SESSION 21: THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY
General Summary
Previous Session: SESSION 20: BETWEEN TWO RIVERS
Next Session: SESSION 22: SILENCE IS GOLDEN
Players: (The Heroes of St. Louis): Lex Garridan, Linda, Mister Man, Zero
*May 26th, 2317*
(Adventure Day 32)
Penelope and her gang were dead. With the raider's forearm still flopping in Mr. Man's pincer, it was time to move on. The group turned eastward, looking to cross the radioactive Illinois River.
They reached the Goldenrod Docks where they found a ghoul named Harry operating a ferry. He charged them 18 caps to cross the river on his flat bottom boat, plus an extra fee to use his radiation suits. (If Lex or Mouse fell overboard, they would need protection from the water.) While crossing, Harry tried to make friendly chit-chat. Zero couldn't help but complain about the presence of the Midwest Brotherhood of Steel's troop in Emancipation.
By 10am, the party entered the village of Ravenwood. Lex remembered that back in Vault 40, Mrs. Darbinian had asked them to check on her son Joey. He was studying in Ravenwood's Farm School, but hadn't written home in 4 months. They decided to make the Farm School their first stop. It was a horticultural complex with rows and rows of plants, serviced by an elaborate watering system. There was a middle-aged man smoking outside.
They greeted the man, learning he was Professor Brandt, a horticulture teacher at the farm school. He was friendly welcoming. Zero asked Brandt if they could sit in on his class, careful not to mention Joey Darbinian's name, and Brandt agreed. The professor finished his cigarette and entered the school.
Brandt announced to his class of 20-somethings that today they had a special guest. Lex and Mister Man noticed Joey Darbinian was among them. He introduced Colonel Braxton, a visiting military officer from The Capitol. Braxton boasted to the students that The Capitol's water-purification plant (known as Project Purity) made their agriculture the most productive in America. He proudly announced that The Capitol was donating free textbooks to this Farm School.
As the Colonel went on, the group realized that they recognized his voice. When they had gone to Telecom City to retrieve rhodium metal for the Gravestone Cathedral, someone had overtaken Lex's Pip-Boy and threatened them with the facility's turrets (SESSION 12: MANY DIVISIONS, MANY CHOICES). The man had identified himself as "Uncle Sam." This Colonel Braxton's voice sounded exactly like Uncle Sam. The party waited for the class to end, at which point Zero left to speak to Braxton, while the others would talk to Joey Darbinian.
Joey recognized Lex, asking why she was here. Lex explained that his mother had sent them, worried for his safety. Joey explained that Professor Brandt had taught him that the Midwest was corrupt, and especially Vault-Tec. He wanted nothing to do with Vault 40, or his mother. He wanted to continue studying agriculture in The Capitol. Lex and Mister Man were unimpressed with Joey's attitude, and Professor Brandt's propaganda, but parted with him respectfully.
Zero found Colonel Braxton outside. The officer recognized Zero and greeted him. They had a long conversation, which the others eventually joined. Colonel Braxton explained that he had been gathering information on the "Heroes of St. Louis" ever since the St. Louis Attack killed The Capitol's diplomat. He was impressed with their exploits. And if they were here in Ravenwood, he surmised that the group had been traveling through the Mississippi River region. He asked if they had noticed anything strange.
Zero openly admitted that they had found evidence of an Enclave remnant operating in the area. Colonel Braxton confirmed that his informants had heard similar rumors, but had reported nothing as severe as what the group found at Earth Anchor or Center Nursing Station. Braxton claimed that The Capitol was still committed to wiping out the Enclave, and that if their old enemy had returned, there would certainly be war. If the Midwest Brotherhood had not been thoroughly infiltrated by The Enclave, then The Capitol would seek an alliance with them. But if the Midwest was under secret Enclave control, The Capitol would be looking for discrete allies who could help them overthrow the illegitimate government. Zero seemed amenable to the idea.
Lex was less impressed, remembering that Braxton had ordered them to give him the rhodium at Telecom City, threatening them with the facility's machine gun turrets. The colonel explained that he was ordered to gather the rhodium for his government, so they could make contaminator rifles - just like how Proton from the Gravestone Cathedral had sent them. So, he had made threats, but had no intention of ever firing on them. When they escaped the facility, he and his team had a functioning vertibird with an operable minigun. He could have easily gunned them down from the air, but chose not to.
