NHighpool

Used mainly as a troop staging area, Highpool is almost always full of Ranger HQ troops and recruits.

Areas of interest :

1) Troop barracks. On the north side of highpool, they all map to the same room. Until an encounter check is passed, they are all 'live' since they point to the same space. Once an encounter check (for various faction affiliation) is passed they become 'dead' and are static from that point on.

2) Store. Slightly changed from the old store.

3) Small house. Maps to room with chests. Who is in the middle? Bobby you say?

4) Shrine. Memorial to youths killed by rangers over 20 years ago. Ranger HQ stopped trying to stamp it out after the Free Rangers split off from them.

5) Residential housing. Lower section. Can't enter these.

Plot ideas:

1) HQ - Deal with rebels who have come to resent HQ's authoritative rule.

2) Free Rangers - Deal with friends of killed youths of the past, as well as Bobby.

3) Temple - Convince rebels to overthrow HQ command and join the temple.

## SPOILER THINGS BELOW

No Really, stop if you want things to be unknown.

### Core NPCs

Bobby - Info on all factions, sets a trap for Free Rangers

Urgue - Leader of Youths/Rebels. HQ can kill/deal to resolve. Free Rangers must kill. Temple must deal.

### Static Faction Checks

Barracks have a lvl 1 check. Check branches from Temple to Free Ranger to HQ.

Temple Pass - Guards storm in from all barracks and attack. Hard fight for low levels, med/easy for level 10 and up.

Free Ranger Pass - You can get information about what is going on in Ranger HQ from the troops.

HQ Pass (no check, if first two fail auto pass) - You can get more info about Rebels, including a pass phrase for bobby to enable deal resolution with Urgue. =="Yeah, the

Rebels have been kinda fiesty lately. The leader of the Rebels, Urgue, his older sister would have had a birthday last week, if she hadn't been taken out into the desert when he was a kid. Talk to Bobby here in town, tell him SUNSET. He can probably help you out."

This is branched to allow the lucky Temple player who fails his level 1 skill check or Free Ranger who does the same to impersonate the HQ faction. After any pass (First visit the way it's structured) check gets wiped and barracks return 'No one seems to be in this barracks.'

### Dynamic Faction Checks

Bobby. Pre faction dialogue:

BOBBY - Yeah, that's me, the scowling man says.

REBELS - Who wants to know?

SUNSET - You wanna make a deal? Tell you what, if you can find Urgue, tell him JACKIE.

URGUE - He's a friend of mine, we go way back.

REX - I'd rather not discuss that.

JACKIE - I'd rather not discuss that.

Faction checks, unlimited attempts until pass. Once passed check gets wiped, but pre faction dialogue remains.

## Temple Pass

Bobby turns to look at you. 'Have a seat RadBringer. So you want the take control of Highpool, eh? Don't you think the Ranger HQ', here he pauses to send a stream of dirty brown spit over the window sill, 'will notice what's going on?' You spend the next few hours digging the facts out of Bobby. How the founders of the Free Rangers killed a large chunk of the youth population of Highpool, how Bobby's dog Rex was killed, and Bobby was shot and left for dead. You also hear how the leader of the Rebels, Urgue, had his older sister Jackie taken from him, and never heard of her again. Armed with this knowledge, you set about convincing Bobby to do just what you need from him.
You sit for the next hour and explain your plan, how the rebels, who roam the immediate areas surrounding Highpool, have managed quite unintentionally to have a fairly good population whose numbers remain completely unknown to Ranger HQ. You suggest planning a 'battle' between the HQ's stationed forces and the rebels. With the support of the locals, the rebels could take the place of HQ's soldiers, with any troops who have family or friends nearby tragically being killed in the skirmish. You explain that if Bobby can get the support of the town, you and Urgue can plan an ambush that should wipe out the HQ forces.

Bobby mulls it over for a while, and then starts to smile. 'You know, that just might work. I don't much care for these arrogant grunts we get stuck with. Still, you have not mentioned one fairly important thing, what do you get out of all this?'

'Simple, I let this town run itself again. In return I want very little. There will come a time when the Temple will claim these lands as it's own. You will have two choices, bend the knee or die. This is not a threat to take lightly, ask what few Quartzites left how true it is. At that time, if I lay claim to Highpool and the town submits to me, it will be mine to rule. To be honest, Highpool is not quite.....primary....in my concerns. I will be happy to leave things the way you have them running, and you can always revisit this pact when the temple comes calling. Either way, you make out, you need me to pull it off. Since I'm not taking anything for a while, there is no reason to turn on me after the deal is done. So what do you say?'

'I like yout style RadBringer, I like it a lot! I'll send word to Urgue. Pray at the shrine and someone will meet you. Tell Urgue who you represent.'

