Post date: Mar 20, 2012 7:36:49 PM
6/23
With the mid morning sun baking the parched hills the group returns to the valley of thorn, road weary and ready for a good rest. But as the saying goes, Ain't no rest for the wicket.
The first sign that things were off was the fact that the northern sentry point, that had been earlier manned by members of the Band was unmanned. Using the monocular showed though that things seemed normal in the fields with slaves working away under the careful eye of sniper sentries.
Moving further into town the wind carried to them the smell of cooking smoke, but not as nearly greasy as before.
When at last a small crowd was sighted outside the Dots Diner/now Stable. Moving closer the Knights spotted the Green topped helm of Combat Armor in the midst of the crowd and the voices seemed fairly excited.
Plowing forward the group was rewarded with the sight of Corvallis rangers, and one in particular they knew. J.R., the ranger they rescued from the deep ones.
Inquiring to what the news was, J.R. explained that they were able to now patrol the road from Corvallis to Thorne, now with the situation up north of Corvallis simmering down to a civil war in Grande Ronde when the chief mysteriously died. Prying further it appears the chief died while out on his walk, and now a group led by the Shaman, Check, is holding firm vs. the oldest son of Chief Rockfist while the search is on for Red Hawk, the younger and less legitimate son of the Chief, also known to the players as the merchant of oils and natural herbs that the ladies all seem to fall for.
When asked of the path, J.R. Said it was pretty clear going, the raiders who are not lining up under Lord Coal and Lady Ice are heading north toward the ruins of Salem and if they are tough enough Portland, and completely avoiding Railyard.
While this was going on, ACE inquired from a lady in the crowd about the abandoned sentry post, she explained that things have gotten bad between Thorn and The Band since Titan's right hand man, Benji assaulted the Doc. If it were not for the fortunately timed appearance of Keri he would have been killed. Which then brought to ACEs mind that it was odd that Keri was not in here in the crowd interviewing/interrogating the Rangers, which worried her even more. She asked and after a bit of hesitation the lady explained that today was the anniversary of Keri's sisters death, that Allison had died 10 years ago.
Wayne asked about the church and was surprised to hear that they had left town. Apparently the two disciples took a bunch of Tribals on a Pilgrimage of Peace to the south a few days ago and then the Widow Bonnie and the Tribal Chief, Knives with Eyes, became new acolytes. As such Bonnie has converted her Brahmin Ranch as a commune to the Children of the Cathedral and so the group moved out West where her ranch is.
Meanwhile a Thorn Child pulled at Wayne's sleeve. "Hey Mister," he said in a voice barely above a whisper "since the Tribals moved out, I was curious how long does a Yao Guai sleep? It's been awfully still for a couple days."
To which Wayne quickly thanked the child and dashed off to check on his pet. There he found the cub still as a stone laying upon the dirt outside their room. Using the glass of his monocular he determined that it still lived but barely. Dashing back he grabbed Doc and brought him to the cub insisting on his immediate attention to the care of the cub. Doc determined the Yao Guai cub had been poisoned much like the super mutant Barry had been, but had then been left to die a slow horrible death of dehydration. Doc setup an I.V. drip while Wayne sought out Luke for assistance in the care of the cub.
While BW and Grim went to see what was up with The Band.
But as ACE opened the door to their room, she found the door somewhat blocked, after a bit of heaving she was met with the most horrible visage possible, at least for her, as the door was blocked by the torso of Nukey and scattered about the room were all the various parts of the robot. Scratched into the paint job was the word DIE. And someone had taken the time to arrange the wires and such across the bed to also say DIE and a scalpel was planted in the pillow.
To quote the party "Someone is going to great length to f*ck with us"
Now with so many moving targets the group realized they needed to focus on things in Thorn for a bit before rushing off to slaughter some Super Mutants.
Starting with the Yao Guai Cub, Wayne was able to find Luke and Cheryl in the bar, where Luke was glad to give care (and promised not to skin the animal), in exchange of the promise that the players will attend their wedding and be as guests of honor. Luke seems to have a shortage of Groomsmen to match up to the numerous bridesmaids that Cheryl wants to invite. Doc was worried for a brief moment, but was assured no slaves would be in the wedding party.
