Cass

Rose of Sharon Cassidy, usually just Cass or Whiskey Rose, is a caravan master and owner of Cassidy Caravans in the Mojave Wasteland in Fallout: New Vegas.

She was born in 2244.

Background
Born in 2244, Cass is the daughter of John Cassidy and a tribal woman he met on his travels after parting ways with the Chosen One. Her father upped and left to once more wander the wastes while she was still young - leaving her only a name, a pendant, his shooting skills and propensity for hard drinking and violence.

Worn down by years of hard luck and a recent rash of terrible misfortunes, Cass is a despondent merchant who's about to get out of the caravan business. She's smart, tough, and steady with a gun, but hasn't been savvy enough to survive the ruthless caravan wars that have flared up in Nevada since the NCR's expansion. Though quick to join up with the player for some easy money, she's still interested in finding out if she's been suffering from bad luck or something more sinister.

When first encountered by the Courier, Cass is drowning her sorrows at the Mojave Outpost bar. NCR Ranger reports have reached her that her caravan has been attacked and "burned to ash," placing an even greater burden on her shoulders. However, threats along the road into New Vegas and problems with NCR paperwork have so far prevented her from leaving the outpost to investigate the attack.

Cass has inherited her father's heart condition, and will show her disgust for chems if the Courier speaks to her whilst under their effects. On another note, her knowledge of the world is considerable, but not without holes. For example, she is not aware that golf is a sport, rather than a person, referring to Camp Golf as a monument to a man of that name and recounting soldier remarks that it used to be a minefield, with mine locations marked by numbers.

Personality
Cass has an aggressive and eager, sometimes even impatient attitude, often telling the courier to hurry up or get on with it, and does not take well to insults or her time wasted. She also enjoys violence quite a bit, much like her father.

She is also very outspoken on the NCR and Caesar's Legion, mostly pointing out the bureaucratic messes of the NCR and the Legion's use of woman as breeding tools. Lastly, Cass treats sex casually, and appears to be interested in women as well as men, under the right circumstances.

Quests

 * Heartache by the Number: The player recruits Cass as a companion, then investigates her sacked caravan and helps exact revenge on the perpetrators.
 * Successfully completing Cass' companion quest will give her one of two perks:
 * Calm Heart, which raises her health by 50 points.
 * Hand of Vengeance, which grants a 15% bonus to the damage Cass inflicts with Guns-skill weapons.
 * You Can Depend on Me: The player is sent by Alice McLafferty to convince Cass to sell her caravan.
 * Birds of a Feather: The player is sent by Jean-Baptiste Cutting to either kill Cass or lure her to the Silver Rush to be killed.
 * Note: Completing Heartache by the Number first, causes the Van Graff faction to become hostile and you will no longer be able to talk to Jean-Baptiste Cutting to complete this mission.
 * Beyond the Beef: The player can offer Cass, or any other human companion, as a substitute to Mortimer for the banquet.

Other interactions

 * If any amount of whiskey is put Cass' inventory, she will drink it leaving only Empty whiskey bottles.
 * Once she joins the courier as a companion, Rose of Sharon Cassidy will give the player the recipe for Cass' moonshine which is craftable by the player at campfires.
 * If the player has all of the ingredients on hand, she can also craft moonshine without needing a campfire.
 * If the player has at least 6 Endurance, challenging Cass to a drinking contest will result in her complimenting them on their endurance, though they will still lose it. If the Endurance stat is 8 or more, then Cass will lose and end in drunken stupor, dismissing all three (or four) of the Couriers at once.
 * She has unique idle dialogue for locations around the Mojave;

