The Volunteers (AKA The Dirty Half-Dozen, The Six Wanderers)

Bob Perce (Herodian)
Colt Riffle (Gigermann)
Dr. J. Turk (CommJunkee)
Lance Bennett (Ronnke)
Romeo Sylvester (Rigil Kent)

The One Where They Went Back Home

5 Jan 2161

As the sun went down, and the dust cloud cleared, the damage was surveyed and the dead and/or wounded were collected and tended to. The butcher’s bill: three dead, three in serious condition, and four surrendered—plus Bob and Lenny, who were expected to recover in a couple of days of physician’s care and liberal application of stimpacks. While Turk worked his medical mojo, the other Volunteers collected all the loose guns, ammunition and bottlecaps they could find lying around the scene. Afterward, they went back to Darkwaters to let Killian know the mission had been accomplished; he was certainly happy to hear it was done, and with only a few “friendly” casualties. Meanwhile, Lance remained behind at the casino and turned the place upside down looking for more bottlecaps, and took his findings straight over to the Crash House Hotel to rent rooms for everyone for a few days; then he helped Turk get the wounded set up there.

The following morning, Killian sprang for a big breakfast at the Crash House, to show a little more appreciation for the Volunteers’ assistance in the “Gizmo” matter. In between checking in on the wounded, Turk went to visit Dr. Morbid, the town’s physician, to see if he had some meds available for sale; Dr. Morbid was less than friendly, but did sell Turk enough stimpacks to replenish his supply. Lance started digging around the town’s junk-piles for stuff to make a power-assisted pull-cart for the Brahmin, and managed to find enough parts to make a functional reactor to power it. Later that evening, Killian sent word that he had repaired the hydrocontroller chip; at Sly’s behest, it was securely packed such that Lance couldn’t easily break it again.

The next day, Bob and Lenny were progressing as expected, and Turk declared they should be able to make the journey back to Vault 13 as planned. Sometime during the day, as Lance was tinkering with his reactor and switched it on, it failed badly, ruining the reactor and dosing him with (according to his Pip-Boy) around a hundred Rads. Fortunately Turk knew he was working on a potentially dangerous item, and had him dosed up with Rad-X beforehand, which lessened the effects, but Lance still required emergency care—he was spirited quickly over to Doc Morbid’s shop for treatment, and after some hours, all were satisfied Lance was no longer in danger. Their departure needing not be delayed, they purchased food and water for a week’s march.

They left Junktown in the morning, expecting around a three day journey. Nothing of any interest occurred during their trip back, and they arrived in familiar territory at the expected time, on the evening of the third day, nineteen days since they left.

10 Jan 2161

The Volunteers secured their pack animal at the mouth of the cave, and entered, finding the vault door pretty much as they left it. They pressed the comm button and asked for the Overseer, who emerged from the vault a short time later, beaming at the prospect of their salvation. The Volunteers handed over the chip to the Overseer, and he thanked them for their contribution and sacrifice for the good of the vault. However…

(Nobody killed the Overseer as depicted, though the thought did cross the Volunteers’ minds as they stared at the vault door, now closed forever to them.)

Notes

• We got a bit of a late start this time, which shortened the session. Lenny’s player was out for a family emergency and missed the session
• Radiation: we were caught a bit by surprise on this one. We started with 100 Rads and nobody knew what Lance was up to, so he got all of it. Then we started digging for the effects; by the time some rolls were made, Lance was in really bad shape, lost all body hair, and ended up Terminally Ill (one year), and the GM started to back off. He allowed for Turk to have talked Lance into doping up beforehand, but that only brought his dose down to 50 Rads, with similar effects. Turk started administering Radaway, and after rolling it out, ended up lowering his dosage to nil in the space of 12 hours or so, before his symptoms would have started—which may not be correct if the cellular damage is more-or-less instantaneous. In the end, the GM opted for the Fallout game mechanics, that is, to see the “doctor” and 1d6 hours later, you’re good to go—I think we all almost wish he hadn’t, as it certainly would have been a unique situation for us (Lance’s player was perfectly ready to take his medicine, so to speak). Sorting it all out took up quite a bit of real-time—we’ll be better prepared if it happens again, though
• This was the end of the run for this campaign, so it stopped a bit short on time; we expect it to be picked up again in the near-future