Olympus RPG Blog

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

The 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 Killed Gizmo

5 Jan 2161

Continued… The would-be assassin’s shots failed to strike their target, Killian, and the Volunteers reacted quickly; Sly tackled Killian to the floor, while Bob and Colt produced their sidearms and returned fire on the unwelcome guest, dropping him quickly. The attacker had not yet fully perished, and Turk demanded to be allowed to bandage his wounds out of “decency,” rather than let him bleed out on the floor as those assaulted would have preferred. After first-aid was administered, Killian’s late-arriving troops removed the man from the area to be held who-knows-where—likely never to be seen again. Thankful for the timely rescue, Killian offered to fix the hydro-controller for free. At the vault-dwellers’ question, he explained that he and the more lawful folk in town have had a long-standing feud with Don Gizmo, proprietor of the local gambling hall that bears his name, for rigging his games, fostering lawlessness and crime, and being a general thug about it all. However, Killian had thus far been unable to run him out of town for lack of direct evidence and enough able manpower.

The Volunteers took their leave and prepared to pass a couple of days in town. Lance, Sly and Turk rounded the corner to the adjoining Crash House, the local hotel/brothel, to secure lodgings and look over the available “furnishings.” Meanwhile, upon hearing about a “casino,” Lenny defied all warnings and made a beeline to go get his gamble on, followed by Bob and Colt—mostly out of morbid curiosity.

At Gizmo’s, Bob people-watched and Colt got a drink. Some time later, Bob spotted Lenny cheating, around the same time he spotted Gizmo’s thugs spotting Lenny cheating. Lenny was informed that Gizmo wanted to talk to him, and he was escorted to the proprietor’s office at the back of the establishment. Bob and Colt presumed he was to be taken “out back” and worked over, in typical wize-guy fashion. Bob followed Lenny’s escort to the back area but was stopped there by the door guards; he attempted to play the drunk about to vomit, but they were having none of it, and pointed him to the front door instead—outside, Bob ran around to the back of the building to find the back door, took cover around the corner and pulled his pistol, waiting for the party to emerge. Colt finished his drink and followed Lenny a bit later, unwilling to let his fellow vault-dweller suffer alone, and tried to talk his way past the guards, or at least, get a view of the proceedings. Gizmo, however, saw an opportunity; after having a couple of his guys shove Lenny into a side-room and lock him in, he called for Colt instead. Gizmo told Colt that he should go and kill Killian or he would break all of Lenny’s fingers. Colt played it cool, and agreed to the thug-in-chief’s terms, before being escorted out.

Colt had no intention of doing as bidden, of course. He rounded the building to get Bob, and they went to the Crash House to find the others. Colt explained the situation, and after some discussion of rescue tactics and resources, Colt suggested they go to Killian with the matter, just to let him know, in case he wanted to help. Back at Darkwaters, Killian was almost excited at the chance to go after Gizmo, and offered five of his best to go along. As the day was drawing to a close, they wanted to get it done in a hurry while some daylight remained, before Gizmo had a chance to suspect a double-cross (assuming he didn’t already).

The plan: Sly would lead Killian’s people in an assault on the front doors, to draw Gizmo’s thugs away from the back; the rest would take up positions behind the building, and on the go-signal, detonate one of their pilfered sticks of dynamite at the establishment’s back door—it was believed the blast would be enough to remove the door without killing everyone in the building—and make entry there. Bob and Turk positioned themselves around a corner, while Colt took up an elevated position with a reasonable field-of-view on some containers some 15 yards out. Lance handled the dynamite, to the others’ justifiable concern, as he miscalculated the fuse, such that he was barely able to get clear of the blast before it went off—fortunately he was not injured.

Chaos ensued.

