SESSION 64: ANDY AND LINDA GO TO FUNLAND
General Summary
Previous Session: SESSION 63: GO MIDWEST
Next Session: SESSION 65: SMOKE, SLAVERY AND RUIN
Players: The Fellowship of the Doing the Things, Andy, Linda, Morag
*September 2nd, 2317* (Adventure Day 131)
The fire crackled lazily. They were finally back in the Midwest Brotherhood of Steel, The Capitol across a bridge behind them. Morag flipped through the late Colonel Braxton's contraband books. Du Contrat Social, When the Sleeper Awakens and Das Glasperlenspiel, all anti-fascist works banned by Great Leader. The books were status symbols, showing that Colonel Braxton had been powerful enough to flaunt the rules. And looking through his notes in the pages, Morag could see that the totalitarian colonel had been trying to understand the mind of an anti-fascist. He had been researching how better to crush Dixie and quash revolt.
With an opportunity to rest, Annalynn Whittman thanked the party for helping her across the river. She had been in Torn Hope for weeks, but no one would assist her. People were afraid to stick out in The Capitol and it made people cold. It wasn't always like that. This area used to be Dixie. Annalynn explained that her ancestors had been survivors of Vault 76. Lex asked what experiment they had suffered, and Anna said that their vault had opened early. Just 20 years after the bombs dropped, Vault 76 opened into the radioactive forests of Appalachia. There were mutated beasts and people there that were absolutely monstrous. The revolver the party had taken from Almadelia Gibbs, the Somerset Special, was the best weapon the poorly equipped vaulties had. It was an important artifact of how they had ended their Scorched Plague and become a force for good: The Responders.
In 2291, Dixie had formed to stand up to The Capitol, and the Responders in West Virginia gladly joined the new nation. They were proud, charitable citizens. So, in 2294, when Caesar's Legion invaded Dixie, they sent all of their able-bodied fighters to go defend Texas and Oklahoma. Great Leader saw Dixie caught off guard and invaded. The Capitol annexed Dixie from West Virginia all the way through much of Kentucky and Tennessee. The Responders were captured by the Capitol Correctors and separated across the nation so they couldn't cooperate. And their organization was banned.
Years later, a Minutemen general from The Commonwealth came to The Capitol to foment revolution. His name was Robert MacCready. He had been born in The Capitol, but became a great hero in Boston's Institute War. Though he enjoyed a comfortable life in The Commonwealth, he could not watch his homeland fall into dictatorship. The Responders flocked to his cause, and it looked like change was coming. Annalynn Whittman herself had only been a 14-year-old girl, but she had joined the movement. She watched a woman named Wyatt join the group and seduce MacCready. Wyatt betrayed the rebel leader, and he was taken to Pentagon, the administrative hub of The Capitol. That had been a long time ago, there was little hope that Robert MacCready was still alive. The party said that it figured, Wyatt had been Mirabelle Aditi all along. Anna was shocked at this information. She had seen Wyatt endanger herself many times and kill Capitol troops, it was a bizarre, insane level of risk for a national leader. The party agreed it was crazy, and sounded like the Wyatt they had met.
Anna explained that she was headed to a place called Orchardville. There were Responders there who had fled The Capitol decades ago. She had never been there, and didn't know any of the people there. She hoped that bringing them the precious Somerset Special would ingratiate her to them. The party said that they were headed in the same direction and that she was welcome to travel with them.
Beau the RifleBuddy spoke up. He remembered that tomorrow would by September 3rd. Back in the Hatchie Forrest, Lynwood Dalton would be having his annual shooting competition. And since last year's competition had been his 299th birthday, the ghoul would be turning 300. Morag lamented that with the New California Republic invading Dixie on its west side, the competition might be suspended. And if the NCR and The Capitol took that region, Dalton's unique gunsmithing workshop would be a great prize. This made Beau think of little Helena back in Memphis, Sheriff Marko's 12-year-old daughter. He wondered if she would have to fight. The sheriff had paid Morag and Beau to teach the girl how to shoot, and they wondered if those skills would put her into danger. Memphis was far away, and some things were beyond their power to change.