Next to Nukey, ACE was able to determine that whoever did this did so with some knowledge of robots, but not enough to completely wreck things, still Nukey was missing about 10% of his many parts including his voice modulator and Fission Battery. Wayne determined that whoever it was wearing size 10.5 leather moccasins and was super sneaky as he entered through the window and ACE determined that then he clicked the Combat Inhibitor on the back of Nukey and disabled the robot before disassembling it. BW then took ACE to the bar so as to get her some whiskey and nuka to calm her wrath.
Here BW came up with the great insight that a psychopath tends to try to make the world more like him, and since each of these actions has shown signs of silencing the victim, that they began to suspect the now gone Acolyte Conner, who never said a word to them while they bothered the Children of the Cathedral.
Afterwards, the group went to see Mayor Jennings, as this was their first visit to her home they were a bit surprised to find the door, when knocked rang of metal instead of wood, and after the sounds of many deadbolts being withdrawn gained entrance to a long hallway that eventually lead past the paintings of the previous mayors, to her kitchen where she offered them Lemonade as they saw the drop plates lining the wall they just walked down which would have given anyone an opportunity to slaughter any in the hall they just walked through.
The group pressed to learn what was going on between Thorne and the Band. The Mayor explained what she knew, that two days ago Benji, Titans right hand, assaulted Doc Hardy in his house and if it were not for the fortunate arrival of Keri, Doc would have been mortally wounded. The punishment for assaulting a member of the council is a minimum two years of slavery. This is not sitting well with The Band and as such they are sitting on their hands and not patrolling, but they have not packed up either. Doc asked for, and received, permission to look into this matter further as he believes something else is afoot and to speak with Benji, who the Mayor explained was currently in a temporary holding cell in the Warehouse's upper floor.
After completing their Lemonade, and finding that their inquiry as to where it came from being artfully blocked, the group went to visit Titan at The Band's HQ on the south side of Town. Finding Titan sitting at his desk with a mound of paperwork, he greeted the Knights with professional coolness. Getting his side of the story, Titan explained that Benji was heading to Doc Hardy to check in on a couple of their members who had collapsed of heat exhaustion while on patrol in their new Metal Armor. When, according to those present he got in a shouting match with Doc Hardy and then things got violent, it is not clear who threw the first punch, but in the end the reporter lady happened to be there and disabled Benji. When Titan spoke with Benji he got only confirmation that he did attack the Doctor, but would not admit to anything else as he hung his head in shame.
Since then he has kept his men back from their duties of patrolling the town, not wanting to incite the townsfolk or his men and create any further incidents, and to avoid additional violence. And he is not packing up because he is a man of his word, even if the mayor is not, the contract is until the threat is resolved, and they have plenty of supplies especially since the widow Bonnie brought them some tribal cured meats that would see them through to the end of the Harvest season in a couple months. But had not planned on using them until that time as it would be essential to have plenty of protein during the months of greatest risk of invasion, assuming the Knights assessments were right.
This set up some red flags and the group inquired further, with some investigation of the meat they found that it had been cured, but not just with smoke, but also with Abraxo Cleaner, which in this dosage, while hard to spot would cause severe diarrhea. When they asked Titan about the men who were in the care of Doc Hardy and asked if they had tested the meat, Titan did confirm that they were in fact part of the test group to make sure the meat was not rancid.
Suddenly the Widow Bonnie was moving up in everyone's hit list. Next stop was a trip to see Doc Hardy, in doing so they passed by and quickly checked that the shack used previously by the Children of the Cathedral was indeed empty stripped bare and the tribal/refugee camp behind it was gone save the debris of fifty people laying around.
Again a metal door to the residence greeted them, but it was wider and instead of stairs up, a ramp lead to the front door. The door had a sign saying "open." Opening the door caused a small bell above to ring as they entered what was clearly a surgical area where gurneys rested against both walls behind partially pulled curtains. A few moments later Doc Hardy entered the room.
Doctor Waterhouse, explaining he was a top physician, was able to reason with Doc Hardy for a quick checkup. This enabled them to see the vast number of tattoos, including where he killed a shark with his bare hands when he grew up in Coos Bay. He explained to the excitement of Grim that Coos Bay has lots of boats as the whole village floats in the middle of the bay.
