There Stands the Grass

There Stands the Grass is a side quest in Fallout: New Vegas.

Quick walkthrough

 * Speak to Dr. Thomas Hildern at Camp McCarran.
 * Enter Vault 22 and download the research data found there.
 * (Optional) Find Keely, a researcher who has gone missing at Vault 22 - You will only get this optional quest if you speak to Dr. Williams. Keely can be found in the Pest Control area, accessed through the caves.
 * After you talk to Keely in Pest Control, she will ask you to meet her at her base of operations on the second level.
 * Find the vents Keely is pumping gas through and somehow ignite the gas.
 * Return to Keely and let her know the spores have been purged.
 * Return to Dr. Hildern at Camp McCarran with the research data+.
 * Return to Camp McCarran and tell Dr. Williams that Keely is safe+.

+XP granted for this quest (as stated below) is wholly dependent on whom you return to first with the news of what occurred in Vault 22. If you manage to both save Keely and download the data, you will get the highest XP return but only if you speak with Dr Williams first.

+If you deliver the data to Dr. Hildern before finding Keely, she will lock the vault door and you will be stuck inside the vault. You will have to kill or pickpocket Keely to get the password to unlock the door via her computer.

Detailed Walkthrough
To start the quest, you have to speak to Dr. Hildern in the Camp McCarran station. Dr. Hildern can be found in his office located inside the Camp McCarran Terminal building at the east side of the terminal in the south wing. After speaking to him, he will tell you that Vault 22 has data on its computers that will help him prevent a food shortage. He will give you the location to Vault 22 and ask you to enter and download the experimental data onto your Pip-Boy. Before leaving the base, make sure to speak to Angela Williams so you get the optional objective to find Keely, a researcher who went to the vault before and has become missing. You find out from Dr. Williams that Dr. Hildern has sent other people on his task but none of them have returned. If you speak again to Dr. Hildern before heading to Vault 22 and explore the speech options a little, you can demand that he double the caps he is paying you for the job (40 Speech is required).

The vault is easily found by following the map marker. There are quite a few cazadores who roam the area. Just outside the vault entrance are 4 giant mantis hiding in the foliage. The door is permanently open and full of overgrown plants. Inside the Vault are numerous mantises and what are known as spore carriers. In the Pest Control there are spore plants who spit spike projectiles.

Once inside you have the choice to repair the elevator (with a skill check) or walk the five levels by stairs. There are spore carriers hiding in most of the patches of plant growth. Whether you choose the elevator or the stairs you need to find the Overseer's office, which is located in the common areas. Follow the signs through the common areas to the Overseer's office where you will find a terminal that can be used to unlock three doors. The third door will actually be a malfunction error of "Manual Override at Door". This means that unless you have the keycard, you need to head for the crew quarters (now unlocked via the Overseer's computer). There is a key card in the first room on the left side of the hall as you enter the crew quarters. Be careful, there are three Spore Carriers waiting inside. With the key climb the stairs(you can not use the stairs because they are blocked) or take the elevator to Level 5, Pest Control. If you do not have the ability to repair the broken elevator, you must travel back to the floor above you, "Food Production" From here, follow the arrow until you see a door to the caves. Unlock it with your keycard, and the vault door to Pest Control will be down towards your left in the cave. Follow the arrow to the door (if you picked up the key card it will just open, otherwise pick the lock).

You do not need the keycard to access the databanks. One of the first two doors that unlock from the overseer's office is the databank door.

Finding Keely is a bit more difficult. To find her you must go to the 5th floor. Find a room that has a hard level lock on, level 75 lock pick is required, the room to the left of it has a secret cave entrance, just look for the computer wall panel that's been moved slightly and go behind it. Keely can be found at the far end of the caves. Keely turns out to be a ghoul. She credits being a ghoul with saving her from the abominations, as the mantis creatures captured her and were going to feed her to the spore plants but they were not interested in ghoul flesh. On the pest control level she is found by leaving the vault through a hole in one of the labs and traveling through a short cave to a large open cavern filled with Giant Mantis and Spore Plant creatures. She is on the south end of the cavern sitting alone next to a mantis pod.

