“A Coup, A Cook, and A Cure”: A “Fallout 3” Quest

Overview

Quest centers on locating and delivering an obscure 20th century medical and the object of one of DC’s oddest urban legends: a preserved body part from renowned gangster, John Dillinger. PC can encounter several competing buyers for this oddity, each with his/her own reason for wanting it and reward for its recovery.

Design Goals

  • Primarily linear quest with meaningful choices.
  • Alternative entry points to minimize use of contrivances to push player to preferred start (i.e. disabling quest object until PC begins quest). Instead, construct quest to have a small array of actual alternatives and robustly cover each with unique dialogue.
  • Quest-only mod requiring few new locations or custom objects.
  • Mechanic of playing bidders off one another.
  • Allow difficulty of quest to naturally reflect amount of research player does.

Locations

Display Department (GK10MuseumAmericanDisplayDept)

Display Department

The euphemistically named Display Department is a non-public area in which the museum housed its most secret oddities. Accessible via the Lower Halls through a securely locked terminal-controlled door. The Department is still guarded by automated defenses (turrets, bots) and some Feral Ghouls and Glowing Ones. Ghouls’ presence explained by a caved-in doorway that once (presumably) led to an alternative entrance or ceiling hole through which ghouls could drop but not escape (pile Feral Ghoul bodies under hole to show some don’t survive the fall. Perhaps even a couple wanderer corpses to show show that others have found their way in, but not gotten far. The rooms contain several overturned and intact sample jars (Biopods scaled to appear about 0.5m tall). The intact jars are actually containers from which PC can extract the body part or other oddity within. The jar containing the quest item is in the lavatory at the end of the hall.

Museum of History Lower Halls (MuseumAmerican01)

Display Department Entry

Add door to “Display Department” (locked via terminal) to wall under stairwell. Terminal can be hacked, but password can be acquired from Dr. Bones in the adjoining Museum of History entry hall.

Museum of History Entrance (MuseumAmericanEntrance)

Add NPC Dr. Bones to area near doorway to offices and marker for package controlling his presence.

Juliet’s Storage Cellar (GK10JulietBasement)

Juliet's Cellar

Custom interior cell accessible only if quest begins after Tenpenny Tower massacre. Alternative dialogue will reveal that Haig found Juliet emerging from a basement northeast of the Tower (-18, -18) and quest targets will instead point to her in this location.

Tenpenny Tower Lobby (Tenpenny 01)

Add NPC Juliet to the lobby and a marker used by her AI package to control her location during quest.

Wasteland (-18, -18)

Juliet's Shack

Exterior cell near Tenpenny Tower. If Tenpenny massacre occurs before or during the quest, scripts will add ground hatch near a wasteland house leading, apparently, to its basement.

Museum of Technology, Our Lady of Hope, National Archives

Each of these false locations will be seeded with clues about the object’s real location. PC will find similar sample jars that will confirm that they have arrived in the right KIND of place, but not the correct one. Items will drive PC to explore, but discovery of docs on terminals will indicate PC is in wrong place.

Characters

Daniel Haig

Daniel Haig

Slaver who wants to make a power play to overthrow Eulogy Jones. Thinks if he wears the quest object as a talisman, it’ll imbue him with power he needs. Whether or not PC sells the object to him, Haig’s plans go horribly wrong after he parts company with PC.

Haig tells PC s/he can return in time to assist in the coup, but will find instead that Haig grew impatient and attempted it alone. If PC talks to Jones, Jones will recount story and offer Haig to PC as companion.

Meeting Haig begins quest. Dialogue leads PC to Juliet, but also to possible locations of package.

  • Reward: Unique weapon and promise of free slave after coup. Only get unique weapon if player bargains to get it before parting company with Haig. If player checks in with Eulogy Jones after coup, Jones offers Haig as companion.
  • Bonus Reward: If PC is tougher than Haig or smarter, PC can get him to offer Caps too by bullying him.
  • If you don’t sell to him: He’ll attempt the coup anyway after PC leaves, improvising to replace the quest object. PF slavers tell of his comically disastrous coup attempt.

Juliet Bouche

Juliet

Former generic Tenpenny Tower resident. Chef who specializes in making “exotic” dishes for lucrative TP residents.

