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Welcome to Fallout Nukaloha, a fallout inspired quest set 250 years after the Great War, in a post-apocalyptic Hawaii.

We are Diego Buenaventura, a journalist from San Francisco that was kidnapped by raiders and taken all the way to Hawaii to be sold into slavery. We somehow managed to escape, were rescued by a great trope of fishermen, got mutated and turned into a muscular freak, moved into a shanty town, got a girlfriend, stabbed a crazed Glowing One in the heart and rescued an orphan girl from being executed!

Surf-Rock, radioactive pirates, ghoulish hula dancers, mutated sharks, and all kinds of freaky shit wait for you here!

>Character sheet:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17h2Zm77a7A6MuvcRf4QdBZ-agS7B90SsgInJJ-O9COA/edit

>Pre-War thread:
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/4504658/
>>
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> See if you can turn off the lights, put on the shroud and do a quick switch before anyone can notice it.

Luckily for you the two heavy guards that look after the orphan girl haven't noticed you yet. Silently you retreat a couple of steps back towards the corridor where you came from and cover yourself with the dark shroud. The room ahead of you is square in shape, it has four jail cells in total, two in each side, and there isn't any other entrance. Entering without being seen is simply impossible, so you somehow have to take them out.

You look around for anything that might be used to lure them away and finally encounter a solution. There's a circuit breaker not very far away, it would be easy to break one of the fuses to generate a power failure and still make it look like an accident. On top of that there's an air vent above your head, and it directly connects with the brig. You quickly scheme a plan and get to it. First of all you open one of the covers and put inside your portable radio, your turn it on, tune it to some static white noise that from time to time turn into distorted voices and then push the radio deep into the vents.

Quickly you advance towards the circuit breaker, open the lid and with the barrel of your Laser Pistol push and break one of the fuses. Suddenly everything goes dark, all the lights go out and the TV and its horrifying and traumatic messages go silent, and shortly afterwards the static white noise and the eerie echoes created by the radio start reverberating all across the different nearby rooms, becoming especially loud around the brig and its surroundings. The two guards don't take long to notice that something is wrong and the strange and whispering noises all around them, and with a grunt and whispering profanities that would make a sailor blush quickly decide to leave the brig and investigate.

Covering with your shroud you easily camouflage from their view, they pass next to you without even realising how close you were to them. As they leave the brig you head in and use your Cosmic Knife as a makeshift Bobby Pin to break inside. The girl continues to cry in desperation and shiver in pure terror and takes a while to finally notice you lockpicking her cell and entering inside. Despite being her salvation she cannot avoid squirming and running away from you. Honestly, you cannot blame her, she seems to have been psychologically tortured for days, and you are dressed like one of the local guards, perhaps she believes that you are here to finally take her to her doom.

With one hand you cover her and muffle her mouth before she can scream and alert the others and with your other hand you open the duffel bag and kind of clumsily drop the corpse onto the floor.

"I'm here to rescue you." You whisper to her. "Get in the bag."
>>
>>4541525

The little girl seems confused and hesitant at first, but after a while she finally complies and does as you ask. The inside of the bag must reek of half decomposed flesh and pungent chemicals, but its a small price to pay for living to see another day.

You put her on your back, close the cell door behind you and quickly scurry away before they can discover the origin of the ghostly sounds and the power failure. You leave the area and quickly head into the first gondola that you see, finally leaving the military ship behind.

Honestly, you don't have much faith in this plan working. You didn't had the chance of checking if the corpse that you carried looked like the orphan girl, and even if they did the dead body could still have marks of being executed by hanged or be in an advanced state of decomposition. Besides, the guards will sooner or later find the broken fuse and the radio in the vents, it's a shame that you will never see that radio again, it was a personal gift made by Kahuna after all. Regardless of if the plans works perfectly or not, the orphan won't be able to set foot in Fallen Horizon ever again, there will be shipborn that will know how she looks like, and as far as you know there isn't any cosmetic surgeon in the town below. She will live, but she will have to spend the rest of her days somewhere else.

You can feel the little girl squirming and quietly sobbing inside of the bag, she must be absolutely confused and stressed. When the gondola is finally far enough from the Montana you open the bag and let her breathe.

"Are you alright?" You ask, as you cover her with the shroud, both to keep her warm and to hide her from any privy onlookers. The orphan girl is skinny, around fourteen years old, dark skinned and with short and choppy hair. "Mr. Aikue sends me." You say, showing her Aikue's personal ID. "I will take you of of here. Can you stay in the bag and continue still and quiet?" She softly nods a couple of times and as the gondola finally reaches the Cielo Zafiro you shove her back into the bag and close the zipper.

You haven't been inside the ship for long, around an hour tops, so most assuredly the guards that you had met when first entering the ship would continue doing their round. With the little girl on your back and the map on your hands you search around for a different staircase that communicates with the town below and after a long time finally find it. You go down the stairs and the guards give you the halt.

"I'm going to get my dick wet before starting my round." You start to speak, as soon as they stop you. "If you guys make me lose my chance at getting some nice and cheap skank giving me head because of some formalities I'll get really pissed. Stop and frisk the others, I have shit to do." You hiss as you push them around and head into the docks, where the night workers abound.
>>
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>>4541527

As soon as you lose sight of them you change of direction and move away from the red light districts, heading into the Cove of Mysteries. Nighttime falls by the time you reach the place, silently you ascend the stairs and go straight into Mr. Aikue's office. He's still there, along with Daphne. You gently drop the duffel bag and open it, revealing the little girl from inside. Daphne cries joyful tears and goes to hug her, and then immediately hugs you. You return the ID to his legitimate owner and sit down on the floor. The moment you finally relax all the accumulated stress finally hits you, leaving you absolutely wrecked and exhausted. Before you can even notice it your legs and hands start trembling, and your eyes begin watering and crying. You don't know if you cry of pure joy or unrelenting dread, but honestly it matters not.

The girl and you are given some food to recover strengths, you tell them all you had done and how you somehow managed to infiltrate the ship and avoid detection and violent altercations.

"Well, it's what I and the rest of the kids did as well." The orphan speaks as you end telling your tale. "We entered the ship, hid from the guards and the shipborn, stole what we could and left before being detected."

"It won't happen again. Not anymore." Mr. Aikue intervenes. "I wanted to give all of you a better future, to help you get fed and clothed, but instead I created a band of small thieves and put all of your lives at risk. Daphne and I have been talking about it and we will no longer participate in this scheme. No more dead drops facilitated by me, no more hidden drawings on the books."

"And what will you do then." You ask. "Will you simply let them return to absolute misery and vagrancy?"
>>
>>4541535

"No." He says firmly. "I will do what I should have done for a long time. I will expand my business. I have decided to sell my position as a Shipborn. There are several ways of earning the right of being a shipborn, the most common one is simply being born from shipborn parents, the second one is being granted the privilege by doing an incredible great service to the ships, and the last one, is by simply buying your citizenship. Shipborn people can be exiled and demoted to belowdeckers, when this happens their rooms and everything they used to own get auctioned to the highest bidder, normally these other shipborn participate in these auctions, and that way expand their properties and such, but there have been a few occasions where belowdeckers or outsiders have been able to win the auction and get a small home in the Cielo Zafiro. I plan to buy several new printers by auctioning my citizenship rights, my home, and all the belongings and furniture that I cannot move to this small office. With these printers I will create a newspaper, one that tells the stories of the citizens around, of stories that happen everywhere in the wasteland, and I will give a voice to the dregs of society that have been silent for so long. And all the orphan kids will work for me as well, either as criers, sellers, deliverers, or even writers and photographers."

"Wow." You say, impressed and surprised by him.

"Yeah, wow indeed." Mr. Aikue continues. "All my life I have been too focused on my job, I never had enough time to build a family, or even to have friends. And despite all my effort and hard work the shipborn still considered me to be low class because I worked with belowdeckers. I have friends here, and all these children will be my family. Honestly, I won't miss living in that rusty ship."

Suddenly the phone in the office rings and Aikue grabs it, he simply listens and nods.

"It's time." He then says, as he stands up along with Daphne.

"Time for what." The orphan girl asks.

"You cannot live here anymore. The guards know how your face looks, if they see you they would discover everything, and you would be incarcerated again. We have contacted with a sea captain that has agreed to take you into his crew. I don't personally know him, but I have heard that he's a really nice person. You will work for him, and obey his orders. It might be hard, but trust me, its for the best."

You change back to your usual clothes and head back into the streets, covering the orphan girl with the shroud to hide her and having Daphne and Aikue close to her to conceal her as much as possible.
>>
>>4541537

As you leave the building and walk towards the docks you cannot avoid noticing several powerful floodlights illuminating the prow of the Cielo Zafiro. These floodlights had been installed for this special occasion, they were illuminating a hanged body that dangled with the winds. The guards had hanged the corpse that you had left in the brig, but did they find out that it was a fake? It mattered not, the shipborn wanted to send a message, the message that they are not to be messed with, and with the corpse hanging and being visible even in the dead of the night the message had been loud and clear to everybody that was around. The orphan girl is a little girl after all, and like all kids she is curious by nature, and her unhinged curiosity makes her try to look at what the lights are illuminating, but you don't let her, you put in her field of vision and give her a stern look. "Keep walking." You tell her with a gravely and deep voice that frightens her. Perhaps you acted too rudely, but you know that if she saw the hanging corpse she would be even more traumatised.

Finally you reach the rendezvous point and silently wait in the docks. Tonight is a foggy night, its hard to see in the distance, but after a short while a big and dark silhouette finally starts to form, and when the ship finally gets close by you cannot believe your eyes. It's the Rustbucket.

"Ahoy." Says Saltgut's characteristically gravelly voice.

"You will be in good hands." You tell to the girl with a smile, as you put a hand on her shoulder. "I know the captain, he's a good friend of mine."

Saltgut finally docks the tugboat and gets down with a jump. "So, this is the little rascal uh?" He says, walking closer to the orphan. "I hope you like fish, because that's what you will be eatin' for week."

Despite your kind words the girl at first seems afraid of him, perhaps she hasn't had many experiences with ghouls before.
>>
>>4541541

"Hey there Captain." You tell him.

"My eyes must be deceiving me! It's Diego! Long time no see! It has been what, a couple of months?" He says with a guffaw as he hugs you tightly.

"More or less yeah."

"How has the city treated you? I personally don't like it too much, but its a good trading stop."

"Well, my overall experiences have been mostly positive I think. What about you and the rest, how are they doing?"

"They are doing great! They are dinning right now, we didn't expected to find you there! If you want I can tell 'em to come and say hello!"

"We don't wanna attract many attention, so it would be better if we kept quiet." Mr. Aikue adds.

"Oh yeah." He says with a smile and a laugh as he puts one of his boney index fingers in front of his lips . "This is all hush hush."

The orphan finally decides to say goodbye and ascend the stairs into the tugboat and gets inside, a few minutes after she enters you hear loud cheers and applause.

"Well." Saltgut continues. "You know that you will always be welcome on my ship."

> Honestly speaking, Fallen Horizon has disappointed you. It's not what you expected, and your relationship with Daphne is kind of strained and cold since she reunited with her parents and you two stopped living together. Perhaps its time to return with Saltgut and the rest, if only for a while.

> Fallen Horizon might not be a paradise, but you are enjoying your life here. Stay in town and ask Aikue to give you a work in his newly created newspaper. Do what you do best, become a journalist and discover the hidden secrets and closeted skeletons of the town and its citizenry.

> Fallen Horizon might not be a paradise, but you are enjoying your life here. Daphne told you that her old shiphouse has been repaired and that the ship can now be used to explore the wasteland and its seas. The person that was living on the home has been instead been moved to Ethel and John's house's guestroom, without any increase in rent, which has been incredibly good for him because the guestroom is better furnished, closer to his work and Ethel will gladly do his laundry and prepare breakfast, dinner and lunch for him. Lucky devil.

> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4541544
> Fallen Horizon might not be a paradise, but you are enjoying your life here. Daphne told you that her old shiphouse has been repaired and that the ship can now be used to explore the wasteland and its seas. The person that was living on the home has been instead been moved to Ethel and John's house's guestroom, without any increase in rent, which has been incredibly good for him because the guestroom is better furnished, closer to his work and Ethel will gladly do his laundry and prepare breakfast, dinner and lunch for him. Lucky devil.

Maybe before we go our own way again, we can ask if they have seen any suspicious ships. Any...enclave ships, perhaps? We haven't really seen them for a while after they fucked off. That or just any stories of towns being wiped off the map.
>>
Fucking hell. I just noticed that I've been using the word "Round" when I meant to say "Shift."

AAAAGGHGGH! I've written stuff like "I'm going to get my dick wet before starting my round" and it makes no fucking sense!

