AT THE PARKING GARAGE OF THE POWER ARMY:
With Things Speak on a 7-9 you get to ask 1 - contextually, I know that the question you'd be asking of me would be:
What’s wrong with this, and how might I fix it?
Volcano immediately sets to work laying out his tools, ordering "Bubba" about, and sending other young children scattering in search of parts. In the end, it's a situation where the fix itself was pretty simple, you just had to get there first. With "Bubba"'s help, Seth is able to pry back a panel that had been shot up and reconnect some of the wiring behind it. When he's finished, two operational machine gun turrets sweep the ramp that leads to this garage area.
General Annie is watching Seth complete his work, with satisfaction evident on her face, when Dust approaches her with her request. It seems that the Savvyhead fixing their exterior defenses helped to put her in a good mood - plus, the Hocus had a natural charm about her that made others want to help her out.
Annie turns to you, a wild grin on her face. "Consider it done," she said. "I'll get the Blue Angels to run interference on the surrounding streets, deflecting any roving swarms of Ferals, and me and some of my best soldiers will keep anyone else off you while you find a way inside the Crane building. Just remember your friends outside when you're splitting up the loot in there, eh?" she cocks her PPK and winks.
Seth smiles after the miniguns are finished.
"You've good hands for fixin' things, Bubba," he says to the lad. "Keep at it, an' maybe you'll be better'n me someday!"
He descends just in time to hear General Annie and Dust's conversation.
"Aye. Even if it's just Pre-War weapons we pry offa them Super Mutant Scientists, we'd be more'n happy to share. We settlements gotta stick together in these times."
Dust smiles innocently and watches with interest as she gauges General Annie's reaction to the mention of super mutant scientists.
AT THE WABASHA VAULT:
Pallor presses the big red button, and the vault door immediately responds, receding back further into the cave wall. Squealing, metallic sounds echo through the chamber as the old machinery stirs to life again, pulling the cogwheel-shaped vault backward before rotating it off to the left, revealing an open doorway. Surprisingly fresh air flows outward from the opening, though there aren't any lights on beyond.
The false wall also closes behind you, trapping the others in the tomb room with the Ferals scrambling to get through the crack at them. Unless you have a light source, Pallor, there's only one light in the room - the red button itself is faintly, ever so slightly illuminated by small LEDs fitted beneath it. What do you do?
Inside the tomb room, Francis, you still have the fuel enough to keep the fire going a little while, but you turn down the heat a moment to conserve your "ammo" while the ghouls pace back and forth on the far side of the crack. You aren't sure exactly how much is in the tank for the flamer, but your fuel gauge reads slightly below half.
AT THE POWER ARMY'S GARAGE:
Chief: you reckon you could force your war rig back up the ramp, but it'd require some skilled driving, and would probably damage the top of the rig even more. You recall, however, that when the Power Army helped you out last time, you walked out through a tall entryway that exited out onto the highway proper. The War Rig could fit through that easily enough.
Dust, you can hold the other two Hold you earned, but the longer the amount of time that takes place between when you earn your Hold and when you use it, the less helpful the insight is likely to be.
You can tell that Annie's attention was completely captivated by the mention of pre-war weaponry and equipment. Keeping an entire army stocked, after all, is not an easy task. She seems to have not fully focused on the second part of the sentence about "super mutant scientists." You get the impression that she doesn't understand "super mutant scientists" the way you understand it to mean - whereas Seth is referring to scientists that ARE super mutants, you get the distinct impression that Annie thinks that Seth said "scientists that made super mutants." Understandable mistake. But she's trying to restrict her salivating at the thought of more pre-war weapons. They're of a completely different class than weapons that were crudely slapped-together post-war.
Vonya has spent most of the time looking around, trying to look as non-threatening as possible.
"Soldier.... I have fragmine. You can throw in crack with ferals." Pallor says, attempting to be helpful.
Runner knows how to do one thing really well; keep himself alive.
He has no compunction about leaving others behind, least of all a freak in a rubber mask or an ancient soldier he just met.
When the vault door starts to move, Runner makes his move, trying to get thru any cracks or gaps in the wall blocking the way out...
