Post date: Dec 02, 2012 10:29:1 PM
8/22 - Cont.
"With the wind whipping past your face as Dash's boat cuts a mean wake through the polluted water of the Willamette river as you coast by ruins of the once great city of Portland. In the distance you spot your first of several bridges you must deal with to get to your destination of the Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital. Dash, pulls back on the throttle, giving you a chance to look at the bridge from here.
Someone has turned the cars on their side creating a make-shift fort of wrecked cars and the end of the bridge hang precariously over the water.
It is noted that there is, in the center section of the river, is a section of chain link fence where four stop signs indicate that you should stop there. At first you have no idea why until you catch a glint of some "things" hanging from the bridge itself. Scores of chains with hooks and barbs hang all around the bridge, to entangle and ensnare toll-runners. And looking past the shadows with shafts of light you see that the other side of the bridge is the same situation.
You see only one individual at this point, sitting on the edge of the bridge tossing rocks into the water; he has not seen you, yet.
"No way around," says Dash, "too risky with all the bridge debris. So you wanna pay or play?" He says with a grin and a gleam in his eye.
To which the group approached the Bridge ready for battle, when one raider with an amplified voice called out "Pay the toll or Pay with your lives."
A smirk crossed BW's and Grims face. And the battle began.
Doc and Wayne quickly made it apparent that any Raider that would dare poke its head out would get it shot off, and despite their cover and the unstable platform they fought from, they make quick of the raiders with Hunting Rifles.
Moving closer the raiders dropped off heavy counter weight to raise the gate, perhaps to lure them into the murder holes that Grim had spotted, but not falling for the trap, BW had Dash bring them as close as possible as quick as possible, he then leaped into the polluted river and swam to the gate that had not been raised. As they pushed the weight off it raised BW to the top and he leaped off like a swashbuckler of death and devastation. Despite being hit by 4 fragmentation grenades he laughed off the damage and butchered the foes with Grim arriving shortly thereafter after she scaled the counterweight chain. Several raiders fled in which those on the boat put a few to death. The destroyed as much as they could of the car fort and tossed the heavy chains into the river. Claiming Hunting rifles and several grenades for their efforts.
From here Dash cut down the river staying well away from the wrecks of the boats and the crumbling ruins of the city to take them down to the last barrier to the Columbia river the great bridge dam. From here he cautiously moved through the ruins to get them as close as he could the Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital. Here they took their Rad-X and jumped into the polluted water taking a small inflatable bathtub to keep their gear dry. Dash thanked them for their business and would see them later.
From here they entered through the Emergency Room entrance, having seen the main entrance barricaded close.
From here it became a lengthy room by room search, broken up by someone who was definitely into traps as they avoided bear traps, landmines, a gas filled hall with a flaming baseball pitching machine. They obtained scrap, magazines, grenades, and mines. As they advanced up the floors they encountered increasingly difficult traps including exploding explosive computers, baby carriages of death, and swinging heavy object traps. Eventually they found a room where the New Plague victims were being incinerated and learned that many people had taken up the late-war superstition of carrying Nuka Cola caps in their pocket, much like people thought posies would do the same during the black-plague as Nuka-Cola was rumored to stave off the New-Plague. They also obtained another Environmental Suit for their cause, along with a pile of Medical tools for the Doctor in Vault 67.
The came to a room where a gap forced them through a barricaded door and fought a horde of Ghouls who were apparently sick victims that then were trapped here during the apocalypse - at least that is the going theory. It was a hard fought battle were the fates were tested but they overcame the numbers and claimed victory.
Finally after reaching the top floor they found the hospital Chief Pharmacists office, there they found the Antibiotics in a specialized cooling safe, ACE quickly rigged up her own cooler to ensure the supply here would make it safely back to Junktown. The found an empty bedroom and forced open a jammed door to come face to face with the trap-maker that had plagued their trip up the Hospital, only to find he had succumbed to his own trap as he was blown to bits. Still they found plenty more explosives and supplies.
The last room that they found that got the greatest amount of interest was an elevator. Something they had not seen on any of the other floors. But clearly it was designed to stop at all of them. Being cautions they pushed the button to send it to the ground floor. Then forcing the door open they sent Grim down the shaft using the 80 feet of Nylon rope that ACE carries with her. As she descended she noticed on the top of the Elevator two duffle bags, and, as she descended between floors she saw in the various duct works blinking items and could hear beeping. She then realized the whole building was designed to come crashing down, she called out to the rest of the group to "get out now!"
