Strictly Business

 is a Fallout 3 quest. It is also a PS3, Xbox360 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 cannot enter Paradise Falls unless you have business there. He will offer to let you in only if you go and enslave select people off his VIP list. He will split half the profit with you for each person. He will let you in to Paradise Falls after you have enslaved at least one person. If you attempt to enter Paradise Falls by walking past Grouse and the other gate guard before you have enslaved at least one person off the VIP list, you will hear the the other gate guard give you two verbal warnings to leave (without entering into dialog mode with you).. If you are still inside the gate a short while after that second warning, Grouse and his associate will attack you. In fact, all of Paradise falls will become hostile to you at that point.

This quest involves enslaving several characters for the slavers of Paradise Falls. Enslaving is done with the Mesmetron and a Slave Collar, which you will get from Grouse. Along with it come the notes Slave Collar Instructions and List of "recruits" for Paradise Falls as well as the holotape Mesmetron Manual - Summary Page. (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, postponing this quest, or skipping it altogether.


 * It is possible to get in without completing the quest or bribing Grouse if you've got very bad karma. You can also get in without completing the quest through a speech success.


 * Another option is to kill everyone in the slave camp. Doing so will get you a lot of good karma, and access to free supplies from the shops in town. However this option will not allow you to start/complete this quest. You will miss out on the achievement unless you already completed it on another save file.

Note: ''If you are seen enslaving an NPC, the inhabitants of the town you're in may become hostile. Try enslaving in sneak mode, while no one is around, or simply run out of the area and come back later.''

Your VIP List
The characters that have to be enslaved for the slavers are as follows:
 * Flak from Rivet City
 * Red from Big Town
 * Susan Lancaster from Tenpenny Tower
 * Arkansas from Minefield

If Red, Susan, or Arkansas are dead before the quest is given, they will not appear on your list, and Grouse will allow you to enter Paradise Falls. Flak can be killed before the quest.

Arkansas
Arkansas is sniping from a platform in Minefield. If you've gone there already for The Wasteland Survival Guide, or just randomly, he probably attacked you and you killed him for it - he's fairly aggressive. One strategy is to wait until night (midnight) and sneak up to his post (sneak 70+) and mez him from behind. Another method is shooting his rifle out of his hand in V.A.T.S. When the rifle is gone he will run downstairs with a pistol. It's easy to Mez him then. MAKE SURE to take out some of the mines as it may alert Arkansas and/or Arkansas may accidentally step on one of them as he runs off to Paradise Falls (though he will not step on any mines if you immediately fast travel to Paradise Falls after mezzing him). Do not have any nearby followers while Arkansas is attacking you, because they will respond with no mercy, meaning even while mezzed, they will continue to attack, giving you a very tiny window of slipping the collar on, resulting with his death.

Susan Lancaster
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. Get more reward by performing that basic formula during Tenpenny Tower quest. Talk to her and make a speech check to force her to move out of her room in favor of the ghouls. This act grants positive karma. She will leave, take the elevator upstairs, and go to a room you can mez and collar her in with impunity. Otherwise, if you take her stuff while on the top floor, only the guard up there in the hall will attack; the other denizens of the tower will not. If you have found the note left in her room revealing the possible affair between her and Edgar Wellington II and then show it to Millicent Wellington, Millicent will kill Susan and you will not have to enslave her. If Susan is your last target, the quest will be completed as soon as she dies.

Red
Red can usually be found in her clinic. 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 yet, 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. It is possible that she gets killed by a super mutant attack after completing Big Trouble in Big Town and you will not have to enslave her.

If you do not wish for Big Town to become hostile and would like to continue getting free healing from Red (if so earned from the Big Trouble in Big Town quest) you can Mezz Red, put a collar on her, and tell her to run to Paradise Falls. As soon as you exit dialogue with her, talk to her once more, and she will beg you to free her. Remove her collar (save beforehand, because you can, and probably will fail a few times before getting it off) and she will thank you and Big Town will still function like normal; no one will be hostile towards you.

Flak
Flak can be found in his room on the Upper Deck (at night), and is probably the most difficult "recruit" to capture. One strategy that can be used: Wait outside his room until about 12am 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.

Another proven strategy is to wait for him patiently to go have a drink at the Muddy Rudder (usually around 7PM). If asked about the place in dialogue, he will tell you that "No one asks too many questions down there." Rivet City security is usually absent from the area as well, since Brock handles altercations. Mez Flak and get the collar on him, regardless of who's there, and the only hostile you'll have to deal with is Brock, who can be killed easily. or you can mez Flak outside the Muddy Rudder when he is away from people.

Another possible way to enslave Flak without getting caught is to enslave him in an empty room and then wait for one hour immediately after he starts to run away. No other NPCs will see him run away using this method.

