Blood Ties

Blood Ties is a Fallout 3 quest. It is also an Xbox 360 and PC achievement, and a Playstation 3 trophy. It is the story of a man's struggle within his own mind and the consequences of that inner turmoil, directed onto his family.

Quest Start
The quest can be started by speaking with Lucy West in or around Moriarty's saloon in Megaton, by talking to Evan King in Arefu, or by reading "Regarding the Arefu Incident" in The Family's Terminal.

Deliver Lucy's Message
Lucy West asks the player to deliver a letter to her family in Arefu. If the quest is accepted, Lucy will give the player Lucy's Sealed Envelope, and mark the location of Arefu on the player's Pip-Boy 3000.

Report to Evan King
Evan King will toss a grenade as the player approaches Arefu, then apologize and explain Arefu is under attack by The Family. Evan will ask the player to check the Ewer, Schenzy, and West residences to make sure everyone is all right (this starts the quest for the player if he/she didn't pick it up from Lucy). Evan mentions seeing Ian with the leader of The Family and gives three possible locations where they might be found: the Northwest Seneca Station, Hamilton's Hideaway and Moonbeam Outdoor Cinema.

When checking up on the families, the player discovers the Ewer and Schenzy families are safe, but finds the bodies of Lucy's parents; further examination shows they have bite marks on their necks (requires 30+ in Medicine skill) that the teeth marks are from human teeth (75+ in medicine skill) and that there is trainyard residue on the bodies (90+ medicine skill). When the player reports back to Evan King, he will ask Evan about Lucy's brother, Ian West, who is missing. If the player noticed the trainyard residue, he'll have the option of asking King if there are any trainyards in the area. King will mention Meresti Trainyard.

If you have the Scoundrel perk, before you find Ian, you can return to Lucy and demand caps before you'll go look for her brother. She gives 100 caps, with no karma penalty.

Locate The Family
If you ask Evan King where the family may be, he will give you the locations of Hamilton's Hideaway, Northwest Seneca Station and Moonbeam Outdoor Cinema. The Family is hiding in Meresti Metro Station which can be reached via the tunnels under Meresti Trainyard or via the adjoining tunnels from Northwest Seneca Station, but the Meresti Trainyard offers the most direct route. Beware of various traps, including bear traps, rigged baby carriages, and an assortment of tripwire traps inside the tunnels.

If you enter by Northwest Seneca Station, you will find Murphy's chem lab operation. In the back of his office you'll find a hatch leading to the Meresti Service Tunnel. The player will encounter two mirelurks there. After going through the cave you will enter the old train trail, then make a left at the first train wreck with the dead, empty mirelurks. The debris here conceals many traps (frag mines either side, two bear traps in middle. Heading left comes to two minature tripwires between the carriages and walls. The first has a rigged shotgun straight ahead, the second a heavy weight that falls from the ceiling.)

The front gate to The Family's hideout is guarded by Robert, who will allow the player into The Family's home for 100 caps, or if the Lone Wanderer has Lucy's letter for Ian. The player can also gain peaceful entrance by passing a speech check with Robert, or by using a speech option from the Cannibal perk, which also opens up many more speech options making the whole quest much easier. Alternatively, the player can kill Robert and hack the terminal adjacent to his post to unlock the station door, although this and the option of sneaking past Robert will turn the family hostile.

