Cass

Rose of Sharon Cassidy, also known as Cass or Whiskey Rose, is the owner of Cassidy Caravans in the Mojave Wasteland in 2281. Cassidy Caravans was a water caravan running purified water from the Mojave to New California and back, but recently Cass was trapped at the Mojave Outpost while her caravan was in the Mojave on it own due to requiring caravan clearance and further on because of the outpost leader Jackson deeming the roads ahead too dangerous. She would find out her caravan was ambushed and completely destroyed while in the NCR's bureaucratic hell. With Cassidy's Caravans having been completely wiped out, Cass is the only remaining loose end in a major corporate conspiracy.

Background
Born in 2244, Cass is the daughter of John Cassidy and a tribal woman he met on his travels after parting ways with the Chosen One. Her father upped and left to once more wander the wastes while she was still young - leaving her only a name, a pendant, his shooting skills and propensity for hard-drinking and violence.

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 hasn't been savvy enough to survive the ruthless caravan wars that have flared up in Nevada since the NCR's expansion. Though 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.

When first encountered by the Courier, Cass is drowning her sorrows at the Mojave Outpost bar. NCR Ranger reports have reached her that her caravan has been attacked and "burned to ash," placing an even greater burden on her shoulders. However, threats along the road into New Vegas and problems with NCR paperwork have so far prevented her from leaving the outpost to investigate the attack.

Personality
Cass has an aggressive and eager, sometimes even impatient attitude, often telling the courier to hurry up or get on with it, and does not take well to insults or her time wasted. She also enjoys violence quite a bit, much like her father.

She is also very outspoken on the NCR and Caesar's Legion, mostly pointing out the bureaucratic messes of the NCR and the Legion's use of women as breeding tools, but does concede that Legion supply lines are "safe as houses", unlike NCR supply lines. Lastly, Cass treats sex casually and appears to be interested in women as well as men, under the right circumstances.

Cass has inherited her father's heart condition and will show her disgust for chems if the Courier speaks to her whilst under their effects. On another note, her knowledge of the world is considerable, but not without holes. For example, she is not aware that golf is a sport, rather than a person, referring to Camp Golf as a monument to a man of that name and recounting soldier remarks that it used to be a minefield, with mine locations marked by numbers.

Quests

 * Heartache by the Number: The Courier recruits Cass as a companion, then investigates her sacked caravan and helps exact revenge on the perpetrators.
 * Successfully completing Cass' companion quest will give her one of two perks:
 * Calm Heart, which raises her health by 50.
 * Hand of Vengeance, which grants a 15% bonus to the damage Cass inflicts with Guns-skill weapons.
 * It is possible to obtain both of these perks. See quest info for more details.
 * Cass will not initiate this quest while the Courier has Evil Karma.
 * You Can Depend on Me: The Courier is sent by Alice McLafferty to convince Cass to sell her caravan.
 * Birds of a Feather: The Courier is sent by Jean-Baptiste Cutting to either kill Cass or lure her to the Silver Rush to be killed.
 * Note: Completing Heartache by the Number first makes the Van Graff faction hostile, disabling the option to talk to Jean-Baptiste Cutting to complete this mission.
 * Beyond the Beef: The Courier can offer Cass, or any other human companion, as a substitute to Mortimer for the banquet.

Other interactions

 * When asked about the monuments outside the Mojave Outpost, after her response, there will be an option to tell her what the statues actually depict with at least an accepted reputation by the NCR. She will then respond in manner expected of Cass.
 * If any amount of whiskey is put Cass' inventory, she will drink it leaving only Empty whiskey bottles.
 * Once she joins the Courier as a companion, Rose of Sharon Cassidy will give them the recipe for Cass' moonshine, craftable at campfires or electric hot plates.
 * If the Courier has all of the ingredients on hand, she can also craft moonshine for them without needing a campfire.
 * If the player has at least 6 Endurance, challenging Cass to a drinking contest will result in her complimenting them on their endurance, though they will still lose it. If the Endurance stat is 8 or more, then Cass will lose and end in a drunken stupor, dismissing all three (or four) of the Couriers at once.
 * She has unique idle dialogue for locations around the Mojave;

Flirtation

 * Male Couriers with the Lady Killer perk can accuse Cass of flirting with him, saying, "Miss Cassidy... are you flirting with me?" Cass makes it clear that nothing is ever going to happen between the two and he better respect that, as she "knows his type."
 * Male Couriers with a great Speech skill and the Lady Killer perk will make Cass say she "knows his look" and knows he says all the right things to leave a trail of broken hearts across the Mojave.
 * Male Couriers with the Confirmed Bachelor perk 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.
 * Female Couriers with the Black Widow perk can respond to Cass's comment about not liking "soft men" by saying that they are rarely a problem for them [the female Courier].
 * Females with the Cherchez La Femme perk can respond to Cass's comment about not liking "soft men" by saying that they are rarely an issue for them [again, the female Courier]. Additionally, Cass will, with a shocked expression, defend herself, nervously saying that she meant no offense, and that when she has had enough to drink, she does not care who she ends up in bed with.
 * Already having the max amount of companions and asking Cass to join may make her respond with not being "in the mood for a threesome. {Beat, under her breath} Today."

Effects of the player's actions

 * If labeled as a Terrorist by the NCR (such as killing Dennis Crocker), Cass will always be hostile to the Courier even when disguised (but not while she's currently your active companion). She may also ambush you at a place you fast travel too.

