Dunwich Building

The Dunwich Building is the Southwestern-most point on the map, and is a dark, mazy set of interior ruins populated by various types of feral ghouls. A number of audiologs and computer terminals provide visitors with background on the building and an unfortunate wastelander named Jaime. In addition to the building itself, two levels lie underneath. The deepest level is a cavern with an eerie obelisk - a woman emerging/reaching out from the obelisk; vines entangle the obelisk and skulls run up its back. Several Feral Ghouls appear to worship it.

The building is broken up into three parts: the Dunwich Building Entrance, the Forsaken Dunwich Ruins, and the Virulent Underchambers. The deeper you go into the Dunwich Building the darker it becomes, and eventually requires the use of the Pip-boy light. Persistent explorers will be rewarded with the Bobblehead - Melee Weapons near the end of the levels. There is a convenient one-way exit from the Virulent Underchambers to an area quite near the entrance, and the Bobblehead can be found on the ground just before the exit.

There are several "supernatural" moments within the building itself: doors opening on their own, objects being thrown across the room without explanation, ghouls appearing from nowhere in a pool of light, and a 'flashback' moment that briefly shows the building as it once was. The flashback also includes a male figure standing some distance away who, after the flashback has ceased, turns into a Glowing One. Companions will also act extremely jumpy and look for enemies that aren't there in the exploration of the building.

In the Virulent Underchambers, the player can actually discover the creator of the increasingly demented audiologs (who has now fully mutated into a ghoul) and a handful of Feral Ghouls worshiping the obelisk. As Jaime stands facing the obelisk with arms upraised, it appears that he is somehow summoning ghouls out of the mist shrouded recess in the rock wall opposite. Interestingly enough, killing Jaime, who is armed with a Chinese Assault Rifle, counts as a positive Karma act (if the player previously chose the Lawbringer perk, Jaime will also drop a finger). The obelisk in the center is irradiated about half way up, and emits levels of radiation that max out at 15 rads/s. As a side note, once the player crosses the threshold of the doorway into the cave with the obelisk, an "eerie voice" can be heard if the volume is up high enough (along with the "effects part" of the sound setting).

Background
In happier times, the building was owned by Dunwich Borers, LLC under the lead of Richard Dunwich, brother of Constance Blackhall and a man obsessed with the occult. A locked computer terminal midway through the building contains audio transcripts of a company executive. The transcripts function to both praise the release of a new drill, as well as capture the sounds of bombs dropping.

Near the entrance, you find a set of five audiologs left by an unfortunate visitor named Jaime. As you proceed further inside the building, you find four additional audiologs documenting his transformation into one of the building's deranged inhabitants. The final audiolog found within the building, though mostly rambling by an insane, ghoulified Jaime, mentions the name "Alhazred" several times, a reference to the last name of the author of the fictitious book "The Necronomicon", Abduhl Alhazred, in the books of H. P. Lovecraft.

There is also a log on a terminal made by an unnamed scavenger who wandered into the ruins, hoping it to be abandoned. Upon finding the ghouls he holes up in the room with the terminal and as paranoia sets in he remembers his friend "Billy" coming with ammo and grenades. Using this cheerful optimism he logs off the computer and for how long he survived is unknown, but the skeletal remains in front of the computer and the second set of remains just inside the entrance to the Dunwich building accompanied by a box of ammunition and a box of grenades seems to fill in the missing details with finality.



Notable Loot

 * Bobblehead - Melee Weapons located in the Virulent Underchambers, on the ground right at the end of the zone (at the shortcut door leading back to the Dunwich Building).
 * Dean's Electronics located in a side room with cleaning/maintenance supplies in Forsaken Dunwich Ruins. first stairway on your left after the two turns the room is to your right. It has big pipes in the wall. The book is located next to the toolbox to your right on the shelf.


 * Nuka Cola Quantum located at the bottom of the stairs to the right of the main entrance.
 * Jaime's Personal Journal entries #1-5 on the table to the left when entering the building. Entries #6 (in the side room on the left from the entrance, near the radio where some ghouls are) and #7 (on a table just before the Forsaken Dunwich Ruins), are also located in this first section of the building (before you reach Forsaken Dunwich Ruins). #8 is in the Ruins section on the same desk as the exec terminal on the first level, and #9 is in the Virulent Underchambers.

Trivia

 * If the player chose to allow the ghouls access to Tenpenny Tower and received the ghoul mask, none of the ghouls will attack; however, when you encounter Jaime at the bottom of the building, he will attack you regardless of disguise, announcing "There you are!" Jamie is not feral, as is evident in his abilities to speak and use guns.


