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Update 7 ? Holy Shit a Dinosaur
Well, Nipton is fucked and we've reported it's fucked-ness. Let's roll. To the east!
Old state lines woo!
There's some stuff to find along this track, but we ignore it for now in favor of the road.
I immediately veer off course to see what the red/green blips on the compass are.
Oh! Wild Bighorners. The adults are "hostile" in that they're red but won't attack us until we get too close. The calfs are neutral.
Let's head back onto the road.
More Vipers, let's kill 'em.
This one too. There's actually supposed to be an ambush of sorts here but I veered off course up to the canyon walls and screwed it up.
I head back down into the canyon to check out a wrecked truck.
Not pictured: this crate/Star cap/empty sarsaparilla bottles just glitchily rising up out of the ground. Gamebryo everyone!
We're about here on the road, for everyone's reference. I veer off course yet again, this time towards a location.
Welcome to Wolfhorn Ranch. Outside is pretty boring (seen here is a bunch of stuff I can use to make weapon repair kits, so I take it)
Inside's what we want.
Chopper, the unique cleaver, is sitting on the stove. Courier is holding it for the camera here while looking at a Tumblers Today for a permanent +3 lockpicking. Not bad, not bad.
Back on the road right by the ranch (it was a very small detour) I have always encountered a pair of traveling merchants.
I find this doing business with one of them and buy it. It's weightless and I'm not guaranteed to find one again anytime soon and I'm really gonna want it later.
We're about here now.
The caravan and some Legion guys get in a fight.
This here's where the enslaved guys Boxcars mentioned got to.
How am I gonna free these guys without getting Legion infamy?
Veeeery carefully. If I pull off kills without being detected by anyone, no one knows I did it!
And I can free the Powder Gangers and they charge off to god knows where (probably to get murdered by a radscorpion, the way this game is)
It's about this time I realize where I am and start making a big detour. I'll show you in a bit.
I encounter some NCR and Legion troops having a battle. The Legion wins by one man and I'm the real winner because I take ammo and Legion/NCR scrip off the corpses.
Here's where I wanted to go. Nipton and our next destination Novac for reference's sake.
These next screenshots are pretty dark to preserve how I'm creeping around for dear life since Wild Wasteland turns this cave fairly dangerous at our level.
We head to the right at the immediate fork.
Creepin', creepin'.
At an open point, we creep on past these burning barrels.
Sssson of a bitch it noticed me.
The RUSes replace the ordinary Giant Rats if you have Wild Wasteland, and they have about three times the health and damage output of a normal Giant Rat for a total of 120 health and 50 damage. They hurt 
Courier got hit once here. Once. If more than one spots him at a time he's probably screwed.
I finally hit 200 rads and get minor rad poisoning, for -1 Endurance. I take Rad-Away now to get rid of it though.
I get a sneak attack to the head on this one and win though. Thank christ.
The OTHER one guarding what we want I do not.
Aha!
Ratslayer is the unique varmint rifle and is actually pretty solid. It has all the upgrades you can have on a varmint rifle (extended mags for a total of 8 shots per reload, a silencer, and a scope), weighs less, has better raw damage, and 5 times the crit chance. Nice!
Broc Flower Cave also has some poorly placed containers that are kinda in the ground.
I proceed to clean up with sneak attacks 
Here's a well-lit shot of how Ratslayer looks.
We head back to the road and find Ranger Station Charlie. Nothing really here now, but we'll be back for a quest.
Let's get back on the road towards Novac.
Dat dino
He loads some more details as I get closer.
How Novac gets its name. Let's start asking around after our checkered-shirt jerk.
Well. Welcome to you. You look tired from the road. Why don't you relax a spell, let this fine town take care of you?
I'm looking for a man in a checkered coat. Have you seen anyone like that?
Well he might've been wearing a fancy outfit, but he wasn't any kind of a gentleman to me.
Those hoodlums he was with seemed to know Manny for some reason. He's our daytime sniper, up in the dinosaur's mouth.
Thanks, I'll go have a chat with Manny. Goodbye.
Watch out for strangers.
We take a trip through the gift shop, up to the sniper's nest.
I'm looking for a man in a checkered coat. I heard you may know him.
Sure, I know him. What do you want with him?
I have a score to settle.
Doesn't surprise me. Guy seemed like he'd do whatever it takes to get what he wants. Probably makes a lot of enemies. Well listen, I can definitely help you find him, but I've got problems of my own.
Maybe we can do a trade. You need my help. There's something I need, too.
What do you need?
But the only resource we got here is junk. Without that, people wouldn't have anything to trade. They'd all have to leave. We get most of it up the road from the old rocket test site. But a bunch of ghouls showed up one day and took it over. We can't get in there now.
What needs to be done?
Well they gotta go, or this'll be a ghost town before long. Doesn't matter to me what you do. As long as the ghouls are out of there, that's good enough for me.
I'll see what I can manage. See ya Manny.
Yeah, see you.
Back down in the gift shop, we talk to Cliff Briscoe the merchant.
We are interested in him for one thing and it ain't the dino toys he's selling.
It's this. He's actually also selling Paciencia, the GRA unique hunting rifle, but it costs a whopping 17000 caps and we aren't near there yet. That Gun is a reference to the .223 Pistol from Fallout 1 and 2, which was itself a (visual) reference to Harrison Ford's gun in Blade Runner.
We don't buy That Gun, however.
Ammo, that we'll buy.
Instead, we wait for night to fall:
Because Cliff will leave now.
We pick this Very Easy lock...
Revealing a bunch of stuff.
On a shelf on the right-hand side, there it is!
Ours now.
I also grab five of the rocket souvenirs for reasons.
Then it's back out to the dino mouth to talk to the nighttime sniper.
Expecting visitors?
Yeah. I guess maybe I am. But not like you.
Why are you here?
[FAILED] Drop it. Now why the hell are you here?
Just looking around.
There's nothing up here.
There's a sniper.
I think you'd better leave.
Do you treat everyone around here like this?
Why is that?
I need someone I can trust. You're a stranger. That's a start.
What do you want me to do?
I want you to find something out for me. I don't know if there's anything to find, but I need someone to try.
They knew when to come and what route to take, and they only took Carla. Someone set it up. I don't know who.
You're trying to track down your wife?
My wife's dead. I want the son of a bitch who sold her.
How do you know your wife is dead?
What do I do if I find this person?
Bring him out front of the nest here while I'm on duty. I work nights. I'll give you my NCR beret to put on. It'll be our signal, so I know you're standing with him.
Poor Boone 
THE PATH SO FAR