Sly was planning to give the signal to begin, and was a bit surprised at the sudden change of plans; he led Killian’s team against the front door, keeping half of Gizmo’s men pinned down there. Bob charged madly through the wall-breach, caring not for his own safety, amidst the choking cloud of dust and smoke, and started shooting at anything not wearing a vault uniform—he dropped one dead, at least, before taking a round or two himself and diving to the floor, where he remained, clinging to consciousness. Turk was just behind Bob at the former-door and fired into the room in support, dropping one enemy before retreating to reload his PPK—he saw Bob fall, and was trying to find a way to get to him. Lenny was being guarded by two thugs before it started, one of which decided to kill the hostage after the assault started; Lenny wasn’t too keen on dying just yet, and struggled against his captors. From the floor, Bob managed to drop one more going after Turk, then spotted Gizmo hiding crouched behind his desk, firing Lenny’s .44 through the wall in an attempt to hit Turk outside; still struggling to remain conscious, Bob put a few rounds into Gizmo’s sizable frame, killing him. Reloaded, Turk approached the breach and fired in support of Lenny, who took a bullet but managed to keep going and wriggle free of his captors, making a beeline for the outside, only to be shot in the back and fall at Turk’s and Bob’s feet. Around that time, Sly had finally worked his way up from the front and flanked the remaining thugs, at which point the fight was basically over—all of Gizmo’s crew were dead or greatly wounded, totaling ten plus their boss. None of them made it out of the building where Colt could pick them off. As usual, Lance hid behind the corner of an adjacent building for the duration, frozen with fear and indecision. Lenny and Bob were both in really bad shape at the end of it; Turk administered stimpacks and treated them for shock—they would live, anyway, though they would need to take it easy for a while.

Notes

• The dynamite was found in the first session, in the Brahmin’s pack, four sticks; we (the players) were a bit unsure whether or not it would be too much, and blow up the whole building, not having used it before. Killian offered some grenades instead, but we opted to take the chance. It worked out anyway
• The GM decided to gloss over the fighting at the front of the casino to concentrate on the action at the back—not big enough to justify using Mass Combat, though
• Bob ended up staying at 0HP for much of the fight; Lenny ended up at -17HP and managed to not die before the fight was over and Turk could get to him—closest I can recall to a PC death since I started playing with this group
• Colt still hasn’t fired his rifle >:(

The 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)

The 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 (Herodian, for absent Rigil Kent)

The One Where They Looted Vault 15

It was early when the Volunteers met with the Raiders and Tandi in their cave headquarters. Wasting no time after securing the agreement to take her back to her father so she could nick the Vault 15 keycard, they packed up and headed back North to Shady Sands. They camped off the trail in the evening, and around the fire, they made their plans with Tandi: she would be returned to Aradesh, her father, at which point he would give them the name and whereabouts of his contact in Junktown, as promised; afterward, they would wait around town for a day or two for Tandi to steal the keycard—she already knew the code (her birthday)—and once secured, escort her to Vault 15, where they would check the place for a spare control chip; presuming all is well there, they would then escort Tandi back to the Raiders’ camp, concluding their business as agreed.

26 Dec 2161

The group arrived at Shady Sands around midday. Sly and Lenny took Tandi to the town hall and presented her to her father—the reunion was…a bit cold, to no one’s surprise—and told him mostly the truth, that they had reached an agreement with the Raiders. Aradesh was glad to see that the Volunteers had accomplished his mission, and he kept his word, giving the name of the contact in Junktown as Killian, who could be found at the general store there—he would know how to locate a new control chip. Aradesh expected he would accept payment in “services rendered.” Rather than accept as payment the name of someone they might have stumbled across in a location they might have ended up anyway, Sly suggested that Aradesh might grant them a future favor instead; he agreed. As they left, they could faintly hear sounds of a father/daughter argument kicking up.

Meanwhile, the other vault-dwellers had congregated at the town’s trading post. Colt and Lance looked over the available goods and did some trading. After the meeting with Aradesh, Sly showed up and started chatting up the locals there for more info about the outside world, while Bob listened in and people-watched. Turk left to see the town’s doctor, joined by Lenny, to see if he had any meds for sale; he ended up purchasing some Rad-X and Radaway with the extra bottlecaps they got from trading, Lenny having negotiated a lower price for the lot. After they returned to the trading post, Lenny went straight for the gambling tables again, staying late into the night, after the others had gone to bed back at the town hall.

