Pallor looks around the crucifix to see if there are any more buttons.
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Pallor, there are no buttons on the crucifix, but you do see a strange box underneath the preacher's pulpit. It's a locked button with a broken glass window inside. The box forming the lock over the button reads "IN CASE OF HERESY, BREAK GLASS." There's a small hammer on a chain nearby for glass-breaking purposes, but the glass is already broken.
Francis picks up a Bible and notes the missing pages. "Looks like they had a bit of a falling out in here. This Bible's missing a bunch of pages throughout; my guess is somebody tore out all the verses that serve as security passcodes."
He steps over to the shelves to take a look at the books there, keeping the Bible he picked up. Looks like somebody had a real thing for the monomyth going on... maybe that started some trouble with the true believers?
"Could be they had a theological dispute that turned violent..." No remains, no real signs of combat either. "... or maybe the violence was elsewhere, and a faction of more die hard believers just came in here and trashed the place, ripped out the passcode references, and retreated deeper into the Vault, leaving anyone who didn't know the Bible well enough out to die out here.
"This place honestly wasn't that hard to get into after you dropped that false wall," he continues, looking over to Pallor. "Anyone trapped out here would've run out of supplies. They leave the Vault to scavenge, the false wall closes behind them for some reason, and they're stuck without knowing the Bible verse to get back in." A chill suddenly runs down Francis's spine, and the scratching at his mind grows insistent. "And all those "ghouls" we found outside..."
The thing at the back of his skull surges and blasts through into his mind, burning Francis's world to ash and revealing a new one...
"How many do you think there are? If you take them down quick enough we might be able to keep this fairly quiet. Just leave one or two alive enough so we can get some directions afterwards."
Runner is overtaken by the realization that a memory fragment has suddenly been revealed to him.
-
"Johnathan... Johnathan...!"
he repeats louder and louder as he spins and dances around the room, arms wind-milling and head thrown back.
Vonya nods and tries to pinpoint distinctly different voices in the room... a hard task given how greenc*nts are essentially clones of each other Tom chimes.
"Makes sense. One of outside ghouls for sure tried to get in. Was denied entry by Trudy Belafonte."
Before climbing up to the vent with the others, Chief gives Annie a hose and a bottle and instructions to put a molotov cocktail or two into the lobby once the crew is all in, and make a lot of enthusiastic noise at ground level.
It occurs to him briefly that asking someone to set a building on fire after he goes into it might be a bad idea, but what the he11.
He joins the others in the vent at about the time Vonya gets the grille off.
Francis, the sudden backlash of the psychic maelstrom is like being clubbed in the back of the head. You know - without any doubt, you know - that the ghouls out there were once Vault-Tec employees, along with a few innocent bystanders that roamed too close in search of loot. This "Trudy" that locked them out wasn't even originally supposed to be here. She came after the knowledge of the great, golden sphere was revealed to her. Echoing in this very room from across the distance of decades, you hear her voice, shouting about God and quoting Biblical scriptures with ever-increasing mania. Leading a cadre of religious zealots, she captured the Vault away from its original occupants - how she got in, you don't know. You have a vision of a tablet, an iPad, that was carried off triumphantly into the residential wings of the Vault, behind the other door in the entrance hall.
But it wasn't the zealots or Trudy Belafonte that pressed the button to help with Heresy...it was Johnathon. The whispers become too much for Runner, as he is the kind more used to the open sky and the open road, the comforting car seat beneath his ass. As he falls to the ground, clutching his head, he sees a young boy, no more than ten, smashing the glass with a hammer and pressing the button beneath the pulpit. The sounds of whirring machinery spin up in the distant recesses of the Vault, in response...and he whispers to himself something unintelligible as the vision of the boy runs out of the chapel room and into the sphere catwalk.
Meanwhile, in the Crane building...General Annie and her followers were way ahead of you on the explosives/Mollies front, Chief, you discover to your satisfaction. They nod and say that they'll be hucking explosives through the revolving door as fast and as far as they can, when they hear things get interesting inside.