Doc was able to determine that Doc Hardy was fine, and worked at getting his side of the Story. Initially it seemed to line up with what they had been told for a while, but ACE determined that he was holding something back as his frequent voice clearing increased when asked about why Benji was there. Promising to make things right they get the scoop from Doc Hardy. That when the Band arrived a while ago and the town became under siege Benji approached him for Mentats, after a while the Mentats he had ran out and so he hired the Tribals to get him a substitute that while did not have all the same positive effects as Mentats as it simulated the feelings of it so it would cause the user to avoid withdrawal symptoms. But even that rare herb became scarce and not wanting to be regulated by Doc Hardy, Benji started going to the Tribals directly.
That’s when two days ago, when Benji came into the office, he was checking on the men here, but once in the back room got increasingly belligerent and demanded to know where the secret stash was and things got violent as Benji attacked the doctor, after jabbing him in the throat and kicked out his knee he grabbed a scalpel and while they struggled Kerri arrived and bashed a chair into Benji repeatedly enough to render him unconscious. From here, Keri applied Stimpaks to Doctor Hardy and Hardy treated Benji.
Now Doc Hardy feels terribly guilty for providing Benji the Mentats, but he saw that Titan was heavily dependant on Benji and could not jeopardize the towns defense by denying him the few he had. Then when the Mentats ran out and the herbs could no longer be found, he knew things were going to go from bad to worse, but Benji made it clear if Doc Hardy interfered that he would be ousted for providing drugs to Benji and the Mayor would certainly be less than pleased.
Promising discretion the group left Doc Hardy and went to the Warehouse, winding their way through the fenced enclosure and ignoring the wares of the merchants they went upstairs and passed through the now still medical room before heading into Keri's radio station, the music was loud coming through the door and as they entered they saw Keri sitting with her back to them, holding something in her hands as her shoulders shook and heaved as it was clear she was crying quietly. As the cool air entered the room, Keri sensed their arrival and quickly folded the paper in her hand and placed it in the desk and waved them past. Sensing her loss, ACE walked over and place her hand on her shoulder as the rest of the group proceeded to the Warehouse Barracks room to speak with Benji.
ACE sat with Keri for a while as Keri collected herself, Keri told ACE about Alison of how her older sister was the smart one and the one who put most of this radio station together before suffering a tragic accident. Keri apologized to ACE for the probably over-intense attention she has been giving ACE but she reminds Keri so much of her sister. ACE then told Keri about the Corvallis Rangers, and suggested they go and talk with them before they head out of town tomorrow.
Still in kind of a funk, Keri suggested they take the tunnels, to which ACE readily agreed.
Returning to the main floor, Keri walked to the back side of the water filtration unit, drawing concerned stares from the guards, to which ACE calmly waved to them, assuring them all was alright. Then with a twist of a pressure gauge, Keri revealed a ladder down beneath the warehouse. Following along ACE found themselves in wide underground tunnels. Keri smiled sadly, "Welcome to the Emergency Access Tunnel System, or as we call it the “EATS” with that they walked in silence past many iron bound doors beneath the town around the base of the Warehouse, occasionally ACE would spot one of these doors open and see inside family sized bomb shelter, where a family of four could easily live through the opening years of the apocalypse before arriving at a ladder back up, at the base are a series of lockers with faded labels for guns and armor. Ascending they arrived in the coat closet of Cheryl's bedroom at the Rosebud. Entering the bar, ACE handled introductions between the Rangers and Keri who then proceeded to slowly come to life as her passion for knowledge took ahold as she quizzed J.R. to no end.
Meanwhile, back at the warehouse, Doc, Grim, Wayne and BW met with a most morose guard who provided them tin-snips so they could get into the makeshift bedframe cell for Benji, and then he left to hang out in Keri's radio station, while the Knight's "did their thing."
Speaking with Benji, clearly showed that Benji was in the advance stages of a Mentat Burnout Withdrawal. Doc had only read of such things, but to see it first hand was sobering, Benji was hemorrhaging data and each piece that came out of his mouth was another synapse crisping in his brain, at this rate, Benji would be lucky to remember his own birthday let alone anything else.
