The Scribe

The Scribe is a randomly encountered merchant in the Commonwealth in 2287.

Background
This scribe is a former member of Lyons' Brotherhood of Steel under the latter as Elder from the Capital Wasteland. Once a proud member, he gradually became disillusioned with the Brotherhood's leadership after Arthur Maxson took over as elder in 2283, believing the Brotherhood was becoming too self-serving in contrast to Owyn Lyons', who died in 2278, more altruistic beliefs. He eventually left the order and has since then been traveling the wasteland as an armor merchant. By 2287, he is looking to settle somewhere to ply his trade.

Other interactions
The Scribe can be recruited as a settler once the settlement population cap reaches 10.

Encounter locations

 * On a road east of Dark Hollow Pond (the same road as the one in front of General Atomics Galleria).
 * East of Cambridge Police Station.
 * On the road near a train bridge east of Boston Police rationing site. To locate this area, fast travel to the site, then go south for a short distance until reaching the train tracks. Follow the tracks east until reaching a road heading underneath them. Walking under the bridge triggers the encounter (save before going underneath it). Jump down on the south side of the bridge and walk underneath toward the Red Rocket station. The Scribe can potentially spawn around the corner of the station. Other NPCs and random encounters can be also found here.
 * In a small square between Greenetech Genetics and Cambridge crater.
 * On the street right outside of Med-Tek Research. Fast travel to the location, turn left, and walk down the street. An NPC should be visible while approaching a three-way intersection, and enemy forces up to and including a deathclaw, can materialize behind the player character.
 * Near Revere Satellite Array.
 * Near the front of Hester's Consumer Robotics.
 * Behind the Cambridge Polymer Labs building. To trigger the random encounter, fast travel to the location and go south, then turn west and go down the road along the river until reaching the broken Red Rocket billboard. Then turn around and go back. Alternatively, travel to Cambridge Police Station and go down the same road to Cambridge Polymer Labs.
 * South of Concord, near where Trashcan Carla is first encountered.
 * South of Oberland station. Simply follow the train tracks until reaching a derailed train and a red water stop. Further south, the tracks are blocked by fallen trees, stop by the third and an NPC will have spawned in front of the player character and is walking towards them (potentially the Scribe) or behind them at the train water stop. After hiring him, a bug can occur in which random encounters will stop spawning with this method.
 * Northwest of Irish Pride Industries Shipyard, at the intersection of the road that heads north to West Everett Estates.
 * Outside Dartmouth Professional Building, fighting several Children of Atom.

Appearances
The Scribe appears only in Fallout 4.

Bugs
Even if the player character meets the requirement to hire him he may not give the option to send him to a settlement.
 * On PC, one may choose to hire him through console commands at the preferred settlement such as:


 * Another way to solve the bug, though it does not allow one to recruit him, is to attract him to a nearby settlement and, in workshop mode, reassign him to another settlement, travel there and sleep 24 hours. He will then appear in the settlement.