Tenpenny Tower (quest)

Tenpenny Tower is a Fallout 3 quest connected with Tenpenny Tower. It is also an Xbox 360, PC achievement and a PS3 trophy.

Before doing this quest
If you are looking to pick up all of the Bottlecap Mine Schematics, you should complete the unmarked quest A Manhandled Manservant. If you complete this quest before the Manhandled Manservant unmarked quest, you will not be able to tell Herbert Dashwood about it, thus making his quest impossible to complete. However, Herbert Dashwood's safe contains a copy of the Schematics as well, and you may be able to loot the key off his corpse (proven both ways PC/Xbox 360) even if you don't complete the unmarked quest. You may also want to collect a few skill books (see below), as they are duplicated if you help the ghouls take Tenpenny Tower by force.

Approaches and Walkthrough
The ghouls want to live in the luxurious Tenpenny Tower, but neither Allistair Tenpenny nor the other residents are willing to let them in. Kill the band of ghouls, let them into the Tower, or find an uneasy diplomatic solution. Note that the decisions you make in this quest can have permanent and major effects on the fate of a major city and obtaining one of the most useful items in the game.

Starting the Quest
The quest is given by Chief Gustavo at Tenpenny Tower, you get an Assault Rifle upon starting this quest and a 500 cap reward upon the death of Roy Phillips and his "gang". A successful speech check can raise your reward to 700 caps, as well as upgrade your starting gun to a Chinese Assault Rifle and some 5.56mm Rounds.

Gustavo will direct you to the Feral Ghoul infested Warrington Tunnels west of Tenpenny Tower. Follow the tunnels and you'll find a door leading to Roy Phillips' hideout. Once there, you can choose to kill the ghouls, help them massacre the residents of Tenpenny Tower, or offer to speak with Allistair Tenpenny on their behalf.

Note: This quest is also given to you by Roy Phillips if you meet him before entering Tenpenny Tower.

Kill Roy Phillips
Simply eradicate Roy Phillips and any other non-feral Ghouls within his hideout (for negative karma), then return to Chief Gustavo for your 500 or 700 cap reward, depending on whether you passed the speech check. This method is by far the quickest way to complete this quest, but does not allow you to gain the Ghoul Mask. You may also choose to kill Roy Phillips during the conversation he has with the intercom when you first approach Tenpenny Tower; simply allow the conversation to finish and then attack him while he leaves, or reverse-pickpocket a mine or grenade into his inventory while he isn't looking. You will still have to talk to Gustavo to initiate the quest and kill Roy and his gang.

If you want to kill the Ghouls without losing karma, you can either goad each of them into attacking via dialogue or bring a companion to kill them for you.

Killing Roy Phillips has the upside of sparing the lives of all the residents in Tenpenny Tower, as all the other solutions eventually result in in Roy Phillips and his pack of Feral Ghouls murdering every single human in Tenpenny Tower. Killing Roy will result in having multiple traders in the tower compared to just two if you allow him in.

Convince Tenpenny to let the Ghouls move in
(If you have already killed Allistair Tenpenny and Gustavo has taken his place, you must kill Gustavo for this to work. Doing so will award positive karma to those who've taken the Lawbringer perk)

Talk to Phillips about the possibility of a peaceful negotiation, then bring the proposal to Allistair Tenpenny. He will tell you that if you convince tenants Mr.Edgar Wellington II, Mrs. Wellington, Mr. Ling, Ms. Montenegro and Ms. Lancaster to have the ghouls as neighbors, he'll let them move in. Passing a speech check (for positive karma) or a stealthy assassination (for negative karma) for each of the five residents will convince Tenpenny to grant the ghouls access.

Alternatively, you can take the love letter from Susan Lancaster's desk and show it to Millicent Wellington, who will then proceed to murder both her husband Edgar and his lover Susan. Stealing from Anthony Ling and Lydia Montenegro's store safes will also cause them to leave the next time you talk to them.

Note that, if you wish to kill Allistair Tenpenny for any reason (such as obtaining his unique suit, the karma granted for killing him, or for the You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head quest), the period between when Tenpenny gives you permission to have the ghouls move in and when you tell Roy that he did so is your only window to do so, so be careful not to miss the opportunity.

Once all required tenants are convinced or otherwise removed from the picture, visit Alistair Tenpenny for a 500 cap reward. Once you bring Roy Phillips the news, he will reward you with a Ghoul Mask, which makes you friendly with all ghouls. You will also gain a 300 XP reward.

