SESSION 55: REVELATION ROAD
General Summary
Previous Session: SESSION 54: ESCAPE FROM DEVOTION BUNKER
Next Session: SESSION 56: 52 AND YOU!
Players: Current Adventuring Party, Andy, Lex Garridan, Linda, Morag
*August 30, 2317*
(Adventure Day 128)
Wyatt's van rumbled to life as the team piled in. Down the road, reinforcements from The Capitol were approaching fast. Another blue power armour wearing Corrector was leading twenty-four Capitol soldiers to investigate the fighting at Devotion Bunker. The party braced for more combat, but Lex stomped the gas to the floor and pushed the van as fast as it could accelerate. The Capitol soldiers took position and began to fire with their New California Republic rifles, but the van pulled away unharmed.
Professor Gritch began to complain about the situation. He was shocked that Morag had sprouted claws and that Colonel Braxton had thought he could control her. He was also concerned that Lex had shouted "NO!" at the Corrector in the bunker, and he had screamed and grabbed his head. There were strange things going on and he was afraid. He needed to get to Mount Vernon, a Brotherhood of Steel base where he could get a ride back to Vault 40. The party were impatient with him, as he was little help during the fight. Steve Gritch was indignant, threatening to get out of the van and just swim back to the Midwest Brotherhood of Steel on his own. He was surprised to find that the party were unconcerned with his threat.
There was the question of where to go. They had a vehicle. But with limited fuel, their range was not very wide. Kentucky Dam would most likely still be covered with NCR elites. They had just had a hard time with one unit of Capitol regulars, a team of Californians with anti-material rifles seemed daunting. But the Ohio River still needed to be crossed if they were going to get to the Midwest, which could be entirely untouched by war. Professor Gritch had mentioned Twin Swamps Gap, an old smuggler's ford. It wasn't so much a solid crossing as a swampy marshland where the deepest pools of radioactive water could be avoided. There was also the path northward, the Capitol city of Torn Hope had a solid bridge across the Wabash River into the Midwest. There, they could count on Midwest Brotherhood border guards to protect them the moment they got onto the bridge. But that was 200 miles away.
In any case, they needed to get somewhere safe from Capitol soldiers. Morag had never been in this region, but she knew the layout well enough to direct them toward thick forest to the north. Though Lex was fatigued from the encounter in the bunker, she drove them, optimizing their speed for fuel efficiency. As they drove, Arminius heard a noise he was unfamiliar with, but concerned him. The group scanned around them and saw a Capitol vertibird approaching them in the night sky. The dual-rotor aircraft was configured in gunship mode, armed with two heavy gatling lasers and a weapons pod filled with air-to-air and anti-tank missiles. Lex accelerated the van to as fast as it would go, which even with the engine growling was 60mph.
Linda gathered up the surface to air missile launcher that Wyatt had left in the back of the van. Opening the back door, she had a clean shot at the vertibird. But the complicated SAM launcher required a radar lock-on before it would fire. New to the device, Linda lined up the shot and waited for the lock. At the same time, the radio on Lex's wrist-worn Pip Boy computer started to chirp. The vertibird was pursuing its own lock-on, aiming its devastating anti-tank missiles at the van. [Overseer's note: That missile does 8 dice damage, Breaking 2, Vicious 5. It would have blown up the van, which would've blown up the players. If they had somehow survived that, they would be road-rash-ing down the highway at 60mph. I am fine with a Total-Party-Kill at this point. 55 sessions would've been a fine run, starting again at Level 1 is okay with me. Welcome to Act 2!]
Morag asked Beau if they could somehow target the pilot of the vertibird. Beau remarked that the shot would be difficult, but definitely heroic, and therefore worthy of their time. She did her best to lean out of the passenger window to line up a good shot. And with Beau's help, Morag put a bullet into the pilot's left arm. The pilot was unable to both fly the aircraft and engage the gatling lasers. The weapons officer sitting in the second seat dropped their radar lock-on and switched to guns. The gatling lasers hummed to life, spraying bolts of energy. Wyatt's armoured van mostly absorbed the shots, but the rear left wheel was destroyed, slowing down the vehicle and leaving it unstable.
