Kerwood Mine

Kerwood mine is a location in the Cranberry Bog region of Appalachia in 2102. It can be found southeast of the National Isolated Radio Array and northwest of Watoga.

Background
One of the unsafest mines in Appalachia, Kerwood mine was already barely holding together before the resource crisis, and the increasing coal demand due to the Sino-American War did it no favors. Miners were working around the clock to tear the black gold from the Appalachian Mountains, trying to make a living before they were inevitably replaced by robots, or killed in the aftermath of Atomic Mining Services' experimental underground nuclear tests meant to accelerate production. Foreman Sam Bailey started his job just as the situation was getting worse, in August 2077.

He quickly found an issue with fire boss Roy Kerwood, who was immune from firing because of his uncle's connections within Atomic Mining Services. Kerwood leveraged his standing to embezzle funds intended for miners, leave keys in random places and other issues. The foreman's repeated attempts to get him removed consistently floundered on the rocks of nepotism. Ever thankful for simply having a job in the economy, by September he was gripped by a fear that the mine would be his death. By October 17, the premonition proved to be quite accurate: AMS' nuclear detonations caused a quake in the mine, collapsing half the tunnels of the mine instantly, together with the main mine shaft, killing 17 miners instantly and trapping another 32 deep in the mine after the lower network was flooded. The radioactive contamination made any rescue attempt impossible and neither Bailey nor the structural engineer knew how to attempt a rescue. Breaking through the locker room into the old shaft didn't help either, as it also flooded.

No rescue was made and the miners died, alone and abandoned. After the Great War, Bailey holed up in the mine, with nowhere else to go. He had some supplies, a bottle of whiskey and constant company from what seemed to screams coming from deeper in the mine.

Layout
The layout of the mine consists of three above-water sections connected by flooded tunnels. The layout may be challenging to traverse as visibility is limited underwater. The player character must swim (or walk on the bottom if in power armor) to get to the other above-water areas. There is no breath limit when swimming or walking underwater.

When entering the mine, there is a maze of train tracks with ticks. One path leads down a small passage to a larger room. On the righthand side, there is a non-pickable locked door to an office area. The key is in one of the areas that the player character must swim to. In this initial area is a generator with a fusion core and an elevator shaft (the elevator doesn't work). There are tracks curving to the left with a mining cart. Heading down this path, the tracks split. Going straight ahead leads to a caved-in wall. A small cavity that holds random loot can be found to the right. Heading left leads to a flooded passage. Swimming into the flooded tunnel or dropping down the elevator shaft are the two ways to enter the rest of the mine. There are random ghouls and mole rats in the dry areas, there are no combatants underwater. One of these dry areas (accessed by jumping down the elevator shaft and following the tracks northward) has a Kerwood mine key on a desk for the locked door near the entrance. It is also possible to come back to the entrance tunnel through a hole in the back wall of the locked area.

In the locked area are lockers, lunch pails and a security gate that leads to the foreman's office. The office has a terminal that can be used to unlock a safe. Another room connected to the foreman's office has a metal box and tool shelf with a hazmat suit on the second level.

Notable loot

 * BoS report - Kerwood - Holotape, on a table near the locked blue double doors.
 * Stop taking the key! - Note, in the recreation room.
 * Kerwood mine key - In the northernmost chamber, near the steamer trunk and the Stop taking the key! note, through the flooded chambers.
 * Four potential Vault-Tec bobbleheads:
 * Near a support strut and wooden crate (1), in a mine alcove before descending into the water, close to a junction with an explosive canister (mine interior).
 * Near a support strut and ammo box, in a small dead-end alcove, southeast of the main mine tracks, just above the cave-in that blocks the track tunnel (mine interior).
 * Inside the "effluent hole", inside a green plastic outhouse, underwater on the metal platform, in the flooded cavern with the huge yellow extractor fan on the ceiling (mine interior).
 * Hidden with the wood crate, explosive canister, yellow crate trolley, and netted crates, close to an orange forklift, southwest of the red trunk, in the streamer trunk cavern (mine interior).
 * Four potential magazines:
 * On the earth by the toppled metal shelving, near a Nuka-Cola bottle and a large central metal and rock shaft column, close to a toolbox in the junction cavern with the "Eye Protection" poster (cave interior).
 * On the left (northeast) side of the slag heap, near an explosive canister, in the waterlogged chamber linking the underwater area to the destroyed mine tracks (cave interior).
 * On a metal table with a lantern, by the explosive canisters, left of the red trunk, in the Junction Cavern (mine interior).
 * On the blue mainframe computer bank along the wall of the monitoring room with the locked double doors (key), accessed when leaving the mine, close to the fusion core generator (on the other side of the door).
 * Power armor chassis - Can spawn in one of the dry areas that must be swum to. It is in a very short side passage in the same dry area as the key. It is standing in very shallow water.
 * Potential recipe - Inside the western shack closest to the mine entrance, on a small rolling table on the left. One may also be found after the flooded section inside the mine.
 * Fusion core - In a fusion generator near the entrance. Another can spawn in one of the other dry areas.
 * Three miner uniforms with miner hats.

Appearances
Kerwood mine appears only in Fallout 76.