Happy Fun Wasteland Adventure (A Fallout: New Vegas log)

[Mitillos]

Going through some personal stuff, so thread is on hiatus for now.

[Ythan]

<3

[Mitillos]

The personal stuff got replaced by work stuff, but now things have settled down, so back to normal. I actually typed up this post before the hiatus, but accidentally lost it before hitting submit...

grumble grumble...

Going through the radiation-filled Searchlight was more of an annoyance than anything. There were a few radscorpions and several ghouls dressed in NCR military uniforms. Thankfully, ED-E's sensors didn't depend on sight, and Veronica's fists worked in close quarters only, so the low visibility in the haze didn't really matter. The ghouls did indeed have dogtags, so Kelsey collected them for Astor. Unfortunately, while he said there were 10 missing members in his squad, she only found 9 ghouls roaming the area. She decided to check the various buildings, for the last one, but only after she boosted the Searchlight defenses a bit. NCR had set up automated turrets protected by sandbag walls all around the town. Since nobody had maintained them for a while, they eventually stopped working, but the control stations were still active. Kelsey hacked as many as she could and re-enabled the turrets, just in case more enemies showed up, and started going through any buildings that were still standing.

The police station and fire station were locked, so she doubted a ghoul could have made its way in. The school was open, but there were only a couple of geckos inside. The two churches were destroyed, but their basements were still intact. One had more geckos looking for food, but the other was actually populated. This second church basement had been used as a storage facility for the NCR military and was full of useful equipment. Three prospectors were also here, looking for a shipment of radiation suits that was supposed to have been sent to Searchlight. Their leader, Logan, said they were hired by the Crimson Caravan company to scavenge whatever equipment they could find in the police and fire stations. Kelsey managed to hack the NCR terminal and find out that the shipment never made it to the town. The crates made it to Nipton, but then were taken by the Legion. The prospectors didn't want to go outside with all the radiation with no protection, so Logan offered Kelsey a share of the pay from Crimson Caravans if she would go and find them the suits. She agreed and went back to exploring Searchlight.

A single house still stood, miraculously undamaged, on the edge of the town. Kelsey did find the last ghoulified NCR soldier, Kyle Edwards, inside, but amazingly he was not feral. He was simply sheltering here, away from the radscoprions and more or less waiting for death. She explained to him that Astor thought the entire squad had gone feral and had asked Kelsey to put them out of their misery, but she wasn't about to kill a non-feral ghoul. Edwards believed that his soldier days were over, but Kelsey told him about Ranger Station Echo and how it was staffed almost entirely by ghoul soldiers. He agreed to go there if Kelsey would clear the area of radscorpions (as he was phobic) and make sure that Astor and his remaining squadmates weren't going to just kill him on sight.

Though Kelsey had killed several radscorpions before checking the house, there were several more around, including a couple of really large ones. Thankfully, they were just as easy to kill as the rest, and soon there was a clear, safe path between the turrets to the north of Searchlight. Astor was also not interested in killing Edwards if he wasn't feral, so Kelsey went back to deliver the good news to Edwards. He thanked her, left his dogtags, and left for Echo. Astor was glad to have the whole thing tied up without loose ends and was impressed with how quickly Kelsey had finished this. He asked her if she would be willing to do one more thing for the NCR. He had reports that the Legion had set up a staging area in Cottonwood Cove, to the east of Searchlight. This gave them a foothold on this side of the Colorado, which is how they managed to take Nelson and Nipton, as well as send their raiding squads in the Mojave. He knew that they were too well-defended for an assault in Cottonwood, but it would be very helpful if Kelsey got information on the Legion's troop movements, so that the NCR could properly defend their supplies and any trading caravans. As she wasn't associated with the NCR, the Legion would probably not attack her on sight. She agreed to go, once she finished a couple of things she still needed to take care of, and made her way towards Nipton, to find out more about the missing supply shipment.