Colonel Braxton went on to give a speech, extoling the virtues of his totalitarian state. The group were uninspired, but left on good terms.
Continuing Zero's policy that a town's bar was the best place to gather information, they next went to the Raven Saloon. Even in the morning, the saloon was busy with two groups of tough-looking travelers. They were served by a bartender named Karen. Zero ordered a beer and asked Karen what was new in town. As they talked, one of the road-hardened types approached them. He was a bounty hunter looking for Sandy from the village of Kingdom. The hunter explained that another bounty hunter named Rascal had come to the village first. If any of them captured Sandy, they were bound by the bounty hunter's code to hand him over to Rascal. She had dibs. The party promised the hunters that they would not take Rascal's bounty and they went back to drinking.
The group remembered that back in Kingdom, the Derby family had been forcing orphans to work in their metalworks. Wanting to hide these abuses from Brotherhood authorities, Edgar Derby had offered the party money to silence Sandy, one of his former employees. Sandy's sister Jolanta had begged them not to hurt him, and they promised that they would help them if they could (SESSION 16: THE SECRETS OF EARTH ANCHOR STATION.) With many bounty hunters already in the village, they had to work quickly.
They examined the village's boarding house, a building the village used to house guests. There were three rooms, one of which was being used to host Colonel Braxton. It was being constantly guarded by two Capitol Special Operations troops. The caretaker, Esther Hollybrook denied knowing of any Sandy. But Lex left a message for him with her, just in case.
The village's mayor was sitting on his porch, enjoying the warm afternoon. He reported that Ravenwood seemed to be in a lost area between Paladin Hector's territory and Paladin Axion's. The other towns in the Midwest were getting Brotherhood troops, but Ravenwood hadn't been offered any yet. So, he had written Paladin Axion in Gamma Town asking for them to send soldiers. He hoped the party would spread the word throughout the village that military occupation was a good thing. They were not interested, especially Zero, who was still angry about Scribe Keres' presence in Emancipation.
A sign reading "New America Plasma Solutions" seemed to promise some powerful weaponry for sale. But all they found was the Howard family packing up their things. They were disillusioned with the Midwest Brotherhood and were packing up and moving to The Capitol. The family spoke glowingly about the totalitarian state and looked forward to building plasma weapon there. The party remembered that The Capitol had pursued the St. Louis Summit specifically to trade their food for the New California Republic's weapons. The idea of The Capitol with plasma weapons unsettled them, but they decided not to intervene.
Linda, wishing to spread belief in Atom, began a speech to the Howards. Mr. Howard stopped her, explaining that The Capitol had proven there was no God. And if there was an Atom, he was certainly nowhere near as glorious as Great Leader. The party were afraid Linda might be driven to violence and warned Mr. Howard. He reluctantly withdrew his statement, clearly upset but intimidated. The party left, though it was a tense goodbye.
They went to Purnima House, where rich landowner Sashi Purnima was tending to her petunias. Speaking to her, she asked if they could ask Mayor Tsukuda if he was planning to ask for Brotherhood occupation. The group reported that the mayor had already written Paladin Axion, asking for occupation without any public discussion. Ms. Purnima was clearly both anti-Capitol and against Brotherhood military rule - a somewhat kindred spirit. She expressed that she would call for a vote of no confidence against the mayor. They asked her about Sandy, and she admitted that the village was hosting him at the boarding house. He was currently working at Ravenwood Concrete.
Examining the workers at the concrete facility, they easily spotted one who hadn't worked with a hammer for years and years. It was Sandy, who wished to stay in the village. But the group convinced him to flee to Gamma Town. They agreed to retrieve his possessions and he would leave right away.
Heading back to the boarding house, they noticed they were being followed. Using the terrain to draw out their pursuer, Lex's Pip-Boy once again sprang to life. It was Colonel Braxton, who had one of his SpecOps following them. The soldier was equipped with a Stealth Boy cloaking field, which she turned off and returned to her companions at the boarding house.
They next returned to the Ravenwood Saloon where Karen the bartender was winning a drinking contest with the bounty hunters. The party deceived the hunters, convincing them that Sandy had fled the village, heading south. They left immediately.
The party gathered up Sandy's things and delivered them to him. They gave him some additional supplies and money and wished him luck. With that, they left the village and headed south.
