The Velvet Curtain

The Velvet Curtain is a side quest in the Fallout 3 add-on Point Lookout.
The quest leads the Lone Wanderer to find the whereabouts of missing Chinese agent Wan Yang, and use the Submarine self-destruct codes in her possession to blow up the stranded Chinese submarine SSN-37-1A.
==Quick walkthrough==
==Detailed walkthrough==
There are several ways to start this quest:
* Travel to the Homestead Motel north of Pilgrim's Landing, enter Room 1D and activate the terminal. Instructions to open a locker near the pier will be received. The key is found inside the suitcase on the bed.
* Taking the key, opening the locker on the Boardwalk and then taking the Box 1207 - Spy's audio password from the locker will start the quest.
* Read the spy alert using a terminal in the Administration building of the Turtledove Detention Camp.
===Obtain the orders from the locked locker===
Once at the locker (located on the right side of the boardwalk coming from the ferry), open it and take the holotape Box 1207 - Spy's audio password. If the terminal in the motel room or the one in the Detention Camp was not read, this will activate the quest. The holotape instructs the Lone Wanderer to go to the bank and use the password on the tape. It also informs them that the safety deposit boxes can only be accessed by the owners' voices.
===Access safety deposit box 1207===
At the People's Bank of Point Lookout, go to the safety deposit box room and stand in front of the speaker. Activate the holotape received from the locker. The speaker will say "Processing... processing... Safety deposit access granted" upon which box 1207 will open. Pick up the holotape Espionage debriefing. This tape informs you of Agent Jiang's mission to destroy a captured Chinese submarine and his search for another agent, Agent Yang.
===Find Agent Yang===
Agent Yang has the codes to destroy the sub within a false molar. The molar is found among her remains. Exit the bank, turn right and a few steps eastward will have the Lone Wanderer at the Naval Recruiting Center, which is just beyond the walled bumper car arena. Go through the door behind the counter on the left and activate the DIA Officer's terminal. Access the file "Field Report - Yang Capture/Transfer". Read it to learn the fate of Yang being captured by U.S. officials and detained at Turtledove Detention Camp.
Turtledove is directly north of the recruitment center. The camp is devoid of swampfolk, but swarming with defense robots and ghouls. Enter the morgue through the cellar door, open Yang's remains locker and take the submarine self-destruct codes. Escape the morgue the way it was entered (through the cellar door), or use the hatch located near the cremation chamber, which leads to the septic tunnel. In the tunnel, exit to the east of the Turtledove Detention Camp, in the swamps.
Also, the septic tunnel can be used to enter the morgue circumventing ghouls and sentry bots - investigate the area to the southwest of Turtledove Detention Camp, two or three squares away, while periodically checking the Pip-Boy's local map (as the entrance is not displayed at the world map) near the trash heap. At the entrance to the septic tunnel are two first aid boxes, two ammunition boxes with some shotgun shells, and a yellow maintenance barrier.
===Blow up the Chinese submarine===
The Chinese spy submarine is beached underwater, located south of the Calvert Mansion and near a pair of sunken vessels just west of the lighthouse. Enter the sub through a hatch on the conning tower. Use the terminal in the bow to activate the self-destruct, and flip the failsafe switch in the stern. Before flipping the switch, use Lockpick on a footlocker, which contains several valuable items, including a power fist. The Lone Wanderer will have about 10 seconds to escape after leaving the sub, but until they do leave, nothing will happen.
Not too far from the sub site is a ship far enough away from the blast radius that it can be used as a position to observe the explosion in safety, although it may still be somewhat difficult to see the underwater explosion due to the murky water.
===Return to the motel===
Head back to the motel, and receive some new orders from the safehouse terminal. The next objective is to meet the head Chinese agent at his bunker, located beside Calvert Mansion, underneath the atrium. The terminal directs the Lone Wanderer to a pair of cryptochromatic spectacles hidden within the toilet tank in the motel.
