The Preacher

The Preacher or wastelander is a crazed inhabitant of Seward Square $$

Background
The Preacher is standing on the second floor of a building in an alleyway west of the Ranger compound entrance in Seward Square. From there, he preaches mad "logic" to anyone that can hear him, with intermittent complaints about severe headaches.

The topics of his rants vary. He rants about the apocalypse, the sun and the sun in a jar, trees to the north, and an evil worm that he plans to blow up with the explosives he gathered. The alley he overlooks has been rigged with 5 frag mines and 5 mini nukes that he detonates if anyone tries to get close to him.

There is a hostage (another wastelander) at the east end of the alley the Lone Wanderer can talk to about the booby-trapped alley and the Preacher.

Other interactions

 * If the player approaches the Preacher, he will set off the charges (they go off even if the player disarmed all the mines and mini-nukes), moments after waving at the player character. The ledge he's on is inaccessible without stacking items or noclipping, and contains nothing of value.
 * Dogmeat does not trigger the scripted explosion. This makes it easy to retrieve all of the mini nukes without using a Stealth Boy.
 * The Lone Wanderer can talk to the hostage and, with a Charisma 1 check, convince him to confront the Preacher for negative Karma. This will result in him running towards the Preacher but being blown up by the mini nukes and killing the Preacher in the process.
 * Speaking to the hostage once the Preacher is dead (assuming he was killed before he could set off the explosion event) will result in no dialogue, but rather a comment regarding how quiet it is now. He will still stay in the same place however, as there is no way to release the hostage.
 * When the Preacher is killed, the hostage immediately says "Good riddance" or "Better him than me." There is a discontinuity here: The wastelander states he cannot leave because the detonation would kill him, even though he is out of the explosion area, and that he can simply take a different street that is not visible to the Preacher.

Appearances
The Preacher appears only in Fallout 3.

Bugs

 * The player character may find the Preacher dead and the hostage missing, but all of the explosives still in place.
 * The Preacher will finish his sentence, even after he is killed.
 * There is often a possibility that the Preacher may not be killed by the explosion (usually because the player has managed to disarm the mines while wearing a Stealth Boy). This may stop any interaction with either the Preacher or hostage, and the message saying that they are fleeing will appear, even though they are walking normally.