Post date: Sep 02, 2012 11:44:12 PM
8/3 Continued.
Exiting the B.A.C. to the smell of ozone in the air and damp earth, the remainder of the Knights return to their dorm room and find it in good, albeit dusty, condition.
8/4
The next morning, after breakfast at the cafeteria the group encounters both Marge and O'Dee. O'Dee was very excitable and asked them to stop by, while Marge slugged BW in the arm and told him in a whisper to stop by after they exchanged customary insults (You hit like Girl, You dress like one).
From here the group went to the Administration building where, after seeing the many defensive improvements, saw Red Hawk resting. They were interested in his story which he told them started that he was out in Junktown when word reached him of his father’s death due to a sudden illness by several braves from Grande Ronde.
As he rushed there with his escort of braves he was surprised to be ambushed by these very same braves. While he tried to fight back he was overcome. He was surprised they didn’t kill him but in the days that followed he learned that his brother, Bloodfeather wanted that honor and was responsible not only for the murder of his Father, but also years ago was responsible for the death of his oldest brother Dale Rockfist which caused the war with Tribe 7/Bay City/Tillamook.
Bloodfeather’s argument was Chief Rockfist had obviously grown weak in allowing the Corvallis dogs to move onto their lands and protect the sage Check’s temple to Smoke., when that should be the honor of the Braves.
But after more days passed and there was no sign of Bloodfeather two of the braves went to find out what’s going on, then more days passed, when the remaining braves were discussing what to do when one of their heads exploded, quickly followed by another. The rest scattered before being shot down by a hidden sniper.
Then a slaver, with a sniper rifle appeared from no-where, like a ghost. After the slaver looted the fallen, he explained to me that he was going to take me to their base and to sell me “up the river.” As we walked toward the ruins of Portland, we chatted, he never gave me his name, but he did learn who I was, and with that he completely turned us around and headed straight toward Corvallis to collect the reward, and since then I have been here, regaining my strength and anxiously awaiting an escort into Grande Ronde.
After this Ashley Formell appeared in the room, a bit surprised to see the Knights here, but while making the best of the situation did answer some questions. They learned from her that she has been acting as a diplomat between Corvallis and Grand Ronde, vs. relying on Tesla and Smoke communications. It was clear she was not comfortable with them being here, but not quite sure why.
From here they went and spoke with the Dean, finding him head down in a pile of paper and pip-boys. After he mistook them as Ashley arriving, they got down to brass tacks. Dean wanted them to help him with the situation in Grand Ronde. To which the Knights agreed but wanted something in exchange. Smoke.
Dean Caster paused, and explained he was still true to his vision of water for all. But someone broke into his house, kidnapped his children (Tran and Theresa), took his toys, burned down his kitchen (Dorm 0), killed his friends (those guards wounded in the fight with the 5 smaller vertibirds), and then left without leaving him any recourse. So he got an alarm system (Smoke) and will defend that, put up iron bars on his windows (towers, e-weapons, wires, etc.), and established a safe room (cleaning out Vault 35 and getting it restocked in case of an emergency). "What has happened in Grande Ronde is the fault of Bloodfeather. Using our presence to whip the Braves into a frenzy and make a power-grab he has long since been planning. Only through the presence of the Rangers did it not go as bad as it could have, but Bloodfeather knows the terrain and has most of the remaining braves in his camp. Those that remain are too old, too wounded, or too few to pursue him and I fear he is retrenching somewhere in their territory, I suspect the North East edge of their lands." Since the Band is still busy in the south securing the harvest of Thorn, perhaps the Knights could help him out.
While he has no control on moving Smoke, as that is tribal in nature, until the Enclave threat is ended, he just wants to make sure Smoke is safe and in doing so, so is the valley. And as a secret only a few know about (The Knights, Him, Check, and the Rangers), he intends to use that secrecy to keep things safe. But if the Knights can deal with the situation in Grande Ronde, he would be okay with the relocation assuming that Gotham has all the necessary resources - meaning Multiprocessors, power supply, late model holodisks (the 4 terrabyte models), and enough antennae to link where ever Gotham is to Smokes base because moving those radar arrays would not be a good idea.
