Sugar Shack 11: Mission Reviews: The Coroner: Grave Undertakings
The Coroner
In past mishes I worked with gangsters and two-timers. With cold-hearted killers and hot-blooded flirts. But nothing prepared me for The Coroner. He stands out on the street in Baldwin Heights (-179/19/433) waiting for you to do his bidding. He looks like a butcher taking a smoke break, with the apron and the dour, fish-eye look. And he doesn’t make small talk. Other Exiles, like Beryl, always seemed to be by my side, offering insights and praise. Not so the Coroner. I ran his missions on hard, and found they lived up to the name. In fact, the first mission of his was one of the scariest times I’ve ever experienced in this game. More on this later.
1. Knock, Knock
For some Mengelian experiments, the Coroner requires rare materials. Unfortunately, these must be extracted from corpses. Worse, as he sheepishly admits, “these cadavers are not yet dead. Well then on your way.” All for science! The first target is a retired policeman with many elite guard friends; Devastation Field helped a lot here. The second is a 51+ level blood noble, an ancient guy who does not go kindly into the night. After these exhausting fights, the final hit, on a bunch of dog pounders, seems like a walk in the park. This mish features very hard fights, and lots of running around. And I have to admit that I did not feel happy about what I had done at the end. Maybe it’s cuz he didn’t pay all that well.
“Knock, knock” also has the distinction of being the scariest mish I ever ran in beta; more on this later in a separate installment of Sugar Shack to follow this one.
And maybe a bug remains. I killed the blood noble in one room with a guard. Apparently he had been wandering. Then I wandered into “his” room, saw a random corpse, and only then got the message that he was dead.
2. Falling Into Place
The Coroner specializes in weird science; he lets others handle the details. In this case, two incriminating surveillance tapes must be purloined and erased. These are stored in safes, so access keys must be obtained. This mish features some tough fighting with security folks. And not all that much running around, unlike the first one. Now, back in beta, this mish was famously bugged, and it is a serious pleasure to finally have everything running so smoothly. Our endless bug reports were not in vain, everyone!
3. The Last Time (significance of the name is not clear)
His lab is under attack (perhaps relatives of his subjects from the first mish?) and you need to stop it. At “Hard”, you are up against eight or so three-chevron Level 51s, who have awesome viral resistance. This maxed-out hacker died several times. We learn the story of their leader: Crow, a captain who left Zion to take up a mercenary’s life, apparently in the service of the Merovingian. She offers you a chance to walk away from this with no hard feelings; of course I spurned her gesture and slew her. There was much fighting in this mish and not all that much loot. And by the time you’re level 50, what do xps matter? So as I stood amidst the carnage, I was left with little except the satisfaction of making the world safer for the Coroner, a wan pleasure indeed.
4. The Plan
One of his journals has been stolen by Hypatia, and the Coroner wants you to get it back from her storehouse before its encryption is broken. This involves substantial fighting, after which the encrypted journal just has to be dropped off. Not bad! Finally one where I don’t feel bad about winning!
5. Payback
Like every affronted Exile, the Coroner wants payback. In this case it is a little more imaginative than most. Hypatia will soon in negotiations with The Chef for something, and the Coroner wants to get him a file which will publicly and deeply embarrass her. You must deal with an organization called “The Network” to get the file. Some cute moments. One outspoken bluepill wonders what life is like in our world. Another claims to be the real brains behind a world-famous chef and her TV show. Finally, after much running around for substantial distances, the “meddlesome bookworm” has been dealt with.
And that’s it! No praise, no thanks, no nothing. Your patron barely glances at you as he returns to his bizarre researches. So, The Coroner’s mishes are not for the faint or heart or the weak of level. Completists will seek them out. Anyone loving tough action will enjoy them. And compared to many mishes, I found these quite intense, in tone as well as action. And they contributed to one of my most memorable experiences ever in MxO, as I will explain in the next edition of Sugar Shack.
Note: Special thanks go to my brothers and sisters in arms last night for their help with the last two mishes: Sattakan, Illyria1, Seraya, Roukan, and Blackfir3. They turned bloody drudgery into fun.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
