Beyond the Beef

Beyond the Beef is a quest in Fallout: New Vegas in which a well-known rancher named Heck Gunderson asks the Courier to track down his son Ted Gunderson, who disappeared in the Ultra-Luxe Casino Hotel. Ted was kidnapped by Mortimer of the White Glove Society, who is attempting to return the White Glove Society to cannibalism.

If the Courier is at least Accepted with The Strip and has a Karma rating no higher than Neutral, Mortimer will ask the Courier to help the White Glove Society by murdering Ted and framing Heck for the killing. This option also becomes available if the player has the Cannibal Perk, or can succeed at a Speech check of 62. If the Courier does as Mortimer asks, Mortimer reveals that the standard of luxury at the Ultra-Luxe was threatened by Heck, who was driving down beef prices to the point where anyone might be able to afford it. In addition, Mortimer will ask the Courier to hunt down the original target, and to persuade Marjorie to allow the White Glove Society to resume the practice of cannibalism.


 * NOTE: Even if you have already killed Ted and have NOT informed his father about his death, you are still able to approach Mortimer and begin his "favor" by lying and asking where Ted Gunderson is. He will then tell you that he's in the kitchen and will give you the necessary keys in order to "kill" him. Howevever, you will not be able to frame Heck and continue this line of quest completion. Your only options are to tell Heck 1 of 3 reasons why his son is dead.


 * NOTE: If you want your guns back, check out the metal boxes behind the cashier. While sneaking, unlock the doors with lockpick and enter the room (a silenced weapon helps).


 * NOTE: Start this quest by talking to Heck Gunderson who is in the Ultra-Luxe sitting on the bar next to his bodyguard right as you walk in.


 * NOTE: Choosing to 'Lie' to Heck when first meeting him will not hurry the story along, but does open some funny dialog options for you to choose. It only shocks Heck that "someone could be so heartless", he then turns away from the Courier. You can re-open dialog after apologizing about your comments.

Quick walkthrough
This quest can be done with two major ways:

Help Mortimer
This requires the player to have Cannibal perk OR Speech 62
 * The player must get rid of Ted Gunderson by either:
 * Releasing and convincing him that it was all an accident.
 * Killing him and framing Heck Gunderson as a cannibal.
 * The player will need to find a substitute if Ted was released. This can be done by either:
 * Kidnapping Carlyle St. Clair III, the person originally wanted by Mortimer.
 * Sacrificing one of your companions.

Investigate the White Glove Society's secret
Follow the storyline, there are options for the Courier to either:
 * Prepare a non-human meal and reveal Mortimer's secret at the end of the banquet.
 * Drug a bottle of wine so that everyone will fall asleep, allowing Ted to sneak right through to his dad.
 * Heading straight to Ted and sneaking him out.
 * Once finished, you can return to Heck Gunderson and collect the 500 caps for returning his son safely or you can choose the  option and frame Mortimer for Ted's murder.

Once Ted is safe, the player has the option to reveal White Glove Society's secret or not, this will affect fame/infamy gained among The Strip and the White Glove Society.

Detailed walkthrough
This quest can be done in different ways and combinations to yield different results.
 * Once you have received the quest, talk to Marjorie in the restaurant as indicated by the quest marker.
 * Note: If you fail the speech check while telling her you're a cannibal, too, she'll become angry with you and you'll gain infamy with the White Glove Society. It seems that you gain infamy if you choose this dialogue regardless(tested several times)(confirmed).
 * Talk to Mortimer, as indicated by the marker. You can finish this quest in two ways starting from here:

Work with Mortimer
If the player has a speech skill of 62 or has the Cannibal perk, they can agree to help Mortimer, either by:
 * Talking Ted into believing it was a misunderstanding. Then just walk back up to his dad at the bar and he will follow and tell his dad off.
 * Killing Ted and using his blood around Heck's suite, thus framing him. After you have done that you must talk to a Securitron and tell it you have heard some going ons in the casino. The Securitron will attempt to arrest Heck, who decides to go down fighting and is instantly killed by the robot

