Session 53: Hellfire
General Summary
The session began as the players continued the fight against The Old Man. Kenny and Jimbob were set to distract the creature while Jason and Todd tried to fix the lights and sound. Todd told Jason that it was distracted by the light, but he saw it flinch when the music blared. Jason inspected the DJ booth; the rot was beginning to spread through all the machinery. Thinking fast, Jason cut the wires leading to the speakers, saving them. It was then that Jason spotted Todd's laser musket hidden beneath the table, giving him an idea.
From there, the party jumped in trying to draw the Old Man's attention away from Jason and the equipment in hopes of him being able to repair it. Kenny lept in, kicking a solo cup into the air and using it to unleash a flurry of kicks without directly touching the Old Man. The Old Man went to retaliate, but Jimbob used his temporal shunt to help Kenny dodge it through time. With that, its attention was turned to Jimbob while Jason and Todd began modifying the speakers and laser musket, with Todd needing to force the extended focusing barrel off over his knee as it was stuck tight.
The Old Man phased through the floor and snatched Jimbob into its pocket dimension. Jimbob came to recognize a dark, disheveled, decayed alternate version of Diamond City, and he started looking for a way out. Meanwhile, Kenny continued to engage the Old Man while the other liberators helped evacuate civilians. He spied a stripper pole and used it to repeatedly kick the Old Man in the face as he swung around it. Gug eventually resorted to simply plowing into the crowd and pushing them out the doors.
With the Old Man seemingly taking little damage from their attacks so far, the battle looked grim even as most of the civilians had gotten to safety. It was then that a portion of the ceiling collapsed and Sharos, along with a strange elite Minuteman squad, descended into the battle. They hammered the Old Man with suppressing fire of all varieties, but he still retaliated, pulling four of the task force members into the alternate dimension. Jimbob sensed their presence and started looking for them and finding a way out together.
Meanwhile, Sharos had taken cover behind the bar, but the Old Man phased through the ground, reaching him in an instant. It was just before then that Jason finally completed his jury-rigged sonic musket, then saved Sharos with a deafening blast that shattered every bottle behind the bar on the wall and sent the caustic slop flying off the Old Man's body and coating the wall. The Old Man was completely stunned, and Kenny used the opportunity to charge in and repeatedly bash its head against the bar counter, which was covered in glass. After he was finished, he lifted the Old Man up by the head with his cybernetic hand and presented him to the Minutemen task force. They unleashed everything they had right at the Old Man's head. When the firing stopped, nothing remained above its shoulders but a charred skull. Kenny's hand was red hot from the laser fire.
Meanwhile, in the inverse pocket dimension, Jimbob had found the minutemen troopers and decided to light some of the mucus coating everything on fire, but it quickly spread, nearly consuming him and the minutemen. The group had to make a mad dash out, but found the exit thanks to Jimbob sensing one of them disappear.
With the creature defeated, Jimbob and Sharos stayed to secure it while Kenny and Jason went to the backroom to see about the Crimson Hand.
In the back room, Kenny and Jason found Blair wounded but stable. She said there was a friendly up ahead. They saw absolute carnage, dozens of dead mobsters, and they still heard submachine guns firing and a pump-action shotgun returning fire. They caught a glimpse as one of the mobsters tackled the man with a shotgun, but he wrestled the mobster off and unloaded the shotgun point-blank. They went to meet the man, and he recognized Kenny. He said he was Yafim, and Kenny was confused, asking how he was alive, but Yafim said he was confusing him for his brother, Vadim. He'd come to avenge him by wiping the Crimson Hand out wherever they popped up. However, they found one red tide lieutenant left alive and convinced Yafim to let them take him prisoner. Jason harshly applied a tourniquet to his leg, and they took him to be interrogated.
On the ruined dance floor, Jimbob secured The Old Man, binding his limbs and head in place with lead reshappen from bullets from the Minuteman heavy's minigun. The Minutemen introduced themselves as Alpha Squad, telling him that they were called in by Sharos to help capture this thing when he picked up its trail down south. They went to secure the creature, but Jimbob said they had to take him somewhere, but they couldn't tell them. He knew the Fringe Division was the only place that could hold him reliably, but they couldn't tell the minutemen about the secret institute facility. The Minutemen firmly refused, informing Jimbob they were the General's personal task force, and by her authority, they had to secure the creature themselves.
