Broken Steel encounters

This page lists all new encounters and changes to existing locations in the Capital Wasteland in the Fallout 3 add-on Broken Steel.

These encounters including all NPCs involved will respawn after three game days.

Jury Street Metro Station
At Jury Street Metro Station a new building called Hank's Electrical Supply has been added. There are two Raiders on the roof and three more Raiders inside, protecting stolen Aqua Pura barrels. Because this is a random encounter spawn point, the raiders may be found fighting random characters, i.e. Talon Company Mercs or Sam Warrick.

Montgomery County Reservoir

 * A silo is added a little northwest of the Raider-held Montgomery County Reservoir. Inside are several stolen barrels of Aqua Pura.

Arlington Library
South of Arlington Library, there is a new building in front of the Talon Company Outpost. In the middle of an alley way, there is an abandoned Aqua Cura barrel. Upon approaching the barrel, Talon Company mercenaries ambush you.

Big Town
Encounter a little north of Big Town involving four or more slavers ambushing a water caravan. Slavers are non hostile towards the player. There might be a big pack of raiders as well, probably from the camp along the river, but not always.

Chevy Chase East
Just outside Chevy Chase East station, there is a Super Mutant Overlord guarding several barrels of Aqua Pura.

Evergreen Mills
Evergreen Mills now has empty Aqua Pura crates in the front of the entrance with a sign that says "Free Water". There are several raiders ready for an ambush on the cliff above, and there may be a new corpse trap (a wastelander's body rigged to explode like a baby carriage (which can be disarmed). Note that the empty crates appear before Take it Back! has been completed. The wastelander can sometimes be found alive, with 1-2 bars of health left.  He still explodes if you approach him though, and can be disarmed as per normal.  If you try to talk to him he tells you that he has nothing to say to you.

Fort Bannister
At Talon Company's headquarters in Fort Bannister, Brotherhood of Steel Paladin Jensen can be found being held captive in the outside tents. Rescuing him causes him to charge the fort's defenses. Shortly afterward, a Brotherhood of Steel squad will launch a large-scale attack on Fort Bannister and its Talon Company defenders. This encounter may not occur if Talon Company's Commander Jabsco is killed before finishing the Take it Back! quest.

Jefferson Memorial
On the end of the catwalk in front of the Jefferson Memorial heading towards Rivet City, the player may find a Brotherhood Initiate burning mirelurk corpses. If spoken to, the Initiate will inform the player that all of the mirelurks in the basin are suddenly dying and he has been given the task of burning the "floaters". This shows up regardless if the player has or hasn't decided to contaminate the water supply with the Enclave FEV canister during Take It Back!. This only applies to the mirelurks in the Tidal Basin. There is also a Brotherhood Initiate to the right of the Tidal Basin shooting any living Mirelurks remaining.

Note: The sudden death of the Mirelurks (without contaminating the water) is possibly because the purified water doesn't contain any algae. Mirelurks probably sport the diet that all decapods (read: Sea animals with a carapace) are living on, which is mostly algae and small sea animals, which would have been killed during the purification process.

Kaelyn's Bed & Breakfast
Between Kaelyn's Bed & Breakfast and VAPL-58 Power Station three non-hostile, but not welcoming, female wastelanders wait around a small shack. On a table inside the shack is a Holotape labeled "Wastelander Holotape ." This holotape details their role in ambushing caravans.

Megaton
In front of Megaton a group of residents are trying to take the rest of a water shipment from a caravan bound for Big Town. If left alone, the Megaton residents will pull guns and get killed in short order by the Brotherhood of Steel, but the residents might gain the upper hand, and even use fallen Brotherhood equipment. As will Stockholm, Deputy Weld, and any other NPC in front of Megaton. A successful speech challenge will avoid the bloodshed and provide Good Karma. Of course, you can also tell Megaton residents you'll back them up if they try to make a move for the water, at which point they will promptly attack the Brotherhood of Steel caravan guards, the caravan driver and strangely enough the brahmin carrying the aqua pura. (In my case they looted a laser rifle from the corpse of one of the BOS guards and shot the brahmin, turning it into dust. How ya gonna drink that, fool?!)

Nuka-Cola Plant

 * On the street north-northeast of the Nuka-Cola Plant there is a crate full of Aqua Pura barrels being fought over by Talon Company and a group of raiders.
 * A group of 3 Neutral Enclave Soldiers standing around an Enclave Camp just north of the Nuka-Cola Plant. Their dead Enclave Officer is at their feet, suggesting a mutiny.
 * Sometimes the Enclave Officer (hostile) is alive and the Soldiers are dead.

Seward Square
Talon Company camp outside the Capitol Building in Seward Square with one or more Talon Company mercenary depending upon the PCs level and a Holotape Talon Company Merc Log.

Tenpenny Tower
Encounter west of Tenpenny Tower involving a water caravan approaching a non-hostile raider disguised as a Wastelander dying of thirst. When the caravan is close enough, the raider becomes hostile, taking out a missile launcher and the caravan is ambushed by four more raiders. The Brotherhood Knight kills all the raiders, but the merchant may die.

Water caravans
Water caravans travel through the Wasteland and can be seen along their route:
 * Jefferson Memorial - Irradiated Metro - Citadel - Arlington Library - Flooded Metro - Nuka-Cola Plant - Andale - valley S of (under) the Overlook Drive-In and Cliffside Cavern - Robco Facility - Smith Casey's Garage - they stay on the road between Little Lamplight and Charnel House, road between Jalbert Brothers Waste Disposal and Everglow National Campground until Five Axles Rest Stop, where they turn to MDPL Mass Relay Station - A Wanderer Camp - Paradise Falls - Reclining Groves Resort Homes - MDPL-13 Power Station - road between Greener Pastures Disposal Site and Alien Crash Site - Old Olney - Republic of Dave, where they turn and go back more or less the same way they came (they manage to find trouble they missed on their first pass) until crossroads SW of Jalbert Brothers Waste Disposal where they stay on the road which passes Fort Bannister to Jury Street Metro Station, which is probably where water barrels on top of Hank's Electrical Supply come from - Enclave checkpoint E of station - military checkpoint on the hill - Fairfax Ruins - truck E of Andale and back on the original route until Jefferson Memorial.
 * Sometimes the caravan will stray from the above course if they are attacked.
 * If you ever lose the caravan and want to find it again, simply wait for 1 hour at the Jefferson Memorial and it will appear at the bridge.
 * A water caravan passes outside Republic of Dave, guarded by two paranoid Rivet City Security guards. Exclamations of "They're everywhere!" are accompanied by the guards shooting at nothing.
 * A water caravan passes through Andale with paranoid Rivet City Guards. A Brotherhood Outcast squad crosses paths with the caravan, but nothing interesting happens. This encounter may not happen if you have completed unmarked quest prior to activating the purifier.
 * Water caravans travel between Rivet City and Jefferson Memorial.
 * Unlike the trade caravans, the water caravans will respawn if killed.
 * Ordinarily caravans are guarded by 2 Rivet City security officers, but a bug exists where the caravan will spawn with only 1 guard. The other guard can be found by waiting at the Jefferson Memorial. However, the guard will be lagging behind the caravan by several hours and therefore he/she may never catch up with the rest of the caravan.
 * 2 rivet city security members without a caravan complaning about how dangerouse their work is after being jumped by slavers. One says the she needs to take up a safer line of work like yao gui wrangling. Another ask the player to lend a hand getting back to rivet city, stateing that "we could use some extra fire power"