27 Dec 2161

In the morning, at breakfast, Tandi slipped Sly a note that said “Meet outside town after sundown ready to go.” The Volunteers spent the day purchasing food for the trip, packing up the brahmin (now being referred to as “Betsy”), and leaving, making a show of going South before circling around to the East of town, where they waited out the remaining daylight for Tandi to arrive. And arrive she did, solo, as anticipated; she demonstrated no fear of the dark or the wilderness, impressing her escorts. The group decided to move on in the dark for another mile or two to get a little farther from town before settling down for the night. They struck camp in the morning after an uneventful night and continued on into the mountains toward Vault 15, expecting a two-day trek, at least.

Around midday, they spotted what remained of a small town in the distance ahead. They brought forward binoculars and scopes to observe for signs of activity, and seeing none, were about proceed to check it out when a flying, metallic object sped down the town’s cross-street and continued North, out of sight—Colt being familiar with pre-bombs military hardware suspected it to be an eye bot, but since it wasn’t loitering in the area, they figured it wasn’t a threat. Lance headed straight for the rusty, abandoned car in the middle of town to look it over, and found it to have a functioning reactor (that they had nowhere to put), plus some random items in the trunk. Everyone else scouted around the handful of ruined buildings still standing, and found little else of note.

29 Dec 2161

The rest of the journey to Vault 15 passed without incident, and they found the entrance, disguised as an abandoned shack. Tandi swiped the keycard and punched in the code, and the massive vault-door opened. Inside, the power was still warming up as they gazed in wonder upon the near-duplicate of Vault 13, the only home they had known for their entire life.

The Volunteers “forgot” about the Raiders intention to move in to the facility, and started looking to take whatever they might need that wasn’t nailed down. Turk went straight for the med bay and checked out the autodoc—in excellent condition—and started digging through the available meds. Colt headed to level three to the security office to check the CCTV system for signs of life in the complex, and found none. Sly found his way to the Overseer’s offices to look at the vault’s records, and downloaded them to his Pip-Boy. Bob and Lenny entered the living quarters and started going through the apartments, one by one, looking for useful supplies. Lance headed for the maintenance office, and found it locked; he was about to try to run a bypass when Tandi swiped the master keycard to let him in. It had been emptied of supplies, so he turned his attention to the water purification system, to look at their existing control chip, and finding it in good working condition, carefully pulled it out, and wrapped it in a towel. He called everyone together to see their salvation, their mission objective. However, elation turned to horror as Lance unwrapped the chip and clumsily dropped it to the floor, shattering the vacuum-tubes and rendering it useless.

Notes

• This was the first session to involve a lot of trading/scrounging, and as such, kinda dragged a bit in those places; we’re working on that. Also noteworthy: the GM wasn’t prepared for trading at Shady Sands’ trading post (which doesn’t actually exist in the original), and booted up a saved game of Fallout to find a store to get its available items
• Players of the original Fallout will notice that Vault 15’s condition is rather different from the game—probably closer to its Fallout 2 condition, minus the occupants
• Lance’s player had planned all along for him to end up breaking the chip, for story purposes, but when he made his Klutz check, he rolled a 17 anyway—the Universe agreed

The 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 Met The Raiders

After the Volunteers finished with their question-asking of Aradesh, they inquired about where they might find a “bar” of some sort, and were directed to the nearby trading-post. It wasn’t much to look at, but it did have (a) booze to be drunk, and (b) games to be gambled upon. Lenny immediately seated himself at the roulette wheel there and started gambling, just before realizing he hadn’t anything to gamble with—Lance obliged him with a handful of bottlecaps from their stash, and afterward gave out a share to the others as well. Sly bought a bottle of the local fare—“rotgut,” they called it (it was unclear if the moniker referred to its origin or the result of drinking it)—and immediately began carousing with the few other patrons present, gathering what information about the world in-general they were willing to part with; Bob, Turk and Lance joined him, listening and interjecting from time to time. Colt had had enough of confined spaces packed with people after his life in the Vault, and took a bottle of rotgut outside to drink it under the stars, enjoying the night air. Some hours later, they all left to bed down for the night, richer in knowledge (and in Lenny’s case, a bit richer in coin-of-the-realm).

