Sierra Madre Casino

"You sure came a long way to rob this place. Guess greed is in the blood."

- Dean Domino

The Sierra Madre Casino is a legendary city in the west, said to be a pre-war treasure trove of gold. In reality, it is a hell on earth, filled with a toxic cloud, traps, and both figurative and literal ghosts of the past, of those that can't let go.

A Monument to Letting Go
The city was designed and constructed by billionarie socialite Frederick Sinclair in the years before the Great War. Prior to this, singer Dean Domino had introduced Vera Keyes, a talent actress and singer, to Sinclair. Sinclair fell in love, and as the two began a relationship, he authorized construction on the casino.

Workers on the casino were surprised to see futuristic devices such as matter-rearranging vending machines and holographic security guards arriving. Sinclair was not only obsessed with excellence, he was also obsessed with creating the perfect, isolated location to "begin again" after the inevitable apocalypse. Everything in the casino was designed to last and to be completely self-sustaining. He wanted the best for his love, wanting to build a spot that would protect her in the years after the nuclear exchange. Topping it all off was a vault where Sinclair and Vera could survive the worst of the apocalypse, just the two of them. To hide its true purpose of saving just him and his love, Sinclair stored the casino's gold supplies there.

But to get the best, Sinclair had to cut corners. The company he hired to construct the surrounding villa was corrupt, often selling supplies on the side and causing numerous incidents. However, worse than that was how Sinclair aquired the futuristic equipment: a deal with the scientists of Big Mt, a cutting-edge facility made up of the greatest American minds. In exchange for the equipment, Sinclair agreed to allow the Think Tank of Big Mt to conduct experiments on the Sierra Madre. Sinclair simply assumed the test was merely testing hazmat suits when workers constructed gas pipes and the like. However, that was merely part of the real test. The Think Tank secretly shipped in a deadly toxin with their supplies, set to go off in the sewers and service tunnels of the Sierra Madre.

As the opening date, along with the final nuclear exchange, loomed, tensions rose in the Sierra Madre. Dean and Vera, said to have had a scandalous affair, were spending more time together. Dean had convinced, and was now blackmailing the star into agreeing to a heist of the gold bars in the Sierra Madre's vault, threatening to expose her addiction to Med-X. When Sinclair learned of this through informants, he became enraged. He created a trap in the Sierra Madre vault, dooming anyone that went down to the Vault to be stuck there for eternity. Hours before opening night, Vera, suffering from a terminal illness which made her originally use the Med-X, decided to tell Sinclair of the plot. Sinclair realized he may have gone too far in his revenge, and decides to let go of his anger. He rushes down to the vault to disable the trap. Meanwhile, Vera readied herself for the opening night perfomance in her room, while Dean and the other guests arrived in the Tampico Theater.

But then the bombs fell. Reports of a nuclear exchange activated the casino's automatic lockdown, trapping all those inside as the hologram security guards activated. Due to falty programming for lockdowns, the security holograms assumed everyone inside were intruders and opened fire. Everyone except Dean, who escaped through a backstage exit, and Vera, who locked herself in her room, was killed. Vera, trapped, commited suicide through a Med-X overdose. Dean was just as trapped; not due to physical boundaries, but because he was too prideful to flee the Sierra Madre while Sinclair's treasure still remained. Sinclair himself, while trying to disable the trap, heard the vibrations of the bomb fall and wrote a note to Vera apologizing. The vibrations damaged the Sierra's Madres pipes, leaking out the toxin. Sinclair suffocated and died alone in his vault.

The cloud also began leaking outside in the villa. The casino's isolated location trapped many of the workers, who decided to take their chances by staying at the casino and wearing the hazmat suits. The toxin rusted the flaps of the suits closed, and as radiation seeped in, mutations began. Dean mutated into a ghoul, but a worse fate awaited the workers; trapped inside the suits, forever undying, constantly mutated by radiation and the toxin. These "Ghost People" are now relics of the past that haunt the casino, along with the holograms.

200 years have passed, with the Sierra Madre devolving into myth and legend, a mythical city of gold somewhere in the wastes. A voice from the past can be heard on the right frequences: the voice of Vera Keyes, her broadcast inviting travelers to the grand opening of the Sierra Madre on a permanent loop.

A Monument to Beginning Again
Christine remained behind to watch over the Sierra Madre, making sure no one else was foolish or greedy enough to risk scavenging it for its bounty. Only legends arrived, stories of a legendary Duel in the Graveyard, battle at the Divide, and victory at Hoover Dam. The few people that did come were easily scared off by the scarred warrior. That was, however, until another ghost from the past arrived, seeking the Sierra's Madre treasure.

Brother Jeremiah was a disciple of Elijah, arriving at the casino to follow in his footsteps. Christine had aged by then and was defeated by Jeremiah, trapping her within the villa. Christine was saved by none other than her friend from long ago, the Courier, who had been tracking Jeremiah. Along with him was Christine's old love, Veronica.

By this time, the casino itself had decayed even more, filled with rubble and ghost people. Jeremiah slaughtered his way to the vault doors, only to find it permanently locked and unable to travel to the vault. Jeremiah desired the same as Elijah: using the controls in the vault to send the Cloud into the Mojave, cleansing the desert and creating a clean slate for his followers to rebuild humanity in their own liking. The Courier, Christine, and Veronica confronted Jeremiah at the doors to the elevator. During the gunfight, Christine was severely wounded, while the Courier wounded Jeremiah. The sounds attracted the Ghost People, who, recognizing Christine along with a legendary figure, left them be, while they dragged off a wounded Jeremiah into the Cloud.

Christine died in Veronica's arms. Accepting her final wish of being a monument to beginning again, Christine was buried at the foot of the Sierra Madre, a warning posted at her grave sight. The Courier finally located the invitation broadcast and shut it down for good. Red and Veronica, the last two people to know the location of the Sierra Madre, left, leaving behind a tomb of the old world.

Jeremiah would survive though, escaping with jars of residue from the Cloud. Together with the Saturnite Atomspheric Emitter from the Big Empty, the Brother traveled to another mythical pre-war relic in New Mexico. Following his departure, the Sierra Madre was finally lost to legend, a forever undisturbed Old World tomb.

Fate
''You've heard of the Sierra Madre Casino. We all have, the legend, the curses. Some foolishness about it lying in the middle of a City of Dead. A city of ghosts. Buried beneath a blood-red cloud... a bright, shining monument luring treasure hunters to their doom. An illusion that you can begin again, change your fortunes. Finding it, though, that's not the hard part. It's letting go.''

''Decades later, the siren's call from long ago, luring treasure hunters to their doom, finally turned off. The reawakened casino soon returned to its slumber, never to be disturbed again. As those that had learned its secret faded into legend, so did the casino itself, forever lost in the isolated mountains of California. The few that find it are given a warning that the casino is an old world tomb, it's lights gone off long ago. A solemn warning sign posted outside offers the final conclusion for the old world tragedy: "Enter, and you shall be swallowed by greed and obsession, for the Sierra Madre does not let go those that cannot let go themselves. But turn around, leave this place, take the mercy the Sierra Madre offers just this once. Begin again. Let go."''