===Head to the bunker===
Travel to the Calvert Mansion and enter the remnants of an aviary to the west. Equip the cryptographic spectacles now. The number of rings on each vase represents its number. Activate the vases using the cryptochromatic sequence. The sequence is: 1, 3, 2, 3, 4, 4, 2. A hatch will appear on the floor next to the #2 vase. If entered correctly an audible "5-ping" noise instead of the normal "click" can be heard. If the hatch does not open, enter the code a second time immediately after, ignoring the "wrong" sound effect. After entering the code a second time, the Chinese Intelligence bunker should open.
===Escape the Chinese bunker===
Inside the bunker is a large number of weapons and ammunition and a workbench. The Lone Wanderer will be approached by a protectron who asks them to leave the hazardous area. Choose to give the robot the pass phrase or tell the "tin man" to get out of the way. There are no benefits or drawbacks to either option save personal preference on where the robot should stand once the quest is complete (assuming it isn't destroyed).
* If it is chosen to give it the pass phrase, it will escort the Lone Wanderer to a room downstairs for the extraction orders and stand next to that door.
* Otherwise, simply go downstairs. If left alive without using the pass phrase, the robot will continually guard the door nearest its recharge station and occasionally approach the Lone Wanderer with the option to give it the pass phrase again or use the "tin man" option.
Regardless of the decision, don't go right away. There are numerous crates with various types of ammunition, and a Stealth Boy next to the door that was used to come in. There is also a Stealth Boy and mini nuke on the shelf next to the doorway the protectron either leads the player character through (pass phrase given), or it guards (tin man option given).
Enter the room, and pick up the Backwater rifle on the shelf next to the door, then activate the terminal. The terminal tells the Lone Wanderer the funds for completing the mission have been wired to their next of kin and advises them to take their death honorably. The terminal will then seal the chamber, and fill it with radiation. There are two methods of escape, and one option to buy some time.
* Scale the nearby lockers and crates to a run-off tunnel visible on the local map.
* Science (71) - Interact with a fuse box beside the door. It's hidden, poorly, behind some boards leaning against the wall.
* Repair (30) - Shut off the radiation by closing the floor vent, giving the Lone Wanderer time to think or use the room for storage if they decide to live in the bunker.
Entering the run-off tunnel or escaping through the door will complete the quest.
==Reward==
* 350 XP
* Backwater rifle
* Cryptochromatic spectacles
* 8 Chinese assault rifles
* Copious amounts of ammunition including 5.56mm, 10mm, .44 Magnum, microfusion cells, etc.
==Quest stages==
==Notes==
* It is possible to complete this quest without following the spy's mission. Swim directly to the runoff pipe exit, which is to the south-west of the mansion (just west of the small wooden pier), and enter it from beneath the water. With a lot of creative jumping using quick forward and backward motion, it is possible to scale the escape pipe and make it to the hatch leading to the bunker. Then, activate the terminal which normally springs the trap. This will complete the final objective and it is only needed to escape the room (opening the door allows access to the weapon cache). Oddly, when the protectron questions the Lone Wanderer about the password they already know it. If the Lone Wanderer leaves by the ladder near Calvert Mansion the tile hasn't moved.
* It is also possible to re-enter the bunker after completing the quest to pick up anything that may have been missed before by just returning.
* Another way to complete this quest without following the spy's mission is going to the area outside Calvert Mansion, and carefully looking between the cracks of the tile hiding the hatch. There is a spot where the Lone Wanderer can target the hatch through the slit in the tile, and enter the bunker without moving the tile. This method is considerably easier than the tactic mentioned above.
* Staying within the relatively small blast radius around the sub after triggering self-destruct, the resulting damage is fatal.
