Portrait
Unlocked
Using a patched audio chip
Conversation
First time:
You slot the recording chip into your comm and wait a minute for it to load. A generic cube shows up with a voice recording accompanying it."I apologize for the quality of this recording. Certain measures have to be taken to prevent the corps from finding up what we're up to."
The recording stops and a small menu displays.
Further times this conversation:
You wait a second for the main menu to load back up. It's hard to imagine how people ever tolerated that.Intro
People
Places
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Intro
A date appears, almost three years ago, with the works 'Initial Recording' superimposed over a rotating cube.
There's a hiss of static, then a smooth voice cuts in. "Hello. If you're listening to this, I'm probably dead."
The voice pauses for a long while. "It's a fail-safe, of sorts, to help someone else pick up where I left off. The underground calls me The Vigilante, but I'm just one among many, hopefully including you."
"The streets have gotten too dangerous for an old army jacket and a mask to cut it anymore. Can't trust I'll live the night. Too many Freaks… I'll explain in the other sections, I suppose."
"If you're wondering what got me into this mess, I'll try to record a new message whenever I do something stupid."
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People
Your comm spits back "Warning: Data Error" but still displays a menu for you.
Freaks
Gangers
Other Vigilantes
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Freaks
The audio recording attached to this entry is pretty badly corrupted, but once you convince your comm to open it, it's mostly understandable.
It drops in midstream, a mellow voice narrating. "… so, if you received this recording, it's probably because a Freak took me out. I figure there are three types."
"The animalistic ones tend not to bother people unless you find your way into their lair or dose up on the wrong narcotics. Problem is, more and more are starting to claim populated portions of the city as their lairs."
"The 'sorcerers' were humans, but have decided to become Freaks for the sake of power. The Hammer thinks this is tied exclusively to Eclipse, but I've seen a lot of things that don't make sense in the last few years."
A burst of static consumes the next several seconds of time, "… concern me the most. They seem to be tied to Midgard, either volunteers or unwilling test subjects. I think The Hammer might be one of them. He's a little too resilient, even with all that cyberware."
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Gangers
A clear, calm voice recording begins. "I just realized I rambled on for about twenty minutes about gangs. So, I'm going to break it up into separate sections."
"In general, though, the gangs used to be the big game in town. Back in the day… now I sound like an old man, but back in the day the gangs were behind all the big problems."
The speaker's voice drops to almost a whisper. "Now things are much worse. The old guard… Mafia… Yakuza… the narcotraficantes… are all either hold up in their own fortresses or gone. The new gangs are just Freaks by any other name."
Your comm beeps, ending the recording and displaying a menu.
Fangs
Mafia
Narcotraficantes
Third Eye
Triads
Renegades
Yakuza
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Fangs
The recording clicks in, sounding a bit better than some of the others. "Looks like we don't have to worry about these guys too much anymore. The center of their power in the sewers is crushed… now we just have to worry about other gangs moving into Southside and the docks district. I'd peg the Third Eye as most likely to make the first move."
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Mafia
A voice recording slowly fades in over static. "…yeah, they're alright. They say the Maf ran the whole city back in the early twentieth century. They're trying to get that back, I'm sure, but Midgard isn't going to let go of their city that easily."
"Hang around downtown at enough nice restaurants and you'll meet them eventually. Dress sharp and don't act like Midgard Security and you'll be fine."
A burst of static drowns out a few more words. "…not bad money if you need it, cracking other gangs' skulls. They want tribute and nobody is giving it, so they're good for a few creds doing stuff you were planning on anyway."
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Narcotraficantes
A voice recording clicks on while the speaker is in the middle of chuckling. "I almost forgot to record something about the old narcos. They were a big deal back a few years, funneling all sorts of drugs into the city. I've got more narco blood on my hands than I'd like to admit."
The voice pauses suddenly and becomes more somber. "But that's my generation's fight. I think your generation's fight is the Third Eye, but don't let me tell you that. Make your own decisions."
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Third Eye
"The Third Eye are a dangerous crew. They were strictly smalltime hoods, paying tribute to the mafia."
A shriek of static obliterates the next several minutes, along with giving you a wicked headache. The voice abruptly picks back up "… their big guns are in Oldtown, I think. Their operations around the university center around a bar called the Happy Hour. Dealing Eclipse mostly. They love the stuff… probably sample more of it then they sell."
"Most of the leadership I've seen and a ton of the rank and file are Freaks. At least they seem to stay down when you put enough bullets in them."
The voice pauses for a bit and you can hear someone drinking. "The Eclipse seems to be the source of their power somehow. Hammer grabbed one of their 'sorcerers' and kept him away from the stuff for a few days. The ganger stopped setting the stupid bastard on fire about the same he sobered up. No fucking idea how that works, but I haven't had any luck disrupting their supplies."
"Ah, for the days of just getting shot at. Hammer comes back from that crazy green hellfire after a nap, like nothing happened. I can't get the scars to go away, even with skin grafts."
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Triads
There's no voice recording for this entry, just a line of text that says "No Triad activity yet, thank God. I just hope they're not interested in Eclipse."
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Renegades
A thankfully clear voice recording picks up. "Alright, what's next? Renegades? That's fair."
"Okay, so the Renegades probably won't give you too much problem. They mostly stay outside the city, demanding tolls and raiding companies that aren't interested in paying."
