Forlorn Hope

The Forlorn Hope is the name of a notorious bar in Night City.
==History==
===A New Home (2045)===
After the destruction of the old Forlorn Hope in 2045, owners Marianne and John "The Professor" Freeman wanted to rebuild. With this in mind, Marianne sent a group of mercenaries to look for a new location while her husband and other staff of the Hope recovered in the From the Ashes clinic. She sent them over to Jack Skorkowsky, an old friend of the Freemans and a real estate agent in Night City. After a series of events, Jack finally found the perfect spot for the bar in the neighborhood of Woodland Park, on the northern edge of Heywood, near the border with New Westbrook. The multi-story building he chose used to be the home of a mahjong parlor that went out of business in 2041. Not long after, Jack bought it and completely renovated the structure, with work finishing in 2045. The mercs contacted Marianne, who soon sent Cicely "Backhand" Feng to check it out. The new building had potential, and Jack assured the Freemans that there were lots of space and plenty of room to do custom interior work as well.
After some time to think, Marianne decided to buy the new place, but first she wanted to be sure how safe Woodland Park was, tasking the mercs to watch over the area for a month to get to know it better. The Hope's in-house band member Grace Steel had also taken the opportunity to ask the mercenaries to find new members for her band, as most had died in the fire of the previous bar or simply left. While the mercs were figuring out the neighborhood, Marianne, the Professor, and other staff of the old Hope moved into the new building to began planning the renovations for the new establishment. Once the mercs had finished their task, they reported their findings to the Freemans, who were relived it was such a colorful neighborhood. Soon after, construction to establish the new Forlorn Hope began.
===Hope Reborn (2045)===
Over the following weeks, contractors worked to accommodate the building for the bar, however, Marianne found a setback. When looking for vintage liquors, none of her contacts were able to provide due to a series of buyouts and "accidents." This was the work of Juliana Lung, whose latest investment, the Devil's Cut, had procured much of the true alcoholic beverages in the city. Ever since the Collapse, it was more and more difficult to acquire pure spirits in Night City, as speculators had been procuring and keeping the alcohol in secure vaults to later resell them at much higher prices. Some were happy to sell their inventory, but those who weren't were affected by a series of robberies, with Harriet Woodward, an old friend of the Freemans, being the latest victim. With the help of Marianne, Harriet contracted a group of mercenaries to steal back her liquor so she could sell it to the Hope. Harry expected for the mercs to do the heist in a way that would cause maximum embarrassment to Jules Lung in order for her to be demoted, but professional enough so it wouldn't be traced back to the Forlorn Hope. Whether the mercs were successful in this endeavor was up to them, however, Marianne was overjoyed if they brought her the vintage alcohol. With this gig done, the opening day for the Forlorn Hope was nearing, though there were at least a few more weeks of renovations. In the meantime, to prepare for the inauguration, Annie, Cid and Jorge were hired as additional servers.
With the renovations complete and everything almost ready for the opening night, only a few last-minute tasks remained, including the acquisition of the ingredients for the bar's new signature drink, the Hope Reborn. Marianne hired mercenaries for this, giving them a task list of what was required. The crew could start by driving to Stems & Seeds in the University District to collect the ingredients, though they ended up pursing a different crew that had somehow obtained the codes to collect the order. If they were successful, the Hope was able to offer their signature drink. This also gave the mercs the certainty that there was someone at the bar who was working against them, with one of the names they obtained from the rival crew being Populi, though no one knew who they were. Following this event, the mercs helped Backhand with strange energy spikes throughout the building that none knew how they were caused. One of the first rarities they found was a biotoxing bomb wired into the lights above the bar's dancefloor, which they promptly deactivated. After finding a few other tempered devices they swiftly fixed, the mercenaries completed Backhand's task. The only thing left was checking on the new in-house band led by Grace Steel, the Distortions, who were having a notorious setback. Chevalier, the group's guitarist, had received a voicemail from a bandmate known as Random. The young man had been kidnapped by a fixer known as the Gentleman due to an unpaid debt, and Chev had preferred to not let the rest of his bandmates know, instead relying the message to the mercs, hoping they would rescue him. With little time left, and with a fortress such as the Highcourt Plaza Hotel where the Gentleman lived, the mercs took a different approach and managed to contact the fixer to arrange a meeting instead. Whether they were successful or not it was up to the mercenaries, though if Random survived he would join the rest of the Distortions for the night performance.
