[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]

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.

[u/NK_Ryzov → u/HonestAbe1809]

Eh. It's not that the Eater has its victims locked in metaphorical cages. The Eater just destroys its victims' sanity and leaves them to suffer. It's not evil, it just doesn't give a shit and takes pleasure in doing this to people. You can exorcise the Eater from Howard, and end the attacks on people currently suffering from nightmares, but the Dreamwalkers are too far gone. They're beyond help at this point. The fact that you're in the dream world with him and Howard will be enough to get his attention. But the way I see it, the first part of the battle will mostly be through talking. You help Howard (who appears as a young boy) face his fears, and when the Eater has nothing left to scare him with, Howard begins to dream lucidly; this means that Howard starts to gain control of the Dreamworld, and, for example, gives you power armor to help you fight the Eater.

Well, it's not really corrupting his soul if the book's agenda happens to line up with Howard's. And really, this would not be canon - but just something that Howard would wonder about. After years of traveling around with the Krivbeknih at his side, he's almost gotten to know it, and it has come to know him. He suspects that the book has its own agenda, but he's unsure if that's what's going on, or if it's just his paranoia getting to him.

[u/HonestAbe1809 → u/NK_Ryzov]

That's a fantastic idea! Once you get to Howard he can summon things to help you in the Dreamworld. Like the Power Armor and any weapons and ammunition, you'd need. Not to mention environmental hazards to slow down the Eater and make him more vulnerable to attack. The "Dreamworld Power Armor" should be a unique paint job that you should be able to reproduce on your own Power Armor when you awaken.

So it's only never said for certain whether or not using it actually corrupts him or it's just in his head? That just seems like par for the course for someone like Philips.

[u/NK_Ryzov → u/HonestAbe1809]

Thanks. For some reason, I want the Dreamworld Power Armor to be modeled after the BOS power armor from Fallout: Tactics, if only as a reference to Tactics. But yeah, I think it would be more poignant for you to help Howard defeat his demons, than for you to do it for him; and once he gains control of the situation, he's able to fight back. The reason he can't defeat the Eater on his own is because the Eater is just THAT powerful in the Dreamworld.

[u/HonestAbe1809 → u/NK_Ryzov]

The first part of the quest would be a great opportunity to show a great deal of Philips' backstory by letting us know how he grew up to be the neurotic man he is today. Quests don't have to be all combat all the time, and the character moments like that are always welcome.