==Behind the scenes==
* This quest was inspired by Point Lookout lead designer Joel Burgess thinking about ways to create quests without NPCs talking to the player, which led into quest design revolving around Cold War-style dead drops. References to spycraft from Desmond Lockheart also inspired the creation of the quest.Fallout 4 Point Lookout Mod with Joel Burgess and Nate Purkeypile (1:13:44)Kenneth Vigue: "The Velvet Curtain quest is - that one too is one of the most unique quests in any Fallout DLC that we've seen, where you go on like a traditional James Bond-esque kind of spy mission, with the spy glasses and everything. Was that just James Bond inspired, or had you wanted to do like a real honest to God spy quest for a while, and this was just a good place to do it?"Joel Burgess: "[...] First there was sort of the spycraft [...] with Desmond and everything out here. But the other was I was really interested in ways to do quests, in general for Bethesda games. Ways to do quests that didn't rely as much on dialogue vending machines. Like I didn't want to put a bunch of NPCs that just talked at you. Which is a very broad criticism of quest design in general. And so that was really focused on like, 'can we do a bunch of dead drops?' Right? And so dead drops and spycraft just really fit well, and so that was the idea, can we create sort of this Cold War style intrigue throughout the location. Without necessarily having to do a bunch of like, walk and talk with NPCs."
* The title of the quest, The Velvet Curtain, is a reference to "The Iron Curtain", a phrase that represented the secrecy and tight borders that surrounded the former Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc countries during the Cold War. The East Asian equivalent was known as the "Bamboo Curtain".Fallout 4 Point Lookout Mod with Joel Burgess and Nate Purkeypile (52:50)Kenneth Vigue: "Desmond refers to a Great Game that he's in with Professor Calvert. What is that?"Joel Burgess: "It's just sort of spy talk, right? So it's just a reference to the idea that there's sort of like, these machinations that are invisible and even the Velvet Curtain, which is a reference to like the Iron Curtain and the Cold War... so it's just that idea that, like, statecraft and spy work and all that. It's just meant to invoke that vibe."
* One of agent Wan Yang's codenames is "Five Claw Dragon." The five claw dragon symbol traditionally appeared on the Chinese Imperial Seal. Yang's codenames were created by the wife of Nathan Purkeypile (who shares Yang's name); Purkeypile asked the real-life Yang what her codenames would be if she were a spy, and these were included in the game.Fallout 4 Point Lookout Mod with Joel Burgess and Nate Purkeypile (1:14:34)Nathan Purkeypile: "Another cool tidbit about that quest is the dead spy in that quest, Wan Yang? That's actually my wife's name."Kenneth Vigue: "Oh, no way!"Nathan Purkeypile: "And the spy nicknames, I just asked her 'hey, if you were a spy, what would your spy nickname be?' And so we snuck that in."
* The initial orders found in the hotel room conclude with the line "Zhù ni háoyùn" (in Mandarin Chinese, "祝你好運"), which is intended to be Mandarin Chinese for "wish you good luck". However, the correct tones for the phrase are "Zhù nǐ hǎoyùn".
* One of the terminals quotes the Chinese proverb "世上無難事，只怕有心人" (Shìshàng wú nánshì, zhǐ pà yǒuxīnrén), which generally means "when there is a will, there is a way".
==Bugs==
* You may not be able to activate the self destruct even if you have the codes in your inventory.
** This bug may not be present, as the submarine self destruct is a two step process. Remember that you must enable the self-destruct sequence on the terminal before activating the switch on the generator.
* If you select the first terminal entry (the one regarding the mission assignment being in a locker) after self-destructing the submarine, the quest marker for the locker will return despite already having visited the locker. The locker will be empty this time, preventing you from progressing further in the quest.
* The door leading to the final terminal cannot be opened, pressing the electric switch results in nothing. To fix this, activate the switch using the console.
* Upon entering room 1D you cannot leave it. The game freezes at the loading screen. To fix this, load an earlier save from outside the room, and then re-enter the room.
* Attempting to leave the bank may result in the loading screen playing an infinite loop.
* When getting the password tape, the quest objective will still be to get the holotape from the lockers. You have to first play the "Contact Tape" while still being in the Homestead, and then when you have finished playing it, get the password.
* If you are in the Capital Wasteland and you reactivate the quest it will show the quest marker in the Capital Wasteland and not in Point Lookout.
* Once the quest is complete, going back to the bunker and trying to re-wire the circuit breaker while the door is open results in an instant game freeze. This bug was fixed in a later patch.
==References==
Non-game
Category:Point Lookout quests
de:Der violette Vorhang
es:La cortina de terciopelo
ru:Бархатный занавес
uk:Оксамитова завіса