To which Doc mentioned the antennae would not be a problem once Wizard was cleared up, to which Dean Caster agreed.
So with that the group removed themselves from the office and went their separate ways, except BW, whom the Dean wanted to talk to
The Dean offered BW a job, to help whip recruits into shape, but BW declined, for the time being, afterwards BW went to Marge, the rest to the labs. On the way, Grim brought the group up to speed on the situation with Martin the Ghoul and his sister Kathy and her belief that the Bounty-hunter that brought in Red Hawk was the same slaver that Jake told them about. His name was Edgar. But she wanted more information from the merchant that brought Kathy in, Tandy Moore.
So, B.W., upon meeting up with Marge and after a tussle, a sparring match, and a brutal interrogation, learned from Marge that half of the supplies in the armory have been moved and secured in Vault 35. That recruitment was up. And despite the Deans outlook of things, the security detail in Grand Ronde was a pretty dangerous job as both sides have suffered a good amount of casualties.
At the labs the group stopped by O'Dees first and found him and his latest assistant Harry, working on trying to get a Turret system to act as the weapons system for the Vertibird, with some success. ACE gave their situation some thought and helped them look toward new directions. While Wayne, Grim and Doc went looking for Tandy Moore, the pharmaceutical merchant. They found her leaving Dr. Preachers lab where Tandy made the mistake of making Grim very jealous about bragging about her "relationship" with Dr. Preacher. This lead to some antics and dire warnings, but when it was all said and done Tandy understood that Dr. Preacher was Grim's man and should any threaten that, death would follow.
The group spoke with Tandy about the Kathy situation, Tandy was on her way to Junktown and was a bit hesitant to talk about the ghouls, she was asked to invite a few from a “location not to be disclosed” to visit with Dr. Preacher in regards to his particular research on cellular regeneration or stabilization. But slight pressure revealed the location to be Vault 67. Explaining to Tandy they knew the location but not its situation, she explained it is a Ghoul run and ghoul friendly location. The names of the major players were Jay Young, a gun smith of some skill and a crafty trader. Mary Ellen Banks, who runs the inn and cafeteria, who serves people food from the replicators and likes outsiders, then there was Dr Potter Fields (ACE made the connection that it was the same doctor that taught Dr Talbot in Railyard - who in turn taught Dr. Howell - their one eyed one handed Doctor in Vault 33.) who a good man and probably the most knowledgeable Doctor in the region. Lastly there was the shady Richardson, who collects taxes and runs security in and outside the vault. The community is fearful of "smoothskins." But she suspects there is something else going on there.
From here the group, sans ACE who was going to visit Dr. Donald, went toward Dorm 0 to talk to Martin en route meeting up with BW. ACE, having stayed behind met up with Dr. Donald finding him very busy as he is trying to fill the shoes of Dr. Theresa. ACE inquired about the ghouls to which Dr. Donald did explain that Dr. Preacher did have a pair of ghouls came in for a physcial on Tandy Moores insistence and spent several days with Dr. Preacher . One day Dr. Preacher had Dr. Donald help perform rather invasive physicals of both Ghouls, a female ghoul from out of town and one with a deep voice. ACE immediately suspected Jim and thanked Dr. Donald before heading out the door.
At Dorm 0 the group first met two new merchants. 1. Rae Bouy ( Fem, 30's, blond, broken nose -from Tribe 6 - sells sea shells and dried fish and seaweed) - Tala Windsong - (Fem, 20's, Native American - from Grand Ronde - sees the writing on the wall and sells what Redhawk sold – cooking supplies (herbs & oils) and meat jerky). Rae recognized them from their efforts against the Fish Men and gave Grim a pretty sea-shell necklace with some boat-bits - she explained she got the boat bits from Tribe 7. They obtained jerky Tala and seaweed from Rae.