-
-
Dust, you can hold the other two Hold you earned, but the longer the amount of time that takes place between when you earn your Hold and when you use it, the less helpful the insight is likely to be.
Chief takes this time to reload his shotty. He watches Dust and Annie thoughtfully as he does so. Dust obviously has the negotiations well in hand; Chief's banged up and rattled enough that he'll do no good trying to help.
He then turns to Vonya. Nodding at the children, he says quietly "They're good kids. Y'know, considering the circumstances. You have any family, Vonya? Brothers, sisters... kids of your own?"
Vonya shrugs nonchalantly tilting his head slightly to watch the smallest one as it helped carry some ammunition around. "Dunno chief. Don't remember. Logic dictates that I probably had a mother and father but SHIT is my memory screwed."
He turns his massive frame to look down slightly at the man who considered him an equal. Both Tom and Vonya liked Chief. He didn't treat him any differently
"You have... family? I see you treat them like any other peoples but I know you're softer towards them. I can tell" Vonya says, before tapping his right temple. "Still got some smarts left."
Chief barely shrugs. "No real family. I thought I had family once," he says, thinking of Rolfball. He shakes his head. "I try and look out for my crew at Wolf's as far as I can. Hey, y'know, you could adopt these little f#%%ers. Have a whole clan of your own. Vonya Tribe."
AT THE WABASHA CAVES:
Runner easily leaps into the vault room before the false wall closes back up, leaving Shiner, a few gang members, and Francis and Scarlet behind. Pallor, when you call out to them, your voice is severely muffled through the wall, and the others can barely understand you. Unless Runner or you have a light source, you're in blackness when the false wall seals up again.
Inside the tomb room, the ghouls seem to be adapting their behavior. Rather than massing at the far end of the crack and getting roasted en masse, the ghouls huddle back, away from the killzone, and shove one of their number at you. If you keep using your flamer to roast them one at a time like this, you'll run out of fuel before they run out of ghouls. What do you do?
AT THE POWER ARMY GARAGE:
Vonya, since this is between PCs and directed at you, I'll let you dictate how his "trying to read you" goes wrong. It could be something as benign as Chief not getting a firm read on your emotions, or you could react violently negatively to the suggestion. Up to you!
Not long after Chief poses his question, the Blue Angels return, coasting down the entrance ramp into the garage on their modified bikes. They're welcomed with cheers by the Power Army's infantry corps. General Annie walks among them, slapping their shoulders and offering congratulations personally to them. Then, she turns to Dust and Seth. "The ghoul swarm that was attracted to your Rig is dealt with, thanks to us. Now we should talk about getting your Bertha out of here. It might get messy trying to turn your rig around and go out the way you came."
There's no label on the button describing what it does, so there's only one way to find out!
"oops, better let them back in. No fair leaving them to the ferals." Pallor says to himself, pressing the red button again.
"Guess it's time to head on our way then. Do we have an exit big enough for the rig? Probably best not to come back in again through this door either when we're on our way back with the loot. Speaking of, anything you'd like us to look out for other than weapons?"
Ghouls! Ghouls in the gap! shoot them stab them.
We went down the tunnel, opened the door and found a Vault.
There is a crack in the wall next to the vault where some creepy walkers are trying to get at us.
Soldier Boy flamed them but is running out of fuel.
You could probably stand at the gap and chop them down one by one.
Vonya starts to laugh hysterically at the proposition, and slaps Chief a little too heartily on the back. Wiping away a fake tear from his gasmask's eye sockets, he begins to wheeze as he attempts to stop his raucous laughter.
"Chief, I can barely look after myself. There's no way I can manage this band of rascals too."
Chief staggers from the back-slap, grimacing. Well, so much for plan C-3f. He's embarrassed -- not used to misreading someone that badly. "Well... I'm sure they'll get by without, uh..."
Dust climbs back into the cabin and brushes away some of the wrecked roof from the driver's seat before settling back in. Leaning out of the cab she calls over to Seth, "What do you think Volcano, is she ready for the road?"
