Session 39: Reunions and Farewells

General Summary

The session began with the players returning from their incursions into the north and south wings of the facility. Simmons greeted them, informing them that Fredrick had killed the hounds while they were away. He declared the northern, southern, and western wings secure.
Meanwhile, Gerrek had been wandering through a strange uncanny forest full of humanoid creatures trying to strike deals and steal his name for the past few days. Eventually, after being smart and staying quiet, he found himself at some sort of portal—an empty doorframe made of trees. He threw a bullet through it, which Quinten narrowly dodged, seeing it come from nowhere. Jimbob stuck his head into the wall from which it apparently came, which Gerrek watched emerge from. Then Kenny jumped through, trading his fake criminal name, Garry Winshire, for a cool rock with a neat spiral on it, before they both left.
The players filled in Gerrek on the situation with the rift and anomalies, also introducing him to Simmons. Simmons finished explaining the function of the rift. Finally, Simmons directed Gerrek to speak to Fredrick.
In the conference room, Fredrick revealed what Simmons had told him. Fredrick was one of the last living members of the Fringe Division, along with Simmons and Fredrick's wife Amanda. When they attempted to close the rift, Amanda was sucked in. Her consciousness was scattered across the Fringe Division's network. When they pieced it back together, they found a simulation of the human mind, which they downloaded to a chip. Later, Fredrick underwent cybernetic enhancements to hopefully be capable of surviving the rift to rescue his wife, but the procedure went wrong, and he awoke with no memory of who he was. He attacked Simmons and escaped the facility, leading to him wandering the wasteland and eventually meeting the players. The only way to get his wife back was to stabilize the rift so Fredrick could save her.
Gerrek insisted they must close the rift, but Fredrick demanded they get his wife out first. Gerrek said his wife would be an anomaly at that point, but Fredrick said they had to try, so they agreed to help each other. Gerrek left and rejoined the party in the rift containment room. Simmons informed them that now that the Old Man had escaped, only one threat remained uncontained, in the east wing. A rogue AI had taken over the east wing and the vault, which stored a backup of the database that Simmons had let fall into disarray, providing invaluable intel on the enemies they might face. It also contained the magic tome that Simmons had promised Jimbob as a reward. Without question, the players proceeded.
Jimbob used Detect Thoughts, reading the base thoughts of his friends but also detecting code running through the network nodes around them. He tried to hone in on it, sensing that it had detected their presence. Then a security door closed ahead of them, blocking their way. They disabled the maglocks, and Jason pried it open with his power armor.
The next obstacle they faced was a massive gaping pit of unknown depth. Kenny dropped objects in to try and determine its depth, and after an extended period, he heard what might be something hitting the bottom, or perhaps just hitting a wall on the way down. Regardless, in an unexplainable lack of care and massive overestimation of himself, he swan-dived directly into the hole. Gerrek, perhaps thinking Kenny knew something he didn't, or perhaps in solidarity with his friend, dived in after him. They fell for a minute or two but were eventually caught up to by RM, who had jumped to the ceiling and pushed herself off of it, sending her diving like a missile toward them. She grabbed both their collars and used whatever type of telekinetic technology she had to slow their fall and eventually get them to a ledge. She relentlessly questioned them for their actions, genuine rage bursting out of her with every word. After they gave their unsatisfactory reasons, she scolded them and forced them to climb back up with her.
The rest of the team moved on, knowing they couldn't affect the situation, stricken with shock and disbelief at three of their teammates jumping to their apparent deaths. They proceeded through the facility, destroying a giant mound of reactivated destroyed Gen 1 synths. They found the vault, but it was locked up tight. They eventually reached the location of the AI, but its containment was much the same. Jason got an idea: he used his sensors to find the regional generator for the east wing, walking through the facility to disable it.
RM, Gerrek, and Kenny eventually made it out of the pit. Kenny stopped to rest, but Gerrek proceeded. RM further questioned Kenny, asking him how he could do that. Kenny couldn't muster a good answer, and though he didn't see it in the dark, tears rolled out from under her glasses and down her cheeks.
Gerrek ran into Jimbob at the vault. Meanwhile, Jason and Quinten shielded themselves from a laser turret with Jason's sword and disabled the generator before proceeding to the AI's containment chamber and destroying its holotape housing. The players reunited, melted through the floor, and fell out of Simmons's bag mask. He informed them that the rift had stabilized enough for them to leave, and they returned to the conference room for a debrief. He congratulated them on their work well done.
He spoke to Fredrick and Gerrek, reiterating that they must stabilize the rift to save Amanda and release Gerrek from the influence of her soul in the chip. Fredrick said he was leaving to hunt down all the anomalies and asked Gerrek if he was with him, to which Gerrek agreed. Gerrek held the chip and shook Fredrick's hand; a wave of relief came over the chip—it wanted to stay with Gerrek but wanted Gerrek to stick with Fredrick.
