Kora, finding the interesting injuries on the two starts pointing them out to the others before speaking. "Defensive wounds at a minimum, she was killed by blunt force trauma. Broken humerus here and her skull is broken here. He suffered less, two shots, close range with a small caliber round... .30 or .38. Couldn't tell more without digging the rounds out. Looks like they were ambushed and left for scavengers... More then likely they're in the vault..."
He stands takes his position behind Gergg and readies to follow the smaller ghoul in. Small caliber fire versus are armor will be easy to weather... Close quick, ripper perhaps...
Terry looks at Gergg and replies, "Or here goes everythin'. We got your back." Terry smiles under his helm.
Terry whispers back, "I guess it depends on what you like in your surprise birthday party such as burning flesh, spurting blood, and oozing goo?"
Winter stows the batons away, then moves carefully into the vault in his allotted position, SMG at the ready
"Right behind you fella's. I got the best view." She gives an exclamated wink to the rest of the party. Her sniper rifle is slung behind her back and she has drawn the Grandpa Hall's pistol .38.
Perception: 20+6=26
The door opens to reveal a large, simple room obviously designed to serve no purpose beyond hiding the Vault entrance. In the middle of the room is a counter, and to each side are a series of lockers and cabinets. Across the room is a closed wooden door, which looks rather beaten from years of usage, and reinforced with metal strips. Blood is spattered and smeared on the counter, walls, lockers, cabinets, and floor.
Deidre, your keen eyes pick up quite a bit of interesting spots in the blood smears. You almost instantly notice a pattern in the smears on the floor that clearly display evidence of bodies being dragged outside, probably by the dogs.
You also see a few items that reveal a battle must have been fought here. This wasn't with wild dogs, either: you notice the gleam of several bullet casings under the counter, and even a bullet hole in one wall near the door to the outside.
Finally, as you move further inside, you notice something very curious in the blood near the door that leads farther into the complex, or more precisely, three somethings. The first is a boot print. Near it are a couple of tracks: a footprint, human-sized, but of a painfully thin and bony bare foot, and next to it, a few small marks that look like fingerprints...
|
The small ghoul takes his time surveying the inside of the shack as he slowly moves toward the interior door to make room for the rest of the party.
"Doubt there's much of anything in those lockers or cabinets, but you guys might as well check." he whispers to the party members forming the middle and rear of the formation. "Just keep it down while you're checking. I'm going to see if I can hear anything through this door while I check it for traps."
He crouches near the door to the Vault with his pistol ready, inspecting the door for traps and straining to sense any movement within.
"Ah! Gergg! Watch where you step!"
"Look." I move up to the door with Gergg and point out what I saw.
"I saw this blood coming in. Must be from our friends outside. Dogs probably dragged them out. Then I noticed the bullet casings under the cabinet. Our boys outside must have been in a fire-fight recently. But now look where we are..." I refer to the boot print and the other tracks.
"There's a boot of some kind, then this scrawny foot. Could be a female? It's hard to tell."
"What do you guys figure?"
Terry remains vigilant in the rear and his head is on a swivel.
As soon as Terry enters the vault as well as being on the alert, he scans around looking for anything out of sorts or sneaking up on them.
|
|
Gergg moves slightly to the side to avoid standing on top of the footprints, but continues to listen and inspect the door as the others attempt to decipher the clues and check the containers and lockers for loot.
Once the rest of the party gives him the go-ahead, and assuming nothing he sees or hears at the door dissuades him, he slowly and silently opens the door to the Vault.
Stealth:
He continues down the corridor at the same deliberate and stealthy pace, his eyes and ears actively straining for any signs of other occupants.
Perception:
Winter meticulously checks over the lockers and containers while the others stay alert for danger, completely absorbed in his task
Winter, going through the cabinets and lockers, you find various trinkets and baubles and bits of jewelery. It's not hard to figure that these items belonged to the dead who've been buried in or outside the Vault.
His eyes gleaming greedily, Winter picks over his haul, inspecting each piece minutely
[ooc] Happy to move on as/when necessary
Winter guesses that the various items he's picked up would be worth somewhere around 120 caps if sold.
