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 avaliable 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 guy who exchanges caps for chips. While sneaking, lockpick the doors 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.

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

Help Mortimer

1. This require the player to have Cannibal perk OR speech<62>

2. The player must get rid of Ted Gunderson by either
 * releasing him and convincing him that it was all but an accident
 * killing him and framing Heck Gunderson is a cannibal

3. The player will need to find a substitute if Ted was released
 * The substitute could be Carlyle St. Clair III, a person originally wanted by Mortimer
 * The player could also sacrifice one of his/her human companion for the banquet

Investigate the White Gloves Society's secret

Follow the storyline, there are options for player to either


 * Prepare non-human meal and reveal Mortimer's secret at the end of the banquet
 * Drug a wine so that everyone will fall asleep and Ted could sneak right through to his dad
 * Sneak Ted out without doing anything in the kitchen

Once Ted is safe, the player has the option to reveal White Gloves 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 and yield different results, mostly The Strip and White Glove Society (WGS) fame/infamy gain.

1. Once you have received the quest, talk to Marjorie in the restaurant as indicated by the quest marker.

Note: Lying to her that you're cannibal will make you lose reputation with the white glove society

2. Talk to Mortimer, as the marker indicated. You can finish this quest in two ways starting from here:

I. Work with Mortimer

If you have the Cannibal perk or Speech<62>, you will get an extra dialogue option with Mortimer. You can agree to help him out either by OR
 * 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; congratulations you've saved Ted Gunderson.
 * Killing Ted and using his blood on Heck's suit, 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, which you are told is Carlyle St. Claira guy which lives north of The Strip. You'll need to do this if you want to complete a different mission with Caesar, which is to get the WGS to join forces the 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 WGS 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 companion (confirmed with Boone, Veronica, Arcade Gannon and Cass). Mortimer will be very thankful for your tremendous sacrifice, but your partner will become a "delicacy" to the Society. You will gain a lot of reputation with the WGS and some reputation on the strip, as well as bad karma. You can still convince Marjorie to convert back to cannibalism after this.

'''II. 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.

1. Ask about the investigator and Mortimer will give you a key to the investigator's room in the hotel

2. Once you're there you'll find the investigator is dead and ambushed by 2 WGS personnels. High unarmed skill/sneaking weapons through the entrance will be very useful here.

3.Pick up the note from the investigator's body and follow the hint

4. Wait until 4pm at steam room. Chauncey, one of the employee 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.

5. The next target will be the kitchen and there two door ways to get there:


 * Join the WGS and there will be an unlocked door that leads to the kitchen. Being "accepted" by the strip will let you join into the WGS right the way. (Talk to Marjorie)
 * Pick an easy lock at the gourmet, 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.

6. 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 Skill. The wine is marked by quest marker, located on a table in a room at the middle of the main corridor

'''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. Despite the troubles but you probably will make the most out of the quest with this option You'll need to get Philippe out of the way(See Step 7) before you can cook and there are two ways to prepare the meal yourself:

A. 75 survival skill

B. Intelligence of 6 + Philippe's recipes
 * Ways to get the recipes:
 * Barter<55> the recipe for 100 caps
 * Barter<55> + speech<55> the recipe for free
 * Pickpocketing
 * Kill him, which you will gain karma but likely to cause WGS to be vilified

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.

Once the meal OR the wine is prepared, wait till 7pm and through intercom, ask the head waiter to serve the meal.

NOTE: Only one option, "drug the wine" OR "serving 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

'''Option 3. Save Ted right the way'''

It could probably save you some headaches from option 1 and 2. please read along step 7 below

'''Option 4. Kill Ted'''

You can also kill Ted and call it a day, skip to Step 10 if you did.

7. Lock/Keep Philippe out of the way

This has probably been done before making the meal(Option 2). 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, which you will gain karma but likely to cause WGS to be vilified

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

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

9. 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 gourmet of the hotel. You'll only have to kill/convince one guard as long as your standing toward WGS isn't vilified (The flamethrower boys will ignore you). The guard can be convinced by Speech<55> or Repair<35>. This route can be chose no matter what you have/haven't done in the kitchen.
 * If you prepared the meal and wanted to confront Mortimer, go to the other way which leads to WGS private room. When you enter the room, it is recommended you stay hidden until Mortimer finish his speech. To avoid WGS 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" dialog, this way, WGS will help you to take him down instead of attacking you. Mortimer drops a rare Tuxedo Hat and Marjorie will have a comment about the event and a fame boost for the WGS (Useless since you'll always be idolized at the end of the quest), plus you will have the key to access Ultra-Luxe pent house. Not recommend to use the pent house as player's safe house however
 * If you drug the wine, everyone in the WGS room will fallen asleep and it is perfectly safe to go through WGS room without any fight at all, not to mention that you could loot the unconscious guests for more WGS clothings

10. As you return to Heck, you have options to tell Heck the true face of WGS or hide it from him. There will be three options for conversation with Heck :

A. Lie to him you that don't know who took him. Gain reputation with the Strip and the White Glove Society.

B. You can tell him that it was Mortimer and his cannibal group's doing
 * Reveal WGS was behind this:

C. You can tell Heck that it was the entire White Glove Society's doing

D. "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 WGS was behind all this
 * Attempt a speech check of 35 to convince him to only punish the man responsible will boost both Strip and WGS fame. Since it has no real effect on New Vegas, might as well do the speech check for 35 extra exp
 * Tell him not to punish the whole strip. He however will not listen to you and blockade the food anyways. No fame/in-fame 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 500EXP; if not, you'll get 250 caps and 100EXP

NOTE:
 * As long as no one, or may be only 1 or 2 guards were killed from the WGS, the WGS will idolize you at the end of the quest.
 * DO NOT wear the White Glove Society mask in the Dining Room with Mortimer. A White Glove Bouncer and the Head Waiter will see through the disguise and attack immediately (strangely, the Head Waiter ignores you in the kitchen unless you have released Ted first), followed by everyone else if you, your companions, or Ted intervene. If you are using it to sneak through the kitchens, than take it off the MOMENT you leave.
 * 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.
 * 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.