So, Edwards can be dealt with in several ways. You can kill him, you can pickpocket him, you can lie to him about having killed the radscorpions, so they kill him when he leaves, you can persuade him to attack Astor in self-defense, you can convince him to leave the army and try for a different kind of life. Or, you can send him to Echo, if you have already visited it. He will make his way there and, as long as he's not killed by random enemies or get stuck in the geography, you can find him there later.

Logan's quest points us towards Nipton, to see if anyone there saw what happened to the supplies. Unfortunately, as we already know, the town was killed by Legion, but we'll have a quick shufti, just in case someone made a not or something.

Not really much else to add here. We're at a point in the game where I'm mostly just taking care of various quests, while building up the will to go to another DLC.

Oh, right. I recently went to Searchlight again with the Animal Friend perk. Most geckos don't attack you when you have it, so searching the school and first church basement was a weird experience.

[Ythan]

Yayyy

[Mitillos]

Ooh, the Arcade subforum is visible again! Honestly, I completely forgot about this thread until now. Let's see if I can get back into the groove.

The trip to Nipton was uneventful, but it was nice to be out of the green haze for a while. When she got there, Kelsey realised she had not explored the second largest building in the town. In her haste to find out what the smoke and lottery were about, she had walked right past the general store standing just past the west entrance to the town. The place was ransacked and mostly empty, but one man sat in a chair in front of the cash register, holding his legs. When he saw Kelsey he immediately became annoyed and distraught, calling her the Powder Gangers' grim reaper. He seemed convinced she was here to kill him, but made no effort to prevent this. After Kelsey calmed him down, the reason for Boxcar's passivity became clear: both his legs were broken. He had been the second place winner of the legion's twisted lottery. He explained how the powder gangers had planned to wait for some NCR soldiers to go to the town brothel, let them fall asleep, and go in and grab them to ransom off to the NCR. Unfortunately for them, the legion had its own plans and they got caught up in the middle of it.

Since Boxcars was clearly in pain, Kelsey gave him 5 doses of Med-X to help him get through the ordeal (though he wouldn't let her splint his legs to help them heal faster). He was, however forthcoming with information about the missing NCR supplies, saying he saw "some Legion assholes carrying crates to a cave north of here" before they enslaved a lot of people in Nipton and took them East. It was clear he just wanted Kelsey to leave, so she obliged. She was fairly certain he intended to take all the Med-X in one go, sinking into painless overdose and death, but she felt there was nothing she could do about this, so she left.

The cave proved fairly easy to find and indeed held the missing supplies, including enough radiation suits for the prospectors in the Searchlight church basement. And so, Kelsey made her way back to them, so she could finally get on with the salvaging. Logan and his men were as surly and stand-offish as ever, but they didn't seem to be having any misgivings about bringing Kelsey along. And so, the group left the basement, to ransack the abandoned Searchlight police station.

And we will be seeing how that goes, in the next post.

Boxcars obviously has a different reaction if you are friendly with the powder gangers, but in both cases he just wants some Med-X, i.e. morphine. Although he indicates that he will be using it to OD, he never actually does, as this would probably cause even more issues than this guy already does. Specifically, if you meet him when you first come to Nipton, there is a chance his conversation will go buggy and you won't be able to get the supplies for Logan. Therefore, I ignored him until now. His comment about the Legion enslaving people also opens a quest where two powder gangers are being held by a small Legion raiding party in a temporary encampment between Novac and Searchlight. It's one of those things that will be taken care of without being properly spelled out in the story.

As for Med-X, it reduces damage you take and is addictive. I only held onto some to give to Julie Farkas in the Mormon Fort and to Boxcars here. At this point, I stop getting any more Med-X, because I want to ensure I have absolutely none on me when we get to... well, you'll see, eventually. Since money isn't an issue and the difficulty setting is low (so damage isn't a big deal either), I don't need Med-X. I do still need Rad-X and Radaway, what with Searchlight being an annoyingly irradiated area, but thankfully those aren't addictive, as I previously mentioned, so you can down them like m&ms. Eventually, Kelsey will have a perk that slowly reduces her radiation level over time, so Rad medication will become less relevant as well.