The next part of the mission is to find an acceptable replacement. If you choose to do this, the next replacement will be Carlyle St. Clair, who lives north of The Strip. Note: You'll need to do this if you want to complete Render Unto Caesar, and get the White Glove Society to join forces with Caesar. You need to complete the whole Beyond the Beef mission to help get the White Glove Society's favor, so that eventually they will choose to accept Caesar's offer for them to join forces with the Legion. If you do not, then you'll never be able to get past that part with Caesar, because the White Glove Society says they do not want to be associated with "savages". You'll have to get on their side to convince them that joining with Caesar is the right thing to do.
 * You can also convince Mortimer to allow you to replace Ted with your human companion (either Boone, Veronica, Arcade Gannon, or Cass). Mortimer will be very thankful for your tremendous sacrifice, and you will permanently lose that companion. You will gain a lot of reputation with the White Glove Society and some reputation on The Strip, as well as bad Karma. You can still convince Marjorie to convert back to cannibalism after this.

Investigate
Note: This path involve fighting and could be tough for low Unarmed/Melee characters. Getting weapons into the hotel(Sneak<50+>/Stealth boy) or able to fight Unarmed will be very useful.
 * Ask about the investigator and Mortimer will give you a key to the investigator's room in the hotel.
 * Once you're there you'll find the investigator is dead and ambushed by 2 White Glove Society personnel. High unarmed skill/sneaking weapons through the entrance will be very useful here.
 * Pick up the note from the investigator's body and follow the hint
 * Wait until 4pm at steam room. Chauncey, one of the employees who is not very fond of what Mortimer's been doing will show up. After the conversation with Chauncey, he'll be killed by an assassin. You can get a silenced pistol from the assassin's body and a Formal wear from Chauncey's body.
 * The next target will be the kitchen and there two door ways to get there:
 * Join the White Glove Society and there will be an unlocked door in the members only section that leads to the kitchen. Being "accepted" by The Strip will let you join into the White Glove Society right away. (Talk to Marjorie)
 * Pick an easy lock at The Gourmand, or pickpocket the Ultra-Luxe kitchen key from Mortimer. Sneaking is needed to open the door, as it is considered to be a crime. You'll need to go through a guard as well if taking this route. Using a Stealth Boy to sneak into the kitchen and leaving behind your companions in The Gourmand is recommended.
 * Once you have access to the kitchen, there are three ways to save Ted:

Option 1: Drug the wine
You can "walk" Ted out without a fight this way. Drug the wine with Med-X and at least 25 medicine. The wine is marked by quest marker, located on a table in a room at the middle of the main corridor.

The player can find Med-X for sale at the nearby Gomorrah casino at the bar in the back if they do not have any for this quest.

Option 2: Preparing fake human meat
Doing so will allow you to confront Mortimer after his confession of cannibalism at the end of the banquet. You'll need to get Philippe out of the way first, there are two ways to prepare the meal yourself: Note: Do not lock him in the freezer or kill him before you get the recipe. It may cause a glitch that makes this objective un-completable. Note: Only one option, "drug the wine" or "serve fake meal" will be needed when you call the head waiter. You can drug the wine and prepare the meal at the same time, but only the first option will be in effect.
 * 75 survival
 * 6 intelligence for Philippe's recipes. To get the recipes:
 * Barter 55: the recipe for 100 caps
 * Barter 55 + speech 55: the recipe for free
 * Medicine 55: the recipe for free
 * Pickpocketing
 * Killing him. Karma gain, but likely to cause infamy with the White Glove Society.
 * Once the meal OR the wine is prepared, wait till 7pm and through intercom, ask the head waiter to serve the meal. Do not call the head waiter if Ted is with you, The waiter will attack. Call the waiter, and once he leaves the kitchen, you can get Ted.

Note: Calling the head waiter through the intercom and NOT joining White Glove Society may get him hostile toward you when he comes to pick up the meal.

Note: For those who have problems with activating the stove in the kitchen after getting the recipe for the non-human meal from Philippe: You have to go to the room with the dead investigator, search him for the clue, meet with Chauncey in the steam room at 4 pm and talk to him. Then the Quest Get rid of Philippe and cook for the banquet using his recipe for human flesh is available.

Option 3. Save Ted right away
It could probably save you some headaches from option 1 and 2. please read along step 7 below

Option 4. Kill Ted
The player can also kill Ted and return to Heck.

