Blood Ties

Blood Ties is a Fallout 3 side quest. It is also a Xbox 360 and PC achievement, and a PlayStation 3 trophy. It is the story of a man's struggle within his own mind and the consequences of that inner turmoil, directed onto his family.

Quest start
The quest can be started by speaking with Lucy West in or around Moriarty's saloon in Megaton, by talking to Evan King in Arefu or by reading "Regarding the Arefu Incident" in The Family's Terminal.

Deliver Lucy's Message
Lucy West asks the player to deliver a letter to her family in Arefu. If the quest is accepted, Lucy will give the player an envelope, and mark the location of Arefu on the player's Pip-Boy 3000.

Report to Evan King
Evan King will toss a grenade as the player approaches Arefu, then apologize and explain the town is under attack by The Family. Evan will ask the player to check the Ewer, Schenzy, and West residences to make sure everyone is all right (this starts the quest for the player if he/she didn't pick it up from Lucy).

When checking in on the residents, the player discovers that the Ewer and Schenzy families are safe, but finds the bodies of Lucy and Ian's parents; further examination shows they have bite marks on their necks (requires 30+ in Medicine skill) with no significant blood loss (50+ medicine skill) that the teeth marks are from human teeth (75+ in medicine skill) and that there is train yard residue on the bodies (90+ medicine skill).

When the player reports back to Evan King, he'll ask about Lucy's brother, Ian West. Upon discovery that he's missing, Evan will mention having seen Ian with Vance, the leader of the Family. He'll also add three markers to your map if prompted: the Northwest Seneca Station, Hamilton's Hideaway and the Moonbeam Outdoor Cinema - none of which are correct. If the player noticed the train yard residue, it will be possible to ask Evan if there are any train yards in the area. This will allow Evan to add a marker for the correct location, the Meresti Trainyard.

If you have the Scoundrel perk, before you find Ian, you can return to Lucy and demand caps before you'll go look for her brother. She gives 100 caps, with no Karma penalty.

Locate the Family
The Family resides in the Meresti Metro Station which can be reached easiest via the tunnels under the Meresti Trainyard, or much more inconveniently, through the tunnels found under the radioactive barrels in the back of Murphy's place in Northwest Seneca Station. Beware of various traps, including bear traps, frag mines, a rigged baby carriage, and an assortment of tripwire traps that set off rigged shotguns, grenade bouquets and even a pitching machine.

If you enter by Northwest Seneca Station, you will find Murphy's chem lab operation. To the right, in the back of his office you'll find a hatch leading to the Meresti Service Tunnel. The player will encounter two mirelurks there. After going through the cave you will enter the old train trail, then make a left at the first train wreck with the dead mirelurks. The debris here conceals many traps: frag mines either side, two bear traps in middle. Heading left comes to two miniature tripwires between the carriages and walls. The first has a rigged shotgun straight ahead, the second a heavy weight that falls from the ceiling.

The front gate to the Family's hideout is guarded by Robert, who will allow the player into the Family's home for 100 caps, or for free if the Lone Wanderer has Lucy's letter for Ian. The player can also gain peaceful entrance by passing a speech check with Robert, or by using a speech option from the Cannibal perk, which also opens up many more speech options making the whole quest much easier. Alternatively, the player can kill Robert and hack the terminal adjacent to his post to unlock the station door, although this and the option of sneaking past Robert will turn the family hostile.

Locate Ian West
The next task is to locate Ian West to determine if he is still alive. Several members of The Family will reveal Ian's location and the password to unlock the room where he is meditating. These are the possible scenarios:
 * The leader of The Family is Vance - a mysterious and charismatic man who is trying to help the members of his "Family" overcome their hunger for human flesh by drinking human blood akin to the mystical vampires in the stories from before the Great War. If the player fails a Speech check, Vance will advise the player to learn the rules of the Family by asking other members and reading from the terminal in the main lobby. If the player passes the Speech check, uses the Cannibal perk, or reads the rules and explains he understands the Family, Vance will give the pass code that allows entry into Ian's meditation room.
 * Alan notices that Justin has been trying to befriend Ian and suggests the player talk to Justin about him.
 * Justin believes that Ian belongs with the Family having witnessed the murder of his parents and done nothing. If the player suggests that Ian needs an 'outside voice' to help and passes a Speech check, Justin will reveal the pass code that allows entry into Ian's meditation room. The Impartial Mediation perk gives a similar dialogue option with an identical result (even if you do not have neutral Karma when you ask the question).
 * Karl will become annoyed if asked about Ian. Karl can be seduced by the player by using the Black Widow perk (if the player is female) or convinced with high Strength (both sexes). In either scenario, Karl gives up the pass code to Ian's meditation room.
 * Brianna also feels that being with the Family is the best for Ian but that he could use an outside friend. If the player has the Lady Killer perk (as a male), he will have the option to seduce Brianna into handing over the password to the room where Ian is. The Scoundrel perk or a high Charisma will work as well.
 * Holly, Vance's wife, can be persuaded to reveal the pass code with the Scoundrel perk or a high Charisma.
 * Vance can simply be killed and the pass code looted from his remains. This will cause the rest of the Family to become hostile towards the player, attacking on sight. Each family member killed will result in negative Karma at this point. Ian will be angry that Vance has been killed but will give the player the same ultimate options regardless, as long as you do not respond flippantly to his death. (responding with "Well, he's worm food now." results in Ian turning hostile towards you and failing the quest)
 * You may also goad Vance with certain conversation options, finally calling him a "psycho", and he will order the Family to attack - this will allow you to follow the above option but result in no negative Karma from killing them. (Note: This path must be taken before Ian comes to any decision. See Bugs.)

