Let's Play Fallout New Vegas

Well I'm back again with yet another live blog. Everyone knows I never finish my live blogs, so I encourage someone to make their own live blog of this game and do it far better than I ever could. But for now let's get started.

I've been hired to make a delivery to the New Vegas Strip, though my memory of the details of that delivery are a bit hazy due to some thugs shooting me in the head and leaving me for dead. What I remember is a man in a checkered suit talking about luck and some game being rigged from the start. Awakening in some doctor's office, I decide not to worry to much about it right away, and instead focus on getting back on my feet.

Straining to remember my own name, I tell the doc that he may call me Alice Lookinglass. I know this is my name, as I can recall the times people have mispronounced my last name as "Looking Glass". As trying to get them to say it correctly often requires more effort than it's worth, don't try to correct the doctor when he makes the same mistake.

Looking in a mirror he hands me, I realize I don't recognize my own face and that while I might know my own name, I can't recall much more about my own past. Because of my obvious memory loss the doctor takes me through a number of tests to see if I might have any other lasting aliments or if I should be good to go.

Strength: 3 Perception: 7 Endurance: 3 Charisma: 8 Intelligence: 8 Agility: 6 Luck: 5

Overall, he say's that while I might be a bit weak I should be healthy enough. Furthermore I seem to have a bit of a talent for repairing things, understanding science, and just in general being well spoken. Though after he has me read an eye chart he has on his wall, he points out that I could see much better with a pair of glasses.

After giving me a clean bill of health he informs me that a robot named Victor brought me to him, and then gives me a run down of of the town. I manage to convince him to let me have an old broken gun that I quickly fix up, as well as some extra stim packs. After watching him make them, I give it a go and make even more.

Laying around his house, I also find a number of things that he says he doesn't need anymore and that I'm welcome to have for myself. After putting everything in my pack that he's given me, I suspect that he's using me a bit to throw out some of his old trash as until I balance my load a bit, I'm barely able to move. I polity let him know that I perhaps don't need his ruins books, and that actual currency would likely serve me better.

With my sturdy caravan shotgun strapped across my back, a pair of old glasses on my face, and an old pre-war hat on my head I make my way out the door into this world I know almost nothing about.

((Some extra notes: I'll be playing with Hardcore mode on, and the Wild Wasteland trait selected. This let's play will last until Alice dies, at what point I'll keep playing the game just without a let's play involved. Also this let's play is mostly blind, as I've played New Vegas a touch, but I've not seen anything beyond the starting town.))

As I head out the door of the doctor's house slash office, I see a robot rolling down the street and realize this must be the one the doc told me about. I make sure I thank him for digging me up, but overall I'm not sure what to make of him. He claims that he had witnessed the people shooting me up the hill, and that he laid low until they left. Now for a person that makes sense, but as he is a security robot I am left wondering why he didn't stop them from shooting me. The robot is not forthcoming with any answers though, so I don't press the issue.

As the robot is acting a bit odd form what I expect a security robot to act, I decide that now would be a good time to check out it's shack that it's claimed for a home. I consider the possibility that it might have taken something important off of me while I was unconscious. Unfortunately all I manage to find is a number of scrap parts and ammo, but no clues as to why I was attacked.

As my next order of business I take a look around town, mainly looking for anything that people might have left unattended in such a manner as to suggest that they don't care if it is taken or not. Something I can't help but think about while rummaging about the town, is that I can't think of a single building made after the war. Admittedly my memory isn't the best at the moment, but it seems more than anything that people just want to live in the husk of the old world instead of building a new one. I know trees don't grow that well, making wood hard to come by, but surely it someone by now could have made a stone house with all the rock that can be found anywhere.

After thinking about this, and gathering up whatever trash I can find, I head over to the general store and amazed to find out that the store owner is willing to pay anything for the trash I bring him. About the only thing I can figure is that he at some level realizes that I'm doing their town a huge favor by picking up all their garbage. I am distracted from this line of thought by the store owner talking about New Vegas, and how Victor is actually a robot of man out there named Mr. House. He seems to think that Victor helping me means that Mr. House is looking out for me, and that this must be a good thing. All I can think is that it seems to be suspicious, and reminds me of the man in the checkered suit saying that the game was rigged from the start.

While pondering what this might mean, I take a look over the things that the doc says I had been holding when the robot brought me to him. Among them I find a Delivery Order from Mojave express though it seems to be missing all but the last page. On the last page I see that I have been contracted to deliver a package to the north entrance to the Vegas Strip. It further lists the contents of said package as one oversized poker chip composed of platinum, and that I am fully responsible for the delivery of this package. Just great, here I am hardly remembering who I am, and I can see that if I don't resolve this matter that I'll have a number of thugs looking for me wanting this poker chip.