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AT THE POWER ARMY GARAGE:
General Annie looks thoughtful at Dust's question. She replies, "No, just weapons and any foodstuff you can bring back would be appreciated."
She approaches the war rig and gestures for you to lean in close to listen. She mutters to you, "If you happen to find anything labeled "Insulin"..." she trails off, then coughs and goes back to business, raising her voice again.
"Alright boys and girls, our guests are LEAVING!" you hear a few "awwww"s coming from some of the children, who were delighted to meet new faces, especially Vonya's littlest fan. Annie continues. "We're going to lead them out via the highway exit, and then they'll be turning around and visiting Crane. And we're going to go with them! Blue Angels, you're on ghoul duty - find the Crane building and hunker down until we bring this Rig around. We might have company following us when we get there, so be ready. Jason, Ursula, Ten-Ton, Billy, Sasha, and Terry, you're riding with me in the back of this rig. If you find safety restraints, strap yourselves in. It's a bumpy ride near the Highway exit." The six of Annie's chosen nod to her and start gathering up gear for the road before climbing up onto the rear of the War Rig. One of them has to pull a ghoul's corpse off and toss it off the side with distaste.
"The rest of you," Annie continues, "Will be staying behind and securing the base. Our friends knocked down our first line of defense, though they did repair our turrets, so we need to be watchful. If I'm not back in two days, Sergeant Lucky will lead you. She's in charge until I get back." She nods at Sergeant Lucky, a 14-year-old girl with an eyepatch and several missing teeth. The Sergeant snaps off a crisp salute.
Her speech done, Annie climbs into the forward cabin of the War Rig and points off deeper into the parking garage. "Exit's that way," she murmurs to Dust. "Whenever Seth says we're ready, we're ready."
AT THE GHOUL CAVES:
Pallor finds the dimly-glowing red button in the darkness and presses it again. The false wall slides open, and the Vault door begins to close. Meanwhile, inside the tomb room, Francis has been busy torching the ferals as they approach, one at a time. He's below half empty now, despite his attempts to be conservative with the fuel. Scarlet, Francis, you see the false wall opening again and Pallor and Runner on the other side, beckoning you to them.
"Here, a mine for the doorway." Pallor holds out the mine for Runner to take, and prepares to push the button again once the other two are safe whether the mine has been placed or not.
As Runner slips thru the gap from ghoul-ville to the relative safety of the vault access side of the room, he remembers Scarlet...
-
Sh!t, that little tramp doesn't deserve to die by ghouls.
The least you can do is try to help them get back to the safe side.
-
Taking the disc-shaped explosive from rubber-head, Runner straddles the gap and passes the mine to Francis.
-
"Block the gap with this and get over here,
We can shut them in once we are all on the safe side,"
Scarlet darts across to the vault, keeping her shotgun perfectly level. Once she has clear air she'll start taking potshots as well.
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She nods at Sergeant Lucky, a 14-year-old girl with an eyepatch and several missing teeth.
She nods at Sergeant Lucky, a 14-year-old girl with an eyepatch and several missing teeth.
Francis waits until he's torched the next ghoul to attempt passage, then quickly snatches the frag mine from Runner. Moving as fast as he can, he drops the flamer's barrel behind him and steps into the crack. He kneels and sets down the mine, arms it, and quickly grabs the flamer barrel behind him so as not to trip over it and retreats past the false wall into the Vault's "foyer."
AT THE WABASAHA GHOUL CAVES:
Runner passes the mine that Pallor found over to Francis, who hurriedly turns off his flamer (now at 30% fuel) and shoves it into the gap. He dives for the false wall asap, followed by Scarlet. Scarlet holds them off long enough for Francis to get away comfortably, but she waits a second too long to get into the room, and the mine goes off before the false wall can close up again. Just before the false wall closes up with Scarlet on the proper size, a piece of rock shrapnel flies past her face, slicing up her cheek pretty good. It won't kill you, so you don't take Harm damage, but you do take a temporary -1 to your HOT rolls until your face wound heals or gets stitched up a little, Scarlet.
