Immediately below Junktown is a button that says "Raiders." I've been there before, to rescue Tandi from the Khans, and I can't imagine there's anything for me to find. I may have to go back to eliminate the danger they pose to the wasteland, but for now, I have a mission.
The next location then, is Necropolis. A traveling singer in Junktown told me about it, but I have no other information. I might have to pop in and see what's up.
I find the Necropolis to be full of undead, which seems fitting, but is a little out-of-genre.
I mean, these things are basically zombies. Where did they come from? Why are there zombies in a sci-fi game? It's not a big deal. I know from later Fallout games that they're just a weird type of mutant and they hate being called zombies, but how weird must this have seemed the first time you played the series.
I can't say for sure, because I did not visit this location the first time I played Fallout (I more or less gave up before finishing). By the time I actually came back and explored Necropolis, I was already quite familiar with Fallout's mythology. I don't recall thinking Fallout 3's ghouls were all that remarkable, but then my first contact was with the talking variety, so I guess I just accepted them.
The ghouls don't seem to trouble you so long as you stay away from them. The ones inside the building are a bit more civilized.
Though they are considerably more surly. There honestly doesn't appear to be anything to do here. Nobody says much to me, and there is no real threat. Nonetheless, it doesn't hurt to explore.
The only apparent way to go is down a manhole.
Joy of joys, it leads into a dank sewer. It's kind of an inevitability, of course, because Fallout is an rpg, and every rpg has a sewer level.
It makes sense that this is such a common cliche. Sewers are basically a ready-made dungeon. They are dark and mysterious, and they are naturally laid out in a twisting and not easily navigable pattern (especially if they are semi-ruined post-apocalyptic sewers). So no complaints, exactly, but I did roll my eyes a bit.
There are a few rats in the sewers, but like the ghouls up above, they have a fairly small sight range, so I can more or less walk through the place unmolested. As I get deeper in, I discover some more civilized ghouls.
Unlike the ones up above, this ghoul is talkative and friendly towards outsiders. And for the first time, I get some quest information.
Shockingly, it has to do with the Vault's water chip! The ghouls are using it to supply themselves with water. I can't take it without ruining their whole society, but I absolutely need it to save my people. Luckily, they have a secondary water source, so if I can fix that one, I could take the water-chip without a problem. It's a generous offer, though if I were the ghouls, I'd want to keep the backup, because these sorts of breakdowns are kind of inevitable.
I make my way farther through the sewers and emerge back onto the surface, to find a new sort of creature.
They look big and dangerous, but they're talkative (if not exactly friendly) and they don't attack me, so I proceed to ignore them. In the building in the back, there is one who is bigger, better dressed, and important enough to get an animated head.
He interrogates me about my presence here, and is clearly an anti-human fanatic, but he's also incredibly stupid and falls for obvious lies. As an "extremely advanced robot" I am not one of their targets. I'm able to walk past and access Necropolis' water equipment.
Using parts I found in the sewers, I attempt to repair the water pump. My repair score is a little too low to actually succeed at the attempt, so I retreat back to the sewers and go to the ghoul who gave me the mission.
He gives me some skill books that raise my repair skill, which apparently does the trick and allows me to repair the water pump. I go deeper into the water shed, and find an imprisoned ghoul. Since I have lockpicking as a tagged skill, letting him loose is a trivial matter. He tells me that the water chip is down a nearby manhole.
It's another Vault! I'm not sure why, but I wasn't really expecting it. It seems fairly obvious in retrospect, but I guess I didn't think there were quite so many Vaults. The glowy ghouls rush me, but they are fairly weak, having no ability to get through my armor and no resistance to Dogmeat's savage attacks.
Finding the water chip is actually trivial, because the layout of this Vault is exactly like every other Vault in the game. I find the computer at the same spot at the cave in in Vault 15.
It nets me a really nice xp bump and the satisfaction of a job well done. Well, that's it, that's the game. All wrapped up in a nice little bow. All I have to do is deliver the chip and collect my well-earned adulations.
Note the near-identical architecture. Though I have to wonder why one Vault has a huge Overseer chamber and one does not. In later years, we learn that the Vaults are social experiments (which actually seems kind of dumb to me, but the Fallout universe has no shortage of dangerous maniacs), so maybe there's some kind of sociological reason for this, but I don't think we learn why in this particular installment.
Regardless of the reason, it's not really relevant. The game will soon be ending. Time for me to collect my reward . . .
I don't like where this is going . . .
So my reward for doing good work is more work. Typical.
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