Linda engaged her shoulder-mounted SAM, but the rocket propelled missile did not launch. Fired within the van's small interior, the weapon could not draw enough oxygen from the environment to engage. The hot missile was just sitting in the tube, ready to go off at any second. Linda tossed the whole weapon system out of the back of the moving van. It hit the ground with a thud. But now exposed to the open night air, the missile then launched into the air. The projectile spun around trying to maneuver into the vertibird.
Linda began to sing a hymn of the Children of Atom. She found communion with her friends, empowering them with the energy of her faith. At the same time, Lex kept a hand on the steering wheel but leaned out with her other hand and shot the pilot with her 10mm pistol. The pilot was struck and died, the vertibird lurching with no direction. The weapons officer had to grab the flight yoke and steady the craft. So, Morag and Lex just put another two expert shots into the gunner. Injured and with a SAM spiraling around, the gunner pulled hard on the yoke, climbing the vertibird to safety as fast as possible. Soon, the gunship was entirely out of sight, the SAM having run out of fuel.
The party stopped at Hickory Creek, an old array of luxury hunting lodges. They repaired the van's wheel, fixed Andy, healed each other and camouflaged the van in order to sleep. It had been a very long day; the entire adventure with Wyatt and the bunker had only started 14 hours earlier. The wasteland was at war now. The Capitol and NCR were invading Dixie, and no one could tell what the repercussions would be. All of the great powers had big decisions to make. But the group simply needed rest, especially Lex, who was starting to look sweaty and pallid. Linda had already developed an addiction to Jet from her one use of the chem within the bunker, but she had no more doses to take. They made camp within and around the van and went to sleep, Andy the SchlockettBot taking watch. That night, Morag tossed and turned with troubling dreams.
*August 31, 2317*
(Adventure Day 129)
In the morning, the group were entirely focused on escape. They took stock of their fuel. The van only had enough fuel to travel another 30 miles or so, not even half way to Twin Swamps Gap. They would have to find fuel, or go by foot. And without Capitol citizenship papers or a merchant's license, either of those options were going to be difficult. They decided to head up to Lawless Blacksmith Shop, hoping the name indicated some resistance to Capitol authority.
There they found the blacksmith shop run by Cinder the intelligent Deathclaw. Cinder indicated that he did have items to trade, but that he required Capitol Credits. And the risk of trading without them having a merchant's license meant that the trade would cost them even more credits. The party didn't have any of the Capitol's money on them. Cinder was unimpressed, but he did speak to them. He told the story of his grandfather, an Enclave Deathclaw named Whipple. This Deathclaw had been deployed by The Enclave 40 years ago in the assault on Project Purity in the Capital Wasteland. The Enclave had ordered Whipple to kill civilians in the raid, and he refused, turning on his masters. After the Capital Wasteland Brotherhood of Steel had secured Project Purity and defeated the Enclave, their leader, Elder Lyons had offered Whipple a place in their organization. Knight Whipple rose to become a decorated officer in the Capital Brotherhood. But after their defeat in Boston, their society was restructured into The Capitol. Great Leader did not allow non-humans in the service, so Whipple was stripped of all rank and decoration.
And so Cinder just kept to himself in his little blacksmith shop, having no love for either The Capitol nor The Enclave. It was a lonely life. He had no mate and no harem-brothers to live with. He entertained himself with trips to the village of Posey to drink and gamble. In a recent streak of bad luck, he had lost his prized possession: a genuine Grognak the Barbarian axe. The beautiful pre-war relic had been collected by a MerchantBot from The Rustlands who was now making camp up at Cane Ridge. The party thanked Cinder for his time, a bit frightened, and left.
The party drove on, passing through the ruins of Tolu, Kentucky. A hooded figure flagged them down from the side of the road and darted into a ruined building. The group were on edge, but they followed. The person turned out to be Chance, a human chem dealer who wandered these parts. He offered them trade, information and a job opportunity. After much discussion, Linda bought some Jet and the party traded a number of items for a stack of Capitol Credits. Additionally, Chance told them that the Parades family who lived up the road had biodiesel for sale, but that they should watch themselves because the Parades were Commonwealth Synths. And his job opportunity turned out to be a situation where a merchant named Kamal was up on Diamond Island, selling without a merchant license. Chance had acquired a counterfeit license for Kamal, but because of the war, was to afraid to travel and bring it to him. Chance suggested the party could buy the license from him for a small sum and then deliver it to Kamal, who would pay much, much more for it. The group agreed, thinking the fake merchant license might come in handy.
