Robbin looked at Elara quizzically. She smiled.
"You're obviously thinking of going after these Super Mutants, or whatever they're called, and given how close we came to being killed by just one of them, you will need some help."
Robbin looked about to protest. Elara interrupted him before he could raise an objection, "look, You've saved my life twice already, and it's not like I've got anywhere better to be. I just have one question before we head off."
Robbin looked stunned, "if it's about where we are heading, I know this guy, Scope, a tech salvager, who might no how to track..."
Elara interrupted again, "no, not that. I just need to know...why does your brother have a Minigun in his tool box?"
After the last game in my Five Leagues/Fallout campaign, I knew that Elara and Robbin would be going after the Super Mutants that have taken his brother Indy, and I knew that would mean going after the quest giver that appeared as a result of the News Travels roll.
Calder Havelock—known in Scrap Hill as “Scope”—is a reclusive pre-war tech salvager and signal tracker. He comes and goes from the town, but Robbin had seen him a few days earlier in the foothills of Rockwind Ridge and figured that if they moved quickly, the pair should be able to catch up with him and get his help locating Ravage's Super Mutants.
However, before they set off, there wwre a few things to do in Scrap Hill first:
- Elara sold the Minigun and flip lighter they had found;
- they also engaged in 'hard work' for 10 caps, which I reasoned was a bounty from the sheriff on bringing in a Super Mutant head;
- Elara then used some of the caps to upgrade her profile to Sole Survivor (which is how I'm addressing levelling up).
- I equipped Robbin with the board and Elara took the spare bolt-action pipe-rifle as a back up.
With no encounter or location to explore when they caught up with Scope, there was just the small matter of a Travel roll...which naturally turned up a 'waylaid by foes' result.
This result plays completely into the format of the Into the Wasteland scenario generation system, which is designed for random encounters.
The only changes I made were pre-selecting the 'passing through' purpose card, reducing the range of possible locations and having the number of searchables and inhabitants due to the size of my party.
The goal was for Elara and Robbin to get to the other end of the board, dealing with any hostile inhabitants. Most of these were general wildlife, but there was a possibility of coming across a Battered Protectron, a Radscorpion or even a Deathclaw.
As per the Into the Wasteland rules, the closest inhabitants were immediately generated to be somewhat oxymoronic 'protective' Rabid Mole Rats.
As you can see, I'm using alternative models. Given that I've just encountered Giant Rats for the first time in Fallout: New Vegas, I'm really pleased how appropriate my proxies look. Let's hope they are as non-threatening as their digital inspiration has proven to be.
Elara and Robbin looked out carefully across the ruined buildings. Elara could swear she had seen movement amongst the rubble.
She'd already learned the value of caution, and was determined to not get herself hurt again by rushing in without thinking.
Suddenly Robbin was knocked backwards by huge rats that appeared as if from nowhere, desperately trying to bring his pipe-rifle up.
Before she could respond, more of the critters leapt out at Elara, who ducked and dodged, feeling eerily calm as she put a 10mm round through first on rat, then another, then another.
She briefly pondered why nuclear fallout seemed to have made everything bigger except humans.
As she put her boot through the skull of the final rats that was troubling her, Elara turned to see Robbin getting the worst of his fight.
Without pausing for breath, she raised her pistol and ran to his aid.
As she engaged the rats, Robbin seemed to sag. He was clutching his arm and the colour was leaving his face.
Concern growing in her, Elara fired into the monstrous rats, and kept firing until all that was left was twitching fur.
Robbin had managed to prop himself up against a wall, but something was very wrong. The would in his arm had already gone green. There was clearly something foul in the rats' bite.
"Stay here," she said, "I need to check these ruins are clear before we try to move you."
Robbin, seemingly exhausted, just nodded.
Advancing cautiously, Elara found no more rats, even when she encountered what appeared to be their nest. It was empty, save for a switchblade knife, which gave Elara a moment's pause before she pocketed it.
Suddenly her attention was drawn to a quiet groaning from behind a rusted vehicle.
Curled up by a wrecked Phoenix Fizz machine, Elara found an injured woman clearly suffering from more similar, but more advanced, symptoms to Robbin.
Unable to help her immediately, Elara promised to return for the woman after she'd scouted the area for further threats.
However, smdespite jumping at shadows a few times, not further creatures materialised, and shortly Ekar returned to Robbin and the woman, hauled them both to their feet, and the trio made their way extremely slowly towards their destination.
***
After a very rough start, I got extremely lucky with no further inhabitants showing up for what remained of the game. On the other hand, very few items were retrieved.
I made the decision to recruit the wounded farmer, Marlene, as a Settler, and equip her with the spare bolt-action pipe-rifle and the switchblade. We might learn more of her story later, but for now she's sticking with Elara, mainly because she's still poisoned.
Fortunately, Robbin made a full recovery.
The other reward for completing this mission was reaching Scope Havelock and being given what I shall now be referring to as the main quest (as a way to differentiate between this multi-part odyssey and the card-based quests like Robbin's Revenge mission.
Scope stared greedily at Elara's Pip-boy. Once he had seen that she was a Vault-Dweller, the old man had been only too happy to provide Robbin and Marlene with anti-venom, offer a solution to tracking the Super Mutants and even help Elara to gain re-entry to Vault 26.
His price: that Elara run a few potentially hazardous errands for him, and, when the time came to return to the Vault, she would take him with her.
With no real alternative, Elara had agreed to his terms.