### Free Ranger Pass

'So you want our town to support you instead of Ranger HQ? Why should we, I don't know you from Adam.' You explain how you are trying to bring all the towns and the cities in the region into a loose alliance with each city/town under no one's thumb, simply agreeing to a common set of freedoms the citizens will have. You explain that you will convince the HQ forces, you just need the support of the Rebels to keep additional HQ troops from interfering.
'Hmm, I'll setup a meeting with Urgue, you have to convince him yourself.'

### HQ Pass

'Well, you guys finally showed up. I guess things got a little too disruptive out here, huh? Tell you what, Urgue is just mad because his sister's birthday just passed. He wants to get back at the Free Rangers, but you guys are all that's around. I'll setup a meeting with him. I'll give you a hint, tell him his sister's name.'

### Urgue

To locate pray (use chr) at lower left of shrine. CHR check of 14 to pass. After CHR pass, Urgue appears. You get a paragraph (will add later) and then have to use a faction skill on him to initiate conversation. There is only one faction check, once done, Urgue will revert to dialogue mode. The item given from Urgue's corpse will be useable in the Highpool shop to open a door there with loot, as well as at Temple and HQ command for a small reward. Finishing (kill or deal) the Urgue encounter will also turn the barracks faction check dead if it has not been visited already.

### Temple Pass

(Deal only)

<Para goes here/includes revealing JACKIE as Urgue's sister>

Dialogue:

REBELS - Yeah, I'm the leader. I hear you had a deal for me.

DEAL - So we keep the town, and if the temple ever comes with an army, we let you claim it?

FREERANGERS - I hate them. I want to see them dead.

JACKIE - Ok. It's a deal. Let's go kill those bastards.

BOBBY - Yeah, Bobby was there with us when all that shit went down. We've both been wanting blood for a long time.

Using the JACKIE response will teleport the player to the north part of Highpool and will initiate a chained combat (see below for details) with the HQ forces. Two groups with one spawn each and a stronger group with three spawns, the last spawn being the commander who drops Urgue's unque item WHICH CAN ALSO BE USED AS a token to take back to the Temple to show you have infiltrated Highpool.

## Free Ranger Pass

(Combat only)

"You killed Jackie! You bastards! I've been dreaming of this day for a long time. You die! You die and you go to hell!"

Combat ensues in a branching combat structure, as figured out by displacer. As this method has not? been used in the original, here is a breakdown:

At the end of an encounter record, there is a place where two bites are stored. These bytes are used to replace the map tile the encounter was on with new information. It seems you can 'chain' encounters together this way, where a new encounter will spawn and continue the current combat session.

On initial combat start, there will be 3 groups, Urugue by himself, and two seperate groups of rebels. When Urgue is killed he drops his unique item, when either of the two rebel groups are killed they spawn a new group on the same tile, 2 times, so each rebel group has to be killed 3 times before the encounter is over. It is unknown by me at this point if strings can be inserted between encounters, so I don't know if the game can present a 'Reinforcements arrive' message or such. I will if I can though.

I will post the encounter data later with a breakdown of everything. Displacer is almost at the point of figuring monster AC values, and that is the last piece I need. At that time I'll also identify the unique item.

When the Urgue encounter starts, Bobby will also be added as a hostile NPC out of range that will have to be fought before leaving, ala the Rex encounter. Bobby will also be a chained encounter with the Red Ryder spawning from his death. Note that there is no way for the Free Rangers to get control of Highpool.

## HQ Pass

(Deal or combat)

<Para here. At the end of para you are told that FIGHT is a valid option to initate combat if desired. BYE will exit dialogue, but leave Urgue in his post faction check state. This allows the player to visit the barracks to get the hint for obtaining JACKIE as the deal response>

Dialogue:

REBELS - Yeah, I'm the leader. I hear you had a deal for me.

DEAL - So you promise to go after the free rangers, and I can tag along for the kill?

FREERANGERS - I hate them. I want to see them dead.

JACKIE - Ok. It's a deal. Let's go kill those bastards.

BOBBY - Yeah, Bobby was there with us when all that shit went down. We've both been wanting blood for a long time.

FIGHT - Ok you sons of bitches, we can play it that way if you want. {End dialogue and init same combat scenario as Free Ranger Pass}

BYE - Ok, we can talk again later.

If Jackie is given, Urgue becomes a hireable NPC with his unique item in inventory.

### Non Faction Information

The store is a general goods store. The first door is locked, the second requires the use of Urgue's unique item to open. Behind the seconf door is a loot bag. Current contents (may change at any time based on where Highpool is in the storyline) are : 2-4 lvl 1 armors, 2 pistols, 1 rifle, misc ammo and sellable loot.

### Urgue's Unique Item

Can be used at Temple and HQ command for a reward. The temple gives you Cash, HQ gives you a small amount of random explosives. After both the Highpool door and command reward has been given, the item is useless.