While it is a bit worrisome, I realize that I don't need to worry to much about this right now, and that right now I should focus more on getting fully back on my feet so that when I am attacked again, I won't be so totally caught off guard. This in turn makes me remember that the doc suggested I head over to the saloon, and ask a Sunny Smiles for some tips on surviving in the wilderness. Now that I have a few caps to my name, heading to the local bar doesn't seem like such a bad idea.

One of the things that the Doc gave me was one of those fancy pip boys that they have down in the vaults, and I've been enjoying listening to the radio with it. He gave that to me along with an old vault tech uniform from vault 21 that his wife used to wear. I bring this up now because while listening to the radio, I heard the radio host claim that one of their news stories was brought to them by vault 21. While I might not be able to recall much of my own history, I do recall that individuals from vaults have often played a huge roll in the politics of an area. It seems that this vault 21, has been playing a very active roll in the affairs of New Vegas, and something tells me that my path might one day head there.

The other reason I bring up the pip boy and the radio, is that somehow word that I have survived the attack has already made it to the newscaster, and been broadcast for all to hear. From what the Doc tells me, I was knocked out for about two days and I've not even been awake for a full day yet. That means that at most whoever gave this information to the radio station, had three days to know that I survived. The Doc though indicated he wasn't sure for awhile that I would even survive, so that strongly suggests that Victor would be the informant. I suspect that the moment he saw me walking about alive and well, that he transmitted to the radio station the news of my survival.

Speaking of survival, I've taken some time to get some survival lessons from the skilled hunter Sunny Smiles. Miss Smiles is a nice enough girl, but her dog Cheyenne was constantly getting underfoot. If it wasn't for that dog, I might have tried to convince Sunny to join me and get out of this little town. But that where she goes, her dog goes, and I just can't see myself traveling with such an annoying mutt. Don't get me wrong, I like dogs just fine, but that one couldn't help but get underfoot while Sunny and I hunted geckos.

One of the locals happened to be out at the distant water source while we had been hunting, and while we tried to save her, the geckos just wouldn't loose focus from her even though we had been shooting them. After we finished dealing with the geckos Sunny made up camp and sent me off to get some herbs that she could teach me to mix together to make a healing powder.

One of the herbs she knew was growing near an abandoned school, and this got me wondering why the school was abandoned. Sure this village was small and had no children, but it seems like they could have at least cleared it out. Even if they didn't use it as a school, it could easily be used as a shelter for a family. Personally if I didn't have this whole mess with this delivery, I could easily see clearing out an old school in a village with children and teaching them some basic life essentials. Sure would beat being shot in the head while delivering a package.

When I got to the location that Sunny gave me for the second herb, I realized that this was the hill top that the man in the checkered suit had left me for dead. While up here, I decided to take a moment to look for any clues as to who this man might be, and actually found something that might be of some use. I found a number of cigerete buts, that struck me as rather distinct.

Other than that though, I didn't find much else that might lead me to the man, but I did find left on one of the graves a snow globe in good condition. It may or may not be a clue, but I'm sure in the very least that someone will find this to be valuable.

Some might call it cheating when you are getting lessons on surviving in the wild, going back in town and getting supplies, but personally I think acting smart and surviving to be better than just being all sorts of tuff and surviving. In any event, I don't think Sunny will ever find out that on my way back with the herbs, that I stopped at the general store. Even if she did, I don't think she would mind all that much. The fact of the matter is that is that between the abandoned school and the graves I dug up, I have so much junk again that I can hardly move. At the very least I had to sell some of that before trying to make my way back to our camp.

After getting back to our camp site, Sunny gave me a lesson on how to make some healing powder, and suggested that I visit Trudy the owner of the Saloon. Sunny further expressed that it might be nice if I stuck around town a while longer. When I asked her if there was any work to be had around town, she was a bit regretful to tell me other than cleaning out the various houses nobody lived in that there really wasn't that much to be had.

It seems that unless this Trudy can direct me to a bit more work that Sunny and I will be parting ways soon, and while I will be sad to say good bye to her, I won't miss her dog one bit.

After Sunny started to make her way back to town, I decided to take a look at the area around the campsite she had set up. Someone else had set up a campsite not to far from this one, and when I went to go visit my neighbor he expressed that his wife had been trapped up in the hills by a number of geckos. Having seen what geckos do to people something about this smelled funny, but I agreed to go take a look and see what I could do.