Trying the door, it opens easily, and Gergg realizes why as he does so: a key is still in the lock of the doorknob, on the other side of the door. A narrow staircase descends to a wider landing below, and Gergg can tell that the landing leads to an even wider room that appears lit by dim lights.
Continuing down the hallway, Gergg's steps are so quiet that he doesn't even hear himself...
Small, dim lights illuminate this chamber. From the landing's shadows where you're currently hidden, a shallow set of stairs leads down into a room obviously used to allow corpses to be prepared for burial. At the bottom of the staircase right now is the corpse of a human woman, crumpled and broken. The statue of a soldier in power armor is in a corner of the room, to the right of the landing. Several tables stand against the walls on the right and left, and all but two of these seven have corpses on them. Farther into the room is a long pile of rubble and scrap metal; apparently someone or something smashed two tables. Aside from the one table you can see beyond the debris, the farthest features you can see are some adapted lockers and cabinets on the far wall, which have been altered to serve as little vaults for the dead. You can see a few of those hanging open, exposing tousled bones within.
By the nearest table on the left and the second nearest on the right, you see two emaciated humanoid figures with rotten-looking skin stretched over their lanky frames--feral ghouls. These creatures are feasting on two of the bodies, one snacking on a leg while the other rips into an arm. Some of the other bodies also look as though they've been eaten, though the woman's body at the bottom of the stairs looks untouched--and it looks to be the body of the missing woman, Desiree Halls. You can tell that the body nearest you on the left is that of her husband, Morgan, and that the other body being eaten is an old man.
The ghouls don't seem to have noticed you.
As the group moves further into the building, Fitz hangs outside, taking in the surroundings. Heaving a sigh, he's about to turn and enter the Vault's exterior structure when he notices a young man from Gulchbottom running up the path. "I know... you're looking... in the Vault..." the man says, breathing heavily from his run, "but Ian said... to tell you..."
Continuing, the man explains that there was an alleged Super Mutant sighting some ways to the east of the settlement. Turning to the group, Fitz waves and explains that he's off to hunt them down, as that's his calling, and it matters more to him than delving into a Vault that may well have no SMs in it at all. Waving his farewells, the man marches off into the not-quite-sunset, perhaps never to see his short-term companions again...
Winter sneaks down with the others, holding his Thompson in the ready position
|
|
Gergg signals to anyone behind him on the stairs, pointing to his own eyes, then toward the Vault room, he holds up two fingers, points at his chest and pantomimes gnawing on a large bone.
After trying to convey the occupants of the room, he signals for the others to fall back into the upstairs room with their weapons ready.
He waits for a few moments for the rest of the party to position themselves upstairs.
A part of him cringes at what he's about to do. The poor, mindless ghouls he's about to lure to their certain demise represent his own eventual fate, after all. He could just as easily be one of them had his circumstances been only slightly different.
He quickly pushes those thoughts aside and aims for the head of the nearest feral, his whole body coiled and ready to take off up the stairs once the brainless ghouls realize they're under attack and begin to come after him.
As soon as the ferals turn and notice him, Gergg sprints back up the stairs screaming "Oh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!"
As Gergg begins readying to fire, Winter creeps down with him. Just as the little ghoul aims, his target raises its head for a moment, then turns to look at the stairs. This happens just as Gergg fires, and his shot falters both due to this, and because the chambered round is faulty. Between the two, Gergg's shot flies very wide.
Around the corner, you all hear the gravelly, rasping voice of a ghoul shout, "What the f*ck was that?"
Players 1: Winter and Gergg
Enemies 1: Ferals
Players 2: Terry and Deirdre
Enemies 2: Voices
Players 3: Darius and Kora
The makeshift vault in the far left corner of the room has been crudely chained and nailed shut for some reason. You even hear what sounds like a little squeal come from it at the sound of Gergg's gunshot.
Round 1, init joint first, HP 11, AC 17
Winter moves forward , fires off a burst from his SMG at the nearest feral , then prepares to retreat.
Winter's bullet pounds into the feral's torso, and it lets out a raspy shriek at the man.
