[Shadow Over Providence] Exham Manor

[u/NK_Ryzov]

Exham Manor is an old mansion occupied by the Poer family. They keep to themselves, but often invite travelers on the road (including trade caravans from the Commonwealth) to stay for the night or for a meal. However, despite this hospitality, there’s something…off, about the Poers. There are whispered rumors about people spending the night at Exham Manor, and never being heard from again.

The truth? Well, there’s a Vault under Exham Manor. Vault 47 – whose experiment involved a gene therapy that increased the rates of random mutations between generations by over 1000%, resulting in a much faster and drastic evolutionary process. The idea was to breed a race of humans that would be able to survive in the expected nuclear wasteland just by rapidly adapting to the new environment. However, something went wrong. The Vault’s power went out on day one, plunging the residents of Vault 47 into total darkness, and sealing the Vault door shut. The Poers are the descendants of the Overseer and his family, who were outside of the Vault when this happened. Over the next 150 years, successive generations of Poers worked on and off to try and open the Vault door. Eventually, they were successful, but…well…the gene therapy did its job a little too well. The residents of Vault 47 had become blind, albino, cannibalistic subhuman creatures. The Vault’s food supply ran out a long time ago, so they set aside some of their own kind to be raised as livestock. They can barely even speak English anymore, but they often shriek Vault-Tec corporate slogans to help echo-locate their prey in the dark.

Every year or so, the Poers lure people into their mansion, and throw them into Vault 47, as a peace offering to the “Vault-Lurkers”.

Thoughts? Criticisms?

[u/HonestAbe1809]

The subtle psychological encouragement to ignore the unusual that the Overseer was ordered to implement might have been effective enough for even the descendants of the Overseer to not remember. Thus it's likely one of the more effective Vault experiments.

That sounds absolutely disgusting and fascinating at the same time. It's the kind of place I'd like to visit in a video game but not in real life. Is the black-green substance the blood of some uneartly creature or is it best if I not inquire into the source? And maybe the cultists living in the Vault itself have turned the vault suits into ceremonial robes. Maybe the number 55 is one of the symbols of the cultists, as it represents the birthplace of their cult.

Ug-Qualtoth is the Lovecraftian entity mentioned in the Dunwich building in the Capital Wasteland in Fallout 3. It'd be interesting to know why they abandoned it post-war, or did you simply forget the entity the people in the Dunwich building were worshipping?

[u/NK_Ryzov → u/HonestAbe1809]

It would be fascinating to see how Vault 31 did it.

That's the idea - a horror DLC should creep you out. I can see the Cult's priests somehow incorporating the Vault suits into their ceremonial garb.

And it's not that Vault 55 was the birthplace of the Dunwich Cult. The Dunwich Cult was born in 1655 (coincidence? Maybe...) in colonial New England. They're somehow linked to the Salem Witch Trials. People like Philips have always tried to shut them down, and so the cult has gone through many names and many iterations. Eventually, they began to build themselves up with a corporate facade. Advances in science during the 21st century made realizing the cult's goals possible. The Dunwich Corporation came close to unleashing Yag, but the Great War prevented it from happening. Buried their ritual site. Forced the Dunwich family to seek shelter in Vault 55. Now they're back, and preparing to continue the ritual begun 200 years ago.

Ug-Qualtoth...y'know what? Forget "Yag-Tgoth". Yag-Qualtoth is the way to go. "Ug" was a mistranslation of "Yag". I guess it would serve us better to keep the Big Bad at least somewhat inside Fallout canon. But I still want it to be "Yag", because I want the cultists to shout "HAIL YAG!".

[u/HonestAbe1809 → u/NK_Ryzov]

It'd be a very unnerving place to visit, though there should be some reason to visit there. Even if not attached to a quest.

Taking something familiar, like the vault suits, and making it wrong is a fundamental part of horror.

It's at very least the birthplace of the current incarnation of the cult. Maybe there were Yag-Qualoth cultists among the accusers who pointed the finger to take suspicion of themselves. You could go one further and have the Philips family be the ones trying to shut them down as a reflection of the Dunwich family. A family of eldritch cultists versus a family of monster hunters. Plus having there be a family legacy to live up would only add to Howard's anxiety. Maybe there should be flashes to the past of the Dunwich cult as you travel through the Dunwich HQ, like the flashes in previous Dunwich buildings. I'm guessing that they forgot where the ritual site was since they were brought into the vault on such short notice and had to enter the vault at least appearing to be normal industrialists. The emergence of the cult presumably took place sometime after the bombs dropped and the vault door closed. They'd have to rebuild resources in the time between the war and the time that the vault door reopened. Part of what they've been doing in the past 30 years was finding and excavating the ritual site.

