Jeff Lane

Jeff Lane was a cryptid enthusiast who lived in Point Pleasant before and after the Great War. His voice can be heard on the holotapes Interloper and The Chosen.

Background[]

Pre-War life[]

Before civilization collapsed, Jeff Lane was an obsessive paranormal enthusiast who thought of himself as a truth-seeker. He may or may not have been from Texas.^[1] His fixation compelled him to move to Point Pleasant. He lived in an apartment across the pavilion from the Mothman Museum, where he worked.^[2][3]

The Cult of the Mothman had built a secret chapel in the museum's root cellar, accessible only by a locked door in the locked bathroom. Jeff Lane owned a key to the front and back doors of the Museum, and a key to the bathroom door.

He gave a free Mothman poster to Rich Wilson,^[3] who put the poster up in his home several miles east of the town.^[4] Jeff left a key to the museum bathroom in Rich's garage.^[3] Rich Wilson's home contains evidence of post-War cultist activity.^[5]

The War[]

Two days before the War, the cult conducted a ritual to commune with their benefactor, after a sermon was delivered in the chapel.^[6] Brother Charles experienced a vision in which the Mothman appeared briefly in the periphery of his senses, warning him of a terrible flood and imploring the faithful to seek high ground.^[7] They gathered for a second service on October 22, 2077. The preacher ordained those present to warn the rest of the faithful of the coming danger. The cultists planned to gather on the rooftops of Point Pleasant to meet the flood in the morning light, as those who rejected the Mothman perished in the rushing waters.^[7]

A large group fled across the state with Brother Charles to take shelter in the Lucky Hole Mine, a long-inactive lead mining operation in the cliffs west of Watoga.^[8] However, Lane was not among the cultists who fled the town. The tape found at his apartment mentions "the end of the world" in the past tense.

After the War[]

Lane lingered in Point Pleasant, mulling over some important thought he struggled to articulate.^[9] He expressed relative disinterest in the Mothman, which he came to see as a mundane "creature, more like us than the unknowable horrors in the peripheral vision of our subconscious minds."^[10] He eventually heard the tale of a powerful entity called "the Interloper" from a mad storyteller, who told him the entity was waiting deep beneath the earth.^[9] He became convinced this Interloper had chosen him.^[10][11]

He left the town in search of this otherworldly power, and eventually arrived at the Lucky Hole Mine.^[10][11] By this time, he was completely obsessed with the Interloper.^[12] He believed he was following the "call" of the entity, and that it summoned him alone.^[11] He laid out his sleeping bag within the mouth of the cave, recorded one final holotape, and rested before proceeding into the tunnel.

The recording ends with these words: "Let it be known, in this world, the Interloper has chosen Jeff Lane as the conduit of the unknowable... Together the hidden reality becomes manifest at long last."^[11]

Whatever became of Jeff Lane after this point is unknown.

After events of "The Chosen"[]

The Cult of the Mothman, who had been living within the mine since the War,^[8] continued to dwell there. They drank from a natural spring which formed in the central chamber.^[13] The cult dug new tunnels. In the deepest chamber, they came to worship a grotesque creature called the Firstborn of the Wood under the guidance of a figure known only as the First Priestess of the Wood. These developments led to a schism among the cultists, and some left the mine to form the Enlightened.^[8]

The bridge at Point Pleasant collapsed once again. The ruins of the town were briefly controlled by raiders, until they were attacked by the Responders, who lived there until the Scorched Plague drove them south. By 2102, the door between the Mothman Museum bathroom and the hidden chapel had been destroyed.

When the Dwellers of Vault 76 explored the abandoned Lucky Hole Mine in 2102, they discovered a grand underground church, built into the holy springs, centered around the elevated coffin of the First Priestess. Nearby, a tunnel conceals a passage to the stagnant, oppressive lair of the Firstborn, where it wallows lamely in a pile of human bones, discarded glass, and dark, coagulated blood. This small secret chamber is dominated by a sculpture depicting five identical faces, looming indifferently over the prone, twitching creature.

There it writhes to this day, now under the care of its returning congregation. This strange lifeform can barely move, but attempts to execute it with conventional weaponry have remained unsuccessful. Some outsiders seem to call it "the Interloper."