Flirtation

 * If the player has the Lady Killer perk, he can accuse Cass of flirting with him, saying, "Miss Cassidy... are you flirting with me?" Doing so will result in Cass making it clear that nothing is ever going to happen between the two and he better respect that, as she "knows his type", implying the Courier is a "player".
 * If the player has a high enough speech and the Lady Killer perk she'll say she "knows his look" and knows he says all the right things to leave a trail of broken hearts across the Mojave.
 * If the player has the Confirmed Bachelor perk, he can respond to Cass's flirting by saying they should not be anything more than friends. Cass states that he must have a "Legion" point of view, implying that he is not interested in women.
 * If the player has the Black Widow perk, she can respond to Cass's comment about not liking "soft men" by saying that they're rarely a problem for the player.
 * If the player has the Cherchez La Femme perk, she can respond to Cass's comment about not liking "soft men" by saying that they're rarely an issue for the player, wherein Cass will respond by - with a shocked expression - defending herself, nervously saying that she meant no offense, and that when she's had enough to drink, she doesn't care who she ends up in bed with.
 * If the player already has the max amount of companions and asks Cass to join, she may respond by saying "Not in the mood for a threesome. {Under her breath} Today."

Effects of the player's actions

 * If you are labeled as a Terrorist by the NCR (killing the New Vegas NCR Ambassador is one way to accomplish this), Cass will always be hostile to the Courier even when disguised (but not while she's currently your active companion). She may also ambush you at a place you fast travel to.

Low Karma

 * After Cass joins the player, opening a conversation with her when in negative karma (below -100) will cause her to complain about the player's behavior. With Speech of 65 they can convince her that they are trying to improve, or can just acknowledge her discontent and continue the conversation.
 * If the player talks to Cass again with even more negative karma (-150) she will confront them a second time. With a Speech of 65 the player can promise improvement or just go on with the conversation.
 * After the second confrontation, Cass won't complain anymore as long as the player stays above -249 karma. Talking to her again with evil karma (-250 or less) will result in her leaving the party, with no way of convincing her to stay. Thus talking to her with evil Karma should be avoided, as the player can talk to her no more than twice before she leaves the party. The only way to avoid this is to improve one's karma.
 * Making an offensive comment about her dead parents causes Cass to leave the party and attack on the spot.

Non-player character comments

 * Nightkin: Head voices say they knew flower girl's father.
 * NCR civilians: Your merchant friend would make a fine NCR woman.
 * Boomers: Whatever you're selling, we have plenty.
 * Fiends: I wouldn't mind hitting that. She put out?
 * Powder Gangers: Tough-looking woman. Something tells me she aims for the crotch.
 * Followers: Isn't that Cass? I heard she'd gotten out of the caravan business.
 * Freesiders: Check out the Wrangler if she needs booze.
 * The Kings: Hellooo, cowgirl! You mind if talk to your lady friend a bit instead of you?
 * Omertas: Let me know if the pretty lady with you is looking for some work.
 * Outer Vegas denizens: Your merchant friend is always welcome among us.

Appearances
Rose of Sharon Cassidy appears only in Fallout: New Vegas.

Behind the scenes

 * Rose of Sharon is a common name that applies to several different species of flowering plants that are highly valued throughout the world and originates in the Bible. She is named after the character of the same name in John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath, which she describes as "some Old World book about dirt pilgrims."
 * Chris Avellone designed Cass' companion arc. He was specifically asked to do it by J.E. Sawyer, to maintain consistency between John Cassidy's characterization in Fallout 2 and that of his daughter in New Vegas.
 * The playing cards that come with the Collectors Edition of Fallout: New Vegas depict Cass as a blonde. This was probably one of the earlier concepts of her; in the game she has red hair.
 * During the development process of Cass, there was an idea to include companion romances. In Cass' case, it would end with the player character waking up next to her drunk and marrying her. The marriage would take place with The King doing the proceedings with an Elvis song.
 * The original idea for Cass's Whiskey Rose perk was that the player could carry more water items, along with receiving a healing bonus from its consumption. This was then changed to become more valuable as a companion game mechanic, and to also reinforce her hard-drinking personality.
 * Spare Us the Cutter
 * Cass was intended to have an even greater amount of incidental dialogue than the insane amount she already has. She has a LOT of cut blank dialogue topics relating to the Hoover Dam battle events that comprise around FOURTY cut lines relating to each endgame outcome (e.g. fighting for House, independent, NCR, Legion). She has lines to comment on various areas of the dam, as well as meeting certain important NPCs (e.g. Oliver, Lanius, etc). Interestingly she also has lines that presumably relate to the cut Arizona spillway map (e.g. VCassEventHDHouseSpillway). This suggests these lines were cut early on.
 * Cass also has a set of reactivity dialogue lines for commenting on all kinds of player choices. It's not clear what the criteria of these would have been (from the spectrum of comments, presumably for completing quests in certain ways), but she has a large number of positive and negative comments to go from being impressed by the player's action to being disgusted. There are four topics, which are VCassReallyLike, VCassReactLike, VCassReactBad, VCassReallyBadReact (good example: "{Commenting on player's behavior}Set an example, others will follow." bad example: "{Commenting on player's behavior}That was fucked up". She also has unused dialogue that was supposed to play when the player drank whiskey while she was a companion, as part of her Whiskey Rose perk ("{Shot of whiskey}Now all I need is some shame to wash it down with."). The reactivity comments and whisky lines are all fully voice acted.
 * There is an early test version of her dialogue located in VFollowerDialogueRose. It just contains a few test lines to advance parts of her questline.