With everything ready, the mercenaries hired by Marianne were able to figure out who the spy was, and more investigations led them to acquire information on an upcoming attack on the bar orchestrated by Red Chrome Legionnares Vox (Annie) and Populi (Arthur). They were planning on assaulting the Forlorn Hope with two-hundred gangers from three vantage points: the basement, the ground floor, and the roof. When the mercs informed Marianne, she was seething about the different groups trying to end them, but was also unhesitant on continuing her plans. In Marianne's eyes, she dared the Legion to attack a place which would soon be filled with some of the nastiest and dangerous edgerunners in Night City. If the mercs were also able to destroy the virus located in the Hope's NET Architecture, they would have an easier fight. The opening night could include many guests such as regulars (Roxxi, Kissy, Axeman, Sundance and Team Monster), locals (Billy Flight, Carri Zote, Ella Corella and Calliope), other notorious city personalities (Rogue Amendiares, Bes Isis, Fiona Hayes, Mister Studd, Lucius Rhyne and Woodchipper), or Hope friends (Jack Skorkowsky, Harriet Woodward and Phoenix Redwyne).
At 9pm the party kicked off, with the bar fully packed and the staff ready for the attack. The Distortions began to play at 9:15, and at 9:19 the Red Chromers began the assault. The Legionnaires blew up the bar's bathroom walls, appearing from the city sewers wearing their red and black uniforms and equipped with helmets and masks. The party soon became a mass battle, with more Red Chromers assaulting from the ground and top floors. The fight was a slaughter fest, with the experienced one-hundred Hope guests and staff battling against the two-hundred Legionnaires. If not already incapacitated, Vox helped plant a number of fire bombs on the ground floor before abandoning the fight, while Populi and his team used a zipline from the neighboring Shark to led the assault from the Hope's rooftop downwards, also planting bombs on the top floor. In the meantime, Backhand was deactivating any explosives she could find while the rest of her allies defended her. Marianne coordinated the Hope teams, sending them wherever they were needed the most. Once Populi planted a large fire bomb on the Freemans apartment, if he was able to, he tried to flee. Otherwise he made his last stand there. At the end of the night, while the sun was rising, the Forlorn Hope stood bloodied but unbowed, with the invading Red Chrome Legion decimated.
===Ripping the Ripper (2045)===
After a baptize by fire, the Forlorn Hope's opening night became a notorious event all around Night City, at least for some time. After some weeks of reconstruction though, the Hope's full attention was put onto single purpose, retribution. Harriet Woodward appeared with news of interest to Marianne and the Professor, the culprit who had set ablaze the old Forlorn Hope, a man known by the handle of Ripper. He was a very infamous Maelstromer and overseer of the gang's operations in the Hot Zone, known to force herds of desperate people to scavenge in the radioactive ruins. Of note, Hope's server Valence had been one of these scavengers, rescued by the Freemans in 2044 when the Hope's people fought against a Maelstrom group thrashing on them. There were rumors that Ripper took this act of kindness really personally, mentioning he wanted revenge against the Forlorn Hope. The actions that led to the destruction of the bar were caught on a hidden camera owned by David Ling Po, a notorious criminal lord in Little China who kept a rigours monitoring of the district. When he heard that Harriet was looking for evidence, Ling Po approached Harry to sell her the recording showing Ripper in a place not far from the bar, where he forced a group of squatters to carry duffel bags filled with explosives into the sewers below the Forlorn Hope, then triggering a detonation device around the time of the explosion that caused the fire.
Knowing who the culprit was, the Freemans hired a merc crew for 4,000eb each to take him down in the most painful way. The mercenaries had multiple ways to accomplish this, one of which was fooling the Ripper. Guided by Harriet, in this one the mercs managed to find the Maelstromer in the Redline bar, get his contact number, plan a fake meeting at one of Jack Skorkowsky's offices, convince him with about a valuable cash of lost tech by showing him a piece they had procured from Mister Kernaghan, then guide the Ripper and his people to the merc's planned location by getting the Maelstromers lost in the tunnels underneath Upper Marina (first obtaining the sewer plans from Ziggurat), and reaching an off-books Rocklin Augmentics Research Warehouse where they would either finish him, or let the corps do the dirty work. If this didn't work, the mercs approached their objective from a different perspective.