[Ythan]

Oh hype gotta read this later

[Mitillos]

Somehow, there were feral ghouls in the police station. A locked building, with no apparent entrances. Kelsey started wondering if the cops and criminals had turned feral and were trapped inside by the rest of the town or the NCR. Nevertheless, they were easily dispatched now, and Kelsey liked to think she was putting them to rest, after all this time. Logan said they needed to find anything branded by the NCR and related to weapons, computers, or radios. A short search yielded three guns, three grenades, and some computer and radio parts that could be salvaged.

With nothing else to do at the police station, the group moved on to the fire station. This building was also locked and intact and did not have any ghouls. What it

did

have was a radscorpion the size of a large truck, and her brood. Thankfully, despite her impressive size, she was not significantly tougher or stronger than the (significantly smaller) giant scorpions one could find in the rest of the wasteland. With Veronica punching the stinger clean off the tail, and ED-E frying the creature's brain with his zapper, the fight was hectic but short and one-sided. A quick search of the building yielded more weapons and parts, so Kelsey was ready to finally leave this forsaken town. Unfortunately, Logan and his fellow prospectors had other plans. They never intended to give Kelsey her cut of the endeavour, so once they confirmed that they had everything of value, they attacked Kelsey. Kelsey wasn't sure why they expected to fare better than the scorpion who could kill them by accidentally walking over them, but once they were dead, she didn't even feel like grabbing the salvage, so she just left.

On her way out of Searchlight, Kelsey decided it was time to check out the foothold the Legion had secured on the west side of the Colorado. Cottonwood Cove was apparently a small bay surrounded by hills. It didn't sound particularly defensible to Kelsey, so she assumed the reason the NCR couldn't do anything about it was that it couldn't spare enough soldiers to counter the Legion's numerical advantage. In fact, on the hill northwest of the Cottonwood, Kelsey found an abandoned sniper station. Presumably an NCR ranger or two had been keeping an eye on Legion movements here, but were found and eliminated.

When she approached Cottonwood, Kelsey was stopped by a legionary, asking her what business she had here. Relying on the fact that she only fought the Legion at Nelson, and managed to remain unseen by everyone there until they were all dead, Kelsey managed to convince him that she was just a trader and was allowed in with a warning to not try anything funny. It was a good idea not to bring Boone here, as he would probably have just started shooting everyone, and Kelsey had a stealthier mission to carry out here.

Logan is a fucking idiot. And yeah, that's pretty much it. Scorpion's impressive, though, especially if you're a bit underleveled.

The sniper nest overlooking Cottonwood has a locked gun case which requires a lockpick skill of 100 (i.e. maximum) to unlock. Inside is the Gobi Campaign scout rifle, a unique version of the sniper rifle. There is a theory that this was the gun Boone used to kill his wife when she was being taken by the Legion as a slave, but as far as I can tell, this is just speculation. As for the rifle, I never use it and I never give it to Boone, either. If I'm using ranged weapons, I prefer energy, burst, or silenced weapons, depending on the situation. As for Boone, I think it's better to give him the anti-materiel rifle. If you give him both, he will select the Gobi, because it lists a higher DPS, but this is because of its higher rate of fire. The A-M rifle has the highest damage per shot of every conventional weapon. In fact, the only weapons that do more direct damage per shot are the Gauss rifle, the missile launcher, and the nuke launcher (as well as their unique versions). With this kind of damage, Boone can one-shot most enemies from a great distance, so higher DPS isn't as important. Especially since ED-E can easily take care of that, with his zapper. People might tell you that Boone's strength is 7 and the A-M rifle requires a strength of 8, but this just reduces accuracy. Boone's accuracy is so high that he can afford the penalty. So, yeah, my advice: Don't give Boone any rifles other than the A-M. And don't forget to give him incendiary and armour piercing ammunition for it.