Another way to lure Flak is by engaging him in conversation while asleep but running out of Rivet City while he is getting up. Flak will follow you (very slowly) to wherever you are. Simply wait in an area with no witnesses and zap him with the mesmetron. This works well with several NPCs.

Another strategy that works well and alerts no one. Around 2pm to 3pm Flak will go to the ship's deck apparently to smoke a cigarette. He will sit in one of the benches and there will be no security guards around. Mezz him and put on the collar.

If you enslave Flak, Shrapnel may disappear from Rivet City. He will return only once in a long while (every few days/weeks). He can be seen wandering the wastes and even in Paradise Falls likely looking for Flak. There does not appear to be any pattern to his wanderings. For this reason it may be better to kill Flak rather than enslave him. This way Shrapnel will stick around in Rivet City.

Apparently, Shrapnel's wandering after you enslave Flak is caused by an AI script that says the two should sleep near one another. Enslaving Flak thus causes Shrapnel to wander the wasteland trying to get to him. You can see him but he doesn't talk, and he is useful near battles because he only gets knocked unconscious. This scripted behavior is fixed in the Unofficial Fallout 3 patch by Quarn. Patch is available at Fallout3Nexus.com.

Bugs

 * If you enslave and order a victim 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. If Arkansas was the target, he will pull out his sniper rifle and begin shooting everyone around him.
 * Make sure you don't need to deal with any of the enslaved people ever again! Be sure to check all the characters here in order to have a full understanding of what quests they are involved in.
 * If you free the captive people after having enslaved them and that they succeed to escape Paradise Falls (surely because you cleared the area), they may never talk to you again even when they're back at their usual activities.
 * If you Mezz Flak and put the collar on him while in the Rivet City marketplace and run out before he does, he may become lost and you will not be able to finish the quest.
 * Be warned, there is a chance that you may encounter a glitch after placing the slave collar on Red. After doing so she will leave Big Town only to wander the Wasteland permanently, leaving you unable to complete the quest without killing her. (This may happen if you place the collar on her in Red's Clinic.) However, sometimes Grouse will give you the reward for Red even if she never made it to Paradise Falls. Save often! The humor of this glitch is that after telling Red to go to Paradise Falls, she responds "Paradise Falls? Where's that?!" before running out into the wastes to wander permanently.
 * You may be able to track her down (it's hard as she is constantly moving) and talk to her. You are then given the the option to try and disarm the slave collar. This can succeed with a high enough science skill, allowing you to complete Big Trouble In Big Town. In one instance, traveling to Paradise Falls and talking to Grouse before tracking her down will allow you to receive the slave reward for her and then complete Big Trouble In Big Town after disarming the collar.
 * Many players have experienced that if Flak was enslaved Shrapnel would begin patrolling between Rivet City and Paradise Falls but as he only goes unconscious this wasn't so bad as if you saw him in the wastes trading still became possible.
 * Shrapnel has been spotted *inside* the slave pen with Flak and co. He seems oblivious, offering full inventory and the usual speech options, casually smoking and strolling around the hovel as his friend remains in misery. Shrapnel has also been encountered as far west as Andale and Fort Bannister. (Confirmed on 360, PC)
 * Before you enslave Flak, following him around a lot sometimes results in him following you! I found this while following flak to the Muddy Rudder and suddenly he stopped and followed me as if he were a companion. (Tested on XBOX 360)
 * If you choose to kill everyone in Tenpenny Tower and not destroy Megaton, there is a chance Susan Lancaster may go into the suite made for the player, with no way of the player getting in, making the quest impossible to complete.
 * (Confirmed for 360 and PS3) - When mezzing a person, in VATS, with the MS perk active, the Mysterious Stranger WILL appear and try to kill your target, BUT, since you have the Mesmetron equipped, the Mysterious Stranger's bullets will have no effect, and your target will stay alive with full health. You can see his Magnum shooting your target and your screen will possibly freeze up for a bit, not knowing that your target is still alive. (PC version, the Mysterious Stranger will still look and move around, but no gun shots.)
 * Seems like you can get paid two times for each of the VIP slaves you get. After getting paid the normal money when you reach Paradise Falls you can pickpocket a key to the slaves pen. Upon talking to all of the VIP slaves you captures and returning to Paradise Falls entry the guy just repeats the speeches as if you just got the slaves and pay you again. (please can more people confirm this?) . (confirmed on ps3, slaved Arkansas, pickpocketed the pen key, then pickpocket Arkansas in the slave pen, approach Grouse and he gives 250 caps and another slave collar, had 3,000 caps and 12 collars so far). (Confirmed for both xbox360 and PC v1.0.0.15; just talk to the VIP slave in the pen and go back to Grouse, he will give you the caps and another collar. This can be done more than once! Probably the best bug in the game to get (a lot of) caps). obviously the main drawback of exploiting this particular flaw is that the additional slave collars each weight 1 unit, meaning that our inventory space is permanently reduced by one for the sake of 250 caps.