Approach the wooden palisade around the mountain-top ski resort known as Jacobstown and you’ll be greeted by Marcus, a civil Super Mutant who is the founder and guardian of this colony of mutants. Talk to him about politics, the Stealth Boy-induced schizophrenia the Nightkin are suffering from and about Jacobstown.

Jacobstown Bungalows¶

There are plenty of things to do here, a few quests to start, creatures to talk to… but first comes the looting. To the west, north-west you’ll find Jacobstown Lodge, the pre-war resort where most of the Super Mutants dwell. For now, however, turn your sights to the north-east, where several bungalows sit. There are three explorable ones in total, in two rows. One behind (north-east of) the other two. Explore the southern-most bungalow first to find a copy of Grognak the Barbarian on the floor near a broken refrigerator and an oven and a Nuka-Cola Victory inside the broken fridge. The other two bungalows are less interesting, but still worth a loot-see; in the northern-most one [Average] you can find a Service Rifle and some 5.56mm Rounds over the fireplace while in the north-eastern-most one you can find a Sunset Sarsaparilla Star Bottle Cap on a table, if you for some reason need these anymore…

Jacobstown Lodge¶

Leave the Bungalows alone, now that they’ve been plundered, and turn your attention to the lodge. When you enter a Nightkin named Keene will complain about your presence. Talking to Keene will illuminate the sentiments of the Nightkin here, and their frustrations with Marcus’s lack of progress concerning their ailment. Poor Marcus might have another Black Mountain on his hands…

When you’re done aggravating Keene, grab the Snow Globe - Mt. Charleston off the counter in this room, then explore the smaller rooms to the north-west. You’ll score a good bit of clothes from Dressers, but apart from this and two Ammo Boxes, there’s not much loot to obtain. Upstairs is a bit more lucrative, as you’ll find several magazines, chems, Ammo Boxes, and a locked Safe [Average]. Marcus’s Room [Hard], has little inside of it to justify such a difficult lock.

The clinic to the north-east has nothing in the way of loot in it, but you will find the Ghoul Calamity here, who trades names and professions to keep things interesting. Has to be better than going feral. Ask about what she and Doctor Henry are working on here, buy some food and chems from her, or have your stuff repaired. When done, turn your attention to Doctor Henry to learn that he’s investigating some Nightstalkers who have developed a rather… interesting ability. There’s also the matter of Mark II Stealth Boys, but give the nature of that research, the Nightstalker line of research is a priority. Offer to help to start the quest Guess Who I Saw Today and he’ll recommend taking Lily along with you so she can avenge her Bighorners.

No sense in putting this quest off, then. Leave the lodge and find a Nightkin named Lily near a Bighorner pen. Her… attire would mark her as strange, if she weren’t a Nightkin, who seem to tend towards strange at the best of times. Talk to her, convince her you’re not Jimmy, then ask her to join up. While she’s traveling with you, you’ll enjoy the Stealth Girl perk, which triples the duration of Stealth Boys and gives you a 10% damage bonus with sneak attack criticals.

Unfriendly Persuasion¶

Walk out the front gate of Jacobstown… or try to, anyways, and Marcus will stop you and tell you about a new problem the mutants are facing. Seems some mercenaries are harassing Jacobstown, and the mutants are on the verge of retaliating. If violence breaks out, however, more is sure to follow, so Marcus encourages you to find a diplomatic solution. Follow the road east to find Norton, the mercenary leader, who will readily admit they’re being paid to drive the mutants off, or provoke them. They’re well-equipped with Plasma Rifles, a Sniper Rifle, and an Assault Carbine, not to mention their Metal Armor and Combat Armor, and if you kill them, you’ll gain NCR Infamy… a good bit of it, too. You can, however, with sneak attack kill them all if your Sneak skill is good enough; simply being patient and walking around behind them and executing them with Love and Hate worked well enough, but Marcus doesn’t seem to approve this this approach. Alternatively, you can buy them off for a whopping 2,500 Caps, or you can convince them to leave with a [Speech 65] check. Of course… there’s nothing preventing you from getting them to leave peacefully, then sneakily killing them all as they leave (Norton is the only one who will immediately depart, so this isn’t even all that difficult to accomplish).

Guess Who I Saw Today¶

After dealing with the mercenaries, head north-west into the snowy hills around Jacobstown to find the rocky cleft that leads to Charleston Cave. Head inside where you’ll get to face the familiar old threat of Nightstalkers, but with the added fun of them being invisible. Hooray… From the entrance head south and, when you reach a fork, continue south into a cavern where you can find some beds, an Ammo Box [Easy] and more tunnels to explore.

Head west down a tunnel until you find another fork; both paths lead to a large, Nightstalker-filled cavern, but continuing west will merely take you to a dead-end ledge overlooking this cavern, so head down the tunnel south to reach the cavern in a less gravity-induced way. Clear the chamber out, then head down another tunnel to the south which - after winding a bit - will terminate in a small chamber. Kill any Nightstalkers inside, then loot a dead Nightkin to find a “Chewed Stealth Boy” on its body. This… probably explains the Nightstalker’s invisibility, but… oh well, don’t question it, just pick up it, then loot the unique Super Sledge, Oh, Baby! nearby.

Before you run back to Jacobstown, follow a tunnel to the east to reach chamber flooded with radioactive water. Here you’ll find two tunnels to the north, the western one of which leads to a door [Hard], behind which you can find a number of goodies, including a Hunting Shotgun, a Grenade Box, three Ammo Boxes, three magazines (Lad’s Life, Today’s Physician and Fixin’ Things), three Stimpaks, two doses of RadAway, three bottles of Rad-X, some Pre-War Money, some Banana Yucca Fruit, ten bottles of Purified Water and a Pre-War Audio Log, which details the thoughts of a paranoid pre-war scumbag who correctly gambled on the apocalypse.

Return to Doctor Henry at Jacobstown and tell him about what you found in Charleston Cave. Realizing that this presents a dead-end for his Nightstalker research, he’ll ask you to talk to Lily about going ahead with the Mark II Stealth Boy testing. Talk to Lily about the experiment then return to Doctor Hildern, who will begin his experiment… only to be interrupted by Keene, who wants the Stealth Boy Mark II. Either give the Nightkin what he wants, refuse to do so and kill them, or pass a [Speech 80] check to convince Keene to back down. Afterwards, talk to Doctor Henry again who will, despite how you handled Keen, suggest continue testing things out on Lily. Agree, decline or pass a [Science 90] check to convince Doctor Henry to pursue other avenues of research. Regardless of what you do, the quest ends the same way, with the same reward. Ah… choices that don’t really matter…

Grandma Nightkin¶

You’re now done with Jacobstown, and the entire north-western part of the map, in general. You can still do some things with Lily however, and her related events are short and simple to trigger. Talk to her and ask about Leo, her past, and about the medicine she takes. If any of these options doesn’t show up immediately, talk to her again later after playing a bit more. You’ll also need to take Lily into combat, where if she gets severely injured she’ll suffer a psychotic break and go berserk. After the fight, be sure to talk to her about her episode. Once all these events have occurred, you’ll be able to talk to her about her medical regimen and advise her on how to proceed; either take her drugs and lose her memory, drop the habit and lose her sanity, or keep taking half-doses to stay somewhere in between. If she takes her full course of medicine she’ll become less potent in combat, but won’t suffer any more psychotic breaks, while if she stop taking the medicine she’ll become more powerful, but suffer from episodes more regularly.