Curtain Call at the Tampico is a quest in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Dead Money.
Quick walkthrough
| Main Quest: Curtain Call at the Tampico | |||||||||||||
| Enter the Tampico theater. | |||||||||||||
| Navigate the speakers to the front of the stage. | |||||||||||||
| Take the sheet music from the music stand. | |||||||||||||
| Go backstage and confront Dean. | |||||||||||||
| Kill Dean. | Convince Dean to give you the key. | ||||||||||||
| Leads to: Last Luxuries | |||||||||||||
Detailed walkthrough
Enter the theater area and there will be a computer and cash register on a desk. The computer can be accessed either by passing an easy Science check (25) or by taking the Tampico front desk terminal password off the ground near two skeletons in the next lobby. Hack the terminal to discover the Tampico's listings of how the show operates and find a Sierra Madre security code (which you will already have).
Near the desk are the main doors, which are inaccessible. Two paths lead left and right; the path to the right has a vending machine at the end while the left leads to an unshielded speaker. Both paths lead into the theater, where there are four shielded speakers which cover most of the room. Shooting the unshielded speaker and entering on the left will allow you to access a small safe zone: enter the theater and move behind the concessions stand to your right along the back wall.
There is a safe (very easy), but it usually only contains pre-War money and/or Sierra Madre chips. There is also a first aid box with typical items like dirty water, stimpaks, RadAway etc. A selection of wines, whiskeys and Scotch are along the shelves. To get to the middle of the room beneath the stage, this safe zone from the speakers extends along the wall to the main door, and then juts out into the center of the room. Alternatively, it's fairly easy to just run to the center of the room from either entrance without your collar going off. Just in front of the stage, there is a music stand with some Mentats and purified water on the ground. Grab the sheet music (Vera Keyes' partitures) and you will also get the backstage key.
As soon as you have the key, Dean Domino will appear on a gantry above the stage for a conversation. How well this conversation goes depends on how well you have treated Dean in conversation up to this point. If you avoided confrontational speech options, he'll help you get safely backstage. By succeeding speech and Intelligence challenges, he can be prompted for more hints. If you insulted his ego or were in any way rude to him, he'll just say the hologram security will deal with you properly.
Whether Dean is happy with you or not, security holograms will appear, so quickly run through the backstage door to your right (he'll say left but he means his left, make sure you don't make that mistake; an Intelligence 6+ check will allow you to ask for clarification about this from him).
Backstage, there are minor, avoidable spots of the Cloud. As soon as you enter the corridor, there is a hologram emitter above you near the ceiling. It requires 100 repair to disable but can be destroyed with a well aimed shot. Along the corridor is Dean's room, which has a radio inside. Your collar will keep beeping after it's destroyed, so run back to where you entered backstage to reset the beeping. Just past the door to Dean's room and around the corner are some skeletons and an unshielded speaker nearby on the wall. Destroy the speaker and return to Dean's room. On his desk is Vera's backstage key and his safe. Under his desk is a gun case. The next room along the corridor is the backstage props room, which also has an unshielded speaker. The speaker is to the left of the entrance, somewhat hidden behind a door. In the corner of the room there is a hologram emitter behind a couch which you can deactivate (repair 50) or destroy. The final radio is in the corner of Vera's room, further along the corridor to your right as you exit the backstage props room. In this room is also a song for Vera, written by Dean, which is found on the same table as the radio and Vera's master key, which you need. The key works for Vera's medicine box, found in her bathroom. To search Vera's dressing room freely without your collar beeping, you also need to disable the theater speakers via the terminal across from Vera's room. This will deactivate the speakers in the theater.
Go back into the theater through the door which was previously locked. Avoid any remaining security holograms by sneaking or running. The stairs to the projector room are in the far left corner of the theater when facing the projector room (make sure you have Vera's master key). There is a copy of Lying, Congressional Style found here (on the shelf). Activate the projector with the holodisk and the security holograms will disappear. Go backstage again; the stage door opposite Vera's room is now open, so go in and climb the stairs to find Dean. He'll initiate a conversation the moment he sees you.
Again, depending on how well you treated Dean will effect how this meeting goes. There's also an option to bring up Vera's blackmail situation. If you chose the more confrontational speech options, you can pass a speech check of 75 to convince him for the key to the exit but unfortunately you need to kill him for the key. Then run for the exit as killing Dean results in his collar activating, and you must escape the room to save yourself. You have about a minute to do so, enough time to loot his body and run for the exit (Note: the key does not need to be taken from Dean's body; it will be immediately added to your inventory). Running up the stairs, past the locked stage terminal, and right out onto the gantry above the stage, there is a Sierra Madre playing card at the bottom of the ramp that is part of the Dead Man's Hand challenge.
If you avoided any confrontation and/or avoided insulting his ego, he'll tell you his plans (following the right speech path) and allow you to finish his work.
Journal pages
Stained Page: "Not going to rat me out for what happened in the Villa - I'm not the one who laid the foundation, and I'm not going to take the fall for the supports, either. They try and pin this on me, I'll let them all know what's really going on with the construction contracts."
Journal Page: "...town's going to get built, it just ain't built to last. Casino might be a different story, it's like a bank vault to the sky, but that's just me. It's a big show for someone, hope Sinclair survives this one."
Quest stages
Notes
- In order to avoid killing Dean, the player MUST agree with working for Dean in their initial meeting, otherwise the player will 'insult his ego'. Any kind of confrontational speech with him should be avoided throughout the add-on, this includes telling him about the bomb collar.
- You can use a Stealth Boy and loot the 2 keys on Dean, instead of killing him at the start. However, you will still have to kill him later on to tie up the final pieces to open the elevator.
Behind the scenes
The 1948 film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre was partially filmed in Tampico, Mexico, hence the name Curtain Call at the Tampico.
Bugs
Even if you do have the backstage key the objective will be marked as incomplete and the game won't let you go through the doors required to continue.- If you are sneaking when you grab Vera Keyes' partitures (sheet music) with the key in it and you remain in sneak mode and move away from the stage, it may skip the automatic conversation with Dean Domino and automatically start up the security holograms. It will also mark all current quest objectives as complete and give no indication as how to proceed next.
- It is possible that the Dean Domino hologram will be silent.
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