Fallout 3 Side Quests

This is Part 10 of our complete Fallout 3 Walkthrough, featuring Fallout 3 Side Quests including, The Power of the Atom, Blood Ties and Those!.

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Side Quests

The Power of the Atom

This quest can be received either from Lucas Simms upon entry to Megaton or from Mr. Burke in Moriarty's Saloon. It can also end in two very different outcomes depending on who's side you decide to take.
The Good Path:
Taking the moral highroad in this quest involves agreeing to diffuse the bomb.
TIP: The reward offered can be 100 or 300 caps depending on whether or not you succeed in talking Lucas into giving you 300 caps with your speech skill.
Diffusing the bomb is as simple as walking up to it, pressing A, and choosing to diffuse it. That is, if you have at least 35 points in the Explosive skill. If you don't, talk to Leo Stahl and see if you can score some Mentats to increase your intelligence, thereby increasing your Explosive skill as well.
If you want to have a little more fun than just diffusing the bomb, head into the Saloon and talk to Mr. Burke. Tell him that you'll agree to blow up Megaton, but when he gives you the Fusion Pulse Charge, head back to Lucas and show it to him. Simms will storm into the Saloon to place Burke under arrest, but as you might have guessed, Burke won't go down quietly. He'll shoot Simms and then turn his attention to you. Kill Burke, loot his body, loot Simms' body, disarm the bomb, and then talk to Lucas' son to get your rewards. Quest Completed
The Evil Path:
Of course if you wish to be evil, your task here is to blow up Megaton rather than save it.
Talk to Mr. Burke in the Saloon and agree to his plan of waking up the dormant bomb in the middle of town.
He'll give you the Fusion Pulse Charge, which you are to place on the bomb.
Once that's done, travel southwest from Megaton all the way to the bottom left corner of the world map to reach Tenpenny Tower. It's a long trek, but the road shouldn't be too treacherous. Just be ready to deal with Molerats, Raiders, and one guy with a Sniper Rifle who suddenly started shooting me named Sam Werrick.
Head to the gate of Tenpenny Tower and press the intercom button. Tell them that you're here to see Mr. Burke and they'll buzz you in.
Once inside, proceed straight ahead to the elevator leading to the penthouse suites.
Talk the security guard in the suite and he'll unlock the door leading to the balcony.
On the balcony you'll find Mr. Burke and Alistair Tenpenny. Talk to Mr. Burke who will be visibly excited about the events that are about to transpire. Once you're ready, open the box on the table, activate the detonator, and enjoy the fireworks and your dramatic karma drop.
Talk to Mr. Burke one more time to claim your caps and the key to the suite in Tenpenny Tower. Quest Completed.