The party retired to sleep, save for Andy who kept watch. Lex, fatigued from the day, fell asleep almost immediately. As she slept, she entered what seemed like a dream, but was really a memory. But not her memory, it was a remembrance drawn from Joey Darbinian's brain. Their minds had touched on the Wabash Bridge, and her subconscious had pulled these thoughts from his mind. The memory began with a 6-year-old Joey sneaking up on a 16-year-old Alexandra Garridan within Vault 40 . It was odd for Lex to see her own young self through someone else's mind. Joey crept up and pulled on teenage Lex's hair as she tried to fix a water heater. She spun around and shook a wrench at him. Joey ran away giggling, weaving through Vault 40's pipeworks and access tunnels.
Then Lex could feel cold sweat tickle Joey's back. He was in a room with deathclaw. A 12-foot lizard was standing in the dim light of the machines. Joey could barely breathe as two people entered the room. It was the scary Professor Adabo and friendly Mr. Garridan, Joey's baseball coach. The mean professor explained to Dolion Garridan, Lex's father, that he now worked for this deathclaw. The lizard was Betsy, an Enclave general who was now Mr. Garridan boss. Dolion would have to leave Vault 40 forever, give up his life as a handyman and join the secret service. The president of the Enclave had declared that if Dolion refused, he would stop providing Vault 40 with treatment injections for their Genetic Disarray Syndrome. A third of the vault, some 300 people, would die. Mr. Garridan began to cry, trying to refuse, and was scolded by Professor Adabo. Lex awoke from the dream/memory, knowing that her father had left to join the Enclave, telling her nothing before he left. People in Vault 40 had told her he had left on a salvaging mission and never returned. That was 17 years ago, and she hadn't seen him once. Now it was said that he was the personal bodyguard of the president of the Enclave, somewhere out there.
September 3rd, 2317 (Adventure Day 132)
The party drove into the Midwest village of Copperhead. It was a small community of less than 200 citizens. There was a trail of smoke still rising from a destroyed building. They drew closer to investigate and found a strange mechanical being picking through the burned rubble. He explained that he was Bonner, a human put in a RoboBrain chassis. The building had been a chapel of the local Children of Atom. A few months back, a new preacher had come to town, teaching the congregation the philosophy of Lindavism. He was a friendly ghoul named Jerry, and the town liked him. Linda remarked that she knew this Jerry and she had taught him the ways of Lindavism.
Things did not stay so nice. Four days before, a group have Inquisitors had arrived on trucks. They opened fire on the Lindavist congregation while they were in prayer. Young and old, the Inquisitors slaughtered them all. The local deputy had raced to help, along with most of the townsfolk. The Inquisitors shot Deputy Gupta with something that instantly turned him into a ghoul. Agonized by the transformation, it was easy for the Inquisitors to execute him. The monstrous invaders collected all of the Atomites, some dead and others just injured, piled them up with wood and burned them. The frightened townsfolk watched in horror. The Inquisitor's leader, Right Inquisitor Tomas, had declared to the crowd that they were cleansing the world of Lindavists, destroying their bodies so that they could never experience the holy transcendence of Division. He gave a local woman named Bess a radio and told her to report any Lindavists. If she failed, the Inquisitors would return and destroy the whole town. They had just up and left, back to Holy Toledo. The Midwest Brotherhood had sent a Knight-Lieutenant to investigate. The officer was sympathetic and took statements, but as the Inquisitors had fled back to The Rustlands, there was little that they could do.
Linda picked through the remains while the others continued talking to Bonner the RoboBrain. Bonner explained that he had been a soldier before the Great War, and had been killed fighting the Chinese in Alaska. His body had been taken to the Cambridge Institute of Technology where Dr. Bert Riggs had put his brain in to a RoboBrain chassis. The process was still experimental and was generally unsound. Most RoboBrains had been driven entirely insane by the loss of their bodies. Lex said that she had met this Dr. Riggs recently, and he had been put into a RoboBrain chassis himself. He was performing unethical experiments on humans. This shocked Bonner, who knew Bert Riggs as a kind and compassionate healer. The word 240 years ago was that he had retired to New England.
Linda found a small, depleted uranium pin in the rubble, tarnished by the flames. It was a Little Atoms token, given to Atomite children for exceptionally good deeds. Linda swore a quiet oath to avenge these people. The party thanked Bonner for his information, and left him. In a solemn mood, they traveled to the village's marketplace. They worked on their gear, upgrading their weapons and armour. Finally having a purse with some caps, Morag could afford to upgrade Beau to his original .50 caliber format. She found a gunsmith named Sarah Mohica who took a look at Beau. The gunsmith said it'd be easy to fix, but would take time. Beau's modification had been poorly done. Morag thought that fitting him with a Recon Scope might be more useful, but Beau asked to be returned to his natural form. Arminius, Lex, and Morag worked all day on their equipment.
With the others busy with their work, Andy and Linda set off on their own. A pre-war retirement home was marked with a hand-painted sign declaring it "Funland." The structure had a big courtyard that was filled with children's playground equipment. Andy and Linda found themselves greeted by a deathclaw in a clown mask. The figure might be terrifying under certain circumstances, but in a muffled voice, he announced himself as Bogo the Clown. The deathclaw explained that he was the host of Funland, a fantasy land of wonderment where there was only joy and play. Bogo asked if they wanted to ride the slide or the swings. Andy called out for the slide and Bogo sprang into action. The deathclaw picked up Andy and made airplane noises, zooming around with him. He placed the SchlockettBot onto the slide, and the metal frame screeched as he scraped down. Linda said the swings and Bogo noted that they couldn't take her weight, but they would make it work. Bogo kneeled down under the swings, inviting Linda to get on his back. They swung back and forth, easing Linda's mood.
Bogo asked if they could stop, and Linda agreed. With no kids around to see, Bogo took his clown mask off and sat in a nearby sandbox. He retrieved a container of hand-rolled cigarettes and had a smoke. Linda asked if Bogo knew Jefferson the deathclaw or his mother Betsy. Bogo admitted that he did know them, but they shouldn't talk out loud about Enclave stuff. But they were nice people, so he revealed that Betsy was his mother and Jefferson was his half-brother. His Enclave name was Monroe and he had left the deathclaw life, not wanting to be just another harem male. Now he lived as Bogo the clown, who helped children. Andy asked if harem males ever fell in love with their mates and Bogo told them about an Enclave deathclaw named Madison who had fallen in love with his mate. Madison had killed all of the males in the harem out of jealousy. His mate cast him out and wandered all the way to Gravestone. These days he was known as Mister Endtimes. Linda and Andy thanked Bogo for his time and returned to their friends.
The group finished upgrading their weapons. Beau felt much better with his .50cal receiver and thanked Morag. Seeing the work, Morag saw that she could upgrade Beau further, but needed Lex's help. Beau was defensive and prideful, continuing to talk down to Lex. But Morag explained that he couldn't be upgraded without her, so he submitted to the help. After Lex upgraded him, Beau quietly admitted to Morag that she had done a very good job, though he would never admit it loudly. A local merchant named Avon approached the team, assuming they were mercenaries investigating the burned chapel. She remarked that it was odd that Sheriff Craig hadn't been there. For some reason, the exact morning that the Inquisitors attacked, Sheriff Craig and Chrystal Kell, a local merchant baron, had left on some investment trip. This was very normal for Kell, but very strange for the sheriff.
They talked to locals about a point on the Illinois map, a place called Numan. People said it had been a Synth colony, synthetic people fleeing Boston. But 15 years ago, everyone had disappeared. The Midwest Brotherhood had looked into it, but found nothing.
There was the matter of Bess and her radio to the Inquisitors. They found the weaver in a publicly funded housing community. She was deathly afraid of the Inquisitors and didn't want them near the radio. Andy distracted her while Lex snuck over to the device. It was a small radio with no more than a 20-mile range. Lex sabotaged it quietly.
