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Encounter Conditions
Only after you disable the force field in The Missing Artist quest.
Initial Text
You find your way to the open "priority care" room. Its door is more of an open arch with powered-down electronics lining its inner surface.
Within the room, you see a comatose young man you barely recognize as the artist from that warehouse. Monitors and machines beep and whirr around him, apparently keeping him in the world of the living.
Summary of Choices
- Check his vitals
- Carry him off - get 4 XP in Perception, <10 + First Aid> energy of Dying Artist, or with living sketchbook equiped gain black sketchbook
- Return his book - only with living sketchbook equiped
- Help him escape - gain black sketchbook
- Euthanize him - gain black sketchbook
- Get Dr. Mira - gain black sketchbook
- Leave him - gain black sketchbook
- Leave him
Choice Text and Results
Check his vitals
You're not sure what a lot of the instruments here mean… not all of them even seem to be tracking medical indicators. From what you can gather, he's basically stable but needs the equipment to keep going in the long term.
There's nothing that explains why he's in a coma, but that's usually more up to the physicians than the machines.
You've earned 4 XP in Perception
Carry him off
You disconnect the patient from his life support systems and monitors, the latter of which project a variety of mournful tones. He's not particularly heavy, but it's hard to move carrying his limp body… to say nothing of the fact that he might have needed that life support equipment.
You've gained <10 + First Aid*> energy of Dying Artist.
You've earned 4 XP in Perception
* Only some First Aid sources count - see the First Aid page for details
Or, with the living sketchbook equipped:
As you approach him, his eyes slowly open. He's still in bad shape, but you're easily able to carry him out of the Slags and out to the nearby Metros station.
Thankfully the guard doesn't ask too many questions. You imagine a "patient transfer" is supposed to look rather different from that and probably require some paperwork.
The artist thanks you profusely, but says he'll have to find somewhere to hide out and clear his head.
A while after you send him off, you realize the sketchbook you've been carrying has stopped moving strangely.
You found: black sketchbook
Return his book (living sketchbook equiped)
You tuck the book under his limp hand. His shoulders flex and he opens his mouth silently, then his eyes flick open.
"I'm… better? Was I in a hospital this whole time? I had such terrible dreams."
Help him escape
You carefully smuggle him out of the lab and through the gate out of the Slags, mumbling something about patient transfer to placate the guards. In the shadowy lights near the Metros station, you send him to find his fate.
He sighs heavily, looking back towards the faintly green-lit clouds over the Slags. "Well, I guess I really need to disappear this time. Just the drugs won't do it, with Midgard after me."
"You… you should probably take this." He hands you the sketchbook. "I'm too afraid to open it… I think I'd just rather not have it anymore."
With that he boards the Metros for who-knows-where. It's hard to say if he'll escape Midgard's grasp, especially if he can't get out of Metroplex, but he seems intent on giving it an honest try.
You found: black sketchbook
(Unlock Rescued Artist encounter in Southside Park, available once per day)
Euthanize him
He looks up at you questioningly, his life in your hands by fate. Well, apparently fate doesn't like him very much.
He's still too weak to struggle, so a simple hand on his neck becomes a death warrant. He eventually stops struggling.
That book apparently did something, though, so you snag it on the way out.
You found: black sketchbook
Get Dr. Mira (after giving him the living sketchbook)
You go and track down Dr. Mira, leaving a trail of confused scientists in your wake. Eventually, you bring her back with several assistants and they promptly begin an examination.
As you pass back by the bedside, he slips the small black sketchbook back to you. He mouths something like "thank you" as you're ushered out of the room.
You found: black sketchbook
(Unlock Dr. Mira Talks encounter)
Leave him (after giving him the living sketchbook)
As you make your way out of the room, he slips you the book back. "Just take it. Keep it away from me, okay?"
Content not to waste anymore time, you head on your way.
You found: black sketchbook
Leave him
He seems to be doing more-or-less okay. You leave him there for now.