Philip Rex
To present this dialogue as closely as possible to how a player would experience it in-game, I’m including all of the options that a player would see each time a choice is presented.
For ease of reading, the selected dialogue option will always be sorted to the bottom of the list. It will also be preceded by an >angle bracket, and the resulting dialogue branch will be indented.
GM TEXT: [A wild-eyed young man in a tattered lab coat confronts you. His beard is bushy and unkempt, but bare patches of skin show through.]
RAGGED MAN: Y-you there! Who are you?
[He stalks toward you, his hands twitching.]
How *dare* you enter my domain!
[OPTION 1] PLAYER: I’ll be the one asking questions here.
[OPTION 2] PLAYER: If you want to keep breathing, you’d better back down.
[OPTION 3] PLAYER: I’m [PLAYER NAME]. Pleased to meet you.
>[OPTION 4] PLAYER: Easy there, pal. I thought this lab was abandoned.
RAGGED MAN: Abandoned?! This is my territory! My *home!*
You are an intruder in my territory, elfling, and you have *murdered* my peasantry!
BLITZ: [Dietrich mutters under his breath.]
We’ve got a live one here, boss.
RAGGED MAN: [He continues his rant without pausing for breath.]
You are a murderer! A monster! You will pay!
PLAYER: Hold up. Who are you?
PHILIP REX: *I* am Philip Rex, the Knight-King of Sutterlin BioScience! I will have you banished for your transgressions, elfling—banished to the underworld, and left to the ravages of the all-powerful Billy.
[He pauses, blinking.]
Hold still while I fetch the robots that will banish you.
[OPTION 1] PLAYER: Slow down, “Knight-King.” What are you talking about?
[OPTION 2] PLAYER: Your “peasants” opened fire on me. I destroyed them in self-defense.
[OPTION 3] PLAYER: [Attack him.] All right, Your Majesty. Consider this a declaration of war.
>[OPTION 4] PLAYER: I think we got off on the wrong foot here.
PHILIP REX: To put it mildly.
[He sobs.]
You killed them, you monster. The people I’ve devoted my life to protecting.
PHILIP REX: I did my best to make life good for the peasantry. I scrubbed their plastic cases on a daily basis, and I crooned pleasing melodies to ease their troubled minds.
But those days are over now. My peasants are dead.
You destroyed something beautiful.
[OPTION 1] PLAYER: Well, I have good news for you, your highness. The door’s open. You can leave now.
[OPTION 2] PLAYER: I see what’s going on here. Living here alone for two years has reduced your mind to pudding.
[OPTION 3] PLAYER: [Attack him.] I’ve heard enough. I’m putting you out of your misery.
>[OPTION 4] PLAYER: All right, “sire.” I’m sorry about your “peasants,” but I’m on an important… um… “quest.”
PHILIP REX: [The grief on his face instantly vanishes. What replaces it looks like curiosity.]
Oh? Well. That changes everything.
Perilous quests and civilian casualties go together like chocolate and peanut butter. I can’t stay mad at you for that.
PHILIP REX: Tell me about this quest of yours, good elfling. Leave nothing to the imagination!
[He leans forward, smiling.]
You have my rapt attention.
PLAYER: I need to get my hands on the bioware prototypes that are being stored in the Executive Wing.
PHILIP REX: [His eyes go wide.]
The Executive Wing?! Madness!
Take this as a warning, noble stranger: if you intend to forge your way into that land of milk and honey, you do so at your own peril! The underworld stands between you and your goal, and the underworld is home to the murderous Billy.
PLAYER: I think I’ve read about this “Billy.” He was Sutterlin’s albino basilisk, right?
PHILIP REX: “Was” is right. Now he is so much more… a creature of legend!
Years of experimentation have remade the beast into the ultimate killing machine. He is smarter than ten men, and five times as deadly!
PLAYER: If this “Billy” is standing in my way, I guess that I’ll have to kill him.
PHILIP REX: [He snorts.]
A fool’s errand. Heiner tried to kill Billy once… he thought that by eating the beast, we could steal its power.
Hubris. Billy devoured my friend for his insolence, and the last remaining copy of Keycard E was lost.
PHILIP REX: He was a beautiful fool, that Heiner. I told him that we didn’t need to eat Billy, that we could survive indefinitely on synthesized cardiac tissue and choco nubs.
But he wouldn’t listen, and Keycard E was lost. And without it, I can no longer access the Executive Wing and its expansive snack bar.
PHILIP REX: I have eaten nothing but vat-grown metahuman organs for a year and a half, stranger.
I would kill for a choco nub.
—“Lockdown,” Shadowrun: Dragonfall—Director’s Cut
