Dunwich Building

The Dunwich Building is a location in Fallout 3's Capital Wasteland, located at the southwestern-most point on the map.

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.

Virulent Underchambers
The building 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 and if closely looked at, you can see it may represent the Washington Monument.

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.

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 20 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).

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.

Related quests

 * The Dark Heart of Blackhall

Appearances
appears only in Fallout 3.

Behind the scenes

 * 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.) - that could not be a bug, maybe the followers aren't allowed to enter because some paths need some jumping to pass through.


 * 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, a head will appear chattering on a desktop.(Confirmed Xbox 360 and PC) Due to the nature of this event, it may not be a bug, but part of the building's events. (Edit): This happens when you access a trap computer terminal on the floor directly above the "chattering head".