Sorry guys, I'm ESL, Spanish is my mother tongue, and in Spain we can use "Ronda" to say shift. And I got them mixed.
>>
>>4541544
>> Honestly speaking, Fallen Horizon has disappointed you. It's not what you expected, and your relationship with Daphne is kind of strained and cold since she reunited with her parents and you two stopped living together. Perhaps its time to return with Saltgut and the rest, if only for a while.
>>4541561
I did get what you wrote, probably because I too I’m a ESL Spanish speaker but I did.
>>
>>4541544
>> Fallen Horizon might not be a paradise, but you are enjoying your life here. Stay in town and ask Aikue to give you a work in his newly created newspaper. Do what you do best, become a journalist and discover the hidden secrets and closeted skeletons of the town and its citizenry.
>>
>>4541544

> Fallen Horizon might not be a paradise, but you are enjoying your life here. Stay in town and ask Aikue to give you a work in his newly created newspaper. Do what you do best, become a journalist and discover the hidden secrets and closeted skeletons of the town and its citizenry

>>4541561

Rounds (as in doing my rounds) still works, got your meaning right away. I suspected you were Spanish since castellano is my third language so the grammer style sticks out to me sometimes. But your English is fantastic and you're a great storyteller!
>>
>>4541544
>Fallen Horizon might not be a paradise, but you are enjoying your life here. Daphne told you that her old shiphouse has been repaired and that the ship can now be used to explore the wasteland and its seas. The person that was living on the home has been instead been moved to Ethel and John's house's guestroom, without any increase in rent, which has been incredibly good for him because the guestroom is better furnished, closer to his work and Ethel will gladly do his laundry and prepare breakfast, dinner and lunch for him. Lucky devil.
>>
>>4541544
> Fallen Horizon might not be a paradise, but you are enjoying your life here. Stay in town and ask Aikue to give you a work in his newly created newspaper. Do what you do best, become a journalist and discover the hidden secrets and closeted skeletons of the town and its citizenry

work as a journalist, then head out again. No one on the ships has seen our face, right?
>>
>>4541544
>Fallen Horizon might not be a paradise, but you are enjoying your life here. Stay in town and ask Aikue to give you a work in his newly created newspaper. Do what you do best, become a journalist and discover the hidden secrets and closeted skeletons of the town and its citizenry.
>>
Damn! So many replies! This makes me so happy! I was thought that the quest was losing steam.

I'm glad of having you guys as players, you are all awesome. Staying in town and becoming a journalist is the winning option. Writing now.
>>
>>4542028
>work as a journalist, then head out again. No one on the ships has seen our face, right?
While on the ships a few people saw our face, but nobody was paying attention to it, most people that we crossed paths with simply moved out of the way.

The only ones that could identify us were the guards that we met when we entered and when we left. But it's doubtful that they will be able to recognise us. They weren't paying special attention to it.
>>
>>4541544
> Fallen Horizon might not be a paradise, but you are enjoying your life here. Stay in town and ask Aikue to give you a work in his newly created newspaper. Do what you do best, become a journalist and discover the hidden secrets and closeted skeletons of the town and its citizenry.

You say goodbye to the old ghoulish captain and bid him farewell. You cannot avoid feeling sad when the ship finally departs and disappears into the horizon, but at the same time, you also feel happy for the poor girl, she isn't an orphan anymore, she has found a family of her own.

Slowly you all start turning around and returning to your respective homes. Daphne smiles at you, kisses you goodnight and slowly walks towards her parent's home, she won't tell her parents about what happened. Despite having good and pure intentions her parents might not approve of the scheme that she helped to create, after all she indirectly helped to steal countless goods and items. Despite of having to hide this good deed from her parents she seems to be happy about the whole ordeal, and cheerfully walks away towards her home. You are happy too, you have not only saved her life, but also saved her from a life of misery. Aikue on the other hand doesn't seems to be as content, he sighs and grunts as he slowly proceeds to move towards the Cielo Zafiro. The great cargo ship won't be his home for much longer, to ensure that no other children will risk their lives Aikue has chosen to sacrificed his privileges, he's an admirable old man, a fighter of the good fight.

"Wait, Aikue. What are you going to do now?" You ask him before he leaves.

"Well, before resigning to my shipborn citizenship I will try to move as much furniture and items as I can. It will be hard, I'm an old man and there aren't many elevators that connect the ships with the town below. I think it might take me weeks to move most of my stuff. I... I cannot leave anything behind, the moment I officially announce that I reject my citizenship my old room and everything that is inside won't be considered mine any longer and all will be auctioned."

These shipborn were cruel, their methods extreme, but this was done on purpose to punish the people that rejected their lyfestyle.

"I used to be a journalist before coming to Hawaii. Give me a job in your new newspaper, and I'll help you move." You tell him, putting your hand on his shoulder.

Aikue snorts and nods. "Boy, I was already planning on giving you the job. But alright, I accept the offer." He says, shaking your hand. "But wait for a few days before going in, if you go right now someone might recognise you."
>>
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>>4542222

"Yeah, you are right, perhaps I should wait for a week or so?"

Aikue nods and continues walking back home.

"Its a shame that you won't be a writer anymore, your book was pretty good and popular, you might still get some residuals every now and then. But its alright, I need your knowledge and skills for something else now."

"Do you?" You ask, kind of surprised.

"Oh yes. I have no idea of how to make a newspaper. You'll be the expert here."

You laugh and nod. "Alright."

In the following two weeks you don't work on your writing or help him move, you instead spend your time teaching Mr. Aikue about how to manage and direct a newspaper, instruct him about what kind of printers he needs to buy, what type of ink is best, and even teach some of the other orphans in the art of writing articles, taking pictures, and even creating comic strips or crossword puzzles.

At the third week Aikue finally gives you the green-light and handles you his ID, letting you enter inside the Cielo Zafiro and access his home to move his furniture towards his bookstore office, where he will be living from now on. To not stand out and blend among the rest of the shipborn you dress up with your Tuxedo, and while some people still give you odd looks none of them stem from mistrust or suspicion, but curiosity and perhaps admiration.

It takes you an entire week of hard and continuous work to move all of his stuff, but at the end its all worth it.

Aikue resigns to his shipborn citizenship without any hesitation, saying good bye forever to a life of privilege. He seems to be happy about it thought, with the auctioning of his old home and the few possessions that he didn't mind leaving behind he gets enough money to buy the printers and necessary inks and products needed to run his new business.


"Well... I guess we are housemates now, we live pretty close to each other." Aikue says with a small raspy guffaw. "This wouldn't have happened without you. I do not regret my actions. I'm glad of how things developed, and I know that I will die a happy man. I cannot thank you enough Diego. So I want to give you the gift of a name. How do you think that we should name the newspaper?"

> "The Salt-Stained Inquirer"

> "The Pacific Presser"

> "The Belowdecker Bulletin"

> "The Unsinkable Truth"

> Other names, write in.
>>
>>4542226
>> "The Pacific Presser"
I like the sound of this one
>>
The Unsinkable Truth has a certain ring to it.
>>
>>4542226
>The Bulletproof Bombshell
>>
>>4542226
> "The Naked Truth"
>>
Rolled 2 (1d4)

There doesn't seem to be a consensus so I'll simply use a dice roll. The name is not all that important to be honest.

> "The Pacific Presser"
1

> "The Unsinkable Truth"
2

> "The Bulletproof Bombshell"
3

> "The Naked Truth"
4
>>
>>4542405
Yay I won.
>>
>>4542226
> "The Unsinkable Truth"

"What about the Unsinkable Truth?" You tell him.

"I love it! It has moxie! It sounds good! And superstitious sailors like anything that refers to being buoyant haha!"

Aikue goes towards his desk and from one of the drawers grabs a small cardboax box with your name stencilled on it.

"More residuals?" You say, expecting another box full of bags of rice, razorgrain or tatos.

"No. Your new work tools." He replies with pride.

You open the box and find an old camera, several blank holotapes, a sound recorder, several pens, and a notebook along with a key.

"What does this open?" You ask, as you hold the key and put the rest of the objects in your bag.

"Your new office. You won't only be a journalist, but the Editor as well. Most of the orphans have shown some skill when it comes to writing or snapping pictures, and the unskilled ones are great information diggers and spies. The kids will find stories for you, and you will be able to chose which ones get investigated and written about, and if a particular case catches your eye you'll be able to look it up on your own. These kids will become your reporters and photographers, and you'll be their boss. Your salary will be fifty caps per week."

"Oh...that's, that's great!" You say, surprised by receiving such a great promotion.

"Daphne will also receive a promotion and a raise, she will become the layout designer of the newspaper and the illustration supervisor. She will teach the kids how to draw and oversee their creations, which might or might not end in our paperbacks or in the Unsinkable Truth."

"That's great! She told me that she was kind of tired of doing raunchy and perverted drawings."

"Well, these won't be changed, if we toned the erotica down our sales would plummet. But I get what you mean, after all someone else will do the drawing from now on."

"Will the kids be good porn artists?" You ask, kind of worried about his business decisions.

"These poor kids would have become gang members or sex workers if we didn't end employing them. They know more about sex than we do. Trust me, some of these little rascals know techniques and sex positions that would make a robot blush. If anything, the drawings will become even more naughty and perverted. I'm even expecting a sales boost."

You roll your eyes and blow air out of your nose, then smile at him.

"Anyway, the urchins have left several possible cases in your office already. All you got to do is check them out, and chose which ones should be investigated."

With that said he bids you farewell and you head out. His small office is now more cramped than ever, Mr. Aikue was forced to install himself in that small room, and now that there was a bed, several new drawers, countless boxes lying around and even a small kitchen, the office felt small and tight. Despite of all he seemed to be happy about his new lifestyle.
>>
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>>4542523

The second floor of the bookstore, the floor dedicated to the printing of the paperback and the soon to be created newspaper is louder than ever, the newly added printing machines creating a lot of racket as they are prepared, oiled and calibrated. You head into your office and find a small and cramped room, but its a room of your own, your own little palace. Next to the office is a small photography laboratory that used to be an empty warehouse. All in all, Mr Aikue did a really good job in such a small amount of time.

You sit on the floor and find several notes, detailing different possible leads and newsworthy cases tht the urchins have found while on the streets. You better get to work.

>> Chose one to personally investigate, the rest will be investigated by the kids. Sending a kid to investigate and report on an event will yield worse results than if we do it ourselves, but as the time goes on the kids gain experience and become better journalists.

> There's an old submarine sunken under the city. Many divers have tried to open it, but never have been able to. Apparently the sub has started emitting some sort of strange code that can be received with radios. Investigate the radio signals.

> There's a particular part of town that people avoid for superstitious reasons. Apparently ghostly figures and other strange phenomena happen every night at 3 am. Investigate what kind of weird things happen there.

> A strange ship full of clowns and other artists has recently docked and is looking for a place to install their travelling circus. Investigate if they are a real circus or there's something dark behind.

> Two local gangs of hoodlums have declared war on each other, and their skirmishes are causing havoc. Investigate if there's a way of stopping them.

> Apparently a new powerful and highly addictive chem has found its way onto the lowest parts of the town. Find where it is being manufactured and what effects does it have. Inform the citizens of its dangers.
>>
>>4542524
> Apparently a new powerful and highly addictive chem has found its way onto the lowest parts of the town. Find where it is being manufactured and what effects does it have. Inform the citizens of its dangers.

This is the one I would be least comfortable sending a kid to do
>>
>>4542524

> A strange ship full of clowns and other artists has recently docked and is looking for a place to install their travelling circus. Investigate if they are a real circus or there's something dark behind

There's probably already some orphans in our crew that are junkies so investigating the chems shouldn't be too bad. These guys though sound like the real threat to kids lol.
>>
>>4542524
>There's an old submarine sunken under the city. Many divers have tried to open it, but never have been able to. Apparently the sub has started emitting some sort of strange code that can be received with radios. Investigate the radio signals.
>>
>>4542524
>> There's an old submarine sunken under the city. Many divers have tried to open it, but never have been able to. Apparently the sub has started emitting some sort of strange code that can be received with radios. Investigate the radio signals.
The sea is a scary, dangerous place
>>
>>4542524
Alright, it was a hard choice but checking the submarine wins, the rest of the things will be investigated by the junior reporters.

I also forgot to say something.... WE LEVEL UP!

Rescuing the orphan was a quest on itself and we only needed 10 exp to level up so... yeah!

> +80 HP
> Current HP: 565
> + 16 Skill points
> + 1 Perk

> Character Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17h2Zm77a7A6MuvcRf4QdBZ-agS7B90SsgInJJ-O9COA/edit

> Standard perks:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17lByiQu0HWGGJrxEx-L1yL5pFQTAbE_abbrSClSn-Ps/edit

> Racial perk:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bDWe2DsgK5dr-WPCZx9wpKEAu7JyG-8biuiWqaOBrRM/edit
>>
>>4542792
+16 Science, we’ll probably need it for this quest
>Fast Metabolism
>>
>>4542792
Wait. Are we level 7 or 8? Char sheet says 7 but the exp is from before the last 10 points? If we're level 8 then we missed a Perk and some skill points? I'm confused.

Also,
+16 Science
>Computer Whiz

Physically we're decent, armed and armored. We need brain power now for not just the sub, but for maybe some shenanigans involving some...data manipulation down the line. An item here, a crate there, all nice and official like.
>>
>>4542965
Sorry friend. I forgot to update the sheet. We became level 8! It is updated now
>>
>>4542979
Nice
>>
>>4542792
+16 SCI
no idea for perk
>>
>>4542792

Agreed with the others, let's throw all the points into Sci since we're going on the sub.