Afterwards they spoke with Martin and got verification for what Tandy told them about Vault 67 and explained that his sister was actually taken by a slaver named Edgar who was working in the region and may be in the region of Junktown, but instead of heading out right away, they needed to take care of some crucial business in Grand Ronde, that at most would take 4 days. In that time trying to find Edgar near junktown would be impossible, needle in the rubble, but perhaps could track down other slaver activity in the region and not only rescue Kathy but end the slavers once and for all. The only other bit they learned about Vault 67 was that its not just a home for sentient ghouls, but many feral ghouls, who were once sentient are kept in the wings, and while he calls Kathy his "sister" they are not blood related, but when it comes to ghouls, they tend to make familial relationships to keep themselves sane. But he adopted Kahty as his "sister" about 20 years ago when she arrived at Vault 67. The group agreed to have Martin stay at their room in exchange he cleans it up and sleep on a tarp and they will be back as quick as possible.
Upon exiting Dorm 0, the encountered ACE heading to B.A.C. and they follow along. Meeting with Jim they ask about Kathy, and Jim explains to them that indeed he agreed to participate with Dr. Preachers experiment though drew the line when they tried to examine his buttery voice. He did so more out of respect for the Knights than anything else, when ACE inquired if he believed that Kathy knew anything about the Nuka Cola plant, Jim said no a bit too quickly, but after more round about questioning the Knights concluded Jim suspected she might know something but it could be just his paranoia about the location (Their guess, and rightly so, was she made some comment about all his Nuka Cola caps - "Did you find the Nuka Cola factory?") When asked about Vault 67 he mentioned everyone already discussed but noted that Richardson could be a problem, there are times he had mentioned to Jim that mankind is doomed and that Ghouls were the next evolutionary step and the true inheritors of the wasteland, an opinion and belief that could get contagious in Vault 67.
Next BW and ACE went to visit the Sutherlin ranch while the others enjoyed some brahmin burgers and beers. En-route they encountered another rancher (Mike) and when asked for directions he asks if they were going to pay their respects. This triggered something of a reaction out of both of them and and inquired further. Mike explained that about three weeks ago their was a fire, apparently hot enough that only the parents could be identified. After giving directions ACE and BW went to the ranch. After some investigation and exhumation they came to the conclusion that it was not an accidental fire but that they had been shot and the house burned down, but the children were no where to be found and any evidence they were there was fabricated. Using their knowledge of guns they found the snipers overlook where distance, wind direction and speed had been carved into a fallen power pole, that and the symbol for Gotham crossed out.
Carving this out with his knife, BW took this "evidence" while ACE has sworn to take down Edgar at all costs and save those children (Playing the Enemy Card to boot). Hurrying back to the B.A.C. with this information they group discussed and realized that while it might seem urgent to track down Edgar - the slaver of Ghouls and children, he is going to be hard to find and probably not the highest priority (GM also chimed in here saying that finding Edgar on the move will prove to be impossible and perhaps very dangerous to those in his charge - best to snare him at Junktown or find the Slaver holding area).
8/5
The next day, the group gets Red Hawk first thing in the morning, "forgetting" to take Ashley (Probably for the best) and drove up to Grand Ronde, en route nothing that couldn't be avoided or run over was encountered.
Arriving at the Adobe Walls they find the place guarded by a mix of elderly, women, and a handful of Corvallis rangers. Presenting Red Hawk to the community brings everyone to high spirits and Check performs a shamanistic ritual to help them locate, and perhaps defeat, Blood Feather. In the end the ritual pointed to death and the smoke indicated the bad lands to the North East. Wasting no time they bundled back into the bus and made their way close to the region as possible.