Cottonwood is not hostile to you, unless you bring Boone along or start attacking. I think this is true, even if you have the worst possible reputation with the Legion. There's something about them not having received your description, so they don't know who you are, or something. I think that the idea is that this is one of the two places where, if you decide you want to side with the Legion, you can get started with doing quests for them, so you kind of need them to ignore your past animosity, as it were. In this case it's all moot, since Kelsey has managed to keep a neutral reputation with them.

Next time, we finish Cottonwood.

[Ythan]

I barely even remember talking to the guys in Cottonwood, guess I didn't do that very often, lol. So this should be good!

[Mitillos]

Kelsey has to struggle to do it, because she's fighting the instinct to tear their oesophagi out with her teeth.

[Ythan]

They really are pretty unlikable but I like that I'm at least given the option.

[Mitillos]

The buildings in Cottonwood were mostly unusable and unused. Most of the legionaries had tents with bedrolls in for sleeping. One of the surviving buildings had apparently been a rest stop for fishermen, attached to a jetty for small boats to go out into the river. It was overlooked by a cliff, with a truck parked precariously on the edge, facing away. There were two other standing buildings: one was used for storage, the other looked like a headquarters, with a cage attached. At one time, the cage probably held dogs, but now it was occupied by three humans. A middle-aged woman and two children in their teens. All three had collars around their necks. The legionaries were not paying them much attention, so Kelsey approached surreptitiously to find out more.

The captives turned out to be Frank Weathers' family. They explained how they were ambushed by the Legion near Searchlight and how Frank hid instead of helping. They also mentioned that he was an abusive husband and father, so they were in no hurry to return to him, but they'd still like to escape their predicament of both being in a cage and wearing explosive collars. Kelsey was fairly certain she could unlock the cage and disarm the collars, but she couldn't be sure the legionaries wouldn't simply spot the fleeing captives and kill them. Instead, she found the slave master, and convinced him to sell them to her at a reduced price, by pretending that the daughter had pustular hypomyalgia (she felt really proud she came up with this on the spot). She then released the family who thanked her profusely and left for the old mormon fort, where the Followers of the Apocalypse would surely help them.

With the rescue completed, Kelsey turned her attention to Astor's request. The ground floor of the HQ building was unoccupied. It took only a few minutes to bug the radio and collect the raid intel. Unfortunately, the troop movement information was in the personal quarters of the centurion, on the floor above. While Kelsey was trying to figure out how she would get access to that, she heard the door above open and slam shut. Not daring to believe her luck, she exited the building and hid, waiting. Seconds later, the centurion walked past, towards the tents, presumably for an inspection. She couldn't afford to not act, so she rushed upstairs and found the info she was looking for, as well as some comic books about a barbarian hero. Smirking, she left both the building and Cottonwood, and made her way back to the outskirts of Searchlight, to report her success to Astor. He was pleased at the amount of information they would now have about the Legion's movement in the entire Mojave. Kelsey asked him if there was anything else she could do and he jokingly said something about going there and cleaning out that camp. When Kelsey agreed to do it, he was genuinely shocked and didn't think it could be done.

Kelsey, on the other hand, was convinced that it would be incredibly easy. She sent Veronica back to the 188, and went to Novac to get Boone. Kelsey felt he would get some much needed catharsis out of this, plus he'd be needed if her plan didn't work. When she told him they'd be going to Cottonwood, he said that he wouldn't hold back if he saw any Legion soldiers. Kelsey agreed, but asked him to follow her lead. They returned to Cottonwood, but instead of descending towards the Cove, they walked past all the crucified people and further south. They made their way on the ridge overlooking the cove, with a truck parked precariously on the cliff. Kelsey had been correct. She had recognised the markings. The truck was carrying radioactive waste. She opened it and let the barrels tumble down, towards the Legion camp. The assorted screams were brief but satisfying. These monsters had received the same fate they had inflicted on Searchlight. Boone's twisted grin, almost a grimace, said everything. The Legion had a lot to answer for.

With all this done, Kelsey dismissed Boone and started her trek towards the 188, to meet up with Veronica. On the way there, her pip-boy caught a strange transmission. A woman kept repeating a message, advertising a location she had never heard of: "Come to a place where wealth, excitement, and intrigue await around every corner. Let go and leave the world behind at the Sierra Madre grand opening, this October. We'll be waiting." Kelsey decided to take the slight detour, to track the signal and see what this was all about.