This has probably been done before making the meal(Option 2).
 * Lock/Keep Philippe out of the way
 * To get him out of the way, so that he won't attack you when escaping with Ted, you can:
 * Speech 55: and activate the pantry door and trap him in (Get the freezer key first if you don't like hacking terminal)
 * Medicine 55: will get him to yell about his horrible upbringing and cause him to quit, leaving you with the recipe and the job to cook for the banquet (Get the freezer key first if you don't like hacking terminal)
 * Kill him, for which you will gain Karma but will likely be vilified by the White Glove Society.

Note: There is a recipe sheet for Brahmin Wellington on the counter in the kitchen that you can steal for yourself.


 * Rescue Ted, talk to him. Whether revealing the truth to him or not seems to have no effect whatsoever.


 * Bring Ted back to Heck, his dad. Depending on what you have done in the kitchen will yield different options here.
 * The easiest way to save Ted would be to go through the locked door, which led to The Gourmand of the hotel. You'll only have to kill/convince one guard as long as your standing toward White Glove Society isn't vilified . The guard can be convinced by Speech<55> or Repair<35>. This route can be chosen no matter what you have/haven't done in the kitchen.
 * If you prepared the meal and wanted to confront Mortimer, go the other way which leads to White Glove Society private room. When you enter the room, it is recommended you stay hidden until Mortimer finishes his speech, to avoid White Glove Society employee attacking you. Once Mortimer is done, confront him and choose to speak "Loudly" that no one has eaten human meat except Mortimer and then pick the "Attack him" option in the dialogue, this way, White Glove Society will help you to take him down instead of attacking you. Mortimer drops his unique Tuxedo Hat and Marjorie will comment about the event and you will receive a fame boost for the White Glove Society (Useless since you'll always be idolized by the end of the quest), plus you will have the key to access Ultra-Luxe Penthouse. Not recommend to use the Penthouse as player's safe house however
 * If you drug the wine, everyone in the White Glove Society room will have fallen asleep and it is perfectly safe to go through White Glove Society room without any fight at all, not to mention that you could loot the unconscious guests for more White Glove Society clothing.
 * As you return to Heck, you have options to tell Heck the true face of White Glove Society or hide it from him. There will be three options for conversation with Heck :
 * Lie to him you that don't know who took him. Gain reputation with The Strip and the White Glove Society.
 * Reveal White Glove Society was behind this:
 * You can tell him that it was Mortimer and his cannibal group's doing.
 * You can tell Heck that it was the entire White Glove Society's doing.
 * "Ted is dead." This option is available only if you killed Ted. However you can not confess that you were the killer. He'll still ask you who did this and you'll have the three dialog options above.

If you reveal White Glove Society was behind all this:
 * Attempt a speech check of 35 to convince him to only punish the man responsible will boost both Strip and White Glove Society fame.
 * Tell him not to punish the whole strip. He however will not listen to you and blockade the food anyways. No fame/infamy gain.
 * Agree with him, stop all the food supply to New Vegas. Gain infamy with the White Glove Society and The Strip.

If Ted is returned alive, you'll get 500 caps and 500XP; if not, you'll get 250 caps and 100XP.

Bugs

 * If Mortimer begins to walk away in the middle of his speech, only standing in front of him and getting wailed on until he is done will prevent failing the quest.


 * You may enter the Dining Room with Ted (Mortimer will be in the middle of speech), leave the Room right away, enter the Room again (no speech heard) and start talking to Mortimer immediately.


 * There is a chance that after revealing Mortimer, Ted becomes stuck in a fighting pose. In this case, he might not follow you all the way back through the kitchen. If this happens, wait for 1 hour and he continues to follow you again.


 * It is recommended to leave ED-E somewhere safe when releasing Ted due to a bug causing the White Glove Society members attacking your companions instead of Mortimer if you chose the Attack path after his speech.


 * If you experience a lot of crashes on the PC version within the Ultra-Luxe, try sending all of your companions back to the Lucky 38.


 * Ted Gunderson won't follow the player through area doors -- after rescuing him from the kitchen he will be unable to leave the Gourmand. To fix this, leave the casino, then quick travel to the North Vegas Entrance. He will appear there with you. You can then travel back to the Ultra-Luxe to turn in the quest.