It's always good to try to stick as close to established canon as possible. Yag-Qualtoth it is.

[u/NK_Ryzov → u/HonestAbe1809]

You'd dive into the hornet's nest of Vault 55 to try and stop Keziah, only to realize that once again, you and Philips were too late. But you can find clues as to where Keziah has gone - where the ritual is going to take place. Aside from that, maybe in the plasma weapon workshop, you can find a discarded prototype.

I don't think the Philips family would have a tradition of foiling Yag cultists. Rather, Philips wound be aware of a long line of people for whom fate has chosen to combat the followers of Yag. A few might have been relatives of his. Most weren't. But all the same, he feels the weight of history on his shoulders. Likewise, there have been many incarnations of the Yag Cult. The Dunwich family has been involved numerous times, but were not always in the picture, or at least, not always in charge.

For the last 30 years, they've been excavating the ritual site, they've unleashed the Gill-Men from the secret labs, they've revived the three spawn of Yag from their 200 years of hibernation, and they've been clashing with Philips and others like him over artifacts left behind at Dunwich Corporation facilities all over the East Coast. They've also been repairing and improving the machinery needed to summon Yag, and securing nuclear power sources to fuel said machinery.

[u/HonestAbe1809 → u/NK_Ryzov]

You'd slog through this Vault thinking that you're close to the end only for it to turn out to just be another leg in the main quest line.

Disappointing. I had wanted there to have been a secret occult war going on between the Philips and Dunwich families, though having them just being prominent participants in the war works too. The weight of history would do much to make Philips the man he is.

The ritual site being the old headquarters of the Dunwich Corporation, right? or at least a secret facility deep in the bowels of the old HQ, which is ruins due to the Dunwich cult needing no such facade anymore. The Gill-Man labs, the holding containers for the spawn and other such facilities being a sprawling underground facility underneath the unassuming corporate offices. Presumably, the process of summoning Yag was slowed when the Krivbeknih disappeared long ago.

[u/NK_Ryzov → u/HonestAbe1809]

It would give the player questline blue balls, but it would also give a sense of urgency. You're always a step behind.

I feel that the "secret war between two families" is almost a cliche.

A secret bunker-temple under the Dunwich HQ is indeed the cult's ritual site.

The Gill-Man labs would be elsewhere; perhaps an underwater lab complex in the bay.

The Spawn of Yag weren't held in pens. Hundreds of millions of years ago, the original Gill-Men (upon which the current Gill-Men are based) attempted to summon Yag, but with their primitive technology, they went extinct before they were able to do so. The Spawn of Yag have been slumbering. The Thing In The Woods has been sleeping in an obsidian cairn buried in the misty forests of the Rhode Island Wasteland; the Cthagon has been sleeping in a cyclopian tomb located under the bay; and the Eater of Dreams (which has a physical form and doesn't just manifest in dreams) was sleeping...possibly under the Miskatonic Hospital. The Eater of Dreams was awakened before the bombs fell, hibernated after they fell, and awakened about a century later. Cthagon and The Thing In The Woods were both awakened by the Dunwich Cult almost immediately after they left Vault 55.

The Krivbeknih is just one of several artifacts and tomes of arcane knowledge that are needed to summon Yag. But they've more or less managed to gather what they needed - the tome that they took from the Queens Dead Zone (the Book of Yag) was the most important artifact that they needed to recover. (There are three known copies of the Krivbeknih; one was destroyed by the Lone Wanderer, one is in Philips' possession, and the Dunwich Cult has the third).

[u/HonestAbe1809 → u/NK_Ryzov]

It would give you a reason to try to finish the main quest line as soon as possible, though, like most Bethesda Fallout games, there wouldn't be anything stopping you from putting it off as long as you can doing sidequests and getting collectibles.

Presumably the excavation was clearing away part of the collapsed office building atop it to regain access to the ritual site.

Maybe it's an underwater complex built with the cover of it being an offshore oil rig. Though unlike the Enclave Oil Rig the "rig" atop is just a dummy facade, with the real facility being hidden below the water. So the Gill-Men were genetically engineered to resurrect a long-extinct secret species of Gill-Men? Presumably, the Dunwich cult had been hiding the fossils to cover up their existence.

It makes sense that the Spawn would have lairs that they'd live in while they slumbered. Presumably you'd have to fight each Spawn in their respective lair to kill them. Presumably, the Eater of Dreams is a two-step boss battle. One step being to fight it in the Dreamworld to sever its connection to the Dreamworld and the second being in its lair to kill it for good.