 * One part of the building contains several ruined floors with central holes in them directly above one another, consistent with an object falling through the building - this could have been an atomic bomb with a delay fuse, although no signs of one can be found at the base of the shaft made (an atomic blast would have obliterated the entire structure, but there is no unexploded bomb to be found either; the damage could have been done by a small conventional bomb, but the use of these would be extremely implausible in an atomic exchange). The holes were probably from one of the old gods coming out of the building, not something dropping in.


 * You may use the tcl command in the console to access the "flashback area" in the Forsaken Dunwich Ruins. With clipping off, the player must travel far to the west of the ruins from the door to Dunwich Building. The player will find an intact, brightly illuminated version of the part of the ruins that the flashback is triggered in with 10 powered computer terminals and 5 standing filing cabinets, neither of which can be interacted with, two functional doors with nothing behind them, and an invisible wall to prevent the player from reaching the man who appears and disappears over the course of the flashback. Unlike people in the Vault 106 hallucinations, the man in the flashback is not an actual NPC and cannot be interacted with in any way.


 * The strange voice near the Obelisk is actually repeating the name "Alhazred", which is also the name Jaime repeated several times in his last audio tape. Sometimes the voice may instead repeat the name "G'yeth", also repeated by Jaime in his last Audio tape.


 * You can "touch" the obelisk by climbing up and jumping off the nearby rocks.


 * On your way in the Forsaken part of the building you find a room that has two corpses that have been mutilated, and also holotape #7 in it. But after entering the Forsaken area then re-visiting the room the bodies are mysteriously gone. The bodies are actually still there, but are invisible and will appear if the player simply touches them.


 * Ronald Laren from Girdershade can be asked about anything interesting in the area, causing him to tell you to "Stay away from the Dunwich building, that place is bad mojo."


 * If you have Point Lookout, you need to bring the book to the lower levels of the building to burn, should you decide to side with Marcella in The Dark Heart of Blackhall


 * Be careful when burning the Krivbeknih, it emits a large pulse of fire, which damages you, aswell as causes around 3 seconds of burn damage. The blast will also damage any followers in the vicinity.

Lovecraft Connection
Much of the Dunwich Building refers to H.P. Lovecraft's "Cthulhu Mythos".
 * The area, especially the company Dunwich Borers, is a reference to H.P. Lovecraft's masterpiece "The Dunwich Horror"[2], although many of the other references are from other Lovecraft works.
 * The Alhazred mentioned in the final audiotape is the "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred -- author of the imaginary book Kitab al-Azif (the Necronomicon)
 * The mysterious book that drives its holder/reader mad has been used as a plot device; both as the fictional "Necronomicon" as well as in stories contemporary to Lovecraft (particularly "The King in Yellow").
 * Lovecraft used a type of radiation as the villain in one of his most famous stories, "The Colour Out of Space", foreshadowing the radiation induced transformations of the Ghouls in the Dunwich Building.
 * A computer terminal talks about Ug-Qualtoth returning, whose name would fit well in the way Lovecraft named his creatures.The name Ug-Quagloth is reference to H.P. Lovecraft's creature Yog-Sothoth which is released using ritual in the Necronomicon.
 * At the one-way entrance to the underchambers (from the ruins), there is a desk set in the center of the room like some kind of altar, below a huge circular hole towards the sky.
 * The final audio tape also mentions G'yeth which may be a reference to R'lyeh, an undersea city where Cthulhu sleeps in H.P. Lovecraft's stories.

Bugs

 * There is a bug that appears to prevent any humanoid companions from entering the building with you. When you zone in, they are not there.  When you zone out, they have run around the west side of the building, perhaps seeking to enter through the secondary exit mentioned above.  This bug first identified on the PC version after the patch released on 1/14/09.  Dogmeat is also affected. (this could not be duplicated post patch with either Dogmeat or Star Paladin Cross.)


 * When leaving Dunwich Building, followers will exit the building at the bottom of a slight cliff drop south of the building then having to fight anything from a Mole Rat to an Albino Radscorpion depending on your level. This often results in their death with the slight exception of Fawkes and Dogmeat's Puppy.


 * In the mutiliation room just prior to the door to the Virulent Underchambers, Jaime's head will appear chattering on a desktop.(Confirmed Xbox 360 and PC)

Appearances
appears only in Fallout 3.