So as they began the mad dash out, Grim found in the duffles a cold winter jacket from those who participated in the Liberation of Anchorage as well as an American Assault rifle, food and water for one for a week, as well as another change of clothes.
Grim dropped into the elevator and waited to hear the sound of her friends calling her name before she pressed the "Open Door Button." in doing so she heard a popping sound and the door opened revealing a plaster wall. Kicking through it, she found herself in the hall where the pitching machine was. Rejoining her companions as they loaded up the floating tub with their gear when suddenly one of the Barricades suddenly made more loud popping sounds and collapsed outwards. This also caused a box that had been originally considered on of those drop gate items, to pop open and release raft of giant inner tubes that suddenly inflated (using fire-extinguishers as the compressed air source) as well as two pool cues to land beside it, quickly they boarded this "life-boat". As they rapidly poled their way from the building they saw Tuttle sitting there.
"We need to go, go, go!" they called to him, so Tuttle tossed a line to them (with a bleach-bottle float) and got his motor going as quickly as possible, towing them away. As they made a bit of better progress they heard the bone rattling booms, and floor by floor the Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital collapsed upon itself, creating a vast pile of rubble, and sending a wave of dust and debris chasing after them before dispersing.
In the end, Grim and BW had their traditional smoke and observed the carnage they wrought, as Doc and ACE cradled the precious cargo of antibiotics. Wayne contemplated how he would handle meeting with Moriarty.
They got Tuttle caught up on what happened, and then afterwards it was a tense trip through the night as they crawled through the ruins of Portland, watching the campfires and scrap metal bridges for trouble. By dawns light they had returned to Junkyard's docks.
8/23
Once back to Junktown, they tended to the folks at Vic's secrets, BW got himself a tattoo from Therons (after they did a bunch of selling and buying of guns and ammo), and they finally "bumped" into Tom, who was on his way out the door. The spoke with Moriarty who thanked them for rescuing Mary from the sickness and paid them the promised book on Rome.
B.W.s tattoo of a minigun bracketed by "Where they have no voice, there I shall sing."
Wayne talked to Moriarty about the #7 Hell's Chain Gang on the wall, and through round-about means is claiming that the comic on the wall the one that Moriarty called Grandfather Adam was his real grandfather. To prove his claim he will have Mary tell Moriarty the truth of where they are from. (A vault where they are experimenting with Cryo-freeze).
From here Wayne walked to the Graveyard and paid his respects to his grandfather, where he noted that his grandfather wrote his real birth year and shows he died 15 years AFTER his release from Vault 33. Grim had tagged along to silently watch and make sure Peter Scotch did not strike at them alone.
Once Wayne both mourned and remembered his grandfather and made up his mind on what to do next he returned to Powell's and spoke to Moriarty.
With Moriarty out of earshot of everyone else (save Grim, who is likely lurking where neither of us would notice her), Wayne tells him the following:
“Moriarty, you offered to let me read a story from the pristine comic you have on the shelf up there, so, in exchange for your generous offer, let me tell you a story of my own.
Adam Clark was born in the Willamette Valley, just outside of Eugene in the Bethel-Danebo neighborhood. As a child, his mother taught him that he should always look out for the less fortunate. Adam listened to this and so as he grew older he spent a lot of time volunteering and, when he graduated high school, he took a job with the Eugene Salvation Army. He was a very hard worker and the management of the organization quickly saw that he was intelligent enough to promote him.
In addition to his blossoming career, he had also met a lovely young woman, who regularly volunteered, named Evelyn. The couple married and soon had a daughter, whom they named Abilene, and a son, whom they named Colin. Adam advanced into regional management, and was going to be transferred to Portland when his mother became ill. Unwilling to leave his mother on her own, he and his family moved into his mother’s home to care for her.
In time, that illness took his mother, but by then Adam and Evelyn had settled into their life in Eugene. Abilene had married her high school sweet heart, and moved into a house about a mile from Adam and Evelyn. Colin was just beginning his senior year of high school, though he had already been accepted to a business college in Washington, when the world plummeted into war.