For the perk I'd say Child at Heart since we're king of the orphans now.
>>
Rolled 2 (1d3)

Alright, the +16 SCI is set. But there's a tie for the perk. So I'll do a dice roll.

> Fast Metabolism
1

> Computer Whiz
2

> Child at Heart
3
>>
>>4542524
> There's an old submarine sunken under the city. Many divers have tried to open it, but never have been able to. Apparently the sub has started emitting some sort of strange code that can be received with radios. Investigate the radio signals.

This particular case seems interesting, and dangerous. You might even need to go underwater at some point. So far you only had limited underwater experiences but you know fully well how terrifying and dangerous the depths can be. Every time that you descended beneath the waves has been a traumatic experience, there are monsters down there that could frighten a Deathclaw, radioactive hotspots that would make the Divide pale in comparison and countless of nuclear powered vessels ready to got critical at any time.

There's no way that you will allow a kid to go to the depths on its own.

Afterwards you summon your new subordinates, a group of ten raggedy kids ranging from ages seven to fifteen, grouped in pairs, with one being the writer and the other working as a photographer. They have name tags on their tattered clothes, most of them written with misspellings or poor calligraphy, good thing that their writings will be later transcribed into a typewriter. Right now you don't really bother learning their names, you will slowly memorise them as the time goes on. Each group receives a particular case and you send them out to work. They all scurry away cheerfully speaking about their case and how they plan to affront it. They are good kids.

You put your particular case in a folder and head out as well, camera and notepad in hand, ready to go back to what you do best.

> Interrogate and interview the people that might have heard the strange radio messages that the sub emit.
> Travel to the Diver's Guild and interview the people around, hear what they have to say.
> Travel to the Diver's Guild and ask for a diving suit, go down on your own and check the submarine yourself.
> Search for the strange radio transmissions on your own. See what are they about.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4543536
>> Search for the strange radio transmissions on your own. See what are they about.
>>
>>4543536
> Search for the strange radio transmissions on your own. See what are they about.
>>
>>4543536
>Search for the strange radio transmissions on your own. See what are they about.
>>
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>>4543536
> Search for the strange radio transmissions on your own. See what are they about.

You would love to search for the strange radio signals, but you don't have a portable radio anymore. Your last radio was used to lure the guards in the USS Montana. Damn it.

Slowly you walk towards Daphne's studio and gently knock on the door. The place is as messy and untidy as it was before, but now there are several new drawing canvases and kids doing their best to learn the craft, some of them are surprisingly talented.

The atmosphere inside of the room is lively and cheerful, the kids are listening to the music of the radio and cracking jokes between each other. Daphne is acting as their boss and teacher, and constantly oversees their craft and artistic evolution.

"Sorry kids, but I'm coming here to take the radio." You tell them all, as you pick up the small radio.

The kids start to boo you and a small hailstorm of crumpled paper balls rain over you.

"I need it to investigate something weird and mysterious!" You reply with a grump.

"Yeah, they won't listen to it. They really love Rainbow Jack. You gotta repay them somehow."

"Alright! When I come back I'll bring a couple of Fancy Lads Snack Cakes for each one of you!"

The kids cheer and stop throwing paper balls at you. You kiss Daphne in the cheek and all erupt in a roar of hollers and applause. Kids will be kids.

After leaving the bookstore you decide to head into the same rooftop where you first detected the Enclave radio signals. After you discovered and disrupting their plans the Enclave has stayed quiet and still, at first you believed that they were spying on you, but as of late this thoughts have been dissipating. There are more shipborn guards actively patrolling the slums, this has caused violent crime to go down, and inadvertently has spooked any Enclave spies that might have been after you.

It doesn't takes you long to reach the high point. Compared with the ships and their mighty decks this particular roof isn't really tall, but its as best as you can do without getting your ass in danger. You sit on the shack roof, turn on the radio and let the airwaves do their job.

> Everybody roll a 1d20!
>>
Rolled 15 (1d20)

>>4543677
>>
Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>4543677
>>
Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>4543677
>>
Rolled 10 (1d20)

Alrigth, my turn
>>
>>4543809
> +50 exp acquired

You tune in the different frequencies and hear nothing strange. Most of the bandwidth is unoccupied and returns nothing but static, there are a few pre-war distress calls that have been repeating the same dread inducing messages over and over for more than two centuries, a couple of channels used by nearby fishermen. there's of course Rainbow Jack's radio... and nothing else. Until you finally hear it.

"F̴a̷r̶ ̵a̷w̸a̵y̵ ̵s̸o̸u̴l̵,̵ ̸y̵o̴u̵ ̵h̴a̷v̷e̸ ̵s̴t̵o̴l̷e̸n̸ ̸o̸u̷r̴ ̵t̴r̶e̸a̶s̴u̶r̶e̴,̶ ̵c̷o̶m̸e̵,̴ ̶c̵o̷m̴e̷ ̸t̶o̸ ̵u̸s̶"

You cannot make the words, they sound extremely distorted, yet they are incredibly alluring. You grab the radio, raise it to your face and your body then freezes. You cannot avoid hearing the repeating message over and over, and before you can notice it a couple of hours have passed, it isn't until a painful rumble in your stomach happens that you finally break from your hypnotic trance. You are feeling quite hungry, your lips and throat are parched as well, you need to eat and drink. Your arms are incredibly sore from being in the same position from so long, tomorrow you will have muscular cramps.

What's wrong with this particular radio transmission?

Before it can snare you again you change the frequency and turn it off. Your eyes are dry as well, have you really been more than two hours without blinking at all? It sure feels like it.
>>
>>4543889

You decide to pack the radio and head down to street level before a hunger and dehydration induced headache can kick in. As you descend staircase you cannot avoid noticing a person in the distance listening to the same frequency that had messed you up. It's a woman, around fifty years old, she is holding the radio in front of her face, just like you were doing, but she isn't still like you were, she is constantly nodding and walking across the street. The woman ignores everybody and everything around her, she simply walks, as if possessed, and when she finally reaches the end of the street she hugs the radio and continues walking, falling onto the waters and quickly sinking down due to the radio's heavy weight.

Quickly you try to reach her but there is nothing you can do, you are too late. Several bystanders try to rescue her as well but none dare to go down into the radioactive waters, and soon enough she is gone, not even bubbles coming out.

"My god. I've heard that there was a string of suicides around, all of them by drowning." Says one of the witnesses.

"Yeah, I heard that too, but I didn't believe it until now." Another add.

"I think its something in the water. There's poison in the water! Boil your water before drinking it!" A paranoid looking ghoul then yells.

"What's going on...?" You whisper, confused and scared.

> Interview these people. Ask around, some of them seem to know something.
> Travel to the Diver's Guild and interview the people around, hear what they have to say.
> Travel to the Diver's Guild and ask for a diving suit, go down on your own and check the submarine yourself.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4543890
>Travel to the Diver's Guild and interview the people around, hear what they have to say.
Spooky
>>
>>4543890
>> Interview these people. Ask around, some of them seem to know something.
>>
>>4543890
>Interview these people. Ask around, some of them seem to know something.
>>
>>4543890
> Travel to the Diver's Guild and interview the people around, hear what they have to say.
>>
>>4543890
> Interview these people. Ask around, some of them seem to know something.
>>
I have a suggestion OP. So far our Caps perk has been useless to us. The grind of buying some random item to resell it doesn't really work in quest format I think. Can we just create a steady stream of income instead, just assuming our character hustles around a bit every day he is in the city?
>>
>>4544624
>I have a suggestion OP. So far our Caps perk has been useless to us. The grind of buying some random item to resell it doesn't really work in quest format I think.
I agree. Many of the stuff that is done in the videogames doesn't works here. But trust me, the perk will be useful.

>Can we just create a steady stream of income instead, just assuming our character hustles around a bit every day he is in the city?
We kinda did. Our new job as a newspaper editor gives us 50 caps per week. That's a pretty high salary for wasteland standards. We also have a small room where we can live and sleep for free, and Daphne's mother is a sweetheart and prepares us a free meal every day. We have hustled quite a lot actually.
>>
>>4543890
> Interview these people. Ask around, some of them seem to know something.

For a moment you consider snapping a picture, but a second later realise that it would be useless, what kind of worth would have a picture of the sea have? There is no proof of a suicide happening in there, after all, the corpse sank into the bottom and left no trace behind. You better get information by other means.

Notebook and pen in hand you stop the nearby witnesses of the suicide and interrogate them all.

"What do you know about the suicides?" You ask to the person that first mentioned them.

"Not much. Just that they have been happening for the last week. Most of the people that offed themselves didn't really had any reasons to do so, some of 'em even had happy lives! But yeah... for some reason they all at some point left their homes and jumped straight into the waters, and never came back. I think that_"

"You gotta buy life preservers!" The lunatic ghoul suddenly yells, forcefully entering into your conversation. "Buy them and tie them up to your body! The voices of the deep are owed a life, and won't stop until that life is repaid!"

> Continue interrogating the person that you were talking with.
> Pay attention to the crazy ghoul. Newspapers with sensationalist bullshit like this will sell really well.
>>
>>4544704
>> Pay attention to the crazy ghoul. Newspapers with sensationalist bullshit like this will sell really well.
>>
>>4544704
> Continue interrogating the person that you were talking with.

let's let the man finish
>>
>>4544700
>Continue interrogating the person that you were talking with.
>>
>>4544704
>> Continue interrogating the person that you were talking with.
>>
>>4544704
> Continue interrogating the person that you were talking with.

You ignore the raving lunatic and after a while it finally stops pestering around and leaves you two alone.

"As I was about to say." Your interviewee says. "I think that the radios have something to do. I'm a diver, and while I haven't found any body yet, I have found plenty of radios. Radios that a couple of weeks ago weren't there."

"So, the people hold the radios, jump into the waters and as they are drowning decide to release them?"

"That's the weird part of it all. If the corpses had dropped the radios after jumping, then they would have floated back into the surface. A body will float during its first 24 hours after death. The corpses haven't floated back, and they aren't in the bottom, they just arent. And they haven't been devoured either I know that for sure, because even the biggest of the Sha-manos leaves bodies and other remnants on its wake. It's has if they had simply disappeared."

You start to write everything down. Back in the day you preferred to write about real news, events that could shake the foundations of the NCR society to the core, and you believed that sensationalist headlines and yellow press were inferior and deserving of mockery, but right now you don't have anything better, so you will run with these foundation-less rumours, an ironic start for a newspaper that will be called the "Unsinkable Truth".

"Anyway, why are you asking and taking notes friend?" The man continues, kind of cheerfully.

"I'm a reporter for a new newspaper that will soon circulate around this city. The Unsinkable Truth."

"Nice, I like the name already. Tell you what. What do you say about going with me and the rest of the boys for a dive? We have a submersible and spare diving suits. We are trying to find out what the hell is going on. We believe that the weird radio signals that drive people mad come from Big Bertha, the submarine sunken under the city. But its all rumours and theories so far. Wanna join us?"

> Yes, this needs further investigation. Something really weird and potentially dangerous is happening here. You need to find out the truth before more people die.
> No, you have risked your life too many times already. Your life has just started to get on the right path, you have just gotten a nice and cushy job, and you are not going to risk everything to investigate some rumours.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4544799

> Yes, this needs further investigation. Something really weird and potentially dangerous is happening here. You need to find out the truth before more people die.
we're an adventurer
>>
>>4544799
>> Yes, this needs further investigation. Something really weird and potentially dangerous is happening here. You need to find out the truth before more people die.
>>
>>4544799
>> Yes, this needs further investigation. Something really weird and potentially dangerous is happening here. You need to find out the truth before more people die.
>>
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>>4544799
> Yes, this needs further investigation. Something really weird and potentially dangerous is happening here. You need to find out the truth before more people die.

"Yeah, I'll come up with you. I need to get to the bottom of this."

"Well, you will get to a bottom alright, to the bottom of the ocean har har. Name's Harris."

Harris is a seasoned and burly man. Short in stature, but not quite reaching dwarfism, body with a mighty beer gut, but surprisingly fit arms and legs. He looks like the man that could easily smack someone's light out without even breaking a seat. His skin is tanned and covered in small scars, bite marks and a couple of badly scarred bullet holes. Despite your impressive stature and musculature you wouldn't want to get in a fight against him.

You stretch his calloused hand and together walk towards the Diver's guild, where he and other brave people dip into the waters to skim the depths in the search of anything valuable. The guild is a pretty plain looking building on the outside, but the interior is heavily decorated with all kinds of treasures and mementos that they have found along the way. An entire whale skeleton decorates the ceiling, many other other marine remains cover the walls as well, clumped together along with dozens of pre-war paintings and countless photographic pictures. The area is full of other divers, all looking as grizzled and experienced as Harris, and all cheerfully speaking about the strange radio frequency and the suicide spree. It's... weird to see these people so happily speaking about people killing themselves, but perhaps it is part of their nature, they risk their lives every single day for a crust, and they have become too jagged and accustomed to death to really be fazed about it. Unsurprisingly, most of the divers are ghouls, perhaps their affinity with radiation makes them better suited for the job.

"Welcome to the guild. Feel free to ask for some Grog to Old Rusty." Harris then says, pointing towards a rusty and mollusc covered Protectron that limped around serving drinks. One of its legs had been broken and substituted with a wooden peg leg, and despite not really having eyes, someone had put an eyepatch over its head. Unsurprisingly, there was a heavily mutated and almost bald parrot perched in one of its shoulders.