Doc, hoping to have a semi-reasonable conversation gave Benji a dose of Mentats. And got an attentive Benji in return for his efforts, but still could not stop the random facts from entering the conversation. In asking what happened, Benji could only recall going to check on the dehydrated men, en route he stopped at the Tribals as they were busy packing up and picked up some herbs to calm his addiction before heading to the doctor. He could not recall the name of the Tribal who gave it to him, but he had tattoos of knives under his eyes. He came to the doctor and then just remember getting really upset and then striking the doctor and then grabbed a knife and then the next thing he remember was screaming sound and blood, lots of it, everywhere and then it all going black. Doc kept pressing to learn more about what he had been getting from the Tribals, Benji said he was trading this and that for the drugs he needed, when suddenly Benji locked into a sense of steely calm and rattled off the following when asked what he was trading:
Locations of all landmines, 48 round of .408 ammo, 120 rounds of 10mm ammo, 50 round of shotgun ammo, 3 stimpaks. Plus or minus 5%.
This really set the Knights minds racing, for when Benji returned to the present, he could not recall anything that he just said. Doc took a blood sample of Benji and let him know that things are not going to get better for Benji, he has been unfortunate in his choices and the consequences are about to catch up with him. Benji nodded, clearly seeing that there would be little to hope for as he realized his own mind is slipping away.
Doc, Grim, Wayne, and BW then went to Doc Hardy's hoping that he could somehow tell them if there was anything in the blood that could explain the sudden rage of Benji, for Mentats withdrawal which can cause moodiness and a desperate junkie could certainly go off the deep end, the rage that Benji exhibited was more than just anything that Doc would expect.
They found Hardy tending a scrapped up slave who had fallen from a tree. So while Wayne and BW discovered Encyclopedia Atomica Vol 7, and read it to patient while Grim kept a watch out the door to deter any interruptions. Doc met privately with Hardy who swore Doc to secrecy and after opening a medical closet revealed a secret ladder down. This lead them to the same tunnels that ACE had just transversed though to a very modern looking infirmary, where Doc was very surprised to find an AutoDoc on standby. "This is Annie," Hardy said introducing the Machine "Annie, please come online." The device whirred to life with long spidery arms of metal, a female voice then spoke "Automated Nursing Assistant now online, how can I help you Doctor... Hardy." With the last word being in an odd male voice that Doc did not recognize.
"I wish I knew how to use this thing fully, but it’s what I inherited, but it is only used during the most dire of circumstances." Bemoaned Hardy.
Doc placed the blood sample and with a few adjustments Annie did its thing. While it was doing the analysis, Doc scanned through the medical procedure history of the device, and as Hardy said only used in the most dire circumstances and only for certain family names. He scanned back 10 years and sure enough found an entry for Alison Southerlin who was declared DOA due to surface burns and neural synaptic destruction. Which lead him to conclude a massive voltage fried her like bacon.
The machine spit out a list of chemical names found in Benjis blood and down the list, but not completely out of the blood stream was evidence of the combat Drug Psycho, when Doc explained to Hardy what it was, Doc said that there are herbal equivalents that can be burned as incense or used as a chew, though extensive use would cause bleeding gums.
Doc asked Hardy to show up at Benji's cell this evening, along with this print out and an explanation of what it was there. In exchange Doc gave Hardy enough Mentats to refill his now empty supply so as to make sure his inventory appeared full, should there be an audit. Hardy was pleased that should this all go well, he promised to provide Grim the tattoo she wants for free, the Encyclopedia Atomica Vol 7 that Wayne was salivating over, and just perhaps back their plans for some of the slaves. Yes, he knows of their real purpose here, but is not alarmed; he knows they are doing good here in Thorn.
Next stop was to get ACE and head over to The Band. Here they spoke with Titan, and had him send one of his lackeys to double check ammo counts between Benji's books and what they had. As well as send someone to go double check the landmines they had placed. During this time Doc made a convincing plea with Titan that he needed to come and meet with them this evening up at Benji's cell, and when the miscounts were revealed, Titan agreed to come as long as the mystery is solved and he can deal with the perp responsible on his own terms. Doc only asked him to wait to act until all options are explored.
