Medical Mystery is a side quest in Fallout: New Vegas.
Quick walkthrough[]
| Side Quest: Medical Mystery | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Talk to Dr. Richards. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stake out the medical tent between 1:00 and 2:30 AM. | Ask Dr. Richards about the symptoms of hydra use with a Medicine check then confront Stone. | Talk to James Sexton about the missing supplies and gain evidence about Stone's activities, then confront Stone with this. | Pickpocket Stone for an empty hydra syringe as evidence. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Report Stone to Dr. Richards. | Convince Stone to turn himself in with a Speech check. | Convince Stone to stop taking the supplies with a Speech check. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reward: 300 XP NCR fame | Reward: None | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Detailed walkthrough[]
The easiest way to complete this quest is to simply wait, hidden, inside/outside the medical tent starting around 1:00 in the morning. Around 2:30, Private Stone will enter/exit, crouched, and attempt to steal the supplies. Depending on your Speech level, you have a number of options in dealing with the situation.
Pickpocket Private Stone and take the empty hydra syringe (the clue) from his inventory. After that, report him to Dr. Richards.
Alternately, if you have passed the Medicine check for Dr. Richards to tell you about the symptoms you can talk to Stone by passing another 50 Medicine check; this alleviates the hassle of waiting until 2 a.m. for him to sneak into the medical tent. (Stone can usually be found hanging around the barracks.)
Another option is to talk to Sexton about missing drug supplies; he'll tell you Stone has been absent from his bunk late at night. Confronting Stone will yield an option to make him confess with a 50 Speech check. You can then attempt the 60 Speech check to make him turn himself in for a total of 110 XP.
Another way to complete the quest is to get Private Stone to promise to stop stealing the supplies through a Speech check. When you return to Dr. Richards, you can tell him that you could not find the missing supplies and you will complete the quest, but you will receive no XP nor NCR fame.
To gain more XP you need to speak to Dr. Richards about the missing supplies, pass the Medicine check (50) then go and talk to Stone about the medical supplies and again pass the Medicine check (50). Tell him about the harm his actions cause to soldiers that need the supplies, then say he should turn himself in and pass a Speech check (60). After that go and talk to Dr. Richards and he will tell you that Stone turned himself in and then you will gain 300 XP, good Karma, and NCR fame.
Quest stages[]
Notes[]
- When you actually find Private Stone trying to sneak his way out, you have several choices:
- Ignore his movements and let him escape, then report to Dr. Richards. You'll get 300 XP and NCR fame as a reward.
- Tell Stone to turn himself in. This requires passing a Speech 60 challenge. You'll get 60 XP plus an additional 300 XP, gain Karma, and NCR fame reward from talking to Dr. Richards after Stone turns himself in.
- Confront him and say you'll let him go if he can make it "worth your while". Stone will give you five hydras for this.
- You can also turn Stone in even if he gives you the five hydras. You'll get 300 XP, NCR fame and a Karma loss for betraying Stone.
- Talk to Stone in the medical tent, let him escape, and then turn him in to Dr. Richards. You'll get the normal 300 XP and NCR fame reward.
- Pickpocket an empty syringe from him.
- Once Private Stone is in jail, if you are hostile towards the NCR, he will be able to open his cell door, even though he does not have a key. However, once he has left his cell, he will not fight you, even though he is labelled as an enemy. If you killed the NCR trooper who was guarding the cell, Stone will grab his 10mm pistol and then stand near one of the benches while occasionally drawing and holstering his weapon. If you take the weapon before he grabs it, he will do the same thing, except he will continually lower and raise his fists.
Bugs[]
Private Stone may disappear, leaving you unable to complete this quest. The quest marker will point to where he usually hangs out (outside the Command Center), but he's not there. It's possible he's trapped under the terrain. He never appears in the medical tent if this happens. [verified]
- Waiting hidden inside the medical tent between 1:00am and 2:30am can fix this.
- Reloading to a point before you entered the camp (the first time) and reentering may fix this problem.
- This is now fixed in official patch 1.06. The pointer will still point to the empty spot, but you can now find him either inside or outside the medical tent at the designated times.
- After the completion of the quest with turning Stone in, he may be absent from the jail and be wandering around still (and stealing the hydra), and all he will say is "Get lost." [verified]
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
