Cass

"A sober woman might take insult at that. Me, I might just bust you one."

Rose of Sharon Cassidy, is a water merchant and owner of Cassidy Caravans in 2281.

Background
Born in 2244, Cass is the daughter of John Cassidy, a companion of the Chosen One in Fallout 2.

Worn down by years of hard luck and a recent rash of terrible misfortunes, Cass is a despondent merchant who's about to get out of the caravan business. She's smart, tough, and steady with a gun, but she hasn't been savvy enough to survive the ruthless caravan wars that have flared up in Nevada since NCR's expansion. Though she's quick to join up with the player for some easy money, she's still interested in finding out if she's been suffering from bad luck or something more sinister.

Quests

 * Heartache by the Number: The player recruits Cass as a companion, then investigates her sacked caravan and helps exact revenge on the perpetrators.
 * You Can Depend on Me: The player is sent by Alice McLafferty to convince Cass to sell her caravan.
 * Birds of a Feather: The player is sent by Jean-Baptiste Cutting to either kill Cass or lure her to the Silver Rush to be killed.

Other interactions

 * If the player has the Lady Killer perk, he can accuse Cass of flirting with him, saying, "Miss Cassidy... are you flirting with me?" a reference to The Graduate. Doing so will result in Cass making it clear that nothing is ever going to happen between the two, as she "knows his type", implying the Courier is a "player".
 * If the player has a high enough speech and the Lady Killer perk she'll say she "knows his look" and knows he says all the right things to leave a trail of broken hearts across the Mojave.
 * If the player has the Confirmed Bachelor perk, he can respond to Cass's flirting by saying they should not be anything more than friends. Cass states that he must have a "Legion" point of view, implying that he is not interested in women.
 * If the player has the Black Widow perk, she can respond to Cass's comment about not liking "soft men" by saying that they're rarely a problem for the player.
 * If the player has the Cherchez La Femme perk, Cass will respond by nervously saying that when she's had enough to drink, she doesn't care who she ends up in bed with.
 * Opening a conversation with Cass after she has joined you and when you have substantially negative karma will force a Speech check. If you fail your Speech checks in both conversations with her, she will leave you permanently. Even if the first speech challenges are successful, talking to her a third time will result in her leaving your party anyway. If the Courier chooses to make a comment about her dead parents, she will become hostile. Players can avoid this by not entering conversation mode with her, but this will make her personal quest impossible to complete.

Endings

 * If she leaves the Courier, despite the destruction of Cassidy Caravans, Cass lives for 30 more years. She makes her way back West and passes away in a small shack outside of Vault City, the rose pendant still around her neck.
 * If she exacts a violent vengeance on them, the slaughter of the Van Graffs and the Crimson Caravan causes no end of trouble for NCR back West. Already struggling, NCR's supply lines suffer further as the two caravans withdraw support until the "massacre in the East" was resolved.
 * If she exacts a peaceful vengeance on them, in the years following the destruction of Cassidy Caravans, NCR uses evidence of the plot to blackmail the Crimson Caravan and the Van Graffs. NCR enacts strict trade laws with little resistance, strengthening their supply lines and their position in the Mojave.
 * If NCR win control of Vegas, Cass survives to see the NCR flag flying proud over Hoover Dam, and thinks for a moment... this is what a hero must feel like. She was about to tell the Courier not to get too proud of themself, then she figured they knew that already.
 * If the Courier is a straight male and helped her get revenge on the Crimson Caravan and the Van Graffs, that night, Cass kicks in the door of his room to celebrate, only to find the man on the bed is an NCR soldier whose barracks had been destroyed. He is cute, though, so after having her way with him, she gets the hell out, leaving an empty whiskey bottle and a note. As she walks along the Dam in the night, she feels drunk, content, and happy to be alive. Which to her, is the whole point of it all.
 * If the Courier is gay, female, or did not help Cass get revenge on the Crimson Caravan and the Van Graffs, she laughs, said fuck it all, and raises a bottle to the Dam and the ones who had fought for it. As far as she is concerned, the whole thing is proof that playing out a bad hand can pay off in the end... as long as someone like the Courier is holding the cards.