It was still morning when the group drove to old Coal Processor #3, where the Parades Family lived. By the time they got there, the van was almost out of fuel. The Parades family turned out to be a mother, father and baby: Lina, Silver and Milo. They greeted the group with a casual, New England style and their thick Bostonian accents. They acknowledged that they had biodiesel to sell, as they were corn farmers. Morag produced a small medallion from her pocket and began to roll it in her fingers deftly. Lina asked Morag if she knew what her medallion meant and if the party were safe to talk around, and Morag reassured them that everything was cool.
Baby Milo erupted with a, "Oh, thank gawd," in a thick Boston accent. He was a 39 year old Synth, and didn't like having to act like a baby. The Parades family explained that they were Institute Synths from Boston. They told that after the people of Boston had destroyed The Institute, an organization known as The Railroad had gathered all of the Institute's synthetic servants and freed them. If a Synth requested it, The Railroad erased their former, servile personality and reprogrammed them with a new persona of the Synth's choosing. So that nowadays, if you met a Synth, they weren't the person the Institute had created, but an aspirational personality of their own design. The Parades family had all been separate Synths in their previous lives, but knowing that Baby Milo would always be stuck in a baby's body, they had designed their new personalities to be a family in order to support him.
Morag revealed that she was a Synth, and hints of a Boston accent started to creep into her speech. She told the Parades family about how Colonel Braxton had held up a radio transmitter and thought that he could control her. The other Synths were horrified. They said that every Synth had a control frequency, a particular radio frequency which would put them into a slavish state of obedience. Each Synth also had a unique command code, a series of random words which would also put them into service mode. When the Institute fell, a Railroad agent called Tinker Tom had downloaded the entire Institute database of command frequencies and codes. But this was only to draw all the Synths to Railroad headquarters and free them. They had been assured that the database had been deleted. If someone had that data, they could control every Synth in the wasteland.
The Parades wanted to help Morag, so they offered the party biodiesel at half price. The group spent all the Capitol Credits they had on fuel. The Parades also lamented that their "daughter" Hennie Parades, had been caught a few weeks back trading outside of an official Commercial Station. This was a crime and she was taken by the Correctors. When the government thugs discovered that Hennie was a Synth, they decided not to send her for "rehabilitation" and instead sold her at auction as a slave. The Parades had attended the auction, but they were outbid by a Detroit MerchantBot named Irving. It was said he and his slavers were still trading up at Cane Ridge. The group said they were sorry for the terrible situation and might help if they could; they were still trying to survive behind enemy lines, after all. The Parades remarked that they had already heard of the war, people had come through this morning celebrating that The Capitol was going to finally eliminate Dixie. Great Leader would spread her perfect society to those savages once and for all. The Parades didn't buy it, but many of their neighbours did.
Baby Milo suggested that Morag hold him for a while, to show him their van. Noticing that Milo wanted to talk to her without the other Synths hearing, she took up Milo and walked to where they would not be heard. Milo said that he had heard a rumour, but it was vague and troubling. The source was not good and he didn't want to upset his family, nor did he want to spread lies. Morag tried to coax him to say more, but he remained vague. He said only that The Railroad had relied on a person named Dr. Amari to wipe their memories and program their new personalities. This was done at a place in Boston called the Memory Den. Most Synths viewed Dr. Amari as a saintly figure, saving them from the submissive personalities the Institute gave them and allowing them to live as the people they aspired to be. But Milo had heard vague rumours that perhaps Dr. Amari wasn't as benevolent as her reputation held.
Everyone wished each other good luck and the group drove away. In a place called Chapel Hills, they noticed a series of concrete houses sunk into the side of the hill. Walking between them was a pair of hunters, decked out in basic survival gear. The group greeted them and asked them about news and geographical knowledge. The two remarked that even with the war, the region was mostly quiet. There were bandits on the roads, but one never knew exactly where they were or what they were up to. The party tried to hold Linda back, but she began to talk about Atom. The two hunters were interested and asked for more information. Knowing that Atom-worship was a crime in The Capitol, the party tried to change the subject, but Linda kept talking. And it turned out that this community were Children of Atom, who even had a Confessor who would want to meet Linda.
