As if causing the nuclear destruction of the small civilization
of Megaton wasn’t enough of a character flaw! I attempted to turn over a new leaf, and begin
a new, proper, pious life in the safe haven known as Tenpenny Tower.
*WARNING: SPOILERS*
DISCLAIMER: What follows is the account of how I dealt with the situation -
to the best of my moral understanding, as though I was actually there. Keep in mind that outside
of how the people reacted to me, everything I said and did were entirely my
choice. It didn’t have to play out this
way… at all…
TENPENNY
TOWER, PART I
There were a few signs right from the get-go that should
have warn me that events at Tenpenny Tower were not going to end well. For one, I
was there, and my track record thus far was not that of a paragon of
mankind. Case and point, my introduction
to Tenpenny Tower was standing on the balcony of the penthouse suite with Mr.
Tenpenny himself, watching as a mushroom cloud lifted into the dawn from the
ruins of Megaton, disintegrating the bodies of all the people that I slaughtered
there after a minor conflict of interest escalated to epic proportions. Not my fault…
The other red flag was Roy Phillips. It was the dead of night when I first arrived
at the concrete gates of Tenpenny Tower with the detonator to blow up
Megaton. Security allowed me in right
after having turned away Roy because they don’t want his kind around. I guess I can’t blame them; ghouls do look
like zombies. At the same time though,
the only person I liked in Megaton was the ghoul barkeep Glob. But he’s… well, he doesn’t have to suffer
discrimination anymore.
Anyways, Roy wants to move into Tenpenny with his
family. Allister Tenpenny, on the other
hand, is afraid that the ghouls will kill them all, and fears that even now
they’re planning an attack. Tower security is
armed to the teeth, led by a man named Gustavo, who sounds just like Samuel L.
Jackson.
 |
| Roy Phillips' Home, Exterior |
It's none of my business really. I'd rather not get involved. At the same time though, Tenpenny has given me a permanent
suite for my services. Outside of the
Vault, it is the closest thing to a home.
By living there I’m already taking a side.
Against my better judgment, I spoke to Gustavo. After a long conversation in which I offered
to help out, he left me with the ultimatum that one way or another I had to
confront Roy Phillips and stop his sinister plan.
I had no intention of killing Roy, not without good
reason. The way I saw it, if radiation
had eaten away at my body until I was horribly disfigured, how robbed would I
feel that I was no longer allowed to enjoy the same rights as anyone else? The man deserved a shot.
Of course, the ghouls hide in the derelict and haunting
tunnels of the Washington D.C. subway system.
I had not gotten much past the turnstiles when I heard the longest
gurgling growl issue from a feral ghoul somewhere up ahead. I promptly turned around and left the subway
station.
I came back in the morning and started to clear the place
out. There were feral ghouls everywhere; I killed a good dozen of the rabid beasts before
I got to Roy. Strangely, that didn’t
bother him. He had more important things
on his mind. Namely, the organization of
an assault on Tenpenny Tower.
He wanted my help.
His intent was to breach the subway entrance that led directly into the
basement of Tenpenny Tower, and herd a swarm of feral ghouls into the complex
to route the humans out. My job was to
open the gate from the inside and just walk away…
 |
| Roy Phillips' Home, Interior. Pardon the mess, oh, and the zom... feral ghouls. |
So, now the humans want me to kill Roy; and Roy wants me to
unlock the basement door so that he and the ghouls can overrun Tenpenny Tower; and both sides expect me to do something.
Good job, Jon… now what?
A smart person would just walk away. At one point Roy looked at me while I was fishing
for information and asked,
“What business is it of yours?”
“Um…well… none I guess, now that you mention it.”
“Exactly.”
It was at that point that I realized how in-the-wrong I was for
having gotten myself involved in the first place. But it was a little late for that. I was obligated to do something, no matter
how I felt about it.
I got Roy to agree that he would stand down from all
hostility if I could convince Allister Tenpenny to allow the ghouls to move
in. Roy laughed in my face, but said, “Sure,
what the hell. Why not?”