And, as promised, we finished Cottonwood. There's still a couple of things to do here later, but the legionaries are all dead. There will be radiation here for the rest of the game, I think, but it won't be as much as Searchlight. And no green haze.

If your character doesn't have enough skill to convince the slave master the girl is sick, the lie they tell is that the girl had vagina dentata. The slave master counters that he inspects all the captives himself, and there was no "dentata". I mention this, because I want to leave nobody in any doubt about the nature of the Legion. The middle-aged woman would be made a worker. The boy would be made a soldier (or a worker, if too old to be indoctrinated). The girl would be made a sex slave, hence the aforementioned inspection. For all their talk of civilisation, the Legion really is the most depraved bunch around, except for possibly the drugged-up fiends.

I know that some might say that killing the legion off with radiation makes us "as bad as them", but what's important here isn't the what or the how, but the why. The Legion kills to invade and because they consider those outside their group lesser and deserving of death simply for not being like themselves. We kill the Legion to protect those it seeks to destroy. And, while radioactive waste might seem like a bit much, this is Fallout. The entire region has already been hit with a lot more radiation that won't be going away. This is small stuff, by comparison, and it can't be compared to the same action in a non-irradiated area.

The real reason I brought Boone was the same as when I took him to Nelson to rescue the captured soldiers. This is worth another 2 of his history points, where he explains a bit more of his background and lets us do his companion quest.

The transmission at the end was, in fact, in our radio from the moment we left Doc Mitchell's house. But what could it mean!? We will find out, next time.

[Ythan]

Wheeeeere can we gooooo

[Mitillos]

Begin again in the night
Let's sway again tonight
Your arm on my shoulder
Your cheek against mine
Where can we go
When will we find that we know

Where can we go
When will we find that we know
To let go
Begin, begin again tonight

[Ythan]

I like it. Also here come all the good add-on companions at once.

[Ythan]

maybe you don't care about the ghouls

Also there are so many loveable ghouls I can't imagine a player who actually buys into anti ghoul bigotry. But then again I do live in real life so maybe I can if I try.

I was thinking of Dean when I said this.

[Ythan]

In retrospect I can imagine that the possibility of a ghoul going feral could be pretty frightening. But like look at what the smoothskins get up to.

[Mitillos]

The signal seemed to be coming from just northeast of Nelson. It took Kelsey a while to pinpoint the location, but eventually she found an entrance to a bunker. It was unmistakably of Brotherhood design. Kelsey stationed ED-E just inside the entrance, so he could keep guard if anyone tried to attack from outside. The entry room was partly covered in rubble and was otherwise empty, except for a somewhat recently killed man in a jumpsuit. The only exit was a staircase leading underground, to a hallway. A four-way intersection led to a collapsed and blocked corridor to one side, and an intact but messy room in the other. Broken computers, scrap metal, destroyed books, and what looked like a vending machine that Kelsey couldn't use. She returned to the corridor and continued along. It led to a room with half a dozen cots and a radio on a table in the middle. This was the source of the signal. Kelsey walked in.

Gas sprayed from around her. Her consciousness was fading. Two large arms carrying her. Couldn't react...



Kelsey woke up in a cobbled courtyard, lit by faint wall lights. All her equipment was gone. She was wearing a jumpsuit and an explosive collar. She also had a strange-looking gun and some microfusion cells that it presumably used as an energy source. She slowly managed to stand up and saw a large fountain in front of her, in the middle of the courtyard. Above it she saw the hologram of a woman, but before she could approach, it changed to the face of an old man with a beard.

And this is the second DLC, Dead Money. In fact, this was the first DLC to be released, but Honest Hearts is easier and I consider it worse, so I wanted it out of the way. I didn't think of including the intro video for HH, but this one is a bit more poignant anyway. Anyway, Dead Money. The whole DLC is a reference to the (book and) movie The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, with Humphrey Bogart.

