Level 30 (1 perk floating)
S-3 Armorer 2,
P-(+)11 Awareness, Locksmith 3, Rifleman 2
E-2
C-6 Lady Killer 1, Local Leader 2
I-9 Gun Nut 1, Hacker 3, Science 2
A-(+)7 Action Boy 2, Gunslinger 4
L-3
(Astoundingly Awesome 7 and 8, Barbarian 5, Covert Operations 2, Gift of Gab, Guns and Bullets, Junktown Vendor 2, Massachusetts Surgery, Tesla Science 2, Tumblers Today, Wasteland Survival 7 and 9)

 

In the morning, my grilled radstag wears off as I exit the creepy school building and I’m over my carry weight. I have no recourse but to chug some alcohol to keep moving. I’m just ready to head towards the Irish Pride Shipyards when a message comes up alerting me that I’m almost out of time to complete my objective at Greentop Nursery. This is a new development, as scrolling through my quests I see it’s a Minuteman quest to talk to the settlers about raider troubles, and these haven’t been timed in the past. I decide to fast travel and hit the shipyard up later.

 

 

I speak with a settler at the nursery who says some raiders have been giving them trouble. After storing some items, I pull up my map and see the raiders are holed up at Dunwich Borers, whatever that is, a short distance to the east. This will put me close to some other items of interest on my map that I’ve been putting off exploring.

 

 

On the way, I pass Breakheart Banks and find supermutants had moved back in. I kill their outlying guard and then creep through the fog to scope the place out. This wouldn’t be such a problem if they would allow us to settle and defend these locations instead of just leaving them open to be repopulated with baddies.

 

 

I set up on their own guard post for high ground and start shooting. I die twice, both times going great until I take a missile or grenade from the supermutant butcher holed up in the main building. The final try I ignore the others, pop some buffjet, and go for him first and it is almost too easy. I take out the stragglers and note the large amount of good loot lying around that I can’t carry right now.

 

That cleared, I continue on my way. It’s early afternoon, but the area is still shrouded in fog. Suddenly, in the road I come across the remains of a derailed military convoy, and soon hear robotic voices. I’m attacked by a Mr. Gutsy and an Assaultron, but the Assaultron quickly runs away. I take care of the Mr. Gutsy and quickly track it down. Fortunately, it got into a fight with some nearby blood bugs, making the whole fight easier for me.

 

 

Aside from some ammo and radioactive materials, the convoy doesn’t offer much, so I press on, the flickering sunlight shining through the fog as I pass the trees. Up ahead, I spot something strange, labeled only Forged. Some kind of robot, perhaps?

 

 

I drop down to a crouch and sneak off the road into what looks like a small junkyard. I take out one of the Forged guards, but then many more come out of the fog. They may not be robots. They move and sound like people. I’m doing well until one comes at me with a flamethrower. They can take a whole lot of shots before going down, so facing one with a hammer right afterwards almost kills me.

 

 

I retreat behind a tree on the edge of the fence-line and do some stimpaks, followed by bufftats. Then I head back out into the chaos. Gunshots all around, explosions everywhere that I fortunately manage to dodge. In the confusion, Preston and I have gotten separated, but that’s for the best as we’re flanking some of the Forged in the middle. After clearing these, I have some breathing room, pulling out my sniper rifle and hiding behind a car. I peek out and take shots at the Forged up in the nearby building.

 

 

I definitely feel like I bit off a bit more than I’d like to chew here, but I can’t stand leaving things unfinished. Poking around the corpses, I find the Forged are just humans, though some of them dress a bit odd. As the smoke and fog finally clear, I’m face to face with the Saugus Ironworks. It takes all my willpower to not go inside right away, as I feel I should take care of the other raiders first.

 

 

Rather than get back on the road where I left it, I decide to cross a nearby stream and come up an embankment to rejoin the road right where it meets a ruined highway. From there, it’s a short walk over rocky terrain to Dunwich Borers, which appears to be a quarry of some kind perhaps (also, a clever play on Dunwich Horror, a Lovecraft story, since we’re over near Salem and the creepier parts of New England).

 

 

I catch a glimpse of a raider, and he’s got power armor with an insane amount of damage resistance (though slightly less for energy weapons, only 333 instead of 666). From here its mostly about staying on the move, dodging the grenades the power armor guy is slinging from his grenade launcher, and taking stimpaks. I start throwing grenades of my own, using all my pulse grenades but the fight still has me on the run until I finally take out the raider veteran in the power armor with a well-placed plasma grenade. After that it’s a small thing to pick off the stragglers.

