The Dunwich Conspiracy Session 11
General Summary
Spending much of the day simply recovering and cleaning up the mess left behind in the Roc from Liam Penner, the group takes their time planning their next move. After debating for quite a while on the moral implications of helping the man known as Rattlesnake Jim, they finally agree that discovering the truth behind the artifact is worth any cost. The good that it might allow them to do justifies the means in which they will have to embrace to achieve it.
Waiting for the cover of darkness, they approach the dilapidated section of the compound that is off limits to anyone in the settlement. Although no one stops them, they proceed with caution knowing that RJ likely has some defenses set up to ward off intruders. Finding a lone turret that is seemingly offline, they begin doing some reconnaissance by sending Tommy ahead with his new night-vision enhanced optics courtesy of the Colossus. Following a trail of fresh blood he makes his way to an old trolley car that serves as a makeshift gate. Peering through, he sees nothing but open ground and warehouses lit by dim pre-war street lights.
Worried about his thrusters disturbing the debris that fills the area, POSH waits outside and uses his sensors to assist in detecting hostiles. As the Ratt makes his own way through the train car, he catches his coat on a piece of scrap metal and nearly gives away their position. At the last second however, he catches the Nuka Cola bottle that was dislodged from the overhead storage and pockets it for later. Tommy waits on the other side, offering a hand through the rubble. Before they continue, he offers Ratt one of the explosives that he brought back with him from the Colossus. Designed to dig a foxhole at the pull of a cord, this device could be quite handy during their excursion deeper into the mysterious ruins.
Looking to be abandoned, there is still some evidence of things being recently disturbed. Finding a wealth of automobiles in various states of decay, while some appear to have been driven in before the bombs fell, others look to have been parked a week ago. Suspicious holes and stains cover most of the wrecks, looking to have potentially been harvested through less than altruistic means. Feeling safe enough to risk popping his head above cover, POSH joins the other two by simply bypassing the trolley and hovering over it.
Tommy heads for the roof of a nearby building, hoping to do a little more scouting ahead. Ratt in turn tries to steady the ladder but alerts POSH to another underlying complication to their mission. Suffering from Buffout withdrawal, the bindings Ratt wears to conceal his mutation look to be almost soaked through with sweat. Offering his best measure of sympathy, POSH uses his medical expertise to dilute the last dose they have to mitigate the symptoms for twice as long as it normally would.
Scanning out into the darkness with his flashy new tech, Tommy stumbles upon the next horror of the evening, a mass grave of brahmin and human beings laying in the open air of the compound. Arranged in a way that no animal or critter could organize, it looks to be a sorting station for the various traders and refugees that RJ has let in over the years. Truly taken aback by the scale of the operation over two centuries, he quickly makes the rest of the group aware of the threat. Before they can respond however, they all become painfully aware that they are not alone. Through the walls they begin to hear what sounds to be a group of drunk men shuffling about in the darkness. Fearing they could be overrun by whatever mutants RJ has allowed to live here, they quickly get Tommy down and begin making their way deeper into the ruins as quietly as possible.
POSH now takes the high ground in an overwatch position while Ratt and Tommy attempt to find a route around the massacre in fear that something dangerous is still lurking nearby. They find a wall of shipping containers and more pre-war cars, almost impassable save for a chain link fence. Ratt snakes his fingers through the rusty loops and gives the other man a boost, though despite their efforts Tommy's armored jacket catches on the metal on his descent. Reverberating loudly and echoing for some time, the trio freeze as they hear a myriad of hoarse yells in reply. Pushing their way out of multiple building, a horde of feral ghouls has been alerted to their presence..
With a new expression of fear displaying itself across POSH's monitor, he quickly jets himself to an even higher position. As the emaciated mob begins to rapidly grow in numbers, he even makes use of his Liberator Laser. The shot whines over the Ratt's head but fails to land any form of debilitating hit on its target. Undeterred, the horde is hot on his heels as he sprints towards cover. Being in such good physical shape, the scavenger even has enough time to stop and plant Tommy's 'Foxhole Digger' in the engine of a pre-war car. Flinging the cord up to POSH to hold, he desperately makes the climb to get out of reach of the ferals, barely managing to pull himself away from their grasping boney hands before they can get a good grip. Separated from his group, Tommy knows that the chain link fence will not protect him long. Taking this time to get away, he looks for a good vantage point to help coordinate his team and makes a move to capture it so he won't be overwhelmed.
Leaving the detonation cord to Ratt, Sir POSH valiantly makes another leap over a gap in the buildings. He begins looking for a way to create a bridge across for his companion but no sooner does he turn around that he sees him vaulting himself over the open air, a slack cord trailing in his wake. A massive detonation occurs, sounding to be comprised of multiple fission battery explosions as one car sets off another. A fiery cloud erupts into the sky, sending up a bright plume that could potentially be seen for miles. Glancing down after the initial blast, the carnage left behind is shocking. Nearly completely annihilated, what members remain of the horse crawl blindly about in the residual radiation. Not out of the woods yet, the group sees more silhouettes starting to grow in the distance and decide to keep moving.
