, Diane Ravenwood, will explain how Project Aegis will be used in the field. Dr. Ravenwood?



In order to destroy one of the bugs, it must first be damaged using conventional weapons or magic until the spirit is released from the host body. Then the insect spirit must be shot with the Project Aegis prototype launcher to destroy it.

"Shot with", huh? We kind of put all our focus on drones and decking so we're not very good at shooting things, but I'm sure they can accommodate instead of making this extremely critical tool completely reliant on one's skill in ranged weapons.

So in order to stop an invasion of insects from another dimension, a dragon and an elf co-created a magical insecticide.



This is maybe a bit of a flimsy justification for why it's us who have to do the job despite being surrounded by people with power and resources beyond our comprehension, but ending the game here would admittedly be a little anti-climactic.

I'm flattered, but what makes you think this Project Aegis will actually work in practice?

[Harlequin grins and his red lipstick catches the light.]

Because it has to.



If only we could've had this guy to talk with inbetween missions back at the Union instead of those boring merchants.

Enough. Are you willing to undergo this mission, Amazon?

Much like with the Baron before the Telestrian run, we could accept immediately. But maybe we can push our luck a little.

I'm a professional, and professionals get paid for their work. I assume that serving all mankind involves compensation.

Of course. Here is my proposal. If you prevent the Queen from being summoned and destroy the insects in the nest, one million nuyen will be divided by the surviving team members.

Boy have we been working for the wrong people. With the Corporate etiquette we could negotiate ourselves an extra half-million on top of that, but I guess we'll have to make do.

One million? Sign me up.

Excellent.

[Harlequin claps his hands as if seeing the circus for the first time.]

I love the way that the short-lived are willing to die even faster - it's very inspirational.



Odds of this being foreshadowing for the final boss fight are roughly 100%.

Hey, don't scare the kid, Hansel. We still need her to go on the mission! By the by, I'm coming with you, Amazon. I wouldn't mind seeing these creatures for myself since I missed 'em last time. Telestrian will bankroll you so you can hire the rest of the team.

And he does so immediately, to the tune of 10,000 nuyen.

Find me when you're ready to go and we'll bug right out of here.




And together with a reward of 8 Karma the meeting comes to a close, as does this update. Things have progressed pretty quickly and are definitely coming to a head now, but before we make our final assault on Antland we do still have some preparations to do and a couple of interesting people to talk to.