Ok, don't freak out, Ron, but I have business with one mister Caesar, and I've been meaning to free up my schedule to talk to him for a while. Now, I've gotten my things in order, but I still have to get to the guy. And swimming Lake Mead probably ain't the way to do it.
Vulpes said to go to a place way south of Vegas called Cottonwood Cove, where I'm guessing the Legion have a camp and a way to cross the river.
Safest way to go would be to head back down the highway to that abandoned ranch, and take the road east. Hope your suits AC is up to snuff, Ron.
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Ah, the great outdoors, shitty and dusty as ever. Hmm, I hadn't realised there were as many points of interest over the next hill here. What's first?
Looks like a farm, or the looted, bullet-ridden remains of one.
....Actually scratch looted, these containers are stuffed full of stuff. Hmmm...
Ooh, collectables!
And a duffle-bag full of ammo and...a Stealth Boy? Yeah, somethings up, Ron. Be on guard.
Yep, its an ambush fuuuuu-
Couldn't get a good shot in combat. Pressing my snapshot key while being grenaded is not easy.
Ow my leg you fucker!
I actually had to use two of these, because of my bad timing. I'd forgotten to uncrouch once spotted, you see, so I was slow as all hell.
....Still got it.
The Assault Carbine made mincemeat of these Viper Gunslingers, more than proving its worth.
Lessee, knives, SMGs, leather armor, Grenade Rifle but it seems the bastard put all his ammo into my face....What to do with this junk?
Yeah, so was I! But seriously, Ron, what can we make out of all this crap?
....Your armors not that big, Ron. Nice try.
....Oh, the perils of having virtually nothing in Repair or Science. This game has an amazing crafting system, allowing you to do all kinds of things, but even with Veronica's help, Lat barely has the technical skill to recharge batteries. My last character would have turned the junk from a gang of theives like this into repair kits, timebombs, and more, but it seems this system won't be of use to us until we crank up the needed skills.
Moving on, looks like an actual farm over the next hill. But nothing seems to be here but ruins and animals.
Couple of graves, and a burned house....What's this?
.....Well. That's one way to go crazy. I'm going to stick with my 'Overdose on Mentats and go nuts with a sniper rifle' plan, if I need to ever go fruit-loops.
Nice, non-meat-eating cows....
Ooh, I've been having a lucky day with these.
....Huh? This is an odd looking book. Wonder what's in it.
Prelude: Never listen to crazy junk ladies.
Chapter 1: Shops are not safe! Looting from active raider camps.
Chapter 2: How to drink water from a nuclear bomb and get paid for it.
Chapter 3: Fuck Mines and Fuck Crazy Old Men.
Chapter 4: Giant Mole Rats: An argument for their genocide.
Chapter 5: How to throw cameras into mirelurk nests and get out alive.
Chapter 6: The one practical use of mines: How to exploit the sympathy of madwomen.
Chapter 7: Historical Research: All facts are found in monster-infested dungeons.
Chapter 8: Robots: There's always a terminal to shut them off or make things worse.
Chapter 9: Libraries: A practical use for the Brotherhood of Steel
Conclusion: Fuck you, Dad, why didn't you just give me directions?
Also, thats 3 points of Survival, meaning food items work slightly better for us.
Niiiiice non-meat-eating Bighorners....
Wild bighorners can get angry at you if you stray too close, which results in the usual Bethesda AI deathrush as the herd charges you and is mown down, but these appear to have the same AI as the domesticated bighorners back in Goodsprings, making them harmless.
Woah, this is a lot of ammo!! And yet no gun to use it on, a tragic irony for Young Farmer Burnself. Don't worry, sir, I will see that this ammo goes to a good cause in the skulls of my enemies.
Nearly to that town I saw, and now I can see some kind of tower in the distance too.
Huh, looks like one of those old-timey radiation signs. Was this place a bomb site during the war?
Looks like the place has a bug problem.
Nothing I can't fix.
Wait, are those....ghouls, in NCR armor? Well, they don't look like the friendly kind of ghoul, so I'd better get to work.
Wait, why's my Pipboy beeping? That ghoul can't be that radioactive that I can feel it from over there, can i-OH Crap! Ron, handle him please?!
The town is still radioactive? How in the heck? Its like this green glow just appearred around everything.... Well, we can't go this way and fight through hordes of Ghouls while soaking rads, without burning through my meds. Guess we'll go around?
These ghouls are even outside the town. We're going to have to take our time. Good thing I took plenty of ammo with me.
We're using the sniper rifle a lot here, so I pop one of my Weapon Repair kits to try keeping it in good condition. It doesn't help much, another sign of Lat's low Repair skill.
Oh, what's in this trailer park?
Oh wait, radiation, never mind.
Another problem? Lat's low medicine skill means Rad-Away only treats 70 rads for her, meaning her 10 remaining doses are only worth about 12 minutes of exploration time here.
Gotta get out of this green zone, so I guess this tower with the long fenced-in road is the only place to go.
No way through the fence, so I'll have to try this tunnel.
Ah, good. Wait, are these wrecked vehicles more planes? So this is an Airbase like the Boomers have.
This green glow is starting to remind me of Fallout 3. Thankfully it goes away inside the airport itself.
Hmm, nothing much here, the buildings are collapsed in and the only living things are these radscorpions, so nothing to loot but these old rusty trunks...
....Which are filled with hundreds of bottlecaps! Woo! This is well worth the trip.
And there it is, Cottonwood Cove. Looks like a sleepy little place, but looks can be decieving....
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Well, that was an odd journey, and made me realise I was rather rusty at Fallouts combat. But we're here, and alive. I'd like to take a moment to take stock though
Will we travel back to Novac to offload some of the stuff we've picked up? Both Latooni and Veronica have rather full inventories, and I'm not certain there'll be handy stores ahead. If we end up having to kill everyone in the camp, we might not have room to take the bounty home with us.
Also, unless told otherwise, I'm just going to stride confidently into Cottonwood and talk to the people in charge. If you'd like me to sneak in to case the joint first, or choose now to start killing Legion, say so now in the comments.
Alternatively, should we backtrack to get a better idea of whats happening in Searchlight? We'd likely have to blow a lot of meds, but that ruin might have something to it.
Tell me what you guys think.
Sell off stuff and clear out inventory space. It's likely that we'll need it. And striding in seems perfectly acceptable.
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