Rescued Artist

Image

SadArtist.jpg

Encounter Conditions

Only after completing The Missing Artist quest by giving him the living sketchbook and freeing him?
Only once per day

Initial Text

The artist you rescued waves at you from across the park. "Hey! Good timing, I was just swinging through."

He seems better than when he was in the hospital room, although his eyes are still a bit sunken and he's skinnier than is probably healthy. Of course, he was pretty skinny when you first saw him in that warehouse too, so maybe that's just him.

He seems content to talk about you for a while, but you could easily jump in with a question before he leaves.

Summary of Choices

  1. Keep talking about yourself - Gain 3 XP Perception, 3 XP Will
  2. Who are you, anyway? - Find out his name is "Richard"
  3. Where are you staying? - Find out he's a scavenger
  4. What were those things? - Find out he sees the ghouls as the good guys
  5. Do you remember anything? - Find out there's another "badass" working for Midgard
  6. Return his sketchbook - Find out there's another "badass" working for Midgard
  7. Tell me about your dreams - (Only after asking "What were those things?" and some other condition?)
  8. Tell me about your attacker - (Only after asking "Do you remember anything?"?) Gain massive assailant sketch
  9. Find anything cool? - (Only after asking "Where are you staying?"?) Get 4-6 of: garbage sticker, Legion tract, tattered newspaper page, knit cap, protein bar, pep pill
  10. Talk to you later - Walk away

Choice Text and Results

Keep talking about yourself

You have a nice, long conversation about yourself and what you've been up to. It's actually surprisingly nice to have someone honestly interested. And he's bright enough to add the occasional cogent point, which is a nice bonus.

You've earned 3 XP in Perception

You've earned 3 XP in Will

Who are you, anyway?

"Yeah, name's Richard… or Rich if you want. I wouldn't mind if you used Dick, but that's why I usually don't give out my name to people."

He shrugs. "You probably know the rest, right? I'm an… well, was an art student at MU. Had my first big art exhibit a few months ago, things went pretty south."

"Now I'm wondering how much of it was me and how much was the Eclipse, you know?" He glances furtively over his shoulder, seeing a pair of Midgard officers hassling a half-asleep bum.

"Well, gotta go. We can chat next time I come through."

Where are you staying?

He gestures around grandly. "Everywhere. I've actually got more friends than you'd expect and everyone's willing to let me couchsurf for a few days at a time."

"And, you know, it's not as though I didn't spend a fair number of nights crashed out on the docks. I'm actually not bad at scavenging. So it's cool either way."

"Speaking of my nomadic lifestyle, I'd better get going. See you around!"

Unlocks the option to ask "Find anything cool"?

What were those things?

"The ghouls and stuff? That's totally weird."

He sighs. "I wish I could write a paper about this stuff, kind of, get it sorted out. The profs wouldn't be up on that, though. Jerkoffs."

"Well, I've always had a lot of dreams… and always that kind, not like the rainbows and ponies kind. But the ghouls aren't the bad guys, at least not since I was really little, they were always protecting me from something worse."

He shakes his head. "I know some other people have seen 'em too. These big damned dogs with no eyes and hair like razorblades. They were there every time I took Eclipse, but the ghouls fought them."

He glances around a little sheepishly. "Pretty fucked right? That they're not really the bad guys in my head? My dad calls that my 'artistic temperament.'"

"Ugh. Now I need to wash his face out of my head and I'm trying to lay off the Eclipse… Well, I'm gonna stretch my legs and take a ride on the 'tros, hope all this makes more sense to you than it does to me."

Unlocks the option to ask "Tell me about your dreams" if you also satisfy some other condition?

Do you remember anything?

He shakes his head sadly, letting his hair fall over his face. "Not much. Both times it's like dreams, you know? Some parts are so clear and make so much sense, but other parts are just… poof."

