Glowstick Trail

Activating the quest

The quest will be given immediately by Anya after initial conversation with her at the Deekula Basement, just as the Who Lives in the Basement quest is finished.

Objective

Player is tasked to visit the Mines district zone to find Hanss.

Tips

• Keys to the mines also unlock additional passage from the basement to Deekula A, as well as, if Tunnel B2 quest is completed, additional passage from the basement to the Bergmann Tunnels and the Tenement B itself.

Walkthrough

Getting the quest

This quest is given automatically during the quest Who Lives in the Basement - Anya will explain that Hanss ventured down the mines and suggest that player may follow his trail. Hanss is expected to mark his trail with orange glowsticks. She will give access to the mine entrance beginning in the same room. It is rather apparent that Anya knows way more then she lets on - both about Hanss and the player themselves, but she is not inclined to share much. At least, for now.

Follow the trail

Past the door in Anya's basement there is a half-collapsed corridor leading into the blocked off segment of the mine tunnel. The only thing of importance is an elevator, but there is also a broken minitrain and a mine cart that can be found in this segment. Neither is functional, having had been caught in the cave-ins blocking both ends of the tunnel. The trail leads down the elevator.

Elevator in question is initially restricted to two stations - the blocked off tunnel accessed from Anya's basement up top and the upper section of the mines as the mid-stop. Eventually, player might be able to access the bottom end of the elevator shaft in the Service Area and reactivate the bottom stop by installing an Industrial Fuse in the appropriate fusebox, thus creating a shortcut.

The upper section of the mines is situated between Ericson's Claim and Kauha's Claim and has a fully fueled minitrain available for use. The trail leads towards Ericson's Claim and further on into the locked up and collapsed tunnel. It will take a lot of dynamite to clear it all out. Thankfully, dynamite can be easily procured at the Service Area nearby.

Radioactive Storage

Once the tunnel is cleared out, the trail leads through the area in the bottom of it and into the keypad-locked gates. The signs next to the gate imply that whatever lies there is radioactive. There is a rest stop in this area nearby, run by Heska Pavonen. He knows the keypad code but he is less then enthused about letting player into highly radioactive area. He suggests talking to people at OS Mining Service if the player is so determined to get in, to obtain official permission to do so.

At OS Mining Service, one can obtain the permit to do so immediately from Toivo Malmijoki - provided the quest Collapse Hazard is complete. Otherwise, Toivo refuses to give papers until the immediate danger of player's tenement caving in is resolved. However, he can not officiate the papers by himself - to give them the legal weight, the permission needs to be taken to the Management Office nearby. Tanja Nypan will process papers without further ado. With this, player can return to Heska and show him official permission to get in. It is somewhat recommended to obtain Dosimeter and Iodine Pills beforehand. Just in case.

Although reluctantly, Heska divulges the keypad code as 1234 and again cautions player against going there or being careless there.

Sorting Out Radiation

From the documents obtained in the shack near the gates, player can learn that the odd wagons next to the shack are special containment vessels that were designed to shield personnel driving the trains from their radioactive cargo. There is also a minitrain parked in front of those wagons. The path to the left leads to somewhat flooded cavern containing a number of radioactive waste silos. Several are at unstable angles and one fell over entirely and cracked open. The levels of radiation near this spill is very high and approaching it in any manner is extremely inadvisable. The path to the right is where the glowsticks lead, however the door there requires background levels of radiation to be below 50 Sv/h to open up. With the spill nearby, it is notably higher.

Back near the shack, there is a fuse panel with two slots being open. They control lighting and radiation sensors in the cave. One fuse can be found around to be used there, but it is highly recommended to bring another one to be able to power the lights on as well. Sensors need to be powered because the door requires sensor reading to be below 50 Sv/h to open and sensors that don`t work mean the door remains locked.

In order to lower the background radiation near the door, one can use the minitrain available to hook up all the shielded containment wagons nearby and move them over to the spill to create a makeshift shield. Since getting close to spill is a bad idea, making use of the rail split to get the minitrain behind the wagons to push them in is recommended. Otherwise, the choices are to jump out of running train to let momentum carry the whole thing down to the spill or to prepare for treating a serious case of irradiation.

Caves and Mysterious Gate

Past the door, there are caves. Traversing them is reasonably straightforward, though care should be taken not to fall down. There are two points of interest in the caves - an opening overlooking a deep drop and the pipes below and an encampment. There are notes to be found in both points further elaborating on the background details and giving new clues. Another notable thing is the presence of big backpack at the encampment. It is hidden in the crawlspace under the stairs along with some basic loot and ore veins. This backpack has 5x8 internal volume.

The encampment has some machinery and a bed that may be used by the player for a stop-over. It appears that the tunnel used by Hanss is collapsed, but a note nearby suggests there was another opening found that leads to the same area. This opening is indeed nearby and can be accessed by climbing up. The path is fairly obvious to someone deliberately looking for a way up.

The opening leads to another complicated cave full of collectible orange mushrooms. Past that, a large cave with a sealed gate may be found. There is a man in front of the gate, but they will collapse dead as soon as player approaches. The body is covered in red mushrooms, and it is necessary to collect them. There is also an unpowered lift in the cave, though where it leads is unclear. The gate is unpowered as well, so keypad can not even be used.

At this point, after having had thoroughly inspected the cave for an alternate route, the quest can be turned in to Anya.

However, if one possesses charged OSRat, an Other World event can be triggered near the body. In the Other World, the spirit of the deadman is kneeling next to the gate whispering "Four... Zero... Two... Seven..." if talked to. Notably, the gate IS powered in Other World, so inputting the code and pulling the lever does something. The spirit will at this point whisper "Thank you." if talked to while the gate opens.

Once open, the voice will claim that connection 7905 is open, refer to player as entity, warn away from entering the sealed area, interfering with or shutting down the G.A.L.E.N and claim that doing so may be lethal to an unknown number of entities, and then announce the disconnection. This ends the event, with player finding themselves in the middle of the cave a fair distance away from the gates.

Reporting the results

Anya seems to know something about the mysterious gate. She claims that Hanss believes Lukas can be found beyond the gate and that he likely found an alternate way in. Anya can be asked about assorted things in connection to this, including the vision that came from using OSRat. If so, Anya will admit she knows the maker of OSRat, the mysterious dweller of B2. She refuses to share any details however.

It is highly suggested to mention red mushrooms last, because doing so will cause Fredrik to pipe in. He asks that the red mushrooms are delivered to him for analysis ASAP. This ends the quest Glowstick Trail and begins the quest Red Danger. Anya is a little surprised Fredrik is listening in, but she is clearly not finding any issue with his presence in the conversation.