The Screams of Brahmin (quest)

 is an unmarked quest in Fallout: New Vegas.

Something has been killing Brahmin at night in Novac. No-Bark Noonan says he saw an invisible monster doing the killing. Stake out the pens at night and find out who's to blame.

Quick walkthrough
Speaking to No-Bark Noonan in Novac indicates the player should speak to Dusty McBride, whose Brahmins are being killed on his ranch. Dusty informs the Courier they should wait near his Brahmin pen at midnight. You will see the attacker is a crazed Nightkin. The Nightkin carries a Minigun and a holotape entitled The screams of brahmin. Upon completion of the quest, Dusty will give the courier access to his freezer, which contains 10 Brahmin Steaks. Additionally the courier will gain Novac Fame and positive Karma.

Killing the Nightkin after all the brahmin are dead will decrease the reward to 50 caps and nothing else.

Bugs

 * Even after you kill this Nightkin and complete the quest he can come back to life at a later date and stand cloaked and motionless near the train track. Targeting him in V.A.T.S will remove the cloak but he will not react or attack. Novac NPC's will completely ignore him, even if you push him into the center of town.\-
 * On a similar note, the Nightkin in question may revive at a later date where you killed him. It shall be uncloaked and non-hostile with all of his original inventory in tact. This is useful for grabbing a minigun for sale or repair. It seems unable to equip any of its items and, thus, is an easy battle.


 * Sometimes the Nightkin will not attack the Brahmin but only stand there cloaked unless he was recently attacked possibly by a Glowing One, if this happens, the Nightkin is in front of the house at night, or during the Day he is found behind a rock next to a broken fence, but if it is killed without seeing it as it is killing the Brahmin, the quest will be uncompletable.


 * You can actually complete this quest after you kill the Nightkin as in the above description. When you come here later you will find him alive standing behind the fence and after killing him again you will be able to end the quest by talking to the quest giver.


 * Another alternative is to try standing near the Nightkin while it's cloaked during the day (behind a nearby rock) and use the wait function to fast forward until around midnight. After a few moments, it will hopefully pull out its minigun while still invisible, and proceed to attack the Brahmin.


 * CAUTION: If you leave this quest for too long after finding it, the Nightkin may end up killing all the cattle while you're away, or in a different part of the area. It is unknown whether the ranchers will acquire more cattle if they run out.


 * Talking to No-Bark about this quest or talking to the people about the Boone quest may cause the quest to become uncompletable


 * You can also try to finish the quest with Boone and then do the ranch attacks quest. I was having trouble getting the nightkin to attack the cows before I did any Novac quests, but after I finished Boone's quest and Come Fly With Me, I tried the ranch once more and this time he did attack the Brahmin. There might be some conflict between either Boone's or Come Fly With Me, or both, but after finishing them, it worked.


 * If you kill the Nightkin before he uncloaks himself and kills a Brahmin the quest may not be completable even if you retrieve the note


 * You may try to fully exit the game then do a fresh load from before the Nightkin attacks. Sometimes reloading doesn't reset the AI properly so only a load from a newly opened application works. (Pretty much the same thing to do with missing weapons from dead bodies, you'll need a fresh load from newly opened application to spawn the weapons properly) CONFIRMED: I spoke to No-Bark before picking this quest up from Dusty McBride. The Nightkin would stand by the corral and not attack. If he was cloaked and I killed him, his body would remain cloaked. Once, he was lacking his cloak entirely and when I attacked and killed him there was nothing to loot on his body. When I exited the game and restarted it, and waited by the corral for him to arrive, he functioned properly and opened fire on the brahmin, losing his cloak in the process. I was then able to kill him, loot his body, and complete the quest.
 * If you kill the nightkin outside of the town's limits (he ran away and i chased him), you might not be able to finish the quest. He appeared shortly after midnight, killed a Brahmin, tried to sneak away, i followed and by the time he died, he was outside town llimits, which i guess means the people can't see him even though i have the note.


 * The Nightkin doesn't attack the Brahmin and just stands the other side of the fence, watching. When you approach the Nightkin, he does nothing. You may stand as close as you want and no reaction will come from him. If you shoot him while he's still cloaked, you will be able to kill him (his dead body falls still cloaked), search him and gain XP from it but when you go back to Dusty McBride you only have the option to tell him that you haven't found anything.
 * Possible Bug "Fix": With the bug, normally when you attack the bugged, herd attacking Nightkin, his/its stealthboy never malfunctions allowing you to see it. Also, when it dies, it stays invisible. This is a sign that the bug is preventing completion of this task. But letting a companion (Craig Boone was used in this case) attack/kill the Nightkin will make its stealthboy fritz like normal Nightkin and when it dies it will become visible. You will have to initiate the attack for your companion and the Nightkin to become aggressive toward one another. Loot the Nightkin corpse and talk to Dusty McBride to receive 75xp and all the steaks you want from his freezer.
 * Possible Bug "Fix" 2: Try turning the ps3 fully off, flip the switch in the back to totally turn it off, and back on so it clears the cache and resets the event. Wait till that time for him to show up and get near him to start it off. Sometimes works.


 * A similar bug. However, the Nightkin appears already at daytime and remains there uncloaked. After you kill him, you're able to tell Dusty McBride that no one will kill his Brahmins. You finish the quest and gain fame with Novac.


 * You are able to use the Wait function to make it day time and he will still remain there. If you look at him, the word Nightkin will show with no health as if he is a friend (in the same colour as your HUD, rather than in red). You may also crouch and pickpocket him (despite not being given the option, you just crouch and press A) and he will Yell at you, but stay still, and you'll lose karma!


 * There's an option to get the reward twice (or more, haven't checked it out yet), the first time when you load the unmarked quest and you have killed the nightkin, return to Mcbride and get your reward. After i waited a few days (solving different quests, shooting mutated animals etc.) I came back to Novac and noticed the Nightkin cloaked, standing still. I shot him and he became hostile, when I searched his body upon dying, I looted his inventory and got the 'The screams of brahmin' note again, return once more to Mcbride and get another reward! Easy money! Edit: Went back to Novac and again a nightkin appeared, standing still, seems to be lost, cloaked. Repeated previous steps and got another reward!

Note
you have started the quest Come Fly With Me and have not talked to him.
 * This quest ,even though you are killing a nightkin, will not have any effect on Davison if

Behind The Scenes

 * This may be a reference to Thomas Harris's Silence Of The Lambs.