The Little Red House was far from little. It was a 30 room mansion with adjacent servants' and carriage houses. There was over a hundred people engaged in spring planting. Looking closely, Mister Man noticed that many of them had scars where Caesar's Legion tattoo their slaves.
Zero stopped a random worker and noted that they were friends of Tameka and Booch, abolitionists in the Emancipation area. The freed man didn't want to talk much, clearly his flight from the Legion was a secret operation. He described how Tameka had come to his farm, purportedly bought as a new slave. She had rallied the slaves to escape, leaving them to find Booches Bar on their own, where they were directed to the Little Red House.
Here at the house, they found everything they needed to survive, but no one had made contact. New supplies were dropped anonymously in the woods nearby. Every once in a while, forged identification documents would be among the supplies, allowing one of the escaped slaves to start a new life as a citizen of the Midwest. Sometimes there were written instructions for missions. The only pattern they had noticed was that all of the caps were delivered in multiples of 8, perhaps from a foreign currency exchange.
The group remembered the exchange rates they were aware of, and it ruled out Caesar's Legion and The Rustlands. They wished the former slaves good luck and moved on.
While traveling to Paintball Armageddon, Zero finally decided to look at the letter they were carrying. He carefully broke the seal and found a note detaling how the Brotherhood could manipulate the law to take control of Gamma Town. Lex was shocked, but Zero was glad he had opened it, swearing he would never deliver the message.
Zero was excited to visit Paintball Armageddon, whatever that was. They found an enormous pre-war recreation area.
A mister handy exclaimed, "Welcome to Paintball Armageddon, the Midwest's finest simulated combat recreation adventure! Test your mettle against our robotic paintball warriors, programmed with sneaky Marxist surprises! Only 20 caps to show the commies what America is made of!"
They rented paintball guns and entered the battleground. As often happens in the wasteland, at some time decades before, a malicious hacker had reprogrammed the "communist" robots to attack any players with lethal force. The group had to fight their way out of the paintball course, destroying hostile protectrons as they went. It was a long fight, but soon the robots were a junk pile with the party taking no significant injuries.
They were now in the general region of Gamma Town, but had so much more of Illinois to explore...
Next Session: SESSION 22: SILENCE IS GOLDEN
Next Session: SESSION 22: SILENCE IS GOLDEN
Players: (The Heroes of St. Louis): Lex Garridan, Linda, Mister Man, Zero
*May 26th, 2317*
(Adventure Day 32)
Penelope and her gang were dead. With the raider's forearm still flopping in Mr. Man's pincer, it was time to move on. The group turned eastward, looking to cross the radioactive Illinois River.
They reached the Goldenrod Docks where they found a ghoul named Harry operating a ferry. He charged them 18 caps to cross the river on his flat bottom boat, plus an extra fee to use his radiation suits. (If Lex or Mouse fell overboard, they would need protection from the water.) While crossing, Harry tried to make friendly chit-chat. Zero couldn't help but complain about the presence of the Midwest Brotherhood of Steel's troop in Emancipation.
By 10am, the party entered the village of Ravenwood. Lex remembered that back in Vault 40, Mrs. Darbinian had asked them to check on her son Joey. He was studying in Ravenwood's Farm School, but hadn't written home in 4 months. They decided to make the Farm School their first stop. It was a horticultural complex with rows and rows of plants, serviced by an elaborate watering system. There was a middle-aged man smoking outside.
They greeted the man, learning he was Professor Brandt, a horticulture teacher at the farm school. He was friendly welcoming. Zero asked Brandt if they could sit in on his class, careful not to mention Joey Darbinian's name, and Brandt agreed. The professor finished his cigarette and entered the school.
Brandt announced to his class of 20-somethings that today they had a special guest. Lex and Mister Man noticed Joey Darbinian was among them. He introduced Colonel Braxton, a visiting military officer from The Capitol. Braxton boasted to the students that The Capitol's water-purification plant (known as Project Purity) made their agriculture the most productive in America. He proudly announced that The Capitol was donating free textbooks to this Farm School.
As the Colonel went on, the group realized that they recognized his voice. When they had gone to Telecom City to retrieve rhodium metal for the Gravestone Cathedral, someone had overtaken Lex's Pip-Boy and threatened them with the facility's turrets (SESSION 12: MANY DIVISIONS, MANY CHOICES). The man had identified himself as "Uncle Sam." This Colonel Braxton's voice sounded exactly like Uncle Sam. The party waited for the class to end, at which point Zero left to speak to Braxton, while the others would talk to Joey Darbinian.
