Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Herald of Tranquility

I've become...da'da'da'daaa...the Herald of Tranquility. In Fallout 3, that is. Karmic leaning: Good. Aye, am a do-gooder by nature, wanting to bring about only Good Things to a ruined land (on my first playthrough). Have max'd my useful skills. Level'd 27 of the 30 available in the Game of the Year Edition. And become adept enough I no longer must kill if I'm to survive some hostile encounter. For y’see I have grown weary of massacring creatures and people, even though they be fantastical and make-believe.

Last night, I pardoned myself from the questing. From the killing. Stowed away the unnecessaries in my Megaton home. Geared on the bare necessaries. A scope…for wildlife observation: silenced Infiltrator assault rifle happens to be attached to the scope. And vicious Man-Opener, should ever I be cornered. Donning the Chinese stealth armour, I headed northwest over the Capital Wasteland. Because I hadn't seen much of the northwest.

Ghoul mask, too, right right. I did not forget to bring along the ghoul mask. Possibly the most useful disguise: convinces ghouls the wearer is one of them, and ghouls remain calm and non-hostile. I don’t want to kill ghouls I don’t have to. Post-Apocalyptia has been hard enough on them: I don’t want to kill them to clear my way, or for the small keepsakes of their former human existence.

Didn’t wander too far last night. Ignored the slavers of Paradise Falls. For last night. I squatted on a high rock in the wilderness, stealth’like, watched a pair of deathclaws, from a distance. Essentially, deathclaws are velociraptors. Was able to sneak close by them, undetected. They trod about, here to there and back. No, they didn’t forage: they’re a program. Still, it felt as thrilling as birdwatching, and surviving. Deathclaws aren’t so bad, so long as they don’t sense you’re there.

There is this question I’d like to answer myself. Scattered throughout Fallout 3 are these ham radios, hissing only static. I've also sighted radio transmission towers here, there. I’m curious if there’s a correlation. I do not want to go searching the Fallout forums about it. I feel like playing cartographer for a while. And naturalist. And kill nothing.