On my way up to the ridge that the man had been talking about, I did come across a number of geckos, but I couldn't really focus on the fight as much as I perhaps should have. All I could think about was how to purchase some explosives for a bit better of a price. I do think though that because I wasn't worrying so much about hitting the geckos though that my aim was getting a bit better. ((Level up, with points put in Barter, Explosives, and Guns. Perk Cherchez La Femme, getting me +10% damage vs female opponents and extra dialogue options.))

Though it didn't take me long to get my head out of the clouds, because as I got higher up on this ridge more of the geckos came out and nearly killed me because I was letting myself get so distracted. Finally as I got to the top of the ridge, I saw a number of old bones from other people, but nothing recent of say a women I was sent up here to get. Sensing it was about time for a trap, I switched from using the Varmint Rifle that Sunny gave me, to my sturdy caravan shotgun.

At the top I found a number of bear traps, as well as a stash of some ammo and other odds and ends. Even found a strange desk and chair just over looking the town below. On my way back down, I wasn't surprised at all to see the man that sent me up here coming up with gun in hand proclaiming this had been a trap and now he was going to kill me and get the stash up at top. Pitty for him I already gathered it up, and realized this was a trap. Unfortunately because I was so weighed down by everything I had gathered from up top, I was having trouble aiming and wasted more ammo dealing with him than I would have wanted.

In any event, now that this has been dealt with, it's time for me to make my way back to town, sell my new junk, and introduce myself to Trudy. Perhaps she'll give me a reason to stay in town a bit longer.

Just a quick post here...

On my way back to town, I found a fridge at the edge of the road. Inside was a skeleton and a fancy fedora. It's my hat now, though I wonder who the man was inside the fridge and why was he inside the fridge? Furthermore why was the fridge way over here anyways?

The wastelands sure does have odd things in it.

As I went to go introduce myself to Trudy, I witnessed an interesting discussion between her and some excaped prisoner about some guy named Ringo. Seems this criminal and his buddies have a grudge against Ringo, and are ready to fight the people here to get to him.

At first I wasn't to interested in getting involved in this matter, having my own problems to deal with. Then I got to thinking, if I'm going to be trying to survive in this world, I'm going to be needing some friends. I could easily make friends with this group of criminals that are calling themselves the Powder Gangers or something like that, but they honestly seem like a small time group. Of course making friends with the people in town isn't that much better considering most of them haven't been that far away from their homes their entire life.

Of course, then there is Ringo himself, apparently a trader that's affiliated with a larger orginization. While helping Ringo isn't likely to make them super impressed with me, I figure if I make it a habit of helping their people that they'll begin to notice. So it's off to find this Ringo and see if he's willing to pay for my help in this matter.

Finding Ringo isn't the problem, but instead getting him to stop talking about a card game called Caravan proves to be more trouble. I do manage to get a deck of cards out of him though, even if the rules to the card game seem a bit confusing to me.

When I do get him to talk about the fact that some people want him dead, he's more than willing to hire me but raises a fair point. I may have fought geckos and a few bugs at the school house, but I've never fought people. He suggests getting Sunny to help also. Convincing her to join our little group turns out to be as easy as telling her we plan on making a stand. She comments that we might be able to get the whole town to help if we convince the right people.

According to Sunny, Trudy has the ears of most the people in town, meaning if I convince her to join our cause that we'll have a sizable group of people to show the Powder Gangers this isn't a town that they can mess with. She further suggests that I have a talk with the general store owner, and see if I can't convince him to part with some of his supplies. Lastly there's Easy Pete that could provide a bit of a bang for the party. I've a feeling that if I can convince everyone to help that this shouldn't be to dangerous to anyone except the Powder Gangers.

It isn't to hard to convince Trudy to be the voice to the Malita, but she also voices her concern that the people are woefully ill-equipped. While she voices her concerns about things I'm already well aware of, I go over in my head the things I learned from Sunny about how to properly shoot a gun, and how to survive in this world. ((Level Up: Points in Guns and Survival.))

As for Easy Pete, he is a bit harder to convince to help us, but in the end I manage to convince him that I know enough about explosives to know not to blow up my own face with the stuff. ((I knew that he needed 25 explosives to convince that's why I put some points there during the previous level up. Past this quest though, I have no idea about the future though.))

Chet the general store owner of course tries to be make a profit off of this whole problem, not that I blame him but I don't have 1000 caps to invest in getting him to help. Instead I remind him that if the Powder Gang takes over that they aren't likely to pay him anything.

