Tenpenny Tower (quest)

Tenpenny Tower is a side quest connected with Tenpenny Tower that is given by either Gustavo or Roy Phillips, and is an achievement/trophy in Fallout 3.

Detailed walkthrough
The ghouls want to live in the luxurious Tenpenny Tower, but neither Allistair Tenpenny nor the other residents are willing to let them in. The player character can choose to kill the band of ghouls, let them into the tower, or find an uneasy diplomatic solution. Note that the decisions made in this quest can have permanent and major effects on the fate of a major city and obtaining some of the most useful items in the game.

Starting the quest
The quest is started either by speaking with Chief Gustavo at Tenpenny Tower or by Roy Phillips in the Warrington Tunnels.

If the quest is initiated by speaking to Chief Gustavo, the Wanderer will get an assault rifle and a promise of 500 caps for the death of Roy Phillips and his "gang." A successful Speech check will raise the reward to 700 caps, as well as upgrade the player character's starting gun to a Chinese assault rifle with some 5.56mm rounds. Attempting and failing the Speech test means one will get a 10mm Submachine Gun instead.

Gustavo will direct the Wanderer to the feral ghoul infested Warrington Tunnels southwest of Tenpenny Tower. Follow the tunnels and one will find a door leading to Roy Phillips' hideout. Once Roy and his gang have been located, either kill the ghouls, or speak to Roy and offer to help him and his ghouls enter the building through the secret underground entrance to massacre the residents, or find a peaceful way for the ghouls and humans to live together. One way the ghouls will take over and occupy the area, and the other way the ghouls will be dead and the humans will continue living where they were before.

This quest will also be automatically added if one kills every resident of Tenpenny Tower. The quest will jump straight to the stage where the Wanderer can "Tell Roy Phillips the ghouls can move in."

Kill Roy Phillips
After killing Roy and his gang, return to Chief Gustavo for a reward of 500 caps (700 by passing a Speech check). The ghoul mask cannot be obtained if this method was chosen.

Killing Roy Phillips has the upside of sparing the lives of all the residents of the tower, as all the other solutions eventually result in the death of every human in the area (killed either by the Wanderer or by Roy Phillips and his pack of feral ghouls). Killing Roy will result in having multiple traders in the tower compared to just two if he were allowed in.

For negative Karma
Enter Roy's hideout and kill Roy Phillips and his ghouls while they are in the hideout.

One can also choose to kill Roy during the conversation he has with the intercom when first approaching Tenpenny Tower. Simply allow the conversation to finish and then attack him when he leaves, or reverse pickpocket a mine or grenade into his inventory while he is looking away. Gustavo still has to be spoken to, to initiate the quest and kill the rest of his gang.

Without losing Karma
If one wants to kill the ghouls without losing Karma, they can allow the feral ghouls to follow them into the room containing Roy Phillips and Bessie Lynn. Roy, Bessie, and Michael Masters will attack even if the Lone Wanderer has not harmed the ferals. If one then kills them, their Karma will not suffer, but Three Dog will still verbally berate the player afterward.

Roy, Bessie or Michael can be provoked into attacking via dialogue choices, and then they can be killed without losing Karma.

Roy Phillips and his gang can be killed without losing Karma if the Wanderer has the Mister Sandman perk. To do this, first wait for the three ghouls to go to sleep. Murder Bessie first, she will scream but this will not wake Roy or Michael. Either Roy or Michael can be killed next (preferably Roy because he is closer to Bessie). Afterwards, the third ghoul will wake up and turn hostile, so he can then be picked off without incurring loss of Karma.

Helping the ghouls move into Tenpenny Tower
Talk to Roy about the possibility of a peaceful negotiation, then bring the proposal to Allistair Tenpenny. He will say that if they can convince tenants Edgar Wellington II, Millicent Wellington, Anthony Ling, Lydia Montenegro and Susan Lancaster to have the ghouls as neighbors, he will let them move in. One can also get rid of them by murder to accomplish this task.

There are several methods of getting the five residents to cooperate. The first is passing a Speech check (for positive Karma), which forces them to accept the change or leave. Stealthy assassinations (for negative Karma, Mister Sandman perk can be useful here) also work. Alternatively, take the love letter from Susan Lancaster's desk and show it to Millicent Wellington, she will then proceed to murder both her husband Edgar and his lover Susan. Millicent will then leave the tower, leaving only Anthony and Lydia. These two can be convinced to leave by stealing from their store safes and speaking to them after doing so.

