Blood Ties

A woman by the name of Lucy West, who's just blown her life savings on a run-down shack in town, has a message to deliver to her family in Arefu and would like you to check up on them for her. She'd do it herself, but is discouraged to do so by the great perils heading there. You could take her word for a possible monetary award at Arefu and help her out. Arefu is a small settlement located out a little northwest of Megaton perched atop a disheveled highway.

When you arrive, you receive a rather explosive welcoming from the likes of Evan King, the self-appointed town leader. Apologizing for the rude greeting, King tells you about the Family, a gang of hooligans using Arefu as their personal playground. Lucy's letter means nothing to King, so you should just hang onto it for now. King mentions that the rest of Arefu's residents have been forced into hiding and asks you to check up on them. Check on the Ewers, Schenzy and West families.

The talk with the first two families impresses upon you their impatience with the way King is handling this problem and their agitation with his cowardice behavior. The West residence leaves a rather more morbid scene. If your Medicine skill is high enough, you can diagnose the cause of death. When you return to Evan with the news, he points you to three possible places where the Family could be and charges you with the task of saving Arefu from this plight.

We will just go ahead and inform you that the Family resides primarily in the Meresti Metro Station reached by way of the Northwest Seneca Metro Station. When you arrive at the Seneca Metro Station, the deserted place has nothing really of interest to offer on the get-go, so seek out the entrance to the Metro. Rummage through the grimy bathrooms in the station to find Stimpaks, Rad-X and a Dirty Water. Moving further into the station, you run into an entrepreneurial Ghoul and his buddy. You could go the negative Karma route and plunder their living space, but you may have blood to pay for it (your own or theirs). Head to the back room to find a particularly irradiated sewage system. Descend into the depths below and quickly move around the rock to get out of the danger of radiation.

Some enemies lurk about here, though nothing too life-threatening. Expect traps to be in dense abundance as you wander through the subterranean pathways. You will know you've arrived at the right place when you see a member of the Family by the name of Robert. The grizzled Family member isn't exactly above bribery (100 Caps to get through), but there are a couple of other alternatives that can butter him up. Robert recognizes those with a Cannibal perk and gives you his nod of approval. In addition, a high Speech skill would impress in Robert the urgency of your business.

As long as you treated Robert with respect, the rest of the Family will be friendly enough to speak to. The immediate objective is to find the Meresti Security Password to Ian's room. The members of the Family can each be persuaded individually to divulge this information. If your Speech skill is high enough or if you have the Cannibal Perk, you can approach Vance, the head of the Family, directly and convince him through fluff about his kind to let you see Ian. Once you have the information and have finished carousing around, it's time to see Ian in his resting quarters and convince him to return to Arefu with you.

Whatever you decide to tell Ian to do is no doubt entirely up to you, but ultimately you'd want Ian to return to Arefu by flashing Lucy's letter to complete this side quest successfully. Afterwards, speak with Vance about Ian's decision, whichever it may be. Either way, Vance doesn't really bat an eyelid and lets him be. He even gifts you the Shishkebab schematic. Turns out that the Family isn't really bad per se, after all! However, there's still the matter of the Arefu residents living in fear of the Family. There are a few ways to dice this pickle.

Vance and his crew continue to need sustenance, but instead of deriving it from Brahmin or humans throw out the idea of Blood Packs. It's a win-win situation for all. If you're working on a high Speech skill, your acute manipulation talents will hone in on Vance's regret on previously raiding Arefu and make the charismatic leader change his ways. With the idea of Blood Packs, Arefu and the Family must arrive at a consensus on how Blood Packs will be garnered.

Arefu donates Blood Packs in exchange for the guaranteed safety of the town from either the Family themselves or for protection from Raiders and any other outside threats. Vance isn't too keen on the idea of paying for Blood Packs, so that option is moot. Once you and Vance have worked up a deal, it's time to take Vance's Proposal back to Evan King. After everything's settled, return to Vance to inform him of Evan's acceptance of his proposal. With all that said and done, you can ask Vance to learn about the ways of the vampire to receive the Hematophage perk, which enables you to gain extra life when consuming Blood Packs.

The negative Karma route allows you to freely go on a massacre amid the Family home, though we caution that you do this before you speak with Ian.