Fallout - Let's Play! (Part 7)

In the previous part of this walkthrough, I had started exploring the Hub and did a few good deeds by killing Decker and Lorenzo. Now, I will move to another area of the Hub and do a few more good things (hopefully).

But, before then, there's two more buildings I haven't explored. One of them houses the Far Go Traders and the other one is the Hub's library. Yes, a post-apocalyptic town actually has a library. Cool, eh? So, I decide to go to the library first and talk to one Mrs. Stapleton who, upon prodding, has information about Water Chips. However, information like this doesn't come cheap (when does it ever?) and I have to hand over 750 bottlecaps to get a holodisk with the info.

Here's a picture showing you what a holodisk looks like:

After downloading the contents of the glorified tape cassette, I gain 100 experience and can now access the data using my PipBoy. Essentially, the holodisk lists the locations of three vaults. We already know where the latter two (13 and 15) are, but the first one's a mystery (Vault 12). Actually, I'm going to Vault 12 just as soon as I finish up all of my business in the Hub (which could take a while).

Silly note: The Water Purification Systems for Vault 13 are certified to work for 250,000 hours, which is about 28 and a half years.

I also barter with her to get her 2 Stimpaks, but leave the books behind for now (they're actually quite expensive, and I can come back later; I'll probably need some to boost my Repair and Science skills).

Finally, I reach the last building in this part of the Hub. As I mentioned a few paragraphs ago, this one belongs to the Far Go Traders. Ian will have a little something to say about the owner, Butch Harris. For those of you who don't recognize what Ian's saying, it's Pig Latin and the three words in question are: Not Too Bright.

A chat with the guy guarding the door reveals that he's named Rutger and more talk about the Water Merchant's monopoly on the precious liquid in the Hub. He also bumps me over to Butch in the back room if I want to work for them.

Butch is yet another talking head (ah, so many of these here, eh? :D). Here's a pic:

You get to gauge Ian's assessment of Butch by talking to him [Butch]. He's more of a figurehead for the company than anything else. Prodding him for details about the job just gets you bumped back to Rutger, and asking too many questions just angers him. Some boss he is!

So, I go back to Rutger, who says the job pays 500 Hubbucks (bottlecaps) and that it consists of finding out why the company's caravans are going missing. He believes that the Water Merchants or the Brotherhood of Steel may be at fault for this, while also commenting that Butch believes that it has something to do with "Claws of Death".

He then sends me off to do the job (which I'll do later). I also get a 15% discount from Beth now that I'm working for the Far Go Traders. With that, I am done with this part of the hub, so I find the area transition, located a little to the east of the Far Go Traders, and travel.

So, I arrive at a new area of the Hub. This is Old Town, and is home to the poor, the unsavory and everyone who's something in between, as well as one prisoner I'll be liberating soon and a certain other someone who's something else all-together...

The prisoner is locked up behind the guy that just shot me for 2 points of damage. This, just after opening the door. Why would you shoot someone just for opening your door. I do it in other places all the time and get no negative reaction! :P

At the start of the battle, Dogmeat takes off in the opposite direction (poor pooch is almost dead so he avoids confrontation; I'm exploiting this as I don't want him to engage the armed men). I, with some help from Ian, take down the 4 guards and get nothing notable, except for a COMBAT SHOTGUN!! Woot! Unlike the generic Shotgun I got off of Karl all the way back at the Raider's Camp, this one can hold 12 Shells and has a Burst Mode as well. The guy who had it also had 80 extra Shells, so this is going to be the weapon I use when I have to get into someone's face. :D

Of course, the prisoner is still locked up in the back of the room so I use my Lockpick skills to open the trivial lock, getting 25 experience and liberating the man, who tells me to tell Talus that he's okay if I ever go to the Brotherhood of Steel (which is the first place I'll go AFTER getting the Water Chip as it has a questline that takes a bit too long if you're still on the time limit).

After that, I head into the next building a little to the north, which has nothing of note, so I move along. However, in a building a little to the east, I find a staircase that leads down to several named characters. I pick the first lock to reach them and, level up!

Check out the pic and be amused that 25 points pushed me over the threshold:

So, let's do the usual routine. First, to show you the level-up screen before I allocate skill points:

As you can tell, this is a Perk Level (the other Perk Levels are 9, 12, 15, 18 and 21 for the record). I decide to choose Bonus Move, and you can read what it does from the screenshot. After that, I decide to leave my points unallocated for now. ;)

You may be wondering why I'd do that. Well, recall the librarian and the books I didn't buy. I'm going to purchase them now, using the non-noteworthy loot I just got to pad my deal a bit.

*shops*

So, I get five copies of Dean's Electronics. Mrs. Stapleton's book supplies replenish, which is a bit disturbing if you note the fact that this is a post-apocalyptic setting (what's up with that...does she have a printing press or something?).

Given that my Repair skill is at a shoddy 32%, you know what I'm going to do now. This will also let the Psycho I took to beat down Decker flush out of my system, giving me back my Intelligence points. :)

So, I spend about a day reading (Ian and Dogmeat must've been pretty darn bored) copies of Dean's Electronics and get my Repair skill improved. Since I put all 21 of my skill points into Science, it's time for you to see just how high my Repair skill is now:

With that, I head back into Old Town, but decide against going down the staircase. Better take a look at the other buildings first.