 

 

Apparently there are more left somewhere, because my quest marker is still up, so after checking the perimeter it looks like it is down into the pit. Walking around the edge, I find a building with a terminal and shut down any other turrets that might be connected. There’s also a red button on the catwalk which brings some sort of lift platform that goes across the span of the pit. Preston can’t seem to get on (stupid pathing issues), so I head over alone on what would certainly be a harrowing ride in a VR experience.

 

 

Near a building on the other side, I find a lone raider psycho standing guard, but with his back to me. Deafness must be a common problem in raider circles. Some mentats are all I get for the trouble, so it looks like I’m going into the pit next. It’s a quiet descent to the bottom, where I find a gruesome cage where it looks like captives might have been smoked alive. Hopefully not, but quite possibly for eating purposes. After looking around and exploring the other sides of the pit, I duck into a nearby tunnel in the rock, the only way left to go.

 

 

Preston chooses this moment, stepping into the next area of a creepy tunnel, to have a heart to heart. He tells me about how when we first met, he was at the lowest point in his life. He should have known the way he was leading those people would get them all killed, but part of him was alright with that and wanted to die. He just wants to let me know that my stepping in and our friendship has saved his life and kept him from finding some way to end it all. It’s a nice sentiment, and even if he still annoys me a bit, I’ve always respected him. This signals the highest affinity with Preston, which gives me the United We Stand perk- +20% damage and +20 damage resistance when facing three or more opponents. Not bad at all.

 

 

We continue on, and as I round the next corner the ground shakes ominously. This doesn’t seem good. I spot some raiders ahead and we have a nice shootout. The last one tries to run, but I nail him as he’s running away. I hit the button on another lift platform, and again Preston can’t join me. It will have to do though. There’s nothing but a door I can’t get into up there anyway, so I’ll have to keep looking for the key.

 

 

I disarm a grenade bouquet set up near a terminal labeled Station 1 Terminal. It seems pretty normal, even the communications, just productivity reports, some amusing upcoming events, and admonitions to follow safety procedures. The only unusual message is calling Bob, the Station 1 manager, to Station 5 for something urgent.

 

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As we move through the quarry, Preston says things like “I don’t like this, too exposed… we should keep moving” and, “Careful, the rock can be slippery in places.” It’s good to be careful though, because there are more grenade bouquets waiting for me. Around another corner I find three more raiders, one packing some serious heat, but I deal with them. Just a little ways further is a raider that I one-shot though, so there doesn’t seem to be much method in their placement.

 

He’s near a Station 3 Terminal, which give more or less the same info as the last terminal. This terminal, run by Brad, seems to be having a bit more trouble than the first, being in some sort of feud with Terminal 2. Brad also received an urgent message, but to come to Station 4 instead of Station 5.

 

 

At the bottom of a deeper pit I find the raider leader, Bedlam. Even though I get the drop on him, it’s a tough fight that ultimately takes a stimpak, a nuka cola quantum, and two nuka colas. Preston and I move down an iron staircase firing, while Bedlam moves up on the opposite side, also throwing grenades. Finally, at the platform connecting us I run across and finish him off. I don’t know if it was scripted to go like this, but the way it played out was visually satisfying.

 

 

It’s completely worth it though, as in addition to completing the mission, I find another Astoundingly Awesome Tales at the bottom, “Attack of the Metal Men!” I’ll take 5% less damage from robots from now on.

 

 

The earth is still shaking around us though, so I’m still a bit uneasy as I move through the creepy mine. I unchain a door and find two dead feral ghouls. I can hear the meaty footsteps of more shuffling around just over the noise of the earthquakes. A bit further down I use my incendiary rifle to snipe a ghoul in the cavern beyond, which blows up in my face—literally. There must have been a pocket of gas in there because the whole chamber blows up. Fortunately I am standing outside and only catch a bit of it. Afterwards ghouls come out of side passages I didn’t know were there and it’s a bit of a fight to take them out. “This place is giving me the creeps…” Preston remarks. Yeah, I get that.

 

 

I flip on a circuit breaker and the tunnel beyond lights up, revealing more ghouls. I aim at them, but suddenly I’m getting hit FROM BEHIND. I turn to find ghouls clawing their way out of the ground, and more running from the direction I came. It’s a bit of a bloodbath, and kind of terrifying. I take a psychobuff and manage it ok though. A legendary ghoul had an Instigating Gamma Gun on it, that does double damage if the target is at full health, which makes it a pretty sweet opener at 244 damage.

 

 

There’s a metal door here, but instead of open, it’s interact is “activate.” There’s a flash of light and then for a brief second everything seems odd visually, blurry with a different tone of light. I turn to find Preston there, but a completely different looking passage from the way I came. I head back and there is another flash. Things seems to be back to normal, but I have no idea what just happened.