With that done, they went to the local tavern to investigate Chrystal Kell and Sheriff Craig's strange trip. Rickita Sink, the owner/operator greeted them and took their drink orders. When Rickita discovered that they were Heroes of St. Louis, she let them drink for free. Morag noticed the faint sign of the Railroad organization marked over the bar. As nonchalantly as she could, Morag brought up the subject with Rickita, who pointed her to a man named Farhad, who was drinking with someone in a corner.
Morag approached Farhad, a man from Boston. He welcomed her to drink with him and his new friend Adron, a traveler from Dixie. The three of them talked, Adron mostly complaining that Dixie was alone in their war. Morag showed Farhad her Railroad token, a metal coin with their symbol on it. He took the token with quiet recognition and gave it back to her under the table. Adron had too much to drink and needed help getting back to his hotel room. Farhad asked Morag to help, and they dragged him down the street. The party followed Morag, but kept a discrete distance.
Farhad and Morag placed Adron safely in his bed. Morag revealed that she was a Synth and had questions. Farhad remarked that she was a "reset" a Boston Synth who had been wiped so that they could enjoy a new life of peace away from The Institute. The Railroad didn't want the help of Resets, they wanted them to go live their lives. That was the whole point. Morag asked about the Synth colony at Numan, and Farhad said he didn't know anything, and wouldn't tell her if he did. She started to get frustrated, explaining that her former persona, the Synth personality which had been erased from her body, still had parts inside her that were trying to get out. Farhad asked who she had been, he was an old Synth and knew most of them.
Morag whispered the name Keziah. In an instant, Farhad drew his Institute Laser pistol and held it at her. He stepped back slowly, explaining that Keziah was the worst thing that The Institute had ever made. He said that he wouldn't kill Morag to destroy Keziah, but that Morag should get back to Boston immediately and get her mind wiped again. Morag held back and let Farhad leave. Right before he left, he explained that this was supposed to be a good meeting. Adron was secretly a high-ranking official in the Dixie government. Farhad left a note in his jacket. He suggested Morag read it before she left.
Farhad dashed out of the hotel room, passing the party who made it clear that they would protect Morag if they had to. Morag looked at the note. It had the Railroad symbol for "ally" and it read: "The Commonwealth stands with Dixie. The Minutemen will strike as soon as possible. Hold out. Help is on the way."
The complications had complications. The team wanted to investigate this Chrystal Kells. A rich heiress who had conveniently drawn the local sheriff away from the threat of the Inquisitors. They stopped at Dell's Tailoring. Dell was a friendly ghoul who made high-fashion clothes. But they were expensive and took a long time to tailor.
Chrystal Kells was a rich young woman, unsoiled by the wasteland. She welcomed the party to her spacious home. Miss Kell talked up the village of Copperhead as a tourist destination, noting that they had Funland and Dell the tailor. They asked about leaving on a financial trip, and Chrystal explained that she and Sheriff Rika Craig had gone to the Cole Speedway to see if they should invest. Apparently, Sheriff Craig had saved some money and was looking for investment opportunities. The two of them hadn't been satisfied with the potential of the racetrack and came home the next day. The party were suspicious, but couldn't catch her in any specific inaccuracy.
As they were leaving, they were flagged down by Urias, one of Chrystal's farmhands. Urias, a teenage boy, assumed that the party were mercenaries hired to investigate the chapel burning. He tried to sell them information. But once he realized they weren't getting paid, he told them for free. Urias had seen Chrystal regularly walking around the old ruins southeast of town. There was nothing down there, especially for a rich lady. Urias had followed her once, hoping to see something salacious. Instead, Chrystal had just disappeared for two hours. The party asked the boy to point out the building, which he did.
They searched the ruins and found a secret hatch leading to an underground tunnel. They carefully infiltrated some kind of underground cave. The rough-hewn tunnel ended with a pool of water. There was another tunnel, entirely filled with uncontaminated, though stagnant, water. They tied a rope around Linda's waste and around Andy. The SchlockettBot crawled down the tunnel and found it entirely filled with water. It continued for 200 feet until raising back up again. Andy trotted up the slope, emerging from the water in some kind of computerized workstation. Colourful lights blinked and pulsed in the darkness.
Andy heard the characteristic beep of two heavy laser turrets springing to action...