"They like to pretend it's a Robin Hood thing, burn down rich peoples' houses and stick it to the corps. Push comes to shove, they're a bunch of hooligans. The rich can pay for their own security, though. I'll take care of the people who can't."
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Yakuza
A voice recording picks up after about fifteen seconds of staccato static. "…they're still a serious presence in downtown, but their smuggling operations were destroyed by the narcos years ago. I can only imagine they're not interested in reestablishing them."
"Rumors always say they secretly run Zaibatsu, but that's an oversimplification. Zaibatsu uses them when they need muscle, keeping it 'in the family' as it were. But if you don't cross them or Zaibatsu, they're usually fairly reasonable."
"Back before the new gangs and the Freaks, I crossed blades with the Yakuza a couple times. Sad to say, I was out of my league. Turns out they don't just use swords because it fits the image."
"On a personal note, if you get two of their katanas and I'm alive, I call dibs on the spare."
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Other Vigilantes
The recording clicks on. The voice is slow and sad, almost morose.
"Well, vigilantes… there's a reason the underground papers call me 'THE Vigilante.' It's not because there are a lot of us making waves."
"The rest of the old guard is gone. Third Eye got 'em… or other Freaks. Hammer's left, but I don't think I can really trust him… he seems to choose targets for his own reasons."
There's a long pause and the sound of liquid sloshing into a glass. "Well, that's where you come in, I suppose. I won't lie to you, you're not the only person getting a copy of this if I go down. There's always a few bad apples."
The voice sighs heavily. "Hell, guy I used to work with, went by Watson… old literature reference, I think… went to work for Midgard. Now he's got his Midgard job, his Midgard wife, and his slimy little Midgard kid. Saw him at a party once, surprised he didn't turn me in for reprogramming. There's a special place in hell for people like him."
The recording cuts off with a loud click.
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Places
Your comm brings up a small graphical map of Metroplex. Five points of interest are marked:
Southside
The Docks
The University
Oldtown
Downtown
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Southside
The voice recording clicks on. "Good morning from Southside. Decided to take the Metros down here to see how things are."
You hear footsteps and voices in the background. "Seems somebody cleaned the place up a bit. You can almost walk from one end of the park to the other without being attacked by some crazy bum."
"Talking to the locals it sounds like they're still having problems with slasher poseurs. I've never seen an explanation for it. Wish Watson was still around, he'd have something with his fancy diploma."
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The Docks
A recording begins, but all that's playing is the sound of waves gently lapping. A smooth, calm voice eventually picks up.
"A wise man once told me that to understand someone's origins is to understand that person. These are my origins." The voice pauses, leaving nothing but the sound of waves for several minutes.
"I grew up here, on the Docks. I still like to work here, when I can. The place used to be a smuggling staging ground for the Yakuza, then the narcos, but when the Fangs took over they didn't take advantage of their placement."
"Officer Stone works here with his goons. I think they've taken over most of the smuggling. Bastard still has my gun too, cracked it open with a lucky shot, now he taunts me with it whenever we meet. Really need to get him alone at some point. But his pride makes him stupid. He'll screw up eventually."
"Lots of crazy stuff in the warehouses, but nothing compared to the sewers. I was down there all the time as a kid, helping the squatters and screwing around…" the voice lapses again and you can hear the waves and a few footsteps.
"What I mean is… I know the sewers. They're like a second home. But every time I go down there now, there are new tunnels. They look like they've been there for decades, but they haven't."
"I'd love to say it doesn't scare me, but there's something going on down there. Sometimes, if you turn your back and wait, you can almost feel them growing. It's like they're alive."
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The University
You endeavor to push the recording past several minutes of ear-rending static. Eventually, a voice rises faintly above the background noise, "… people claim it's a ghost, it claims it's a nightmare. I can't kill the damned thing. It just laughs at me."
"That's just an annoyance compared to the Third Eye, though. We need to stay focused."
Apparently there wasn't much left of that recording behind all the static.
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Oldtown
The voice recording comes in, so soft you have to crank the volume on you comm. "Alright, Oldtown. To be honest, I don't head up that way. Downtown's safer, even though the criminals there don't trust me any more."
"I never feel like there are a lot of Third Eye in Oldtown, but they always seem to find me first. It's like they've got eyes… informants everywhere."
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Downtown
A faint drone of static echoes under the recording's voice track, giving it an eerie quality that probably wasn't intended. "So, downtown Metroplex. Nice place to visit, wouldn't want to live there."
"The criminals in downtown come in three brands: old crime, new crime, and corp crime. Expect them all to be at each others' throats, all the time," the voice sighs heavily.
"Best bet is to side with the old crime… Mafia or Yakuza, I should say, just long enough to get the hell out of downtown. They won't cross you, at least."
"In downtown, new crime means the Third Eye… although I keep expecting the Triads to show up any day. Corp crime… I don't even know. I haven't seen enough cred in my entire life to buy a suit that meets their clubs' dress codes."
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Current Entry
An audio recording cuts in with a hiss. The voice is surprisingly smooth, like someone who rarely has to yell, and deeply sad.
"Today, I'm heading back to the sewers to talk to the Freaks down there. Their young have been eating bystanders again. Can't let that stand."
"Found out yesterday my damned map is out of date again. I'm going to have to find their lair manually, talk some sense into them."
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