 

 

I move forward and flip another circuit breaker. Once more we’re beset by ghouls, but this time I’m ready and we fare better. I pick up a Hunter’s Machete from a legendary, then move on. I don’t like the shuffling sounds I’m hearing up ahead in the dark. There are two dark passages, one ahead and one to the left. I go left.

 

 

I snipe a sleeping ghoul and am treated to another explosion, this time I’m close enough to get hurt. But it’s a good thing, because I’m in a good spot to shoot the other ghouls that come out of everywhere. I approach a circuit breaker labeled 5, prepared for a reprise performance but it’s not as bad.

 

 

I move on, killing a few more ghouls and then tripping another circuit breaker. It only brings one ghoul out coming from behind me, but I see him before he sees me. There are a lot of dead raiders spread throughout this place. They must have run into the same trouble exploring it, which is why they sealed it off. As I head up some stairs, shoot another ghoul, and stare down another dark passage that looks just alike, I wonder where exactly I am in relation to where I came from. But I suppose I’ll follow the rules of the maze and just keep going left if I find multiple passages.

 

At first, I think the next circuit breaker doesn’t do anything aside from turn on lights, but then I see them coming slowly towards me. Just at this moment my psychobuff wears off. I shoot one, and then pop another psychobuff so I can keep moving with my carry weight. “Fucking kill!” I hear a shout, and I believe it’s actually my character’s response to taking the psychobuff. Interesting. That’s never happened before. By the time I look up another one is upon me. These seem to move even quicker than ghouls elsewhere.

 

I’m paranoid each time a flip a circuit breaker now. I’ve reached Station 6, but as I don’t know the layout, it’s a poor method of navigation. They aren’t in any logical order I can see. I seem to have found the way out here, only I can’t get out because I don’t have the key. I imagine this red door is the other side of the door I found earlier. Time to head back down and follow the other passage.

 

 

I flip another circuit breaker and face another legendary. Me and Preston take this one out fairly efficiently, and I level up in the process. From the legendary, I take the Freezing Napalmer (a napalm gun that somehow also freezes) which, like the rest of this place, makes no damn sense. I’m at Station 4 now, which is obviously a trap. Nice try, Station 4. I see that oil everywhere. I take a few steps back, pull out my incendiary rifle, and light it up.

 

 

Once the flames die down, I step up to the terminal and am pleased to find the Sneak Bobblehead nearby, making me 10% harder to detect. The terminal doesn’t have any communications on it at all, but does have a holotape called “Tim Shoots.” It’s a recording made by Tim to some unnamed supervisor. Apparently they were planning something secretly down here, but most of the other workers were under the impression this was a normal plan to extend the quarry to further stations. He was worried that some of the other station managers, especially Bob, would eventually find out something was going on. It ends with “Please advise,” which, combined with the mysterious communications from management at the other terminals, indicates this was the start of whatever went down.

 

 

I turn on my flashlight and start heading down the dark corridor ahead. Then out of nowhere there is another flash and the place has changed slightly again. I turn around, and then another flash and I’m back to where I was, only now Brad, Tim, Bob, and someone named John Hatfield (ghouls now) are coming at me. I put end their misery before they’re even close. These don’t seem as powerful as the other ghouls. On Tim, there’s a holotape that’s a response from Management. The voice on the recording thanks Tim for informing them and says they’ve arranged for the other project managers to meet him, and to stall them if they arrive before Management. They are “close to completing our goal” and advise him to “stay patient, you will be rewarded in time.” Whatever happened I don’t think it worked out so well.

 

 

There’s a strange pit full of dark water in this room and the whole place is a bit creepy. Preston says it best— “Going in there is the very definition of a bad idea… which means, I assume, we’re going in there.” Pretty much. At first I can’t find anything down there, and the water is pretty heavily irradiated. I come up for air and take some radaway then replenish my health with some purified water. Then I dive back down.

 

 

This time I find a side passage with some sort of altar in it. On it, I find two mini nukes and something that makes me wish I was playing a melee character—Krehmv’s Tooth, a strange sacrificial dagger. I just knew there would be some Lovecraft stuff in this place! This explains the unusual occurrences. My vision begins to darken in the chamber, and I’m over my carry weight. I can barely read my display as I manage to navigate to bufftats and take some. I’m addicted now, but that can be easily solved. I swim to the surface, frankly creeped out.

 

 

Time to make a hasty exit. When I entered, I really wanted to find the source of the rumbling in the earth. Now I don’t think I do. I still don’t have the key, as Bob’s body mysteriously disappeared after I shot him and before I could loot him. I’m leaving the long way, but I’m leaving. Hopefully.