Notes[]

• The note Wilson's Bros. garage indicates that the key found at the Wilson Brother's Auto Repair belonged to Jeff before the War. The key unlocks the bathroom door at the museum, which leads to the hidden church. However, there was a door between the bathroom in the church, which has been blown off of its hinges. It is unclear if Jeff was also trusted with a key to this door.
• Despite working at the Mothman Museum in the final days,^[3] Jeff Lane never indicates that he was aware of the Cult's move to the Lucky Hole Mine. By all appearances, he arrived unaware that his neighbors already resided within the mine, though he observes that "the signs are all around that I am not the only one to hear the call."
• Jeff learned of the Interloper sleeping beneath the earth from a "tale" told to him by an unknown person. Jeff describes him^[14] as a "story teller," "mad by any reckoning."^[9] This mad storyteller figure does not obviously correspond to a known character.
• On 4/02/70, the Truth Seekers held a meeting, the transcript of which was recorded to a terminal at Van Lowe taxidermy.^[15] The group offhandedly discussed a Mothman hunter in Point Pleasant, who had supposedly debunked a cryptid sighting near Grafton. This Point Pleasant man is not named.The Truth Seekers seem to think very little of him.^[15]
  • Jeff Lane's home contains an issue of Cryptid Hunter Monthly altered by one of the Truth Seekers.
  • The only other named pre-War characters associated with Point Pleasant are Rich Wilson and the prophet Charles.
• On the Interloper tape, Jeff expressed relative disinterest in the Mothman as "a creature, more like us than the unknowable horrors in the peripheral vision of our subconscious minds."^[10] When the Enlightened revealed themselves in 2104, they espoused the belief that the Wise Mothman is "among us, and of us," and "that he is more alike to us than not."^[16][17] This appears to directly parallel his sentiment, but in a positive light.

Apartment[]

• Cultists do not spawn inside of Jeff's apartment, and never enter it unless chasing a player character.
  • Before Wastelanders, when the town was under Scorched control, a dead Scorched could be found on Jeff's bed.
• There are six jars of sugar strewn across Jeff's apartment.
• His home also contains several unusual items which may characterize him: two sealed specimen jars, a banjo by the couch, a cat bowl by the door, a typewriter under his bed, TV dinner trays on the bed, and a hairbrush on the nightstand.
• A copy of C.H. Monthly, January is found in Jeff's apartment. The pre-War periodical mentions a conspiracy involving the government "working with" Mothman to hypnotize people. The paper has been defaced by Scoot Conroy of the Truth Seekers, who declares these claims "BULLSHIT," and invites paranormal enthusiasts to seek him out and join him on cryptid hunts. This note is not unique, and identical invitations from Scoot can be found elsewhere in the game world.
  • A copy of C.H. Monthly, October is also found here. This issue contains a short, mildly erotic poem titled "Ode to the Mothman" by a woman named Petra from Kanawha. The poem seems to address Mothman as a woman.
  • Both notes were added in Wild Appalachia, the first content update for Fallout 76.
• It was once necessary to climb on top of the truck behind the building to access Jeff's apartment. As of 2104, the rooftops of Point Pleasant are wheelchair-accessible.

Appearances[]

Jeff Lane is mentioned only in Fallout 76.

Behind the scenes[]

• Jeff's script notes begin by describing him as "a slightly crazed truth-seeker from Texas." However, Fallout 76 developers have stressed that script notes are primarily designed induce a specific performance from the actor, and may not reflect canon.^{[Non-game 1]}
• 
  Jeff's second spoken line is "The end of the world has awoken... something." This may be an allusion to one of the very first headlines concerning the original Mothman sightings, published in the November 16, 1966 issue of Point Pleasant Register: Couples See Man-Sized Bird...Creature...Something!
  • The eyewitnesses quoted in the historic article were named Roger Scarberry and Steven Mallette. The cultist lite ally Steven Scarberry is named in reference to these men, and he alludes to this connection in his dialogue.
• The owner and proprietor of the real-life Mothman Museum is a musician and local Fortean researcher named Jeff Wamsley, who directly worked with Bethesda to promote the game in 2018. Wamsley has mentioned that the note Wilson's Bros. garage made him wonder if the character was partly inspired by him, because both are men named Jeff who work at the Museum and own a truck.

Gallery[]

Lane's makeshift camp in Lucky Hole Mine

References[]

Non-game