Next was to get the Mayor to join them for this confab, to which she agreed and met them at the enterance to the Warehouse dressed in a finely tailored business suit. As the group entered and found the various shops closing for the night, ACE spotted a whole tray of Robot parts being put away by Rainer, the owner of the "odds and ends" shop. Separating from the group she dashed over "Where did you get those?!" she pointed at the tray of parts, spotting nearly every missing part in the tray, minus the Voice Modulator. "Um, Widow Bonnie sold them to me along with a bunch of other junk she found in the tribal camp when they moved out. But I am closing shop now, so I am sorry they are not for sale." Giving him 10 caps she made him promise not to sell them to anyone until after tomorrow morning, and wanted him to come upstairs to a conversation that was going to be happening. He agreed to do so once he had closed up shop.
Meanwhile upstairs Doc, Wayne, Grim, and BW made their case to the Mayor and Titan. Basically the truth of the matter was Benji was a Mentat addict and when his supply ran out due to the siege he turned to the Tribals for an herbal equivalent, to pay for that he began diverting supplies and intel to them for his fix. On the day he came to Doc Hardy they switched his regular herb to one that created rage as a herbal equivalent to Psycho, to which Hardy backed them up. Showing the print out from the Autodoc. Doc then further elaborated what he felt was a plot by the Children of the Cathedral to cause mayhem. First he pointed out the diuretic cured meat in The Band's stores. To which point ACE arrived with Rainer and added the Robot "murder" and Wayne provided the information about his Yao Gaui cub. It is beginning to point the Children do not have the best interests of Thorn in mind.
Both the Mayor and Titan made the same connections and saw that this was an act to drive a wedge between them and to weaken them when the Super Mutants strike at the end of Harvest season, which starts in August and ends in about two months time. So graciously the Mayor apologized to Titan, for it was clear that the Children had fooled more than just Benji. Titan accepted and the two, along with the Knights began to decide Benji's fate. In the end he would serve as a slave for a short time before a failed "escape" attempt would find him killed, this would then give the grounds for The Band to resume beefed up patrols to keep things quelled. Benji was popular with The Band so it will be hard for them to take, but the rumor mill will get the facts out there soon enough in his group and they don’t have anything to do with the Children anyway.
After all was said and done, BW got the Bulls to join him and the Rangers at the Rosebud to share some beers while ACE worked until she grew too tired to think straigt getting Nukie reassembled. As Grim, Wayne, and Doc kept watch. For they had an enemy, and its name was the Children of the Cathedral- their mastermind Dow, their weapon Conner, and their dupes Bonnie.
6/24
Come early morning, ACE was the first into the warehouse and purchased the various parts from Rainer for 20 additional caps and was back to reassembling Nukey with a fervor and in three hours Nukey was operational, except was unable to talk as the Voice Modulator was still missing. Still through a PipBoy interface they discovered that Nukey had no recollection of being disable, but his clock was off by 24 hours. This caused ACE to do a deep diagnostics check and found that someone had added an additional instruction chip to one of the boards she had repurchased from Rainer. It's instructions were simply to have Nukey go in to a free-fire mode if three parameters were met, someone dressed in purple said the word "unity" but the last part was encrypted and that ACE could not decipher. With a bit of jury-rigging she got it to change to alpha-strike the person who triggered the subroutine.
After this the group got going toward the south, seeking to pick up the trail of the two Pilgrimages of Peace, but saying they were heading in a different direction down what was once Route 42 to open the path to Coos Bay, but in reality heading straight to where scouts had spotted an encampment at Myrtle Creek.
After diverting down the 42 initially they reached the crossroads that would take them back to the 5 and Myrtle Creek. Checking tracks they discovered what Doc had predicted would happen is in progress, that the enemy would fall back to create camps of greater numbers as there were signs that 8 super mutants just recently travelled southward toward Myrtle Creek.
Arriving as they did to the ruins of what was once Myrtle Creek they find signs of Super Mutant habitation, but none present. Careful recon in the fading sunlight determined the camp was indeed abandoned though they left behind a few nasty surprises in the form of old bear traps that were spotted and disarmed and then repositions and rearmed.