Confessor Kean's little house in the side of the hill was cozy but very defensible. He was an older man, who spoke with a gentle voice. He greeted the party and invited them in. Kean marveled at her hand-made pamphlet and complimented Linda on her faith. Linda showed him her lead ring, given to her by Lyle the first Inquisitor, and told him of her being blessed with the Atomic Storm in the streets of Gravestone. He was astonished that Atom had shown her such favour, but also warned that Atom's blessings were always a challenge. Atom would test her, and these tests would be painful. It was like that for them here in The Capitol, his congregation were doing important work keeping the faith alive, but it was dangerous. The Correctors wanted them all dead.
Lex spoke up, saying that after she had been kidnapped in Memphis, she found herself traveling the roads of The Capitol with a merchant name Niramay. She had just woken up in this man's cart, but he had treated her wounds and helped her escape. The man had been caught by the Correctors, and instead of giving up Lex, he had fought back. He died of his wounds, his last breath asking Lex to hide the signs that he was a Child of Atom so that the Correctors would not come after his congregation. Lex was still carrying his revolver. Kean had known Niramay, a member of their group, and was saddened at news of his death. Lex offered Kean Niramay's revolver, but the Confessor thought that perhaps Atom had put it in her hands for a purpose.
Kean carefully broached the subject of non-humans being thrown out of their religion. The Confessor admitted that the apathy of High Confessor Leo I had been testing his faith. When the subject of non-humans became controversial in the faith, only two years ago, the debate eventually went to the hall of Confessors. There the Mothers, Confessors and Inquisitors held a vote to expel non-humans, and expulsion had barely won the day. As leader of the religion, Leo had the power to override this body, he could dictate expulsion or acceptance with a single order. But the High Confessor hadn't weighed in on the subject at all. He had skipped all of the debates, even choosing not to attend the final vote. It was said that Leo mostly stayed in his holy apartments, studying by himself. He was rarely seen in public, only leading prayers on holy days. Though it might be blasphemous to say it, Confessor Kean felt that Leo was abandoning his people when they needed him most. He remarked that Linda might want to go to Holy Toledo and demand that the religion be brought back to sense. But that this would be extremely dangerous.
The party asked if Kean had anything to eat, and he fell over himself with hospitality. He was embarrassed that he hadn't offered them anything and began cooking. As friends of Linda, they were all very welcome and he would be honoured if they ate breakfast with him. It was a wet summer day in West Kentucky, behind enemy lines in a fascist state, but at least they had eggs...
...1500 miles away in Caesar's Legion, hard sunlight shone through the bars of prison cell's glassless window. Obscisus Urus sat on a scratched wooden bench, staring at the bricks in front of him. The cell was small enough that the huge man's knees almost touched the opposite wall. Urus breathed deeply, invoking the battle meditation Gaius Fringus had taught him, keeping his volcanic temper at bay. He focused on his escape. One of these guards would be undisciplined. He would be too weak and lazy to fasten his uncomfortable neck shield. The Impavidae Dux would find this guard, break his neck and use the corpse as a shield. And then it would be as simple as walking out. But he would have to keep his rage cool, choke it down.
The patterned light of window bars on the wall began to shift, just slightly. And with it came the sound of crackling plasma. Obscisus Ursus looked to his window and saw hands, a woman's hands, stretching to cut the bars with an energy tool. At first he simply watched. This was certainly no Legionary and could not be trusted. It was best to wait and observe.
"Do you want out or not?" a voice grumbled from outside.
Urus approached the window and looked out. There below him was a woman in a suit, the old dress clothes of the pre-war world. Her long brown hair was tied back in an elaborate braid and she wore dark glasses. She held a plasma cutter, a rare pre-war tool that Ursus had only read about in books.
"That depends on what it will cost me," Ursus answered.
"How about a couple years of service?" the woman said, tossing the plasma cutter up through the window. "I'm building a team that kills things for me. That should suit your temperament. And they need a leader. That should suit your ego."
Obscisus Ursus carefully drew the plasma cutter around the frame of the window, not cutting through the bars, but through the brick wall itself. He had to in order to make a hole big enough for his body to squeeze through.
When he was out, he towered over the strange woman, the crackling energy tool in his hand. He could easily dispatch her. But instead, he growled, "You stink of treachery like no one I've ever seen."
Mirabelle lit a cigarette, took a drag and replied, "Then you'd better be smart."