"What do you do around here?" You ask, as you take a pint of a dark and foul smelling drink from the passing robot.

"The ships need rare resources to keep on working. They give us lists and we go down and search what they need. Luckily for us they have submersibles and scanners that more or less give us a general indication on where to look. When we have what we need we go up, deliver the goods and get paid handsomely. We can also keep whatever other stuff we might find. It's a great job, every day is unique and different, and if you are lucky you might end being set for life, but its not a job for the faint of heart, I have seen many people die down there."
>>
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>>4545119

"And you all go solo, or in groups?"

"If you are a diver you don't have a boss. You can go down whenever you want. All you find and carry will be yours, but going alone is pretty much a deathwish. People here group when they need to, and then share the booty. The submersibles that we have around technically belong to the big ships, and are only to be used when they entrust us a mission, but since we are the ones with the keys we have decided to rent them to whoever needs it. If you have a lead on some good treasure you can always group with whoever you want and rent the sub for a relatively good price."

Despite being so hardy and aggressive looking these divers were surprisingly calm and democratic.

"Tell you what." Harris continues. "My particular group has already rented a sub, and we were waiting for Charlie, one of the best divers around, but she is completely awol, perhaps she has committed suicide by drowning as well, an ironic death for her, wherever she is, let's just hope that the Fiddler green's door open for her. We have an open position. But wait, before you answer, you should know that your Laser Pistol will work underwater, but the laser blast will be weakened, and they will leave a pretty noticeable bubble trail behind, you know, boiling water and all that. I could lend you a harpoon gun if you want, but please, take care, these little beauties are pretty delicate. Oh and if you decide to come what kind of suit would you want to take? A wetsuit offers almost no protection but will not hinder your movements, many people have managed to escape from danger thanks to them, there's also the classing diving suit, a model so good that it has been in use for almost four hundred years, and perhaps...a big guy like you could use the submariner armor, a heavy diving suit created by the pre-war army to sabotage nuclear submarines and clear minefields, the thing is an absolute beast."

"Why are you so sure that I'll agree to come down?" You ask, surprised by his enthusiasm.

"Come on! We need another person to go down, otherwise we will be short staffed and our survival rate will descend a lot! And you have already made all the way here! Not going down would be losing a great opportunity. And also, because this shit is addicting, trust me, you will want to descend in more occasions."

> Accept. Take the wetsuit.
> Accept. Take the Diving suit.
> Accept. Take the Submariner Armor.
> Decline.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4545123
>Accept. Take the Submariner Armor.
Underwater power armor? Hell yeah
>>
>>4545123
>> Accept. Take the Submariner Armor.
>>
>>4545123
>> Accept. Take the Submariner Armor.
>>
>>4545123

> Accept. Take the Submariner Armor.

Probably the only thing that would fit us at this point!
>>
>>4545123
We a big boi, let's grab the submariner armor and a poon gun.
>>
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>>4545123
> Accept. Take the Submariner Armor.

"Every time that I've dipped into the waters has been a terrifying experience. I'll take the Submariner Armor." You say, looking at the extremely heavy and thick suit.

The Submariner armor seems to be based on Power-Armor technology, perhaps since it was developed and created by the US army it might even be considered a proper Power Armor.

"Excellent choice. You will be slow as a slug, but strong as a tank. Give me a second to measure you..." Harris says, suddenly grabbing a measuring tape from one of his pockets and using it to more or less measure your height and other dimensions. You let him do his job and in the meanwhile look around the place. For some reason most of the divers are getting dressed, armed and ready to get down into the waters. A couple of the submersibles are even turning on their engines and getting mechanically lowered to sea level.

"Why is everybody submersing now?" You ask, as he continues measuring your ample body.

"It's going to be mid day soon. The sun will be directly over the ocean, and that will give us lots of sunlight to explore the dark depths. These few mid day hours allow us to save on fuel and power that we would otherwise need to power up the flashlights."

No wonder why Harris wanted you so badly. Without you his expedition might have been entirely cancelled. After he's done with the measures he quickly hurries towards a nearby workshop and starts modifying one of the mighty submersible armors, widening its inner frame and elongating its limbs to better accommodate you.

"I did all I could." He says with a small shrug as he finishes his job and quickly proceeds to put on his own diving suit. You store your Trenchcoat and all your belongings except your camera and recorder in Harris' personal locker and then proceed to put on a second hand wetsuit before entering into the Armor. The wetsuit is a couple sizes too small and reeks of sweat and other pungent aromas, and due to your massive and slightly inhuman frame the armor cannot fit you perfectly, becoming hard and uncomfortable to use, but it's as best as it will get. Lastly, you holster your knife in your left leg, your laser pistol in your right leg, grab a massive harpoon launcher and put it in your back.

With the helmet on your field of vision becomes tighter, and everything around you acquires a bright greenish hue, apparently it has some kind of night vision incorporated on itself.

"Can you hear me?" Harris suddenly radios you, speaking with a slightly echoing and distorted voice. "There's a small button in your forearm, use it to connect the radio, and then press the red one to the right of it whenever you wanna speak."
>>
>>4545987

You follow his instructions and then hear him and other voices.

"Alright Freebooters!" Then Harris suddenly screams. "We got a new face in our team! What's your name boy?"

"D-Diego!" You yell, after pressing the red button.

"You heard him, he's going to be our heavy support. Now that the team is finally complete meet me in front of the submersible number 7. We are going down in five."

Harris motions you to follow and you sluggishly walk along with him. The armor makes you even bigger and looks sturdy enough to stop a Howitzer shell, but it also makes you extremely slow moving.

"Don't worry, the armor won't be as lagging once you are underwater, that's what it was designed for."

"I've never heard of an armor of this kind." You say, speaking with your real voice and not with the radio. Still, your voice comes out from a small speaker mounted in the helmet, and comes out sounding echoing and distorted.

"Really? I thought everyone around here knew about 'em."

"Well, I'm not from around here exactly."

"Wait, are you a mainlander?"

"Yeah. San Francisco."

"Uh, let's keep that a secret between us ok? Most locals don't like mainlanders, think that they are bad luck. And divers are particularly superstitious."

"What, why don't they like mainlanders?"

"Fear of the unknown mostly. Mainland America is really far away, and all we know about it comes from comics, novels and movies, most of which are violent in one way or another. I'm sure that most of the states aren't very different from what can be found around here, but people can have a pretty distorted view of the outside world. There are also a few people that believe that Hawaii should have never joined the USA, and that if it had stayed independent it would have been spared from the Great War. And finally there's a common belief here that any mainlander that comes to Hawaii does so because it is running from a terrible and heinous crime. Of course not everybody believes such things, but you might find a jackass every now and then, if I were you I'll keep your birthplace a well guarded secret."

"Uh... so far nobody has mistreated me for being an outsider."

"So far you have been lucky then."
>>
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>>4545989

"I guess so." You reply, kind of bummed.

"Anyway, I don't know about mainland America, but Hawaii was a hotspot for Chinese submarines, there were countless of them, hidden among the depths, ready to launch their nukes at any moment, spying on their communications, deploying spies, and doing god knows what else."

San Francisco also had a Chinese Submarine that ended on its coast, the descendants of the sub crew ultimately became the Shi, which ended becoming a very influential powerhouse in the city. You had learned of the Shi during your high school years, but you had never considered how many american and foreign submarines might have ended marooning in the different coasts or sank to the dark depths.

"The Americans had better technology and weaponry." Harris continues. "But the Chinese were better at stealth and spying. When it came to underwater warfare the Chinese had an edge because they always managed to intercept the american communications and avoided being attacked or activated stealth fields and became nearly undetectable and impossible to target, there are rumours of several chinese submarines that haven't been found yet because they are still invisible to the naked eye. Anyway, the American radars and detection systems were good enough to detect and triangulate the Chinese subs, but they were always too late and by the time they managed to send some response the Chinese were gone or had turned invisible. So they developed these armors as a countermeasure, as a mean of fast responding to these threats before the chinese could run away. The armors were mounted on specially designed stealth ships, and when one of those commie subs was discovered a nearly supersonic plane was scrambled and sent over the coordinates of the enemy, when they were finally in position the Submariners simply jumped from the plane, falling directly above the enemy submarine, sinking too quickly for the chinese to react and escape. These armors could either be equipped with mine launchers, breaching plasma cutter or Gatling guns. The mine launchers were used to create a floating minefield around the sub, making any kind of escape impossible, the plasma cutters breached the hull and were used to create an entrance, and the Gatling gunners killed anyone on board. These Submariners achieved many great things, but they were never deployed outside of Hawaii. The Great War happened before it could be done."

"Wow." You say, impressed to wear such a piece of history around your body.
>>
>>4545992

Finally you reach the Submersible number seven and find another three persons, which will conform your expedition group.

Harris will be the leader of the group, he will wear a diving suit and be equipped with a power drill and a some breaching charges, he will coordinate the rest and be a jack of all trades, helping whenever he can.

The next one is Nanna, ayoung ghoulish woman wearing a wetsuit, she is equipped with a couple of highly modified sub-machine guns that work underwater and instead of bullets use electrified flechettes. She will be good against lightly armoured enemies and her natural agility and speed make her an ideal scout and explorer.

Following her is Kalili, a tall psyker woman wearing a diving suit, and equipped with a handmade sonic cannon that can stun submarine creatures and is capable of breaching holes inside the hulls of most ships. She will be good against robots and most heavily armoured enemies, and will also be the main techie of the group.

And finally there is Marcus, another wetsuit wearing person. His wetsuit is covered in small leather bags and pouches full of medicines, ingredients and medical tools. On his back he has a small sword and a sawed off shotgun. He's will clearly be the medic and scientist of the group.

"Alright." Says Harris as he opens the hatch of the submersible and ends introducing you to the rest of the group. "Our mission is finding the source of the strange radio transmissions, which we believe come from somewhere under the city. The rest of the expeditions have each allotted a particular place to start their search, we have a place as well. We will go in groups of two and one will have to go alone. How do you wanna pair?"

> Go with Harris. He's the leader and most experienced one of the group, your survival chances will increase a lot with him.

> Go with Nanna. Her weapons will be great to fend off agile yet feeble enemies that might cause you some trouble due to your sluggishness.

> Go with Kalili. Together you two will be nearly unstoppable, and whatever enemy or obstacle you might find will be easy to deal with.

> Go with Marcus. He's the medic of the group, nuff said.

> Go solo.
>>
>>4545999
Let's roll out with Nanna, big and small is good combo.
>>
>>4546000
Holy shit you are a fast reader, most replies take more than thirty minutes. Also nice trips.
>>
>>4546003
Well shucks pardner. BTW posted in first quest, liking this one too.
>>
>>4546011
Glad to hear that! What parts do you enjoy most? Do you have any suggestions or criticism? I strive to become better
>>
>>4546029
I like it all pard, but I can say that I especially like the quests ya come up with. If Bethesda had half of your imagination their games would be hella better.
>>
>>4545999
>> Go with Harris. He's the leader and most experienced one of the group, your survival chances will increase a lot with him.
>>
>>4546000
I was gonna go with the scientist but I will bow to trips
>>
>>4545999
>> Go with Nanna. Her weapons will be great to fend off agile yet feeble enemies that might cause you some trouble due to your sluggishness.
Sounds like good synergy
>>
>>4545999
> Go with Nanna. Her weapons will be great to fend off agile yet feeble enemies that might cause you some trouble due to your sluggishness.

"I'll go with Nanna." You say, your voice sounding booming and distorted as it comes out of the centuries old speakers mounted on your helmet.

The petite girl nods and cheerfully gets on your side, your massive frame towering over her. She has to be barely five feet tall, lithe and slightly spindly looking, breasts and ass barely bulging on her chest and rear.

As far as you know children cannot become Ghouls. Nobody knows exactly what causes some people to turn into ghouls, but it is believed to be something genetic that triggers after puberty, explaining the lack of infantile ghouls. Nanna must have been barely an adult when her ghoulification process began, barely eighteen when the rads mutated her. If she was born before the nukes then she has to be one of the youngest looking yet oldest living ghouls out there.

Kalili and Marcus group together, apparently there's something between the two of them, and always try to group along when the go to some expedition.

"Of course, old Harris will have to go alone." He says, opening the hatch and getting inside.

The rest soon follow suit, with you entering last, as your body is the biggest and requires the most manoeuvring to fit around. It takes you a great deal of work to finally fit inside, and by the time you are finally done you are the last group to descend. The vehicle is descended with a crane and slowly dropped onto the waters.

Harris gets on the helm, turns the key and a great deal of small lights and machinery turn on, the entire submersible becoming hot and noisy as several fans begin to spin and recycle the air inside. The underwater coffin finally goes down, and nothing but the faint sound of the spins, the cyclic ping of the radar and soft murmured prayers dedicated to old careless gods can be heard.

The sunlight can only lighten so much, and soon enough a thick shroud of darkness engulfs all of you, the weak lights barely illuminating around the ship.