Next Session: SESSION 65: SMOKE, SLAVERY AND RUIN
Next Session: SESSION 65: SMOKE, SLAVERY AND RUIN
Players: The Fellowship of the Doing the Things, Andy, Linda, Morag
*September 2nd, 2317* (Adventure Day 131)
The fire crackled lazily. They were finally back in the Midwest Brotherhood of Steel, The Capitol across a bridge behind them. Morag flipped through the late Colonel Braxton's contraband books. Du Contrat Social, When the Sleeper Awakens and Das Glasperlenspiel, all anti-fascist works banned by Great Leader. The books were status symbols, showing that Colonel Braxton had been powerful enough to flaunt the rules. And looking through his notes in the pages, Morag could see that the totalitarian colonel had been trying to understand the mind of an anti-fascist. He had been researching how better to crush Dixie and quash revolt.
With an opportunity to rest, Annalynn Whittman thanked the party for helping her across the river. She had been in Torn Hope for weeks, but no one would assist her. People were afraid to stick out in The Capitol and it made people cold. It wasn't always like that. This area used to be Dixie. Annalynn explained that her ancestors had been survivors of Vault 76. Lex asked what experiment they had suffered, and Anna said that their vault had opened early. Just 20 years after the bombs dropped, Vault 76 opened into the radioactive forests of Appalachia. There were mutated beasts and people there that were absolutely monstrous. The revolver the party had taken from Almadelia Gibbs, the Somerset Special, was the best weapon the poorly equipped vaulties had. It was an important artifact of how they had ended their Scorched Plague and become a force for good: The Responders.
In 2291, Dixie had formed to stand up to The Capitol, and the Responders in West Virginia gladly joined the new nation. They were proud, charitable citizens. So, in 2294, when Caesar's Legion invaded Dixie, they sent all of their able-bodied fighters to go defend Texas and Oklahoma. Great Leader saw Dixie caught off guard and invaded. The Capitol annexed Dixie from West Virginia all the way through much of Kentucky and Tennessee. The Responders were captured by the Capitol Correctors and separated across the nation so they couldn't cooperate. And their organization was banned.
Years later, a Minutemen general from The Commonwealth came to The Capitol to foment revolution. His name was Robert MacCready. He had been born in The Capitol, but became a great hero in Boston's Institute War. Though he enjoyed a comfortable life in The Commonwealth, he could not watch his homeland fall into dictatorship. The Responders flocked to his cause, and it looked like change was coming. Annalynn Whittman herself had only been a 14-year-old girl, but she had joined the movement. She watched a woman named Wyatt join the group and seduce MacCready. Wyatt betrayed the rebel leader, and he was taken to Pentagon, the administrative hub of The Capitol. That had been a long time ago, there was little hope that Robert MacCready was still alive. The party said that it figured, Wyatt had been Mirabelle Aditi all along. Anna was shocked at this information. She had seen Wyatt endanger herself many times and kill Capitol troops, it was a bizarre, insane level of risk for a national leader. The party agreed it was crazy, and sounded like the Wyatt they had met.
Anna explained that she was headed to a place called Orchardville. There were Responders there who had fled The Capitol decades ago. She had never been there, and didn't know any of the people there. She hoped that bringing them the precious Somerset Special would ingratiate her to them. The party said that they were headed in the same direction and that she was welcome to travel with them.
Beau the RifleBuddy spoke up. He remembered that tomorrow would by September 3rd. Back in the Hatchie Forrest, Lynwood Dalton would be having his annual shooting competition. And since last year's competition had been his 299th birthday, the ghoul would be turning 300. Morag lamented that with the New California Republic invading Dixie on its west side, the competition might be suspended. And if the NCR and The Capitol took that region, Dalton's unique gunsmithing workshop would be a great prize. This made Beau think of little Helena back in Memphis, Sheriff Marko's 12-year-old daughter. He wondered if she would have to fight. The sheriff had paid Morag and Beau to teach the girl how to shoot, and they wondered if those skills would put her into danger. Memphis was far away, and some things were beyond their power to change.