Once all required tenants are convinced or otherwise removed from the picture, visit Mr. Tenpenny for a 500 cap reward. Once Roy Phillips has been brought the news, he will reward the Wanderer with a ghoul mask, which makes them friendly with feral ghouls. Additionally, one will also gain a 300 XP reward.

Upon returning to Tenpenny Tower, human and ghoul residents will be found living together. Inquiring among residents will indicate that both sides are getting along well. A few days later, however, all the human residents will be gone. Further investigation reveals that the human and ghoul tenants had a "disagreement," and that Roy Phillips decided to "take out the trash." The human residents have all been slaughtered, and their looted and stripped bodies dumped in the basement. Former residents of Tenpenny Tower such as Mr. Ling and Ms. Montenegro will also die and disappear at this point, even if they have moved to the entrance of Megaton. One may choose to kill Phillips and the other ghouls in Tenpenny Tower after learning this, at the cost of Karma.

It is also possible to help the ghouls enter the tower by obtaining the key to the generator room from either Herbert "Daring" Dashwood or Chief Gustavo. To obtain the key, either pickpocket or kill Chief Gustavo, and either pickpocket, kill, or choose certain dialogue options with Dashwood, including, "I don't have time for games." The door to the generator room is on the exterior of Tenpenny Tower around the back. However, releasing the ghouls inside the generator room will also result in very negative Karma.

Ways to open the door in the generator room
If the terminal cannot be hacked, due to not having a high enough Science skill, one can choose to shoot the generator to their left. Also, after the ghouls have been let in and the door is open, the door is assumed to be open indefinitely, but the generator can be shot then the door can be closed.

If all the humans in Tenpenny Tower are killed, then one can tell Roy that he and his ghouls can move in. If one does this, remember that Lydia Montenegro has the key to Le Chic Boutique. Chief Gustavo has the key to the Tenpenny Tower armament, Anthony Ling has the key to New Urban Apparel, Shakes has the key to the liquor cabinet, Dr. Banfield has the key to the medicine cabinet, and Herbert Dashwood has the key to his safe. In summary, one will obtain Schematics - bottlecap mine (from Dashwood's safe), Schematics - Dart Gun (from Le Chic Boutique inventory), and a bunch of other items like caps, medicine, Tenpenny's sniper rifle, some weapons and ammunition from the armament, a bunch of armor and assault rifles from the guards, etc.

To receive two copies of the dart gun schematics, first buy it from Lydia Montenegro or kill her and use her key to raid the Le Chic Boutique inventory. Then after letting the ghouls take over the tower, buy it from or kill and loot Michael Masters.

Behind the scenes
Originally, Mister Burke would have disappeared if the ferals were released into the tower. Although this is not the case in the final version of the game, as he is present during the attack, the lines to disable his reference are found in the quest's main script, commented out.