Gergg's bullet also strikes into the feral, giving it two neat holes in its ragged flesh. He then nimbly ducks around and hops onto a table.
The feral ghoul that's been shot at hisses, crawls up onto the table, and swings its arms at Gergg.
The blow catches the little ghoul, though his padded clothing soaks up most of the damage.
The other ghoul lets out a raspy cry and launches itself at Winter, leaping forward and striking.
This ghoul's momentum carries its blow through Winter's garb, and he feels the strike heavily.
Terry states on his Power Armor speaker as he moves 5 ft to his current location on the map, "I hope these ferals are not former residents, that means possible radiation contamination or the vault door failed to close during the war so many years ago."
He takes one shot at winter's feral ghoul with his W2K Laser (-4 for lacking the precise shot).
(11/12 rounds remaining in MFC)
Amidst the melee, the feral ghoul moves suddenly, and Terry's shot flies past into the wall, scorching it.
Acrobatics:
As Deirdre attempts to skirt around the feral, it lashes out with one arm... ...missing the woman.
From around the corner come three ghouls in beaten-looking clothing, all leather jackets and old trousers and boots. Two hold pistols, and one has an old baseball bat. The bat-wielding one dashes around the corner, clambering over the rubble and running toward the group. "You smoothie a**holes are gonna get it now!"
The other ghouls both come around the corner and fire, one at Deirdre and one at Gergg.
The ghoul shooting at Deirdre aims true, and the woman feels the slug punch into her chest. Luckily, her armor takes the force. The other ghoul's shot is high, and the bullet pounds into the wall.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The shots, shouts and coarse oaths echo up the stairs and Kora followed in the wake of Knight Morrow. Stepping into the door way and taking aim at the nearest feral that was harassing Deidre and the Child of Atom. He took aim at the creatures torso, hoping to strike it dead center in the largest part of its mass, before pulling the trigger. As he pulled the trigger back the Laser Rifle thrummed with the release of the concentrated beam of deadly energy...
Kora's blast hits the feral ghoul right in the chest, and it barely has time to shriek before the laser courses through its body, dropping it to the earth, the wound cauterized even as it appears.
Darius is the last one in the room, hustling down the corridor and stepping past Kora, his pistol in hand. Hearing Gergg's call, the soldier sights and fires once.
Darius' shot also strikes the ghoul in the chest, blowing it across the table as it dies. You hear one of the ghouls in back shout, "Sh*t! These motherf*ckers are crazy!"
Players 1: Winter, Gergg, Terry, Deirdre
Enemies: Ghouls
Players 2: Darius and Kora
Terry takes a 5 foot move next to Darius (E-3) and takes aim at Ghoul closest to the party (H-5) and yells, GET SOME!
Terry's first blast catches the ghoul in the chest, and it grunts through the pain, though it looks winded--at least some of that laser got through the armor. The bat-wielding ghoul, now ready for the shots, dodges the second blast.
|
|
Gergg, impressed as ever with his companions' firepower, looks dazed for a moment before hopping back down from his exposed perch atop the table and crouching down to take cover behind it.
"Dang! Remind me not to piss you guys off," he jokes to his comrades.
Somewhat surprised when Terry doesn't dispatch his target with a single shot, Gergg squeezes off a round from his pea-shooter at the ghoul.
Round 2
"Blasphemer! Heathen! Leave Atom's precious vessel alone!
Roaring defiantly (or pathetically), Winter races forward to get out of his companions' lines of fire , then squeezes off another burst.
In the thick of combat, and perhaps due to the recoil of automatic fire, Winter's shots go wide, pounding into the walls and floor of the Vault.
Gergg's shot also catches the ghoul, his in the arm, but the jacket seems to stop the bullet from going too far in. It grunts and shoots the small ghoul a snarling frown. "You with these smoothies, you die too, you little b*tch."
Deirdre's plan of attack changed as her companions professionally downed the ghouls flanking her. A ghoul was close enough to her that she could try to swing her machete across its neck.
"Suck it dry to wrinkly b*tch!"
"...no offense, Gerggy."
Attack:
Dmg: