"Get rid of Wolfgang. I don't know what he offered you, but I'll pay you 100 caps to kill that Jet-selling scumbag," says Trudy, the proprietor of Drumlin Diner. "Go get him," she adds when I accept her offer.
Thing is, I don't have any intention of killing Wolfgang: this is a non-lethal playthrough of Fallout 4. I also don't need to go get him because I've already got him: Wolfgang is currently stuffed inside the giant duffel bag on my back because I just beat him unconscious outside Trudy's diner.
I'm in the revenge business now! I'm using the Knockout Framework mod for Fallout 4, and while my first adventure was a bit aimless, my second provided more focus as I delivered an unconscious bandit named Ack-Ack to Abernathy farm so Blake could get revenge for his daughter's murder.
Now, Trudy wants Wolfgang dead, so here he is. I dump his body on the floor of the diner and wake him up with a stimpack.
It takes Trudy what I'd describe as an embarrassingly long time to finish off Wolfgang, especially considering his head gets stuck in the floor and he can't actually stand up to defend himself. It's not quite as satisfying a moment of revenge as it was with Ack-Ack, since I only carried Wolfgang about ten feet, but still! Revenge is revenge.
In other recent developments, I've upgraded my non-lethal gear. I've bought a cane from the wandering vendor Trashcan Carla, because something about pummeling people with a wooden cane just feels a little classier than using a tire iron I found sticking out of a dead dog. More importantly, I've now got a non-lethal ranged weapon: a shotgun. Shotguns are typically deadly, but I've crafted 30 non-lethal shotgun shells added by Knockout Framework's companion mod. Now I just need someone to test them on.
My wandering eventually brings me to Tenpines Bluff, a tiny settlement containing two potato farmers who immediately begin complaining of raider troubles. Sounds like a good opportunity for revenge, but the location of the raiders who have been harassing them is kinda far for a low-level cane-wielder like me. There's another raider hangout closer, Outpost Zimonja, which I decide to visit instead.
Along the way, I'm happy to discover my new non-lethal shells work like a charm. I run into yet another small group of raiders (see above) and blast them unconscious. Now I can shoot people without actually killing them, and I don't have to rely on just walking sticks anymore. Awesome!
A little less awesome is the situation I find myself in at Outpost Zimonja.
Oh, yeah. I forgot about Boomer. He's the lead raider at the outpost and he's wearing a full set of power armor. Regular raiders have been going down with two shots from my gun, but Boomer is still standing after multiple shots, and he's pummeling the crap out of me.
With the careful administration of various drugs and a lot of chowing down on irradiated food, I manage to survive long enough to knock out Boomer and the rest of the raiders at the camp. I also decide that punching people while wearing power armor, as Boomer was doing to me, would be a lot better than punching people while not wearing power armor.
The problem is, while I can help myself to the various parts and pieces of Boomer's armor while he's unconscious, I can't remove the power armor frame itself. The mod allows you take everything from an unconscious NPC's inventory except their clothing, and I guess the frame counts as clothing. I need that frame.
Well... there's a settlement of farmers who are mad at raiders nearby. And now I've got an unconscious raider wearing something I want. If I being Boomer to the settlement and the farmers kill him, it's a sort of revenge, kind of, with the added bonus that I get what I want, too. I stuff Boomer in my sack, bring him to Tenpines Bluff, dump him next to the farmers, and wake him up.
It's a great plan except for what happens next, and what doesn't happen next.
Boomer wakes up and, well, he just sort of runs away. And the settlers, who I was hoping would be murderous at the sight of any raider, even the wrong raider, simply go on with their potato farming. Come on, guys! Raider! Almost certainly the same one you were complaining about, probably! Do something vengeful!
They don't, and I have to chase Boomer down myself. Luckily, he runs smack dab into a trader caravan with a few bodyguards, and they wind up killing him for me. Unluckily, for some reason, even though he's dead, I still can't remove Boomer's power armor frame. Maybe it's the mod, but I think perhaps it's just karma. I let a man be killed in a false revenge scheme because I wanted some cool armor so I could punch people harder. Shame on me.
I still really want some power armor, though, so maybe it's time to visit Concord. Yes, there's a Deathclaw there, and even worse, Preston Garvey. But there's also a set of armor with no one wearing it. It's time for an actual quest.
Next time: The Museum of Natural Fistory