Bugs

 * After allowing the ghouls to move in using the "diplomatic method" and Roy killed the human residents: if the bug happens where there is no human body present and there is just a lot of blood stains, sometimes a feral ghoul will appear and attack on sight unless wearing the ghoul mask when entering. (This is probably caused by opening the containment door after a peaceful resolution has been sought.)
 * After letting the ghouls invade, sometimes it will permanently lock the player out of their room that they may have acquired after blowing up Megaton. This can occur if one has opened the emergency gate in the metro access without initiating the quest. One possible solution is to kill all of the feral ghouls in Tenpenny Tower (and all sublocations), and wait at least 24 hours.
 * After killing Roy and his companions, head through the door in the back of Roy's room that's labeled "Metro Access & Generator." Walk into the room, and shoot a missile at the wall where the door generator is on the other side. Doing so may cause the players Xbox to lock up entirely, requiring restart.
 * The quest script that moves the ghouls into Tenpenny Tower will not check whether Roy is still alive before moving their bodies into the basement. So if Roy is killed before the human tenants are disposed of, he will still somehow manage to murder them.
 * If Roy is killed immediately after gifting the player with the ghoul mask (for example, in a proactive attempt to prevent Roy from committing to disposing of the human tenants), both ghouls and humans cohabitate. However, Roy's body mysteriously appears in the lobby in front of Chief Gustavo's desk. Then after 24 hours, all occupants of the tower apart from Shakes are removed.
 * Sometimes after letting the feral ghouls into Tenpenny Tower, the assault on the tower's residents will never end. If Susan Lancaster was sent to the slave pens, attempt to kill her in her pen then return to the tower and personally scour each level to ensure all residents are dead. After confirming this, talk to Roy and if he thanks the Wanderer for their part in the siege, leave the tower, wait 24 hours and return and the tower should be functional again. An alternative solution to this bug is to kill all the ghouls. Roy will not attack the player if they attack the ghouls. After Michael Masters and Bessie Lynn arrive at the tower wait 24 hours and the tower should be functional.
 * Killing all the residents of the tower and then unlocking the basement door for Roy via the terminal in the metro access tunnel will make it impossible to ever finish the quest. Roy will act as if already living at the tower when meeting him in front of the main doors, even though the feral ghoul invasion is in full swing inside, and all of Roy's gang inside the tower will be hostile. Even after waiting for 48 hours, which will return the tower to normal, it will still be impossible to finish the quest. To prevent this from happening, talk to Roy directly inside Warrington Station instead of opening the basement door for him. This will finish the quest and the ghouls will move into Tenpenny Tower normally.
 * Killing Roy Phillips will complete the quest, but if the player fails to kill all three, the remaining ghouls will move in and will still mention Roy Phillips, as if he were alive.
 * The game has been known to lock-up after killing all of the ghouls and residents from Tenpenny Tower, if the player attempts to load the Tenpenny Tower lobby via elevator and front door.
 * If one tells Roy that they will let the ghouls in and then kill him and his friends, GNR may report that the Wanderer has let them kill everyone in Tenpenny Tower, despite this never happening.
 * If one completes the quest by convincing Tenpenny to let the ghouls live in the tower, and then proceed to blow Tenpenny's head off (as for the quest "Shoot 'em in the Head"), before telling Roy that he can move into the tower, will result in Three Dog reporting that the Wanderer allowed the ghouls to slaughter all the residents; despite this never happening. Ironically, Three Dog will tend to praise and then insult the Wanderer as if they were able to complete the quest both ways.
 * Sometimes, upon re-entering Tenpenny Tower (after convincing Tenpenny to allow the ghouls to live in the tower), all levels of the building will be completely devoid of all life. To solve this, reload a save.
 * After allowing the ghouls to move in, the standard 'Tenpenny resident' ghouls will sometimes refer to Chief Gustavo, even if he has been killed or the human residents moved out.
 * If the "kill the ghouls" option is followed, the Tenpenny residents may occasionally give the player speech options indicating that the player had instead brokered the deal to let the ghouls move in. When starting conversations repeatedly, they may first greet the Lone Wanderer correctly (praising them for killing the ghouls), then incorrectly (as if the player had let the ghouls in peacefully), then give a generic greeting for all subsequent chats.
 * Giving the love letter to Millicent Wellington while she is sitting and eating with Edgar will still cause her to stand up and acquire the 10mm pistol, but she will not shoot Edgar while he is eating. Even after he finishes eating and stands up, Millicent just stands there and will not talk to the Wanderer again.
 * If one helped the ghouls get into Tenpenny Tower by force, Lydia's and Antony's safes are Hard difficulty to pick, however if one accesses them by using the terminals, and successfully disengages the locks, it will still say it is locked with Hard difficulty but will allow one to open them.
 * If one convinces Tenpenny to let the ghouls live in the tower and go to Roy with the good news and kill Roy and his friend but still allow the ghouls to live in the tower, everyone will be slain in the tower, when asking the only survivor what happened, she will say "Roy did it," regardless if Roy Phillips has been killed.
 * If one takes the short path (via the Metro & Generator access door) after killing Roy Philips and manage to pass somehow through the "containment door" (lockpick skill 100 or blow the electric generator that keeps the door shut with a grenade), when entering Tenpenny Tower, a nice pack of feral ghouls will be there attacking the residents.
 * If one enslaves any of the Tenpenny security guards, then choose to unleash the feral ghouls on Tenpenny Tower, the tower will be stuck in the attack mode forever. The game tries to check if the security guards are dead; however, as they have left the game world, they are never counted as dead. The only solution is to load a save from before enslaving them, or to finish the quest peacefully instead.
 * If one kills Chief Gustavo, and then kill Roy Philips, the quest will be stuck with the objective "Report back to Chief Gustavo." The quest marker will continue pointing towards Tenpenny Tower indefinitely.