Francis doesn't make it into the foyer unscathed either. He checks himself to make sure nothing was too hurt by the explosion...then looks down at the flamer tank. It's got a hole punched in it by a flying piece of rock, and fuel is leaking out. Between that and the amount you've used already, you're down to about 15% of maximum. You can still use the thing but it's going to run out of fuel quickly until it's repaired. Also, might want to watch out where you point the flame end of the flamer, because guzzoline takes gaseous form as well as liquid. It's risky to fire off that thing with the gas tank damaged.
AT THE POWER ARMY GARAGE:
Seth, if it's mechanical or electronic in nature, it can speak with you. You're just a weirdo like that, Savvyhead. Go ahead and show me a roll for the War Rig.
"Now, we must light the way into the vault."
If you say you do! What form does your light take, Pallor? A simple flashlight, or someting...weirder?
As soon as the light comes out, Scarlet is going to be checking the place out, ignoring the steadily dripping blood flowing down her cheek.
- What's my best route in?
- What should I be on the lookout for?
- What's my enemies true position?
Pallor pulls out a canister and unscrews the end off of it, pulling out a rod that glows like a yellow-green lantern. The rod is attached to what was the lid of the tube, and that has a loop of light chain by which he holds it in a gloved hand.
You get the feeling you might not want to touch it with your bare skin, or be near it, or... why does he have that?!
As he pulls it out, his breathing accelerates just enough to notice, and he stares at it briefly, though his expression is hidden behind the helmet.
Hearning General Annie's request Dust nods her agreement and makes a mental note to ask Seth or Chief later to see if either of them know what 'insulin' is. Meanwhile she watches with intrest as the savvyhead checks over the rig in his strange intimate way.
Seth pats and taps the rig and ponders its status in with that odd, droning hum...
Seth had a critical roll, so he discovers a car part from one of the abandoned vehicles nearby that the Power Army didn't understand the value of. It would be of no use to them, but it would enhance the War Rig's fuel consumption efficiency greatly, if you were to install it. It takes less than 5 minutes for a prodigy such as yourself.
As for the damage to the roof...well, it's much worse at keeping the rain out now, but nothing critical was damaged on your entry to the parking garage. In short order, you're able to salvage a good amount of scrap from what was torn off the roof, and you figure you could repair it quite easily in your workshop. It's going to have to wait until you get back to Walker's Hold to officially fix, though.
MEANWHILE, AT THE CAVES:
The explosion of the frag mine in the very tightly enclosed space of the tomb room takes out most of the ghouls, and for now you hear no sounds of feral movement on the other side of the false wall. The eerie light of Pallor's...thing...lights the way.
Scarlet leads the way into the mysterious vault, built secretly under the tourist trap that was the Wabasha Street Caves. As you cross the threshold into the vault proper, passing by the giant cogwheel of a door...the lights come on, automatically. Four rows of fluorescent lights flicker to life overhead.
You find yourselves in a room that's longer than it is wide, and at the end of it is a large hanging cross with a crucified Jesus hanging on it. Scrawled on the wall in large, blocky script, are the words
There's two doors on the far wall of the room, one on either side of the weird crucifix. Your battle intuition tells you to take the right door over the left.
You've heard of vaults like this before. They often have pre-war droids, war bots, in them, that employ beam weaponry and wait only for unwary adventurers to reawaken them. Watch out for those.
There's no enemies lurking in this room, however. You're pretty sure the room beyond the right-side door is safe - it's partially open and you can see a little bit into it. The left side door makes you uneasy.
Pallor confronts this unease, and attempts a vision into what transpired here in the before-time.
You sense something about the crucifix. Something within it calls to you. You sense that you could learn more, but you would have to touch Christ's feet.
Pallor touches things again
Francis unstraps the flamer from his back and leaves it near the false wall. Thing's not worth exploding for.
"Sorry; now I'm just gonna have to beat people for you," he says to Scarlet, cracking his knuckles for effect. Glancing back at the false wall, he adds "People, or whatever else we might find in here."