Allister realized he didn’t necessarily have an issue with
the prospect, but the southern racist patrons of Tenpenny Tower would. However, if I could successfully plead my
case and pull a majority vote, then he was fine with it.
 |
| Mr. Allister Tenpenny showing a little southern hospitality. |
I managed to do just that, partially by sweet talking the old
ladies and appealing to their better nature, and partially by intimidating the
more stubborn patrons and forcing them off the premise. Either way,
I got my vote, and Roy’s family was allowed to move in.
Everything went quite swimmingly. Ghouls and humans all sat around talking
together. People caught me and pulled me
aside to say things like, “You know, once you get past their appearance, they
really are good people.” Even Roy patted
me on the shoulder and said, “I was wrong about you. Good job, kid.”
I left Tenpenny Tower feeling really good…
TENPENNY
TOWER, PART II
A few days later I needed some sort of power-converter thing-a-ma-jiggy. The last time I had come across one I had
sold it to Gustavo, head of Tenpenny security.
So I traveled back there hoping that he still had it, and that I could buy
it back.
Upon entering Tenpenny, I was glad to see the ghouls still
wandering around. Ah…warms my soul to
know I did the right thing…
Gustavo wasn’t at the main desk. Kind of weird, but it was 5:00AM, so maybe
his shift hadn’t started yet. Typical
problem. I waited until 6:00. He still wasn’t there. 7:00.
Nope. 8:00. What the hell? Meh, maybe it was a game glitch. I headed upstairs to my room to rest, and
came back around noon. He still wasn’t
there.
 |
| Main Lobby, Tenpenny Tower |
I decided to wander into one of the supply shops. I tripped across Roy’s right hand man, Michael Masters, and struck up conversation. As I flipped through my dialogue options, my
heart stopped. One of my choices, which
I chose to ask was,
“Hey, what happen to all the human residents?…”
“Oh. Roy took
out the trash, if you know what I mean. All
I’m going to say is that you might not want to check out the basement…”
I found a feral ghoul in the basement, along with all of the
human residents. Their bodies were lined
up like sardines, and stripped of all of their possessions and clothes. Tenpenny himself, however, was nowhere to be
found.
In a fit of rage, I stormed back upstairs, bought all the
weapons and ammo that I could from Michael, caught the elevator, and rode it up
to the penthouse suite. I was not
surprised to find Roy Phillips, and only Roy Phillips, wandering around. He greeted me like a long lost brother. The conversation quickly turned sour:
“Where’s Allister?”
“It’s sad really. Old
man ‘accidentally’ fell over his balcony.
It’s a long way to the ground.
Poor bastard.”
“You killed all those humans? Why?”
“Man, they had it comin’. People don’t change. They were going to start resenting us sooner
or later.”
“So you just killed them?”
“Yeah and you’ll shut your mouth if you know what’s good for
you.”
 |
| Lights out at Tenpenny |
I shot Roy in the face at point blank range with a
shotgun. I don’t think he ever felt
it. Then I gunned down his wife as she
came after me. I took out Micheal
Masters, and every other ghoul living inside Tenpenny Tower. It was massacre. Genocide.
My wife (in real life) tried to stop me…. Well, sort of. The one-sided
conversation went like this:
“You can’t kill everyone!
Those women don’t even have weapons.
They’re running aw-… you shot her in the back… Well, I suppose, they
all went along with it. It’s not like
they did anything to stop it, and its not like they left because it bothered
them.”
When I left Tenpenny Tower, the only two people I left alive
were the bartender and my butler - because they were both robots. Otherwise, the hotel was nothing but a
graveyard of ghouls and humans alike.
Here I tried to intervene in a mounting conflict that wasn’t my business because it surely would have ended in the death of one faction or the
other.
Instead, I stepped in, and now everyone is dead, all thanks to me. And I didn’t even get my power converter back…
I should have just gone to the Toshi Station...
<-- Part 2 of 4
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