Next Session: SESSION 56: 52 AND YOU!
Next Session: SESSION 56: 52 AND YOU!
Players: Current Adventuring Party, Andy, Lex Garridan, Linda, Morag
*August 30, 2317*
(Adventure Day 128)
Wyatt's van rumbled to life as the team piled in. Down the road, reinforcements from The Capitol were approaching fast. Another blue power armour wearing Corrector was leading twenty-four Capitol soldiers to investigate the fighting at Devotion Bunker. The party braced for more combat, but Lex stomped the gas to the floor and pushed the van as fast as it could accelerate. The Capitol soldiers took position and began to fire with their New California Republic rifles, but the van pulled away unharmed.
Professor Gritch began to complain about the situation. He was shocked that Morag had sprouted claws and that Colonel Braxton had thought he could control her. He was also concerned that Lex had shouted "NO!" at the Corrector in the bunker, and he had screamed and grabbed his head. There were strange things going on and he was afraid. He needed to get to Mount Vernon, a Brotherhood of Steel base where he could get a ride back to Vault 40. The party were impatient with him, as he was little help during the fight. Steve Gritch was indignant, threatening to get out of the van and just swim back to the Midwest Brotherhood of Steel on his own. He was surprised to find that the party were unconcerned with his threat.
There was the question of where to go. They had a vehicle. But with limited fuel, their range was not very wide. Kentucky Dam would most likely still be covered with NCR elites. They had just had a hard time with one unit of Capitol regulars, a team of Californians with anti-material rifles seemed daunting. But the Ohio River still needed to be crossed if they were going to get to the Midwest, which could be entirely untouched by war. Professor Gritch had mentioned Twin Swamps Gap, an old smuggler's ford. It wasn't so much a solid crossing as a swampy marshland where the deepest pools of radioactive water could be avoided. There was also the path northward, the Capitol city of Torn Hope had a solid bridge across the Wabash River into the Midwest. There, they could count on Midwest Brotherhood border guards to protect them the moment they got onto the bridge. But that was 200 miles away.
In any case, they needed to get somewhere safe from Capitol soldiers. Morag had never been in this region, but she knew the layout well enough to direct them toward thick forest to the north. Though Lex was fatigued from the encounter in the bunker, she drove them, optimizing their speed for fuel efficiency. As they drove, Arminius heard a noise he was unfamiliar with, but concerned him. The group scanned around them and saw a Capitol vertibird approaching them in the night sky. The dual-rotor aircraft was configured in gunship mode, armed with two heavy gatling lasers and a weapons pod filled with air-to-air and anti-tank missiles. Lex accelerated the van to as fast as it would go, which even with the engine growling was 60mph.
Linda gathered up the surface to air missile launcher that Wyatt had left in the back of the van. Opening the back door, she had a clean shot at the vertibird. But the complicated SAM launcher required a radar lock-on before it would fire. New to the device, Linda lined up the shot and waited for the lock. At the same time, the radio on Lex's wrist-worn Pip Boy computer started to chirp. The vertibird was pursuing its own lock-on, aiming its devastating anti-tank missiles at the van. [Overseer's note: That missile does 8 dice damage, Breaking 2, Vicious 5. It would have blown up the van, which would've blown up the players. If they had somehow survived that, they would be road-rash-ing down the highway at 60mph. I am fine with a Total-Party-Kill at this point. 55 sessions would've been a fine run, starting again at Level 1 is okay with me. Welcome to Act 2!]
Morag asked Beau if they could somehow target the pilot of the vertibird. Beau remarked that the shot would be difficult, but definitely heroic, and therefore worthy of their time. She did her best to lean out of the passenger window to line up a good shot. And with Beau's help, Morag put a bullet into the pilot's left arm. The pilot was unable to both fly the aircraft and engage the gatling lasers. The weapons officer sitting in the second seat dropped their radar lock-on and switched to guns. The gatling lasers hummed to life, spraying bolts of energy. Wyatt's armoured van mostly absorbed the shots, but the rear left wheel was destroyed, slowing down the vehicle and leaving it unstable.
Linda engaged her shoulder-mounted SAM, but the rocket propelled missile did not launch. Fired within the van's small interior, the weapon could not draw enough oxygen from the environment to engage. The hot missile was just sitting in the tube, ready to go off at any second. Linda tossed the whole weapon system out of the back of the moving van. It hit the ground with a thud. But now exposed to the open night air, the missile then launched into the air. The projectile spun around trying to maneuver into the vertibird.