While heading back up the road to see Ringo, I stop at the docs and enlist his aid in the fight. While he won't be actually fighting he does provide some stimpacks that should be helpful. Heading out the door though, I realize nobody has suggested that Victor help out even though he is a security robot. Heading over to his place, I find that he is more than willing to join our little militia.

Now all that's left to do is wait for the gang to make their next move.

We didn't have to wait long for the battle to take place, but because the Powder Gangers hadn't expected any sort of resistance the battle was over practically before it even started. I opened up the fight by throwing a stick of dynamite at the center where the most of them clumped together, and while it didn't take any of them out it caused all sorts of confusion.

The two fastest gang members came directly to me, seeing me as the biggest threat, but before either of them could do anything, I blasted one of them in the face with my Caravan Shotgun instantly taking him out of the picture. The second managed to hit me with his cleaver before I managed to dispatch him as easily as the first.

I got momentarily distracted when I noticed that Ringo was moving in rather close to the gang members. While I respect him for taking the battle to them, considering I was hired to defend him, I had to make a be line for the enemy that was posing the most danger to him. That turned out to be their leader, and he was soon dispatched with a couple of blasts of my shotgun. The remaining three gang members were soon taken care of and everyone celebrating this success.

While everyone celebrated, I looked over both the bodies on the ground to make sure nobody from town was killed, and was pleasantly surprised to find that only Powder Gangers lost their lives today. Though something I did find a bit odd was the distinct lack of Victor anywhere near the fight.

Heading back over to his shack I found him in his usual cheerful state, wondering when the fight would be starting. Unfortunately a quick check of his systems revealed that someone activated an override code, that deactivated him during the fight. I'm fairly sure it wasn't the gang, as they had not expected our resistance, but that does leave me wondering who would have deactivated Victor and why? Victor seems completely unaware of any sort of override though, and apologized for missing the fight.

Well after a final restocking of equipment, food, and water, I'll be leaving this town. I've been told by the people in town that the delivery company that I'm working for has a branch in the town of Primm not far from here, and that they might be able to tell me more about my assignment. So unless I can think of somewhere else to go, that seems to be my next target.

((As I said before, this Let's Play will be going on until this character dies, and from this point on it is completely blind. If anyone has any suggestions about where I should go, or what I should do next, I'm all for them.))

Kill Em All. It's the fairest thing to do

Personally, I'm against the death of all animate objects within a twelve-mile radius of your personal space. Especially since any blood that's bound to land on your clothing ought to be a pain to wash out...

As for what to do in the future, I can't say that I know a lot about the Fallout series. But, I usually prefer a Guile Hero over the traditional action or intelligent types, so I'd say that putting more points in things like Bargain would be a good idea.

Part of me wants to rush directly off to Primm, but another part of me wants to be fully sure I'm ready for the challenges the road might have to offer. As luck would have it I found a den of coyotes not far from Goodsprings, so it seemed like a good idea to clear it out and offer the town one last little bit of safety before I left.

It seems that I've not been the only one to enter this cave, as inside I found the body of some religious looking person. Other than a laser pistol and some energy cells the only thing this person had to her name was a robe of some sort. The oddest thing is that she seems to have deformities as if from radiation. Part of me wants to investigate this further, but ultimately I decide that it really doesn't involve me.

So for now I will assume she was a pilgrim that came to the desert to escape some of the more radiation filled areas of the country. Perhaps time will make me believe differently.

She of course isn't the only body in the cave, but is the most remarkable. After taking anything of value, I of course have to make my way back towards town, as I'm not nearly strong enough to carry all this junk any sort of long distance.

South of town I find a shake for some old airplane business from before the ware, that a couple of the remaining members of the Powder Gangers have decided to occupy. It doesn't take much for me to decide to send a message to any other gang members that this town is off limits.

After dealing with the two gang members, I search inside the shake to find a good supply of ammo and other basic supplies.

Further down the road toward Primm, I find more gang members though this time they have their little camper protected with some land mines, and one of them even had the gull to throw a stick of dynamite at me. The most interesting thing I find on their bodies after is actual currency. I'm not talking bottle caps, or pre-war money, but actual new currency. Currency belonging to NCR, and this strikes me as odd. Sure the gang members likely stole it, but I don't recall seeing any of this in town. I'm hoping all this means is that they stole the money off of the guards from the prison they escaped from.

The land mines are a bit tricky to deal with, but ultimately I manage to disarm them without blowing up any fingers or other body parts. As I'm looking over what supplies they have left at this camp though part of me starts to think it might be wrong to take from them. This is after all fairly far from the city, and while it was one thing to kill them in self defense it is something else to blindly hunt them down and take all their things.