"Alright, so far so good." The leader says, as he steers and sails downwards. "Each one of the expeditionary teams has a particular part of the sea bottom to skim and scrounge, but most of them won't even bother checking them out. We believe that the signal originates from the great Dragon, the Chinese submarine that has lied dormant down there. We know that the Dragon is normally out of bounds, too many people around these waters have gone mad, and the area reeks of bad juju. But today we are going to do an exception, we can search it, but be wary, once we are down there that place will be no man's land, we will be able to kill divers from other teams and no legal repercussions will come from it. Pray to all the gods that you might know, because we sure are going to need their blessings."

> Roll 1d20!
>>
Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>4546216
>>
Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>4546216
Rng have mercy.
>>
Rolled 20 (1d20)

Rollan
>>
>>4546234
Thank you 1 post ID
>>
Of course you guys get a nat20
>>
>>4546237
You are welcome anon-kun
>>
>>4546234
You've saved us from the spooks, for now anyways.
>>
>>4546216
> Rolled nat20
> 450 exp acquired

The submersible has only one window to look upon, the rest is completely encased in metal. The glass is kind of grimy and the darkness and trash floating around makes visibility even harder. Somehow Harris manages to reach the bottom, and then heads straight into the Dragon, the massive sunken submarine that had laid untouched since the great war.

So far your Geiger Counter has been quiet and dormant, you are surrounded by radioactive waters but the submersible and your armor have proven to be a great shield against the decrepitude inducing effects of the ionic radiation. Still, the moment you approach the submarine the Geiger starts to tick and crackles back to life. The submarine is absolutely radioactive, perhaps it didn't manage to launch its nukes before being sunk and countless of tonnes of uranium still wait down below.

No wonder why so many people were driven into madness when approaching this unholy place. The radiation out there has to be brutal. As you get closer you see it with your own eyes, a massively long metal beast, old rusty metal covering a still beating heart, a bright green glow coming out from the cracks in its hull.

This also explains why Fallen Horizon has chosen this particular place to be stationed in. The submarine seems to have suffered massive damages, and surely as it sank it ended spreading uncountable radioactive material everywhere.

Perhaps other areas of the Hawaiian seas are not as radioactive, and can even be safely swum. The shipborn could have chosen a less irradiated place to settle on, a portion of the sea where falling into the waters wouldn't be a fatal outcome, but they preferred to put the lives of the belowdeckers at risk and in exchange have easy access to nuclear material. You look at the others and see some jaded and with thousand yard stares, other praying and mumbling incomprehensible phrases, these poor folk risk their lives for people that don't even care about them. Harris might be one of the few ones that truly enjoys this lifestyle, but the rest have been dragged into it. It's terrible.

The submersible finally stops about then feet from the sea bottom and then drops a small anchor. Everybody puts on their helmets and assure that their suits are completely airtight and then Harris presses some buttons that start the long and painful process of decompression, when that's finally over a radio check is done to assure that everybody can speak with each other and a bottom hatch is opened, allowing the divers to jump straight onto the waters below.
>>
>>4546297

Since you are the biggest one you are the first one to go down, and the moment you do your half melted Geiger counter turns mad. You are even worried about it melting even more, and becoming completely useless.

One by one they all jump down and reunite with you. The submarine is a few feet away, you will need to walk towards it for a few minutes to reach its hull.

"I couldn't drop the anchor any closer. If we anchored closer to the Dragon we might risk soaking the Submersible in rads, which would in turn would end irradiating us and anyone that might be at the Diver's guild after we go back, besides we simply cannot afford a decontamination of such scale. These beauties can only be decontaminated in the big ships, and doing so can go as far as ten thousand caps."

The rest of the group nod and prepare for the long walk. Despite having the sun on top of you and illuminating the ocean the visibility is pretty bad. You can hear gunshots and explosions in the distance, but there's nothing you can see. You look up and see the sun and three small dark smudges in the distance, are these really the ships and the town. How deep are you really?

Slowly and with the weapons ready you all walk towards the Dragon's hull. Your journey is slow, your armor can only walk so fast, and despite being slightly faster and more agile underwater it is still sluggish compared with the rest of the team. After a stroll that feels like an eternity you finally make it to the submarine.

No wonder why is it called the Dragon. It's absolutely massive, by far the biggest vehicle that you have seen so far, and you have seen the great NCR locomotives and the countless of trailers that they pulled crossing all across the railways of the wastes. The Dragon is a submarine that might easily be bigger than the three ships that form Fallen Horizon, and without a doubt, if the ship were still seaworthy you could easily fit the entire population of the ships and the town several times over. You are absolutely in awe. Fallen Horizon has been surviving of the Dragon waste for more than two centuries, and by the looks of it, it could survive for another five hundred years easily.

As you walk you cannot avoid noticing that every now and then you come across a radio. Most of them are broken, possibly destroyed as they heavily landed on the rocky sea bottom, but a few of them are still functional and on, and whenever you walk close your radio starts going crazy... so far your group has been able to avoid all the working radios, but who knows what might you find inside of the sub.

Luckily for you the particular part of the submarine that you have reached has a huge gash on its hull, letting you all easily enter without the need of using any breaching charges.
>>
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>>4546298

You get in, go inside and after ascending for a while you finally manage to reach an area that isn't completely flooded. It seems that while a great part of the ship has been inundated many others have stayed dry thanks to the sub's airtight seals.

Everybody sits on the floor and rests for a while, Kalili even uses some strange rocks and flammable leaves to make a small campfire.

Harris grabs a strange device and turns it on, scanning the air around and checking some readings that the machine is returning.

"Alright." He starts to speak. "Air is more or less breathable, radiation isn't as high as I was expecting. I think we should set camp here. We don't for how long will we stay here, so our priorities right now is getting some food and water in case we need to extend our stay, obtaining some scrap metal and ammo so Kalili can set up some turrets around us is also important, and one of us has to go and explore the nearby tunnels to see if there are dangers or treasures. As you all know I prefer to leave the choice to you guys."

> Go with Nanna in the search of food and water, and if possible chems as well.

> Go with Nanna in the search of scrap metal, junk and other resources that can be used to build turrets and other defences that will keep other divers and whatever mutant abomination that might lurk around away from your camp.

> Go with Nanna and scout the areas around camp, see what parts might be interesting to explore and what kind of dangers might lurk around.

> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4546029

Is there a link to your first quest? Really enjoy your writing and want more
>>
>>4546301
Yup, it was in the beginning of the thread. Here ya go friend:
> http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/4504658/
>>
>>4546300
>> Go with Nanna and scout the areas around camp, see what parts might be interesting to explore and what kind of dangers might lurk around.
>>
>>4546300
Let's go scout some shit, since we're the big guy with big armor it's our responsibility to look for spoops.
>>
Rolled 12 (1d20)

Alright, scouting it is. You will do 1d20+PERCEPTION, which is 8. Best of three. I'll roll 1d20 as well.

> Roll 1d20+8
>>
Rolled 16 + 8 (1d20 + 8)

>>4546335
>>
Rolled 3 + 8 (1d20 + 8)

>>4546335
>>
>>4546306
Ah gotcha. I thought you had done another quest other than this storyline. Been following this one from the beginning! And echoing another anon, if you wrote for Bethesda the games would be a million times better.
>>
Rolled 10 + 8 (1d20 + 8)

>>4546335
Rollen
>>
>>4546348
Well, this quest is sorta a redux. A year or two ago I ran this same quest. Sadly, life went to shit, curse got me, and I had to abandon it.

Our character was called Dillinger Rast, it was a survivalist from Sanctuary. It was a pretty cool guy.

This is my attempt at running the same quest again because I really enjoyed the experience.

You can check it out here.
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?searchall=Nukaloha

The beginning is more or less the same, but soon enough the two quest divert and become pretty different. If I recall correctly in the first quest we never set foot on Fallen Horizon.
>>
>>4546353
Was Fallen Horizon even a thing in the first run? I don't remember it being mentioned even once.
>>
>>4546355
You are right, it wasn't mentioned, not even once. I checked it.

It isn't a new addition thought. I have loads of word documents bloating my hard drive full of lore, names and descriptions for the islands and its settlements. I want them all to be more or less unique.

I originally came with the idea for Fallen Horizon two or three years ago. But originally the settlement would have been very different. It would have been a high tech city made up by the three ships and that was it.

There wasn't two different halves of the city, the belowdeckers and shipborn weren't a thing as well. I made all that fluff on the go. You need to be good at improv if you wanna be a QM.

I also know who will be the big antagonist of the quest, what are its motivations and goals. But I honestly have no fucking idea of how you guys will end crossing its path. That's what makes questing fun and interesting.
>>
>>4546300
> Go with Nanna and scout the areas around camp, see what parts might be interesting to explore and what kind of dangers might lurk around.
> Exploration successful
> +150 exp

The group starts to move away the trash and clean the area to deploy sleeping bags and create a corner where one can relieve itself.

"Nanna and I will go and explore." You tell to Harris, to which he nods and gives you the greenlight.

You turn around to tell her that its time to go but become unable to find her. Suddenly, from behind you hear a soft giggle and a small knock on your metallic helmet.

"Diego, since you are so big and I'm so small I was thinking of jumping into your back and letting you piggyback me. I'm kinda tired after the walk, and it's not like you will notice it anyway."

You shrug and proceed to walk towards the first hatch door that you find. Despite of its old age and lack of maintenance the submarine is surprisingly well lit, and most of the lights around still glow with some faint and intermittent intensity.

Honestly, you didn't knew what could you find, but you weren't expecting to see a massive room full of old and decrepit mannequins, a great layer of dust and cobwebs covering everything from head to toes.

"Jeez, this place is creepy." Nanna mutters as she loads her weapons.

Most of the mannequins are undressed, but a few have ruined and half destroyed Chinese uniforms and Hēi Guǐ armors put on them. Apparently the spiders and whatever other insects might roam around had been feeding on these clothes for the last two centuries, as most are completely ragged and tattered to the point of losing all of their value.

Suddenly the lights go out and a couple of seconds later turn on again. Nanna screams and you gasp, closing your fist and punching the nearest mannequin, crushing its plastic head as your metallic fist impacts. All of the mannequins had changed in position, they were all now looking and poiting at you.

"Let's get out of here." You say, walking as fast as you can and carrying Nanna on your back, tumbling down several mannequins and crushing them under your heavy weight as you stride towards the next room.

You walk across a door and reach a staircase, the stairs upwards are blocked by debris, so you have no choice but to go down. After descending a few feet a strange mist suddenly forms around you, becoming thicker the deeper you go, to the point of making the lower levels absolutely impossible to navigate. To add insult to injury your Geiger counter starts to beep, the fog is somehow radioactive, you need to get out of there as soon as possible, so you leave the staircase and head into the first corridor that you see.
>>
>>4546446

This corridor is particularly full of pipes, dozens of different pipes surround its walls and ceiling, all of them being of different colors and widths, hundreds of small rusted valves dotting the area. This place has suffered damages, most of the pipes have been damaged and are leaking. From their rusty cracks glowing and radioactive slime comes out, fiery multicolor flames are spewed, or dirty water leaks. If this place weren't as dangerous and radioactive it might have become a good source for dirty if drinkable water.

You don't go very deep into the corridor, and you decide to enter into a room before the heat or the radiation can affect any of you.

The room you enter in seems to be some kind of control room, there are around twenty skeletons in there, the walls have been decorated with crude drawings of nuclear mushrooms and fire, and at the end of the room there is a big and red glowing button. The skeletons gather around it, and by the looks of the many bullet holes, empty casings and rusty chinese pistols that lie around the button it seems that some kind of battle occurred here, perhaps the button launches the nukes, perhaps there had been a mutiny and some crewmembers wanted to avoid an even bigger nuclear fallout. Whatever that button does it isn't good, people killed and died for it, you do not dare to press it.

Slowly you retreat and go back to the leaky corridor, crossing it a few more feet and entering inside of another room.

Somehow you end in a mess hall, an eerily empty and disturbingly clean mess hall. You check the fridge and pantries and find it full of fresh fruits and pre-war chinese foodstuff. How this kind of food could last this long without being spoiled will be something that you will never understand, but you try not to question it, it will be easier to sleep at night that way. At the end of the mess hall there is an automatic door that is constantly opening and closing, apparently affected by some mechanical problem. There's something blocking the door as well, something big, every now and then the door slams with unprecedented force, filling the room with the sound of breaking bones and blood splattering. You walk towards the door to see what might be blocking it and find a massive Sha-Mano trapped in there, a great deal of blood is coming from it as the door slowly yet unrelentingly continues cutting it in half.
>>
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>>4546447

When you approach the massive shark it reacts to you, jumping and thrashing violently and desperately trying to get a bit of you two.

Both Nanna and you yell in surprise, as you expected the beast to be completely dead. It just made no sense, the shark couldn't have reached this place on its own, and even if it somehow did, it must have come very recently for it to be still alive.

Suddenly the door slams shut with a strength that its servos shouldn't be able to generate. It violently cuts the shark in half, splattering blood and guts all around it. The door then slowly opens back, creaking with every inch of movement. From the other side of the door you see nothing but darkness, but then some strange howling reverberates all across and a dozen clawed hands emerge from the darkness and pull the bottom half of the shark into the darkness. The sound of more breaking bones and flesh being violently torn and teared following soon after.

With both hands you grab the door and slam it shut. Then simply turn around and run away.