He holds up an index finger. "The first time I remember heading down to the warehouse to get some quality studio time in. Took some Eclipse to get the wheels turning. The Third Eye said it was prime stuff, but it wasn't really their fault. I just kept popping them like candy and after a weird dream, I'm floating in the lake."

He ticks up another finger. "Then the next time, I'm sitting in my dorm, minding my own business. Max is asking if I tried to off myself in the lake. Then these three bastards in suits come in… nice fucking suits, like the handmade kind people three paygrades above my mom get."

He stops and squints his eyes a bit, obviously concentrating on something. "The middle guy, huge guy, obviously was running things. He reminds me a bit of you, actually, kinda… I dunno, badass, I guess. I remember his huge fucking hand over my face then… even weirder dream, waking up in a hospital bed."

Unlocks the option to ask "Tell me about your attacker"?

Return his sketchbook

He puts a hand on his head. "So… wow, okay. So I started getting into art pretty late, right? I wasn't one of those kids that broke out with the crayons all the time."

"I actually started in high school while… I was in the hospital. The first sketchbook I used was just like that. I kind of poured my dreams into it, you know? Not like 'hopes and dreams' like 'the crazy stuff when you close your eyes.'"

"I dunno if that's it or where it came from, but you're welcome to it. I don't want it anymore so if you need to throw it away or burn it or whatever, no worries."

He looks back at you, his eyes giving the impression he's just been hollowed out. "Well, there's a party I got invited to tonight so I'm going to catch the 'tros."

(Do NOT lose sketchbook; had a Tome of binding equipped (and did not lose it either).)

Tell me about your dreams

He shrugs. "I think you've seen them, you probably remember them better than I do. Let me see, though…"

"Okay, so the first time I dreamed about those creepy fucking dogs closing on me from all sides and the ghouls made me this offer… they had a king, actually, big Satan-looking guy. He was new, but it's a dream, so he's always been there and it's totally normal, right?"

"Anyway, they offer to protect me and I wander through their kingdom. It seemed like a totally normal place in the dream, but most people would be creeped out in retrospect."

He pauses for a second and hums a few bars of music, maybe to help collect his thoughts. "The second dream was totally weird, though. Everything was normal for a while, you know, just a dream about showing up naked to class and the… class laughing, you know those, right?"

He inhales a bit and clicks his tongue. "After that it went all wacky. There was this… music, right? I can't remember it, but I heard it in the dream and then I got pulled back to the warehouse."

"And it wasn't like dream movement where you're just there, I actually saw the Slags from above… I think they were the Slags, and then the Docks and everything and dropped into the warehouse."

He sighs and slumps his shoulders. "Sorry this is taking forever, I'm so good with pictures it feels like I forget how to paint with words sometimes. Uh, anyway… yeah, so this black rock grows over me as the music gets louder and it spreads over everything like a disease."

"And then it shattered and I was… way tripping for a while. I'm not even going to try that. But when that got done I was on the hospital bed where you found me."

He clears his throat. "I'm gonna go grab a drink at Mikhail's and head to my next surfing destination. Hope that helped."

Tell me about your attacker

"I think I already told you everything I can remember. I only saw the guy for a few seconds and the other guys there just called him 'Sir.'"

He pulls out a tattered sheet of paper and a bit of charcoal. "I can totally give you this, though. Starving artist powers… activate!"

After about a minute, he hands you a rather good sketch of his assailant. Huh… he looks really familiar.

You found: massive assailant sketch

Find anything cool?

He chuckles. "Yeah, I find all sorts of stuff. I keep meaning to make some collages for my 3D art class… huh, well, I don't really need to do that while I'm on the run, do I?"

"Anyway, whatever, I get a ton of extra stuff. Here, have some."

You found: 4-7 of: brass knuckles, broken bottle, dirty old trenchcoat, garbage sticker, gas grenades, Legion tract, My Little Idoru, tattered newspaper page, knit cap, paper mache, protein bar, pep pill

Talk to you later

See Walk Away

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