Jimbob refused to back down and summoned a fire spirit to carry the Old Man back to the Fringe Division. He sent it on a dead sprint, but he was cuffed by the Minutemen, and they also gagged him after seeing the spells he had been casting. Jimbob was sad to hear their vertibird start up and fly away, feeling the fire spirit get gunned down shortly after as it ran away from Diamond City towards the CIT ruins. Sharos pleaded with the players that they had to go along with it, but eventually they decided to take the issue to Jane themselves and plead their case.
As Kenny threw Jimbob over his shoulder, the wizard continued to shout verbally and psychically as well as he could. He refused to capitulate, so with Jason's approval, Alpha Squad's medic sedated him. The party flew south on their vertibird. On the trip, Jason recognized Cait's power armor. He asked if it was her under there. She took off her helmet and said it was funny seeing them here. Just then, the effects of Jimbob's magic moonshine wore off, and the players reverted back into their regular outfits.
Not much later, they arrived at Quincy and saw another vertibird coming in to land. Inside, Kutter watched as May handed off the controls to Sturges, then walked into the troop bay and held her anchor out the side to balance it as it came in for a vertical landing. But still, one of the engines gave out just before touchdown, giving them a hard landing. Kutter, Gork, Mork, Hank, May, Sturges, and the berzerkers hopped out. Kutter was still insisting they go back immediately, however, Kutter was in a state. His chest plate was caved into his chest, and his left arm was snapped off below the elbow. He greeted his friends and told them they were going on a rescue mission immediately, before trailing off and collapsing onto the tarmac.
Richards caught him and informed them of the events down south, giving them Kutter's crudely written report. He told them about the battle, the duel, the apparent capture of the 1st Vanguard, and Kutter's resurrection. They saw in Richard's and Kutter's eyes something missing, a spark gone. Kutter was lifted by two Power Armored minutemen away to a medical station.
The players see an officer in uniform approaching them. He introduces himself as Preston Garvey and points them to the general. They go to the motor pool and see Jane working on her beaten and battered armor. She and her armor are covered in grime and gore. Her face is stoic, but her tired eyes betray her. She greets them frankly and orders Jimbob to be woken up. Jimbob immediately demands his lawyer. Alpha Squad takes off its cuffs and leaves them with the general.
The General says she knows the rough detail, an unknown mutant creature was tracked by Sharos and confronted at a club in Diamond City where Alpha Squad subdued it along with The Liberators, but asks the players to fill in the gaps. Jason goes to inform the General of the Fringe Division, but Jimbob stops him. The party huddles and talks out the pros and cons. Jimbob used mage hand to steal someone's coffee, then slowly, one by one, steal the ingredients to make a sandwich from around the camp. Reluctantly, Jimbob explains everything about the fringe division. The Rift, Simmons, the institute's true purpose. Jason added that the more people know about the anomalous, the more unstable the rift becomes.
Jane nodded along. Kenny showed her his tooth mp5. She asked what she should do with the creature they subdued. The players told her the containment procedures. She then told them about her story of trying to find her son, then ultimately choosing the commonwealth over him after seeing the man he became. She spoke about the last time she spoke to her son, Shaun, the director of the institute. He told her the Institute wasn't humanity's best hope, it was their only hope. Now she knows what he meant by that.
The players and Jane discussed a possible meet and greet with Simmons when she had a chance, to hopefully help him with his power problems. She assured them that in the meantime, she had a perfect place for the creature. A vault operated by the minutemen, a blacksite.
The General welcomes them to stay and rest and asks them for a report about progress up north. They gave their report, and she asked if they wanted help with interrogating their prisoner. She reads Kutter's report, then calls someone over and tells them to get his requisition form for more men to ADA. They also told her about what had happened up north. Alexandru, the Terrasque, and the Red Tide sent some creatures to wake it with a mass sacrifice.