Follow Keely to the second floor (Oxygen Recycling Level). Keely will tell you about her plan to eliminate the contagious spores.
 * There is a duffle bag with frag grenades beside Keely in the room where you met up with her on level 2 (Oxygen level). To find the duffle bag turn right (West) after entering the room with Keely's terminal in it, it's in the corner on the floor.
 * On the bottom level of the common areas (where you found the overseers office)there is a room marked Utility, which contains a flamer in the far corner along with plenty of fuel.

Keely tells you to find the vents through which she is pumping the flammable gas on the fifth level (Pest Control), and directly ignite them, possibly without killing yourself in the process.

Simple Solution The vents are located right outside the server room where you downloaded the data, next to the room with the upper-entrance to the cavern. The safest way to ignite them is by using any sort of explosive mine (C4 or frag Mine) and a Detonator. Time bombs also work well for this, but you may have to wait for the explosion before you exit the room. Place the mine right in front of the vents, then back-away into the server-room, close the door, step away from it, and trigger the mine using the Detonator.

Alternative Solutions There are several other ways to achieve the same result, though they are more difficult to do as most places on the fifth floor are consumed by flames.


 * If you throw an explosive from the data room and then back up farther into the room. you will be fine


 * It's more cost effective however to go into the data room, use a Laser Pistol and shoot near the vents, quickly closing the data room door afterward. Being in the data room will prevent all damage from the blast.


 * An atomic cocktail should allow you to withstand the flames with minor damage, although any followers may be momentarily knocked unconscious.


 * Alternatively you can fire a 40/25mm grenade from inside the data room, then quickly move behind cover to the right of the room without closing the door.


 * You can also consume a Turbo, shoot a laser at the vent from the end of the hall and simply run to the elevator.


 * Standing behind the gas, right where the vent is, doesn't do as much damage as standing in the hall, so if you have a relatively high level, then you can stand there and shoot a laser and not die. Another way to do this, is to just stand right next to the vent. If you shoot it, it should cause some damage, but nothing fatal.


 * The absolute best way is to create a Time Bomb (explosives skill 50) on a workbench. Drop it by the vents. You will have enough time to run to the elevator, wait for the thump of the explosion, and then run through the elevator.


 * An expensive approach, is to stock up on stimpaks and hotkey them. Repeatedly pressing the hotkey fast enough will outpace the DPS dealt by the fire, but will burn through 10-20 stimpaks, depending on medicine skill.


 * It's also possible to crouch as far back into the data room as possible and fire (near the terminal that you get the computer files from). The flames wont even touch you if you are standing in the right location. This location is when facing the terminal look to the right where there is a gap between two main frames, go into there to escape the fire.


 * Another safe and cost effective method is to throw a frag grenade directly to the gas vents from the opposite side of the file cabinet blockade right next to the data room door. Immediately run to the room directly behind you with the purple lights, closing and moving away from the door. The flames will not reach you. Make sure to have your followers wait in the back of the room before you throw the grenade. Another method is to get a grenade machine gun and stand in the second room to the right from the vent and shoot. The flames will not go to that room only through the hallway.


 * Sometimes it is impossible to close the server room door in time. Yet another method is to stand near the room with the cave entrance, at the end of the hall opposite the vents. Throw an explosive, then turn and run out into the cavern. You should be able to make it with minor or no damage.

When you return to Keely to collect your reward, she'll talk about destroying the files from the computer. If you have the files she'll discover they were downloaded and you have multiple options from here:


 * Tell her the truth and destroy the codes for good karma. If she lives you will get caps or Karma depending on what you bartered with Dr. Williams.


 * Tell her the truth and refuse to destroy where she will become hostile. Killing gives you her password to leave. Make sure to use her computer to unlock the door. This gives you NCR infamy.


 * Tell her the truth and refuse to destroy it, and flee the area. Go back in and she should be non-hostile again. Pickpocket the password from her.