"What the hell was that?" You scream, as you head back into the leaky corridor.

"I've heard rumours about ships like these. Some of these vessels had a lot of surviving crew when they sank. The radiation along with other toxic materials and perhaps even chemical weapons that these ships carried ended mutating the crew, turning them into beasts way worse than Ghouls."

"What?"

"The world knew that the Great War was about to happen, it knew that it would be the biggest one there was, so they used all of their cards, went all in. Some of those ships carried mutant viruses, other nukes, other carried genetically engineered beasts, perhaps even a mixture of those three. Those ships then sank down, but maintained big air bubbles inside of them, becoming isolated biospheres on their own. The viruses or radiation mutated the crew or the gene freaks that they carried, and after two hundred years of inbreeding they have turned even freakier and more dangerous. Several ships are considered out of bounds for a good reason."

"Yeah, alright, but what about the mannequins, and all that other freaky shit."

"We like to believe that these places have lower oxygen levels, or that the air might be contaminated with things that might make you hallucinate. But honestly, we are never too sure, these places might be truly haunted."

As you walk you find another door, one that is blocked with woodboards, but thanks to your suit these boards offer little to no resistance to your titanic strength. You remove them one by one and kick open the door, before jumping in.
>>
>>4546450

This new room is a bathroom, one illuminated by hundred of candles and almost completely covered in graffiti. The walls, ceiling, stalls and cracked mirrors are covered in chinese characters, random sets of numbers or nonsensical sentences and sets of names. The entire area smells of fresh marker ink. Slowly you drag your metallic fingers across one of the stencilled names and see the ink smudge, these are freshly made, but at the same time a thick layer of dust covers everything, making it look old. It makes no sense. Suddenly the different pipes start to make an echoing noise, reverberating loudly before from the toilets a dark brown sludge starts to come out, quickly filling the entire small room in a foul and rotten smell. From the sludge several small bones emerge, human bones, but too small to belong to an adult, these are children bones.

As you avoid the dark and possibly irradiated sludge you notice a huge crack in one of the walls. You decide to give it a try and with a well aimed punch manage to tear a hole that leads to a new corridor. You head in and find a normal looking corridor, yet suddenly countless of surveillance cameras turn around and look at you, their red eye like lens being the only light source around.

There is no way you will go back, so without any other choice you decide to cross the corridor, the many cameras turning around and following your movements as you walk. The entire corridor is silent, dreadfully silent, not even the sound of dripping water or your Geiger counter can be heard. You cannot even hear your breathing or your heart. What's going on.

At the end of the corridor there is an elevator. As you are midway across it an elevator descends, and slowly opens its doors. Inside you see... Nanna? You look behind you and see her still perched to your back, looking at her doppelganger with horror, suddenly she yells and points in front of you. You look back at the elevator and now that its doors are fully open see that you are inside as well. The two of you lie on the floor of the elevator, covered in blood and absolutely gutted open, your blood and guts lying spread across the floor and walls.

"Fuck!" You say, as you proceed to run towards the elevator as fast as you can. Just as you are about to reach it the doors suddenly close and the elevator continues going down. You forcefully open the doors and find an empty hole, no remains of the elevator at all. You push the call buttons and receive no response, there's no power. Of course.
>>
>>4546452

Next to the broken elevator there is a rusty staircase, the stairs that go down lead to a flooded floor, so you decide to go up and to your surprise reach the encamping area where Harris and the rest of the group had set. Only Harris is around, the rest are missing.

During your absence they had mounted some tents, built some defences and even gathered some food and water.

"Hey there! Where were you?" Harris asks, raising his beer bottle and inviting you to sit next to him.

"What do you mean, we were gone for about an hour at most."

"More like twelve hours. We tried contacting you but there was too much noise." He replies shrugging.

"Just believe that we have been smelling hallucinogenic gases Diego. It will be easier that way." Nanna whispers to your ear, as she gets down from your back.

"Have you found any enemies?" Harris then asks.

You look at Nanna and she shakes her head. "No. We saw some strange stuff out there, the usual. But no critters." Nanna replies.

"Good, good."

As you get out of the armor and rest you suddenly notice a radio near the campsite. You aren't sure if having that around is a good idea.

> Try to eat something, recover some forces and go to sleep. Give your mind a break, otherwise you mind end too crazy.

> Ask Nanna to talk privately. Ask her about the strange phenomena and other dangers that might be in the submarine.

> Rest for a while, get back into your armor and go back into exploring. There's something wrong with this submarine, but you are sure that somewhere out there is a something that can stop this suicide spree.

> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4546455
> Ask Nanna to talk privately. Ask her about the strange phenomena and other dangers that might be in the submarine.
There's spooks here. Deep sea lore
>>
>>4546455
Whoops, I forgot to add one of the options. Sorry.

> Fiddle with the radio, see what kind of strange frequencies can you find inside of the submarine.
>>
>>4546455
>> Ask Nanna to talk privately. Ask her about the strange phenomena and other dangers that might be in the submarine.
>>
>>4546455

> Ask Nanna to talk privately. Ask her about the strange phenomena and other dangers that might be in the submarine.

We need more intel
>>
Ask if the radio is ours and if it's not SMASH the fucker.
>>
>>4546455
>> Ask Nanna to talk privately. Ask her about the strange phenomena and other dangers that might be in the submarine.
>>
>>4546515
>>4546563
+1
>>
>>4546455
> Ask if the radio is ours and if it's not SMASH the fucker.

The radio is off, but still gives you the creeps. There is something wrong about this place, and radios seem to act as a catalyst of some kind, if they are able to bring the strange and hypnotic energies of this submarine all the way to the to, who know what could they do here, closer to the source.

"Is that radio ours?" You ask Harris.

He looks at where you are pointing at and seems surprised.

"No, I don't remember bringing it, I in fact asked the rest to NOT bring radios. What the fuck."

Back in your armor, you walk towards the square shaped radio and as you are about to reach it, it suddenly turns on on its own, a weak light coming out of its diodes and tubes.

"We are owed a soul. You took it from us. We are coming for you. Diego." The radio suddenly speaks, with a ethereal and inhuman voice.

Before it can spew any more maddening sentences you grab the radio and crush it with your own hands. Smashing it to bits and sending electrical sparks everywhere.

"Did you hear that?" You ask to the rest.

"Hear what?" Nanna replies.

"The radio, it just said my name." You yell back, throwing the broken pieces away.

"I didn't hear anything." Harris says, trying to calm you down.

"Me neither. Perhaps it was just your imagination. You are still inexperienced, and you must be tired, try to rest." Nanna adds.
>>
>>4546891
> Ask Nanna to talk privately. Ask her about the strange phenomena and other dangers that might be in the submarine.

Once more you leave the armor and Harris prepares to do a quick checkup and charge its batteries. Soon enough the rest return to the camp as well, bringing with them heavy sacks filled of food, valuable resources and chems.

"We were lucky and found a mess hall full of food. There was also the upper half of a shark in there,we tried to bring it here to eat it, but it was too heavy. It's ok thought, with the food that we have here we should be able to last for a couple of weeks."

You look at Nanna, who doesn't seems phased by the mention of the eerily clean and empty mess hall, and the shark that you had found as well.

"Weeks..." You mutter to yourself. You expected this to be a quick thing, in an out, and return home before midnight, but now according to Harris more than twelve hours had passed, and by the looks of it you will be here for a couple of days.

Daphne and the rest don't know where you are, don't know that you are in the middle of an investigation, honestly, they might believe that you are dead. Hopefully they won't be really mad when you appear back in the Bookstore.

"Nanna, can is speak with you?" You ask, as the rest start to cook some food.

"Sure, what's troubling you?" She says, standing up and walking to another corner to have some privacy with you.

"What..." You start, as you reach her. "What is wrong with this place?"

"I told you, we are in an air bubble that has been stale for centuries. These humid and slightly radioactive vessels are ideal for all kinds of nasty molds and mushrooms. We might be breathing really nasty spores that might be messing with our heads.I'm not a scientists, I cannot give you a clear answer."
>>
>>4546892

"Well, can you at least tell me more about the depths, its dangers and such?"

"I don't know what to say. Some people have a connection to the sea, they say that humanity came from the waters. I've meet sailors and captains that abhor land, and prefer to live and die on the ocean. The seas also attract all kinds of weird stuff and beliefs, even before the war there were many stories and cults dedicated to strange gods that lived in the ocean depths. I've been invited to them, but I've always declined, the orgies and chems are fun and cool, but the rituals...bleugh. There are entire communities of people who live underwater, they might come by Fallen Horizon from time to time to trade, but they mostly keep to themselves and don't interact with people outside of their faith. There might be cultists in this same submarine, a place as big as this would make for a great headquarter. When it comes to critters well... depends on the ship, but there are a few creatures that are kind of common. Radroaches and rats are an usual sight, feral ghouls as well, Mirelurks too of course, packs of feral dogs might appear from time to time, Gulpers and Geckos and other mutated lizards like Deathclaws as well, but those are not as common...just shoot anything that moves. And be sure that its fully dead. If you can stomach it you could remove the used harpoons from the monsters that you kill, and reuse them."

"You two! Get a room for yourselves or come to eat dinner with the rest of us!" Marcus suddenly yells to Nanna and you.

Nanna blushes and then pats you on the arm before cutely running towards the campsite. During your absence the rest had deployed a small electric stove, several electric lanterns, sleeping bags and even a corner where one could deposit whatever useful and valuable objects one might find while exploring.

Harris hands you an old plastic plate, with some strange stew on it. It smells pretty bad, and pales in comparison with Ethel's food, but honestly you are pretty hungry, and you know that if you don't eat your survival chances will descend a lot. With some difficulty you manage to gulp down the leathery and foul smelling chunks of meat and the thick and salty gravy. Belching a little bit as you finish.

"Alright. I've decided to make the night rounds. The rest of you go to sleep and rest. I'll keep away and be sure that nobody gets close. Since I'm alone and I'm the only one that knows how to drive the submersible, I also going to be the only team that won't explore around. I'll instead stay here, guarding the camp and cooking. Anyone got a problem with that?"
>>
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>>4546894

Everybody shakes their heads, including you. Honestly it's not a bad plan, despite its impressive physique Harris is kind of old, and going alone is a deathwish, he told you so. Having him guarding the campsite will make exploring and scouting easier for everybody as well.

"Then goodnight to all of you." He says, as he lowers the intensity of the lanterns, creating a soft and gloomy atmosphere. You head into your sleeping bag and quickly find that it doesn't fits you, you are simply too big.

"Wait." Says Nanna as she witnesses you tossing the sleeping bag away. I have a needle and some thread, and I know sewing. My sleeping bag is far too big for me, what if I sew your bag and mine together, perhaps that way we might both be able to fit inside.

It seems that Nanna is attracted to you. And while she is pretty good looking, for a Ghoul, you barely know her. Would this be considered cheating? You don't really think so, but you are sure that Daphne wouldn't like to know that you snugly slept with another woman. On the other hand... are you and Daphne really dating? Yeah, you have kissed her, fucked her, several times, but is she really your girlfriend? Lately your relationship has become quite strained, you barely spend as much time together... Damn it, why is everything so hard and complicated?

> Let her use your sleeping bags to create a bigger one. Sleep next to her.

> Tell her that it's ok. Lie on the floor and try to sleep.

> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4546897
>Let her use your sleeping bags to create a bigger one. Sleep next to her.
About Daphne well, she cares for us but the relationship isn’t going anywhere, tell her to stay as friends when we are back.
>>
>>4546897
>Tell her that it's ok. Lie on the floor and try to sleep.
>>
>>4546897
>> Tell her that it's ok. Lie on the floor and try to sleep.
>>
>>4546897

> Let her use your sleeping bags to create a bigger one. Sleep next to her.

Let's not get too tied down. The relationship is on the rocks anyways.
>>
>>4546897
> Tell her that it's ok. Lie on the floor and try to sleep.
>>
we are not fucking a goul. Also I would like to call out Harris on his bullshit, like "What the fuck Harris? You could've told me you wanted to take me on a week long expedition to a radioactive ghost ship?! "
>>
>>4547056

Racist. All you smoothskins are the same.

We should absolutely captain kirk this.
>>
>>4547168
Please keep in mind that OP has REPEATEDLY told us that catching nasty STDs is a real possibility in this quest.
>>
>>4547283
We need to fuck every mutant in the wastes until our dick mutates and becomes a giant glowing missile that will pierce the heavens
>>
>>4546897
>> Tell her that it's ok. Lie on the floor and try to sleep.
>>
>>4547283

So it's fine to jump into bed with the human woman who literally wants to fuck a guy who just randomly knocked on her door, but not the ghoul cutie who had our back during the latest adventure?

Definite ghoul stereotyping going on here! Poor Nanna...
>>
>>4547438
Only one person here emits so much rad that our dick might rot and fall off.
>>
>>4546897
> Tell her that it's ok. Lie on the floor and try to sleep.

"Don't worry. I'll sleep on the floor." You tell her, rolling up your sleeping bag and creating a makeshift pillow to rest your head on.