The idea of the DLC is that it's a bit of a survival-horror thing, which is why all your equipment is taken from you at the start. If a player went in with a couple hundred stimpacks and a couple dozen doctor's bags, and one of the high-end weapons, a lot of the challenge of the DLC would be gone. (As it happens, because I played in a low difficulty setting and did my best to do some relevant stat-maxing in advance, most of the challenge is already gone, but that's OK, I'm here for the story.)

This loss of equipment was one of the two reasons players were a bit upset with Dead Money. The second reason was that once you were done, you couldn't return (except by cheating with the console) to deal with anything you forgot to do the first time around. This was why in Honest Hearts, they did allow you to take 75 (or 100) lb of stuff with you. In the remaining two DLCs you keep all your stuff. Also, you can return to all the other DLCs at will, unlike Dead Money.

[Ythan]

Wheeeeere can we gooooo

That answers that

[Mitillos]

The man started barking out orders at Kelsey immediately after threatening to explode her collar if she disobeyed. She could tell that this was no idle threat, so she had to play along, for now. He explained that he had trapped the bunker so that anyone curious and greedy enough to look for the transmission would be brought here. Unfortunately, the place was designed to identify objects that did not belong; such items would be taken back to the abandoned bunker, which explained why Kelsey's equipment was gone.

The man explained that Kelsey was standing in the courtyard of an area called Villa. To the south lay the exit towards the abandoned bunker, now locked until the man had what he was after. To the west, the medical district with a clinic full of auto-docs and the Puesta del Sol area, set aside for housing the maintenance crews of the entire resort. To the east, the residential district for the casino's high rollers and entertainers and the Salida del Sol area, with a church and housing for the casino staff. Finally, to the north, a sealed and apparently impregnable fortress: the Sierra Madre casino and resort. This was the old man's goal. A heist to enter the casino's vault and obtain its technological secrets. But, as the old man had found to his dismay, it would take at least four people to open the casino, to begin with. And so, he began abducting anyone who seemed to him greedy enough to want the treasure of the Sierra Madre, to use in his plans. Most died due to greed, stupidity, or lack of skill or strength. But he was willing to try over and over, no matter how many lives were lost. And now that Kelsey was here, she would be his next assistant, willing or not.

The old man explained to Kelsey the various defences of the place and instructed her to collect the other three members that had survived thus far. They would be needed for the next part of his plan. To ensure co-operation, he had manipulated the collar signals in such a way that, if one of them exploded, they all would. He believed that this would be enough incentive for all four participants to comply. He instructed Kelsey to start with the supermutant in the police station in the Villa. With that, his face was replaced with the hologram of a woman and Kelsey started making her way to the police station.

And now we know why we are here. There is going to be a heist, and we will take part. The old man actually chides you for blindly following the pip-boy to this place, like a slave to it.

The Sierra Madre casino and resort was built by a very wealthy man named Frederick Sinclair, as a place for those he deemed elite enough to go there and live in luxury, away from the horrors of the coming nuclear war. The idea was that the visitors would spend their day enjoying everything the casino had to offer: gambling, and entertainment. The currency would be Sierra Madre chips, both betting chips for the casino games and electronic chips to use in the vending machines, designed to provide food, drink, medication, and even clothes, as needed. Unfortunately for Sinclair, the war came before the project was completed. Furthermore, a strange red cloud filled the area surrounding the casino, with horrific results.

I like to view the Sierra Madre as a criticism of the strange instinct the rich have, which compels them to try to protect themselves from species-wide problems (ones that generally they cause), by separating themselves from the rest of humanity (for example, a certain moronic owner of a car company, a bird-themed company, and other companies, who has a plan to colonise another planet). Such attempts can only fail spectacularly, or go horribly right.