Linda began to sing a hymn of the Children of Atom. She found communion with her friends, empowering them with the energy of her faith. At the same time, Lex kept a hand on the steering wheel but leaned out with her other hand and shot the pilot with her 10mm pistol. The pilot was struck and died, the vertibird lurching with no direction. The weapons officer had to grab the flight yoke and steady the craft. So, Morag and Lex just put another two expert shots into the gunner. Injured and with a SAM spiraling around, the gunner pulled hard on the yoke, climbing the vertibird to safety as fast as possible. Soon, the gunship was entirely out of sight, the SAM having run out of fuel.
The party stopped at Hickory Creek, an old array of luxury hunting lodges. They repaired the van's wheel, fixed Andy, healed each other and camouflaged the van in order to sleep. It had been a very long day; the entire adventure with Wyatt and the bunker had only started 14 hours earlier. The wasteland was at war now. The Capitol and NCR were invading Dixie, and no one could tell what the repercussions would be. All of the great powers had big decisions to make. But the group simply needed rest, especially Lex, who was starting to look sweaty and pallid. Linda had already developed an addiction to Jet from her one use of the chem within the bunker, but she had no more doses to take. They made camp within and around the van and went to sleep, Andy the SchlockettBot taking watch. That night, Morag tossed and turned with troubling dreams.
*August 31, 2317*
(Adventure Day 129)
In the morning, the group were entirely focused on escape. They took stock of their fuel. The van only had enough fuel to travel another 30 miles or so, not even half way to Twin Swamps Gap. They would have to find fuel, or go by foot. And without Capitol citizenship papers or a merchant's license, either of those options were going to be difficult. They decided to head up to Lawless Blacksmith Shop, hoping the name indicated some resistance to Capitol authority.
There they found the blacksmith shop run by Cinder the intelligent Deathclaw. Cinder indicated that he did have items to trade, but that he required Capitol Credits. And the risk of trading without them having a merchant's license meant that the trade would cost them even more credits. The party didn't have any of the Capitol's money on them. Cinder was unimpressed, but he did speak to them. He told the story of his grandfather, an Enclave Deathclaw named Whipple. This Deathclaw had been deployed by The Enclave 40 years ago in the assault on Project Purity in the Capital Wasteland. The Enclave had ordered Whipple to kill civilians in the raid, and he refused, turning on his masters. After the Capital Wasteland Brotherhood of Steel had secured Project Purity and defeated the Enclave, their leader, Elder Lyons had offered Whipple a place in their organization. Knight Whipple rose to become a decorated officer in the Capital Brotherhood. But after their defeat in Boston, their society was restructured into The Capitol. Great Leader did not allow non-humans in the service, so Whipple was stripped of all rank and decoration.
And so Cinder just kept to himself in his little blacksmith shop, having no love for either The Capitol nor The Enclave. It was a lonely life. He had no mate and no harem-brothers to live with. He entertained himself with trips to the village of Posey to drink and gamble. In a recent streak of bad luck, he had lost his prized possession: a genuine Grognak the Barbarian axe. The beautiful pre-war relic had been collected by a MerchantBot from The Rustlands who was now making camp up at Cane Ridge. The party thanked Cinder for his time, a bit frightened, and left.
The party drove on, passing through the ruins of Tolu, Kentucky. A hooded figure flagged them down from the side of the road and darted into a ruined building. The group were on edge, but they followed. The person turned out to be Chance, a human chem dealer who wandered these parts. He offered them trade, information and a job opportunity. After much discussion, Linda bought some Jet and the party traded a number of items for a stack of Capitol Credits. Additionally, Chance told them that the Parades family who lived up the road had biodiesel for sale, but that they should watch themselves because the Parades were Commonwealth Synths. And his job opportunity turned out to be a situation where a merchant named Kamal was up on Diamond Island, selling without a merchant license. Chance had acquired a counterfeit license for Kamal, but because of the war, was to afraid to travel and bring it to him. Chance suggested the party could buy the license from him for a small sum and then deliver it to Kamal, who would pay much, much more for it. The group agreed, thinking the fake merchant license might come in handy.