Seeing a break in the ferals, they notice a new potential problem. Hovering around on patrol mode, a refurbished Mr. Gutsy scans the areas for signs of trouble. POSH decides to take his chances while Tommy and Ratt hug the cover provided from an adjacent ruin. Sneaking up behind the high-end military robot, he manages to hook up his special hacking module and force his way into the coding. Becoming aware of the full scale of the automatons connected to this network, the initial fear is replaced with sudden confusion as he also notes that all three members of the group have been recently placed on the whitelist. Not wanting to rouse the Sentry Bots hibernating in the surrounding garages, POSH turns his attention instead to a bombed-out metro entrance listed in the cache data as 'The Lair'.
Descending downwards the party can tell that this area has been painstakingly cleared to allow supplies and traffic through the shell of an old metro station. Greeted with the unmistakable sickly-sweet smell of decay, they are not surprised until they see what RJ has assembled on the platform overlooking the remains of the tunnel. Rearranging the stone benches to form a sort of morbid cathedral, a throne sits at the center of a large collection of mannequins. Something is clearly off however, and when the group takes a closer look they find that preserved human faces have been sewn around the displays from the neck up. Tanned like leather, these taxidermy trophies of past victims is almost more than they can handle.
Still conflicted on whether or not they can work with a man of so many crimes, they push onwards so that they can confront RJ face to face. They soon come in contact with the residents here, although none of them seem to raise any protest to their presence. Disfigured or disabled, most of the mutants that call this stretch of metro home would not survive well on the surface. They have made a humble life down here and although they hold some suspicions about outsiders, this is based on fear and not open hostilities. With no obstacles holding them back any longer, they finally enter the home of the madman himself but are shocked to see his kneeling before something familiar.
To say the statue is pre-war would be quite an understatement. Belonging to a lost civilization on Earth, this feminine effigy was created to represent the physical embodiment of the consciousness contained in Ratt's artifact. The fact that it could be worshiped by someone so far removed from what is right and moral strikes them as exceedingly bizarre. Turning towards them with an ear-to-ear grin, the man known as Rattlesnake Jim clears up their confusion.
Well well well, you all have made it this far, I am impressed! But now you have to contest with the most difficult trial of the night.. Are you excited?! Now you see- We both serve the same patron. You on one end of the spectrum- me on the other. Do you want my help? Do you truly wish to serve the Lady? Balance is important to Her- you could even say it is Her core belief- haha! If you wish to unlock your true potential, you must also unlock mine! How poetic, don't you think? Before you decide- I have something to show you!
He goes on to further explain that while the group has been looking for him, The Last Richardson has been making a few 'upgrades' to their aircraft. Keeping a brief-case sized detonator close at hand, it seems the salvaged nuclear warhead from the nearby military base has made it into their arsenal. Only this is not a weapon they will be able to be dropped. In exchange for RJ's assistance, he expects the group to fly him into the The Rad Farm so that he can offer an ultimatum. Accept him as a sovereign citizen or face atomic annihilation.
In a nearby room the group is confronted with yet another startling scene. Locked in a cage that is surrounded by the remains of other bodies is a woman. She wears a demeaning costume given to her by their deranged host and shows obvious signs of abuse and torture. At first this is almost more than they can bear, but RJ soon reveals that this person is not what she seems. Using a cattle prod and some harsh words, he tries to convince her to repeat something she had told him the night before. While at first holding up the guise of a damsel in distress, she quickly changes her tune when she first sees an Eyebot and then notices Ratt's holotags.
You.. you are both with the Enclave! Quickly- activate the distress beacon!! Our forces are close- they will kill every last one of these fucking mutants!! Please, get me out of here and murder this god damn ghoul!!
Left a bit stunned, when Ratt dismisses her claims, citing that these holotags belonged to his family who was Brotherhood of Steel, she drops another bombshell on the scavenger from the Vault Crawler.
..The Brotherhood have only been in the region for thirty years.. how could your great grandfather be a member? That is an Enclave holotag..
Now left with the biggest moral dilemma they have yet faced, RJ interjects to provide a little more motivation to find a quick resolution.
Before you take too long- Know that those veritbirds that have been buzzing around the area lately- That IS the US government- or whatever they are calling themselves these days. Our only hope is going to be going somewhere they can't follow. The Rad Farm has vertibirds of its own- jets even! They won't dare come that far south- we can live like kings and I will synthesize your mushroom for you so you won't even need a radiation suit! Come on.. Don't you all deserve a little vacation? By the time we get there it will be Halloween! When is the last time any of you celebrated a holiday?
Though his reasoning is highly questionable, the group can't come up with a good excuse to turn their back on this opportunity. Without RJ's help it will take years, perhaps decades for Ratt to realize his potential. Hoping that the good he can do will far outweigh the sins of their benefactor, they begrudgingly agree to his terms. Whether or not this sentiment is naive is yet to be seen, however this moral gambit is perhaps the least of their worries now that they have thrown their lot in with a man such as Rattlesnake Jim..
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Previous Chapter- The Dunwich Conspiracy Session 10
Next Chapter- To Be Continued..
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