With the guidance of Valence, the mercenary crew instead decided for a direct assault on Ripper's hideout in the Hot Zone. They would travel by mostly ruined tunnels, exiting them whenever they found the structure collapsed, and find another one to continue. Since the Hot Zone's surface was filled with radioactive particles and other dangerous material dust, they had to wear protective masks and cover their bodies with resistant clothing and boots. Valence gave Marianne a list of what they needed, which surprised some of the mercs as there weren't any rad suits marked, with Valence laughing it off by mentioning Ripper's diggers never had one of those. However, Marianne could sell them rad suits if they wanted. If the mercs had made a deal with the Gentleman when rescuing Random, he called them after hearing about their upcoming "little adventure" into the radiated ruins, asking them to obtain a certain advanced bit of cyberware from a monster living in the area in order to fully pay their debt to him.
The following day, Valence met the crew at a service tunnel entrance in the border between Little China and the Hot Zone. As to why they took that route instead of a direct approach, Valance mentioned they didn't want to die, with that being the best way to avoid Ripper's diggers and other dangerous scavengers. Once in the Zone, they all put their masks and taped any gap they had around their clothing. Valance carefully advised them to listen for any slips, as parts of buildings were crumbling down all the time. After hours of walking through a very dangerous landscape, the all reached the hideout, however, Valence decided to stay back while the rest of the crew advanced, only approaching the area to tell them how to access the ruined structure. The large sign on the side of the building read Ashcroft Hotel, which Valence identified as Ripper's home. To access it, Valance told them about a makeshift walkaway that reached the seventh floor, as all ground accesses were either shut close by twisted, armored shutters, or blocked by rubble. While Valence stayed put, the mercs followed the trail upwards. After traversing the ruins of the Ashcroft and dealing with Skippy, the crew reached Ripper's private playground where they found out about all his horrible experiments and uncountable victims. No matter what the mercs decided, there was enough evidence for both MAX-TAC or Maelstrom to want to stop Ripper and his cyberpsychotic behavior. Either killed by them, or in a fight against the crew, Ripper's days were over.
If the crew was able to complete their objective by accomplishing any of their main plans and end Ripper either at the warehouse or his hideout by their hand or that of Maelstrom, Rocklin or MAX-TAC, the Forlorn Hope was very grateful. That evening they threw a party to celebrate, inviting the merc crew for free drinks while the various staffers at the Hope approached them to offer their thanks and appreciation. With their future assured, Marianne and the Professor told to the mercs the Forlorn Hope would always welcome them as part of their family.
==Layout==
In 2045, the Forlorn Hope was located in the Woodland Park neighborhood. An empty lot adjacent on the southeastern side of the building offered parking space, while a number of older buildings surrounded the establishment: the Shark apartment complex was separated by an alleyway to the southwest, the Palms container village could found to the northwest, a ruined structure past the parking lot was located to the southeast, and an even larger but mostly empty lot was found to the south. In front of the bar, separated by Woodland Avenue, was a small construction yard that housed the Zhirafa equipment that had been used to renovate the building. Following the Red Chrome Legion assault, much of the building was badly damaged.
The Hope was a two-story structure with two additional floors below it. All were connected via a staircase and an elevator located on the southwestern side of each floor. All maps depict the building with the southwest pointing north.