8/6
Wayne's expert tracking was able to locate in the labyrinth of stone pillars and river washes the encampment of Bloodfeather and their braves. Instead of slaughtering them all, BW challenged Bloodfeather to a duel to the death. Accepting of this, the two were placed into a ring and fought with long knives in a blur of blood and steel.
So while BW was nearly impossible to hit (Parry 12) Bloodfeather was hard to wound. But in the end No Mercy came into effect and BW slew Bloodfeather. The remainder of the braves were intimidated into surrender and dropped their weapons at his feet. Searching Bloodfeather's pack BW found the headdress of Chief Rockfist, and after herding the defeated tribals back to Grand Ronde in the dark under the bright lights of the bus, presented it (and the defeated Braves) to Red Hawk.
8/7
The next day found the tale of BW's fight with Blood feather and earning the respect of all the braves as well as their mothers, wives, and sisters, the Gotham Knights were definitely Folk Heroes to Grand Ronde (Wayne Played the Adventure Card).
After a hearty breakfast the group took the Shaman Check to visit Smoke. Arriving and meeting with the rangers (led by Peter Wellington), they entered Smoke's domain and discussed a few things.
First, they discussed the latest activities of the Enclave. Using that information combined with radio telemetry that Grim was able to do in Coos Bay and some rough guesses about Vertibird performance they were able to place the Enclave base somewhere off the coast of Oregon west-ish of Tillamook bay.
Second, they talked about relocating Smoke to Gotham. Smoke agreed with their arguments of safety, but said to do so would require a lengthy list of items and activities.
1: 15 Multiprocessors (ensures its core functions can be retained)
2: 10 Late Model Holodisks (the 4 Terrabyte Models)
3: 4 Signal Repeaters (so as it can control the robots it will be sending along)
4: Proof that they have enough "power" for it
5: The Zax Unit itself
6: A chain of antennae to communicate with its current location
7: He would be able to continue to communicate with the Shaman of Grand Ronde for as long as he wished.
When asked about doing this they found an oddity in Smokes behavior when he said "When *skitch* asked I told him No" Further inquires pointed to a gap in Smokes memories and after pressing further found a few more oddities. That 3 Late model holodisks had been removed from Smokes Server room. That it was clear someone had been in here and was a very knowledgeable in programming and had tried to cover their tracks, but a few odd items were found. Some images taken from robots showed a man missing a nose wearing combat armor and quite geared up was here though smoke had no recollection of this visitor. Also the chess games played recorded showed scripts that mirrored the last game played, but no names were on file - those pointers linked to the missing 3 disks.
The Knights came to the conclusion that the man in the images may be none other than Jim.
With that they took the blind shaman back to Grand Ronde and went straight back to Corvallis (after Doc politely turned down the offer to wed one of the many eligible women here).
Moving through the B.A.C. they found Jim in his smoking jacket reading comics. Wayne and Doc went straight to the point about Smoke and what they suspect. Jim, held up his hands and was surprised they knew about Smoke. He explained that he had no idea that they were working with Smoke and that the information about the various flight alerts that Corey was broadcasting was coming from Tesla.
Jim confessed, after seeing the photo, that 70 years ago, when he came down with what he thought was the "wasting disease" he went on a quest for cure that led him all over the region. One spot was Mt Hebo and Smoke. Jim acknowledge that long ago he was a programmer for Virtual Strategic Solutions as a programmer by day, and by night he was a store clerk. And is very skilled at the art of programming, the reason he took his information was because what he did to Smoke was create a duplicate more obedient, but less moral, personality in Smoke and did not want to risk leaving any of that programming behind which could cause Smoke to critically fail. What he learned from Smoke was where the missiles went, was there a cure to his disease, and other elements of life 70 years ago. It was really his last stop before coming to the region of Corvallis and semi-settling down.
