@Hardboiled Android @Dayglow Drifter Just finished New Canaan Blues - woof. Running mysteries satisfyingly is hard.
John took on the job - Clover was bluntly uninterested in solving a chem based mystery and instead was working on their transmitter to contact the Enclave. Clover and John also spoke with Jeremiah Rigdon and learnt of the Wells of Salvation storyline. John made a rather large promise that he'd persuade the Hands of God to "return to the fold" if the New Canaanites would help him as best they could with Heartbreak Hotel. Jeremiah made no promises but exhausted and out of options, he agreed that they'd find a way to help in some way, as well as paying a hefty price (1k each) for acquiring the water chip from Vault 70's ruins to repair the Syracuse water plant.
John started by learning more about the friends of the OD'd New Canaanite, Brigham Young, finding out where they loiter in their hours off work from building the adobe wall. The ramshackle west side of town where the Ghouls and Mutants live. Speaking with some of the locals, he learnt from an old ghoul that the kids are shooting up Med-X on top of Jet. He also learnt a man named Joe had been caught publicly drunk in the area. Figuring this was part of the same gig as the Chems, he sought out Joe. Getting nothing from Joe, Johnny used a pip point to persuade him - resulting in a, ahem, "mysterious stranger" appearing outside the window and convincing Joe this was a much more dire interview than he had anticipated. Joe spilled the beans that he'd got alcohol from Gideon (aka Rex) the former Desert Ranger.
John went to Gideon (after chasing the stranger outside the window and finding him to mysteriously vanish) and was similarly stonewalled. After an impassioned speech regarding morality and ranger obligations, Gideon whilst confessing nothing said if there was someone pushing Chems to the kids, it wouldn't be the guy passing out booze. Honest.
So he investigated the market, and spoke to Paulie Fratelli of the Fratelli Caravan Company out of New Reno. Paulie figured (with lots of two finger pronged pointing ) that it was those freaks the Van Graff traders. New Reno caravans know business. Canaanites ain't interested in Chems, so they don't sell em to em. They know where the line is. Those Van Graffs though? Buncha pushy fanooks trying to lay the blame on the Reno caravans and get them pushed out of Canaan. Not for nuttin', but Paulie thinks he should check em out.
Stuck for clues, he ended up waiting for the three friends of the late Brigham to skulk off work to their loitering spot, where he cornered them and threatened them by gunpoint. The kids said it was all Gideon and Doc Angela who are running a speakeasy in the basement of the old Ogden Union Station to drink and play cards with other Canaanites. The jet, the Med-X, the booze. All them. Things got tense and John fired off a warning shot, causing his guard friend Booker (formerly Avery) to come running. Turns out, Booker is part of this underground speakeasy and threatened Johnny Boy to drop the case, because if this all goes topside they'll all be caned and worse, exiled. Johnny Boy explaining what the kids had told him, he retorted that Gideon and Angela don't push Med-x and Jet, just cigarettes and booze. Letting the kids walk, Johnny Boy theorized that perhaps since the kids know of the speakeasy, they're blackmailing Gideon and Doc Angela for Med-X from the clinic, being the only place where they could reasonably get Med-X from.
Booker and Johnny headed to the clinic, Booker explaining the gig was up regarding the Speakeasy, they both confirmed that the kids were indeed blackmailing them. Still, this doesn't solve where the Jet is coming from. Figuring the Van Graffs were the ones providing the Jet - this lay two options for how they're getting it in. Either they've got someone on guard duty checking the caravan shipments on their payroll or someone is sneaking it in through somewhere else. So they split up, Booker checking with the guards and Johnny Boy checking the wall construction - where the kids work and the only physical gap in New Canaan's walls. He put together pretty quickly that the only wall worker who is there all day and carries boxes in and out on his back is Goliath - a dimwitted Super Mutant (2nd Gen). Speaking to Goliath, Goliath broke almost immediately and had something of a panic attack. Unsure of what to do and terribly afraid of being in trouble he began uncontrollably crying and begging him not to get him in trouble. Johnny Boy lied and reassured him he was working with the "Lion Men" (The Van Graffs) to which Goliath confessed he had been scared into carrying special boxes for them in and out.
He then reported to Protector Green, explaining the Jet funnelling but hiding the existence of the Speakeasy. Green pulled in Goliath, who confessed. Happy enough with this. He had the kids brought in, and the following day caned (along with Goliath) in the town square. The kids tried to reveal the speakeasy but a Persuasion check on John's behalf convinced Protector Green they were lying to defer responsibility. Goliath was exiled from New Canaan, the kids suitably punished and the Van Graff Traders banned from New Canaan, resolving the mystery.
