Black Mountain

Black Mountain is a location in the Mojave Desert that serves as a radio station for the State of Utobitha. It can be located on the main map easily by spotting the winding road roughly east of Goodsprings and Sloan on your map. Neil's shack is situated at the bottom of the mountain and marks the start of the road.

Background
Black Mountain, the dominant feature of the area, was unoccupied for over a century after the war. The victim of a direct strike, most of Black Mountain’s radar arrays were knocked out immediately. Even though valuable materials were in the buildings that surrounded the arrays, the area was so irradiated that no one survived in it for more than an hour or so. After the fall of the Master, many of the first generation super mutants headed east. In Black Mountain, they were able to find a place to set up a camp where they could avoid most of the rest of the world. It took a long time for the super mutants to settle in and repair the equipment in the array, but they were finally able to enlist the help of some Ghouls to make the array operational.

Over time, nightkin—more psychotic and temperamental super mutants thanks to their predisposition and eventual addiction to Stealth technology—and the more thuggish second generation super mutants trickled into Black Mountain, which eventually caused problems. The de-facto leader of the community was Marcus, from Broken Hills. Unfortunately, the influx of less-mentally stable super mutants proved to be more than he could handle. Eventually, he was pushed out of the group at Black Mountain. He left with a small group of (mostly first generation) super mutants, ghouls, and friendly humans to found Jacobstown. This left the nightkin and second generation super mutants to fend for themselves. Within weeks, a paranoid schizophrenic nightkin named Tabitha (and Rhonda) progressively turned the satellite array into a fortress against any and all outsiders. She hallucinates regularly, and has convinced the other super mutants (especially the idiotic second-gen ones) that only she can see the threats against them, due to her “magic eyes” (actually a pair of oversized child sunglasses which—of course—she won’t let anyone else touch).

Layout
After getting to the mountain, there is a building that houses the controls for the radio station. Near the top by the radio station, where the nightkin sniper holding Annabelle is positioned, lie the controls for realigning the dishes.

Under the overturned dish that is used as a makeshift camp are three chests. Two have average locks but one contains about 300 caps. A minigun can be had here in one locked chest. The last chest contains about 400 caps. There is also a transceiver in here where you can interrupt the mutants broadcast.

Inside the prison building will be a ghoul named Raul Tejada who you can free and make your companion. If you cannot hack the computer to release the lock to Raul's prison room then you can find the password for it on the other computer in the prison room. Note: to do this, simply access the other terminal, and read entry six. Then, proceed to the first terminal, and the room will be unlocked. Entry six tells you the password is '123456789'.

To get into Tabitha's room you'll need the key. A computer in the broadcast building, 1st Floor will give you a hint on where to search for it. Exit the other door to outside iron stairs. The key is under a rock behind the stairs.

Notable loot

 * Cuddles' toy car is in the prison building. Read all the entries on the computer terminal, then look on the table for this unique item.
 * The unique missile launcher Annabelle is found on the nightkin sniper standing on the radio tower platform.
 * One Nuka-Cola Victory in the storage building.
 * A Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle cap in the storage building, between two Sarsaparilla crates on the bottom shelf, left of the training dummy.
 * Sheet music book and repair note #3 on 2nd floor of broadcast building (Tabitha's room).

Appearances
Black Mountain only appears in Fallout: New Vegas.

Behind the scenes

 * Black Mountain is an actual location south of Las Vegas and near Henderson, Nevada.
 * The ambiance that plays at Black Mountain is the same ambiance that plays at Necropolis from Fallout.

Bugs

 * If the player has rad protection, the radiation meter will indicate +1 but still climb at an unprotected rate
 * When using the terminal in the prison building, the screen may become blurred but not bring up the monitor interface for the computer. This will fix itself by leaving the building and re-entering but using scoped weapons will now show the image of the computer terminal.
 * When climbing back down the mountain after reuniting Tabitha with Rhonda, it is possible that attacking any nightkin or centaur will cause Rhonda and Tabitha to join the fight and attack you. After the original attackers are dead they will disappear altogether. Fast traveling to Jacobstown will show that Tabitha is still hostile to the player.
 * When fast traveling or climbing the mountain normally, random non-player character's will spawn at Tabitha's compound or in the crater area. They will be non-hostile to both the super mutants/nightkin and to the player. If the player starts a fight with the mutants/nightkin, they will not join regardless of faction reputation.
 * You may encounter a nightkin running past you and attack a hostile super mutant. This will give the player the impression that the nightkin is there to protect you. However the nightkin most likely will turn hostile towards the player after they have killed the super mutant.
 * When meeting Neil (the friendly super mutant, down by Neil's Shack), for the mission that begins with him, you may be given the optional task to meet him by the overturned satellite dish. Meeting him there, he will ask if you are ready. No matter what reply you give him ("Let's go" or the equivalent of "No not yet. There's some things I have to do first"), he will always respond to the latter. No known fix to this glitch is known at present. Reloading a game save doesn't seem to work.
 * A variety of non-player characters may spawn on the roads on your way to the summit including, Sunny Smiles, an NCR trooper, a Powder Ganger, some Boomers, and a Great Khan. Surprisingly, they won't be attacked by the super mutants if you're around them, they will go straight to you and completely disregard the other non-player characters.
 * Sometimes the nightkin sniper will not spawn, making it impossible to get Annabelle.
 * The back door to the ground floor of the broadcast building can be entered from outside the fence.