But first . . .
This dog starts following me for no apparent reason. (Actually, according to the wiki, it's because I'm wearing a leather jacket, like his former owner). It's kind of a nice moment, but I wish it was introduced a bit more gradually, so I'd have time to get used to the idea of pet ownership.
Opinions on Dogmeat (you don't get to name him) differ. The lady outside thinks he looks like a "nice pooch." The man inside the house thinks he's a killer beast. I think the man is probably closer to the truth, but it's nice to have a pet . . .
. . . he said, knowing that keeping Dogmeat alive through the endgame is like a living hell. Because I don't want to deal with torment, this dog is sadly doomed, but while he lasts, he will be a valuable near-rabid hell-hound with which I can savage my many enemies.
Like Gizmo, who, lucky for me, is kind of an idiot, and almost immediately starts blabbing his entire plan to the unknown wanderer.
It really, seriously, takes very little prompting on my part.
I'm pretty sure this is my high Speech skill kicking in, though even so, it's a little mysterious that he would be so willing to admit such damning thing to a complete stranger.
The only thing I can think is that he and Killian are operating under some very different legal assumptions. I'm carrying a recording device that will give Killian proof of Gizmo's nefarious plot, but who is he presenting that evidence to? Junktown doesn't seem to have much of a judicial or legal system, so perhaps Gizmo thinks that accidentally confessing to attempted murder is not something he should realistically have to worry about.
Knowing how thing turn out, I can't say that he's wrong. I return to Killian with the recording and receive my blood money (I go with the shotgun, because armor is pretty cheap and I still have a dozen unused stimpacks)
And then Killian uses the information I gave him to immediately assemble a posse of bloodthirsty vigilantes.
I join up, because it's never wise to turn down free xp, but honestly, I find the anti-fat slurs to be kind of offensive.
"Tub?" Really? Sigh.
The actual battle is a completely one-sided slaughter.
And it makes me wonder, why does Killian need proof? Who is he answering to? If all he was going to do was burst in on Gizmo and gun him down, why all the pageantry with "evidence?" And what would he have done if I hadn't been able to get the recording? It's easy to label Gizmo a loose-lipped idiot, but perhaps he knew that this was really just a conflict between two armed gangs, and regardless of what Killian knew or thought he knew, it would ultimately just come down to whoever had the bigger guns. Certainly, the town didn't have much of an objection to his well-known child sex slave ring, so he couldn't have been too concerned with any kind of conventional legal sanction.
Ah well, I get my treasure out of this, and that's all that really matters. Just for good measure, I return to the now abandoned casino.
And rummage around in the various containers, bookshelves, and dead bodies. In one of them, I find a valuable item.
A copy of Guns and Ammo magazine, that in theory should raise my Small Guns skill. Unfortunately, my skill is already too high, so it does me no good at all. I wish I'd known that before I used it, though. It might have been a worthwhile barter item.
It's not that big a deal, though. I can usually get some pretty good equipment from looting it off enemies. In particular, after I finish ransacking the casino, I go north, to the bar to enjoy a refreshing bit of side-quest.
As soon as I enter, there is a brawl. A member of the Skulz is harassing the waitress, and things got ugly, until Neal the bartender shot him dead. I then swoop in with all my characteristic concern and sensitivity.
Hey, sympathy towards the human condition is one thing. Leather armor is another (how big a fool would I have felt like if I'd taken the leather armor from Killian). I'm not completely heartless, though. I track down the Skulz and infiltrate their gang for the purposes of bringing them to justice.
It's ridiculously easy. I think the criminal culture in this town has a real problem with just randomly trusting outsiders with little-to-no vetting. In order to "prove myself" I have to steal Neal the bartender's urn, which proves to be completely trivial.
He keeps it right on the front counter, next to an unlocked door, at all hours of the day and night, even when the bar is empty and he's gone to bed. (Also, I can't help think that maybe he's somehow invited the attention of the Skulz, what with calling his bar the "Skum Pitt" and having it be the sort of place where dead bodies just lay around for days after someone is murdered there).
Despite being the world's easiest crime, it's enough to earn me the trust of the Skulz
And when the Skulz trust someone, they apparently trust them to a ridiculous degree. I'm able to use the fact that I have "shit to do" to slip out of Skulz headquarters and immediately squeal to the authorities about their planned orgy of violence.
That doesn't get the assault called off or anything.
But it does mean that even more people participate. Frankly, Neal is so handy with his gun that I'm not sure he needed my or anyone else's help here (I actually spent most of this fight sitting it out on the sidelines for fear of accidentally targeting a guard). When it was all said and done, I gave Neal back his wife's ashes (it seemed the right thing to do) and prepared to leave Junktown, none the wiser regarding my quest for a water chip, but richer in guns, armor, and bloody, bloody experience.
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