The party retired to sleep, save for Andy who kept watch. Lex, fatigued from the day, fell asleep almost immediately. As she slept, she entered what seemed like a dream, but was really a memory. But not her memory, it was a remembrance drawn from Joey Darbinian's brain. Their minds had touched on the Wabash Bridge, and her subconscious had pulled these thoughts from his mind. The memory began with a 6-year-old Joey sneaking up on a 16-year-old Alexandra Garridan within Vault 40 . It was odd for Lex to see her own young self through someone else's mind. Joey crept up and pulled on teenage Lex's hair as she tried to fix a water heater. She spun around and shook a wrench at him. Joey ran away giggling, weaving through Vault 40's pipeworks and access tunnels.
Then Lex could feel cold sweat tickle Joey's back. He was in a room with deathclaw. A 12-foot lizard was standing in the dim light of the machines. Joey could barely breathe as two people entered the room. It was the scary Professor Adabo and friendly Mr. Garridan, Joey's baseball coach. The mean professor explained to Dolion Garridan, Lex's father, that he now worked for this deathclaw. The lizard was Betsy, an Enclave general who was now Mr. Garridan boss. Dolion would have to leave Vault 40 forever, give up his life as a handyman and join the secret service. The president of the Enclave had declared that if Dolion refused, he would stop providing Vault 40 with treatment injections for their Genetic Disarray Syndrome. A third of the vault, some 300 people, would die. Mr. Garridan began to cry, trying to refuse, and was scolded by Professor Adabo. Lex awoke from the dream/memory, knowing that her father had left to join the Enclave, telling her nothing before he left. People in Vault 40 had told her he had left on a salvaging mission and never returned. That was 17 years ago, and she hadn't seen him once. Now it was said that he was the personal bodyguard of the president of the Enclave, somewhere out there.
September 3rd, 2317 (Adventure Day 132)
The party drove into the Midwest village of Copperhead. It was a small community of less than 200 citizens. There was a trail of smoke still rising from a destroyed building. They drew closer to investigate and found a strange mechanical being picking through the burned rubble. He explained that he was Bonner, a human put in a RoboBrain chassis. The building had been a chapel of the local Children of Atom. A few months back, a new preacher had come to town, teaching the congregation the philosophy of Lindavism. He was a friendly ghoul named Jerry, and the town liked him. Linda remarked that she knew this Jerry and she had taught him the ways of Lindavism.
Things did not stay so nice. Four days before, a group have Inquisitors had arrived on trucks. They opened fire on the Lindavist congregation while they were in prayer. Young and old, the Inquisitors slaughtered them all. The local deputy had raced to help, along with most of the townsfolk. The Inquisitors shot Deputy Gupta with something that instantly turned him into a ghoul. Agonized by the transformation, it was easy for the Inquisitors to execute him. The monstrous invaders collected all of the Atomites, some dead and others just injured, piled them up with wood and burned them. The frightened townsfolk watched in horror. The Inquisitor's leader, Right Inquisitor Tomas, had declared to the crowd that they were cleansing the world of Lindavists, destroying their bodies so that they could never experience the holy transcendence of Division. He gave a local woman named Bess a radio and told her to report any Lindavists. If she failed, the Inquisitors would return and destroy the whole town. They had just up and left, back to Holy Toledo. The Midwest Brotherhood had sent a Knight-Lieutenant to investigate. The officer was sympathetic and took statements, but as the Inquisitors had fled back to The Rustlands, there was little that they could do.
Linda picked through the remains while the others continued talking to Bonner the RoboBrain. Bonner explained that he had been a soldier before the Great War, and had been killed fighting the Chinese in Alaska. His body had been taken to the Cambridge Institute of Technology where Dr. Bert Riggs had put his brain in to a RoboBrain chassis. The process was still experimental and was generally unsound. Most RoboBrains had been driven entirely insane by the loss of their bodies. Lex said that she had met this Dr. Riggs recently, and he had been put into a RoboBrain chassis himself. He was performing unethical experiments on humans. This shocked Bonner, who knew Bert Riggs as a kind and compassionate healer. The word 240 years ago was that he had retired to New England.