((Seriously, anyone have a good reason why taking the stuff from this camp is considered stealing causing me to loose Karma?))

Nearing Primm I encounter a NCR Trooper that informs me that a couple of gangs are in the area and that they are currently at war with each other. Because of this he suggests I turn around and head back up to Goodsprings because the two gangs are using Primm as their fighting ground.

When I inquire as to why the NCR aren't doing anything about it, he informs me that Primm is outside of their area of responsibility and that even if it was inside, they don't have the manpower or the resources to deal with the problem. He suggests I talk to his commanding officer, and then warns me that I should stay on the western side of the road to stay out of harms way.

Looking at my map, and where the delivery office is suppose to be, I see instantly that it's on the east side of the road. Well crap. Of course it's on the east side of the road.

As going to speak with the commanding officer seems like the safest bet, I decide to get what information I can from him before making my trip to the dangerous side of the street. It seems these guys are here to deal with all the convicts that escaped from their prison, but are short on supplies. The convicts on the other hand are better armed and organized than their intel had led them to believe. He tells me that the Powder Gangers are the same group they are dealing with here, and this confuses me a bit.

A bit of a clarification on why I'm confused. The guy earlier said that there were two rival gangs, and this guy implies it's just one big gang causing problem. Personally the officer comes off as a bit of an idiot, and I'm more inclined to believe the enlisted man from before. Of course the enlisted man's main goal in life is to survive until the next day so he likely doesn't want to cross the street unless ordered to do so. I on the other hand have to cross the street to get to my destination.

Before going to the other side though, I need to find out if these troops have a supply clerk that might be willing to do some under the table dealings with a civilian. Of course that doesn't seem to be the case, so I end up having to travel all the way back to Goodsprings to sell the crap I've been picking up on my way to Primm. Along the way I begin to put together a plan, as it seems that the NCR isn't going to be much help.

In terms of plans, it's likely one of the worst ideas I've ever had, and that's to rush across the street killing anything that even thinks about attacking me. I'll make a mad dash for the build that I think is the building I need to go to, and make further plans once I'm inside. I do not say safely inside as I have no idea what to expect once I get in.

As I get to the other side of the road, I encounter two convicts right away that are quickly dispatched. I get some cover behind the corner of a building as I try to figure out why there are only two and where the rest are. From the way everyone had been talking, I should be dead already but clearly I am not. I modify my plan from a mad dash to a careful search of the area to find out what the heck is going on.

As I'm exploring the town, I find the Sheriff's office, and hope that he might be holed up inside, but instead find him and his wife dead with their heads cut off. Further into town I find an area where I can get some high ground and scope out the area, when some man comes up behind me that I almost shoot.

At first he claims to be some sort of trader, but then drops that story and informs me that he has been following me. Turns out that he knew about an individual cap that I happened to pick up from before. A single cap in my pack has a blue star on it, and he's telling me about some under the cap game that has people going crazy. Such as himself with coming to talk to me in the middle of this town... crazy crazy man go away. Telling me about people as old as having been alive from before the war. Just go. Go and don't ever talk to me again. Be glad I don't shoot you in the back of the head.

Eventually I make my way into a casino that has a Mr. Johnson Nash inside that represents the Mojave Express delivery company. Seems that this casino might be neutral territory, but I'm not about to let my guard down.

((Ok annoying thing here. I'm playing on Steam, and for some reason random people don't have voices. Johnson Nash is one of them, and I'm having trouble reading everything he says before it moves on. The annoying thing is to get him to repeat what he said takes a bit of working.))

Overall this whole town makes my head hurt. It seems that the gang hasn't taken over this casino because they fear their losses. Mr. Nash tells me that the town's deputy was taken hostage, and that helping him might help the town, even though Mr. Nash thinks the deputy is fairly worthless.

As for what happened to me, it seems someone else was going to take the job that I had, but when they saw my name as an alternate, they canceled and let me take the job. It also seems that the job was posted by a robot much like Victor. I'll have to go talk with this new robot, as Victor did tell me to tell the other robots like him that he said hello.

You're probably gonna want to post about your new liveblog in the official list, colin will add it.

Ok some out of character thoughts about this town. It feels like the developers didn't finish it. Sure the town is well designed as an area to be running through and shooting enemies, but the NCR troops seem to be there like they might have a quest for you, but the dialog options are just so limited, and misleading. I've only been inside the good casino but that seems like somethings missing also. My next stop will be the hotel and casino on the other side of the street, so perhaps things will be more dangerous there.