Juliet exists in TP if PC hasn’t met Haig. If PC happens to already have quest object (found without ever meeting Haig), she’ll make an offer for it and the quest will terminate.

Juliet functions to narrow down location of object to specific building (Museum of History).

  • Reward: Caps. If PC talks to Allistair Tenpenny or Roy Phillips, they compliment PC and offer an additional reward. Juliet will thereafter buy certain plants/wildlife meat at premium prices.
  • Bonus Reward: 1.5x Caps on Speech check.
  • If you sell item to other NPC: Juliet will not offer to buy rare plants/wildlife at premium price.

Dr. Bones

Dr. Bones

Scientist who wants a bit of preserved pre-atomic era tissue to study non-radiated physiology.

Dr. Bones is a Ghoul in deep denial. He claims to be working undercover in Underworld to research a cure for Ghoulism to save “those poor wretches.” He needs a pre-nuclear era tissue sample to complete his cure.

Bones further narrows location of item and provides password for terminal.

  • Reward: Small unique handgun or Small unique machine gun (Tommy Gun)
  • If you sell to other NPC and then return to Underworld, Bones will be gone. Residents cryptically suggest he met a suspicious end because some didn’t think they needed curing. Same result (with slightly different dialog) if you do sell to him. Response varies also depending on whether Dr. Barrows is alive.

Objects

Dilligner’s Preserved Organ (aka The Package)

The Package

The central quest object is created by altering and overlapping several existing objects. Ideally, a new model would be created, but this is beyond the intended scope of this mod.

The object consists of:

  1. A container that uses the empty Biopod model, scaled to appear about 0.5m in height.
  2. An intestine object scaled and placed to appear to be floating in the jar.

When PC interacts with the object, the container menu offers the quest object itself and am incomplete document describing it. The former is marked as a quest item.

To create the illusion that PC has removed the object from the jar, a script on the object disables the placed version that appeared to float in the jar.

NB: Area will contain other body parts or oddities in jars that function the same way; each offering the contents and a short exploratory doc. In these jars, however, the objects won’t be quest objects. Some jars will be empty.

Flow

The quest features several entry points to allow maximum player freedom and intentionality.

Primary (Intended) Route

  1. PC meets Haig at Paradise Falls
  2. Haig tells player about quest object and offers reward
  3. Haig points PC to four possible locations
  4. Haig suggests PC find Juliet Bouche at Tenpenny Tower (or bunker nearby if TT is overrun) who can tell which of four locations is correct.
  5. Player finds Juliet.
  6. Juliet reveals location (Museum of History) and offers her own reward if you give the object to her instead of Haig.
  7. Player travels to Museum of History, without indication of where inside object can be found.
  8. As PC nears door to the offices, s/he is accosted by Dr. Bones who asks PC to retrieve the same object for him. He provides a more precise location and the password for the door and defense systems.
  9. Player enters the offices and finds door to Display Department.
  10. Player accesses door with help of Dr. Bones’ password.
  11. Player explores Display Department. Turrets are deactivated, but robots, Feral Ghouls, and Glowing Ones must still be eliminated.
  12. At far end of of hall, player finds quest item in a disused lavatory.
  13. Player can talk to each of three bidders and either give the object to them or use the offers from other NPCs to negotiate a better price.
  14. Player sells the object to one of the three bidders.
  15. Primary Quest ends, aftermath quest triggers.
  16. If PC returns to any of the bidders’ location, s/he can explore to hear what came of their use of it.

Primary (Harder) Route

  1. PC meets Haig at Paradise Falls
  2. Haig tells player about quest object and offers reward
  3. Haig points PC to four possible locations
  4. Haig suggests PC find Juliet Bouche at Tenpenny Tower (or bunker nearby if TT is overrun) who can tell which of four locations is correct.
  5. Player ignores advice to find Juliet and heads straight to possible locations. In each wrong location, player can find clues on terminals pointing to the correct location (Museum of History).
  6. Player travels to Museum of History, without indication of where inside object can be found.
  7. As PC nears door to the offices, s/he is accosted by Dr. Bones who asks PC to retrieve the same object for him. He provides a more precise location and the password for the door and defense systems.
  8. Player enters the offices and finds door to Display Department.
  9. Player accesses door with help of Dr. Bones’ password.
  10. Player explores Display Department. Turrets are deactivated, but robots, Feral Ghouls, and Glowing Ones must still be eliminated.
  11. At far end of of hall, player finds quest item in a disused lavatory.
  12. Player can talk to each of three bidders and either give the object to them or use the offers from other NPCs to negotiate a better price. NB: Player can NOW meet Juliet at TT and she will make same offer as if she’d already bid.
  13. Player sells the object to one of the three bidders.
  14. Primary Quest ends, aftermath quest triggers.
  15. If PC returns to any of the bidders’ location, s/he can explore to hear what came of their use of it.

