Session 29: The Defector
General Summary
The session began with the Liberators returning from their journey to set up their mercenary company's contracts with outside companies to expand their capabilities. They returned to find a lavish feast arranged for them by Alexandru. The other members of the company looked upon the dining room with equal confusion. Alexandru invited all of them to partake. The party devolved quickly as Kutter and his super mutants formed a conga line. In only two hours, the ornate tables were arranged into a makeshift fighting ring, and Alexandru sat ringside looking on with delight, shouting orders at the fighters. Kenny coached the fighters, and Kutter cheered them on. Reshaun and Gramps sat watching the chaos from above, smoking cigars. Quinten arranged a throne of debris and sat the drunk, passed-out Jason atop it before graffitiing the walls with ketchup.
Kenny was thrown into the ring by Kutter, who had just finished a bout with the second super mutant. Kenny shared blows with the gorilla and eventually defeated it. Then, Kutter jumped in, but Kenny defeated him too, throwing him into a wall that broke, sending Kutter flying to the next skyscraper over. The night wound down as Kenny went to nurse his broken ribs from the gorilla, and Jason was dragged back to his room by Blair.
Over the next six days, the Liberators began to put their plan into action, with the exception of Kutter, who was back undercover in prison, and Kenny, who was nursing his wounds. Kenny sent for RM to hopefully get some medical attention, but the recruit couldn't find her. The break ended for the team when Jeremiah came in to inform the Liberators about what had happened. He told them of Kutter's ordeal with Hercules and how he might be losing himself to the rage. He also finally told them everything he knew about the threat to come. He said 1st Vanguard was contracted by a small naval force led by a sentient glowing one. They had a few dozen men, mostly mutants with a good number of ghouls as well. Jeremiah also told them about the work they had done for The Red Tide, including recruiting The Gs and The Pioneers for their clients.
The party was concerned by this, but more pressing issues arose. RM hadn't been seen since the party. Kenny remembered her saying the Institute could come after her and that she was asking if they could put up cameras at the meeting. The players began asking people who were at the party, but no one had seen her past 2 a.m. Someone had seen her take the elevator downstairs around then. They headed down to the city of Vantage and talked to some door guards, who said she had walked out, tipsy but not drunk, and never came back in. The shift had changed soon after that. The players followed a sparse trail of dried wine to outside of the perimeter wall, where they found a convenience store that seemed to have been the site of a recent struggle. Railgun impacts and laser scorch marks covered the walls, but the trail of wine was no more, so they had to search for another trail to pick up on.
Leroy sensed a peculiar bit of faded radiation emanating from the scorch marks: beta waves, used by high-quality laser weaponry to boost power. He also sensed a trail of it, indicating the weapon might be broken. They followed the trail for a day, going far north into Malden, where the trail eventually went cold. From there, Gerrek picked up a foot trail with heavy footsteps, like someone carrying something. Quinten recognized the Institute boot tread. Just up a familiar very steep slope over a creek and over the hill, the trail went cold in the middle of a clearing. The party couldn't shake the feeling they were being watched. Quinten noticed the crows, but when he tried to take control of them, he saw they were already in use. They disabled the crow, and Quinten hacked in, finding the controller was directly below them. Sharos used his thermals and saw a cold spot in the meadow, indicating a hidden door. Jeremiah and Leroy pried it open, revealing a looming shaft that descended into the earth. They gauged the distance and then made their way down.
They made their way through an Institute safehouse, fighting turrets and old Gen-1 synths. They eventually reached the command room, where X6-88 stood and RM sat in a reconditioning chair behind a shield. The players skipped the formalities and attacked. A difficult battle ensued as X6 used his martial prowess, CQC skills, and stealth capabilities to try to stop the players. They released RM and killed X6. They looked around and saw the cameras still watching, so they accessed the main terminal and gained admin access, hopefully locking out outside controllers. Quinten posed as X6-88 speaking to his handler Allie Fillmore, Quinten's own mother. “X6” said he had received damage and needed a rendezvous. A time and place were provided, but Allie essentially told Quinten to drop the act. Quinten did, and when Allie asked who he was, he told her. Allie went silent before telling Quinten to rendezvous at the previously stated location, then told him to leave the facility immediately.
The players immediately began looting as the doors started to close and the facility locked down. Jeremiah ripped the reclamation chair from the ground, and Kenny began to collect files. The players narrowly escaped with the mentioned items and three server towers, hopefully full of valuable files. They rested for a while and debriefed. RM returned to consciousness and broke down a little, apologizing for keeping yet another secret from them. She revealed that she had a secondary objective: reporting on the Liberators. She admitted she was a traitor and a spy, but the players weren't shaken, declaring they had their suspicions but didn't care. RM said she had nothing else but them and was appalled by their easy forgiveness. They hoisted her up on their shoulders and chanted, “One of us! One of us!” RM teared up a little, and the team headed home.
When they arrived, they found a strange ghoul in denim overalls and a giant wizard hat who said he'd heard Kutter had gotten into some trouble.
Report Date
22 Apr 2025
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