But it's not just this town that seems incomplete. There are large portions of the game that I've seen that seem rather backward. For instance, there was that little gang hideout where me looting there stuff was bad for my karma even though they are my enemies, and oh I don't know escaped convicts. Then when I get to Primm, and cross the bridge I find some more land mines that are placed clearly to indicate that the NCR troops put them down to keep the convicts on there side of town. But it's all right for me to disarm those and take them.

I'm hoping what happened was that the developers spent more time on the later part of the game, and that this earlier portion of the game just had some things overlooked or not that well planned out. But nothing about the game is really giving me that feeling yet. There are just a whole lot of things that aren't adding up story wise, that I'm just not confident that they will address.

Some I've been thinking and making plans for what to do next. It's clear that my next course of action will take me into the Hotel across the street, so I consider the information that I have already received.

First, the military seems to think that they are more organized than they should be with more resources than expected.

Second, the military in this area is being ran by someone that is clearly a fresh out of officer training and has no clue what he's doing. He just knows he has no orders to take the rest of the town, so he's going to make no effort to offer any aid. Personally I don't blame him on that regard, but the fact that they are running short on supplies falls solely on him for not making proper plans prior to his team coming out here.

So here's the plan, I'll do a full check of the area surrounding the hotel, focusing on making sure no gang members are hiding up in the roller coster workings. After I fully secure the outside, I'll head in most likely through the front door, and see what happens from there. If though in my check of the outside, I find a side entrance I will consider using that for a surprise attack if it seems that entering from that side would be unexpected.

((While scouting out the outside, I manage to level up, and up my guns, lockpicking, and survival all to 25. I then take the perk Educated. I sort of wanted to take Black Widow for the added damage to the most prevalent enemy in the game (men), but what I wanted even more was more skill points to be putting where I need. I'll likely take Black Widow at level 6 though))

I soon find a second story door that I can get to, that I decide will be a better bet than taking the front door. First of all it'll give me high ground, and second of all it won't be the front door. Before going in though, I take a quick assessment of myself, and realize that my left arm is fairly badly injured. Much more abuse and it's likely to break. Also if I get hit in the head to many more times I'm likely to get a concussion. However this fight turns out, I should make a trip back up to Goodsprings to see if the Doc can patch me up again.

I'm soon hiding in a corner near a vending machine inside the building, feeling fairly glad I came through the side door. There are a number of convicts and other than them knowing that someone is firing a gun at them, they still haven't figured out what's going on exactly. Not everything is going perfectly though, as soon my arm gives out, and I have to use the supplies from one of my doctor's bag's to do a hasty sling, and then the supplies from the second bag I had on me to actually get it working well enough to not just give out on me again.

Luckily for me, I find a locked closet that I manage to jimmy open, and find some medical supplies. Soon I've patched myself up enough that I shouldn't have to worry to badly. I'm still weak though, and I'm having to pick and choose what I take with me while I deal with the convicts.

It takes a bit of work, but eventually I've secured the second floor of the hotel. I manage to find a stairwell down to the first floor as well as an elevator. I'm almost tempted to go down the stairwell, but at the last moment take a look at the elevator. It doesn't seem to be in working order, but it's an easy enough fix. As I fix the elevator I realize with it being out of order that they'll be expecting an attack from this angle the least, and decide to use this route instead of the stairs.

This amounts to me coming out of the elevator in front of three people with their backs towards me, and had I been better at stealth I might have been able to get the drop on them. There is the period of time of confusion as they try to figure out how I got behind them though and that does help. Soon I've tracked down their leader, someone I decide is a high importance target considering he has a flame thrower in his hand.

After dispatching him, it's not long before I've managed to neutralize the remaining convicts. Admittedly I did get fairly banged up in this alteration. Soon I've found the deputy, and talk with him a bit before freeing him. It seems he was sleeping in the office when his brother and sister in law got killed by the convicts. He then tries to claim that he watched from the other room and took notes but got caught. It's clear to me that he's either hiding something or that he's just a complete idiot.

So, I decide to try to play this cool. I dress up in some sexy sleep wear and have a few swigs of beer in the hopes of convincing him that he might actually get more than just untied by me. Just only if he could share some information with me before I untied him.

It works like a charm, and he's soon telling me that the people that I'm looking for headed for Novac, and it's so cute when he expresses that he won't be able to come and keep me safe as he needs to stay here in Primm to keep the place safe. So I get dressed back up in my armor much to his disappointment, and try to decide what to do about him being tied up. As I'm getting dressed though, I notice that my hat has been ruined, and won't be helping me much anymore. I liked that hat, and will have to find a new one. These convicts have had hats, and one of them will do for now, but I need to find a more stylish one to go with my figure.

