Login with GoogleThe Volunteers (AKA The Dirty Half-Dozen, The Six Wanderers)
Bob Perce (Herodian)
Colt Riffle (Gigermann)
Dr. J. Turk (CommJunkee)
Lance Bennett (Ronnke)
Lenny Leonardo (Melissa)
Romeo Sylvester (Rigil Kent)
The One Where They Traveled To Junktown
30 Dec 2161
The Volunteers from Vault 13 spent the night in Vault 15 in luxury, relative to the preceding week of dusty roadside camping. They awoke early and packed up the Brahmin with everything they thought it could carry, until it could barely move; Bob also carried a few extra cases of MREs in addition. They intended to go straight for the Raiders’ camp, and on to Junktown, rather than stopping again at Shady Sands—Tandi had no real desire to see her father again anytime soon, and was anxious to see her people to (relative) safety. The general expectation was that it would be two or three days to the Raiders’ camp, and maybe three or four days after that to Junktown—slow going thanks to the overburdened pack animal.
As they set out on the “path” (loose term) through the mountains toward the Raiders’ camp, they soon began feeling the weight of their commercial success. Thinking of potential remedies, Lance suggested they might instead go back to the ghost-town they had encountered on the way here and hobble together a pull-cart for the Brahmin out of the broken-down cars they had seen—a bit out of the way, but probably a huge time-saver if they succeeded—and they unanimously agreed.
As they stopped for some much-needed rest around midday, they were surprised by the appearance of a trade caravan heading the same direction. The traders, of the upstart Crimson Caravan Company, reacted in a generally-friendly manner to the strangers in their path, and responded to their flurry of questions about the world in-general as best they could, pointing out some new settlements on their Pip-Boy maps, and giving details about Junktown and its denizens. The caravan bore a full load of miscellaneous goods, and the Volunteers pored over it for whatever they might need; they traded a few weapons and fusion power cells they had looted from Vault 15 (both worth quite a lot, as it turned out) for some non-Vault clothing, more medical supplies for the Raiders’ sick, cigarettes for Turk and Colt, and other miscellany, plus a couple-thousand bottlecaps in change. The vault-dwellers considered traveling with the caravan to Junktown, their destination, but decided against it, as the traders planned to take a wider sweep to the West that would not pass anywhere near the Raiders. Instead, the vault-dwellers would continue to the ghost-town as previously discussed, after which they could probably catch up the slow-moving caravan before it reached Junktown.
They arrived at the ghost-town around the middle of the next day, and found it as they left it—empty. Lance set about pulling the old cars apart and putting together a functioning two-wheeled cart out of the bits and pieces, taking the better part of the day; as he called the group together to witness the finished product, he leaned against the end of the cart, accidentally popping the hitch up into Sly’s crotch (causing no permanent damage but some ill-feelings). Their burdens lightened significantly with the addition of the cart, they made good time the next day as they continued on to the Raiders’ camp.
2 Jan 2161
Early on the third day after leaving Vault 15, the group finally arrived at the Raiders’ canyon to find them encamped some distance away (rather than inside the cave as they had been, now known to be irradiated). Carl and Tandi were very glad to see each other again, and to acknowledge mission’s success. The Volunteers assured Carl that all was well at the Vault, ready for them to move in, as promised. Turk went straight about tending the sick, administering the Radaway they had purchased to that purpose—with that, they should all be well enough to make the trip to the Vault, where they could use the still-functioning autodoc. Rather than spend a lot of time with the Raiders, they said their farewells to Tandi and got back on the road to Junktown, now expecting a faster, easier, roughly three-day trek along the path of a pre-war highway.
Sometime on the next day, they spotted a strange object in the distance, what they would identify as a blue “telephone booth” of some kind, though they weren’t able to get a better look at (or in) it, as it faded from view, with a weird, rhythmic, screeching noise, as Lance tried to approach (stumbling down a slope in the process). As a result, Colt expressed suspicion that his Grandfather may have been telling the truth about alien meddling on Earth. The next two days passed uneventfully, seeing nothing else but a few old ruins along the way.
5 Jan 2161
Now nearly out of food, they arrived at Junktown around midday—it was pretty obvious they had the right place, as its name was well-earned by its defensive walls of assorted junk (mostly wrecked vehicles). The town’s gate was an old cargo container open to both ends, guarded by a couple of armed fellows; the group approached the gate openly, and were admonished to be on their best behavior inside, and that drawn weapons inside, except for self-defense, would earn an immediate and unceremonious gun-down. Lance really wanted to pilfer the town’s walls for spare parts, but the guards made it clear that it wasn’t intended for distribution. Inside the town, Bob and Lenny broke off to find a place to stable the Brahmin while the others went to Darkwaters General Store, where they had been told they could find Killian, mayor of Junktown and proprietor of the establishment.
And find him they did, behind his desk at the store, so they told him of their need for a hydro-controller chip, and showed him the broken chip looted from Vault 15. He seemed willing and confident in his ability to help, saying he could probably fix the broken chip in a day or two. When pressed for the price of his aid, he suggested 2000 bottlecaps; Lance balked at the seemingly-large price-tag (not really knowing what 2000bc is worth), claiming he could do it himself, before accidentally knocking over some shelves. Sly, knowing the job would cost them most of their bankroll, was about to try to negotiate a lower—or alternative—payment, when a man burst through the door, auto-pistol held in his outstretched hand and pointed at Killian, and shouted, “Gizmo sends his regards!” before pulling the trigger. To be continued…
Notes
- The randomly-generated gear the PCs pilfered from Vault 15 turned out to be rather lucrative—the GM ended up fudging the prices a bit to keep the group from getting too rich too quickly
- Lance finally got to build/engineer something, which will, incidentally in this case, be really helpful down the (literal) road
- Lance’s Klutz Disadvantage really came to the fore in this session, with a string of failures (no fudged die-rolls)
- The “Phone Booth” encounter should be immediately obvious to most geeks, or at least, players of the original Fallout. Weirdness Magnet strikes again. Alas, but we didn’t get any loot from it. Have to wonder which Doctor/Companion(s) it was?
- Looks like we may finally see our first combat since the rats outside the vault door (which barely qualified, to be honest)