Joey recognized Lex, asking why she was here. Lex explained that his mother had sent them, worried for his safety. Joey explained that Professor Brandt had taught him that the Midwest was corrupt, and especially Vault-Tec. He wanted nothing to do with Vault 40, or his mother. He wanted to continue studying agriculture in The Capitol. Lex and Mister Man were unimpressed with Joey's attitude, and Professor Brandt's propaganda, but parted with him respectfully.
Zero found Colonel Braxton outside. The officer recognized Zero and greeted him. They had a long conversation, which the others eventually joined. Colonel Braxton explained that he had been gathering information on the "Heroes of St. Louis" ever since the St. Louis Attack killed The Capitol's diplomat. He was impressed with their exploits. And if they were here in Ravenwood, he surmised that the group had been traveling through the Mississippi River region. He asked if they had noticed anything strange.
Zero openly admitted that they had found evidence of an Enclave remnant operating in the area. Colonel Braxton confirmed that his informants had heard similar rumors, but had reported nothing as severe as what the group found at Earth Anchor or Center Nursing Station. Braxton claimed that The Capitol was still committed to wiping out the Enclave, and that if their old enemy had returned, there would certainly be war. If the Midwest Brotherhood had not been thoroughly infiltrated by The Enclave, then The Capitol would seek an alliance with them. But if the Midwest was under secret Enclave control, The Capitol would be looking for discrete allies who could help them overthrow the illegitimate government. Zero seemed amenable to the idea.
Lex was less impressed, remembering that Braxton had ordered them to give him the rhodium at Telecom City, threatening them with the facility's machine gun turrets. The colonel explained that he was ordered to gather the rhodium for his government, so they could make contaminator rifles - just like how Proton from the Gravestone Cathedral had sent them. So, he had made threats, but had no intention of ever firing on them. When they escaped the facility, he and his team had a functioning vertibird with an operable minigun. He could have easily gunned them down from the air, but chose not to.
Colonel Braxton went on to give a speech, extoling the virtues of his totalitarian state. The group were uninspired, but left on good terms.
Continuing Zero's policy that a town's bar was the best place to gather information, they next went to the Raven Saloon. Even in the morning, the saloon was busy with two groups of tough-looking travelers. They were served by a bartender named Karen. Zero ordered a beer and asked Karen what was new in town. As they talked, one of the road-hardened types approached them. He was a bounty hunter looking for Sandy from the village of Kingdom. The hunter explained that another bounty hunter named Rascal had come to the village first. If any of them captured Sandy, they were bound by the bounty hunter's code to hand him over to Rascal. She had dibs. The party promised the hunters that they would not take Rascal's bounty and they went back to drinking.
The group remembered that back in Kingdom, the Derby family had been forcing orphans to work in their metalworks. Wanting to hide these abuses from Brotherhood authorities, Edgar Derby had offered the party money to silence Sandy, one of his former employees. Sandy's sister Jolanta had begged them not to hurt him, and they promised that they would help them if they could (SESSION 16: THE SECRETS OF EARTH ANCHOR STATION.) With many bounty hunters already in the village, they had to work quickly.
They examined the village's boarding house, a building the village used to house guests. There were three rooms, one of which was being used to host Colonel Braxton. It was being constantly guarded by two Capitol Special Operations troops. The caretaker, Esther Hollybrook denied knowing of any Sandy. But Lex left a message for him with her, just in case.
The village's mayor was sitting on his porch, enjoying the warm afternoon. He reported that Ravenwood seemed to be in a lost area between Paladin Hector's territory and Paladin Axion's. The other towns in the Midwest were getting Brotherhood troops, but Ravenwood hadn't been offered any yet. So, he had written Paladin Axion in Gamma Town asking for them to send soldiers. He hoped the party would spread the word throughout the village that military occupation was a good thing. They were not interested, especially Zero, who was still angry about Scribe Keres' presence in Emancipation.
A sign reading "New America Plasma Solutions" seemed to promise some powerful weaponry for sale. But all they found was the Howard family packing up their things. They were disillusioned with the Midwest Brotherhood and were packing up and moving to The Capitol. The family spoke glowingly about the totalitarian state and looked forward to building plasma weapon there. The party remembered that The Capitol had pursued the St. Louis Summit specifically to trade their food for the New California Republic's weapons. The idea of The Capitol with plasma weapons unsettled them, but they decided not to intervene.