Locate Ian West
The next task is to locate Ian West to determine if he is still alive. Several members of The Family will reveal Ian's location and the password to unlock the room where he is meditating. These are the possible scenarios:
 * The leader of The Family is Vance - a mysterious and charismatic man who is trying to help the members of his "Family" overcome their hunger for human flesh by drinking human blood akin to the mystical vampires in the stories from before the Great War. If the player fails a Speech check, Vance will advise the player to learn the rules of The Family by asking other members and reading from the terminal in the main lobby. If the player passes the Speech check, uses the Cannibal perk, or reads the rules and explains he understands The Family then Vance will give the pass code that allows entry into Ian's meditation room.
 * Alan notices that Justin has been trying to befriend Ian and suggests the player talk to Justin about him.
 * Justin believes that Ian belongs with The Family having witnessed the murder of his parents and done nothing. If the player suggests that Ian needs an 'outside voice' to help and passes a Speech check Justin will reveal the pass code that allows entry into Ian's meditation room. The Impartial Mediation perk gives a similar dialogue option with an identical result (even if you do not have neutral Karma when you ask the question).
 * Karl will become annoyed if asked about Ian. Karl can be seduced by the player by using the Black Widow perk (female) or convinced with high Strength (both sexes). In either scenario, Karl gives up the pass code to Ian's meditation room.
 * Brianna also feels that being with The Family is the best for Ian but that he could use an outside friend. If the Lone Wanderer picked up the Lady Killer perk he will have the option to seduce Brianna into handing over the password to the room where Ian is. The Scoundrel perk or a high Charisma will work as well.
 * Holly, Vance's wife, can be persuaded to reveal the pass code with the Scoundrel perk or a high Charisma.
 * Vance can simply be killed and the pass code looted from his remains. This will cause the rest of The Family to become hostile towards the player, attacking on sight. Each family member killed will result in negative karma at this point. Ian will be angry that Vance has been killed but will give the player the same ultimate options regardless, as long as you do not respond flippantly to his death. (responding with "Well, he's worm food now." results in Ian turning hostile towards you and failing the quest)
 * You may also goad Vance with certain conversation options, finally calling him a "psycho", and he will order the Family to attack - this will allow you to follow the above option but result in no negative karma from killing them. (Note: This path must be taken before Ian comes to any decision. See Bugs.)

Talking to Ian will confirm he was not kidnapped but voluntarily joined The Family after killing his parents. After a childhood encounter with a threatening wastelander Ian has craved human flesh and blood, even that of his own mother and father. The player is then faced with the choice of convincing Ian to leave - which requires either the letter from his sister Lucy or passing a Speech check if Vance is still alive - or leaving him with The Family.

Settling Accounts
Ian's decision must be relayed to Evan King back in Arefu. Depending on which choice Ian made the appropriate parties will react with enthusiasm or disappointment. Reporting the news of Ian's decision to King will result in a sizable amount of good karma regardless of Ian's ultimate choice. After Ian's decision The Family and the residents of Arefu are considered to be the same faction even before the deal is made with Vance.

Vance may also be convinced to either not attack or to defend Arefu if he and the family are not already dead. If the player simply asks Vance to stop attacking Arefu, he will agree. Through a successful Speech, Medicine, or Intelligence check, the player can also convince Vance to enter into a deal to use blood packs instead of attacking the residents of Arefu. Regardless of the conversation choice, Vance will award the player with Schematics - Shishkebab, a flaming sword, after the initial conversation about the deal is over.

If the player brokered a deal between the family and Arefu, then they can return to Vance after the deal is relayed to King and ask to be shown the ways of the vampire. The player will then be taught to drink blood and awarded the Hematophage perk which modifies Blood Packs to heal 20 HP instead of 1 HP.

If the player suggested the Family guard the town in exchange for blood Alan will be dispatched to Arefu, fulfilling their end of the deal. At that point, you can enter Alan's Residence in Arefu (located at the entrance to town, near the Brahmin pen) to find a copy of Pugilism Illustrated on a table in the corner.

After successfully dealing with the problem of Arefu each of its inhabitants will show their gratitude in the following ways:
 * Evan King will (periodically?) give Beer, Wine, Scotch, Vodka, or Whiskey to the player.
 * Ken Ewers will repair stuff (up to 47%) for a price.
 * Brailee Ewers will give her "old-fashioned chocolate chip cookies" (which is actually a Tin can) to the player.
 * Karen Schenzy will mark several locations on the player's Pip-Boy 3000.

