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| Tristan's CAMP with the Crane Treasure Hunting Sign |
After gathering supplies in Flatwoods and becoming a Responder, I turned my attention to the ruse that Duchess had convinced me to try. The first step was to build the Crane Treasure Hunting Inc. sign from the plans that she provided. I wish I knew what "Inc." stood for. Most of the words I can think of that start with those letters are negative, like "incompetent". I just hope it's not Duchess' idea of joke!
After a couple of days of work, I had the sign up and on display. Almost immediately, I started feeling anxious, because anyone passing along the road in front of the Wayward could see the sign, and they might show up at my doorstep, well-armed, to ask about it. I made sure my weapons were loaded and that I had at least two in easy reach at all times.
One of the features that Duchess had integrated into the sign's design was a radio transmitter. She thought that sending out a broadcast about Crane Treasure Hunting might pull in more interest. I was kind of dubious about the wisdom of drawing a crowd to my CAMP, but on the afternoon of the third day I found myself walking through the forest on my way to a relay tower located northwest of Flatwoods to boost the signal. Duchess said I needed to use a holotape to link the tower to the sign and then we could transmit a radio signal to anyone listening.
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| A Moonlit Night on the Escarpment Near the Relay Tower EM-B1-27 |
I wanted to avoid the road, so I headed into the forest thinking that it might be safer. I thought I would make it to the tower, possibly camp out nearby, and then return the next morning and wait for any visitors. That night turned out to be beautiful, with a full moon casting a soft light all over the forest, but I badly misjudged how long it would take to get to the tower through the forest, and how dark it would be in the forest at night. Another lesson learned.
Late in the afternoon of that first day, I was crossing an old farm field and was attacked by a swarm of the Red Star robots. This group worked together and managed to hit me several times before I could destroy them all. A gun jam at a critical moment didn't help! If they get too close, they do these flying attacks with small spinning blades that did a number on my leather arm pieces as I tried to bat them away. The injuries were bad enough that they required a Stimpak. I still don't get the purpose of these robots. Their communications are garbled and they often carry advertisements showing a red star overlying what might be the old US flag torn into several pieces. The text reads: "Rebuilding the Future for a Broken Nation". They must have been related to some kind of anti-American political group, but why are they being carried by homicidal robots? It just doesn't make sense to me.
Despite the danger out in the forest, I did find two women Settlers camping at the base of an escarpment that I had to navigate around to get to the radio tower. They were friendly, and one of them gave me a recipe for something called "Mutant Hound Stew". Mutant Hounds are these large mutant green dogs that are typically found in the company of a human-like creature with green skin called a Super Mutant (their names for themselves, apparently). It's weird that the men and their dogs would have the same skin color mutation. Made me wonder if it might be some kind of genetic engineering so they could draw energy from the sun or something. Whatever the reason for the green skin, I hope I never run across one of them. They sound very dangerous. But the fact that there is a recipe for Mutant Hound stew suggests that I may not be so lucky.
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| Raider House Near Flatwoods Relay Tower |
As I drew nearer to the relay tower, I found a house that was occupied by Raiders. I should have skirted around it, but I didn't know there was anyone there at first, and I thought I saw a workbench on the back porch. I wanted to check it out and see if it had any useful plans. Turned out the house did have an armor bench, but there were also two Raiders staying there, and they started shooting at me almost before I even noticed them. Not a word of warning, either. I sort of surprised myself by pulling my gun and shooting right back at them. Just a few days ago, I probably would've just run away, but I've gotten used to shooting at Scorched and Feral Ghouls who look vaguely human, and while these Raiders were clearly human, I guess it was just a gut reaction to fire back. Appalachia has changed me already. I'm not sure I like it.
When they were both dead, it took me a couple of minutes to stop shaking. I was breathing heavy and my body was covered with sweat despite the chill in the early morning air. I felt like I might throw up. One of the Raiders turned out to be a woman, and seeing that almost made me cry. I felt a coldness settle over me, and it wasn't long before my head started to ache. I just killed two people, I thought. How will I live with that? I'm not sure of the answer to that question, as it has only been a couple of weeks since that day, but I can say that killing people is easier the second time. And even easier the third. But I still have nightmares about it. Like the one where I kill a Raider and she turns out to be Robin.
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| Flatwoods Relay Tower EM-B1-27 |
The interior of the relay tower building had a scannable map that allowed me to add a couple of new locations to my Pip-Boy. I added a mine not too far from Flatwoods, a couple of watchtowers, and a place called Arktos Pharma, which I guess might be a place to manufacture medicines. Definitely worth checking out when my Stimpak supply gets low.