24 Dec 2161, Christmas Eve
In the morning, the Volunteers took the ransom and gathered up their gear for the thirty-mile trek to the raiders’ camp, prepared to camp overnight near their destination, opting to suffer the slow pace of their pack-brahmin over the slower pace of their own overburdened backs. They added to the brahmin’s load as much extra water as they dared, from the town’s well. They made good time for the first half of the journey, which took them through a wide valley of hard-packed scrub desert, following a trail that Colt suggested was an old state highway. Lance decided to entertain the group with song, but nearly blew out his vocal cords in the process, leaving him hoarse for hours. Their progress slowed for the latter half of the trip as they reached the other side of the valley, hiking upward into the mountains again. As Colt led the group from a distance ahead, he signaled them to stop after hearing a loud “thud” around a bend ahead, and scouting forward a bit, found what appeared to be the unidentifiably-splattered remains of a huge creature beside the scattered shards of a potted daisy; Lenny being the most widely-read naturalist of the group suggested the remains resembled a whale, but the group dismissed that conclusion as highly implausible.

Late in the afternoon, Colt spotted a cross-like construction of sticks, skulls and other bits in an arrangement that resembled a “body”—clearly a territorial warning marker, presumably belonging to the raiders. They pitched their camp well off the trail and forsook a campfire, to prevent detection. Though all were exhausted from the day’s hike, Lenny and Lance took it particularly badly, with blistered feet and whatnot; Turk helped ease their medical suffering as he could. The Volunteers made their usual two-man watch arrangement, passing around Colt’s and Sly’s night-vision goggles, and took their rest for the night, which passed without incident.

25 Dec 2161, Christmas Day
Just before sunup, the Volunteers woke and struck camp, while Colt went to scout the raiders’ camp, taking Bob—the second sneakiest among them, and having binoculars—along with him for backup. The two scouts found a well-trodden path leading into a canyon that ended in a cave entrance, which was guarded by a few lightly-armed, moderately-attentive men. Colt found a good hide-spot with a view of the cave entrance from a few hundred yards away and continued to observe, while Bob returned to inform the others. They discussed their plan, and decided to approach the raiders openly and honestly, and see how they react; Colt would hold onto the ransom-money for safety, and bring it forward when called for. They would leave the brahmin and any gear they didn’t immediately need behind in an out-of-the-way location, but ready to run if things went ill.

The Volunteers descended the path into the canyon and approached the cave. The guards halted them some yards away and demanded to know their business; Sly flashed them a winning smile and told the truth, that they were here to ransom Tandi. At the mention of that name, one of the guards went into the cave and fetched their boss, Carl. Again, Sly asked about Tandi and offered the ransom to take her away. Carl, to their surprise, without any detectable guile, informed the Volunteers that his people hadn’t asked for a monetary ransom for Tandi’s life, but had been trying to negotiate with Aradesh for access to Vault 15, and would not allow Tandi to leave until he acquiesced, as they had many sick among them that needed the vault’s medical facilities. Turk asked permission to see the sick, as he was a doctor, while Sly politely demanded to see Tandi, as proof of life; Carl relented, and led them into the cave, leaving them their weapons after Sly’s assurances that they weren’t here to pick a fight. They were shown to a cave-chamber where a dozen infirmed lay helpless, and Turk diagnosed them with long-term radiation exposure, confirmed by a slightly-higher radiation level detected in the cave. They were then taken to another chamber where Tandi was staying, and found her in good health and unmolested; she confirmed Carl’s assertion that she had actually come to them of her free will, having run away from her father (for reasons typical of teenagers; nothing unusual).

Just after entering the cave, Bob had asked to visit the head, and was pointed back outside, as there was a natural crevasse there they used for latrine purposes; he had left to see to it while the others were getting the “tour.” Colt, from his overwatch position, saw Bob exit the cave and go off to one side, appearing to answer the call of nature and taking his sweet time about it; some time later, Colt observed one of the guards do the same. Then, to Colt’s surprise, he saw Bob start to leave the latrine area, creep back behind the guard, and boot him headlong into the crevasse, before strutting back to the cave as if nothing had happened—Colt had no clue as to why, but supposed the guard must’ve insulted him?