Despite being exhausted, both in body and mind, you barely manage to sleep at all. Everything around you makes falling asleep a nearly impossible task, the metallic floors are extremely cold and humid, the faint lights on the walls loudly turn on and off at random interval, several of the nearby walls and ceiling pipes leak dripping water and in the distance strange echoing sounds can be heard and from time to time, very faint gunfire and explosions.

"Fuck it." You say, after a couple of hours of rolling of being unable to fall asleep. You stand up and pass by your snoring companions. Harris notices that you are awake and offers you a hot cup of coffee.

"I couldn't sleep during my first night either." He tells you, with a sly smile.

"You should have told me that this expedition might last weeks. My boss must be freaking out, I was supposed to return home with a nice article for tomorrow's print." You say kind of pissed, grabbing the cup and sipping the rich and bitter drink.

"C'mon. Aren't journalists like you supposed to spend days investigating?"

"Maybe on the newspapers that can afford it. We haven't even printed our first issue."

"The Unsinkable Truth wasn't it? Well you are in the depths, and you will survive and get out of there with a treasure of your own, perhaps not gold and riches, but a true story that will rock the city."

"You better be right about it Harris." You say with a deep and gravely voice, trying to sound intimidating.

Despite your hulking appearance your fearmongering doesn't works, and your intimidation attempts simply slid off him. He's too jagged to be terrified by you.
>>
>>4547515

"Look. If I told you the truth you would have never come with us. We needed another one. The submersibles can hold up to nine persons inside, the pilot and eight occupants in the back. But nine is an unlucky number, so we try to make teams as big as seven people."

"Why not eight?"

"Even numbers are bad luck too."

"Of course." You say, rolling your eyes.

"Anyway, we were only four, four is an even number, an unlucky number, and three is simply too small for an expedition of this size. I'm sorry I didn't told you all the truth, but desperate situations require desperate measures. If I had been honest I wouldn't have managed to descend into the waters, and you wouldn't have found your story."

"If I ever find it..." You say, finishing the drink and handling him the empty cup so he can refill it.

"You will. The Dragon has been something that we have wanted to explore for centuries."

"And why the sudden change, why now?"

"I would be lying if I said that our motivation comes from goodness and our interest in stopping the suicides. No, it's not that. The Shipborn will reward the team that discovers and stops whatever is causing the suicides with ten thousand caps, a citizenship status and a small home in the Cielo Zafiro. As the team leader I will keep the citizenship and the house, the rest of you can share the money."

"Really? That would be like, two thousand and five hundred caps for each one of us."
>>
>>4547519

"Yeah, I don't really care, I only want the house and the citizenship. Apparently a few weeks ago a Shipborn decided to rescind his privileges and went to live with the Belowdeckers. What a fool. Normally the Shipborn would have bought his belongings and then auction them, but nobody came to the auction and bet for his stuff, and shortly after came the suicides, which have also been wrecking the snobby folk that live up there. Using their scanners and radars they discovered that the suicides were caused by a strange radio emission that originated from somewhere under the ships, so they forcefully shut down every radio that was on board and decided to offer the citizenship, the house and the caps to whoever stopped it."

"The shipborn really dislike Belowdeckers, to grant a citizenship and gift a house like that... Kind of desperate and extremist don't you think?"

"Yes, but I think I know why. The radio emission randomly changes of frequencies, as long as you have a radio turned on it will sooner or later emit that damned thing and make anyone that hears it kill themselves. I believe that this affect to every single radio, including the mega scanners and other strange machines that they use to scan their surroundings in the search of enemies. So right now they are completely blind, no scanner, no radar, no nothing."

"Damn."

Could the Enclave have caused this? If they did and the three ships were really blind and defenceless then they could easily invade and conquer the entire city, you hope that you won't find an absolutely destroyed ruin when you go back up.

"I don't want the money, I have enough saved. After I get the citizenship and the house I'll turn my old home into a submersible docking station, create my own diving company, send my divers into the search of treasure, and live from it. I have big plans boy. If you ever find yourself in need for a job I'll gladly take you in, as long as you forgive me for lying to you."
>>
>>4547521

You look at him in silence and grab your second cup of coffee, sipping on it as your eyes meet.

"We will cross that bridge when we come to it." You reply drily.

"C'mon, I want to repay you somehow... Look, I think that I saw a ham-radio a while I was cleaning the campsite. If we find it I could see if it works, and perhaps help you use it to communicate with the Diving Guild, which would then send a courier to communicate to your boss, family or friends your current situation, and let them know that you aint dead. What else... your Submariner armor is big and sturdy enough to carry one of the turrets that Kalili built on its back, the turret would find enemies and attack them on its own, it will be really useful when exploring, the rest of course will not like you using one of the turrets, but I'll convince them that it's for the best... I could also brew some of my homemade knockout juice, it will make you sleep like a baby for the next hours, making you wake up all rested."

> Let him search for the radio and use it to contact with the surface and send a courier that will inform Mr. Aikue and Daphne of your whereabouts.

> Ask him to install a turret on your armor, having an extra of firepower is always welcome.

> Ask him to brew his Knockout Juice, a good night of sleep and being well rested will do you a lot of good in a place as dangerous as this one.

> Tell him that he owes you a favor, and that you might come to reclaim it at some point in the future. Having a contact among the Shipborn that owes you a favor might be incredibly helpful at some point.

> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4547523
>> Ask him to install a turret on your armor, having an extra of firepower is always welcome.
The coralfuckers won't get to see what hit them.
>>
>>4547536
>The coralfuckers won't get to see what hit them.
Oh shit. i hadnt considered that this could be caused by the coral walkers. makes too much sense. fuck im dumb
>>
>>4547545
I thought of saying it after we heard the radio the first time but I thought it was too unsubtle to be proud of figuring it out.
>>
>>4547523


> Ask him to install a turret on your armor, having an extra of firepower is always welcome.

> Tell him that he owes you a favor, and that you might come to reclaim it at some point in the future. Having a contact among the Shipborn that owes you a favor might be incredibly helpful at some point.

I'd ask for both of these, since we're not only stuck down here for a couple weeks but we're also risking our ass so Harris can get a cushy life as a shipborn. Seems that's worth two favours to me. Maybe need a speech check?
>>
>>4547570
Sure, I'll allow to favours if you succeed a speech check.

> Roll 1d10 to see how much Charisma Harris has.
>>
Rolled 3 (1d10)

>>4547575
>>
>>4547576
Alright, his charisma is 3, ours is 7.

Makes sense, Harris is ugly as sin, while we are relatively handsome.

If other people vote for this then you guys will do a best of three 1d20+7 and I will do a 1d20+3. If you succeed you'll get some exp and get two favours out of him.
>>
>>4547581
Cool, I'll do +1 >>4547570
>>
Rolled 16 + 3 (1d20 + 3)

Alright, an hour has passed and there are no more votes.

> Everybody roll 1d20+7
> Best of three
>>
Rolled 16 + 7 (1d20 + 7)

>>4547658
>>
File: MOSHED-2020-11-8-0-43-31.jpg (542 KB, 1490x2048)
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542 KB JPG
>>4547660
Cool, you guys succeed. There are still two available rolls, if one of you get a nat20 then you guys will obtain an exp bonus.

Next update will be in a few hours. I'm going to sleep now.

> You can ask questions about the quest, its lore and other details and I will gladly answer them all as soon as I wake up
> I am also open to constructive criticism and suggestions or ideas

Thanks for playing!
>>
Rolled 20 + 7 (1d20 + 7)

>>4547665
>>
Rolled 14 (1d20)

>>4547665
>>
File: 1442045069478.gif (2.14 MB, 500x281)
2.14 MB
2.14 MB GIF
>>4547677
Ask and ye shall receive.

Possible reason for suicides: The Enclave is manipulating the coralfuckers to enlarge their numbers and make an attempt on the town. While that is happening, the Enclave will ram the town and fuck up the bank, then slink away. Then they'll wait a few months/years and firmly take control when the town is sufficiently weakened.

The coralfuckers calling us by name is not a hallucination. We robbed them of a new member in the crazy lady ghoul they marked and want their pound of flesh.

Turret on the armor is the right choice as we'll need the firepower. I would also argue to Harris that we get to keep the armor and have it properly modified for us so we can use it to it's full potential.

Let's not, however, go full Dillenger with it this time.

Also, CHECKED
>>
>>4547523
> Ask him to install a turret on your armor, having an extra of firepower is always welcome.
> Tell him that he owes you a favor, and that you might come to reclaim it at some point in the future. Having a contact among the Shipborn that owes you a favor might be incredibly helpful at some point.
>CHA test
>Crit success
> 300 exp gained

"This fucking ghost submarine creeps the hell out of me. Having a turret on my back will do me real good. But I don't that will enough for me to be fine with you. Understood?" You say, finishing your second coffee and firmly planting the metallic cup on the metallic floor.

"Alright, alright, I will still owe you one. Deal?"

"Deal."

The two of you shake hands and stand up, walking to a nearby workshop. Your team had been really lucky with this particular camping site, it was really cluttered with trash, but at the same time, there was plenty of space to settle on, and the nearby workshop allowed for the easy construction of turrets and other defences.

Around the campsite there was a ring of defence made up by machinegun turrets, and around it a minefield full of makeshift mines full of nails and other sharp objects. So far, no enemies had approached your camp, but according to Harris many expeditions ended in disaster because their teams couldn't defend their turfs.

"I'm not a blackthumb like Kalili, but I know a little bit of engineering, I could modify some of the turrets to fit your needs. What kind of turret do you want?"

> Machinegun Turret:
Effective at medium and short range. Uses 5.56mm rounds. If you run out of ammo you will need to find more somewhere.

> Shotgun Turret:
Very effective at short range, specially with unarmoured enemies. Uses 12 gauge shotgun shells. If you run out of ammo you will need to find more somewhere.

> Flamer Turret:
Very effective at short range, specially with unarmoured enemies. Uses fuel as ammo. If you run out of fuel you will need to find more somewhere.

> Laser Turret:
Effective at medium and short range. Uses the Submariner Armor's own power source as ammo. If you run out of energy you will need to find a fusion core or an electric outlet somewhere.

> Tesla Turret:
Very effective at a short range. Tasers and stuns nearby enemies. Uses the Submariner Armor's own power source as ammo. If you run out of energy you will need to find a fusion core or an electric outlet somewhere.

> Rocket Turret:
Very effective at a long range, useless at short range. Uses rockets as ammo. The rockets are hard to come by, and the turret cannot hold many of them before running out, but it will be absolutely lethal and be even able to breach holes in the hull and flood entire floors if neccesary.
>>
>>4548196
> Laser Turret:
Effective at medium and short range. Uses the Submariner Armor's own power source as ammo. If you run out of energy you will need to find a fusion core or an electric outlet somewhere.

If we're going to be down here for a few weeks we can secure some energy that the ship still has and keep ourselves powered up. If there are spare power cores we can hopefully find a way to charge them and keep ourselves powered.
>>
>>4548196
>> Laser Turret:
>>
>>4548196
> Machinegun Turret:
I think that's the only option that will be equally effective underwater. Also I don't want to run out of energy and not be able to move OR shoot
>>
>>4548196
>Rocket Turret
>>
>>4548196
>Machinegun Turret:
>>
Rolled 2 (1d2)

There is a tie so I will do a dice roll

> Laser
1

> Machinegun
2
>>
>>4548196
> Machinegun Turret:

"Just put the turret on the armor, and if you have time build another turret with what we have around, that way the rest of the team won't be as pissed."

Harris snorts and nods, then without a word grabs one of the nearby turrets and gets to work. Despite loudly bolting, drilling and welding the metal and pieces of the turret the others didn't seemed to be bothered and they didn't woke up, their sleep was incredibly deep, and hopefully lacking in nightmares. This haunted Chinese submarine was dreadful enough on its own, there was no need for night terrors.

After several hours of hard work he finally completes his job. The turret itself is really simple, it's just an old Chinese Assault Rifle scavenged from the submarine crudely attached to a few servos and a connected to a digital eye capable of detecting enemies. The weapon now rests over the armor's helmet and the fixtures and servos are placed on the back and shoulders. The weapon has 360 degrees of operation, but its slow to rotate and might take a while to find enemies in dark areas. Perhaps during your time inside of the sub you might end scrounging tools and resources that will allow to further upgrade and improve it.

Soon after finishing the mounting of the weapon several alarm clocks start to buzz, and the rest of the team quickly starts waking up. You have end pulling an all nighter, and honestly you feel like shit, but you truly believe that it was worth it.
>>
>>4548710

The rest of the team don't notice the missing turret, they are simply too asleep to detect it, but sooner or later they will find out, and hopefully Harris will have made a substitute turret before that happens.

"Can we expect a shift?" Marcus asks, as he serves himself some coffee.

"I think so yes." He replies.

"A shift?" You ask.

"Vessels like this one might change in layout. They have draining, venting and temperature controlling systems that most assuredly are half broken and faulty. What yesterday was a flooded floor today can be walkable and dry, what today is a normal corridor tomorrow might be an airless frozen trap." Marcus replies, quite calmly.

"Then, at any point this campsite might flood or freeze?" You say, quite worried.

"Yeah, but that's why I stay awake while you all sleep. I not only guard the place from enemies, but make sure that everything is fine and dandy."