Linda, wishing to spread belief in Atom, began a speech to the Howards. Mr. Howard stopped her, explaining that The Capitol had proven there was no God. And if there was an Atom, he was certainly nowhere near as glorious as Great Leader. The party were afraid Linda might be driven to violence and warned Mr. Howard. He reluctantly withdrew his statement, clearly upset but intimidated. The party left, though it was a tense goodbye.
They went to Purnima House, where rich landowner Sashi Purnima was tending to her petunias. Speaking to her, she asked if they could ask Mayor Tsukuda if he was planning to ask for Brotherhood occupation. The group reported that the mayor had already written Paladin Axion, asking for occupation without any public discussion. Ms. Purnima was clearly both anti-Capitol and against Brotherhood military rule - a somewhat kindred spirit. She expressed that she would call for a vote of no confidence against the mayor. They asked her about Sandy, and she admitted that the village was hosting him at the boarding house. He was currently working at Ravenwood Concrete.
Examining the workers at the concrete facility, they easily spotted one who hadn't worked with a hammer for years and years. It was Sandy, who wished to stay in the village. But the group convinced him to flee to Gamma Town. They agreed to retrieve his possessions and he would leave right away.
Heading back to the boarding house, they noticed they were being followed. Using the terrain to draw out their pursuer, Lex's Pip-Boy once again sprang to life. It was Colonel Braxton, who had one of his SpecOps following them. The soldier was equipped with a Stealth Boy cloaking field, which she turned off and returned to her companions at the boarding house.
They next returned to the Ravenwood Saloon where Karen the bartender was winning a drinking contest with the bounty hunters. The party deceived the hunters, convincing them that Sandy had fled the village, heading south. They left immediately.
The party gathered up Sandy's things and delivered them to him. They gave him some additional supplies and money and wished him luck. With that, they left the village and headed south.
The Little Red House was far from little. It was a 30 room mansion with adjacent servants' and carriage houses. There was over a hundred people engaged in spring planting. Looking closely, Mister Man noticed that many of them had scars where Caesar's Legion tattoo their slaves.
Zero stopped a random worker and noted that they were friends of Tameka and Booch, abolitionists in the Emancipation area. The freed man didn't want to talk much, clearly his flight from the Legion was a secret operation. He described how Tameka had come to his farm, purportedly bought as a new slave. She had rallied the slaves to escape, leaving them to find Booches Bar on their own, where they were directed to the Little Red House.
Here at the house, they found everything they needed to survive, but no one had made contact. New supplies were dropped anonymously in the woods nearby. Every once in a while, forged identification documents would be among the supplies, allowing one of the escaped slaves to start a new life as a citizen of the Midwest. Sometimes there were written instructions for missions. The only pattern they had noticed was that all of the caps were delivered in multiples of 8, perhaps from a foreign currency exchange.
The group remembered the exchange rates they were aware of, and it ruled out Caesar's Legion and The Rustlands. They wished the former slaves good luck and moved on.
While traveling to Paintball Armageddon, Zero finally decided to look at the letter they were carrying. He carefully broke the seal and found a note detaling how the Brotherhood could manipulate the law to take control of Gamma Town. Lex was shocked, but Zero was glad he had opened it, swearing he would never deliver the message.
Zero was excited to visit Paintball Armageddon, whatever that was. They found an enormous pre-war recreation area.
A mister handy exclaimed, "Welcome to Paintball Armageddon, the Midwest's finest simulated combat recreation adventure! Test your mettle against our robotic paintball warriors, programmed with sneaky Marxist surprises! Only 20 caps to show the commies what America is made of!"
They rented paintball guns and entered the battleground. As often happens in the wasteland, at some time decades before, a malicious hacker had reprogrammed the "communist" robots to attack any players with lethal force. The group had to fight their way out of the paintball course, destroying hostile protectrons as they went. It was a long fight, but soon the robots were a junk pile with the party taking no significant injuries.
They were now in the general region of Gamma Town, but had so much more of Illinois to explore...
Next Session: SESSION 22: SILENCE IS GOLDEN
Missions/Quests Completed
LEVEL 6: +1 Perk, +1 Skill Point, +1 Hit Point
Character(s) interacted with
Report Date
30 Sep 2021
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