Shadowrun #25 - Bremerton

1. The Little Mermaid Redux, Bremerton

Items

Explosives, Mermaid Scales

Keywords

Mermaids

Enemies

*1 Karma point equals 8 Experience (EXP) points

A few notes before going on. If you have not purchased the remaining items in the Talismans Shop in Old Town, you should do so now. After buying the Potion Bottles, revisit the fountain outside the morgue in Tenth Street and Use the Bottle to collect clean water. The Black Bottle can be used to collect the Pool of Ink left by the Octopus in the far warehouse on the Docks.

Once that is taken care of, head back to the Docks to see if the Boat Driver can take you to Bremerton. You will find, as soon as you enter the harbor, that a Massive Orc now seems determined to stand in your way. He is slightly harder than the normal enemies on the Docks and drops EXPLOSIVES when killed. Be sure to pick them up, as they will be needed ahead.

When you finally talk to the Boat Driver about *Bremerton*, he explains that he cannot take you because *MERMAIDS* are attacking passing ships. When further grilled about *Mermaids*, he explains that their appearance has to do with warm run-off waters from the sewers. These are clearly not your friendly cartoon Mermaids. You will need to find a way to remove these hostile beasts from the city waters. Maybe if you can somehow cool things off the Mermaids will swim away?

Cool The Waters

If you remember, the club manager of the Wastelands Club was expecting a large delivery of Ice. Maybe this is just the thing. Return to the bar and talk to the manager. He lets you know that the delivery came in and that the "chiller" is over the in the corner. Sure enough, there is a new character standing under the stairs on the far left. Ask him about *Ice* and he will offer to sell you a ton for 100 nuyen. Once you agree, he prompts for a location. Ask him about the *Docks* and he will agree to drop it there.

Head back over to the Docks. With the water now cool, the Mermaids have left the area. Head over the third screen where the entrance to the Dog Spirit warehouse is. Go towards to small dock at the bottom of the screen and you will now find the MERMAID SCALES, which were left when our marine friends departed. If you also have the Black Bottle filled with Octopus Ink, visit the Dog Spirit again and you will learn the FREEZE spell.

Cap'n Jack

Head back to Captain Jack (name is fitting given the look on his face, is not it?). He now eagerly offers his boating services. For 1,000 nuyen, he will take you to Bremerton. With no other alternative, pay the fare and get sailing.

⤴ ↳

2. The Ruined Ship at Bremerton, Bremerton

Items

Broken Bottle, Dog Tags, Detonator (and Time Bomb), Green Bottle, Safe Key, Toxic Water (for Potion Bottle)

Keywords

none

Enemies

*1 Karma point equals 8 Experience (EXP) points

The old ship at Bremerton crashed ashore and has remained out of service for years. It has been taken up by gang members and other nasty foes that see it as a perfect hideout. The ship will sport some of the hardest enemies you have encountered yet. In addition, the ship has numerous rooms and can be very confusing to navigate. A full scale map is unwieldy for this level, but the diagram below attempts to clear things up a bit.

The Old Ship At Bremerton

Head right from the entrance onto the second screen, defeating the Gang Leader and Gang Members along the way. You will pass by several doors that are rusted shut. None of these can be opened, so just ignore them. At the end of the second screen is a staircase that brings you to the upper deck. Loop back around and head towards the first screen again. When you arrive, you will be attacked by a Gang Member and a Doggie. do not be deceived, the Doggie is quite vicious. You will need to put him down with a few bullets. When killed, the dog will drop the DOG TAGS. With this item, you can now learn the SUMMON SPIRIT spell when you return to the Dog Spirit. There is no need to see him quite yet, so keep proceeding for now.

When you get to the very last door on the upper deck, use the Crowbar on it. For some reason, this door can be pried open, allowing you access to the inner ship. The next portions will reference the diagram above for specific locations.

There are numerous rooms within the old ship, which can make it quite confusing to find your way around. The first room contains a couple of Red Poison Oozes. There is a switch on the opposite wall from the entrance that opens the door below. Take the lower exit into the next room, which has a door at the bottom and a stairway leading back to the previous room. For now, take the stairway up and pass through the room you entered in. You should come out on a stairway.

Basement 1 contains three screens of stairways heading downward. You will face a nice mix of Massive and Ferocious Orcs, all of which become slightly more difficult on each descending screen. Still, you should be able to handle them fairly easily at this point. The last room contains a single Ferocious Orc and a safe. Be sure to pick up the nuyen after killing to Orc, because it will be covering the SAFE KEY that this foe drops. As common sense might tell you, use the Safe Key on the safe. You will find a DETONATOR and a BROKEN BOTTLE. The Detonator combines with the Explosives to form a single item called TIME BOMB. The Broken Bottle is a useless item. Once you have the Time Bomb, head back up the stairs.

From the second screen with the staircase, take the bottom exit this time. This takes you out into a room that forks in three directions. Proceed down the middle fork. You will come out in a room with a Gray Poison Ooze blocking the way. Once defeated, the Ooze turns into TOXIC WATER. Use the Potion Bottles that you bought in the Talismans Shop on the Toxic Water and you can collect this item. At this point, you can return to the Dog Spirit and learn the INVISIBILITY spell. The Invisibility spell can be very useful in this level, so it is not a bad idea to backtrack now and pick it up.

The Second Basement

Once you are ready, head down the stairways in the second basement. You will find a tough assortment of Orcs as before, with a few Mages mixed in. If you go to the room at the very bottom, a handful of powerful Orcs will immediately begin blasting you and will send you reeling back into the previous room. These Orcs are invincible, so save yourself the HP and do not even enter the room. To kill them, you will need to use some creativity.

