Post date: Dec 21, 2009 3:4:23 PM
Summary for those with short attention spans.
Went back into the ruins of Salt Lake City to find Vault Tec Regional HQ (VTRHQ)
Rescued Murray, a scavenger who could help them find the VTRHQ (Tristan doing much of the killing including an impressive opening head shot which killed gang leader quite dead)
Guided to manhole cover which was guarded by 2 Super Mutants and a centaur ( group killed them from range).
Entered sewers below, heard sounds of ghouls ahead, ended session.
More details for those who want to know what went down.
The session began with Benjamin giving the recap from the last time the group had gathered. Then the smaller group watched the introductory video 2 from Fallout 2 (Doc and VonBlitzburg were absent this evening).
To which, after some further trading to obtain a couple suits of leather armor and better armaments for Beyck, the group headed north again into the crumbled ruins of Salt Lake City. Eventually the twisted concrete maze of rubble continued to thwart a direct approach to the Vault Tec Regional HQ.
Doing some scavenging along the way, Benjamin got a Gas Mask and the rest of the party got some other items from a scavengers hovel.
Eventually some shouting was overheard and Tristan snuck ahead to see what was going on. Peering down a long street he spotted a raider encampment, in the middle of this encampment was a woman with a cat-o-nine-tails whipping a man whose tattered trenchcoat had seen better days and wore a chinese style metal hat and around his neck hung a gas mask. The group quickly came to the conclusion that this was Murray , the missing scavenger that perhaps could help them find the entrance to the Vault-Tec Regional HQ.
With great confidence, Tristan lined up on the distant form of the Gang Leader with his Rock-it launcher and loaded it with a cue-ball he had found earlier. With a whir and k-thunk the ball shot across the distance and crushed the skull of the gang-leader so hard that they eyeballs exploded from the skull. From here the players moved into combat with the raiders, exchanging bullets across the ruins, eventually Laura engaged some of the holed up survivors in a cafe (after luckily avoiding a bobby-trapped door). Where as Benjamin proceeded to defeat a cluster of foes in a Cornucopia Grocer. Beyck held the far flank, pinning down the raiders, as Tristan continued his killing spree on any foe who dared entered his sites.
Once the raider threat was dealt with and the bodies and building looted, Murray was released from his captivity inside a Pulowsky Preservation Shelter. Grateful for his rescue he said he would gladly lead the group to the entrance he used for reaching the Vault Tec Regional HQ. Murray explained that the first time he was there was about 18 years ago and found the building sealed, the entrances buried in rubble and the windows were sealed behind blast doors which he could not open. Then about 2 years ago he went with some hired hands to try to loot the building, this time working his way through the underground sewer system, but once he got them in the building, as he was deactivating the turret, the hired guns turned on him. Murray said he killed them both but was too wounded to continue, and just hasn't had the time or the desire to go back.
When asked about what was going on here, at the raider camp, he explained that the raiders have been getting more organized in how the control and patrol the area, and he was captured and his brahmin was slaughtered. Fortunately his reputation as a top end scavenger was well known and Miss Kitty wanted to know some of Murray top scavenging sites and so was torturing the information out of him for several days and he was lucky you came along as he had none to share with her.
So after a nights rest, the next day had an arduous trek through the more devastated parts of Southern Salt Lake City, until late afternoon Murray indicated they were close. Tristan snuck ahead and found over the manhole cover that Murray had lead them were two abnormally large humans in greyish-green skin with patchwork armor made of bits of hide and various pieces of metal. Armed with hunting rifles they were sitting around casually as their more abhorrent watch "dog" provided sentry duty. This watch-creature looked like a freakish compilation of several humans clumped together with 6 limbs (a mix of arms and feet) met in a flesh-toned body where a single human looking head with 3 tentacles (where it mouth should be) was mounted forward like some freakish devil from the tales of hell that the Overseer would espouse from time to time.
This sanity shaking moment encourage Tristan to first deal with the abomination with a garden gnome fired from his rock-it launcher and impacted the beast with such force that its body exploded all over the pavement. From here the group rained down a hail of lead as the large humans crossed the distance to engage in combat. But before too much harm could be dealt to the party, their concentrated firepower brought these mutants down. To which Murray explained this is as far as he would go, but thanked them for the pistol and knife and he claimed one of the two brahmin that were tied up, out of site.
After descending down the rusted ladder, avoiding the missing rungs the group found itself in dim light within a sewer tunnel. Its curved walls reached the ceiling above where dim emergency lights seemed to provide some illumination. Dry walkways flanked still waters that seemed unwholesome in appearance. The Pip-boys begin to tick-tick when they were held close to the water. To one direction the tunnel had collapsed in a pile of earth, concrete, and rebar. To the other the tunnel took a curve to the left. Just as the group was about to move out, they heard a lonely Yooop! Followed by a Gaaah! Clearly they are not alone down here.
Thus ended this evenings session.
GM Notes:
With 2 of the group missing and the rest getting a late start, we wrapped up at a good "stopping point" rather than getting half way through the sewers.
Need to remember to do interludes between scenes.
Need to remember to take pictures of battle fields after setup but before first initiative.
When designing foes, remember a 3d6 weapon is better than a 2d8+1 due to exploding dice mechanic, which raises the potential average of a d6 from 3.4 to 4.2, which makes a 3d6 weapon average 12.3 damage vs. a 2d8+1 which does an average of 11 points of damage. Which means if you want something to survive more than one turn it needs to have an adjusted toughness of 13+ (adjusting for AP1).