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 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, postponing this quest, or skipping it altogether.


 * It is possible to get in without completing the quest 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

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 Flak, 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. If all four have been killed, a "Quest Failed: Strictly Business" message will appear on screen, though Grouse will still have the same dialogue and provide the same items.

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 aggro. 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 windows 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. However sometimes at night she will travel quite far northwest in sexy sleepwear. If you've gotten the ghouls into Tenpenny Tower, chances are they've killed all the smoothskins (even with the diplomatic approach), although often it is possible for her to survive awhile inside Tenpenny during the ghoul turf war, and enslaving among the chaos is easy. Simply wait a bit northwest from Tenpenny Tower and wait an hour at a time until you can intercept her travels, mez, and collar. (Don't take her stuff or everyone goes Rambo on you.) If you have found the note left in her room revealing the possible affair between her and Edgar Wellington II and then shown it to Millicent Wellington, she will be killed and you will not have to enslave her. This is only confirmed if done before the quest is triggered.

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.

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 dialog, 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 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.

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. 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. This scripted behavior is fixed in the Unofficial Fallout 3 patch by Quarn. Patch is available at http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2094.

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.


 * There seems to be an issue with some Rivet City citizens (such as Shrapnel), who sometimes become invincible and glitched out if Mezzed in their rooms.


 * 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.


 * 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.


 * If you use the above glitch, then go back to Grouse he will give you 250 caps for each of the slaves you talked to and a slave collar that take up 1 WG each, which you can not get rid off unless capturing a slave


 * This was fixed in the 1.1 patch.


 * Although this was fixed you can still exploit the glitch by clearing the xbox chache. Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giBQp8UzxLc for more info.


 * 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.) Save often!


 * There have been some reports of Red still being on the list even if she dies/gets killed in Big Trouble in Big Town, and you will not be able to complete the quest. (Sometimes, Red will get stuck while leaving the Germantown HQ, found her stuck next to a bag thing near the exit and still running, however, when I talked to Grouse before I found her I still got the reward. If you talk to her, Red will ask you to free her.)


 * 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. (Confirmed on 360)


 * It appears that if you (this needs to be tested and confirmed) disarm Flak's collar (science skill is needed) you can guide him out of Paradise Falls and fast travel to Rivet City wait a day then enter the market. Shrapnel will have returned and so will have Flak trading is only possible with Shrapnel though as Flak was unable to be communicated with. Also it appears after the first day of Flak having returned he disappeared the next day never to be found anywhere but Shrapnel continues his ordinary non-glitched regular routine. Many things could have affected this such as Shrapnel just happening to be in Paradise Falls (on his glitchy patrol) when Flak was released. You may need to kill all of the slavers before escorting Flak to Rivet City.


 * Before you enslave Flak, following him around alot 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)


 * (Confirmed for 360) - 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 Mezmetron 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.)


 * (PC version) The Mesmetron will have no "mezzing" effect on non "VIP" NPCs (see quest) after killing all Slavers in Paradise City. (Tested on Silver, Sister, Raider and Megaton citizen, with either no effect or normal hostility (like shooting them with a regular gun.) (Not tested on VIP list.)(also tested on several Wasteland Captives on the Xbox 360 version, they either turn hostile or become mezzed but no enslaving option are available, clicking on them does nothing)


 * If you take the quest then kill everyone in the camp, you will keep the slave collar in your inventory and you will get no achievement although it shows as is you completed the quest on your Pip-boy.