Blood Ties

You'll likely initiate this quest early on in the game when you start exploring Megaton for the first time. Inside Moriarty's Saloon you'll usually find an attractive young lady named Lucy West. Talk to her and agree to deliver a letter to her family in Arefu to start up the quest.
Arefu is located on top of a bridge northwest of Megaton. The trek there shouldn't be too dangerous, but if you're at a low level and run into any Yao Guai's, Deathclaws or Radscorpions, you'd be best off not starting a fight with them.
Once you reach Arefu, the mayor of the town, Evan King will open fire on you. Don't return fire as the poor guy is just a little freaked about the constant attacks from The Family that have been plaguing their town.
Tell him what business you have in Arefu and also agree to check on the residents for him.
Nearly all of the doors to the residences will be locked, but if you press A near them, you'll knock on the door. Knock on all of the doors and talk to all of the residents to satisfy Evan's request.
TIP: If you have the skill in Lockpicking, try to break into Evan King's house. He has a huge stockpile of ammo and more importantly, a Repair Bobblehead.
While you're checking on the residents you'll eventually come to the West household and find that Lucy's parents are dead with bite marks in their necks.
NOTE: The higher your skill in medicine, the more detailed your autopsy will be when you examine the corpses of the Wests.
Return to Evan and tell him that the Wests are dead. He'll curse The Family and then ask you if their son Ian was among the dead bodies. Tell him no since the only corpses there belonged to Mommy and Daddy West.
Evan will ask for you to find Ian and rescue him from The Family. Agree to do so and start heading for the Northwest Seneca Station. You'll find it slightly northeast of Arefu, but I'd suggest heading north first so you can maneuver around the Mirelurk infested river.
Once you're at the station, head inside and enter the doorway where the flaming barrels are. Inside will be two Ghouls who are looking to create a product called Ultra Jet. If you have some Sugar Bombs, hand them over to Murphy. If you don't have them just keep him in mind for later and instead search this area for a room with a green radioactive glow and a manhole.
Enter the manhole and be ready to deal with a bunch of Mirelurks. If they're too tough for you, you might want to think about doing this quest at a later time.
Follow the tunnel around until you see a ramp of dirt leading into what looks like a subway tunnel.
From here on out be EXTREMELY careful. The Family has set up traps all throughout the tunnel that will make quick work of you if you decide to just run blindly to your destination. There is a grenade trap that is very hard to see on the ramp leading into the subway tunnel.
Slowly and carefully make your way north down the tunnel, being on the lookout for bear traps, frag mines, and trip wires. If you have a high enough repair skill, you can disable the trip wires and bear traps by getting close to them and pressing A. Likewise, you can disarm and pick up frag mines by getting close to them and pressing A before they blow up.
Once you reach a junction, start heading west. There will be a couple of more traps along the way, but soon you'll reach the entrance to the Family's hideout.
Talk to Robert and think about how you want to enter the hideout.
If you don't mind losing karma, you could simply kill Robert, slaughter the rest of the Family, find Ian, show him the letter that his sister wrote to him, and then return with him to Arefu to talk with Evan King to complete the quest. Quest Completed
If you'd rather complete the quest without having to shed blood, use your speech skill or tell Robert that you have a letter from Lucy West for his brother. He'll let you in and will tell you to speak to their boss, Vance.
NOTE: If you have the cannibal perk, you can also get let in on account of being "one of them".
Before you go in to the Meresti Metro Station, look at Robert's possessions and you'll find a Tumbler's Today Skillbook on top of the table. If can manage to become hidden, you can also pick the locks on some of his ammo boxes and First Aid Kits.
Once you're ready, enter the door leading to the metro station.
Head up the tunnel and talk to all of the Family members to learn more about just what exactly the Family is. You'll learn that they're actually not so bad once you get to know them.
Your objective here is to get the password to Ian's room. You can get it from just about every member of the Family if you have the right skills or perks. You can get it from Brianna if you have the Lady Killer perk, you can get it from Justin if you have the proper speech skills, you can get it from Karl if you're a female and have the Black Widow perk or if you have a high strength stat, you can get it from Holly if you have a high charisma or the Scoundrel perk, and you can get it from Vance himself too if you have a very high Speech skill.
If you don't have the skills or perk to get the password by any of these means, talk to Vance and inquire about what the Family is. He'll give you the password to the Family's terminals and wants you to learn more about them. Read the information from the terminals and then return to Vance. Talk to him about Ian, about the Family, and then you should be able to ask him to let you see Ian now that you have a better understanding of the Family.
With the password in hand, head up the stairs and go west. Use the terminal next to the second door on the left to unlock the door to Ian's chambers.
Talk with Ian and work your way through the conversation however you want. It really doesn't matter whether he stays or leaves. If you want him to come with you though, show him Lucy's letter or use your speech skill.
Return to Vance once you talk with Ian to discuss the matters of the attack on Arefu and of Ian's decision. It doesn't take much to get Vance to stop feeding on the residents of Arefu; you can do so using speech, a high medicine skill, a high intelligence skill, or you can simply just ask him not to attack the people of Arefu anymore.
As a reward for being so understanding of the Family, you will be rewarded with the Shishkebab schematic, which is an awesome custom weapon for those who like to use melee weapons.
Once you're done with Vance, make sure you've done everything that you wanted to here in Meresti (there are some good items to be stolen from the weapons shop and Vance's room) and then return the same way you came in. Hopefully you managed to disarm all of those traps along the way.
Fast travel to Arefu and let Evan King know about everything regarding Evan and the Family. Quest Completed

Those!