Meanwhile, after having spoken to Carl and Tandi and gotten what they believed to be the “real story,” the Volunteers felt the need to help the raiders’ get into Vault 15, but at the same time, complete their mission for Aradesh, though he had deceived them; it was supposed that he just desired to maintain control of the vault out of stubborn pride, or perhaps there was something still in there he didn’t want to be discovered. The best the team could come up with was to take Tandi back to Shady Sands and her father—willingly, with Carl’s permission—where she would get the Overseer’s keycard from her father, with the help of the vault-dwellers; as aid to the sick, and compensation for Aradesh’s negotiations in bad faith, they would gift the 5000 bottlecaps to the raiders. Sly put the idea to Tandi and easily won her over, and she in turn helped to convince Carl to play along.

Notes

• Anyone who has played the first Fallout is undoubtedly scratching their heads at this point; the story has taken an abrupt departure from the original, as was the GM’s intent all along
• Lance’s player decided to sing, and rolled the skill at default; result=18 😛
• The whale/daisy encounter should be immediately obvious to anyone familiar with Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and is the first “weirdness” encounter resulting from Turk’s Weirdness Magnet Trait
• In actuality, the group had agreed to attempt to deceive the raiders and try to buy Tandi from them, but as Sly started talking, the player kinda forgot, so we just ran with it
• The raider boss, Carl, is actually Garl Death-Hand, leader of the Khans in Fallout 1; when it came time to identify him in the game, the GM couldn’t bring himself to refer to him as such or bother about the Mongol-themed gang—too silly, especially given his “revamped” role. The base was also changed from the original out-in-the-open camp to this canyon/cave. Coincidentally, the camp/cave is situated between two known real-world nuclear waste sites (somewhat distant, but still…)
• The players know the reason for Bob’s unusual behavior, but as the writer here, I’ve decided to let the story reveal itself as the characters find out about it

The 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 All Left the Vault

21 December 2161

The Overseer called for some “volunteers” for an important mission and called those chosen into his office to explain the situation:

The Volunteers, none of whom had ever stepped outside the Vault before, were allowed to requisition whatever they might need from the Vault’s stores, and they packed up for a long journey into the Wasteland; there were no vehicles to be had, so they would be walking, taking only what they could carry. Sly packed a bit of extra gear for the group. In the morning, the Overseer escorted the lot of them to the Vault entrance, and after wishing them well, keyed in the code to open the massive door to the outside. The Volunteers stepped through, into a world they had never seen before, only heard of—a large cavern, in this case—and the Vault door was closed behind them with a thud.

Now outside the Vault for the first time, the Volunteers found themselves aghast, as further into the darkness they spied a handful of giant rats—around 4′ long, each—digging through some rubble at a bend in the cave-tunnel. Though the rats seemed to take no notice of them, they weren’t taking any chances; Bob, Colt, Lenny and Sly pulled their pistols and took careful aim at the rats, while Turk and Lance backed them up. The rats were dispatched with as little ammunition expended as possible; they all discovered how freaking loud Lenny’s .44 Magnum revolver was in the cave’s close confines. Beside the rat carcasses were a couple of dessicated human remains; Turk looked them over and confirmed that they had likely been dead for years, though the group didn’t want to stay long enough to determine a cause of death or identify them, beyond the obvious “not vault-dwellers” conclusion.

The cave’s exit was not far around the bend, and the Volunteers soon found themselves for the first time under a natural, clear sky they had only seen in pictures before—the lack of a proper ceiling and the non-sterile atmosphere took some getting used to, and a few had some initial troubles adjusting to their new surroundings. After gathering themselves up, they checked their Pip-Boy 2000 map displays, and set out across the mountainous terrain toward their destination, Vault 15, a couple of days to the South-East.