Checking for tracks showed that indeed several large groups of humans came through here and left, though there was evidence indicating one human was shot due to the angle of blood spray. Each group of humans stayed one night before heading out, the super mutants followed along shortly thereafter, though it did look like some went with the humans as well, but more as guards than escorts.
With it getting late the group rested here and planned their next move as the evening passed uneventfully (the group is beginning to suspect the Super Mutants have been eating their way through the local fauna and as such not much is along the paths they travel.)
6/25
The next day took them further south into the steep and rocky paths of the great roadway that was the I-5, moving toward their next goal of Canyon Creek. About 2/3rs of the way to their destination they encountered a most odd marker in the middle of the road, a Stop Sign, A Pedestrian Crossing Sign, and a Right Curve ahead sign. Looking around, Wayne using his expert tracking skill determined that for the most part everyone and everything veered right, the exception was five human sized prints, including one belonging to the owner of a pair of size 10.5 moccasins.
After a quick conversation the group decided to stick together to hunt down the psychopath Conner, hoping that whatever path to the right would eventually rejoin the main road at some point (GM informs players it does and not to worry)
Progressing further down the road they encounter yet another oddity, a 55mph sign in the middle of the road. About another 100 yards they encounter another, this time 45mph. Suspecting these signs serve a strange purpose scopes are pulled and the road ahead is scouted. It is at this point they notice upon the ridge ahead a fortress made of the much wrecked cards rising up from the choke point of the pass.
Moving off into the shadows of the ravine the group moves closer for inspection, getting close enough to get a clear line upon the edifice of wreckage. Grim meanwhile scaled the opposite side and approached with stealth. They spotted more signs, 35mpg, then 25mph, each about 150 yards apart. Then about 150 yards out was yet another strange pair of signs, a Yield Sign and another Pedestrian crossing sign with a white flag tied to it.
What they could initially see was a Super Mutant walking a patrol out front, but closer inspection showed that this particular mutant was deformed, a human size limb hung at its side, thus giving it a strange appearance of a baby arm. Another was barely visible behind the wall. Occasionally the two would stand and chat and what would pass for laughter would occasionally be heard.
Eventually the one out front went inside heaving aside the top portion of a semi- trailer to allow access to a cunning murder-hole before disappearing inside.
Silent as the shadows Grim crept closer to gauge the forces behind the wall of cars and spotted several camping slipstream style trailers behind, the typical fire circle, and about another half dozen supermutants milling around. Toward the cliffside closest to them was a pile of barrels while just beyond the fire circle a throne made of a semi-trucks seat sat next to a pile of various objects that glittered in the fire light. Creeping closer still Grim could catch the conversations as the apparent leader of pack came out, calling for all to give attendance to the King. This super mutant had massive arms, and legs that appeared to be more for balance than walking as the form moved with the gait of a gorilla. Perched upon his head was a massive Top Hat, the kind old fashioned folks would wear, but so large it had to come from a magic supply store or some comedy shop. He came out to the greetings of King Seamus, and he plopped himself into the throne and proceeded to regal the motley assortment of Supermutants with jokes.
"What do you get when you cross the master with a raccoon? A bigger master. What do you get when you cross the master with a raider? A bigger Master. What do you get when you cross the master with a super mutant? The biggest Master. What do you get when you cross the master with a vault dweller? A dead Master." Laughter pealed out from the camp.
"Why did the chicken cross the road? I have no idea, what's a chicken."
"Why did the gecko cross the road? It didn’t make it across it stopped to sun itself."
"Why did the scorpion cross the road? To eat the gecko!" Hahahahaha.
This behavior confused the Knights who pondered what to do next, while Grim kept a silent vigil until most of the mutants slept except for their sentries.
6/26
With the glow of dawn rising over the mountains from the east the Knights had Grim return to her shadowy perch as ACE, Wayne, and Doc approached, while BW stayed back to provide covering fire should something go amiss.
Sidling up the road they reached the white flag and waved it, causing the sentry on duty to call out "Wait der!" after some commotion that Grim witnessed them getting Seamus out of his trailer and conversing as to what to do, the sentry called out "Come on up, but leave yer weaponz in der holsters!"
As they neared the wall of wrecked cars Doc waved BW forward to join them, explaining to the sentry he was protecting them in case something went wrong.
