At level 3, I headed out to the Super-Duper Mart to help Moira with her book. As I near the place, I hear gunfire. No biggy, really, as there is usually something there causing trouble. But as I near the fence, I see http://i.imgur.com/lTxJwLp.png looming in the parking lot! Really?!?! A Deathclaw?!?

As I took aim in http://i.imgur.com/oURA27Y.png, I saw it was greatly injured. There was one Wastelander with a rifle shooting at it as it s-l-o-w-l-y came 'round the fence. 3 shots to its leg and it was dead. Whew! I was totally ready to (try to) run away!

It was almost as if the game said, "Here. Have a free Deathclaw hand early on!"

Any others have strange deathclaw stories like this?

That wounded deathclaw is a pretty common random event at the Super Duper Mart. Even though he's badly hurt, he can still kill you right quick if you're low level yourself and let yourself get caught unawares.

Yeah, i've seen it there couple of times too. Once i even got the Firelance event there while playing my Energy Weapons character

Generally it's best to see a Deathclaw before it sees you, preferably trough the scope of an Anti-Material Rifle loaded with explosive rounds

Oh wait, Fallout 3. Well make that Reservist's Rifle then. Six years later i still prefer it over Victory Rifle

IIRC, if the Wastelander gets killed in that encounter you can get the schematics for the Deathclaw Glove from him. But yes, it's just one of the random encounters that show up here and there. I've had it appear at the Meresti station as well. Since it's so badly wounded to begin with, it's not that hard to kill, provided it doesn't catch you by surprise.

I've seen that Deathclaw at the Anchorage Memorial. At the Super-Duper Mart I did see a truly giant friendly Radscorpion (as big as a bus). For some reason I decided to attack it with a 10mm pistol. Didn't end well for me.

This has happened to me twice. The first time was on my very first game. I was only level two, fresh from Moira. In my inventory was the baseball bat, two police batons, a 10mm pistol and the BB Gun.

I hid behind the bus for awhile, watching him stomp around the parking lot. Then I got up my courage, crouched and fired the 10mm pistol at him. This only made him mad. I emptied the 10mm pistol as he chased me around the parking lot. I emptied the BB Gun at him. Then I grabbed the baseball bat, quickly whacked him and ran.

The baseball bat broke. My first police baton broke. My second police baton was about to break when he finally went down. I must have spent 15 minutes running around that parking lot, trying to stay out of his reach. It probably didn't help that I'd only been playing the game for about a half hour and didn't know what I was doing.

I was exhausted afterwards. I had to go lie down. 'Man, this game is nothing like Oblivion,' I told myself. 'This game is tough!'

So, not as strange as I thought! Thanks for the insight to that "encounter."

I may have to commit murder to see if that Wastelander does have the schematics, after a hard save of course, just to see if he does

Love that story, Pseron! I can picture that so well, as my inventory looked just like yours

I never get the Firelance in some nice convenient location like the Super Duper Mart. For me it always happens out in the ass-end of nowhere, usually when I'm on the opposite side of the map.