Part 11: Hot and Cold

Sorry about the slow updates and rare posting, life's been hitting like a freight train even more than usual lately



: "Give me... one second."

: "What are you doing?"

: "Adding 'Vampire' to the list of shit I've killed."

: "That list is getting longer and longer as the night goes on."



By the way, everyone in the thread who was so sure that I was leaving this computer for this update, you guys are way too confident in my competency. I honestly never knew both computers were hackable.



Another system running Alpha, get ready for a real challenge!



This one actually has something we haven't seen before. You need to attack this node to open the lines. Some systems later on will require you to download a password from a node first. They also let you download a phone book, which I'm... not 100% certain what it does. You can download it multiple times and fill up your head computer though, forcing you to jack out and back in. That's also the only way I've seen so far to not have enough room to download every single node.



Fuck off.



Okay that's certainly worth the trouble.

: "But wherever could we SPEND this?"

: "How do you feel about money piles?"



Now this is something some people can miss, which can make the end-game content painful and nearly unwinnable. I'm not sure if anything really hints to it. I only found it because I read someone talking about it.

You MIGHT be tempted to just head out and, I dunno, go see what Dog's watching on TV, but if you head right instead...




: "Oh wow, a place even sketchier than where I bought that Lone Star badge."

: "Wait, you have a Lone Star badge?"

: "I... did... huh, actually I seem to have lost it some time before I was taken to the caryards..."





: "Lone Star! Freeze!"

: "Shit! Five-oh!"

: "You have the right to remain silent! Also give me your wallet!"

: "Wait, are you a cop or a robber?"

: "I'm Lone Star, son! That makes me both!"





: "Ah well, who cares."



Right now this place doesn't have any real upgrades to our equipment. We could have slogged through the game with the zip gun to save three thousand by getting the shotgun now, but I also could have just shot myself.



The only upgrade is to the Uzi III, which is a damn nice gun but that price tag.

The viability of the Uzi is often debated, it mainly comes down to whether you're playing solo or with runners. If you're playing solo, you probably have the money from grinding and not paying runners. If you're like me, even if you HAVE the money, you might as well save it. With 30000 nuyen, we could hire Norbert twenty times.

I'm sticking with the shotgun, since frankly we're only an update or two away from an even better weapons upgrade.

Grenades are 80 bucks here instead of 100 at Vivyan's, or 150 at tenth street, but I'm still not going to use them since I'm stubborn and set in my ways. :shakefist:



I can't read a single line of this guy's dialogue without the thickest Jersey accent.

: "I've got pieces you can't even get on the open market. There's some more stuff coming soon. I'm just waiting for the heat to die down."

: "Is the heat going to die down at convenient points in my own personal plot?"

: "I'm not saying yes, but come back when you beat the Jester Spirit. And bring money."



He says this when we try to sell him the mesh jacket that we found last update, but he'll buy our other one for 2500.



: "Huh, you know we never actually did go tell Dog that we killed the Rat Shaman, did we?"

: "Can't he talk to you in your head?"

: "Yeah, but apparently he only does it when he wants to yell at me."



We made bank with karma at the Dark Blade. I ended up spending all 23 points on getting Body up to 13. More body = more human



In any case, let's head down to the docks and raid Dog's fridge. Dude owes us a beer by now.



I love this picture because the mage looks like he's just staring disbelieving at the three people gunning him down. like "Oh god how could I have known". Also at this point I rarely fight the random mooks that spawn while I'm going somewhere. Street mooks tend to get mowed down before I get the gun cursor on them anyway.



: "Woah what the fuck"

: "Yeah hey, don't prepare us for anything."

: "Oh, whoops. This is Dog, he's uh, a dog."

: "Greetings, friends of Armitage. I am H'oochin-ikwa."

: "I'm Norbert!"

: "I'm still kind of creeped out."



: "Wait I thought I already traveled with you at my side."

: "Yes, but now I'll actually help you instead of just dropping cryptic clues. Also I can give you more powers."

: "Well, alright."

: "Jake, you are in truth a shaman. Follow your calling. You know it to be true. Technology has been thrust upon you. You are fated to use it to destroy your nemesis."