Upon returning to Tenpenny Tower, you will find human and Ghoul residents living together. Inquiring among residents will indicate that both sides are getting along well. However, upon a subsequent return, all human residents will be gone. Further investigation reveals that the human and ghoul tenants had a "disagreement", and that Roy Phillips decided to "take out the trash". The human residents have all been slaughtered, and their looted and stripped bodies dumped in the basement. Former residents of Tenpenny Tower such as Mr. Ling and Ms. Montenegro will also die and disappear at this point, even if they have moved to the entrance of Megaton. You may choose to kill Phillips and the other ghouls in Tenpenny Tower after learning this, but will earn negative karma.

Note that (with some controversy over this issue - see Discussion), there is NO confirmed method to stop the humans in Tenpenny Tower from eventually dying if you choose this "diplomatic" method, or indeed any method that results in you receiving the Ghoul Mask. Methods that do not work include killing Roy Phillips and his gang right after he gives you the Ghoul Mask, in an attempt to prevent him from killing the humans after peacefully moving in. Although this method will result in no ghouls visibly present in the Tower, the people will still comment about the ghouls moving in peacefully, and within a few days/weeks of game time, all the humans will be gone from the Tower. Apparently, this often/always also results in NO LIVING NPCs being present in the Tower after some time, whether they be ghouls or humans, and this will be the case permanently. (confirmed ps3, PC)

Help the Ghouls break into the tower
Talking to Roy Phillips also leads to the option to unlock Tenpenny Tower's basement door and allow his feral ghouls to slaughter the residents. Gustavo and Herbert "Daring" Dashwood have a key to the terminal that opens the door, and can be either persuaded or pickpocketed. If both characters are dead when you receive this quest, simply check their corpses and loot the key. The terminal is located in the generator room which can be accessed via a stairwell behind Tenpenny Tower, resulting in a loss of 600 karma. Alternatively, you can just destroy the generator in the room for the same karma loss.

After opening the door, Roy will be waiting outside the front entrance and will give you a Ghoul Mask to prevent the feral ghouls from attacking you; inside Tenpenny Tower you will witness the ghouls massacring the tower residents. While the chaos ensues, the player is free to loot the corpses of the former tenants and ransack their stores and belongings without any additional negative karma. Note that ALL of the residents on all three floors must be dead before this portion of the quest will advance. Afterward, Roy Phillips and his followers will replace the old NPCs and take over the shops, allowing you to continue trading at Tenpenny Tower.

If you still have the quest "The Power of the Atom" active and have chosen to blow up Megaton, but haven't done so yet, Mr. Burke will be allowed to live and let you blow up the town.

There are two skill books in the building for barter and speech; letting Roy Phillips and his followers ransack the tower allows you to get duplicate copies of these books (and ALL loot before the attack [includes Nuka machines filing cabinets etc], apart from Dashwood's safe.) if you steal them before the transition (see Tenpenny Tower for more details).

Maximizing your rewards and loot
Following this approach allows you to minimize the effect of the Tenpenny Massacre on your game and gain as much loot as possible, Also, you can kill everyone in Tenpenny Tower, then go to Roy Phillips to immediately get the Ghoul Mask and complete the quest. (saving time but not gaining as much experience points in the process)
 * Start You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head at Underworld and Strictly Business at Paradise Falls.
 * Go to Tenpenny Tower and start this quest by talking to Gustavo about it, passing a speech check for a Chinese Assault Rifle and ammo from Gustavo
 * Go to Herbert Dashwood and begin A Manhandled Manservant (finishing it before the quest)
 * Go to Allistair Tenpenny and speak about Mister Crowley, but don't choose to kill Tenpenny!
 * Accept the deal to kill Mister Crowley and gain 100 caps upfront.
 * Go to Roy Phillips by navigating through Warrington Tunnels and tell him you'll try to convince Tenpenny to let them in.
 * Return to Tenpenny and ask him to let the ghouls in.
 * Convince the people on the list Tenpenny gave you called Tenpenny's request:
 * Successfully convince Susan Lancaster
 * After convincing her, mezz her with the Mesmetron, loot her, collar her, and then send her off to Paradise Falls.
 * Go back to Tenpenny and tell him that you've convinced the residents.
 * Kill Tenpenny to fulfill the objective from You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head OR kill Mister Crowley and get your reward from Tenpenny.
 * Proceed with the Help the Ghouls break into the tower guide, getting the Ghoul Mask from Roy and watching the Feral Ghouls destroy Tenpenny Tower (giving you free reign to loot and plunder the entire building and its inhabitants).
 * As the Feral Ghouls ransack Tenpenny Tower, you are free to plunder the stores and rooms throughout the tower without karma loss. Make sure to equip the Ghoul Mask to avoid battling the ghouls yourself. All items and loot in the Tower will reset a few days after the takeover is complete, so don't leave behind any items you want in there.