If you looked closely, you may have spotted a couple of switches at the tops of the stairways on the second and third screens. Press the switch on the third screen first. This shuts the airlock that leads into the bottom room with the Orcs. Now, go back up one screen and press the second switch. This opens the water hatch and increases the pressure in the safe room. The loud screams of pain should tell you that the plan worked. Flip the switch again once maximum pressure has been reached and head back down. Flip the switch on the third screen to open the airlock and head on in.

You will see the bodies of the Orcs on the floor and will now be able to access the safe. The safe is locked and will not be opened with the Safe Key, so you will have to blow the door open. Use the Time Bomb on the safe and then stand clear (you can receive up to 20 damage if you are too close). Inside the safe you will find a GREEN BOTTLE that contains toxic dissolver. Head up the stairs and back into the room that had the three forks.

Portal Room

From the room with the three forks, take the doorway on your top right. Head up and around, through the small L-shaped room, and down into a small, T-shaped room. Head through the bottom exit. You will arrive in a longer room that splits off at the bottom and to the right. The bottom path (where the Gang Leader is) is a dead-end, so head right. In case you are a little confused, this room is called Inner Ship 10 on the map above.

Pass through another small L-shaped room into a larger room. You will notice two pools of Slimy Toxic Waste blocking the door and far hallway. They are immune to your weapons but are killed instantly if you use the Green Bottle on them. Once defeated, you can proceed safely.

The top wall of the room has three switches on it. The rightmost switch opens the door leading to the next room. The two switches on the left side control the mines in the next room. Press the leftmost switch only (the center switch will cancel out the effects of the left switch). This switch will cause all mines to blow and save you some life. Proceed ahead and enter the portal.

⤴ ↳

3. Alternate Dimension, Bremerton

Items

Jester Spirit

Keywords

Volcano

Enemies

*1 Karma point equals 8 Experience (EXP) points

Wow, so this is where the Jester Spirit resides? Sort of like a dream world, but anything is possible in Seattle in 2050. Shortly after you enter, you will discover a large Naga in the pool in the center of the room. The Naga is very difficult and has high HP and attack. It can kill you pretty easily if you stand there and duke it out. You can run (and miss the karma) or you can cast the Invisibility spell (on Jake) or Freeze spell (on the Naga). Both spells should make the battle quite easy, assuming you have raised their levels.

Move past the Ghouls and onto the next room through the top exit. In the next room, you can defeat the large Bubble piles but not the smaller ones that are planted on the tiles. You will need to time your movement to avoid being hit by those. Finally, you arrive in the Jester Spirit is room.

The Jester Spirit

The Jester Spirit is the most difficult opponent you have faced so far. His attack consists of hurling a blue ball of fire at you, which rises into flame pillars once it hits the ground. Each hit can do upwards of 15 damage and can hit multiple times, so try to move away as soon as you can. Start by positioning yourself at the top of the screen, against the ledge of the Jester's platform. This position has the benefit of allowing you constant sight (so you do not lose target lock) as well as keeping you out of way of the flame pillars from the fireballs (helps avoid multiple damage from the same fireball). The Jester Spirit is vulnerable only by attacking the mask.

Unbeknownst to most people, the Jester Spirit has three "phases" during this fight. During the first phase, the Jester lobs blue fireballs around the room without any specific target. You can probably manage to maneuver around them and avoid damage. Once the Jester has sustained 20 HP of damage, he switches to the second phase. Now, the blue fireballs will target you directly. During this phase, it is very hard to avoid damage without moving constantly. You can try dodging until he has depleted all the balls in hands, at which time he takes a few moments to replenish before resuming his attack. However, dodging is difficult to do and this recharge period is a very small window of time. You are better off standing still and taking damage so long as you can inflict damage equally fast. Given the predictable timing of the attacks, you should be able to heal in time if your HP become too low.

Once you inflict 40 more HP of damage, the Jester Spirit will talk to you, saying "You are a fool to come here. You are no match for the Jester." At this time, the Jester Spirit enters the third phase. You can now talk by clicking and selecting Talk. Keep in mind that you will still be attacked until you choose the Talk option.

Given these three phases, the most straightforward way to defeat the Jester Spirit is simply to run right in front of his stage and blast as fast as you can. With any luck, you should receive the taunting message in about 15 seconds, at which point the fighting is over. Another tactic that works somewhat effectively is to use the Summon Spirit spell (only if it is at level 6). While very MP intensive, the spell can deal up to 36 HP per attack. it is possible to cast the spell three times and win the fight. However, you need a lot of MP to make this work. It is probably a better idea to save those MP for healing.

Once you engage in dialogue, ask him about *Laughlyn*, his true name. This will end that battle and you will receive karma. Click on the floating mask and speak with him again. He will offer to help you at the time of your choosing. You will need to ask him about *Drake*. He then explains that Drake's lair is a *VOLCANO*. Once you learn this keyword, the Jester Spirit will fall the ground and can be collected as an item (aptly named the JESTER SPIRIT in your inventory). This item inflicts massive damage on enemies when used, but can only be used once. Save it for now.

After completing the conversation with the Jester Spirit, WAIT FOR THE PORTAL TO APPEAR. Exiting through the portal is one of the most important triggers in the game (for enabling the sale of better weapons and armor). Many, many players are impatient and leave too soon, backtracking through Bremerton. Once again, TAKE THE PORTAL. It transports you to the docks.

⤴ ↳