===Sub-basement===
The sub-basement was divided between a number of utility rooms, illuminated by dull blue ceiling lights and accented with a light chill. It included a tech workshop located behind a sliding double steel door, which was primarily used by Backhand. This area also housed the Forlorn Hope's NET Architecture server. A ripperdoc clinic operated by Doc Stoic was located below, separated by a hallway. Located to the right of the workshop, separated by another hallway, was a small utility room that housed the building's hot water heater and fuse box, as well as an industrial washer and dryer. Two quarters, one for Backhand (where she sometimes slept) and one for Doc Stoic (where he usually slept), were located below that room. Occupying the bottom side were an ancient secure vault that had been ripped out from the old Forlorn Hope (and dated back to when the original bar was a hotel), and three storage cages where the residents of the first floor could store their belongings. An empty room, a large storage room, and a secure soundproof meeting room only available for mercs the Freemans trusted occupied the rest of the middle and upper areas, adjacent to the utility and sleeping quarters. On the right side of the floor, separated by hallway, was a sizeable indoor shooting range which was useful for testing any weapon Backhand had repaired.
===Basement===
The upper basement could be accessed from the left side of the building, which exited to the small parking lot. Down a staircase and locked behind a keycard doorway was an "airlock style" entrance, with light decontamination and drying features to help slough off blood rain.
The rest of the floor housed the proper bar, with booths, two pools, and three arcades around the recreational space (with a Roach Race cabinet imported directly from Poland thanks to a friend of Marianne). In this area there was a small closet for cleaning supplies as well. The heart of the establishment had tables and chairs that occupied much of the center of the room, with booths in the lower side, and on the upper part there was the bar counter (this last one housing a brand new Hammered Industries Drink Master 5000). There were also a few unisex bathrooms right next to booths. A large stage was located on the right side and it was used by the in-house band, the Distortions, as well as for other performing acts, with the tables in front of the stage cleared for dancing, and a small side pocket used for electrics and storage. A green room was located next to the stage, used as a waiting area and backstage for the performers. On the opposite side of the bar, above the recreational area, there was a relatively small but well-equipped kitchen, which included a small cargo elevator that provided easy access to the alleyway between the Forlorn Hope and the Shark. Next to the kitchen was a walk-in freezer and a storage closet, both shared with the bar.
An evacuation ladder that exited on the alley behind the Hope was located between the bar counter and the main staircase. A camera and a turret maintained the entrance secured.
===First Floor===
The first/ground floor could be accessed through the main entrance on the lower-left side, which exited to Woodland Avenue. It gave access to a foyer and a large hallway with a few chairs used as a common living space, where residents could gather and socialize. The rest of the floor was divided between rooms and smaller hallways.
On the central-left side there were three two-bedroom apartments, one of which was shared by Edelweiss Dolarhyde and Valence, another one by Grace Steel, and the third one was unoccupied. Four one-bedroom apartments took over much of the central area, one of which was occupied by Aurora O'Reilly, while the rest were free. Between the apartments and the staircase was the communal bathroom, washroom and laundry room. On the rightmost side there was a small music studio and practice space used by the Distortions, and four cube rooms similar to those found in cube hotels. Despite being made for temporal use, Legacy had moved into one cube room full-time. Right next to these rooms were two small utility closets.
All apartment rooms had windows, as did the common space and the easternmost hallways. The entrance was watched over by a camera.
===Second Floor===
The second/top floor was divided between the apartments of Petra David and the Freemans. Petra's was much smaller, with a kitchen/living/dining room combination, a bathroom, and a bedroom where Petra also kept her weapon cabinet.
The Freemans' apartment had a large lounge, with a kitchen area they rarely used, and a dining space where the couple could eat. The bathroom to the right had a toilet, a shower, and a hot tub. On the left side there were two offices, one for Marianne and one for the Professor, and in between there was a large bedroom.
Except for the bathrooms, the rest of the rooms had windows. A biometric locked hatch near the staircase allowed access to the roof. The walls near the elevator and staircase exit had two stun panels for security purposes.
==Known Drinks==
*The Hope Reborn: This was the Forlorn Hope's signature drink during the 2040s, with a Light and Dark version. It was a mixture of Bourbon or Mezcal, Jalapeño Slices, Blood Orange Juice, Sweet Vermouth, and Blood Orange Peel Twist garnish.
==Staff==
==Regular Patrons==
==Gallery==
Forlorn Hope Brawl REDTOTRHR.jpg|Red Chrome Legion attacking the Hope
Grace Steel and the Distortions REDTOTRHR.jpg|The Distortions
Marianne Freeman REDTOTRHR.jpg|Marianne at the bar counter
==References==
Category:Cyberpunk RED Locations