Much to the deputies confusion I insist that I must have a hat before I'm willing to untie him. To further add to my own annoyance, I can't seem to find a hat among the bodies. I know I picked up a couple but had been dropping them, but now I can't seem to remember where they ended up. This may seem like a strange thing to worry about, but I will remind you that I'm not that big of a person, so a little beer goes along way towards confusing you.

Anyways, after finding a couple of hats and picking an ugly straw hat over another ugly straw hat, I head back to the deputy and untie him. As I'm getting the ropes off his hands he talks about running outside, and I point out that I have a shotgun that I will use on him if he decides to run before we have both fully cleared the building.

Ok I knew I hated this town, when the deputy and I get outside he gives me a bit more information about the man in the checkered suit, and then asks if I might help find a new sheriff for the town. I try to explain that he's now the sheriff, but he doesn't see it that way. This town is full of crazy people. But I'm not one to just leave even crazy people in a state to just be taken advantage of so I agree to look for a new sheriff for the town.

He suggests either a guy that used to work over at the correctional facility that was taken over by convicts, or the military just on the other side of town. While talking to the old man in the casino though, I come up with a possible idea of reprogramming their robot here into a sheriff.

Pros and Cons of the three candidates that I can think of: Robot: He's already been hacked but I don't know enough about computers yet to figure out by who or why. A hackable sheriff really isn't that good an idea, but what's to say that a human sheriff couldn't be bribed. It amounts to the same thing. Military: I'll need to go talk to them, but their form of protection isn't likely to make people happy. The NCRCF guy: There is a good chance he was in on the whole break out thing, and without knowing more, at the very least his last known location was in hostile territory. However he does have training in law enforcement.

Overall, I'm fairly undecided who to try to recruit, and I really need more information on all parties involved. Heck if I didn't think it would leave Goodsprings fairly undefended I would try to convince Sunny to come down here and be sheriff.

After a quick talk to the officer for the NRC, he informs me that they could take over protection of Primm if they had more men. He said I would need to head to one of their outposts and talk to a man named Knight for that. I predict that if I go that route, that what I'll find is that outpost is under attack, and that the only way they can spare people is if someone such as myself lends a helping hand.

((Anyone with any thoughts as to who (or what) should be installed as the new Sheriff of Primm?))

So I've decided to at least go check out the correctional facility to check out this ex-sheriff out there. However, I have a bit of a problem with caring so much stuff that if I pick up anything more, I'll be barely able to move. This problem is amplified by the fact that I've sold all I can to the people I already know, with them not having anything I'm interested in buying.

I have heard though that north of NCRCF there is a town by the name of Sloan. I can't recall how it came up in conversation, likely someone telling me places to stay away from. For now though I'm going to hope that they are a place that I can go to without being shot, and perhaps sell some of the things I've been gathering in my travels.

When I finally make my way up there, I learn that Sloan is a town of quarry workers that are actually doing work that could be used to make something new, or actually repair a building instead of just boarding up the holes. Seems that the NCR pays these guys with paper currency for material that can be turned into cement. Though the paper money apparently only has an exchange rate of about 50% of it's cap value. As a little disappointment to myself, the only one in this little town willing to do business with me deals primarily in food, and so I'm not able to sell much of the stuff I've been gathering on my travels due to her distinct lack of caps.

This makes my new destination the NCRCF to the south of here, in the hopes of finding out about this potential sheriff for Primm

On my way south, I encounter more felons. I'm thinking I'm starting to actually get good with shooting a gun because of them. (Gained a level, put some points in Guns, Medicine, and Science)

Unfortunately the closer I get the more dangerous they get. One of them managed to get a stick of dynamite thrown near enough to me that my leg was caught in the explosion crippling it. As quick as I could, I dived behind cover applied treatment to it as best as I could, and gave myself a stimpak before jumping out guns blazing.

To make matters worse, after I deal with the group, I start to investigate this little camp just north of NCRCF and accidentally step on a land mind seriously hurting both my legs. I decide at this time, that I'm going to have to limp back to the Doc and get some serious medical aid. I'm going to have to also pay attention to where I step from now on I suppose.

When I finally get to the NCRCF, I do a bit of scouting around the perimeter and other than a couple of dogs that don't seem hostile to me, I can't see any look outs or anything. Needless to say this has me a bit on edge as I can see lights on inside the complex.

Though I do find more land mines, and take care to disarm them in my scouting. It's after the land mines that I'm finally able to make out a sentry or two in the watch towers. Not a bad plan they had of keeping far enough back that if a snipper wanted to take them out, they would have to go through a minefield first.

