Raul (Fallout: New Vegas)

"I'm an open book, boss. Granted, the book's in Spanish and some of the pages have fallen out, but I'm an open book."

- Raul

Raul Alfonso Tejada is a ghoul mechanic and gunslinger living at Black Mountain in 2281.

Background
Born in 2047, Raul has had a long and storied history. Before the war, Raul was a delinquent living in Hidalgo Ranch outside Mexico. He was a good shooter and mechanic, both of which occasionally got him in trouble with the law, although his family mostly kept him in line. The ranch easily survived the war, being far from any major settlements, but the stream of refugees from the cities proved more difficult to deal with. The Tejada family were as accommodating as they could be, but they eventually simply ran out of room and food, and had to start turning people away. Raul and his father had to chase off around two dozen people, who returned later that night, complete with torches and pitchforks. Raul survived the fire that destroyed his ranch, and managed to rescue his sister Rafaela, but his two sisters, two brothers, parents, and grandparents were killed.

The pair traveled to the "radioactive ruin" of Mexico City to begin anew, amidst the large number of looters in the city. There, Raul found an old Vaquero outfit at a costume store while looking for cloth to wrap his numerous burns with. Rafaela liked it, so Raul began to wear it and soon became a legend in the area. His post-apocalyptic gunslinging antics attracted the attention of glory seekers, but he always saw them off. Sickened by radiation, Raul spent some time too ill to go scavenging with his sister (this illness was to be indicative of the early stages of "ghoulification"), and as such she was left to provide for the two on her own. One day, after she failed to return from a market where she had been scavenging for food, Raul went in search of her only to find her brutally murdered, her corpse violated by Raiders in such a way that she was only identifiable by a tiny scar on her knee. Raul tracked down the raiders at the market responsible and killed them to the last man, discarding the Vaquero outfit that had attracted him the attention that he felt had killed his sister.

Leaving every aspect of his former life behind, including as Raul cleverly says, "his face", he wandered to the Gulf Coast and inhabited an unclaimed Petró-Chico refinery. He spent a long period of time here, thinking about his life so far. He found a Petró-Chico jumpsuit and began to wear it, taking the name "Miguel"; the name on the nametag. He eventually arrived in the Arizona town of Tucson, now known as Two Sun. He settled there, becoming a mechanic and a general handyman, his guns stashed away where they could do no further harm. After 75 years of relative peace, he met Claudia - a prostitute working in a local brothel who bore a striking resemblance to Rafaela. Spurred by this reminder of what he lost, he took the time to look out for her - though for obvious reasons never visited her.

This peace was not to last. Arizona, overrun with raiders and tribals before the rise of Caesar's Legion brought stability to the region, brought 'Dirty Dave' and his six brothers to town looking for bullets. Raul sold them ammo, hoping they would leave now that they had what they wanted - instead, they decided they wanted the brothel. They attacked it, killing most of them and taking Claudia as a prisoner. Raul gave chase, and after a three day pursuit across the wasteland, Raul found them. Youth was not on his side anymore, however, and the battle left him severely injured. By the time he found Claudia, she was already dead. Dejected, Raul wandered west to the Mojave Wasteland, where he listened to the Black Mountain Radio. One day he lost the signal being transmitted and decided to go have a look. There he offered his services to Tabitha, the nightkin who broadcasted there, and fixed the transmitter, but to his dismay Tabitha decided to keep him around, mostly repairing broken toasters for the super mutants as well as performing repairs to Rhonda.

If freed from captivity, he will join the player out of gratitude. A new taste of adventure reminds Raul of his tumultuous past, prompting him to consider if he should embrace his old gunslinging ways. In which case he will be forced to decide between two different ways of life.

When compared to the other human companions of the Wasteland, Raul is perhaps the most tolerant towards the Legion when compared to everyone else who would suffer should the Legion be victorious. He is not affected by the Legion's presence on the wasteland and admires the security and order brought by the Legion, although being a ghoul he wouldn't be able to join them with their hatred towards all forms of mutants. He also has quite an insightful amount of knowledge about Mr.House, as Raul knew of House's pre-War exploits.

Quests

 * Crazy, Crazy, Crazy: Raul can be recruited as part of the quest Crazy, Crazy, Crazy, or simply by traveling to Black Mountain and busting him out.
 * Old School Ghoul: While Raul is an active companion, talk to and exhaust all dialogue options for Loyal, Corporal Sterling, and Ranger Andy. Upon finishing the last conversation, Raul will open up a new dialogue with the Courier. (Note: Obviously, killing any of the NPC'S will cause the mission to fail resulting in Raul's new apparel to be unobtainable, only through console commands)

Other interactions

 * He is a very competent repairman, but will only offer repairs at his shack, and even then will not offer a discount.
 * Before he is a companion he will do repair jobs for free. (This bug has been fixed after patch 1.3.0.452)

Endings

 * If left grappling with self-doubt over his usefulness in the face of old age, Raul is never able to find peace with himself. Eventually, he leaves the Mojave and assumes a new name, as he had done so many times before.
 * If invigorated by his travels with the Courier, Raul once more takes up his guns in memory of his lost Rafaela. Soon after, the Mojave is filled with tales of the ghost-vaquero who hunts down those who prey on the weak.
 * If convinced that his time as a gunslinger is past, Raul makes peace with the idea of growing old. After traveling with the Courier for a time, he retires and settles down in outer Vegas, where he spends his days fixing ancient machinery.
 * After a long and eventful life, Raul's luck finally ran out during his time with The Courier.

Appearances
Raul only appears in Fallout: New Vegas.

Notable quotes

 * "Keeping quiet... unless my creaking knees give us away."
 * "Sure, boss, the old man will crawl around in the dirt to keep hidden."
 * "This crouch walking is hell on my back, boss."

Behind the scenes
Raul Tejada was written by Travis Stout.

Bugs

 * Unlike other companions, Raul won't walk around while in the Lucky 38, merely standing in the main room to the right of the door until spoken to.
 * After fast traveling to a location Raul will occasionally start running away as quick as he can for no reason. Also if you catch up to him up to him you cannot talk to him. To correct this either enter a building (That makes your game load a new area) or fast travel to another location.
 * The recon armor helmet seems glitchy and does not fully wrap around his head.
 * Raul may not repair even when inside his shack.
 * Not sure if this is actually a bug, but Raul won't fight the Legion. During Eureka! he stays by Oliver's compound. He seems to respect what Caesar has done, and expresses displeasure as you work through NCR quests, however, he will fight any Legion kill squads if the Courier has a bad reputation with them.
 * When Raul awakens after being knocked unconscious, sometimes he will claim to have had a nightmare of Petro Chico Boy "stealing his chicharrones (spanish for pork rinds)", but the subtitles will incorrectly use the word "chitlins" instead of "chicharrones".
 * Sometimes if the player speaks to him in the lucky 38 presidential suite a great khan may spawn the reason is unknown.
 * He will catch the player pickpocketing him but the caps will still end up in your inventory.
 * Sometimes when Raul enters the Strip as a companion, his head disappears. This can be fixed by restarting the console.

Рауль