It was still morning when the group drove to old Coal Processor #3, where the Parades Family lived. By the time they got there, the van was almost out of fuel. The Parades family turned out to be a mother, father and baby: Lina, Silver and Milo. They greeted the group with a casual, New England style and their thick Bostonian accents. They acknowledged that they had biodiesel to sell, as they were corn farmers. Morag produced a small medallion from her pocket and began to roll it in her fingers deftly. Lina asked Morag if she knew what her medallion meant and if the party were safe to talk around, and Morag reassured them that everything was cool.
Baby Milo erupted with a, "Oh, thank gawd," in a thick Boston accent. He was a 39 year old Synth, and didn't like having to act like a baby. The Parades family explained that they were Institute Synths from Boston. They told that after the people of Boston had destroyed The Institute, an organization known as The Railroad had gathered all of the Institute's synthetic servants and freed them. If a Synth requested it, The Railroad erased their former, servile personality and reprogrammed them with a new persona of the Synth's choosing. So that nowadays, if you met a Synth, they weren't the person the Institute had created, but an aspirational personality of their own design. The Parades family had all been separate Synths in their previous lives, but knowing that Baby Milo would always be stuck in a baby's body, they had designed their new personalities to be a family in order to support him.
Morag revealed that she was a Synth, and hints of a Boston accent started to creep into her speech. She told the Parades family about how Colonel Braxton had held up a radio transmitter and thought that he could control her. The other Synths were horrified. They said that every Synth had a control frequency, a particular radio frequency which would put them into a slavish state of obedience. Each Synth also had a unique command code, a series of random words which would also put them into service mode. When the Institute fell, a Railroad agent called Tinker Tom had downloaded the entire Institute database of command frequencies and codes. But this was only to draw all the Synths to Railroad headquarters and free them. They had been assured that the database had been deleted. If someone had that data, they could control every Synth in the wasteland.
The Parades wanted to help Morag, so they offered the party biodiesel at half price. The group spent all the Capitol Credits they had on fuel. The Parades also lamented that their "daughter" Hennie Parades, had been caught a few weeks back trading outside of an official Commercial Station. This was a crime and she was taken by the Correctors. When the government thugs discovered that Hennie was a Synth, they decided not to send her for "rehabilitation" and instead sold her at auction as a slave. The Parades had attended the auction, but they were outbid by a Detroit MerchantBot named Irving. It was said he and his slavers were still trading up at Cane Ridge. The group said they were sorry for the terrible situation and might help if they could; they were still trying to survive behind enemy lines, after all. The Parades remarked that they had already heard of the war, people had come through this morning celebrating that The Capitol was going to finally eliminate Dixie. Great Leader would spread her perfect society to those savages once and for all. The Parades didn't buy it, but many of their neighbours did.
Baby Milo suggested that Morag hold him for a while, to show him their van. Noticing that Milo wanted to talk to her without the other Synths hearing, she took up Milo and walked to where they would not be heard. Milo said that he had heard a rumour, but it was vague and troubling. The source was not good and he didn't want to upset his family, nor did he want to spread lies. Morag tried to coax him to say more, but he remained vague. He said only that The Railroad had relied on a person named Dr. Amari to wipe their memories and program their new personalities. This was done at a place in Boston called the Memory Den. Most Synths viewed Dr. Amari as a saintly figure, saving them from the submissive personalities the Institute gave them and allowing them to live as the people they aspired to be. But Milo had heard vague rumours that perhaps Dr. Amari wasn't as benevolent as her reputation held.
Everyone wished each other good luck and the group drove away. In a place called Chapel Hills, they noticed a series of concrete houses sunk into the side of the hill. Walking between them was a pair of hunters, decked out in basic survival gear. The group greeted them and asked them about news and geographical knowledge. The two remarked that even with the war, the region was mostly quiet. There were bandits on the roads, but one never knew exactly where they were or what they were up to. The party tried to hold Linda back, but she began to talk about Atom. The two hunters were interested and asked for more information. Knowing that Atom-worship was a crime in The Capitol, the party tried to change the subject, but Linda kept talking. And it turned out that this community were Children of Atom, who even had a Confessor who would want to meet Linda.