Talking to Ian will confirm he was not kidnapped but voluntarily joined the Family after killing his parents. After a childhood encounter with a threatening wastelander, Ian has craved human flesh and blood, even that of his own mother and father. The player is then faced with the choice of convincing Ian to leave - which requires either the letter from his sister Lucy or passing a Speech check if Vance is still alive - or leaving him with the Family.

Settling Accounts
Ian's decision must be relayed to Evan King back in Arefu. Depending on which choice Ian made the appropriate parties will react with enthusiasm or disappointment. Reporting the news of Ian's decision to King will result in a sizable amount of good Karma regardless of Ian's ultimate choice. After Ian's decision, the Family and the residents of Arefu are considered to be the same faction even before the deal is made with Vance.

Vance may also be convinced to either not attack or to defend Arefu if he and the family are not already dead. If the player simply asks Vance to stop attacking Arefu, he will agree. Through a successful Speech, Medicine, or Intelligence check, the player can also convince Vance to enter into a deal to use blood packs instead of attacking the residents of Arefu. Regardless of the conversation choice, Vance will award the player with the Shishkebab blue prints, a flaming sword, after the initial conversation about the deal is over.

If the player brokered a deal between the family and Arefu, they can return to Vance after the deal is relayed to King and ask to be shown the ways of the vampire. The player will then be taught to drink blood and awarded the Hematophage perk which modifies blood packs to heal 20 HP instead of 1 HP.

If the player suggested the Family guard the town in exchange for blood, Alan will be dispatched to Arefu, fulfilling their end of the deal. At that point, you can enter Alan's Residence in Arefu (located at the entrance to town, near the brahmin pen) to find a copy of Pugilism Illustrated on a table in the corner.

After successfully dealing with the problem of Arefu, each of its inhabitants will show their gratitude in the following ways:
 * Evan King will (only once) give beer, wine, Scotch, vodka, or whiskey to the player.
 * Ken Ewers will repair stuff (up to 47%) for a price.
 * Brailee Ewers will give her "old-fashioned chocolate chip cookies" (which is actually a tin can) to the player.
 * Karen Schenzy will mark several locations on the player's Pip-Boy 3000.

Bugs

 * When you first approach Arefu, Evan King may run past you to attack an enemy if you led them there. If this happens, the explosion will still occur and you will be frozen in place as the game waits for the encounter to occur. You can either load a previous save from when not on the bridge and kill the enemy following you, or wait for Evan King to come back, which can take a while. Eventually, he will walk past you and return to his usual position, in which the dialogue sequence will then initiate. The game may freeze.
 * If the Family is inexplicably hostile, Vance may never appear in the game, making the quest impossible due to the lack of password for the terminal.
 * If the player kills any member of The Family after Ian makes his decision, the inhabitants of Arefu will turn hostile even though no one from the town was directly attacked or killed. This is due to the fact that Arefu and the Family become one faction after Ian makes his decision, rather than after the deal is struck between Evan and Vance. If the player attacks The Family instead of talking to them initially, this can be a problem if Robert is not killed before speaking with Ian. When the player leaves, Robert will be hostile but if the player kills him, the quest will be failed. If the player kills all residents of Arefu, the quest will also fail. You can work around this problem by simply sneaking past Robert without killing him.
 * If you already killed Robert or another member of The Family, but you haven't yet received the message that you are hostile to this faction, you can restart this by repeatedly pressing the "wait-button". Doing this, you can still talk to Evan and finish the quest successfully. Waiting for 24 hours seems to work the best.
 * While The Family's terminals are not red when highlighted (it will be your regular HUD color, as if open-use), being seen hacking into them by any member of the Family will result in the Family turning hostile as soon as you exit.
 * While checking on the residents of Arefu, after you check on one, the door is locked.
 * Sometimes, after getting Ian West to return to Arefu, the residents of Arefu will turn hostile for no reason and the quest will fail.
 * Rarely, when you start the quest normally from Lucy in Megaton then talk to Vance, giving the letter to Ian when talking to him will not remove it from your inventory.
 * After checking in on the Ewers, you will sometimes find Evan King in combat with a mirelurk outside. The mirelurk will easily kill Evan, thus making the quest impossible to complete. This can be fixed by reloading the previous auto-save.

Behind the scenes

 * "Vespertilio", the password to Ian's cell, is a genus of Vespertilio Vespertilionidae bats.
 * Alan informs the player about the "Meresti" name originating from that of a town in Romania. He is referring to the town of Mereşti.

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