An unexplained encounter has been puzzling fans since the game's initial release. It may have some fascinating connections to the series' lore, but even if not, it's at least a solid source of reliable armor in the early game.
Random encounters have always been a central part of the experience; in fact, they made up the grand majority of the first two games' combat scenarios.
Later games in the series trended away from a reliance on random encounters, turning instead to handcrafted enemy hideouts, but never totally abandoned unprovoked ambushes as a way to raise the stakes.
These random encounters lasted into, in which players will occasionally encounter enemies of every type (bands of Super Mutants, raider scavenging parties, legendary Deathclaws, et cetera) as they roam the Commonwealth wasteland.
These are typically generic and unmemorable, except in at least one case. This particular randomly encountered enemy is unique — not just named, but bestowed with an evocative that could reference any number of classic works of literature.