 * If House maintains control of Vegas, Cass lives to see Hoover Dam in all its Old World glory, humming with power the likes of which the Mojave had never seen. Vegas burns brighter than ever, Securitrons fill the streets, and Cass's heart skips... just a little. Her last words are to the Dam - and to herself. "We were going full speed ahead... but facing backwards the whole time."
 * If New Vegas achieves independence, Cass lives to see the Courier bring down three armies and by her count, that was three more than she'd expected. She kept quiet about that, though.
 * If Caesar's Legion win control of Vegas, Cass lives to see the mark of the Legion on Hoover Dam. Uncertain of what lies next for the West, she remains silent. As the Legion march West, she finds it difficult to see the Dam as anything more than a gravestone for the Mojave - and everyone in it.

Inventory
Cass comes equipped with both a Combat Knife, and a Caravan Shotgun. She also has 13 Bottle Caps, and an Empty Whiskey Bottle in her inventory.
 * Cass's shotgun is a companion variant (id 00176E55). Same with her Combat Knife (00176E56). Useful if a casino robs her and gives it to the PC.

Other
Successfully completing Cass' companion quest, Heartache by the Number, will give her one of two perks:
 * Calm Heart, which raises her health by 50 points.
 * Hand of Vengeance, which grants a 15% bonus to the damage Cass inflicts with Guns-skill weapons.

Appearances
only appears in Fallout: New Vegas.

Behind the scenes

 * Rose of Sharon is a common name that applies to several different species of flowering plants that are highly valued throughout the world and originates in the Bible. She is named after the character of the same name in John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath, which she describes as "some Old World book about dirt pilgrims."
 * The playing cards that come with the Collectors Edition of Fallout: New Vegas depict Cass as blonde. This was probably one of the earlier concepts of her; in the game she has red hair.

Bugs

 * Attempting to heal Cass by giving her Stimpaks may cause the game to freeze.
 * Sometimes for no reason she will keep talking to you as if you selected to talk, and she will repeat this every few seconds. Sometimes even reloading the game cannot correct this error.
 * Like with all companions on New Vegas, sometimes when a script which empties your inventory takes effect, such as when entering casinos, it will will remove their "companion only" weapon, and upon leaving you will receive it in your inventory. If you happen to drop it on the ground, you cannot pick it back up when you click it - it will only say "steal" with no weapon name shown.
 * If you kill the Van Graffs before recruiting her she will talk to you about the quest "Heartache by the number", but you will not be able to recruit her.
 * The Calm Heart perk is bugged. The added health bonus is 50/0 which means that she gets a health boost of 50 points but her max health limit is the same as before (ex. 270/270 HP (default) 320/270 HP (with Calm Heart perk)).
 * When attempting to reload a weapon with an internal box or tubular magazine, such as the cowboy repeater or hunting shotgun, she may get 'stuck' in a loop of the reloading animation indefinitely. Telling her to switch to melee weapons, and then back to ranged via the companion wheel will 'fix' the problem, with the weapon now fully loaded.
 * After recruiting Cass, if you try to speak to Lacey, the game will freeze but the start menu is still available.

- Similar glitch, Cass still has a companion wheel, except she has a boomer hat on van graffs combat armor and uses any weapon she pleases, screenshot below
 * If she was sent to Lucky 38 before starting sub-quest from the Van Graff's brother, quest mark will indicate that she is located close to the Mojave Outpost, but player won't be able to actually see her there. Then quest mark will guide the Courier to the Silver Rush where player can tell Jean-Baptiste that she is dead. She seems to disappear from the game at this point.
 * Cass can cause the game to crash repeatedly around New Vegas.
 * Really? Platform etc. Playing PC and game hasn't crashed once with Cass as companion around Vegas.
 * In some cases Cass has returned to the Mojave Outpost even after being Killed by Jean-Baptiste during the Birds of a Feather quest.
 * For an unknown reason Cass after becoming a companion to the player may lose the companion wheel and only say in the chatlog "".
 * Cass may randomly die while fast-traveling to Brooks' Tumbleweed Ranch. Attempted multiple times with the same save.

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