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, 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.

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 worshipping the obelisk. 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. 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, mutated Ghoul, mentions the name "Alhazred" several times.

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 holds 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 horrific finality.

Holotape Story
Jaime, a traveler, set out searching for his father who left him alone in a hospital and "went crazy" after getting a mysterious book. Jaime followed his father south from an unknown location across vast distances. He fell in with another group of travelers who, as it turns out, were violent Raiders (why they did not immediately attack is unclear, but if they were to kill everyone they came across, they would never recruit new members.) However, they are identified as having killed another group of travelers for a "sack of rotten vegetables." Jaime secretly resolved to get away from this dangerous group as soon as possible. The opportunity to escape presented itself when the raiders prepared to attack a group of traders. Jaime turned on the Raiders -- earning the thanks of the traders. Grateful, the trader group told him the direction they last saw his father head off. Jaime followed his father's trail (marked by snares his father had set for food) to the Dunwich Building. He noted that he had heard the raiders tell "spook stories" about "zombies" inside, which were apparently true (Jaime had somehow never encountered a Ghoul before this point). He eventually found and/or killed his father who had seemingly mutated into a ghoul. He picked up a strange book his father had been keeping and decided to rest for a bit, sleeping against an unusual obelisk in the bottom of the building (The book's ultimate whereabouts are unknown). When he awoke, he had begun the procession of mutating into a ghoul due to the strong radioactivity emitted from the obelisk.

The whole story in Jaime's Personal Journal.

Loot

 * Bobblehead: Melee Weapons located in the Virulent Underchambers.
 * Dean's Electronics located in a side room with cleaning/maintenance supplies in Forsaken Dunwich Ruins.
 * Bottle of Nuka Cola Quantum located at the bottom of the stairs to the right of the main entrance.

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", 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 obelisk underneath the building is not taken directly from Lovecraft, but would not be out-of-place in one of his short stories (could be related to Robert E. Howard's short story "The Black Stone").
 * 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.
 * The final audio tape also mentions G'yeh which may be a reference to R'lyeh, an undersea city where Cthulhu sleeps in H.P. Lovecraft's stories.

Appearances
appears only in Fallout 3.