Shrike Alvaron
Member
So everything is just a big elaborate prank by Ned because why exactly?
If you think it's a prank, I don't even know what you missed or interpreted wrong...
The story breakdown is that years ago Ned was a lookout and had his son Brian with him against regulations. One day they were out climbing the mountains, when Brian's rope broke and he fell down into a cave and died. Whether that was an accident or a murder is left open. Knowing however that the suspicious circumstances plus the fact that Brian shouldn't have even been there would likely cause him to get in big trouble, Ned had no idea what to do and so has camped out in a secret hideout ever since.
Sometime before the events of a game, a likely government-funded university project meant to track elk and presumably test the growth of various plants in the soil (judging by the grid they had at the station) moved into the region. They collared elk with tracking devices and used a wave finder device to track the elk, recording their movement patterns. Ned presumably stole a radio from them, as he had scouted the station out and had to get it from somewhere. He used it to monitor Delilah's radio conversations because he found her amusing and hiding out in secret is kinda boring. Then Harry comes in.
Intrigued by the new arrival, Ned watches you and sees you entering the cave. He doesn't know what you do there, but when you come out he hears that Delilah is looking into people who entered the park recently (presumably he HADN'T been watching you when you encountered the teens). He assumes that you found Brian's body or are otherwise suspicious of him, so gets nervous about having you living so close to him. He amps up his monitoring of Harry and Delilah, starting to take detailed notes and even trying to scare Harry away by breaking into the tower, stealing the sheets, then attacking the teens' camp and planting your sheet there. Of course you don't leave, but you also don't do anything really suspicious, so for a while Ned resorts to continued monitoring.
That is, until he slips up and drops his clipboard and radio. Before he can recover them you find them, so he resorts to knocking you out to take them back. Of course this leads you to get suspicious of the station, leading to you going to get the axe and breaking into it. Fortunately Ned had already prepared for this (or quickly did so when he realized you were investigating there) by typing up some reports that made it look like they were tracking YOU and planting it at the station, and then setting it on fire after you leave. Again, he hopes this will scare you away especially with the tape accusing you and Delilah of burning it down.
He didn't anticipate that you would instead just keep digging. So when Ned hears the alarm you set off when you find the backpack he had hidden with the keys to the cave (not sure why he didn't keep them on him, maybe out of guilt or perhaps it was Brian who hid that pack and keys) he follows you and locks the gate behind you without realizing there's another exit to the cave. It's when he sees you come back out and go in again, only for the fire he started to join the other and set the whole place ablaze that he realizes he's been beat, there's nothing more he can do. So he plants one final tape with his admission, knowing there was no point keeping the charade going anymore, and flees.
That may not all be entirely accurate, but it's at least my understanding of the story from Ned's point of view.
Also what was the reason behind skis and broken snowmobiles in the pond? Just for shit and giggles?
It can get quite cold and snowy out there in the winter, it's just stuff left behind from the past winter.