Strictly Business

 is a Fallout 3 quest. It is also an Xbox 360 and PC achievement.

This quest will begin the first time you discover Paradise Falls and attempt to enter it. A guard/slaver (Grouse) will approach you and tell you that you can not enter Paradise Falls unless you have business there. He will offer to let you in only if you go an enslave a certain list of people and he will split half the profit with you. He will let you in to Paradise Falls after you have enslaved at least one person.

This quest involves enslaving the following characters for the slavers of Paradise Falls. Enslaving is done with the Mesmetron and a Slave Collar, which you will get from Grouse as well as the notes Slave Collar Insructions[sic], Mesmetron Manual and List of "Recruits". (Make sure to return to him after each slave to collect a new slave collar for the next one.)

Alternatively you can bribe the guard 500 caps to let you in, skipping this quest.

It is also possible to get in without completing the quest if you've got very bad karma.

Another option, while this will not complete this quest but rather skip it, is to kill everyone in the slave camp. You will gain a lot of good karma for doing so, and access to all of the goodies in the gun shop in town.

To note, when you enslave the NPCs in question the town may become hostile. Try enslaving in sneak mode while no one is around or simply run out of the area and come back later.


 * Flak from Rivet City
 * Red from Big Town
 * Susan Lancaster from Tenpenny Tower
 * Arkansas from Minefield

If Flak, Red, Susan, or Arkansas are dead before the quest is given, they're not on your list. If the last of the four are killed, a "Quest Failed: Strictly Business" message will appear on screen, though Grouse will still have the same dialogue and provide the same items.

Susan Lancaster may be found on the top floor of Tenpenny Tower in her penthouse suite (at night). Simply shut the door, mez, and collar.

Red can be found in her clinic (most of the time). If she's not there try walking around a bit and then enter her clinic again. If you did not complete the Big Trouble in Big Town quest jet, Red is captured by super mutants and held in the Germantown police station. You can simply capture Red from there but it will prevent you from completing the Big Trouble in Big Town quest.

Flak can be found in his room on the Upper Deck (at night). One strategy I used: Wait [select button or 'T'] outside his room until about 12am (he walked out soon after I did) then follow him to the dead end by Doctor Li's room. Make sure there are no guards then mez him. Exit stage right into the lab before he sees a guard. You should be safe after this.


 * Putting on the Slave Collar will lower your Karma by 100, regardless of who you put it on (including Arkansas).

Flak, Red, Susan, and Arkansas end up in the slave house once you capture them. If your science skill is high enough, you can get their collars off. However, they simply wander out and get killed by the slavers. Moreover, Arkansas starts shooting at anyone wearing a slave collar, once you free him.

Even after the quest is completed, Grouse will give you a slave collar. Sometimes it glitches and you end up with more than one. Slave collars can't be dropped, since they're quest items. However, you can use them on other NPCs, and get a caps reward from Grouse.

If you tell Grouse that slavery disgusts you during the initial dialogue, the slavers will turn hostile and you'll be unable to get this quest.

Glitch you can take advantage of: If you grab the box key from Eulogy's Pad you can open the gate to the slave pen and gain entry inside. The VIPs will be in the slave house and you can speak to them. If you choose the "deal with it" option, you can can return to speak to Grouse and he'll thank you for capturing them, even though he already did so. You can do this many times and still receive the 250 caps plus an additional slave collar for each. It worked for me at least. If you have all four that's 1000 caps each time you do this.

Bugs

 * If you Mesmerise and then pop a collar onto a victim, tell them to go to Paradise Falls, and then die/reload previous save, the character you've enslaved before you reloaded the save may appear in the Paradise Falls slave pen, without a slave collar on, and with all of the dialog options they normally had (for instance, you can still trade with Flak in the slave pen if he does not have a slave collar). Reloading the save will not fix this problem every time, so you may have to somehow get the target to come near you in the slave pen where you are able to Mesmerize and fit a collar onto the target.


 * Enslaving Flak will sometimes cause Shrapnel to vanish. There are reports of him appearing south-west of Vault 101 after Flak is enslaved. There have also been reports of Shrapnel trying to visit Flak while he's in the slave pens. (both unconfirmed).


 * Make sure you don't need to deal with any of the enslaved people ever again! I needed to speak to Susan Lancaster after I enslaved her. After killing all the slavers, I got into the pen, released her and Flak. (Red paradoxically wasn't even there anymore; Arkansas was killed in an earlier Quest for Moira) After that, talking to them was impossible. Only one phrase was left, and that even without audio! Killing her was the only way convincing Tempenny. Reloading is an option, but will not always work since it happened to me even only finding Flak in the pen! My solution to this was a big reload, first talked to Susan, the enslaved her. The same counts for Red I guess. I first saved her from the super mutants, then enslaved her. This was a good choise, because she never reappeared in the pen, not even after a few test-reloads!


 * Don't Mesz Shrapnel when in or around his room. You can't kill him or the doctor once they are meszed.  I was locked in his room with him and the doctor after i meszed them both, and couldn't get out or kill either one.  You can shoot them but afterwards it says they are asleep and not dead.  You also can't search or pick-pocket them.  I had to wait in the room for 10 minutes, "killing" both of them over and over, until someone from outside finally opened the door.  I had to kill some other people to get out and had the same problem with Harkness (I didn't mesz him, but still couldnt kill him).  I was later able to get back into Rivet City with no problems.  I also ran into Shrapnel at a couple other locations but still wasn't able to kill him.