TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Introduction
- Keeping Mollie Alive
- Rimville Combat Analysis
This article was written under Jagged Alliance 3 Game Version: Larry (1.5.1)
I am happy to make any corrections if more accurate information is discovered. If you have any comments, you can either post here or e-mail me at: byzantinekitty@gmail.com
1. INTRODUCTION
Non-recruitable NPC Mollie is one of Maman Liliane's girls who has supposedly been kidnapped from Le Lys Rouge. She can be found with Boss Blaubert in Rimville. Maman Liliane wants you to find Mollie and return her to Pantagruel. Boss Blaubert would like Mollie to stay as his concubine. And Smiley would like Mollie to run away with him and to marry him.
Because Mollie is in Rimville, she is in a precarious situation since she can find herself in the middle of one or two significant battles - the resolution of Boss Blaubert versus Luigi for the Right Hand Man quest and the potential resolution of the Smiley quest. As a result, keeping her alive can be a challenge but there is one trick you can use.
2. KEEPING MOLLIE ALIVE
If you go to Rimville before you receive an invitation, then all of Boss Blaubert's guards are hostile. If you sneak past them, you can talk to Mollie but the conversation isn't meaningful. If you talk to Boss Blaubert, he demands that you leave and you have a short amount of time to leave before he turns hostile as well.
After talking to Father Tooker a few times, he will extend an invitation from Boss Blaubert. You can then peacefully visit Rimville.
When you first talk to Mollie after receiving the invitation, you can ask her about secrets that Boss Blaubert is keeping from her. If you have a mercenary with the Scoundrel trait, Mollie will tell you about a globe that Boss Blaubert does not let her unlock.
If you examine the globe and can pass a Wisdom check, you get a stash of magazines and tiny diamonds, lose 5 loyalty with Fleatown, and get an amusing dialogue where Mollie accuses Boss Blaubert of not being faithful to her.
The key thing is that this scripted event causes both Boss Blaubert and Mollie to walk towards the globe. While many players may examine the globe when they first visit Rimville, if you wait to do this, you can keep Mollie out of harm's way in one of the later battles (with Luigi or Smiley).
3. RIMVILLE COMBAT ANALYSIS
The Luigi battle is probably the more dangerous of the two for Mollie. Luigi has several henchmen nearby and Mollie is right in the middle. Each opposing side gets to attack before the civilians have a chance to run. Mollie is right next to Boss Blaubert, which means she may take collateral damage when Luigi's henchmen attack. And neither is Mollie safe from Boss Blaubert's guards - several of them use shotguns and Mollie can get hit in the cone of attack. So if you side with either Boss Blaubert or Luigi, then Mollie will be in danger. If you say you do not want to be involved, then Boss Blaubert and Luigi will team up against you. Ironically, this is probably the safest of the choices for Mollie since all the enemies will be focused on you and you can position your mercs so that Mollie is not near the center of combat.
The Smiley battle is a little bit easier for Mollie to survive since it is just Smiley against Boss Blaubert and his guards. If you did the Luigi battle first, then Boss Blaubert may have fewer guards if there were some casualties. Most of the time, if you trigger the Smiley battle, that means you actually want to recruit Smiley so you are taking his side. If you want to take Boss Blaubert's side, you can just tell Smiley that Mollie made her choice. He will then return home to Arulco and this precludes any combat. There may be the edge case that for story reasons or for maximum bloodshed, you want to fight Boss Blaubert so you take Smiley's side and then later have Smiley go back to Arulco.
Please note that the Luigi battle gets triggered when you talk to Boss Blaubert or Luigi. This gives you more freedom to position your mercs. In contrast, the Smiley battle automatically gets triggered when you come into close proximity to Smiley, so you have less flexibility in your positioning.
Thus my recommendation would be to trigger the globe sequence right before the Luigi fight. When you arrive in Rimville, go around to the back, enter the house, and examine the globe before talking to Boss Blaubert and Luigi. That will pull Mollie (and also Boss Blaubert) out of harm's way.
It is also possible for Luigi and Smiley to both be at Rimville at the same time. If this is the case, then you have to resolve Smiley before you can resolve Luigi.
If you want to help or recruit Smiley, then you end up fighting both Boss Blaubert and Luigi. It's going to be really hard to keep Smiley alive but that does mean that Mollie is less at risk of getting hit by crossfire.
Alternatively, you can tell Smiley that Mollie made her choice and he will go home. Then you have some time to position your mercs and unlock the globe to pull Mollie into the mansion before talking to Boss Blaubert and Luigi. After that, the Boss Blaubert vs Luigi fight unfolds as normal where you can side with one of them, or end up fighting them all if you try to stay uninvolved.
If both Luigi and Smiley are at Rimville, It does not seem like you can resolve the Luigi fight before resolving the Smiley fight. And it also does not seem like you can get Luigi to side with you and Smiley when you are fighting against Boss Blaubert. That is why most strategy guides and walkthroughs suggest fully resolving the Right Hand Man quest before talking to Smiley at the church unless you really want a challenge.