Bugs

 * Some time after the Van Graffs kill Cass you may get the pop up that Cass has returned to the Mojave Outpost or the Lucky 38.
 * Cass has the infuriating habit of sometimes trying to occupy exactly the same spot as you when you are crouched firing at a target. This can result in her being completely inside you and unable to fire, or even in you scoring a critical hit on her. Using the companion wheel to tell her to back off usually fixes the problem.
 * Cass' karma-based drop out of the party can be abused to get a second humanoid companion, as her final breaking line with evil karma will even be shown when she is not currently in the party. When she leaves or attacks, the game will assume your current humanoid companion has left the party, and you can add another one. After dismissing both of them, the counter resets and you are again limited to only one humanoid companion.
 * If you kill the Van Graffs before recruiting her she will talk to you about her quest. You can still recruit Cass if you do the first part in Alice McLafferty's set of requests. To be able to finish Cass's quest, you MUST kill Alice McLafferty and then speak to Cass.
 * If she was sent to Lucky 38 before starting sub-quest from the Van Graff's brother, quest mark will indicate that she is located close to the Mojave Outpost, but player won't be able to actually see her there. Then quest mark will guide the Courier to the Silver Rush where player can tell Jean-Baptiste that she is dead. She seems to disappear from the game at this point.
 * After recruiting her as a follower the screen will get a blue tint to it then when you exit the building the tint will disappear and your screen will flash as if a chem had just worn off. Sometimes this glitch will occur after clicking on her as if to drag an item, without having recruited her at all.
 * Sometimes when sent to the Lucky 38 she can be seen walking around the Casino floor.
 * After fast traveling to a location she will occasionally start running away as quick as she can for no reason. To correct this either enter a building (That makes your game load a new area) or fast travel to another location.
 * If you work for the Crimson Caravan Company before you talk to Cass or the Van Graffs, it will say to talk to Alice McLafferty. If this happens talk to the Van Graffs.
 * Weapons placed in Cass' inventory may become fully repaired after being taken out of her inventory.
 * If Cass's perk giving quests are completed before ever meeting her (as in killing the Van Graffs and Alice McLafferty); upon meeting her, the game will initiate dialogue as if you have met before with seemingly no prompts available to carry the conversation into the recruitment phase. It seems that after this the option of having Cass as a companion is lost forever.
 * After delivering her and letting her be killed by Jean-Baptiste, quips by certain non-player character's in the game (such as the "she aims for the crotch" comment) will still be played as if Cass is still your companion. Fiends in Vault 3 will also make the comments "I'll hit that" and "Does she put out?".
 * Executing the glitch with Cass (and Veronica) that gets them to take off their head gear, and not put back on has a high chance to permanently glitch the players save files. The glitched files will not load. The game will start normally, but every time the player loads a glitched file it will freeze the console.
 * During her companion quest, getting the Cal Heart perk then killing the Van Graffs and Alice McLafferty will give her the Hand of Vengeance perk as if you'd never resolved it legally.