Day 73
Level 34 (2 perk points floating)
S-3 Armorer 2,
P-(+)11 Awareness 2, Locksmith 3, Rifleman 4
E-2
C-6 Lady Killer 1, Local Leader 2
I-9 Gun Nut 1, Hacker 3, Science 2
A-(+)7 Action Boy 2, Gunslinger 4
L-3
(Astoundingly Awesome 3, 7, and 8, Barbarian 6, Covert Operations 2, Gift of Gab, Guns and Bullets, Junktown Vendor 2, Live & Love 1, Massachusetts Surgery, Tesla Science 2, Tumblers Today 2, United We Stand, Wasteland Survival 7 and 9)

To begin: I’m biting the bullet. I have long resisted the temptation of a carry weight mod, but with the limited time I have to play these days, derailing my current objectives to trek back and sell off all my loot constantly will likely keep me from ever finishing. I am, of course, aware that this mod changes the game considerably. There’s much to be said for the limitations of one’s carry weight limit. It forces one to make choices of what is most important and what one might need in the future. It encourages logistics planning with item storage and the location of merchants. It makes certain items more precious than they might otherwise be (anything from particular clothing options which grant STR to hunting radstags for their meat). Furthermore, the necessity of going back to town can lead at times to some interesting chance encounters. I will attempt to limit how this change affects my play by continuing to sell items rather than hoarding everything just in case I need it, only selling when I come across a merchant rather than going out of my way to find merchants.

I head back out onto Boston Common and catch the Silver Shroud radio again. My map marker says the Silver Shroud objective is close so I might as well pursue it. But I lose the signal soon as I approach something called The Boylston Club. Cait and I enter a creepy hallway opposite a flickering elevator—always an excellent start.

I enter onto a room full of corpses, and it doesn’t take me long to spot a probable culprit, as I turn to my left to spot a bottle of poisoned wine. There are several such bottles spread throughout the room, and I go ahead and collect them. Could be useful at some point.

While I’m browsing, I get my first taste of Cait’s personality in conversation. I pick up an old pocket watch and she remarks, “Feeling nostalgic or something? I suppose you could get some caps for that.” Later as I eye a safe in the closet behind the bar she offers to help, so I suppose thievery is her forte. I get by just fine despite being out of practice and Cait appreciates me looting the ammo from the safe.

The nearby terminal is similarly easy for me, and reveals more about this apparently quite exclusive club with high ranking membership. A tape in the terminal reveals what happened—“closing time,” a final toast in honor of the old world. Everyone drank the poison willingly. People of power and influence recognized their world was dead or dying and chose not to even try to live beyond it, leaving behind this tableau. These little vignettes are really what keep me playing this game that has otherwise lost me in terms of story motivation.

I take the holotape with me for posterity and leave. Further past Boston Common, near some boarded up buildings and a wrecked tanker trunk, I spot Hubris Comics. The dead scavenger outside leads me to believe the place is still inhabited.

Indeed, feral ghouls are everywhere in here. They crawl out of holes in the ceiling in creative ways I haven’t quite seen before, which makes for a fresh and exciting encounter, if a bit too easy as I blow them all away in VATS. Only the Legendary gives me any trouble, with the full health regeneration it gets after first taking it out. It only gets one hit on Cait before I blow its brains out.

In the distant corner of the shop I spot it— a Silver Shroud cutout. I make my way over behind the counter, taking some cash and a key from the register. The issue of The Unstoppables on the counter makes for an even bigger prize, with +1% chance of avoiding all damage from any attack. Prizes all around, really, as the Legendary ghoul was wearing an incredible Chest Piece designed just for me. There isn’t much of note on the terminal, I don’t think, beyond adding a little realism with notes on comic book orders and a little humor with the titles (and an option to unlock a safe somewhere, but I prefer my lock picks).

I’m so distracted, I almost miss Grognak’s Axe in the display case behind me (not worth much to me with my lack of melee skills, alas). The storeroom has decent loot, but nothing near as exciting as what was five feet from the front door.

I wander the comic book racks in vain, finding everything burnt as usual, with nothing else here except a note from an ill-fated scavenger in the bathroom. Ghouls are still moving around upstairs though, the sickening wet sounds of their rotting flesh sounding out as they rush around. At my current skills, it’s one shot to kill any of them, however. In the dark hidden away behind a wall to the right of the second story door is a room with a dead scavenger and some good loot, as well as a helpful list of collectors items to be found here.

The upstairs office must have been pretty cushy in its heyday, much nicer than any comic shop I’ve been to. Hidden in a display case on the wall is a signed Silver Shroud photo. The manager’s office, on the other hand, is tiny and crowded, but has some more notes in the terminal dealing with the frustrations of running a franchise (apparently the shop also wrote the Silver Shroud stories). Interestingly, it seems two women ran the shop and wrote the popular Silver Shroud stories, which runs counter not just to my impressions of gender relations in the 50s, but sadly to male-dominated geek culture of today. Some things do not change though, such as the movie guy pushing changes for a younger more sexualized casting of one of the characters.

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There’s another ghoul drop-down plus a Nuka Cola Quantum in the break room, but it seems the real action is upstairs. As I head up another floor to more meeting rooms and desks, I realize this is not just a comic shop, as I first assumed. This would be the equivalent of the headquarters of a major comic book company such as DC or Marvel running a shop at the ground floor. There’s another Legendary on the second floor with a pretty cool gun, and some Grape Mentats on a desk. Beyond a crack in the wall I spot more good loot, behind a door I fortunately have a key for.

In the room, there’s a sample script of note. The writer’s terminal gives more of the story, in emails from Vivian to Tina addressing her concerns. Then another irritating note from Mr. Babowski, whose blatant chauvinism is grating.

Babowski’s terminal continues the drama, with an Evans Richelli pushing for Tina’s ouster, but noting that Tina still has all her rights and an ironclad contract. Alas, it ends on a sad note as, rather than asserting some creative control, Tina quits and goes to another comic book company.

Another interesting Fallout story, though as always completely irrelevant to the plot of the game. The most interesting stories Fallout 4 has to tell seem to be dead stories of dead people, and as such the game lacks the personal engagement of myself through an avatar that many other games have.

I spot the costume at the top of the stairs to the final floor… along with a glowing one hiding behind a nearby curtain. There’s also a ghoul to my left, so I take him out first. The glowing one is still hiding, but a grenade followed by a shot to its visible leg takes it down to the ground where I can see its head and finish the job.

While I am scouting out one corner of the room, two more ghouls attack Cait and she goes down, but I finish them off quickly and give her a stimpack. Now it’s time for the looting. The main prize is the Silver Shroud costume itself, of course, but there’s also a machine gun prop behind the curtain. There are some unique clothing items such as a pompadour wig by the lockers, but the Grognak Costume is the prize there, again making me wish I had made a melee character. There’s also a deathclaw gauntlet for those that can’t craft their own. Not to be missed hiding under a blood pack in the bathroom up here is the Astoundingly Awesome Tales, Invasion of the Zetans, which increases damage with the Alien Blaster by 5%! There’s also some more good loot in the suitcase behind the door.

It’s nighttime when I take the ladder out onto the roof of the building, which doesn’t appear to have anything of value on it other than a potential exit for those in power armor. Ideally I’d like to call it quits for the night, so Cait and I wait out the rest of the evening on a bench in the locker room.