: "I was counting more on destroying my nemesis with, say, a shotgun. I guess I can read Drake's e-mails though. That might piss him off. What's up with the Jester Spirit anyway?"

: "A powerful enemy! He toys with you. He is a spirit of technology in decay. Find such a place, and you will have found his lair. Recite his true name, and you will have bound him to your will."



This is what Dog says about Dark Blade by the way. Apparently Johan just had a skin condition.



Powerball kind of sucks. At level one it's not even as powerful as the shotgun. I usually skip it entirely.



Now Freeze on the other hand is a very nice spell. But where can we find the residue of two sea creatures?



: "Wow, good thing that didn't soak into the wooden floor."



Yes, this is what you need the black bottle for. You CANNOT scoop up ink in any other container.



And now we have the Incubus Ink!

: "I suppose that made it an inkub--"

: "I will slap you."



We need to get to Bremerton to show the damn Jester Spirit what's up, fortunately there's a ferry at the docks. Also there's a giant orc who's stronger than the usual idiots we find.



I wasn't paying attention and kept shooting for a few seconds after he died. He might be a bit stronger, but he still wasn't strong enough for me to care. He was, however, carrying something I DO care about.



: "Oooh, don't mind if I do."

: "What was a random dude doing with an explosive device?"

: "Everyone needs some just-in-case bombs! Gyahar!"



Lighting makes a huge difference apparently.

: "Who ye be?"

: "We be me! Ye be he?"

: "Aye"

: "Blow the man down and all that. Who are you?"

: "Longhorn Jack they call me. Finest taxi-boat driver in this fine city."

: "Cool, we're looking to go to Bremerton. How much?"

: "Bremeton - sorry, that be not possible. Mermaids in the waters 'round here attack anybody who heads in that direction."

: "...Mermaids."

: "They turned up a while back and have been here ever since. They seem to like the warm run-off from the sewers. Keeps the waters warm. Can't say I don't like it myself, but it's been bad for business."

: "...Mermaids."

: "So now what? How do we even go about solving an issue like this?"

: "Hey, wait a sec..."

: "Sorry, no ice. The freezer's on the fritz. We're waiting on a delivery..."

: "They seem to like the warm run-off from the sewers. Keeps the waters warm."

: "Sorry, no ice. The freezer's on the fritz. We're waiting on a delivery..."

: "They seem to like the warm run-off from the sewers. Keeps the waters warm."

: "Sorry, no ice. The freezer's on the fritz. We're waiting on a delivery..."

: "They seem to like the warm run-off from the sewers. Keeps the waters warm."

: "You know what guys? I think I have a plan."













: "Admittedly I thought you had some plan to cool the water."

: "The hell with that, let's just go in there and shoot Drake in his stupid face."



This mage awaits you if you wander in at too low a level. Without a shotgun, you can't really hurt this guy, and he does a lot of damage. He's your last warning before you head into the meat grinder.



With the password we got way back when we killed the Rust Stilettos leader, we can open the elevator. That's the only thing preventing us from getting through the door.



: "Huh, I wonder what Drake Volcano means."



This system is ridiculously easy, mainly because it's basically just a button for the elevator. Drake tower is where you either need to have your Computer skill maxed, or have a decker hired.



We're a master decker at this point though, so we're good.





So your first thought may be "Oh shit that's a lot of samurai". There's actually so many that it lagged the emulator a bit, which makes casting heal spells really difficult.



They also talk a lot.

You may notice the elevator that opened to the right. This is the elevator back down. Drake made it so elevators only go one way.



The answer is to hunt down computers and hack them to open the left elevator. There's multiple hackable computers per floor, but only one opens the elevator. We're hacking everything we can, of course.




See now THIS is a network. It's mostly trash data, but still.



Pretty good haul, let's check out the data file.



Looks like we only got part of it, DF_DR 1-4. We'll need to track down the other three to read it.



If you attack the main node in an elevator control area, it blows up all the IC in the block. Not super useful but fairly satisfying





Next floor is more of the same, except they have a mage with an AOE attack.



I wasn't paying much attention and I took a ton of damage. Drake don't fuck around.



