LogFAQs > #947976643

There wasn't much on the road between Primm and Nipton except giant bugs and a few bandits, but partway through the trip Art got the feeling that he could go back and try reprogramming old Primm Slim again, so he turned around to give it a shot, and sure enough, it worked - the town had a new Sheriff.

On the road he found a man trying to run away while a woman shot at him. Since the guy was on the run, Art took out the woman. The man's name was Tomas and he said that he'd been flirting with the girl until she saw his lucky necklace of bottle caps with stars on them and attacked him for it. A little while later some old guy came walking up to Art and told him about this weird legend that the star caps somehow lead to a great treasure. Tomas' little lady wasn't the only person to try killing someone over them, according to the old guy. It seemed like another stupid thing to die for.

He found Nipton in even worse shape than the last town over. Some guys called Caesar's Legion had torched the place and massacred the people. A lot of the bodies had been burned, and some people were hanging, still barely alive, on crucifixes. The Legion boys were still around, and one fella wearing a dog on his head ordered Art to tell of what had happened there, and he would - he'd seen some sick puppies in his day, but these Legion guys took the cake.

A lot of the bodies in Nipton were Powder Gangers, and he found one of them still alive with busted up legs. Apparently the Legion held a lottery after they rounded up the town, let the winner go free, broke the runner-up's kneecaps, and took a couple people as slaves, and then butchered everyone else. The slaves were headed east and hadn't gone too far, so Art had a mind to try and free them. He found them in a little camp between the mountains, and went sneaking in with a Stealth boy to untie the captives while their guards weren't looking. It looked like they got away safely.

He had some injuries from a few fights on the road, so he decided to head back to Goodsprings and have the doc take a look at him. He slept in Victor's shack that night, since he trusted the robot more than anyone, and traded in some stuff he'd found at the general store. He was doing pretty well financially - it was starting to look like exploring and doing odd jobs was a better use of his skill-set than his old job ever was. While he was in the area, he thought he'd get some work from the Powder Gang down at the NCR jailhouse. Maybe he could patch things over with them after the attack at Goodsprings. It would be better not to have their whole gang as enemies. The boss there wanted him to whack some former friend of his who was muscling in on the roads he liked to rob, since all his own men turned up dead if he sent them. It was an easy job, though - Art talked the guy into buzzing off before a single shot was fired. They had him do the same thing to some bounty hunter and then asked him to recon Primm in case the NCR were planning to attack the gang. He found out from Nash back in town that they were. He could go warn the Powder Gang, but he also thought about helping out the NCR with their attack instead. He'd rather see them win, since the Powder Gang weren't very nice people at the end of the day, but he decided to stay out of it. Neither side was worth risking his own neck over, and he didn't want to step on either set of toes. He'd just barely managed to get Mixed Reputation with Powder Gang as it was. Now wasn't the time to screw that up.

On the way back to Nipton, he stopped at an NCR base to buy some more supplies. He tried talking to a few of the guys there, but it was odd: when he asked how they liked the work, they all said the exact same thing: "Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter." One guy named Knight seemed a little antsy. He said he didn't want to make friends because his coworkers wouldn't approve. A scrape with some Night Stalkers and a few dead bandits later he was in Novac, his last lead on the guys who almost killed him. He bumped into Victor there, who said he'd had a strange impulse to travel to Vegas. It was nice to see him, anyway. There was a gift shop selling dinosaur figures. Art only went there for supplies, but the guy at the desk seemed so let down that no one wanted the toys that he bought one just to cheer him up.

He talked to a guy named Manny who had met the thugs Art was looking for. He wanted a favor for the information, but Art buttered him up a little and got it out of him that way. The guy still asked him to help with his problem, which was a ghoul infestation at an old factory Novac's economy relied on. Maybe he'd look into it. Manny had an old friend named Boone who hadn't been himself since his wife died. Art talked to the guy, who was convinced someone in town had sold his wife as a slave to the Legion. He wanted help finding out who it was and getting even. Art had to read a locksmith's magazine to brush up on his skills, but he managed to bust into a floor safe in the town's motel and find written proof that someone really had sold out Boone's wife - it had been Jeannie May, the proprietor. He felt bad about it, she seemed like a nice enough old lady otherwise, but if she had done something like that before she could do it again, so Art tricked the old girl into standing in front of the town's big dinosaur statue so Boone could get a clean shot at her. Afterward he convinced the guy to come along for the ride with him. He didn't seem like he'd be much fun to have around, but maybe he'd be handy in a fight.

New perks: Educated (+2 skill points per level,) Comprehension (increased effect for skill books and magazines

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 11/129
Currently Playing: Fallout: New Vegas