LogFAQs > #948088878

Boulder City was not far from the shore of Lake Mead, the biggest puddle of non-irradiated water Art had ever seen. An NCR trooper on the shore told him about a lost airship that had supposedly crashed into the lake before the war, and he decided to go swimming. There were a lot of mutant humanoid fish crawling around Mead and they didn't take too kindly to visitors, but he could avoid them for the most part by keeping his head under water. Eventually he did find the old thing. It was almost due east of an old shack on the beach.

He wasn't far from New Vegas now and decided to walk straight there. The critters on the way - Golden Geckos and giant wasps called Cazadors - were a little scary, but he made it through with Boone and ED-E's help. They met an NCR soldier on the way who had been sent to give him an emergency 2-way Radio he could contact them with, as a sign of goodwill over him helping them out a few times. Then the guy headed back toward Vegas, with Art and his pals trailing behind. They fought some of the mutated animals together, until the man ran too far ahead and Art found his body in the middle of a gang of Golden Geckos. Art himself learned the Animal Friend (animals no longer attack) perk so he wouldn't share the same fate. He made it into the city not long after that.

New Vegas was a good place to find work. The guy who had stolen his delivery was on The Strip, where a robot police force called the Securitrons kept out anyone who didn't have 2000 caps on hand. Art was a little short, so he spent quite some time doing odd jobs on the outskirts and in Freeside. The NCR had a little farming outfit going just outside town, where they were having a little trouble with the water system. The issue turned out to be radiation coming from an old Vault in the side of a mountain. The place was Hell. It was so radioactive that all the citizens had become feral ghouls and Art himself, despite using all the rad-x and radaway he had, was badly sick by the time he got out. He had to go through winding halls, swim through irradiated water, and fight the feral overseer on his machine-gun platform, but he shut down the Vault's reactor in the end - hopefully it would help those farmers. Apparently the place had been loaded full of guns with a tyrannical head honcho, which lead to rebellions, riots, and eventually the disaster Art came to look for.

On Freeside, he did a lot of work for a guy calling himself The King, based on some religious figure from the old world. The King seemed like a good man. Art helped him negotiate a deal with the NCR where they'd work together and share resources. Both groups were willing to talk instead of just killing each other, so he realized neither one was too bad. The King also had an old cyborg dog named Rex who needed brain surgery from a guy who lived a long way to the west. Art agreed to take him, but the dog wouldn't come as long as ED-E was around, so Art sent his robot pal back to Primm. A robot dog was almost as good.

He did some chores for The Crimson Caravan and their uptight boss lady. She wanted him to talk a rich kid into quitting because he was a liability but his dad was pulling strings for him and would be upset if she just fired him. Luckily the guy had gambling debts with one of the big families on the Strip and Art could just threaten to rat him out to them if he stayed at the job. They also wanted him to go talk to a girl named Cass back on the Mojave Outpost and get her to sell her own caravan business, and break into the Gun Runners' base of operations to learn how they made such high-quality weapons, but he wasn't sure he was cut out for that job. The family who Freeside's energy weapon store also wanted Cass. She must have owed them money or something.

The Followers of the Apocalypse had a base on Freeside. It looked like they mostly did medical work. They asked him to help get two guys, Jacob and Bill, off their poison because they'd be valuable in helping clean up the city if they could stay sober. He talked them both into it, but Bill never made it back to the Followers - Art found him dead in the middle of the street. He might have gotten attacked by one of the thugs that would sometimes jump people around town, or even a giant rat. He couldn't tell. He also worked out a deal between the Followers and the Garrets, who ran a place called The Atomic wrangler, where they'd trade medical supplies for some raw materials that could be used to make hooch. There was also a researcher named Arcade Gannon at their base, and after hitting on him a little he convinced the guy to come along with him. He'd heard of groups of six traveling through the wasteland together if they had a compelling enough leader, but four seemed like a crowd for him, so he had to tell Boone to hit the road. Arcade didn't seem as good in a fight, but he had a lot more to talk about and was easier on the eyes, so he'd be more fun to have around.

The Garrets gave him a fun job: they wanted him to recruit three "escorts" to appeal to strange tastes: a ghoul cowboy, a sex-bot, and a smooth talker. He had already met a ghoul named Beatrix who seemed like a good fit and talked her into it, and he found two guys who could be smooth talkers: Santiago and an old guy named Ben who had experience at the job. He sent them both to the bar, but ended up deciding Ben was the better guy for the job. Santiago still hung around though, and it turned out the guy had a debt that someone would hire Art to collect, but while he was at the bar he wouldn't even talk about it. It seemed like he would either have to pick the guy's pockets or just kill him for the money, but for now he let it be.

It didn't seem like anyone around had a sex-bot on hand, but there was an old security robot in an abandoned store in town that hadn't had its purpose coded in just yet. Art was good enough with robots now to write its new program himself. He called the robot Fisto, and he couldn't resist trying it out before he gave the thing away. The old store had a real rat infestation. They left Art alone, but wanted a piece of Fisto, so he had to do some exterminating work on his way out.

The King wanted to give Art a favor for his help with the NCR, so he asked for caps, and that got him over the 2000 threshold that he needed to go to the strip, and the first person he met was Victor, who told him to go see a guy named Mr. House at the Lucky 38 Casino, which was abandoned except for Victor and some securitrons. Mr House was just a big face on a screen. Apparently he'd been alive since before the war, which meant he was either a ghoul or a robot. Art liked the second explanation better. Mr. House was the guy who'd hired him to deliver the Platinum Chip in the first place, and offered him a big price hike (1250 caps) if he would complete the job, but he also made it obvious that the thing was worth a Hell of a lot more than that. Benny still had it. Mr. House gave him some tips on how to get it out of him. He also gave him run of the Casino. It was a big, fancy place to have to himself - he could get used to it.

The second he stepped out of the building he got a letter from an ambassador for the NCR, who wanted to meet with him. He had a feeling the guy was going to ask him to give him the Platinum Chip instead of Mr. House, but he just wanted some help making a deal with some bomb-loving boys called The Boomers, and promised some nice rewards if he would do it. He didn't want for much right now, but there was a lot of work to do if he felt like it.

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