Bugs

 * Some of the following bugs will occur when you simultaneously take path 2 of the above Quick Walkthrough and agree to help Mortimer. For example, if you've already visited the investigator's room and will be going to the Steam Room, do not speak to Mortimer about his Craving and help him with his problem. In addition to Mortimer exiting the Members Only Area before ending his speech and you being attacked by many White Glove Society members (including Majorie) when you attack Mortimer during his speech, there may also be the problem of chef Phillipe not spawning.


 * Sometimes Mortimer starts walking towards the exit in the middle of his speech, stopping him while he's walking or while he's standing at the podium, he'll attack you no matter what you do in this situation; and so will his allies (Head Waiter, Marjorie). You'll gain lots of bad reputation with the White Glove Society, personally I got past "Hated". You'll get attacked by all White Glove Society guards on your way to out of the casino. When completing the quest, you'll gain good reputation with The Strip.
 * I don't know the solution to this problem, but I did do some bad stuff in that casino that you should avoid, perhaps that will fix it. I pick-pocketed Mortimer before I had started this quest, took the members only key and went inside the Members Only Area - which instantly aggravated the White Glove's sitting in the diner, impossible to flee from, I had to kill some of them. This gave me bad reputation with the White Glove Society, but putting on one of their costumes made it possible for me to walk inside the casino without getting attacked by guards. I also brought Rex, the robo-dog companion, who were quite annoying in there.


 * If you fail the quest but manage to get Ted Gunderson out of the Ultra-Luxe casino, he will continue to follow you as a second companion. However, unlike proper companions, he can die during battle.


 * This hasn't been confirmed yet, but I am not able to contact Marjorie as she and the rest of the White Glove Society are stuck in their nightly meetings. Waiting, leaving the casino, or sleeping haven't solved the problem so as of now, I'm not able to complete the quest.
 * This happened to me. Marjorie and Mortimer never left the VIP area after (in-game) weeks had passed. Had to them both to continue on the quest.


 * Ted Gunderson may become invisible during the quest, similar to the Powder ganger bug. This seems to have no effect as his name is still shown and you can still interact with him. It's a severe inconvenience though as he can get "lost" in the walls. Only known way to fix this is to somehow force Ted into another room and refreshing that room.


 * The door to the deep freezer where Ted Gunderson is being held remains inaccessible after the dinner has been served and the deep freezer key obtained from the chef.


 * Ted Gunderson wont follow you 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.
 * It appears this only happens if you take Ted to the Banquet to expose Mortimer. Another option would be to simply reload a previous save and just do everything you did up to that point, but instead of going to the banquet, take Ted out through Gourmand and straight to his father. If you are the type who wants to see justice done, or at least feel like you did the right thing, simply tell Ted's father it was Mortimer, and then convince him through a speech check to not take action against the entire Strip.
 * If you do take the first path, make sure that upon reentering the strip via the north gate that you run as quickly as you can for the gate, without looking around and zone into the strip immediately. If you are too slow about it Ted Gunderson will be exterminated by the securitrons guarding the gate on account of not having a strip passport or something similar.


 * I had a problem where Mortimer would leave the room during his speech, thus leaving it incomplete and making it impossible to reveal Ted at the right time. If you confront him on his way out of the room, he just attacks you.
 * Enter the console when Mortimer starts to walk away from the podium and use the command . He will freeze in place and continue his speech. When he finishes, target him again and use and he will start to walk away again, and you can confront him.


 * I recently encountered a bug with Ted. I sneaked him out before looking into the investigator's room. Now, he is with his father like normal, but there are still quest objectives regarding him such as Mortimer wanting you to talk to him. This is exceedingly frustrating and I'd advise you to navigate around it.


 * 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.


 * When starting a conversation with Chauncey, the game crashes. It appears that the closer you stand to him when you start the conversation with him, the less likely it is to crash. 


 * 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.


 * NPCs would walk around continuously after being drugged. Talking to them only brought up their inventories.  Was unable to complete the quest.


 * If you make the food but fail to bring Ted up immediately after the food, the banquet will end and Mortimer and the other important White Glove Society Members will have left the hall, making it impossible to parade Ted and expose Mortimer.
 * I used a stealth boy to solve this problem.


 * After stashing Carlyle in the dumpster and traveling back to The Strip North Gate, I was unable to pass through the door as it needs a key again. Therefore I am unable to contact Mortimer what-so-ever.


 * After distributing Ted's blood in the hotel suite, if you're killed all the securitrons on the strip, you'll never be able to tell one about the blood you found. The quest arrows just keep pointing to their corpses.


 * When starting a conversation with Chauncey, it's impossible to find a way to get out of it no matter what you may try to click on. If this happens after you've gone through the complete dialogue, reload your last auto and speak to Chauncey once more.


 * 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.


 * After facing numerous bugs and finishing the quest, every scoped weapon shows a Pip-Boy when you look through the scope. The bug is only temporary, however it is not 100% confirmed if this bug is even related to this quest.


 * When talking to Phillipe, and you use a skill book to raise the medicine skill to pass his challenge, once it wears off you can talk to him again to get the same challenge again, but won't have enough to pass. It gives you the opportunity to see what he would say when you fail. The option only comes up after the medicine wears off, else there wont be an option once you pass it.


 * When meeting Chauncy at the bathhouse, client will hang in vicinity. However, i was able to skip this part and continue on with the quest.

Background

 * 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.

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