Pressing him further about other items of note he said he did visit one of the vaults that were in the region like Vault 67, which he says has an interesting story that is best learned there, he was mainly interested in visiting any surviving military sites. there were a few he never went to, like the supposed anti-submarine base up a the mouth of the Columbia river, nor the wreckage of the naval base in downtown Portland where they staged troops for the Chinese front. Jim did find mention of a variety of odd projects like Wilderville internment camp under the aspect of General Atomics, the secret fuel supply at Coos Bay under the aspects of Poseidon Oil, and a project known as Project Phoenix which supposedly has an anti-satellite missile somewhere in the valley, but that trail dead-ended in the crater of Salem. He was sure there was some other oddities, but it has been so long ago.
When pressed about other places he traveled he was evasive, and when pressed particularly hard by ACE about the Nuka Cola plant she evoked a strong response from him. He flat out told them to stay away from that crypt, too many have died there and he does not want them to go to that cursed location, no matter what they hear, whether it be eternal wealth, eternal use, lakes of Nuka Cola or the supposed personality chip they had developed for Protectrons, there is nothing there worth dying for.
Unfortunately, all of this went into the filter that is ACE's mind and she was now more than ever determined to go there, she just needed to find the children and/or Kathy and see if they could guide her there.
8/8
After a good rest in their clean dorm, they assured Martin that they would search for Kathy and take him home to Vault 67, but had one more critical thing to do.
So back into the Doom Bus the group drove around the southside of Salem drawing some small arms fire from Raiders who have been forced to move north from Eugene as the regime change from Shadowman to Coal has taken hold. Arriving on the far side they began to approach Vault 38.
As they drew closer Wayne noted a strong oddity, that nearly a mile out the normal wasteland debris - the tufts of grass, the various wrecks of cars, fallen power lines, etc. It was all gone. All they saw was rocks, dirt, and road. Arriving at the entrance of the Vault they found a large and surprisingly empty parking lot mostly lost under shifting sands and a concrete platform was raised where they would have expected some sort of guard shack, but nothing there.
Doc grew nervous and they pulled the bus outside of this strange zone and concealed it off the side of the road.
Heading back in to the zone, some swore that the rocks had been moved, that or the road had shifted, but even after leaving the road and abusing some rocks, they were no clearer to the mystery of this region.
Arriving once again to the empty parking lot before the entrance to the vault they checked their weapons and moved down the tunnel arriving at the large gear-like door of Vault 38. The control panel seemed to be functional, and ACE pulled up the access code they had obtained from Vault-Tec along with the rest of the information - reminding them all what they knew.
Vault 38:
POP: 500
Dur: 80 years
Computer: Brain Power 7
Power: Rock Solid Brand Geo Thermal
Backup Power: General Atomic Nuclear Power, Veriscope Fusion Power, Therma-Lite Geo Thermal, and Quickstart Generator
Location: Just Southeast of Salem
Project Overview: Backup Power Testing.
Special Equipment:
G.E.C.K. <Approved WM->
100 CleanAir Filters size 34x34 <Adjusted - 34x34 filters are unavailable at this time, substituted 24x24, should be adequate to handle most filtration needs>
<Shipping Note: As this requisition came late, please make sure the delivery personal have the access code for the facility 698#7142*033#5>
With that flashing light above the door came to life and a soft klaxon sound was heard, the door was pulled back and began to roll to the left when it suddenly stopped, leaving only a small opening. Wayne looked into the dim lighting with his flashlight and saw the typical vault entrance but upon closer examination saw many oddities - like the safety railing was gone, that many of the roof panels had been removed and wires and pipes hung down into the room, creating sparks occasionally.
Grim, being small, was the only one who could slip through without getting rid of her entire kit and stepped forth entering the dimly lit entrance room her eyes scanning the darkness, and all she could hear was the skittering sound of metal on metal vanishing ahead the dark.
<scene>
Reminders
Give 2 XP
Give 2 Fame (Radio announcments from Corey and Ella)
8/15 Harvest Festival
8/17 is next Admin Date