Special mention should also go to the Sierra Madre chips, to be used with the vending machines. These are supposed to create autarky for the resort, meeting everyone's needs. There are at least four problems with that. First, what happens to a guest who runs out of chips? After all, a casino's games always favour the house, since that's how casinos make money. Second, the vending machines can't be stocked permanently. Between the guests and staff, eventually food will run out, since the Sierra Madre has no way to obtain more food. Third, as we will find out, the chips can be forged with enough technical expertise. As any economist will tell you, too much money for not enough goods leads to scarcity, inflation, and devaluation. The Sierra Madre exchanged chips for dollars, so presumably it was not intended as a permanent fixture. Post-war, it would probably become a regular casino. Anyway. Fourth, as we will find out, the vending machines also provide drugs, guns, and ammunition, if you can get the right codes. This can only have one outcome: The Sierra Madre casino and resort turns into the thunderdome from Mad Max. Actually, I'm in favour of that, carry on and godspeed, Mr. Sinclair.

Anyway, let's close this incredibly long explanation section by talking about the dangers Kelsey will be facing in the Villa and its surrounding areas.

First, any radio transmission will interfere with her collar's signal and, after a few seconds, make it explode. Any AM/FM radio or ham radio we see can be turned off or destroyed to prevent this. There are also speakers that will do the same to us. The speakers with a bluish light can be destroyed, but the ones with a reddish light cannot and have to be turned off from a terminal (if one controlling them exists).

Second, the red cloud is incredibly toxic and corrosive. There is no defence against it. If you walk in, you start losing health, and the only way to stop losing health is to get out of it. Most of the time, it's possible to navigate around it, but if you're stuck in it, run as fast as you can to find a safe area.

Third, the workers were caught in the cloud and it changed them, into what are now known as ghost people. They have lost all personality and thought and only want to kill everything they see. Additionally, reducing their health to 0 is not enough to kill them. After a few moments, they will get up with full health and start fighting again. To keep them down, one needs to sever one of their limbs or their head. In other words, always double-tap, and triple-tap, and keep tapping until something comes off.

[Ythan]

Let's get it

[Ythan]

Or not actually lol

[Mitillos]

Getting it is not the hard part; it's letting go.

Kelsey's first stint through the Villa alleys was mostly uneventful. In addition to all the Sierra Madre chips scattered everywhere, she found a knifespear stuck in the ribcage of a skeleton and took it. This was a lucky find, as she didn't much like the idea of firing a gun and drawing the attention of the ghost people, if she could help it. She also found a terminal that controlled a hologram, programmed to eliminate hostiles in the area, including the ghost people. This way, if she needed to retreat to a safe area, she knew where one could be found. Fortunately, she only found a couple of radroaches and one of the ghost people on the way to the police station. The knife spear proved immediately useful, as it tore right through the abominations limbs.

In the centre of the main room of the station was an enormous holding cage with a nightkin supermutant inside. His chest had been carved and now the word "DOG" could be seen quite clearly in scar tissue. He seemed to be talking to himself about his "master" and ignored Kelsey completely. The only danger in the building were the various radios that could trigger her collar, but since the interference effect was on a timer, she had no trouble finding safe areas and disabling or destroying the radios. Exploring the police station, she found some armour, a police pistol, ammunition, medicine, a number of other random useful items, and several codes for getting additional products from the vending machines, including weapon repair kits and ammunition. She now felt much safer and more prepared to take on the horrors the Sierra Madre held.

Kelsey continued down to the basement of the station, where she was greeted by a recorded voice. It sounded intelligent but menacing and instructed her to go through the entire basement, to find a holotape. It explained that it was forced to put Dog in the cage upstairs to stop him from disobeying, and that Kelsey should play the holotape for Dog to hear. Since Dog was ignoring her, she decided to try this. The holotape was a recording of the voice from the basement, saying "Dog, back in the cage". The moment the supermutant heard these words, his stance and facial expression immediately changed.