Linda found a small, depleted uranium pin in the rubble, tarnished by the flames. It was a Little Atoms token, given to Atomite children for exceptionally good deeds. Linda swore a quiet oath to avenge these people. The party thanked Bonner for his information, and left him. In a solemn mood, they traveled to the village's marketplace. They worked on their gear, upgrading their weapons and armour. Finally having a purse with some caps, Morag could afford to upgrade Beau to his original .50 caliber format. She found a gunsmith named Sarah Mohica who took a look at Beau. The gunsmith said it'd be easy to fix, but would take time. Beau's modification had been poorly done. Morag thought that fitting him with a Recon Scope might be more useful, but Beau asked to be returned to his natural form. Arminius, Lex, and Morag worked all day on their equipment.
With the others busy with their work, Andy and Linda set off on their own. A pre-war retirement home was marked with a hand-painted sign declaring it "Funland." The structure had a big courtyard that was filled with children's playground equipment. Andy and Linda found themselves greeted by a deathclaw in a clown mask. The figure might be terrifying under certain circumstances, but in a muffled voice, he announced himself as Bogo the Clown. The deathclaw explained that he was the host of Funland, a fantasy land of wonderment where there was only joy and play. Bogo asked if they wanted to ride the slide or the swings. Andy called out for the slide and Bogo sprang into action. The deathclaw picked up Andy and made airplane noises, zooming around with him. He placed the SchlockettBot onto the slide, and the metal frame screeched as he scraped down. Linda said the swings and Bogo noted that they couldn't take her weight, but they would make it work. Bogo kneeled down under the swings, inviting Linda to get on his back. They swung back and forth, easing Linda's mood.
Bogo asked if they could stop, and Linda agreed. With no kids around to see, Bogo took his clown mask off and sat in a nearby sandbox. He retrieved a container of hand-rolled cigarettes and had a smoke. Linda asked if Bogo knew Jefferson the deathclaw or his mother Betsy. Bogo admitted that he did know them, but they shouldn't talk out loud about Enclave stuff. But they were nice people, so he revealed that Betsy was his mother and Jefferson was his half-brother. His Enclave name was Monroe and he had left the deathclaw life, not wanting to be just another harem male. Now he lived as Bogo the clown, who helped children. Andy asked if harem males ever fell in love with their mates and Bogo told them about an Enclave deathclaw named Madison who had fallen in love with his mate. Madison had killed all of the males in the harem out of jealousy. His mate cast him out and wandered all the way to Gravestone. These days he was known as Mister Endtimes. Linda and Andy thanked Bogo for his time and returned to their friends.
The group finished upgrading their weapons. Beau felt much better with his .50cal receiver and thanked Morag. Seeing the work, Morag saw that she could upgrade Beau further, but needed Lex's help. Beau was defensive and prideful, continuing to talk down to Lex. But Morag explained that he couldn't be upgraded without her, so he submitted to the help. After Lex upgraded him, Beau quietly admitted to Morag that she had done a very good job, though he would never admit it loudly. A local merchant named Avon approached the team, assuming they were mercenaries investigating the burned chapel. She remarked that it was odd that Sheriff Craig hadn't been there. For some reason, the exact morning that the Inquisitors attacked, Sheriff Craig and Chrystal Kell, a local merchant baron, had left on some investment trip. This was very normal for Kell, but very strange for the sheriff.
They talked to locals about a point on the Illinois map, a place called Numan. People said it had been a Synth colony, synthetic people fleeing Boston. But 15 years ago, everyone had disappeared. The Midwest Brotherhood had looked into it, but found nothing.
There was the matter of Bess and her radio to the Inquisitors. They found the weaver in a publicly funded housing community. She was deathly afraid of the Inquisitors and didn't want them near the radio. Andy distracted her while Lex snuck over to the device. It was a small radio with no more than a 20-mile range. Lex sabotaged it quietly.
With that done, they went to the local tavern to investigate Chrystal Kell and Sheriff Craig's strange trip. Rickita Sink, the owner/operator greeted them and took their drink orders. When Rickita discovered that they were Heroes of St. Louis, she let them drink for free. Morag noticed the faint sign of the Railroad organization marked over the bar. As nonchalantly as she could, Morag brought up the subject with Rickita, who pointed her to a man named Farhad, who was drinking with someone in a corner.