Meanwhile, up in the vent, the Faceless is listening carefully for the brutish sounds of Super Mutant voices. Looking below, he sees a balcony about 15 feet below, and the tapestry comes to an end about 10 feet down. Beyond, close enough that you can see a little bit of their green skin under the tapestry, are 2 Super Mutants that are muttering to each other about the view below. "Should knock down the far wall," one is saying.
"No more walls! The Master says we're hitting walls that are load-bearing and we'll knock down the whole skyscraper if we keep up your renovations!" What do you do?
Seth shudders a bit.
"The Master?" he says in a husky whisper.
"Can't be good. Someone out West called himself that. Made hisself a Super Mutant army. Could he have come here? Gotta grab one of those muties. Get him to talk."
He nudges Vonya.
"Can ya get the drop on 'em so we can take one alive?"
Vonya grins under his mask in the gloom of the tunnel, unconsciously aware that no one could see him smile regardless of their current environment. He holds out a cloth-wrapped palm. "Who's got sumfin' stabby? If you want one alive, best not to use guns."
Dust reaches into her robes and grins as she produces a jagged shard of metal, one of the pieces torn from the roof of the rig, and presents it to Vonya.
Grasping the shank firmly, Vonya gives the group a nod and prepares to jump down via the old tapestry when Tom whispers good luck buddy. Stab one real quick and grab the other to stop him squealin'.
Give me...two Hard rolls, Vonya. You're going aggro twice, basically - the first time taking their life, the second one is suppressing the other Super Mutant. It's not easy to wrestle a Super Mutant into silence, but I guess if anyone should try it, it's you. Go!
[dice=""Shut your f*ckin mouth right now and don't say a word or i'll shove this slicer deep into your skull greenskin."]2d6 + 3[/dice]
IN THE WABASHA VAULT
The nuclear blast rips the roof from the Vault and burns the walls to matchstick ruins, melting the flesh on Francis's body until he's a twisted, deformed parody of his former self - a ghoul. The roiling mushroom cloud once again gloats down at him from the horizon.
Untouched by the devastation is the inscrutable Sphere, hovering in place within the remains of the adjacent room. It's perfect golden surface does not reflect the ruined psychic landscape, however, nor even the Vault of the present; instead it shows reflections of the past. A woman, Trudy Belafonte, fervently reciting Bible passages that echo hollowly out from the Sphere; her at the head of a group of zealots, inside the Vault, taking it by force and expelling the Vault-Tec employees; her marching off into residential areas through the door not taken, an iPad held high in triumph; those outside the Vault transformed into ghouls. Francis is somehow sure that the woman came for the Sphere, though how she knew of it and how she gained entry to the Vault remain a mystery to him.
With a rumble and a flash, a second blast of ash and fire washes over him, and a moment later he is left reeling from his psychic vision, clutching at the bookcase for support.
"They... they came for it... for the Sphere..." he whispers. He straightens himself, and continues with more confidence. "Trudy knew it was here, so she took the whole Vault to get it. They threw the employees out into the tunnels - they're the ghouls we met on our way in. She and her followers went into the residential wing with an iPad - an electronic book - through the other door in the entrance hall. It seemed very important to her; it might have the specs on that thing out there, or even the whole Vault."
Francis levels a serious look at his new companions. "It's obvious you've met, or at least heard of, people coming out of Vaults before, and that you know I'm one. I think something might have happened to me when I left - something to my mind. I'm seeing things. I might not be 100% reliable in an emergency. But I can still be of use to you deciphering this Vault and it's tech - outside experimental stuff, like that sphere, it's just everyday equipment to me."
we must go deeper. Follow her path."
Am I that boy or am I related to that boy?
How long ago did that happen?
This is crazy. I now have more questions than when I had no memories.
Maybe that sphere can help me.
-
Runner stands up from where he had fallen and ambles to the metallic sphere.
Pallor, interested immensely by the metal sphere but also tangentially by the now-mad Runner, watches with interest as Runner approaches the sphere.