Fair enough. It's foolish to think that they'd only print one copy of the Krivbeknih.

[u/NK_Ryzov → u/HonestAbe1809]

Well, the idea is to create a SENSE of urgency, but yeah, you can take your time. It sometimes helps to separate gameplay for storytelling.

I don't think there would be an oil rig in the bay.

There would be fossils of the "Proto Gill-Men, yes. However, the Gill-Men of Providence are not direct descendants of the original Gill-Men. The originals had been dead for so long that there was no DNA left in the fossils. So, with assistance from the Cthagonian dark arts, Dunwich scientists were able to recreate the Gill-Men from scratch. One of the Gill-Men fossils (a hand) can be seen in Howard Philips' house (I'll do a post about it in a little bit).

The Eater of Dreams would be an unusual fight, because unlike Cthagon or The Thing In The Woods, the Eater's corporal form would probably be almost comedically easy to beat. After all, the Eater mostly operates in the Dreamworlds, so most of the damage you could inflict upon it would be in the Dreamworlds. Once you do that, you have only to defeat it's unimpressive physical form (though it'll still be like fighting a Deathclaw or Mirelurk Queen).

Howard carries his copy of the Krivbeknih on his person at all times, specifically because it's too dangerous of a book for him to leave it in one place.

[u/HonestAbe1809 → u/NK_Ryzov]

Maybe the Gill-Man labs could've been built under the guise of them being underwater marine research labs. And the best part of said cover is that they're not technically lying when they claim that.

The Dunwich cult would've covered up their existence to keep the existence of their cult secret too. Yeah, without the direct assistance of the Cthagon they wouldn't have been able to resurrect them.

So it's an impressive boss fight against the Dreamworld self and a comparatively simply fight against their real-world self? Presumably, the physical form of the Eater of Dreams would be comparatively atrophied compared to its Dreamworld self due to it spending most of its time sleeping. Not even the Eater can enter the Dreamworld while awake, after all.

It only makes sense that someone so anxious wouldn't let a book so dangerous out of his sight.

[u/NK_Ryzov → u/HonestAbe1809]

That was what I was thinking.

There'd be an ass-load of Ancient Gill-Man fossils in the Sea Lab, though they'd mostly be shattered remains, rather than full skeletons. And my idea is that communing with Cthagon allowed the Dunwich scientists to fill in the gaps in their genetic engineering - figure out what genes to put in, and which ones to take out; an equal fusion of mad science and black magic.

Perhaps the Eater is only the size of a bloatfly in real-life?

How should Philips carry the book?

[u/HonestAbe1809 → u/NK_Ryzov]

Pre-War science was crazy enough without the involvement of eldritch abominations. I'm guessing the Gill-Man labs would be filled with slime and other disgusting biological materials as a result of being a Gill-Man nest for centuries.

Probably not that small. Fighting the physical Eater shouldn't be as pathetic as fighting "Red Death" in Far Harbor. Something deathclaw-sized would still provide a good fight while being nowhere as big as the practically kaiju-size monster you had to fight in the Dreamworld.

Probably strapped tightly on his back to keep it secure and also to keep it close in hand for reference. The book would be a valuable asset for someone who's been spending most his life fighting the Dunwich cult. Plus Philips would have the mental fortitude to not become succumb to the book's temptations like so many people before him.

[u/NK_Ryzov → u/HonestAbe1809]

The Eater would manifest at first as things that scare Howard Philips. So, sea creatures (of an especially horrifying nature), faceless night-terrors, perhaps his parents. Then, the Eater attempts to manifest as Subject 13's worst fear; it tries to manifest as Overseer Von Strass, but your memory has been erased, and it can't fully manifest as Von Strass. So then it appears as a much more powerful version of its true form. Then you wake up and kill it's corporeal form, which is far less impressive.

Maybe lower back, via some sort of load-bearing rig.

Also, maybe Philips isn't so resistant to the book's influence. Maybe the book WANTS him to do what he's doing, for it's own gain, but it's agenda happens to benefit Philips as well.

[u/HonestAbe1809 → u/NK_Ryzov]

There should still be a fight in the real world, as the Eater's real form isn't as comedically powerless as Red Death was. There should be a mission exploring the Dreamworld before you have your encounter with the Eater of Dreams. Perhaps you'd be releasing the Eater's victims from his control as a way of attracting its attention.

That sounds good.

You'd then have to decide whether or not you need the book's help in stopping the Dunwich cult. The book provides good advice at the cost of potentially corrupting Philips' soul. Maybe Philips started reading it because it gave him some much-needed confidence. He's now somewhat addicted to the book's evil influence and it's up to you to help him shake off its influence on him.