She said she knew the late Sigilite had an interest in the supernatural. Jimbob brought up that the Sigilite still lives, telling her about the post-mortem interrogation on the head that seemingly didn't belong to The Sigilite. Jimbob conveyed his story, and Jane recognized him as Oswald the Outrageous. Jane also noted the sigil they described, telling them about the scarce units they've found bearing it. She described super mutant cybernetic abominations, faster than regular super mutants, 25 feet tall, stronger than behemoths, most likely labotomites. Kenny told him that Hercules spoke of a cybernetics expert in the Red Tide. Miller connected it to Vex the Tinkerer.
They brought in the prisoner. She employed some sort of auditory psychological manipulation technology, and they all felt deep unease and nervousness, feeling an overwhelming anxiety at the thought of lying. She asks him questions, and he is seemingly shocked when he answers truthfully. Jimbob pulls up his blindfold, peering into his mind. The capo calls him a freaky hobo. Jimbob pushes in and peers deeper. The mobster was the capo for all of Urbis Territory. Together with the General's questions and Jimbob's psychic prying, they get everything. The location of every single crimson hand hideout and safehouse is logged by Jimbob.
General Miller says the Minutemen are stretched thin, and she's obligated to secure special permission to conduct military operations in Urbis. She orders them to wipe the Crimson Hand out. No witnesses, no prisoners, no survivors. No one can know, she suggests they even keep it quiet within their own company.
The players head back to Vantage to prepare. They bring no one but their suspect squads and Alexander to keep an eye on them, along with May and Blair. Jason prepares new weaponry for the mission, tear gas and chlorine gas to smoke them out. Grenade pistols and gas masks for every member of the task force.
Then they set off. One by one, night after night, the crusaders surrounded, gassed, and breached every outpost. Jimbob baited feral ghouls into their buildings. Jason employed synchronized bombardments of gas grenades in every window. Kenny led the breachers into the gas to clean up any survivors.
Jimbob probed the thoughts of everyone involved for suspicious activity. Jason felt pride in his engineering despite his distaste for the operation. Ellie was consumed with guilt and shame. Jeremy tried to let a former friend of his escape, but Gug stopped him, killing the would-be survivor. David was filled with dread the entire time, wondering with each kill he made, if that would be the one to secure him a spot on The Bloodletters' stakes. Though Jimbob didn't find any damning thoughts The Liberators found something else suspicious. Many weapons the mobsters used were made by Cyberdyne Technologies, their very own army manufacturer.
After the crusade concluded, they returned to Vantage, where ADA gave them their next task: gather and transport schematics and parts for the secret project; they were the only ones she could trust, but she warned them, under no circumstances were they to open the materials, they had to be absolutely secret.
The Liberators dispatched as ordered, keeping the same squad and borrowing Peqoud to make the trip. They visited The Order Luminarius for the first batch of parts, then headed north to Starlight to pick up more from Patriot Manufacturing. When they arrived, they found the manufacturer on high alert. They touched down on the massive factory's landing pad as The Scribe ran out and informed them that they had opened the secure storage, but the parts were gone. The players went to investigate, but as they walked across the landing pad, they had a feeling like they were being watched. They turned to see Colt Maverick Steele standing atop his own building, smiling up at them from across town.
Jimbob and Jason went downstairs to investigate the break-in while Kenny went to check in on Cyberdyne Technologies. Kenny went and saw a RoboCop-esque super mutant cyborg guarding the door. Back in Patriot Manufacturing, J&J checked the inside of the vault, but there was no evidence of a break-in. They investigated further and found the system was hacked, and they also found clear as day security footage of 5 super mutants stealing the parts from the vault. With that, they decided to join Kenny. When they all arrived, they were allowed in by the super mutant. He led them through the factory floor, which had massively expanded since the players' last saw it. They also spotted the 5 super mutants from the security footage working on the floor.
They went upstairs, and his secretary said Steele was expecting them. They headed inside to find him pouring himself a glass of brandy. He greeted them jovially, asking them how the war was going for them. They brought up the malfunction with the 20mm. He vehemently denied sabotage, insisting he inspected them himself before shipping them out. He spoke with a certainty that's hard to fake. They then asked about his men at Patriot Manufacturing last night, and he admitted to stealing the parts so they would come talk to him. Jimbob said he could've just called, but Steele replied he's a businessman, and as much as he hated to do it, the parts were a bargaining chip.