Once inside and past the murder hole they found Seamus sitting upon his throne, trying to strike an intelligent pose while the rest of the super mutants watched with curious expressions and anticipation of something.
"Welcome to the fortress of King Seamus!" Shouted one of them. "Make your offerings to his greatness." First was BW who offered Seamus a beer, who gladly accepted the beverage. Next ACE offered to fix the broken pip boy in the pile and make the radio work, but in exchange for the item she saw nearly at the top of the pile of glittering loot, the missing voice modulator from nukey. Lastly Doc pays for the rest of the party and for their return trip with a gold necklace. It becomes clear that by collecting tolls is how Seamus shows his strength to his followers.
Looking over the group they spot a bandaged one from head to toe, with only one eye visible who is called "Patches", but was a hero amongst the super mutants for taking on 10 Brotherhood of steel and winning despite the fact they all had heavy flamers.
The one with the unchanged arm is called "Quasit" and handles their "small hands tasks."
Once tolls and names were exchanged an few hours of conversation and the players learn quite a lot from Seamus.
1) The Master is dead and three armies scattered under the might of the Brotherhood of Steel and the unified forces of California
2) The Brotherhood of Steel is a group of men in tin-cans with big guns. There is a group of them up in the mountains which has caused the General much concern as he camps in Medford deciding his next move.
3) Seamus does not like the General, who is almost as much machine as mutant.
4) Seamus is here because he is smart, and takes care of those that the Dip doesn’t take to or those too damaged in the war, but keep on living. Basically he is in charge of the Misfits and troublemakers.
5) Seamus explains he would not continue north if he was in charge, but instead head east, toward Vegas, or south east to Redding where there is rumored to be a place of peace for super mutants, ghouls and humans.
6) If those above him in the chain of command were removed he could change the army's path.
7) Psycho in Grants Pass,
8) The Behemoth in Wilderville is loyal only to the General, him and Hatchet his handler.
9) The General is probably still inn Medford.
10) General has deathclaws for his arena, ever since he caught a couple for his enjoyment.
11) General has a supply of Dip to make more mutants.
12) Explained that he was a Water Merchant before getting captured by Master forces, had planned to escape, but ran out of time and was dipped, and while he remained smart his body did not evolve as others had, still the master saw his worth as someone who could handle the books and was "tied to the General's wagon" to help with the effort to the north.
13) Knows that the reason the dip works on some and not others is due to the exposure to the wastes. So vault dwellers make the best mutants - smart AND strong, while those who are multi-generational wastelanders make the worst. And not everyone survives the transformation, so despite his less than "perfect change" he considers himself lucky.
14) Know the Master is dead, the chosen one, or Vault Dweller entered his lair at the Cathedral and there was a massive explosion and the master was no more. Same for the place that they dipped people to make more mutants, it is long gone as well thanks to the same hero of the wastes.
After that the Master's 3 generals were in a disarray and a small force went south, the largest force went east and then a medium group lead by the General has come north.
15) Steve Dow is one of the Generals most trusted agents who proceed their forces recruiting and preparing front line caches.
16) Seamus hates Conner, the silent prick assumes he can boss Supers around.
17) Conner came here and paid the toll, told the tribals with him this is what happens if you lack faith in the Master, and told us to expect you and to kill you as you are responsible for killing so many other Super Mutants. So much venom in that request that I thought I would want to meet you first.
18) Noticed a worn copy of Encyclopedia Atomica: Vol 8 and traded for it.
With this the knights were invited to stay for lunch but they politely declined explaining they needed to catch up with some people and pressed on.
Finding where the path remerged with the road they discovered that the human tracks had passed through already, but the super mutants had not. Seeing an opportunity, the Knights deployed their land mines in an effort to slow down the Super Mutants and perhaps eliminate the threat from their rear.
By late afternoon they arrived at Grants Pass, the home of the one known as Psycho and rumored location of a prewar armory. The area was chock full of debris as the knights had observed many drag marks of large objects (cars, trucks, etc.) being hauled to the area around the multi-story structure that the group figured was the old armory.
Thus ended the evening:
+3XP (1 for showing up, 1 for moving key story point forward, 1 for good table RP)