Inactive Inquisition Quest: Mysteries of Brocante

[Azira]

He's gonna lie and try to stall for time. We should've just knocked him out.

 

[baud]

Part 10: Basam Damdu

"I would have preferred not come to this, but you don't leave us any choice." you say to Basam Damdu, drawing your handgun. "Telemacus, lock the door so that we're not disturbed", mindful of the fact the afternoon is not finished and most workers are still present in the building.

"What is the meaning of this? Unhand me at once!" Basam Damdu starts to shout, as both you and Electryos move to tie his hands. You silence him via pistol-whip, splitting his lips and breaking loose a pair of tooth.

"We're asking the questions now, administrator. And how painful it's going to be and whether you survive will depend on your promptness to answer them. So I'll ask again. Where did you sent the patients from Hangul?"

"You can't do that! I am an Ordinate of the Board, you can't touch...", he tries to answer, as blood starts dribbling from his mouth.

In response, Electryos hold him in place, muffling his cries of pain as you start hitting him, working out the frustrations of dealing with the Administratum. On the fifth strike, you feel one of his ribs cracks. At this, you ask:

"So, are you ready to talk, or should I break out the knives? I'm pretty sure you could do without a finger or two. Or maybe an eye?"

"Please... stop", whimper Basam Damdu.

You slap him hard enough that he falls to the ground. You kick him a few times, taking care to avoid the head, before asking again:

"Then start talking."

"I can't..."

"Electryos, do you still have that saw? Start with the fingers on his left hand, I'll hold him."

"I'll talk, I'll talk." gasps Basam Damdu as the saw is approaching. "The comatose patients were sent to storehouse n°11, in the Kaesong district. Please..."

After he answers, the saw lingers a few moments above his hand before retreating.

"It's the area of the city where all the food processing factories are and where the food is stored before shipping. As far as I know, there are no medical facilities there." explains Telemacus, sensing your question.

"There. You see it wasn't that hard. But now you'll have to provide some more explanations. Why did you sent the patients there? Who is taking care of them? Who are you working with?"

"I can't talk... They'd kill me."

"Well, they are not here. We are."

"You won't be able to do anything. They are too powerful. It's useless."

As you are preparing to strike him anew, you are interrupted by a few urgent knocks on the door.

"Administrator? Administrator, are you all right?" "The door's locked." "Is he alone in his office?" you hear multiple voices from the other side.

"They must have heard us. What do we do?" asks Electryos.

Do you:

A - Flee by the window, you should be able to reach the parking on the other side of the building
B - Open the door and try to leave by fast-talking the clerks
- What do you tell them?

Regarding Basam Damdu, the interrogation is finished and you don't think you can take him with you:

C - You leave him here
D - Execute him

Spoiler

Note that the two choices will be counted together, not separately.

 

[Baltika9]

How about this, bros: we knock out Damdu and jump out the window with him, then we try to pass him off to headquarters. Balda's description suggests he's a fit man, capable of carrying Basam, and we haven't yet gotten all the information out of him.

baud, is it possible to pass by unseen in the surroundings of this building?

 

[baud]

How about this, bros: we knock out Damdu and jump out the window with him, then we try to pass him off to headquarters. Balda's description suggests he's a fit man, capable of carrying Basam, and we haven't yet gotten all the information out of him.

baud, is it possible to pass by unseen in the surroundings of this building?

From where you are, you think it's possible to not get spotted. But the Administratum clerks might block the parking before you can get there, especially if you're carrying Basam.

 

[Baltika9]

On the one hand, I kinda want to do the whole Martin Riggs thing. On the other, we were specifically told to not do the whole Martin Riggs thing.


Yeah, this man is connected to some bad dudes, and I want to get more information from him, but we're Inquisition agents. Brute force is not the only tool at our disposal. For instance, we can arrange for him to be 'picked up' from the local hospital.


Assuming his 'other friends' don't get to him first.

[X] Flee by the window, you should be able to reach the parking on the other side of the building
-[X] You leave him here
-[X] You ask headquarters to pick this man up from the hospital and have him interrogated further.

 

[baud]

On the one hand, I kinda want to do the whole Martin Riggs thing. On the other, we were specifically told to not do the whole Martin Riggs thing.

A bit like this?

 

[Baltika9]

A bit like this?

Yes. We can try to visit him ourselves if HQ doesn't come through.

 

[ChumBucket]

I have been summoned by Baltika9. Anno Domini is my choice. He knows what we have learned, we can't afford him squealing to his masters. Death to all traitors.
On a side note have none of you read the All Gaurdsmen Party? Why is Bruno not part of our team? Former guardsmen are they only people with a lick of sense in the empire (besides the emperor and his angels of course).

 

[CappenVarra]

[X] Flee by the window, you should be able to reach the parking on the other side of the building
-[X] You leave him here
-[X] You ask headquarters to pick this man up from the hospital and have him interrogated further.

i'm up for this cunning plan

also, bigger picture: chaos-spore ripe near-corpses were transported to a food-producing sector? i sense a Culling of Stratholme looming in the cards

 

[baud]

On a side note have none of you read the All Gaurdsmen Party?