 * When waiting to meet the investigator's contact, Chauncey, in the bath house, the game crashes. Use wait and quick save frequently to work around it. Hint: Try going to talk to Chauncey without companions - this led to less crashing for me.


 * Field Report (PC) during the quest "Beyond the Beef": It crashed every time I tried to talk to Chauncey having the dog companion Rex at my side due to the King's quest to get the dog a new brain. (In my case, this crash had nothing to do with the proximity to Chauncey or with is scripted waypoints [walking or sitting] as described below). Because it was mentioned somewhere, that companions could play a role, I tried the following: When I ordered Rex to stay outside the steam bath at the pool in the bathing house, the games crashed, too. So I went through the next door entering the Casino area. There, I was able to order Rex to stay. Re-entering the steam bath, I could talk to Chauncy. When I killed the upcoming assassin with bare fists, game crashed in VATS mode (maybe randomly) (I read a mag to increase weaponless battle before). So I killed him being not in VATS mode, which worked. Back at the pool, game crashed (randomly) when the mag buff expired. After quick-loading it didn't crash. This area in combination with the mentioned quest seems to crash at all (time) points. quick-save after every successful action.


 * Completing the conversation with Chauncey and attempting to leave the Bathhouse through the north-eastern door to the Casino Floor locks the game en route. Loading an older save (prior to entering the Ultra-Luxe) and going through the quest again from the beginning did not resolved the issue.  Somehow circumvented by either constantly quick-saving or not looting either Chauncey or the Assassin, or both.


 * If you sneak into the kitchen of the White Glove Society prior to starting Heck's quest, it still allows you to drug the wine and call the head waiter down. If you do this, and then start the quest, you are now unable to do a few of the optional objectives that involve drugging the wine and calling the head waiter down.  However, the quest is still able to be completed.


 * If you don't pick the dialog option when speaking to Chauncey asking about "other suggestions for freeing Ted" you will NOT get the additional option to prepare the fake meal to oust Mortimer. The oven will not be accessible to make the fake strange meat pies and you will not be able to call down the Head Waiter to pick up the fake strange meat pies.  The only options left will be to kill everyone on your way out or drug the wine to sneak past.


 * If you left your NPC's in the kitchen area and attempt to go back to retrieve them without taking Ted to his father first, Ted's AI might bug out and he'll go retrieve a weapon in the basement. Then stand still in an attack pose refusing to follow you. And if you bring your NPC's up to the White Glove Society room without being a member (after dealing with Mortimer) they will be hostile to your NPC's and begin attacking.
 * A fix is to simply "Wait" (T) for one hour before you try to bring him through a door, as he will then temporarily holster his weapon and proceed through doors normally.


 * If Ted cannot follow you (you enter a different room and he does not follow) simply go to the room where his father is and type the following into the console:  and hit enter. Then type  and Ted will appear.


 * Talking to heck and completing the quest "Beyond the Beef" may fail the quest "Pheeble Will", regardless as to whether or not you have started it.
 * The same problem occurs if you have both quests turn in "Pheeble Will" before you talk to Heck to complete "Beyond the Beef", I killed Ted after I ousted Mortimer to be able to complete both quests.


 * If you enter the kitchen early in the game and lock Phillipe in the pantry he may disappear leaving you with no way to get his recipe to make dinner. The recipe for Brahmin Wellington in the kitchen doesn't count. The quest marker will still point to the pantry but he isn't there. You will be forced to take a different route unless you have a Survival skill of 75.


 * If you kill everyone and find Ted in the kitchen, when you bring him back to his father, you'll get the same dialogue as if you were starting the quest.


 * After framing Heck Gunderson, when the securitron confronts him, if you leave the area during their conversation and come back they will not finish it and just stand together from then on.


 * If you choose to talk to the investigator about the missing bride but then find him dead and take his note, it says to meet a contact in the steam room at 4 pm and go to the steam room at that time, the contact is not there but the quest marker is still there and you can't complete the quest.

Behind the scenes

 * If the Courier has the Wild Wasteland trait, then after framing Heck Gunderson, the Securitron sent to arrest him is quoted just before shooting him "Dead or alive you're coming with me." Quote from the movie Robocop (1987). Voice and inflection sound similar to that of Robocop as well.
 * The name of the quest may be a reference to the song "Beyond the Reef", which was performed by Bing Crosby.