Camp Venture

Camp Venture is a location in the Mire region of Appalachia in 2102.

Background
Camp Venture was known before the war for its extreme survival training. Known as VEST (Virginias Endurance and Survival Training), it was ran by Edward Hayes Jr., a Free States member. The intense training course lasted four weeks, with attendees working on their cardio, strength and learning numerous skills, including building fires, cleaning water, establishing shelter (week 1), handling firearms, field dressings, safety against poisonous flora (week 2), wilderness navigation, first aid and signals (week 3). The final week was essentially an examination, where attendees applied the skills they learned in practice. Hayes used the facilities to train members of the Free States, including Raleigh Clay and his family, in preparation for the nuclear war. When the Free States seceded from the United States in late 2077, Hayes mothballed the facility and retreated to his bunker.

This proved to be a windfall for Taggerdy's Thunder, left to fend for themselves by the chain of command. Acting on de Silva's recommendation, Lt. Taggerdy moved her squad into the camp, where they survived the harsh winter of 2078. In close contact with Roger Maxson on the West Coast, the Venture was where the Appalachian Brotherhood of Steel was eventually born. Taggerdy ordered the Camp to full readiness, in order to fill out the ranks, putting Sgt. Ted Wilson in charge of training volunteers. Within 29 days, Wilson brought the mothballed facility back to operational status, improvising a training regimen, adapting Ranger techniques to their present situation (complicated by the lack of an airborne component, but he made do). Recruits signed up regularly, but Wilson's brutal training caused many to wash out. The first class that graduated from Camp Venture had an over 50% failure rate and one fatality due to the live-fire exercises Wilson had recruits perform. However, they were the right kind of people for the Thunder, the lieutenant, and Captain Maxson.

Other complications happened from time to time. On January 3, 2081, a recruit by the name of Fisher, just a week from graduation, deserted from the Camp taking a combat shotgun, ten boxes of shells, salvage recon, and other gear. The incident resulted in Sergeant Wilson modifying the recruiting strategy used by Lt. Taggerdy, starting a pattern of elitism and preferring military veterans in recruiting, something that would come to bite the faction back, hard, years down the road. However, the Camp's training continued and when the Brotherhood was formed around 2082, it provided a steady stream of new troops for the organization. Although some couldn't take the strain - as was the case with one K. Kelly, who took her own live on November 9, 2083, unable to live on after losing most of her family and loved ones - others excelled, as was the case with Tex Rogers, who received a commendation on March 26, 2086 from Wilson, the very first he issued since the Great War. As this came just as the situation around Huntersville was heating up, the timing was impeccable.

Although the Camp could continue for the foreseeable future, the appearance of the scorchbeasts and the Scorched, coupled with Taggerdy's steep recruitment criteria meant the Camp's life expectancy was drastically reduced. Losses taken in containing the Bog's scorched threat and refusal to cooperate with other factions led to the Camp being shuttered in July 2093, with remaining personnel reassigned to Fort Defiance, Thunder Mountain power plant, and defense stations along the Bog's perimeter. The remaining Squires were immediately assigned combat duties, completing their training in practice, while Wilson was promoted to Fort Defiance executive officer.

By the time of the opening of Vault 76, in 2102, all the bunk houses outside the perimeter wall were falling apart and the interior was overrun by Scorched.

Layout
Camp Venture sits on the edge of the Mire and is divided into three distinct sections. The outer sector, surrounded by a crooked, derelict wooden wall, once served as the bunkhouses and outer edge of the VEST camp. The Brotherhood repurposed the buildings and salvaged the bunkhouses, leaving only the VEST storage and supply building intact and using it for storing their non-essential gear and as temporary storage for dangerous tech recovered from across Appalachia. The building contains a lot of loot and high level junk, though to access the locked door in the basement, one needs to head up to the main Brotherhood facility up the hill.

The facility cannot be missed, surrounded by prefabricated fortifications. It includes the barracks at the southern edge, complete with plenty of loot, notes, and holotapes. Just outside the eastern wall is a chemistry station and power armor depot with a random power armor spawn. The building next to the depot is the weapons storage and requires either the key (found in a locked level 0 locker in the bunkhouse) or a level 3 lockpicking skill. Apart from ammo and a minigun, it also has two bobblehead spawns and a magazine spawn, plus a weapons workbench.

The last building is the command center, which requires that players obtain the password. The password is located in the locked room in the basement of the storage and supply building. Inside is the steamer trunk, more lore, the Overseer's cache, and information on Fort Defiance's location.

Up the hill lies the landing pad, emblazoned with Taggerdy's Thunder insignia, including a console to call cargobots to location and a live fire range to the northeast, which has another weapons workbench and a tinker's workbench.

Holotapes and notes

 * About the Brotherhood - Holotape, on the center table in the command center.
 * Anonymous diary page - Note, in one of the bunkhouses, between lockers.
 * Belmonte incident - Note, on the center table in the command center.
 * Command center password - Note, next to a radio in the locked secure storage basement.
 * Formation of the Brotherhood of Steel - Holotape, in the mess hall.
 * Goodbye Alpha - Note, on a wooden box in Bunkhouse Alpha.
 * Henry's letter - Note, in a locker along the northern wall of the barracks.
 * Letter to Tommy - Note, in the command center, found during Defiance Has Fallen.
 * Message to Marge 1 - Holotape, on the floor in the western bunkhouse.
 * Message to Marge 2 - Holotape, on the floor in the western bunkhouse.
 * Overseer's log - Camp Venture - Holotape, inside the overseer's cache in the command center.
 * Preservation of technology - Holotape, on a kitchen counter in the mess hall.
 * Shelley's letter - Note, on the counter of the building at the weapons training range.
 * Store room report - Note, in a basement, near where technical data is submitted for the Forbidden Knowledge repeatable quest.
 * Survival planning checklist - Two notes, one in Bunkhouse Alpha and the other in a medical cabin.
 * Maxson's eulogy for De Silva
 * Secure storage policy - Note, pinned on the wall next to the entrance of the secure storage (cannot be taken).

Other loot

 * Secure storage key - In a locked (Picklock 0) locker in the bunkhouse.
 * Camp Venture weapons room key - Opens weapon room.
 * Five fusion cores - Chance to spawn on the wall cabinet inside the level 3 locked armory.
 * Two potential bobbleheads - Both in the weapons storage building.
 * Two potential magazines:
 * In the middle of the command center, by a set of shelves near the central steel support and by the "star" trunk and the overseer's cache.
 * In weapons storage, below the shelf trolley jutting out from the southwest wall (under the green metal work cabinet), left of the weapons workbench inside the locked security gate area.
 * Power armor chassis - In the depot, outside the barracks.
 * Two potential plans:
 * On a cabinet shelf next to the storage room.
 * In a room behind a security gate.
 * Two potential mods - Under the counter of the building at the weapons training range.

Appearances
Camp Venture appears only in Fallout 76.