Placing both hands wide on the sphere, Runner rests his forehead against the cool metal and surrenders to the psychic void.
-
"TELL ME WHO I AM !"
-
Pallor, seeing Runner acting quite uncharacteristic near the artifact and indeed since arriving to the bottom of the tunnel, attempts to control the strange energies that seem to be anchored to this place despite its protection from the sky.
AT THE WABASHA VAULTS:
Runner, desperate for answers as to the creeping madness on the edge of his mind, recklessly touches the sphere with both hands and presses his forehead to it. His frenzied cries are cut suddenly short and his body's muscles go slack.
Runner, you witness a heavenly place. For a timeless moment you are floating, at peace, surrounded by light. The weariness of your body is gone. You float, ephemeral, among other people that have embraced bliss too. Their joy is shared among you and multiplied, until you are filled with a happiness that seems to expand your chest. Your mind is soothed of the visions of the past, and you're finally at peace...
To everyone else, the Driver has completely lost it. His body is completely loose, slumping against the guardrail to the point that he almost falls head over heels over it and into the small pit that the Sphere rests in. His forehead and his hands remain anchored to the Sphere tightly but his eyes, wide-open and staring, don't register anything and his mouth hangs open. Pallor, recognizing the dangers of such a mental state and the precarious position the Driver is now in, grabs hold of him and wrestles mentally with the projection.
Pallor gets the merest glimpse of Heaven through Runner's eyes. To Runner, it's as if a shadowy figure wreathed in darkness grabbed him from behind and yanked him out of Paradise. The Driver's head smacks against the guardrail as he falls, take 1 harm - and Pallor, your mind is so shaken by the brief glimpse of Runner's vision that you have a -1 to all Weird rolls until you've had a chance to re-center yourself with calm and dedicated meditation.
AT THE CRANE BUILDING:
Grasping Dust's knife with a grin that doesn't extend past the expressionless face of Tom, Vonya grasps the tapestry right outside the air duct. Holding on tightly, the huge man clambers out of the duct and slides down rapidly. The two Super Mutants, in conversation and caught completely unawares by this unexpected angle of attack, are completely unprepared for his vicious stabbing.
The tall man lands with a heavy thud just behind one of the Super Mutants, who is even taller than he is. Reaching up, he grabs the greenskin's forehead roughly, yanking his head backward with savage force and dragging the knife efficiently across his throat. He stabs him twice in the side of the neck as the Super Mutant falls forward, for good measure.
The other Super Mutant is just starting to react when the first one's lifeless face hits the floor. He's wielding a huge nail bat made of a 2x4 and screws, and he lifts it up overhead, snarling "Smash y-" before Vonya acts.
Swiftly, the Faceless aims a fierce kick at the greenie's midsection. The Super Mutant's inhuman durability means he doesn't have to bend double in pain at the kick, but it's forceful enough to knock him back stumbling against the wall behind him. Vonya is on him in an instant, punching the nail bat aside and shoving the blade of his knife deep against the second Mutant's throat.
The Super Mutant hears Vonya's words, but his highly-irradiated brain is too riled up with aggression to listen. He begins to shout and struggle fiercely against Vonya, forcing the man to kill him to keep him quiet. Neither of these Mutants are wearing the headsets that you saw on the assault crew at Walker's.
Pallor looks down into the gap under the spere to see if there are any human remains down there.
It's clear.
Turning to Runner, Pallor touches the man's head with his glove, scanning for brain activity.
Vonya sighs, wiping the shank down on one of the greenskin's dirty rags for clothing. He looks up at the others in the vent, and shrugs. The stabber in his off-hand, and his revolver in the other, Vonya makes sure the coast is clear for the others to descend.
Volcano clambers down and lands near Vonya with a THUD! as he sucks air through his teeth at the pain shooting up his bad leg. Once he regains his composure, he turns to Vonya.
"Ya did good, lad. Better to have shanked both of 'em rather than let us get swarmed. Can I have my screwdriver back?"