It was easy enough to get into the computer, upload the holotape that Duchess gave me, and connect the transmitter from the sign to the relay tower so the signal would spread widely. Again, I had some second thoughts about getting involved in this whole thing. My experience with Raiders so far had been nothing but bad. They seem to be very aggressive, and willing to kill other people over nothing. It's a wonder there were any people left to return to Appalachia if that's they way they behave! Yet there I was, walking down Road 88B, heading back to my CAMP where there very likely could be Raiders waiting for me when I returned.
I must have been a fool to agree to Duchess' plan.
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| The Great Green Monster? A View of Flatwoods from Relay Tower Hill |
On the way down the hill, I found a watchtower to the east of the relay tower. It, too, was already occupied, but by Settlers rather than Raiders. They let me climb to the top and have a look around, and from there I saw an impressive piece of engineering in the form of a giant green bridge over the Flatwoods Valley. Made me wonder if this could be the Great Green Monster mentioned on the Flatwoods sign on the way into town? When I looked toward the west, I saw a settlement with several wooden cabins that might be worth checking out. There seemed to be a lot of water that way, so it might make a good place to settle down. I wondered if some of my fellow Vault Dwellers might be living there. It was weird that I hadn't seen a single one so far.
Rain began to fall as I approached the city of Flatwoods, but I pressed on. I was exhausted, but wanted to get back to my CAMP in case someone showed up and tried to steal from it or mess with my robot. I got attacked by mole rats again as I passed the Green Country Lodge. I really hate mole rats!
The next day I was visited twice by people drawn by the sign and the broadcast. The first was a man who said he was a friend of Crane's. He was disappointed to find me instead. I told him I didn't know where Crane was, but that he had been last seen at the Wayward. I regretted saying so afterward, but it was too late. At least he was alone and he didn't seem like a Raider.
In the early afternoon, two men came around calling out for Crane in sort of a taunting manner. The leader talked like he was speaking to a child, and said that if I gave up the location of the treasure, his "boss" would leave me alone. But his tone of voice seemed to suggest otherwise. The man carried a baseball bat with nails sticking out from it. Just the look of it almost made me shudder. His buddy had a shotgun, which I didn't fancy getting hit by either. I knew that if anything went wrong, I was going to want to keep my distance from both of them.
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| Spiked Baseball Bat |
I offered up a trade. I don't know what made me say it, but I told the Raider with the bat that if he told me where his group was living, I would tell him where the treasure was. When I said it, I was nervous and not really thinking ahead. I'm not used to lying to people. He took the deal, but said he wanted my information first. When I couldn't get him to agree to talk first, I admitted that I didn't know where the treasure was. This pissed him off and I could tell he was going to attack me, so I backed away. The Raider took a swing with his bat, but fortunately missed. His buddy fired the shotgun and missed too. The buddy was a little far away and I think maybe he was cheating to the side a bit to avoid hitting the guy with the bat. I drew my pistol and for the second time in 24 hours killed two people with it. The guy with the shotgun did hit me a couple of times with part of his shotgun's spray, but my armor protected me from most of it. I was bloody in several spots but no serious injuries. He needed to be closer if he wanted to seriously injure me.
I have to admit that I didn't feel as bad about killing these two. Maybe because they were both men, or maybe because their attitude had been so menacing. I thought that Appalachia would be a much safer place without them. I also felt both bad and sort of relieved that I hadn't learned where their base was. That probably meant there would be more visitors, but at least I could put off having to confront their leader. Based on the behavior of these men, it wouldn't be a pleasant meeting. But then I searched the bodies before I buried them and found a note written on paper with the name West Virginia Lumber Company. This was a name I had seen mentioned before somewhere. And I thought there was a good chance that it was the place where these Raiders were hiding out.
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| Mort at the Wayward |
After the gunfight, I turned off the transmitter in the sign and pulled the thing down so I could scrap it for parts. I didn't want to draw any more Raider attention. When the bodies were buried in the garden and covered over by junk, I went to the Wayward to report to Duchess. When I told her and Mort about West Virginia Lumber Company, Mort said that the place used to be overrun by Super Mutants, which I definitely didn't want to hear, and he suggested that if this Raider gang could chase off Super Mutants, they were probably pretty tough. He had a couple of suggestions, though, for how I might prepare to go talk to them.
Mort said he had met a family at a place called Anchor Farm who had almost certainly already had dealings with the same group of Raiders. Their farm is up that way to the northwest of Flatwoods. He suggested I might talk to them and see how they are dealing with the Raiders. Mort also mentioned a scrapper he met who was making claims about knowing quite a lot of information about the Mill. The scrapper apparently lives in one of the stalls at a place called Tyler County Fairgrounds, and had some ideas about how to clear the Super Mutants out of there. Maybe he would be just as helpful with figuring out how to remove the Raiders. Mort suggested I talk to one or both of them and see if they had any useful information.
I spent the next few days chasing down Mort's leads and exploring some new locations between Flatwoods and the lumber company. I'll write more about all of that next time.
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