By Piper Wright

The Great Detective, Nick Valentine, has done it again! What had started as a simple case from Goodneighbor’s Mayor, John Hancock, in searching for a missing caravan transporting sensitive technical components, grew into the discovery of, followed by the destruction of, a new raider cult.

Mayor Hancock had ordered a delivery from the Capital Wasteland to help the management of our sister city, Goodneighbor, despite rumors of a civil war being fought there. He grew concerned about the lack of delivery even though he had seen that necessary precautions had been taken for the shipment. After hearing no word from the caravan or finding any evidence of attack on the caravan, Hancock hired Diamond City’s own Valentine, to search for the missing caravan.

Valentine was at first unable to find any clues for the possible fate of the disappearing caravan, or even any evidence that the caravan made it to the Commonwealth. After speaking with Settlement Head Jack Cumit, Valentine was unable to confirm the possibility of the caravan reaching the Commonwealth. However, a group of ghouls who had recently immigrated from the Capital Wasteland and had settled in Quincy were able to confirm that two members had names that were reminiscent of a particular city in the Capital Wasteland. Not just any city, but one that Robert Joseph MacCready, one of the companions of Nate the Vault Dweller, had grown up in. MacCready was able to confirm that the two victims in questions who went by the names Knick Knack and Knock Knock, were childhood friends of his.

“Knick Knack just always had to have everything in order, that’s why we called him Knick Knack,” said MacCready. “His twin sister felt she should have a nickname to match his, so after we found a book of jokes, she decided she should be in charge of morale and started running around telling jokes.”

Suddenly, the case had become personal for the members involved. Valentine had to find the caravan as fast as he could. With past receipts and records of other caravans having disappeared, Valentine was able to establish that the caravans that did not make it to Goodneighbor were not just random attacks, but a coordinated effort. After a day of collecting clues and searching for evidence, a pattern to the attacks was discovered.

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Using the gathered evidence, he was able to find their ambush site and track the group back to their headquarters at the HalluciGen building. He also found some new evidence implying that the Raiders were starting a cult and torturing their kidnapped victims to join their group.

“I found a note that was worded like the notes Zeller’s group used to carry. It was too much to be a coincidence.” Valentine said.

He returned to Goodneighbor to get help with the raider group. Hancock, MacCready were ready to help him. They had also enlisted Cait’s aid and prior knowledge of the site in clearing out the building and searching for the hostages.

The four split up into two teams and cleared out the building. Valentine and Cait even met the leader of the group, a man who called himself Maison, and actively tried negotiating with him while he threatened to kill the hostages.

“The b------ was standing over a button that I saw Nate use to kill some raiders last year. He was going on and on about how was a great parent, and how we killed his kids and that there was no one left to play with the toys he had collected. I mean d---, the guy was nutty,” said Cait.

It was revealed by the leader that he saw his group as a family unit that was attacking caravans to use their resources. They captured and tortured any survivors from their raids in order to grow the group. They even had a promise to the person who held out longest from joining that if that person could kill someone else, they were allowed to go free. It is unclear if anyone ever accepted that promise.

Valentine was able to discern that Maison’s use of the word toy was more literal than originally thought. With the idea that he saw his victims as toys and treated them that way, the team was able to find the hostages inside a series of boxes where they were being psychologically tortured. After MacCready and Cait were able to open each box, the hostage would then be escorted to Goodneighbor for rehabilitation and recovery.

I’m sure we would all like to thank the brave heroes of the Commonwealth for helping make our home and trade a little safer.