When you start exploring the area around the Super Duper Mart, you'll see the figure of a little boy running towards you. Go to meet with him and he'll explain that his home has been overrun by monsters and will plead with you to help find his father.
Agree to help little Bryan Wilks and this quest will begin.
Grayditch, the town where Bryan lives, is a little ways south of where the Super Duper Mart is.
When you reach the city limits, you'll find that the town has been ravaged by Fire Ant Warriors. They're largely similar to the ants that you've seen before, except that these guys breath fire.
TIP: Regardless of whether you've poured a lot of skillpoints into Melee Weapons or Unarmed, you should really take these guys out from a distance. Their flame breath will bring your health down extremely quickly.
Once you pass the gate that says "Welcome to Grayditch" head right and follow the road around.
You'll find Bryan Wilks hiding in shelter pod. Ignore him for now and concentrate on finding his home which is just southeast of the pod where Bryan is hiding out. Its the first house on the left side of the road.
Enter the house to find the corpse of Bryan's father. Loot his corpse to get the shack key, then search the house for ammo boxes and a bed that you can use to recover health.
Head outside and return to the shelter pod to deliver the bad news to Bryan. Tell him that you'll get back at the ants for killing his father.
Check out the shack to the east using your newly acquired shack key.
Take the password key on the table and use it to activate the terminal (Unless you have the science skill points needed to hack it). Go to personal notes and then select "Sample Location Discovered!" Doing so will put the location for the Marigold Station on your map. That's your next destination.
Head back outside and fight your way to Marigold Station, which is located at the south end of the town.
Enter the station and then follow the hallway around until you see a door on your left.
Enter the door, kill the waiting ant inside, search the room for ammo and mine boxes and then continue through the doorway at the northeast side of the room.
In the next room there will be two ants and a first aid kit on the counter at the south side of the room. Search around for an ammo box as well. When you're done, continue on through the door at the southwest part of the room.
When you reach the tunnels, make a left, and follow the tracks down until you reach an opening on the right.
Head through the opening to the other tracks and then head right. Take the first door you see on the left.
Head down the stairs and be prepared to deal with more ants in the next room. The door to your left is a supply room with plenty of ammo boxes, stimpacks, chems, and a fire hose box that contains Grady's key.
Follow the linear path down more stairs, through a large room with lots of metal boxes, and into more subway tracks.
Head to the door right across the tracks and you'll find Dr. Lesko, a man who sounds an awful lot like Professor Farnsworth from Futurama.
Ask him about his experiments and he'll spill the beans on how the ants gained the ability to breath fire.
Now ask him what you can do to help and he'll tell you to get rid of the five ants that are guarding the Ant Queen and then escort him down so he can plant a charge that will drive the ants crazy and cause them to kill each other off. He wants you to promise that you won't harm the queen though.
TIP: Be sure to ask Lesko what is in it for you to get him to give up his lab coat.
Search Lesko's lab for some weapons, ammo and stimpacks, then head through the door on the eastern wall.
Turn right and head into the hole to reach the door leading to the Queen Ant's Hatchery.
Just keep following the path straight without making any turns at the junctions and you'll be able to kill all of the guardian ants without running into the Ant Queen. You can ignore Dr. Lesko if you want and kill the Ant Queen as well if you want. You'll gain some karma, but he won't be happy and he certainly won't give you any kind of reward unless you manage to succeed at a speech challenge and convince him that it was for the best.
Assuming you didn't kill the Ant Queen, return to Lesko and you'll be able to receive an injection that will give you either Ant Sight or Ant Might. Ant Sight will give a permanent boost to perception while might will give you a permanent boost to strength. Both will give you a 25% resistance to fire.
Time to retrace your steps back outside and return to Bryan Wilks. Tell him that you'll find him a better place to live and you'll get your final objective for this quest.
There are three places you can take Bryan Wilks to. You can talk to Mayor MacCready in Little Lamplight and convince him to let Bryan stay with them, you can talk to Vera Weatherly in Rivet City and she'll be happy to take him in, or you can get negative karma by selling him off to Eulogy Jones in Paradise Falls for 100 caps.
Once someone has agreed to take him in, return to Bryan and let him know where he's going to live. Once you do that, the quest is over. Quest Completed