Confessor Kean's little house in the side of the hill was cozy but very defensible. He was an older man, who spoke with a gentle voice. He greeted the party and invited them in. Kean marveled at her hand-made pamphlet and complimented Linda on her faith. Linda showed him her lead ring, given to her by Lyle the first Inquisitor, and told him of her being blessed with the Atomic Storm in the streets of Gravestone. He was astonished that Atom had shown her such favour, but also warned that Atom's blessings were always a challenge. Atom would test her, and these tests would be painful. It was like that for them here in The Capitol, his congregation were doing important work keeping the faith alive, but it was dangerous. The Correctors wanted them all dead.
Lex spoke up, saying that after she had been kidnapped in Memphis, she found herself traveling the roads of The Capitol with a merchant name Niramay. She had just woken up in this man's cart, but he had treated her wounds and helped her escape. The man had been caught by the Correctors, and instead of giving up Lex, he had fought back. He died of his wounds, his last breath asking Lex to hide the signs that he was a Child of Atom so that the Correctors would not come after his congregation. Lex was still carrying his revolver. Kean had known Niramay, a member of their group, and was saddened at news of his death. Lex offered Kean Niramay's revolver, but the Confessor thought that perhaps Atom had put it in her hands for a purpose.
Kean carefully broached the subject of non-humans being thrown out of their religion. The Confessor admitted that the apathy of High Confessor Leo I had been testing his faith. When the subject of non-humans became controversial in the faith, only two years ago, the debate eventually went to the hall of Confessors. There the Mothers, Confessors and Inquisitors held a vote to expel non-humans, and expulsion had barely won the day. As leader of the religion, Leo had the power to override this body, he could dictate expulsion or acceptance with a single order. But the High Confessor hadn't weighed in on the subject at all. He had skipped all of the debates, even choosing not to attend the final vote. It was said that Leo mostly stayed in his holy apartments, studying by himself. He was rarely seen in public, only leading prayers on holy days. Though it might be blasphemous to say it, Confessor Kean felt that Leo was abandoning his people when they needed him most. He remarked that Linda might want to go to Holy Toledo and demand that the religion be brought back to sense. But that this would be extremely dangerous.
The party asked if Kean had anything to eat, and he fell over himself with hospitality. He was embarrassed that he hadn't offered them anything and began cooking. As friends of Linda, they were all very welcome and he would be honoured if they ate breakfast with him. It was a wet summer day in West Kentucky, behind enemy lines in a fascist state, but at least they had eggs...
...1500 miles away in Caesar's Legion, hard sunlight shone through the bars of prison cell's glassless window. Obscisus Urus sat on a scratched wooden bench, staring at the bricks in front of him. The cell was small enough that the huge man's knees almost touched the opposite wall. Urus breathed deeply, invoking the battle meditation Gaius Fringus had taught him, keeping his volcanic temper at bay. He focused on his escape. One of these guards would be undisciplined. He would be too weak and lazy to fasten his uncomfortable neck shield. The Impavidae Dux would find this guard, break his neck and use the corpse as a shield. And then it would be as simple as walking out. But he would have to keep his rage cool, choke it down.
The patterned light of window bars on the wall began to shift, just slightly. And with it came the sound of crackling plasma. Obscisus Ursus looked to his window and saw hands, a woman's hands, stretching to cut the bars with an energy tool. At first he simply watched. This was certainly no Legionary and could not be trusted. It was best to wait and observe.
"Do you want out or not?" a voice grumbled from outside.
Urus approached the window and looked out. There below him was a woman in a suit, the old dress clothes of the pre-war world. Her long brown hair was tied back in an elaborate braid and she wore dark glasses. She held a plasma cutter, a rare pre-war tool that Ursus had only read about in books.
"That depends on what it will cost me," Ursus answered.
"How about a couple years of service?" the woman said, tossing the plasma cutter up through the window. "I'm building a team that kills things for me. That should suit your temperament. And they need a leader. That should suit your ego."
Obscisus Ursus carefully drew the plasma cutter around the frame of the window, not cutting through the bars, but through the brick wall itself. He had to in order to make a hole big enough for his body to squeeze through.
When he was out, he towered over the strange woman, the crackling energy tool in his hand. He could easily dispatch her. But instead, he growled, "You stink of treachery like no one I've ever seen."
Mirabelle lit a cigarette, took a drag and replied, "Then you'd better be smart."
Next Session: SESSION 56: 52 AND YOU!
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Character(s) interacted with
Report Date
12 Nov 2022
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