I did, I even stole Fumble from there as a potential acolyte, with the name changed to Echec (which means failure/fumble in French). Also the name of your Inquisitor, Sargent, is the same as the Sarge in The All Guardsment Party, as well as his past as a guardsman. Though I don't think I've stolen/borrowed anything else, at least not intentionally/that I can remember right now.

 

[ChumBucket]

For everyone that voted so far: why do you not wish to kill Basam? We have a lead from him which should lead us to the same information that we could get from further interrogation. Our cover is already going to be blown by our actions from the previous update (not to chastise, probably would have made the same choice). I don't think we can rely on our current cover story after this and things are going pear shaped whether we like it or not. Killing him mitigates the damage of this incident to our goals. We have a literal licence to kill; this is the time to use it.

 

[Baltika9]

Just because we have the license to kill, doesn't mean we have to use it now. I want Basam alive so that we can pump him for more information. Yes, he gave us a lead that we can follow to some sort of organized crime ring, but I want to know more about the people he's working with so that we know what we're walking into. Are these people run-of-the mill criminals? Revolutionaries? Or are they bona fide chaos cultists? If we can get this information ahead of time, it may save us a lot of headaches down the line.

Our cover is already going to be blown by our actions from the previous update (not to chastise, probably would have made the same choice). I don't think we can rely on our current cover story after this and things are going L shaped whether we like it or not.

That's why we took the slick bribery option: the workers here have very little idea as to who we are, the damage to our cover should be minimal in my estimation. All they'll be able to tell the officers is our appearance, and there are ways of disguising ourselves and maybe switching out our companions, if we have to.

 

[Gondolin]

Our cover is not blown yet. They know we are not whatever we pretended to be, but they don't know what we are exactly. Also, whoever Basam has been taking orders from will know that somebody is looking into the situation. That's not good, but maybe we can deal with it. If we get our hands on Basam, we can always kill him later.

[X] Flee by the window, you should be able to reach the parking on the other side of the building
-[X] You leave him here
-[X] You ask headquarters to pick this man up from the hospital and have him interrogated further.

 

[CappenVarra]

yes, all fine and dandy
except warpstone dust in food distributed to thousands

 

[ChumBucket]

But he knows exactly what we look like, and what we specifically questioned him about. Interrogations can reveal just as much information to the person being questioned. If he squeals to his masters before we pick him up we will be in worse shape.

 

[Baltika9]

Good point, but it's a risk I'm willing to take. And that's why we're phoning HQ immediately after we get out of here, to have him intercepted.

Besides, he might be too terrified to tell him that he was interrogated by us: if 'they' even suspect that he squealed, he'll probably die then and there.

 

[ChumBucket]

And I don't want to count on the fact this man will keep his mouth shut when he squealed faster than Benny (from the mummy) to our polite questioning. He is a rat, and a variable like that needs to be removed from the equation.

 

[Gondolin]

And I don't want to count on the fact this man will keep his mouth shut when he squealed faster than Benny (from the mummy) to our polite questioning. He is a rat, and a variable like that needs to be removed from the equation.

Whoever gets to him first, will remove him from the equation. However, since it should be us and it should happen after we squeeze more information out of him, we ought to make an effort to get our hands on the rat.

 

[ChumBucket]

But organizing his extraction will take an hour or more, while him making the poor choice of telling his masters about us will take him only a few minutes after we leave.

 

[Gondolin]

But organizing his extraction will take an hour or more, while him making the poor choice of telling his masters about us will take him only a few minutes after we leave.

The only thing he can tell his handlers is that we asked about the patients' destination. Let headquarters deal with his extraction and we can head over to the place right now.

 

[Nevill]

[x] Flee by the window, you should be able to reach the parking on the other side of the building
-[x] You leave him here
-[x] You ask headquarters to pick this man up from the hospital and have him interrogated further.

Not sure if the man lives to see the hospital. He squealed, and his masters aren't very forgiving. There also aren't a lot of reasons for why his face would look like someone danced on it.

But even if they remove him, that'd leave some kind of thread leading to them. Might be a worthy trade off.

And if they don't, he'll be telling us the rest very soon.

 

[ChumBucket]

You can see on his bald skull the bionic implant used to interface directly with cogitators, like the one Telemacus is sporting

Then how about a compromise? He has cogitator interfaces, which means we don't need him, just his head.

 

[Kz3r0]

[x] Flee by the window, you should be able to reach the parking on the other side of the building
[x] Execute him and take his head with you

 

[Baltika9]

You can see on his bald skull the bionic implant used to interface directly with cogitators, like the one Telemacus is sporting

Then how about a compromise? He has cogitator interfaces, which means we don't need him, just his head.

baud, can Telemacus determine whether or not we can do this, given the situation?

 

[ChumBucket]

Well since I found 1 ally I will also be switching my vote:
[x] Flee by the window, you should be able to reach the parking on the other side of the building
[x] Execute him and take his head with you