Adam had done well for himself, but never lived lavishly. Though he still gave much to charity, he had saved enough to buy a place in a VaulTec vault for him, Evelyn, both of his children and his son-in-law.
On a pleasant Friday in late October, Adam had offered to make one last stop for a charity pickup driver whose daughter had come down with a case of the new plague. Adam never flinched at helping others, and so was plenty happy to run a late-shift pickup so that this poor young man could rush to the window of the isolation area of the hospital and be as close as possible to his daughter. Donations had dropped as more people gave their time and monetary support to the war efforts in China, but a few still donated what they could.
Adam only had to make one stop for the driver and found himself at the home of a middle-aged woman. Her husband had been killed while serving in the military, and she could find no use for a box of comic books that he had collected since his childhood. Wanting them to be of use to someone, she decided she would donate them and let the Salvation Army give them to people that could use them. The box of comics sat in the back of Adam’s car that night, since the donation center had already closed for the weekend.
The box of comics never made it to the donation center, though, because the next morning was October 23, 2077. As news of the bombs came, Adam, Evelyn and Colin quickly loaded into Adam’s car with just a couple small bags of clothes and rushed to the vault where they would weather out the disaster. As they left their car in the lot outside the vault, they were overjoyed to see Abilene and her husband pull up shortly behind them. The whole family rushed through the vault door together and began to settle in as the door closed them off from the apocalypse around them.
They never knew that Eugene was directly hit and that everyone they ever knew outside of the vault perished in a nuclear blast. All they knew was that they were safe in their vault and that they would need to adjust to their new life until the vault could be opened.
Colin met a girl in the vault, and without the lure of the fancy business program calling to him anymore, he married her. Colin, and his new wife Lily, did as newlyweds were want to do and soon they had a young son they named Wayne. At the same time, though, Evelyn became sick, and before the young boy learned to say his grandmother’s name, she had died. Adam missed her dearly, but he devoted his time to Colin’s son as well as Abilene’s two children to help ease the pain. Adam tried to raise his grandchildren as he had been raised, and young Wayne took to his grandfather more than any of the other grandchildren.
Since the comic books had been in his car when they fled Eugene, Adam had brought them into the vault as a special treat for his family. While many children would borrow the comics to read, Wayne took a special liking to them and cherished the three comics that his grandfather had given specifically to him for his 7th birthday. All three had been in their original sleeves and had never been opened. They were Wayne’s most cherished possessions, and he would only open and read them on special occasions when his grandfather was there to read them with him. With Adam’s help, he took every precaution to make sure that the comics stayed in completely pristine condition.
As you may know, though, vaults can only hold a limited number of people, and Adam’s vault was particularly limited. In order for the vault to house the number of people it did, portions of the population would have to stay in cryogenic stasis for part of the time. Since there were limited numbers of cryo-tubes available, as more people were born into the vault, others would be selected to leave to balance the numbers.
During one such selection, a young woman was chosen to leave. This selection was clearly not by chance, though, as it should have been, but instead it was out of retribution for a slight. The young woman was a somewhat small and mousy woman who had no real hope of survival in the wasteland beyond the vault door; it was clear that this was a death sentence. Adam would not let this injustice stand, and so did the only thing he could. He kissed his daughter, put his arm reassuringly around his son, and volunteered to leave the vault instead of the young woman who had been selected. This infuriated some of the vault who had targeted the young woman, but there were clear rules that a volunteer could always step forward in place of one who had been selected, and so they could not refuse Adam.
Adam gathered his things and set off into the wasteland. As he stood in the airlock, young Wayne rushed past his parents to give him one last hug. As the eight-year-old’s feeble attempt at stoicism failed, Wayne broke down into tears and handed Adam his most cherished copy of “Hell’s Chain Gang #7 – the Burning Road” so that Adam could read it in the wasteland and never forget Wayne. With tears in his own eyes, Adam took the comic, placed it into his old Salvation Army bag emblazoned with the red shield, and promised that no matter what happened, he would always remember and watch over Wayne.
With that Wayne watched as the airlock door sealed Adam in and the klaxon began to alert the vault that the outer door was being opened to let the latest member of the community out into the wasteland, never to return.
From that point on, Adam’s story was his own and Wayne did not know what happened to his beloved grandfather.