Some hours past midday, the Volunteers crested a hill to find themselves a stone’s-throw away from a pair of strangers arguing over the corpse of another man in the shadow of a ruined gas-station; with them, a ghastly-looking creature resembling a cow with two heads, bearing a burden of “junk” on its back. Sly led the Volunteers, and approached the men with hands outstretched and a beaming, friendly smile, while the others lagged behind and tried their best not to spoil his intentions; the strangers quickly raised their weapons at the approaching vault-dwellers and demanded they go away, that this “claim” was theirs alone. After a bit of back-and-forth, the strangers admitted to having killed the dead man over a “trade dispute,” and continued their sabre-rattling. Cradling his scoped rifle, Colt sarcastically asked if people in the Wasteland are taught to count, as the vault-dwellers outnumbered the strangers three-to-one; they responded with a boast of having killed many vault-dwellers and having found them little challenge. However, seeing the six Volunteers spread out and ready for a fight (excepting Lance, who was cowering behind a broken wall), they started backing off anyway, still insistent on their martial superiority to the vault-dwellers, and as they turned to flee, they vowed to return for their prize. Colt climbed up on the dilapidated building and covered the strangers’ retreat with the rifle, while the others took inventory of what had been left behind, and buried the dead man in a shallow grave. The bovine-monster’s pack included a lot of miscellaneous scrap, a few guns, and a bag full of bottlecaps—the Volunteers could only speculate at the purpose of the bottlecaps; perhaps a collector’s item of some kind? The benefit of a pack animal, however hideous, was not difficult to understand after the day’s hike, and they decided to keep it, loading it up with some gear of their own. As the day was winding down at that point, they followed Colt’s suggestion to camp atop a nearby outcropping and keep a remote watch on this place through the night, expecting the strangers’ return.

They set up camp for the first time, and agreed to two-man watches through the night. But the strangers never returned, and so the desert night passed without incident, except that the lights and wisps of smoke from some distant settlement were spotted. After discussing the find in the morning, since the settlement lay in the general direction of Vault 15, they decided to pay it a visit. They approached with caution, after the incident with the strangers the day before, half expecting to find them there, spying ahead with binoculars and gun-scopes, but saw nothing to indicate any sort of threat.

There were two guards posted at the front gate to the walled settlement, and the Volunteers decided to approach openly; Sly would do the talking. The guards were friendly enough, and answered the many inevitable questions, as they could; the settlement was called Shady Sands, an upstart farming community, and well-behaved strangers were welcome to take shelter here, though weapons had to be put away out of sight. Upon inquiry about Vault 15, the guard informed them that this place had been founded by residents of Vault 15, which was long abandoned some thirty years ago or so; he suggested they speak to Aradesh, the town’s founder, and pointed the vault-dwellers to where he could be found. Before entering, the group stowed their weapons on the “Brahmin,” as it was known locally; Lenny instead covered his holster with a towel over his belt, which seemed to be enough for the guards.

They found Aradesh at the “town hall” as directed, and he greeted them, though with some suspicion, answering their many questions and offering them food and drink. He told that he had indeed come from Vault 15, though it had been stripped bare since they left. As they ate the strange food before them—something to do with “geckos”—he informed the Volunteers that although they were unlikely to find a controller-chip at Vault 15, he did know of a man in Junktown who might have one; seeing an opportunity in the capable crew before him, he offered to elaborate in exchange for a service, to rescue his daughter, Tandi, from a camp of Raiders to the South. She had been snatched from the settlement—a not uncommon occurrence—and he expected them to sell her into slavery if he did not produce 5000 bottlecaps as ransom. He asked only that the Volunteers deliver the ransom and return his daughter. Bottlecaps, as it turned out, were used as currency (Lance admitted to having playfully flung a handful of theirs, in ignorance). Aradesh’s demeanor changed as the Volunteers discussed taking on the mission amongst themselves, after which they officially agreed to bring Tandi back; they would leave in the morning.

Notes

• This is not Winston’s first time GMing an RPG, but it is his first running GURPS, and running for this group
• We had a bit of a late start this session, due to some initial technical issues connecting with the game; we might have gotten a bit farther otherwise
• Anyone who has played the first Fallout computer game will undoubtedly recognize persons and events that occur in this game; this is purely intentional. Most of the players here, in fact, are familiar with Fallout, though none of us expect it will detract at all from the enjoyment of the campaign—events will transpire quite differently given the six-man crew rather than the original’s “Lone Wanderer”
• This would be the first campaign with this group for CommJunkee, who gamed face-to-face with Gigermann (myself) and Rigil Kent for many years around a decade ago, before moving away