Bugs

 * The quest script that moves the ghouls into Tenpenny Tower will not check whether Roy is still alive before moving their bodies into the basement. So if Roy is killed before the human tenants are disposed of, he will still somehow manage to murder them. (confirmed PC)
 * After opening the lower basement and allowing the ghouls to take the tower, the siege simply may not stop. Every time you leave the tower and return, the attack will begin again and again although the residents are already dead. If Susan Lancaster was sent to the slave pens, attempt to kill her in her pen then return to the tower and personally scour each level to ensure all residents are dead. After confirming this, talk to Roy and if he thanks you for your part in the siege, leave the tower, wait 24 hours and return and the tower should be functional again. An alternative solution to this bug is to kill all the ghouls yourself. Roy will not attack the player if he attacks the ghouls. After Michael Masters and Bessie Lynn arrive at the tower wait 24 hours and the tower should be functional. (confirmed Xbox 360)
 * Killing Roy Phillips will complete the quest, but if you fail to kill all three, the remaining Ghouls will move into Tenpenny and will still mention to Roy Phillips, as if he were alive. i.e. after killing Roy and Michael, Bessie told me to talk with Roy about the missing residents in Tenpenny after they went missing. (confirmed Xbox 360)
 * Rarely, Allistair Tenpenny will simply never offer his quest-ending dialogue once you have successfully convinced everyone to allow ghoul neighbors (or killed the dissenters). There appears to be no quick fix for this. The only reliable workaround is to kill Tenpenny, wait for Gustavo to assume control, and then kill him, after he says "[Ghouls can move in] over my dead body." (confirmed PC, Xbox 360)
 * The game has been known to lock-up after killing all of the ghouls and residents from Tenpenny Tower; if the player attempts to load the Tenpenny Tower lobby via elevator and front door. (confirmed Xbox 360)
 * Allistair Tenpenny may glitch and refuse to pay the reward for killing Mister Crowley. (confirmed PC, PS3)
 * If the "kill the ghouls" option is followed, the Tenpenny residents may occasionally give the player speech options indicating that the player had instead brokered the deal to let the ghouls move in. When starting conversations repeatedly, they may first greet you correctly (praising you for killing the ghouls), then incorrectly (as if you had let the ghouls in peacefully), then give you a generic greeting for all subsequent chats. (confirmed on PC)
 * Exiting the Generator level caused people to run around scared. Exiting with Dogmeat caused security to turn hostile.
 * Sometimes the bodies in the basement will disappear or never appear. (confirmed all platforms)
 * If you tell Roy that you'll let the ghouls in and then kill him and his friends, GNR may report that you've let them kill everyone in Tenpenny Tower, despite this never happening. (confirmed Xbox 360)
 * Sometimes Roy Phillips will thank you for getting them into Tenpenny Tower but won't give you the reward which means you also can't complete the quest or the achievements linked to it. (confirmed Xbox 360)
 * Killing Roy Phillips alone without Bessie or Michael knowing (even in a sneak kill) would result to Michael turning hostile even if he hasn't seen you kill Roy. (confirmed PS3)
 * Sometimes, upon re-entering Tenpenny Tower (after convincing Tenpenny to allow the ghouls to live in the tower), all levels of the building will be completely devoid of all life. To solve this, reload a save. (confirmed Xbox 360)
 * Sometimes, despite brokering the "middle way" in the "Tenpenny Tower" quest, a return to Tenpenny Tower shows only ghoul residents. Also, Three Dog gives the spiel for having killed all the residents on the radio, and Alistair Tenpenny and Susan Lancaster are considered dead for their parts in the quests "You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head" and "Strictly Business" respectively. (confirmed on PC Patch 1.6 and PS3)