The soldier-out-of-time advances with Scarlet, keeping his distance from Pallor and his unsettling light while he keeps his gaze steady on the left side door out of gut instinct. What is this, some sort of Seventh Day Vault? Must be some church bought up all the spots, or even commissioned the place from Vault-Tec.
"You'd think that if there were anybody home, they'd have come running when the door opened to give us the Good News. Or maybe the Rapture came just before the bombs fell, in which case there should be ample supplies left for us."
Pallor approaches the crucifix, reaching up towards Christ's feet, and for some reason the scratching at the back of Francis's head grows stronger - though he does his best to ignore it...
You idiot! Are these people Christian? I didn't even think to consider what religion they might have. Damn it I wish Jackson were here - she'd have thought of that.
Vonya gets aboard the war tractor, and clears some of the rubble and loose shrapnel out of the turret seating area. He waves enthusiastically to the shrimp kid, as the child looks curiously at the weapon.
When Runner looks upon the cross his vision momentarily fades and a brief recollection sweeps thru his mind...
-
He smells burning sage and hears drums and singing late into the night.
He feels the earth reverberate from the deep bass of the drum as both sound and feeling lull him and his siblings to sleep.
-
In the morning, we walks with his mother down to the church a mile away.
-
As his vision returns, Runner receives one last impression...
"Two Bulls".
He sits down heavily on the concrete floor of the Vault entrance, breathing heavily.
"Mom...? I saw my mom again."
"We're ready, Golden Children!" Seth bellows as he puts the finishing touches on the engine.
"This thing'll purr like a real horrorshow now, and be more fuel-efficient too! May give us an edge against whoever these Crane lads are."
He ties a tarp to the hole in the cab roof.
"No sense in lettin' the sun beat down on us. Skin cancer's nasty, even in the middle o' winter."
He sits down heavily on the concrete floor of the Vault entrance, breathing heavily.
"Mom...? I saw my mom again."
Francis spares a momentary glance at the leather-clad Runner.
This guy is f*ckin' .
Dust turns the key and the engine starts up with a sattisfying roar.Ok then General, lead on.
AT THE WABASHA CAVES:
Right as Runner sits down heavily on the ground after experiencing the painful memory/vision, Pallor touches his fingertips to the feet of the Christ figure on the cross. As he does, he notices the fine layer of dust coating the crucifix through years of neglect. The dust had been covering up the head of the nail that penetrates Jesus' feet. Brushing the dust away reveals a small button that you press.
The button activates the long-dormant electrical systems throughout the Vault. Deeper within you can hear the screeching of metal on metal and the distant rumbling of motors spinning up. The lights flicker overhead.
Pallor, you notice a drop of red land on your sleeve and look up to see the Christ on the cross weeping tears of what look like blood.
The doors on the left and the right side of the crucifix swing wide open by themselves.
MEANWHILE AT THE POWER ARMY'S GARAGE:
"Stay safe, kiddos!" the General shouts, leaning out of the cabin of the War Rig as she leads you deeper into the parking garage. You avoid the previously-built concrete ramps, as your Rig would never fit down them - instead, Annie directs you to a section where the floor has collapsed and formed a long, broken-down ramp of debris that leads to a lower level. As you make your way through the garage, you see primitive homes and shelters on either side of you; the dormitories, or barracks, of the Power Army. None of the inhabitants are of teenage age or higher; they're all children.
Finally you exit the parking garage, with Annie's assistance, bumping down a rough ramp to the exterior highway. Your way out is flanked with two more autoturrets that have been set up at this wider exit. When you leave, you pass under a large flap that has been strung up to hang over the highway outlet.
With Seth's tarp flapping in the wind, and Vonya whooping from his turret position in back, you make your way back down to Minneapolis' downtown area, near 16th where the Crane building is. You have to take a sharp right turn to get back up onto the highway, performing what would be several illegal maneuvers, but the roads are empty of patrol officers now. Many of the cars on the highway that still remain have been scavenged for parts, and their empty chassis are knocked out of your way by the War Rig without even slowing you down.
"So why are you all going to the Crane building?" the General asks. There's a sound network of mics and speakers rigged throughout the semi truck, so even Vonya can hear and respond to the conversation in the driver's cabin.