Vonya nods and quickly pulls it out of a section of his armour that he'd tucked the shiny screwdriver into. "Now what? We start huntin'?"
Dust drops gracefully down from the vent behind Seth. Straightening from her landing she looks dissapointedly for a moment at the two dead mutants, no fun to be had there.
"Anybody have a direction in mind?"
Less gracefully than Dust did, Chief also drops from the vent.
"Ahhhh... So Beautiful... What joy and peace and LOVE..."
"...All false. Implanted by the sphere."
Runner's eyes are still glazed and unfocused as he drones on about the blissful images dancing thru his brain...
AT THE CRANE BUILDING:
From the floor level, looking back at the tapestry you climbed down, you can now see that it's an old, tattered American flag. Featured prominently at the opposite side of the hallway from the American flag is the red, blue and white stripes of the Russian Federation. Indeed, there are over a dozen similarly sized flag-tapestries hanging from the ceilings in this corridor room, which is about 15 feet high and runs from one end of the building to another. Directly in front of you is a holographic display, showing Earth, floating above a placard on a podium. Approaching it, you see that the placard reads "ONE EARTH COALITION FOR PEACE." The placard is stained with old green blood. The floor is made of linoleum and your heels click loudly on the ground, but there's no other Super Mutants in this corridor. The room extends out about 90 feet to your right and has an open doorframe leading deeper into the building, and another mirrored doorframe is 120 feet to your left. You can hear Super Mutant voices, sounding like they're coming from the room beyond.
MEANWHILE, AT THE VAULT:
Gradually, Runner, the visions fade from your mind to a memory that already begins to feel distant. You're left with a feeling of hollowness, an emptiness inside. Whether you choose to acknowledge these subconscious feelings or suppress them is up to you. Pallor feels this to a much, much smaller degree, easily ignorable but present.
Looking at the Sphere, none of the rest of you can see your reflections still, but Runner's is now visible.
It was a trick, lies, all of it.
Not only are my memories gone, but now my joy, happiness, any good feelings I had at all.
The Sphere has taken them from me!
-
Runner steps away from the Sphere and raises his 9mm pistol.
-
"GIVE ME BACK MY LIFE!!!!"
-
He shoots at the Sphere until his clip is empty.
Instead of ricocheting like the piece of debris that Pallor threw at it, the bullets that Runner fires at the Sphere penetrate the object. Again and again the bullets sink into the formless golden color of the sphere, causing ripples to spread across the entire object's surface. His last bullet enters the construct, and you can see a crack in the sphere forming at the point of impact. It's only a few inches long, but its effect is magnified by how perfect the rest of the sphere is, making it very obvious.
Pallor backs away, out of the room to observe the crack from beyond the doorway.
Francis takes several long moments to collect himself and recover from his vision. Suddenly he hears gunshots ring out from the adjacent room, and rushes to the door to find Pallor backing into him. He steps aside, then in front of the helmeted man out onto the catwalk, keeping low and scanning for hostiles. He sees only Runner with his gun drawn, though not pointed his way.
Has this guy completely lost it?
"What's happened?!" he asks back over his shoulder to Pallor, ready to charge, unsure at this point if Runner is friend or foe.
Those of you in the Wabasha Caves Vault begin to feel the ground vibrating slightly beneath your feet.
Chief trots quietly to the doorway where the voices are coming from, leaning against the wall beside the doorframe, shotgun ready.
"dont know. Not good."
"Runner, what's wrong with you - are you trying to get us all killed? Stop shooting up the place!" Francis looks down at his feet as he feels the whole Vault begin to vibrate.
I've got a bad feeling about this.
"If we're gonna look for that iPad, we'd better do it now."
"yes. You can use shiny, look deeper. I will try to stop this."
Pallor will try to contain any psychic stuff coming out of the orb, or at least redirect it in a way that won't pull the vault down around their ears or fry our minds.
His oddly angular body contorts, his arms outstretched and bent at strange angles, Pallor acts as if he was going to stop some physical force from getting by him.