So, with that, you will now believe me when I tell you that the pristine comic you have on that shelf was the same one I gave to my grandfather the day he left the vault. In case you are wondering, the secret code on the inside of the back cover of the comic decodes to “Brush Your Teeth Every Day” (Using Venus to Mercury), and the advertisement below that is for Fancy Lad Snack Cakes in their “new and improved packaging”, which, according to Grandpa Adam made this issue particularly valuable because only one production run of 20 of this issue were made with that advertisement.
Mary can confirm many parts of this story should you still not be confident in my relationship to Adam.
Now, based on how you have been honorable in dealing with the Gotham Knights and how you lead your people here in Junktown, I see that my grandfather did have an impact on your values. The rest of my family died in the vault. Since Adam took you and your mother as his own family here in the wasteland, then I will trust his judgment and call you my cousin. Sadly, though, your brother seems to have ignored his lessons, and I cannot accept him as I have accepted you.
Please continue to care for my grandfather’s grave and visit him often; he deserves no less.”
Moriarty, motioned to Wayne to remain seated. And rummaged beneath the bar for a bit and pulled out two glasses and bottle of pre-war scotch and poured them both a drink. He pondered for a moment on what to say.
"Grandpa Adam did mention that he had a family before coming here, and that they were good people. And he would often know things about the time before the war that even some Ghouls had forgotten. So what you tell me does not surprise me, and only makes more complete the story that was Grandpa."
"I believe you Wayne, and in a way, yes we are cousins. My Brother, while born from my mother is from a different father, and never listened to Grandpa, heeding instead other calls. We are two different sides of a scorched and scratched bottlecap. And I would not expect you to accept him or understand how he has become as broken as he is."
"Still, it is good to know Grandpa was right about one thing. He said someday, someone could come, asking for this very comic."
"I am both glad, and sad, it is you. Glad in that you seem to be an upstanding sort, sad in that it means I may have to give up this treasure of Grandpa's."
"But before you take it, perhaps then you can answer the riddle of the comic."
With that he turns and opens the frame that holds the treasured comic.
With hands as clean as possible, he hands you the sleeved comic.
"Inside there is a note, when I took over the bar after Grandpa passed I read the comic, and I thought the note was meant for me, like a secret surprise, but it might be meant for you."
(A note with private thoughts is found in the back of the comic, with an oddly placed cutout)
"I always thought that when he said look within here where he and I came from, well I thought it was the wastes, and there is one page within , page 15, that starts with Nuke Corris saying "through the wastes we wander." When I put his note on the page, the cut out section lined up perfectly with the dialog box that says "We may be bound by chains, but we have freedom in the words we read!" as said by the Rhianna Doss, the printing press lady, the Gang had rescued from the Communists."
"Perhaps it may mean something else to you...cousin." He says the last word like trying on a new pair of shoes, it's tight a first, but you can tell he will grow comfortable with it.
Wayne flipped through the comic seeing if there were any matches, perhaps a page with the word vault or fortress or secure place, but either they did not exist or where they did the window did not line up with anything that made sense. It was not until he got to the final page, page 33, the one with the Fancy Lad Snack Cakes, for below it was one more advertisement. An ad for the "Travelling Captain Cosmos Experience" sponsored by Hubris Comics, Things From Another World, and V.S.S. Inc. The cutout box brackets the address and dates in the announcement:
October 15-31 2077
Things From Another World
4390 SW Lloyd Avenue
Beaverton, Oregon 97005
While he is looking for that, Wayne makes a deal with Moriarty that since he would not want to deprive him of the comic that he holds dear as a memory of Grandpa, as long as he lets Wayne take a look at it if he needs it (more relating to the note than the comic itself, since Wayne practically had it memorized). Oh, and he has to keep it safe in the case so that it stays in its pristine condition. And, when he opens his library at Gotham, Wayne will help Moriarty make sure that there is a place of honor for the comic like there is here.
Moriarty accepted the terms of the arrangement, and looks forward to leaving Junktown with Mary and setting up a library in Gotham, assuming they succeed in stopping the Enclave.
As they settled down for the night they planned their next move, to interview the slaves to find the slaver base and destroy it forever.
(Admin notes:
They got 2xp from last session at the beginning.
They will get 3xp for this session
Lastly Callisto, who braved danger and peril rolled a 6 and got to "level" up.)