I keep trying to think of a Legend of Dragoon reference whenever I see Drake Volcano, but nothing is coming to me



This is the first time we find a system where we need to get a password from another block to progress.



If you're like me, and you grab every node (which you should because money), you'll end up doing this by accident anyway.



Sometimes it's kind of a waste.


[img]http://lpix.org/1766074/Shadowrun10.mp4.Still085.jpg[/img
]

I was honestly dreading this update a bit because Holy fuck it's all just hacking. Matrix sections are fun to play but man, they're not interesting to look at.



: "Alright, there. God damn. Alright, let's get... wait, where's Norbert?"

: "He dropped when those five samurai were shooting at us."



: "Oh hell no, let's stop this for a bit."

: "Is that... okay?"

: "Well we killed like half of Drake's staff, the other half will still be here."



: "Hey Norbert! You're looking surprisingly good for someone who just got shot up."

: "Har! A bit o'lead never done no one harblurghHGKH"

: "Is uh, is that an organ?"

: "Prob'ly. Y'know 1500 nuyen should get me a replacement."



: "I don't think that's quite enough for that, but hey you're hired... again"

: "Repeat customers are important."



While we're here, why not see how our buddy is doing?



: "Things are like so cool! Especially now that the guy with the ice delivered."

: "Oh hey good for you guys. Is the ice dude still around?"

: "Wow, no puns?"

: "One of my companions is dangerously close to magic-ing me in the back."

: "The chiller is the dude over there in the corner."



The chiller is chilling over here.



He's not a cool guy. Until you talk about something he cares about at least



: "Sure I can get you ice. I only deal in it a ton at a time though. Cost you 100 nuyen. You interested?"

: "That... uh, okay, yeah."



: "Just dump it all right into the ocean, down by the docks"

: "You got it! I'll do it as soon as the band finishes this song."

: "Heh heh, fuck you mermaids."



With the crew reunited, let's head back to Drake's house.




We now have three parts of the data file we've been tracking down.








Drake tower is an absolute SLOG, but we're making enough money to be worth our while.



We also got the last section, putting it together we get these two data files.



Now this sheds some light on what Matrix Systems was up to. Apparently Drake and someone named Aneki have some AI shenanigans going on, and we have the solution to it. At least we know we're not just carrying around Pushkin's porn collection or something.



DF_DR_VOLCANO is an angry memo from Drake telling his goons not to fuck up. It also tells them not to make him leave his secret Volcano fort or god help him he'll slap a motherfucker. Also if you haven't caught on, Drake has a fucking volcano base. Say what you will about the guy, he knows how to be evil in STYLE.



The samurai are still annoying but liveable, although we're popping heals like crazy. Fortunately both Jake and Kitsune have a ton of MP.



: "...You know, I just had a thought."



: "Give me a sec, I need to make a phone call."

: "Who on earth would you need to call NOW of all times?"



: "Hello! Do you have Dunkelzahn in a can?"

: "Armitage! You!"

: "Then you better let him out! Hahahahahaha!"

: "You're dead Armitage!"



: "Oh god that was so worth it."

: "Huh, I didn't think the name was literal."

: "Neither did I, and I'm a little worried about being this unsurprised."

: "Ask him if his fridge is running!"



We made it to the roof! These sentry guns are a lot less imposing than you'd expect. They're also the only enemies up here.



However, this is something we can use. Given that Drake is in his volcano lair and clearly not in the tower, since otherwise we would have shot him up too.



He's also more than willing to turncoat. I like you, helicopter man.

: "You need to tell me where you want me to fly this bird, chummer."

: "That's easy, I want to... uhhh..."



: "...uhhhhhhhh"



: "...uhhhhhhhh"



: "...uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"



: "...I can't... say it yet."

: "...What?"

: "...I don't have the keyword, I can't tell you where I want to go yet."

: "Oh my god."

: ""

Looks like we can't get off the plot railroad. Looks like we're headed to Bremerton after all.



Also the pilot won't take you.



We did unlock this in the shop though! We get something even better when we beat the Bremerton area (Yes, the better armour appears earlier in the narrative than this. This item is thoroughly useless.)

: "At least we got to prank call Drake. That's worth a fortune."

: "I think Norbert is vomiting blood."