Part 4: Bugmen of the Scrub Forest

Update 4: Bugmen of the Scrub Forest



It took me almost four days to walk from Arroyo to Klamath. Running into a large group of small radscorpions didn't speed the trip up any.



It looked like they'd invaded a small farm and driven out the inhabitants. At least, I hope they had. I found a few brahmin, but no bodies. I was glad nobody was around, since they would have gotten a real treat watching me run around in circles kicking at some scorpions. Once I was done I left as quickly as possible so I wouldn't have to be around the scene of my disgrace.



It's enough experience to kick us up into third level, which is actually very special because we get our first perk.



Perks are kind of like 3rd Edition D&D feats. You get one every third level, and they add various bonuses to your character. There's a ton of them so I won't go into detail on all of them right now but it's fair enough to say that all of the ones that are available at level 3 are pretty useless so you can pick whatever you feel like. I obviously didn't pick this one, because Luke's already admitted he's terrible with girls.



For this level I went with Night Vision. It reduces darkness levels by 20% and cuts ranged penalties in dark conditions. This isn't a really great perk, but all the really good ones come later. It'll also make it easier for you all to see what's going on when I take screenshots in dark conditions, which is beneficial for the LP even if it isn't great for my character. Our points go into speech, unarmed, small guns, and doctor. The first thing we want to do is boost speech up to 100% as fast as possible, then backfill other skills.



"er… um… hello. I'm Luke."

"Nice to meet ya Luke. I can see you're new here, so you wouldn't that it's customary to tip the town greeter before you ask any questions and such.

"Well, I wouldn't want to violate custom. Should be around five dollars, right? Say, you know any traders around here name of Vic? Selling old stuff?"



"I don't even want to hear the end of that sentence. Keep on doing your thing, Aldo."



I took a look around town and finding Vic's place wasn't hard at all. He'd been helpful enough to put a giant sign on the side of it that you could see from across town.



I took a look around since the place was empty and found more evidence that he'd been to Vault 13, along with a few odds and ends that might be worth something. Vic also had a six pack and a bottle of liquor, which made me think we might get along pretty well.



I kept looking and found a few more useful things that I also took with me. I'd just have to make it up to him if I used anything. The pipe rifle made it seem like he was worried about unwelcome visitors.



I also found out that some of the people in Klamath were assholes. That made what I did next a lot easier:



I ransacked the place.



I gathered up everything that looked useful or valuable, and then I went looking for a trader in town who didn't look like he'd ask many questions.



I found it over at Sajak's, a bar just down the street from Vic's place. I didn't really need to buy a drink since I'd found Vic's stash, and I definitely wasn't going to buy something for everybody in the place.



Instead I traded most of what I was carrying for some actual money, liquor, clothes, and a couple of other odds and ends. Sajak definitely wasn't the type to ask questions, and cash looks the same in everyone's pocket.



I also looked a lot better, and felt that way too now that I didn't have a bright blue jumpsuit making me stand our like a sore thumb.



I was hoping it would make me more popular with women, but it also made me more popular with dogs for some reason. I made a new friend by giving him some jerky, and he gave me a key that he'd been carrying around in his mouth for some reason. Dogs. They're weird. I also made a new friend in the more upstanding bar in town, when I spotted another tribal standing in the corner.



"Wait, who's we? Do you mean me and you?"

"The spirits with me, fren! They be all around. Sometimes talk."

"I miss Hakunin now. Kind of like extra bats in the belfry, huh?"



"I'm going to regret asking this, I know. Who's Grampy Bone?"

"Him strong spirit. Much honor carrying him."

"…you're talking about the bone in your nose, aren't you."

"Keep him close. Easier to touch his spirit. That's why he talk the most."

"Hey, I can only hear you talking so far."

"Ha! We going get along just fine."

"You know, I think we going get along too. So what are you doing here?"



"Wait, you're looking for Vic the trader too? Small world."

"Vic the traitor, more like. Comes to village, says he knows about slavers, tell us to come see him. We go, he ain't there."

"I feel a lot better about raiding his house now. Your sis got taken by slavers?"

"Sis went trading at another village and never came back. We and I go look for her."



"What about your sis?"

