Little Lamplight

Little Lamplight is a pre-War underground cavern tour made into a settlement in the Capital Wasteland, run and populated entirely by children under the age of 16.

Background
On October 23, 2077, 82 students from the Early Dawn Elementary went on a field trip to Lamplight Caverns with a couple of teachers (including the fourth grade teacher, Carrie Delaney) and a few parent chaperons. There the group spent many hours touring the deep caverns. Just as they were packing up to leave, the caverns began to shake. The kids began to scream as the lights went out, and one man from the group went out to see what was going on. Upon his return he informed those within that the entire Washington D.C. area was covered in mushroom clouds.

The adults slowly died off and left, some from leaving the cavern, others from accidents within. Eventually Carrie Delaney, the last of the adult survivors, decided to go scavenging and never returned, leaving the kids to fend for themselves. One of the older kids, Jason Grant, assumed power after no others would step forward. Within the next month of exploring the caves the children came upon Vault 87, where they would pound on the door for hours pleading for assistance.

Finally, one of the adults inside Vault 87 told the children to go away (saying that they were "already dead"). This was likely Peter Stevens, a Vault Technician stationed near the door to Little Lamplight, who thought that the children were hallucinations of his dead son. As a result, the kids turned against all "Mungos" kicking out residents once they turned 16. Most, if not of all of these adults then head to the settlement of Big Town.

Lamplight caverns
A small cave descends to the town's entrance area protected by a fence with a large front gate. Beyond the fence a small area with the Little Lamplight office building, the town's medical office and school, opens into two small corridors. The first corridor leads to the restaurant "Spelunkers", situated in a cave with pools of water, and the Great Chamber beyond. The second tunnel leads to a medium cave which contains Lamplight restrooms and the souvenir shop, the town's shop. Another access to the Great Chamber can be found here as well as a small path to the town's back gate, leading to Murder Pass.

The Great Chamber
The Great Chamber area is a huge cavern, with wooden walkways connecting various suspended rooms. It serves as the main living area for the Little Lamplighters and as such contains a number of beds. The floor of the cave is partially filled with rubble and slightly irradiated water. Besides the two exits leading to Lamplight caverns there are two cavities in the chamber's wall, one of which contains a workbench and the other an entrance to Vault 87's Reactor Chamber.

Notable loot

 * Schematics - bottlecap mine - in the Souvenir shop.
 * Wazer Wifle - carried by Biwwy.

Related quests

 * Picking up the Trail
 * Rescue from Paradise
 * Those!
 * A Sticky Situation
 * Fungus Deal
 * The Kid-Kidnapper
 * Zip's Nuka Fix

Appearances
Little Lamplight only appears in Fallout 3.

Bugs

 * Princess and the other child guarding Murder Pass may spawn on the other side of the gate . This most commonly happens when using the "Wait" option in front of the door.
 * There is a possible glitch where the door to Murder Pass will not open under any circumstance.
 * If you have Dogmeat with you, all the dogs in Little Lamplight may randomly become hostile towards him, but will ignore you and your other follower (if you have one). If you fight back, all the children will flee.
 * Upon first entering the caverns to Little Lamplight, the gate is pulled up and the children are fleeing. Going into Little Lamplight reveals super mutants are attacking, after dispatching the super mutants Mayor MacCready will talk to the player, with only option available the speech check asking to be admitted. McCready no longer mentions Paradise Falls or gives the quest option.

Behind the scenes

 * The inspiration for Little Lamplight may have come from Vault 29, which was due to appear in Van Buren. They share similar qualities, such as sending the residents out to the wasteland once they mature and having no adults.
 * According to a recent interview in 1UP Emil Pagliarulo revealed that Little Lamplight location was loosely based on Luray Caverns in Virginia.
 * The Little Lamplight settlement may be an homage to the children's colony that Max encounters in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.
 * Little Lamplight might be an homage to the area called "Cathedral" in the movie (and book, although the age is different in the book) Logan's Run in which residents were required to leave when they turned 16 and their Lifeclock turned green, otherwise face death at the hands of the other inhabitants.