The next building I enter houses Jacob, the arms dealer, who Ian comments on:

So, I check out his inventory, and boy is he LOADED! He has, among other niceties, a Rocket Launcher, a Flamer and a pair of Sniper Rifles. The Sniper Rifle is the strongest Small Gun in the game (it runs on .223 FMJ, which I have a lot of since that's what my Hunting Rifle uses as well), so I'm definitely picking it up; forget what I said a few paragraphs ago about the Combat Shotgun. :P

Of course, that's not all he has. He also has a suit of Combat Armor for sale. I noticed the price tag on it (over 21,000 bottlecaps) and nearly dropped dead. So, I do what any self-respecting Vault Dweller does in times of need, and steal a total of 10 Stimpaks and 220 Shotgun Shells from the pair of guards near Jacob to pad my side of the deal a bit. I need that Combat Armor! Besides, it looks cool! :P

Ouch, so after that insane bartering session, I'm down to a little over 4000 bottlecaps and have sold just about every other weapon and armor I own, but now I'm the proud owner of a Sniper Rifle and a suit of Combat Armor. Now check out how cool Winter looks:

Of particular interest is the damage on the Sniper Rifle and the range (a whopping 50 hexes)! This baby can carry us through the rest of the game, but I'll probably put some points into Energy Weapons because they're cool. That's without mentioning the additional protection Combat Armor affords me, which is crucial until I can secure the game's best armor (if you haven't played the game before, you can spoiler this by checking the review I wrote for this game and seeing the armor in that pic).

So, I leave Jacob's place and head into another building right next to that one. You may recall Lenny (the shifty character who haunts the Maltese Falcon) and how he sells information. Well, he also sells access into this building. This building is home to (among other people) Vance. He's the local pharmacy and deals with all types of drugs, if you know what I mean. Without Lenny's tip, you have to pass a Speech check every time you talk to him or he'll refuse to deal with you, but that's why my Speech skill is so high. Alternately, you could anger him and whack him and both of his bodyguards. He's not that tough and there's no Karma hit, from what I've seen.

(Of course, that entails the drawback that his whole shop inventory is "invisible" so you can't loot any of it. By the same token, you can't Steal any of it either. So, it's probably best to keep him alive.)

So, I head back down the staircase and make my way through the trapped halfway, by setting off the traps (Combat Armor's pretty good for mitigating damage) and picking the locks on the doors. I then reach what's called the Thieves' Circle and talk to Loxley, their boss. He's a talking head, so picture coming up:

So if you're of a larcenous bent, you can prove yourself to the Thieves' Circle by stealing a diamond necklace from Daren Hightower. Since I'm a goody-two shoes I turn down the offer. The funny part is that they will NEVER attack you.

Drop Loxley's Disposition to its lowest level. Seriously, try it. In fact, he'll say in a melodramatic tone that the chance for camaraderie is lost and tells Jasmine to escort you outside (which she never does by the way). So, they don't attack you. You'd have to attack them first and I don't feel like doing that. It's not like they did anything wrong. :P

So, I head out of the staircase and head to the southwestern-most building in Old Town, which incidentally is the last building in the area that I haven't been to yet. Right outside the building, there's a man called Slappy who's more than a bit insane, so you won't really get any useful info out of him, save for the fact that there's a man inside called Harold who's hair falls out in the wind. Hmm? Old guy?

What the <censored>?!
(Ok, that line would've worked better if it were actually the first time I had seen Harold. :P)

Anyways, meet Harold, the Ghoul. Yes, Ghouls exist in this game. No, they're not undead. Ghouls in the Fallout universe are humans that have absorbed enough radiation to mutate, but not enough to die. In other words, they're mutants. They have an extremely long life span though (Fallout 2 Spoiler: Harold's still alive in that game as well, and that's 70 years after the events in this game).

I give Harold 25 bottlecaps and he thanks me for my charity, especially since it seems that most Hubbers (people that live in the Hub, not people who write on Hubpages. ;P) treat him like trash for being different. He ends the conversation line without really mentioning anything special, but a second conversation (and 20 more bottlecaps) gets me his story.

Really long story short:

• Harold was once a Vault Dweller.
• Harold, along with some companions, used to trade, and were attacked by all sorts of baddies, among them mutants.
• Harold and Greg (a doctor) tracked the source of the mutants to an old military base to the northwest of the Hub (somewhat to the west of Vault 13; we'll go there eventually; it's a Main Objective).
• Harold suffered an incident in the base involving an "acid bath" (I'm thinking it was probably radiation) and starts mutating into what he is currently is now.

Gotta feel for him. He never loses his cheery mood though, in spite of everything that has happened to him.

Well, I'm done with Old Town. With that, I'm also done with Part 7 of this walkthrough. In the next part of this walkthrough, I'll be visiting other parts of the Hub. You'll see which ones I go to when I actually write it up. :P

Until the next time, take care and have fun! ;)

-Winterfate