 * Lie and let her live. You will lose karma for lying but gain it for saving her. This results in a net *gain* of about 50 karma.


 * With a Science skill of 70, you can keep the data while Keely remains alive. She will unlock the door for you and you receive positive karma. You must choose the speech option of telling Keely that Dr. Hildern sent you for the data in order to get the Science speech option.


 * If you are on the companion quest with Veronica you will have another option to save the data without bloodshed.


 * If you tell her Dr. Hildern sent you, you can say that your friend is part of a big organization that can use this data to help people. She will then state that you have given her no reason not to trust you and opens the door for you.


 * If you've already handed in the data with Dr. Hildern, Keely will tell you that the data should be deleted but will not confront you. This can result in a situation of being locked in the vault, to escape either pickpocket or kill Keely for her password, and use her terminal to open the locked door.

After that, whatever you chose you must return to Dr. Hildern.


 * If you saved the data he will give you 1200 caps and you can get an additional 600 with a high enough Barter(50) or Speech(50) skill.


 * If you deleted the data, the quest will end with you informing Dr. Williams that Keely is safe or dead. Dr. Hildern will suspect her responsible for the data being gone. No matter what response you choose afterwards, he will suspect you as an accomplice and angrily demand that you leave the lab.


 * If Keely died, you can tell Dr. Williams a lie with a speech check. You get 800 caps and lose Karma this way. If you don't, you won't get anything but you won't lose karma.

When you return to Keely after igniting the gas from the vents, she will inform you that she can delete the research files that you were supposed to download in the vault, so be sure to get them before returning to her.

Behind the scenes

 * The title of the quest may be a reference to a 1953 country song "There Stands the Glass", performed by Webb Pierce.

Bugs

 * ED-E might disappear in the explosion and be lost indefinitely. To prevent this, save before you light the gas and make sure your companions are in a safe location.
 * If you have ED-E with you when you start, and have not gotten the second (possibly first) record log from ED-E, it may begin to play after talking to Dr. Hildern as you leave his room and before Williams talks, causing you to freeze in place and only able to look around.
 * Veronica, Boone, ED-E (unless ED-E has vanished by being caught in an explosion like the one in Vault 22), Arcade Gannon, Rose of Sharon Cassidy, Lily Bowen, and Rex turn up by the elevator every time after using it, even though they had been told to wait.
 * When detonating the gas, you don't need to close the door to the computer room. The fire doesn't enter, even though it's wide open.
 * Sometimes it becomes impossible to reach the Fifth level to burn all the spores. Every time you use the elevator to the Fifth level the game crashes to the Desktop. The solution is pretty easy, leave your companions on the second level and complete the quest alone. That should prevent the game from crashing.
 * After rescuing Keely and going through the dialogue in which she tells you to meet her in her lab on the second floor, sometimes she will run to the elevator and go through an animation in which she is attempting to repair it. When you engage her in dialogue, she notes the good work you did in repairing it, but then instead of entering it, she walks into the food production tunnels nearby, and then aimlessly runs throughout them. If approached, she will engage in dialogue normally as if she is in her lab. If other bugs result in her disappearing (see above), you may want to check the food production tunnels for a possible location.
 * Occasionally, Keely may get stuck beneath the floor in 2nd level for no apparent reason. Using console commands seems to be the only remedy to this.
 * Sometimes, even if the door is closed, the explosion will still kill you, or it may knock your humanoid companion unconscious, but leave you intact.
 * if you shut both doors in the 5th level of the vault when igniting the gas, the flames will go through the door and you will die. Closing ONLY the door closest to the gas will keep you safe which doesn't make any sense at all
 * If you obtain the research data before starting the quest, giving the research data to Hildern upon starting this quest to complete it without leaving the room will result in the player character from being unable to move or interact with anything upon leaving the room and having Dr. WIlliams start up conversation, however she wont mention Keely as scripted because the quest has already been finished. This can be avoided by talking with Dr. Williams before completing the quest.

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