Low Karma

 * With Cass as a companion, opening a conversation with her with a negative Karma (-100) will make her complain about the Courier's behavior. With a Speech check of 65, she can be convinced about trying to improve one's demeanor or simply acknowledging her discontent and continuing the conversation.
 * Speaking to her again with even less Karma (-150) brings a second confrontation. She can again be promised improvement with a Speech check of 65 or just go on with the conversation.
 * After the second confrontation, Cass stops complaining as long as the Courier stays Neutral (Karma -249 or higher). Talking to her again with Evil Karma (-250 or less) will make her automatically disband, with no way of convincing her to stay.
 * Making an offensive comment about her dead parents turns Cass hostile (must first be asked about her family).
 * Talking to Cass repeatedly, regardless of topic, with Evil Karma (-250 or below) will make her disband.
 * Cass will never launch the Heartache by the Number quest while the Courier has Evil Karma, but it can be continued if already active.

Non-player character comments

 * Nightkin: Head voices say they knew flower girl's father.
 * NCR civilians: Your merchant friend would make a fine NCR woman.
 * Boomers: Whatever you're selling, we have plenty.
 * Fiends: I wouldn't mind hitting that. She put out?
 * Powder Gangers: Tough-looking woman. Something tells me she aims for the crotch.
 * Followers: Isn't that Cass? I heard she'd gotten out of the caravan business.
 * Freesiders: Check out the Wrangler if she needs booze.
 * The Kings: Hellooo, cowgirl! You mind if talk to your lady friend a bit instead of you?
 * Omertas: Let me know if the pretty lady with you is looking for some work.
 * Outer Vegas denizens: Your merchant friend is always welcome among us.

Appearances
Rose of Sharon Cassidy appears only 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 as one of the many names of God. 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."
 * Chris Avellone designed Cass' companion arc.
 * The playing cards that come with the Collectors Edition of Fallout: New Vegas depict Cass as a blonde. This may have been an earlier concept of the character, as Cass has brown hair in-game.
 * During the development process of Cass, there were some ideas to have the player character wake up next to her drunk and be wed with her. The marriage would take place with The King doing the proceedings with an Elvis song.
 * The original idea for Cass's Whiskey Rose perk was to allow carrying more water items, along with receiving a healing bonus from its consumption. This was later changed to become more valuable as a companion perk and to also reinforce her hard-drinking personality.
 * The ending for when Mr. House retains control of Vegas quotes Cass as saying, "We were going full speed ahead... but facing backwards the whole time." This alludes to the final line of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." This is appropriate since Mr. House's ideal is also of a Gilded Age world: "the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us..."
 * Spare Us the Cutter
 * Cass was intended to have an even greater amount of incidental dialogue than the insane amount she already has. She has a LOT of cut blank dialogue topics relating to the Hoover Dam battle events that comprise around forty cut lines relating to each endgame outcome (e.g. fighting for House, independent, NCR, Legion). She has lines to comment on various areas of the dam, as well as meeting certain important NPCs (e.g. Oliver, Lanius, etc). Interestingly she also has lines that presumably relate to the cut Arizona spillway map (e.g. VCassEventHDHouseSpillway). This suggests these lines were cut early on.
 * Cass also has a set of reactivity dialogue lines for commenting on all kinds of player choices. It's not clear what the criteria of these would have been (from the spectrum of comments, presumably for completing quests in certain ways), but she has a large number of positive and negative comments to go from being impressed by the player's action to being disgusted. There are four topics, which are VCassReallyLike, VCassReactLike, VCassReactBad, VCassReallyBadReact (good example: "{Commenting on player's behavior}Set an example, others will follow." bad example: "{Commenting on player's behavior}That was fucked up". She also has unused dialogue that was supposed to play when the player drank whiskey while she was a companion, as part of her Whiskey Rose perk ("{Shot of whiskey}Now all I need is some shame to wash it down with."). The reactivity comments and whiskey lines are all fully voice acted.
 * There is an early test version of her dialogue located in VFollowerDialogueRose. It just contains a few test lines to advance parts of her questline.

Bugs

 * Cass has the infuriating habit of sometimes trying to occupy the exact same spot as you when you are crouched firing at a target. This can result in her being completely inside you and unable to fire, or even in you scoring a critical hit on her. Using the companion wheel to tell her to back off usually fixes the problem.
 * 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 it won't be possible to actually see her there. Then quest mark will guide the Courier to the Silver Rush where they can tell Jean-Baptiste that she is dead. She seems to disappear from the game at this point.
 * Sometimes, when sent to the Lucky 38, she can be seen walking around the Casino floor.
 * After fast traveling to a location, she will occasionally start running away as quickly as she can for no reason. To correct this, either enter a building (that makes your game load a new area) or fast travel to another location.
 * Weapons placed in Cass' inventory may become fully repaired after being taken out of her inventory.
 * If Cass's perk-giving quests are completed before ever meeting her (as in killing the Van Graffs and Alice McLafferty.), then upon meeting her, the game will initiate dialogue as if having met her before with seemingly no prompts available to carry the conversation into the recruitment phase. It seems that after this, the option of having Cass as a companion is lost forever.
 * After delivering her and letting Jean-Baptiste kill her, quips by certain non-player characters in the game (such as the "she aims for the crotch" comment) will still be said as if Cass was still alive companion. Fiends in Vault 3 will also make the comments "I'll hit that" and "Does she put out?"
 * Sometimes when doing the Lady Killer speech where you say "Miss Cassidy... are you flirting with me?" [Lady Killer] will show up twice before the text.
 * After dismissing her as a companion, she may not be at the Mojave Outpost. Due to a scripting issue with her scripted possible death at the Silver Rush, she may be found wandering around inside here instead.