What all makes this operation rather annoying is this is a correctional facility and it's not meant to be broken into or out of. I find myself playing everything to the most cautious because I know that a bad end to my day would be a bullet to the head... again.

Turns out things go extremely bad, as while I'm scouting around the outside one of their sentries happens to see me and the next thing I know the whole place is swarming with the convicts trying to kill me. I manage to find Meyers inside, to find out he's not a guard or something but a Sheriff that was arrested by the NCR for taking the law into his own hands once to often. He claims that he didn't have anything to do with the prison take over and has been waiting here for the NCR to take back over.

Unfortunately I don't have much time to talk with him, as now that everyone knows I'm here I have no choice but to secure my location and make sure none of them manage to take me out.

Matters became worse when I realized just how many prisoners had remained here ready to fight anyone that didn't belong in their gang. Honestly short of me getting killed I'm not sure how this could have gone worse. Nearly every part of my body was broken and beaten as I fought back the prisoners, and I lost yet another hat.

Loosing my hat would have been a problem if any of the prisoners had any taste in head wear, but unfortunately none of them had anything I could use for myself. Nearly on the verge of death, I made my way once more back to the doc to be healed up.

((As an added insult to this whole prison raid debacle, I didn't even gain a level. I'm 28 exp short of level 6))

I think I'm going to take a much needed rest while I decide what my next move should be.

I suppose that, out of the three choices for new sheriff, the robot would be the lesser-est evil. Would be as fair as you want him to be, and I doubt he'll be easy to kill should gang war break out again. Plus, it would probably be easy for the common goon to tip over a bank and get enough cash to bribe a man, while only a skilled mind could try and hack the 'bot.

...All that, plus I love when I'm allowed to Take a Third Option.

So I'm back, and I realized I didn't clear out the correctional facility completely. Turns out a couple of the goons had been hiding in one of the cell blocks, but it they didn't prove to be that much of a problem considering I already dealt with everyone else here single-handedly. I'm still amazed that I'm alive from dealing with everyone, and I can't help but think that there might have been a better way.

((Gained a level and upped barter to 30, guns to 30, repair to 40, speech to 40, and survival to 26, then took the black widow perk. Now I do an extra +10 damage to either gender and have new dialog options (or I should, I've not seen any yet).))

Heading back to Primm, I consider my options regarding the whole sheriff thing, but more importantly that I really am caring around to much stuff that I want to keep, but is really only weighing me down. What I really need more than Primm needs a sheriff is a place to call my own. As Primm is currently safe for the most part, I decide to put a hold on the whole find Primm a Sheriff and try to locate a building or something that I can claim without stepping on to many toes.

After a day or so looking around, I realize I could use the gas station that the trader had been hiding in when I first had been looking around Goodsprings. It's by no means perfect, but it is a good step in the right direction. For now I'll use it to store all these extra aids I've been gathering up and only caring on me what I need at any given time. For instance, it never hurts to have a beer or two on you in case you just need a good drink, it makes no sense for me to be caring around what could be disturbed as a full bar.

After getting stuffed stashed away I decide it's time to go further out and see if I can perhaps find a place that would make an even better hideout. My first thought is that I can see a giant cross in the distance from Goodsprings, and I decide to check there out first. I figure it'll be some old church but who knows what I'll find. Perhaps nothing considering the cross makes it a fairly big land mark, meaning it has likely already been looted.

At first what I find seems promising. An abandoned shack with a bed and a work bench among a number of other things. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much in the way of places to store the things I gather. Furthermore, when I go outside the shack to find out why this place might be abandoned I see a number of signs that say that death claws are to the north. I'm not talking about subtle signs like death claw droppings or what not, but actual signs put up by people. Further more this place is infested with giant scorpions.

They though are rather insistent that I move in and stay, though it took me a bit to figure it out. I had you seen been under the impression that them attacking me meant they wanted me to run away or fight back, but what it really meant was that they wanted me dead, and that they didn't want me to ever ever leave. I guess my luck has run out and here I am staying at my new home.

Ok I know I said I was only going until I died, but that was a rather stupid death. I'm serious the fight was so one sided that it wasn't even interesting. It auto loaded me to right after I left the abandoned shack, so I tried to just leave at that point and not explore further. However even at that time the scorpions had me targeted and tried to kill me again. Furthermore I never found out what it was, but I heard the popping of someone firing a weapon at me and I died again, this time not from the scorpions but something that was either fighting me or the scorpions.

Once again it auto loaded, and this time I made a mad dash away, and managed to get away. So here I am back in good springs, so we'll continue from here I suppose.