"The evil warriors tied up the rest and took off. Sis with 'em. Fren, we be finding her or dying trying."

"Sounds like slavers to me. Have you found anything out about them?"

"We and I know there's slavers at Den. When we're free, we're outta here."

"Wait, they're keeping you here?"



"If it'll get you out of this shithole, I've got $350 fren."

And I never regretted giving him that $350, either. Sulik was one of the best friends a man could ask for. I think the woman he gave the $350 to might have cried a bit when he left, but we didn't slow down on our way out until we almost ran into a brick wall in the shape of a man.



"Sulik, I think that if you've got extra bats in the belfry this guy could use a couple more."

"Mebbe so fren, but de be my bats and de not want to leave."

"Er… nice to meet you, Torr. Anything interesting happening here lately?"

"Bugmen take moo-moos at night. Torr scared! Hep Torr?"

Hakunin always said that we should take care of idiots and madmen, although that might have been self-interest speaking. I couldn't say no to a giant kid, though, especially when it might make me some friends. After all, he had to be somebody's boy didn't he?



Before I knew it, I was standing in the middle of a pasture over a dead radscorpion. It didn't look like a bugman to me, but it wasn't even dark yet so I didn't know what we might see before the night was out.



What I did see were a couple of slope-jawed knuckle draggers standing in the tree line and making absolutely no effort to conceal themselves from anyone with more on the ball than Torr. I started to get some unfortunate suspicions as soon as I saw them.



Sulik agreed with me. I think. A lot of times he'd make vague pronouncements about the area that I could usually twist into some kind of sense after everything was said and done. This first time that I asked his opinion, though, it was pretty clear.



They started to offer me a job, but when I told them I was interested they changed their minds. I couldn't get them to tell me what they were up to, and they got a bit upset when I asked.

Karma strikes again! Fallout 2 has two types of Karma - an aggregate score that tells you how good or how bad you've been, and a specific rating within a given city. You can be a hero across the wastelands and have one town where you killed the mayor's dog hate you with an unholy passion. In this case our overall Karma rating is already too high for these gentlemen to offer us their unethical quest of dubious legality.



Words were exchanged and then blows, and a few minutes later Sulik and I were standing over a pair of dead bodies. I was a bit upset at this since I'd never killed anybody before although I'd always known I might have to at some point, and the fact that Sulik had been in town long enough to assure me that the Duntons were there shit kings of asshole mountain and wouldn't be missed only helped a little bit. So did taking a pair of spiked brass knuckles from them, which I had a much easier time using than my spears.



In a nearby clearing we found the other threat to Torr's brahmin chittering about miserably and cleared them out together. Having Sulik with me changed the way I had to fight. Rather than leading a chase and striking out at them, Sulik just ran into the middle and started hammering anything that looked like an enemy. With there being two of us, it actually worked out pretty well… by which I mean that I only got stung once, and Sulik only once or twice.



That was enough to satisfy Torr, so we left him to his brahmin ignorant of what the real threat he'd been facing had been. I was pretty sure that some more rad scorpions would come by in short order and dispose of the evidence.



Finding the set of fake radscorpion limbs that the Duntons had been using to pretend to be bugmen in some kind of half-assed cattle rustling scheme completed the rest of the task of making me feel better about killing them. Sometimes, you really can make the world a better place. After that we went back to the Buckner place where Sulik had been staying for a few drinks on the house. It turned out that Torr had actually been Torr Buckner.



"Afraid I didn't meet anybody like that on my way in to town ma'am, but I could have come in from the other side. Tell me about him and I'll let you know.

"No mon, don't do it!"

But it was too late. I was treated to an extensive description of Smiley, his relationship with Ardin, what a wonderful man he was, and how he'd left more than a month ago and hadn't come back yet. I was spellbound, and I think I felt my brains coming out of my ears at one point.



I ended up agreeing to go to the spot he told her about and find him. She'd never know if I didn't, but after all was said and done I felt guilty enough that I figured I would take a look when I had a chance. The entire family had a way about them that just made you want to help them.



Except for Torr's sister. When she warned me away from the Den because they enslaved ignorant tribals like myself it annoyed me and Sulik enough that we decided to head to Sajak's instead. Turned out that making that choice was going to have some interesting consequences.