Morag approached Farhad, a man from Boston. He welcomed her to drink with him and his new friend Adron, a traveler from Dixie. The three of them talked, Adron mostly complaining that Dixie was alone in their war. Morag showed Farhad her Railroad token, a metal coin with their symbol on it. He took the token with quiet recognition and gave it back to her under the table. Adron had too much to drink and needed help getting back to his hotel room. Farhad asked Morag to help, and they dragged him down the street. The party followed Morag, but kept a discrete distance.
Farhad and Morag placed Adron safely in his bed. Morag revealed that she was a Synth and had questions. Farhad remarked that she was a "reset" a Boston Synth who had been wiped so that they could enjoy a new life of peace away from The Institute. The Railroad didn't want the help of Resets, they wanted them to go live their lives. That was the whole point. Morag asked about the Synth colony at Numan, and Farhad said he didn't know anything, and wouldn't tell her if he did. She started to get frustrated, explaining that her former persona, the Synth personality which had been erased from her body, still had parts inside her that were trying to get out. Farhad asked who she had been, he was an old Synth and knew most of them.
Morag whispered the name Keziah. In an instant, Farhad drew his Institute Laser pistol and held it at her. He stepped back slowly, explaining that Keziah was the worst thing that The Institute had ever made. He said that he wouldn't kill Morag to destroy Keziah, but that Morag should get back to Boston immediately and get her mind wiped again. Morag held back and let Farhad leave. Right before he left, he explained that this was supposed to be a good meeting. Adron was secretly a high-ranking official in the Dixie government. Farhad left a note in his jacket. He suggested Morag read it before she left.
Farhad dashed out of the hotel room, passing the party who made it clear that they would protect Morag if they had to. Morag looked at the note. It had the Railroad symbol for "ally" and it read: "The Commonwealth stands with Dixie. The Minutemen will strike as soon as possible. Hold out. Help is on the way."
The complications had complications. The team wanted to investigate this Chrystal Kells. A rich heiress who had conveniently drawn the local sheriff away from the threat of the Inquisitors. They stopped at Dell's Tailoring. Dell was a friendly ghoul who made high-fashion clothes. But they were expensive and took a long time to tailor.
Chrystal Kells was a rich young woman, unsoiled by the wasteland. She welcomed the party to her spacious home. Miss Kell talked up the village of Copperhead as a tourist destination, noting that they had Funland and Dell the tailor. They asked about leaving on a financial trip, and Chrystal explained that she and Sheriff Rika Craig had gone to the Cole Speedway to see if they should invest. Apparently, Sheriff Craig had saved some money and was looking for investment opportunities. The two of them hadn't been satisfied with the potential of the racetrack and came home the next day. The party were suspicious, but couldn't catch her in any specific inaccuracy.
As they were leaving, they were flagged down by Urias, one of Chrystal's farmhands. Urias, a teenage boy, assumed that the party were mercenaries hired to investigate the chapel burning. He tried to sell them information. But once he realized they weren't getting paid, he told them for free. Urias had seen Chrystal regularly walking around the old ruins southeast of town. There was nothing down there, especially for a rich lady. Urias had followed her once, hoping to see something salacious. Instead, Chrystal had just disappeared for two hours. The party asked the boy to point out the building, which he did.
They searched the ruins and found a secret hatch leading to an underground tunnel. They carefully infiltrated some kind of underground cave. The rough-hewn tunnel ended with a pool of water. There was another tunnel, entirely filled with uncontaminated, though stagnant, water. They tied a rope around Linda's waste and around Andy. The SchlockettBot crawled down the tunnel and found it entirely filled with water. It continued for 200 feet until raising back up again. Andy trotted up the slope, emerging from the water in some kind of computerized workstation. Colourful lights blinked and pulsed in the darkness.
Andy heard the characteristic beep of two heavy laser turrets springing to action...
Next Session: SESSION 65: SMOKE, SLAVERY AND RUIN
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Report Date
11 Mar 2023
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