Primary (Hardest) Route

  1. PC meets Haig at Paradise Falls
  2. Haig tells player about quest object and offers reward
  3. Haig points PC to four possible locations
  4. Haig suggests PC find Juliet Bouche at Tenpenny Tower (or bunker nearby if TT is overrun) who can tell which of four locations is correct.
  5. Player ignores advice to find Juliet and heads straight to possible locations. In each wrong location, player can find clues on terminals pointing to the correct location (Museum of History).
  6. Player travels to Museum of History, without indication of where inside object can be found.
  7. As PC nears door to the offices, s/he is accosted by Dr. Bones who asks PC to retrieve the same object for him. He provides a more precise location and the password for the door and defense systems.
  8. Player enters the offices and finds door to Display Department.
  9. Player accesses door with help of Dr. Bones’ password.
  10. Player explores Display Department. Turrets are deactivated, but robots, Feral Ghouls, and Glowing Ones must still be eliminated.
  11. At far end of of hall, player finds quest item in a disused lavatory.
  12. Player can talk to each of three bidders and either give the object to them or use the offers from other NPCs to negotiate a better price. NB: Player can NOW meet Juliet at TT and she will make same offer as if she’d already bid.
  13. Player sells the object to one of the three bidders.
  14. Primary Quest ends, aftermath quest triggers.
  15. If PC returns to any of the bidders’ location, s/he can explore to hear what came of their use of it.

Secondary (bypassing Haig) Route

This route accounts for situation if Player happens to take object before meeting any of the NPCs. Discovery of the object is made difficult, but not heavy-handedly so. Track could be eliminated by having object deactivated until quest properly begins, but this would create contrived situation of player revisiting an area to find an object that has magically appeared.

  1. PC finds door to Display Department while exploring museum.
  2. PC hacks door terminal to access Display Department (Very, very hard)
  3. Player explores Display Department. Turrets are deactivated, but robots, Feral Ghouls, and Glowing Ones must be eliminated.
  4. At far end of of hall, player finds quest item in a disused lavatory.
  5. Player now has object but doesn’t know what it is. If PC encounters any of the three bidders, they’ll recognize the object and bid as in other routes. Each will hint that there may be “other interested parties,” suggested to player that might not want to take the first offer.
  6. Player can talk to any of three bidders and either give the object to them or use the offers from other NPCs to negotiate a better price.
  7. Player sells the object to one of the three bidders.
  8. Primary Quest ends, aftermath quest triggers.
  9. If PC returns to any of the bidders’ location, s/he can explore to hear what came of their use of it.

Objectives

Stage Objectives Triggered by
0 - -
5 - -
10 - Triggered when PC meets Haig. Ends when Haig informs PC re: possible locations of item.
20 Locate Juliet Bouche at Tenpenny Tower. Triggered when Haig mentions Juliet. Ended when PC finds her.
25 Search the downtown museums for the item. Triggered when Haig reveals possible locations of item. Ended when PC enters museum lobby.
30 Explore the Museum of History to find the item. Triggered when PC enters museum lobby. Ends when (if) PC converses with Dr. Bones.
40 Locate and access the Display Department. Triggered when/if PC converses with Dr. Bones. Ends when PC enters museum offices.
50 - Triggered when PC enters museum offices. Ends when PC accesses the Display Dept door.
55 Locate the item. Triggered when PC enters display dept door trigger zone. Ends when PC adds quest item to inventory.
60 Deliver the item Triggered when PC adds item to inventory. Ends when PC gives item to one of the NPCs.
70 See if others will pay more (CONDITIONAL) -
80 - Triggered when PC gives item to one of the NPCs. Ends with final goodbye.
100 - -

Dialog

Coming Soon.