Bugs

 * When you first approach Arefu, Evan King may run past you to attack an enemy if you led them there. If this happens, the explosion will still occur and you will be frozen in place as the game waits for the encounter to occur. You can either load a previous save from when not on the bridge and kill the monster following you, or wait for Evan King to come back which can take a while. Eventually he will walk past you and return to his usual position, in which the dialogue sequence will then initiate. The game may freeze.
 * If The Family is inexplicably hostile, Vance may never appear in the game, making the quest impossible due to the lack of password for the terminal.
 * If the player kills any member of The Family after Ian makes his decision the inhabitants of Arefu will turn hostile even though no one from the town was directly attacked or killed. This is due to the fact that Arefu and The Family become one faction after Ian makes his decision, rather than after the deal is struck between Evan and Vance. If the player attacked The Family instead of talking to them initially this can be a problem if Robert the gate guard is not killed before speaking with Ian. When the player leaves Robert will be hostile but if the player kills him the quest will be failed. If the player kills all residents of Arefu, the quest will also fail. You can work around this problem by simply getting past Robert, without killing him, in sneak mode.
 * If you already killed Robert or another family member, but you haven't yet received the message that you are hostile to this faction, you can restart this by repeatedly pressing the "wait-button". Doing this, you still can talk to Evan and finish the quest successfully. Waiting for 24 hours seems to work the best.
 * If you are in a situation where you would rather not fire and lose a companion you can tell your party members to wait you in the previous area. However after talking to Evan King and completing the quest successfully) the player has to come back and regroup with their now-waiting followers. Killing Robert even then will result in violent reaction from Arefu residents and Lucy, making further contact with Arefu impossible. In short, you have to decide between losing a companion (if you are using glitches to get more than one companion) or losing the goodwill of Arefu towards you.
 * If you haven't started the Blood Ties quest yet, and you go to Arefu during the time that the Enclave may randomly spawn in the area around, you may see them attacking Arefu. When this happens, if you kill the Enclave, they may or may not have already killed Evan King. This will result in Lucy West and Robert assuming you killed Evan, and Lucy will never give you the quest start, and you cannot ever start the quest. However, Robert will not question you, and you can pick the locked gate however this will turn The Family hostile towards you, but you lose no karma for killing them since they initiate combat.
 * While the Family's Terminals are not red when highlighted (it will be your regular HUD color, as if open-use), being seen hacking into them by any member of the Family will result in The Family turning hostile as soon as you exit.
 * Sometimes when you do this quest the option to ask Vance about Arefu does not appear, so save before talking to Ian.
 * While checking on the residents of Arefu, after you check on one, the door is locked.
 * Sometimes, after getting Ian West to return to Arefu, the residents of Arefu will turn hostile for no reason and the quest will fail.
 * Rarely, you can start the quest normally from Lucy in Megaton, and talk to Vance, and when you go to give Lucy's Letter to her brother Ian - it will not leave your inventory.
 * When knocking on the doors of one of the two locked houses, you get stuck on the "..." message. (saving is advised before checking the houses as well as checking the West residence as last)
 * If you sneak past Robert and The Family is hostile to you, it's possible for them to open the door to Ian's room while searching for you (after alerting them.) Talking to Ian afterwards will still require you to say Vance is dead. After this, the residents of Arefu are hostile to you, resulting in quest failure.
 * There's a minor bug where a Yao Guai (or some other creature) may spawn in Arefu while you are checking the families. If the creature kills Evan, everyone in Arefu, including the Family, will turn hostile to you.
 * On the way into The Family's hideout, even if you've annoyed Robert and turned The Family hostile, before the rest of them see you, they are still non-hostile (green), so if you kill them long-distance, you lose karma. To kill them without losing karma, they must each notice you, turn red, and start attacking before you attack them. This includes Vance, who may be on the upper level far behind them, still unaware of your presence even while everyone else is fighting you.
 * There are many situations that can cause this quest to cause Ian to assume that Vance was slain when he hasn't been. To fix this problem, access the console (~) and enter the command "set MS09FamilyHates to 0".

Behind the scenes

 * "Vespertilio", the password to Ian's cell, is a genus of Vespertilio Vespertilionidae bats.
 * Alan informs the player about the "Meresti" name originating from that of a town in Romania. He is referring to the town of Mereşti.

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