The supermutant now spoke with the voice from the recording, and spoke of Dog as a different person, one consumed by hunger and blind obedience, one whom this personality both despised and wanted to protect. She thought about the carved name on his chest and how it would look from the mutant's own point of view, from above or in a mirror... this other personality was named God. Dog and God, sharing a body, one always ravenous, the other always controlling. Dog wanting to obey the bearded man, God wanting to eliminate him, instead. They revealed that his name was Elijah. Dog was the one who had brought the unconscious Kelsey to the Villa, at the old man's behest. Yet, he was not wearing the collar that the old man claimed would be there. It turned out he had eaten it, which unfortunately did not diminish its functionality.

God was initially unwilling to go anywhere, hoping to draw Elijah out by staying in this cage. However, as Kelsey explained, Elijah could simply send someone else, with his own commands for Dog, forcing him to come out. Coming with Kelsey was the best way to keep his mind out of the cage and hopefully create an opportunity to get at Elijah. And so, he agreed, unlocked the cage, and followed Kelsey back to the central fountain.

Part 1 of act 1 is done. We have out first companion, a very tough nightkin supermutant with two distinct personalities vying for control of the body. As with all nightkins, he was created by the Master before or during Fallout 1. And, as with all nightkins, the Master's harsh conditioning and prolonged exposure to stealth boys has caused a mental condition. In other cases it can be paranoia, schizophrenia, and other related conditions at varying degrees of severity; here it seems to be dissociative identity disorder. The subservience created by the Master gave rise to a voice of reason, and the subsequent destruction of the Master and his mutant army brought this voice to the surface, as a distinct personality. It is important to note here, that the two personalities both dislike what the other does but also have an instinctive need for the other.

Mechanically, each of Dog and God can be a companion who is really strong and tough, and good at melee combat. We can make Dog come out with a recording of Elijah ordering him to do so (God loathes this) and God with his own tape we already played. God gives us a perk that prevents us from triggering traps (trip-wires, mines, bear traps, and the like). As it happens, we already have the perk Light Step which does the same thing. On the other hand, Dog will devour fallen ghost people to ensure they don't get up and can even teach us a perk that makes them more likely to die without dismemberment. This is also useless, because of our knifespear, which does a lot of limb damage. In other words, it doesn't really matter which one you pick, so I will stick with God, as he is the more rational-sounding one, and I don't want to upset him needlessly. If you have Wild Wasteland enabled, Dog will sometimes go "OMNOMNOMNOM" when eating a fallen ghost person, so if that's enough to sway you the other way, go for it.

Speaking of our spear, Kelsey grabbed a duct tape and a cosmic knife from the police station, as well as all the Abraxo cleaner she found (we need a total of 9). Once we have these and two more cosmic knives (which we will soon find in the clinic), we will be able to upgrade our knife spear. First we will turn the cosmic knives to clean cosmic knives, then attach all three to our knife spear to make a clean knife spear. This will increase its damage from 20 to 25, its critical chance multiplier from 1 to 1.2, but most importantly increase the limb damage multiplier from 1.5 to 3. Additionally, one can repair the clean knife spear with regular knife spears and throwing knife spears, which about half of the ghost people will be carrying in large numbers. In other words, we will be turning the combat of this DLC into a joke leaving only the stealth and pathing challenges, which aren't all that challenging. The remaining ghost people will either have bear trap fists (punch and snap!) or gas bombs they love to throw at you, making them most annoying (albeit least common) of the group.

I will not be going through all the history of this place, which we can find in a huge number of logs and emails left in the computer terminals all over the resort. That would be entirely too much work. However it is an interesting story, so if you're curious about everything that led up to where we are, I highly recommend playing New Vegas and enjoying it first-hand. And then coming to this thread and posting your experiences as they contrast and relate to Kelsey's adventures. Now I need to stop, because I've been typing this up for the last couple of hours, and I'm getting a bit of a headache.

[Ythan]

The cosmic knives are fun. Iirc don't they canonically come from another dlc area you haven't visited yet?

[Mitillos]

The knives are made from an alloy called saturnite and are "impossibly sharp" (the cooks at Sierra Madre kept cutting their fingers and cutting boards). They do indeed come from another area. There are a lot of things that come from that area, and I will talk about all that when we're there.

[Ythan]

Sweeet