Picking Up the Trail

 is a Fallout 3 quest. It is also a Xbox 360/PC achievement and a PlayStation 3 Trophy.

Summary
Picking up the Trail consists of finding and gaining entrance to Vault 87.

Lamplight Caverns

 * See also: Little Lamplight, Rescue from Paradise

Once you've arrived at Lamplight Caverns, Mayor MacCready will stop you at the gates of Little Lamplight. You can convince the mayor to let you in with a Speech challenge or with the Child At Heart perk. Failing that, the only way into Little Lamplight is to complete the Rescue from Paradise side quest.

Once in Little Lamplight, there are two ways to get to Vault 87:
 * 1) Passing through Super mutant infested Murder Pass; if you chose this option, you must first speak with Mayor MacCready or Princess to get the gate to Murder Pass open.
 * 2) Asking Mayor MacCready about alternate paths will reveal a locked back door to Vault 87. You must ask Joseph to restore power to the computer terminal before you can use it. The door and terminal (average difficulty) are located in the Great Chamber.

Note that if you arrive at Little Lamplight before you complete The Waters of Life, you can get inside the caverns but you will not be able to ask MacCready about how to get into Vault 87.

Bugs

 * It's possible that this quest will be considered "completed" and move you onto the next quest before you get into Vault 87. This can be a problem if this occurs before you ask MacCready to open the gate to Murder Pass and/or Joseph to restore power to the computer console, as the dialog options that prompt them to perform these tasks are no longer available after the quest is "completed." Thus there is no way into Vault 87 at this point by "playing by the game's rules." In the PC version, however, one can use the console command "tcl" to switch off collisions, which will allow you to simply walk through the gate blocking the way to Murder Pass. Once on the other side of the gate, use the "tcl" command again to re-engage collisions and then proceed on into Murder Pass.
 * Scribe Rothchild may disappear from the Citadel, preventing the player from being briefed and advancing the quest. This can be fixed by using the console command 'player.placeleveledactoratme 000156ea'.
 * Talking to Rothchild when he is in the A Wing instead of the Laboratory may result in a bugged and broken quest. Making him unconcious by shooting him can sometimes fix this.
 * In some instances Rothchild will tell you to follow him then make no effort to move, even under duress. Reload and approach Rothchild at a different time of the day--preferably when an NPC is talking to him and his back is turned--then begin the dialogue again. This can be fixed however, by dragging Rothchild's body to the desired location by knocking him unconscious, or disabling then re-enabling him using the console.
 * Sometimes when talking to Rothchild in the laboratory he will tell you to follow him, but will not move. to fix this just push him until he is near the wall directly on the left of the door leading to the Mess Hall.

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