Simmons stated he would help them hunt anomalies by using the Institute's synth crow watchers to scout for them. Allie said she would stay down there to improve the power situation. Jimbob wanted to stay down there a while and ponder the rift as Simmons instructed. Simmons declared, "Mi casa es su queso." Quinten offered him some food, but he declared it went right through him. Kenny tried to cook him something he could eat, so he concocted the most deranged car panini made of various vending machine ingredients. It was actually so chaotic that it resonated with the energies of the rift, and Simmons was able to eat it. He asked for more, and Kenny obliged.
Quinten and Allie awkwardly said their goodbyes; Quinten offered her a place at Vantage when it was all over, to the rest of the party's dismay. Simmons asked if everyone was sorted and offered everyone a hit, pulling a blunt from his bag eyehole and declaring that "this shit is gas." Kenny, Quinten, and Jimbob puff-puff-passed, and Jimbob used it to reach into the oblivion of the astral rift before handing it back. Jason, hesitant at first, decided to join the nightmare blunt rotation, wanting to open his third eye. Simmons reached across the entire room, passing it to Jason, ordering him to "Try this shit, boss." It hit Jason and Jimbob like the Saturn V rocket. Kenny, however, was having a great time. Kenny asked for more, and Simmons handed him a fancy cigar box full of blunts in exchange for Kenny's cool spiral rock. As the room was hotboxed by the nightmare blunt, the players faded away, only to awake at the exit of the facility. They made their way all the way up to the surface, where they heard a message looping on their frequency. Jason picked up and spoke to Gramps, who requested their presence, saying the Minutemen had a new mission for them, and he revealed that they had only been gone for two hours.
Gerrek gave his goodbyes, thanking Kenny, especially for the adventures they had. He gifted them several items, including a ream of three contact cards he and Sharos had collected from the Pillars of the Community convent, and he left a note for Sharos. And with a final manly handshake between him and Kenny, they parted ways, and the players headed back to Vantage.
They returned to find their squads assembled in the atrium, apparently back to full strength. Their officers and NCOs were walking around with checklists, preparing the troops, and a vertibird was flying in the distance. Gramps beckoned them from the top balcony. He brought them inside the command room, where Admiral Longfellow was waiting for them in Jason's seat with his feet up on the desk and smoking his pipe. He commented that they were looking a little worse for wear. As Jason kicked him out of his seat and they were about to start the meeting, they heard a vertibird land outside. They went to investigate and saw Kutter and his Blades jump out of the vertibird, kitted in new armor and weapons. As Kutter came inside, Kenny's arm was shaking, Blair moved to the wall and stared him down, and May quickly left the room. Danse declared him clear for duty and departed on the vertibird. The troops immediately distrusted the Blades, as they still looked like the raiders they were.
Gramps gathered the players back into the meeting room and back to Old Longfellow. He asked them how their sea legs were, then told them they were heading north to stop the Red Tide's fleet from reforming, as they'd heard reports that they were raiding frontier settlements to rebuild their forces. He asked them to come along, stating that his frogmen marines were mostly heading south to raid Red Tide outposts closer to Newport, so he needed more amphibious assault troops. The players enthusiastically agreed, wanting to strike back. They organized the troops they would deploy into the four vertibirds allotted to them.
After the planning had concluded, Kutter and Jason tried to convince RM to come along, but she was clearly still upset with Kenny and refused. Kenny went to Benjamin to ask for a new arm; Benjamin said a good one would take him a month if he dropped all other projects. They gathered again in the atrium, and they felt someone watching them. They looked, seeing Alexandru leaning classily against a wall, smoking his pipe. He offered to come along, stating it was the terms of their agreement that he could come along and observe. They agreed, and Kenny flicked him a demon blunt. Alexandru caught it dramatically and inspected it, asking him where he got such loud. Kenny said, "An interdimensional scientist," causing Alexandru to slide forward, telling Kenny to elaborate. Alexandru swept him off to his smoking room at incredible speed and asked him to tell him more.
Kutter and his Blades organized a funeral for the Blades they lost on the flagship. Kutter gave an impassioned speech. A weapon from each of the fallen was thrown into the bonfire. RM came to his side, ordering the troops to help them with the bonfire. Kutter threw his newer sword that he had made during his time inside the Red Tide into the fire, putting it behind him. Kutter then started mixing Nuka-Cola and whiskeys and was enthusiastically greeted by his original boys, the Pit Fits crew. Grug was ordered to get meat and booze, and he agreed. Kenny was eager to join the commotion from the smoking room, and Jason was enjoying it. As all of Kutter's parties inevitably did, things devolved into a pit fight.
Kenny and Alexandru were about to start the rotation, but Kutter knocked. After checking with Kenny, Alexandru let him in. Kutter apologized for tearing Kenny's arm off in a blind rage. Alexandru thanked him for the libations, and Kutter left. Kutter then went and apologized to May as well; she peeked through the door and said thanks. Kutter went and made a toast with Alexander, who was fretting about the costs of all this booze. Then he went down to the barracks, delivering two barrels of booze to the troops and Blair, whom he also apologized to.
Meanwhile, Alexandru and Kenny began the rotation and discussed the events of the Fringe Division. Kenny asked him if he'd like to go down there and meet Dr. Simmons, but Alexandru acted coy, stating that's not really up his alley; besides, he was coming on the trip with them. They enjoyed the evening, and the rest of the night was one for the history books.

Report Date

11 Nov 2024