Somehow his words doesn't feel reassuring in the slightest. You sit with the rest of the team and join them in breakfast, drinking coffee and stale pastries, filling your stomach and caffeinating your system to get it ready for the day ahead of you.

Harris grabs a small handheld device and turns it on. It's rectangular in shape and has a small light bulb coming from each side of it. A little while after turning it on the right lightbulb illuminates with a red glow.

"Alright, the Shipborn haven't given us the greenlight. The other teams haven't found the source of the radio transmissions either. We can't go home yet, it's time to get to work."

You along with the rest finish your breakfast and proceed to suits up and arms yourself.

"We need two teams." Harris continues. "A primary one dedicated to searching the source of the radiowaves, and a secondary one focused on scavenging food, medicines, resources and whatever valuables you come across. What teams you wanna be on?"

> Primary team. Search for the suicide inducing radio transmissions and end this madness once and for all.

> Secondary team. Help the team stay alive and well and help them gain some extra income by searching minor treasures.
>>
>>4548712
>> Primary team. Search for the suicide inducing radio transmissions and end this madness once and for all.
>>
>>4548712

> Primary team. Search for the suicide inducing radio transmissions and end this madness once and for all.
>>
>>4548712
>> Primary team. Search for the suicide inducing radio transmissions and end this madness once and for all.
>>
>>4548731
>>4548723
>>4548720
Alright! Roll 1d20!
>>
Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>4548732
>>
Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>4548732
>>
>>4548746
>>4548733
Seems like the third voter isn't around, so feel free to roll again.
>>
Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>4548732
>>
Rolled 15 (1d20)

Aight, my turn.
>>
>>4548712
> Primary team. Search for the suicide inducing radio transmissions and end this madness once and for all.

"Nanna and I will look for the source." You say, as you hop into your freshly charged armor.

Marcus and Kalili don't seem to mind being relegated to scavenging duty for a second day, after all their mission won't take them as far and it won't be as dangerous.

Once more Nanna tries to jump and perch on top of your armor, but the newly added turret makes it an impossible task.

"Hey!" She says, as you leave the campsite and head out. "What's this thing on your back."

"Extra firepower." You simply say, as you open a hatch door and cross into the unknown.

The door leads to a strange corridor. By now you are starting to believe that there isn't a single normal room in the entirety of the submarine. The floor of the corridor is littered with origami cranes, you grab one and unfold it to see that it is a pre-war american bill, more exactly a 10,000 dollar banknote.

"Heads up, there's something on the ceiling." Nanna says, as she aims her guns up.

The ceiling is dark, and it takes you some time to finally discern what's up there, luckily it isn't anything dangerous, just several hanged skeletons. These bodies don't look like they belonged to soldiers, their tattered clothes aren't navy fatigues, but well tailored suits, were these people spies ready to be deployed in Hawaii perhaps?
>>
>>4548947

"Money...useless...war." Nanna suddenly mutters. You turn to her and see that she is reading some Chinese characters scribbled on the walls.

"You know Chinese?" You ask.

"A little bit. There's a great deal of wastelanders that are descendants of the Chinese soldiers that were stranded in Hawaii after the war. These descendants learned Chinese from their parents, and their parents learned it from their parents, and on and on. Before the bombs fell my parents came from Vietnam in the search of a better life, my mother was pregnant when she came here, and I was born in Honolulu. Seventeen years later they were heard speaking Vietnamese among each other and someone mistook it for Chinese, and despite having spent here a couple of decades already their pleas were ignored and soon enough they were falsely accused of being Communist sympathisers and interred in a POW camp. I was lucky enough of not being accused as well... I tried building a legal case to help them but they died before I could take them out of there. They never ended teaching me Vietnamese, and of course they wouldn't have taught me Chinese... I still wanted to learn their native language to preserve their memory, but there aren't any Vietnamese speakers around, trust me, I've been looking for years, so I ultimately gave up and learned Chinese instead. I'm pretty sure that the Chinese spoken nowadays around Hawaii doesn't sounds like the real language, but it is still a useful skill to have."

By the looks of it the hanged people expected to have a great life in America, have loads of money at their disposal and at the same time work as a spy and help taking down their biggest enemy country. Then the great war happened, their dreams shattered, their possibly fake money useless, the moment they had been trained for years turned moot. No wonder why they all hanged themselves.

A shame that this money is pretty much useless even today. Back in its day those all this money might have been more than enough to be set for life.
>>
>>4548949

You ignore the cranes and continue across a corridor, leading into a massive room with... rain?

There's a powerful stormy rain coming from above. You look upwards and see no ceiling, a thick grey foggy cloud covers the entirety of the ceiling, making virtually impossible to see what's above you. The room is covered in thick vegetation, making it look more like a rainforest than a random room inside of an old submarine. There are no lights in the room but still countless of fireflies illuminate the surroundings with their yellow and orange glow.

"It's... sweet. It's not saltwater." Nanna says, as she tastes one of the raindrops. She immediately grabs a couple of empty bottles from her bag and proceeds to use a massive plant leaf to collect the rain and pour it into the bottles.

As she is about to finish filling her second bottle suddenly several gunshots startle you. Nanna drops the bottle and readies herself to battle, together you follow the source of the gunshots and reach a laundry room room full of dishwashers, driers and chinese cleaning products. Then you see it, another diver and a strange coral walker wrestling and fighting. The diver is equipped with a wetsuit, a combat knife and a 10mm gun. He seems weaker than the mutant creature, and its poor equipment won't do him much good either. You don't think that he will be able to survive this fight.

> Intervene and help the diver. Interrogate him on the areas that he has explored so far.
> Intervene and kill the diver. See what the creature does with the corpse.
> This isn't your fight, walk back and block the door that leads to the Laundry. Let them kill each other. This is a competition, only the team that manages to resolve the mystery of the sub will be rewarded. Destroy your opponents.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4548952
> Intervene and help the diver. Interrogate him on the areas that he has explored so far.
>>
>>4548952
> Intervene and help the diver. Interrogate him on the areas that he has explored so far.

Let's tell the diver to pull his socks up and let the coral bastard have it with our turret.
>>
>>4548952
>> Intervene and kill the diver. See what the creature does with the corpse.
>>
>>4548952
> Intervene and help the diver. Interrogate him on the areas that he has explored so far.

check the diver for coral shards, if he has any, kill him.
>>
File: Coralwalk.png (1.46 MB, 848x1200)
1.46 MB
1.46 MB PNG
>>4548952
> Intervene and help the diver. Interrogate him on the areas that he has explored so far.

You know that the other diving teams are rivals, and that they would kill you without a thought if they could, but you are not going to lower to their level. Quickly you raise your heavy harpoon launcher, aim at the Coral Walker and press the trigger. Your weapon vibrates for a brief moment and then a loud mechanism releases the projectile, shooting it at incredible speed as steam comes out of the barrel.

Despite the monster's natural armor the red hot harpoon manages to breach its hard coral skin and goes as far as nailing it onto the wall. The wound that you have inflicted is grievous, and would have proven fatal to any human, and even most Super-Mutants, but this abomination continues alive, and is still weakly trying to reach the diver.

It takes to the Coralwalker a few seconds to finally realise that it has been pinned down. It looks at the harpoon coming out of its chest and with weak and inhuman grunts attempts to remove it from its body. Luckily for you the projectile is too deep inside of him, and the only thing that it manages to do is enlarge his already massive wound. A black and salty liquid starts to pour out from his chest and other orifices, his skull like face soon being completely covered in the sludge.

The Diver that you have just rescued starts to cry and removes his mask to better breathe. It's a young woman, no older than sixteen. Her face is bruised and her nose seems to be broken, apparently during their struggle the Coralwalker had managed to hit her pretty bad. Soon after removing her mask she proceeds to puke, blood mixed with the contents of her stomach coming out from her parted lips.
>>
File: Coralwalk parasite.png (2.15 MB, 1044x1008)
2.15 MB
2.15 MB PNG
>>4549374

Suddenly an inhuman screech comes from the Coralwaker, which seems to be extra excited and aggressive now that he's capable of smelling the diver's blood. After witnessing such an horrific scene your mind suddenly drifts and remembers the Glowing Tailor that was also infected with the mutant coral. If this was the fate that awaited her then you honestly saved her from a hellish existence.

After a while the Coralwalker stops trying to pull the harpoon and instead sinks its claw like fingers onto its guts, violently pulling them out in what feels like a nonsensical suicidal act. More viscous blood starts to pour from its wounds and face. You should have shot it down, but the sight was so horrific and dread inducing that all of you became frozen in fear. From its ripped guts countless of small slimy slugs start to spew out, their bodies also infected with small coral like protrusions. Nanna and you step back to avoid his parasite spewing intestines, but luckily for you two this desperate action doesn't has a lot of range, and the foul creatures don't even come near you. But the poor crying diver isn't as lucky, and soon enough her entire body is covered in the tiny slugs, which quickly proceed to enter and invade her nose, mouth, eyes, ears, and wounds.

A second later the Coralwalker dies, and so do the creatures that he had spew all across the floor. Only the ones that had entered into the girl's body continue alive, burrowing inside of her skin, flesh and brain, turning her into another slave to the hivemind.

The poor diver tries to cry and scream but her eyes and mouth are full of the parasites, and nothing but a gargled whimper comes from her throat.

"Fuck, what should we do?" Screams Nanna, which seems truly scarred by the experience.

"Shit! Let me think!" You yell back, as you get between the poor girl and her to block her view with your hulking body as best as you can.

> Grab the diver and bring it to the campsite. Marcus was the medic of the team, perhaps he knows what to do.
> Tell Nanna to leave the room and wait for you outside. You should be safe inside of your armor. Use this experience to learn about the Coralwalkers.
> Mercy kill her. It's for the best.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4549376
>> Mercy kill her. It's for the best.
>>
>>4549376
> Tell Nanna to leave the room and wait for you outside. You should be safe inside of your armor. Use this experience to learn about the Coralwalkers.

Maybe we can prevent this happening again.
>>
>>4549376
>> Tell Nanna to leave the room and wait for you outside. You should be safe inside of your armor. Use this experience to learn about the Coralwalkers.
Prepare to obliterate and burn that thing at all times
>>
>>4549376
>Tell Nanna to leave the room and wait for you outside. You should be safe inside of your armor. Use this experience to learn about the Coralwalkers.
>>
Rolled 18 + 6 (1d20 + 6)

>>4549425
>>4549430
>>4549443
Very well. We will do a 1d20+INT. Our Intelligence is 6.

Everybody roll 1d20+6. Best of 3
>>
Rolled 7 + 6 (1d20 + 6)

>>4549448
Dang, nice roll.
>>
>>4549448
Whoops, I should have done a regular 1d20, not a 1d20+6. So my dice roll is 18, no 24.

You guys need to roll 12 or more to succeed.
>>
Rolled 2 + 6 (1d20 + 6)

>>4549448
>>
Rolled 6 + 6 (1d20 + 6)

>>4549448
Let's pray for a clutch
>>
Well, that was useless and traumatizing, especially traumatizing.
>>
Rolled 20 + 6 (1d20 + 6)

>>4549453
>>
>>4549519
Sorry, it was best of three. Yours is the fourth roll. We failed this, hopefully I won't end punishing you guys too harshly.
>>
>>4549521
Shit, didn't see the first roll.
>>
>>4549522
Look at the bright side! We obtained 500 exp from killing the Coralwalker!
>>
>>4549376
> Tell Nanna to leave the room and wait for you outside. You should be safe inside of your armor. Use this experience to learn about the Coralwalkers.

"Wait outside, there's something I need to do." You tell Nanna, forcing her to wait outside of the small laundry room. She gives you a worried look, but then softly nods, and slowly retreats, closing the door on her exit.

The diver girl convulses on the floor, her otherwise tanned skin has turned now pale and veiny looking, part of her hair has started to fall off, and between coughs she begins puking blood.

"What are you trying to do?" You say, trying to contact with the hivemind, hoping to get a chance to talk before she becomes too feral.

The diver girl suddenly turns and looks at you, several of her bones and vertebrae loudly cracking as she erratically jerks.

"We know that voice. We knew that our siren call would bring you to us. We are owed a powerful soul Diego."

Slowly the possessed girl starts crawling towards you, her limbs shaking and wildly moving, falling down several times before it can weakly stand up. Apparently the coral hasn't reached her brain and nervous central system yet, and the diver still has some control over it. Despite being standing up you are not afraid of her, if your harpoon gun could kill a fully transformed Coralwalker then it would absolutely obliterate her.

"Explain yourself." You inquire, loading another harpoon onto the gun and aiming at her.

"We used to have a symbiotic relationship with the souls above, a relationship that they did not know about. They gathered the glowing shapeling light and cold metals around us, we protected them from dangerous marine life, and in exchange used their deceased ones for growth and reproduction..." The diver says, with a voice that becomes more and more inhuman with each syllable.

You are communicating with an inhuman sentience, one that probably doesn't perceive the world like you do. It easy to understand what it meant by "cold metals", but glowing shapeling light"? Radiation and nuclear waste perhaps?
>>
>>4549613

"We hid from the souls above, believed that they wouldn't accept our presence, and we were right, when one of their divers discovered one of my walkers, violence erupted, and soon enough the deceased ones stopped coming."

As far as you know, nobody in Fallen Horizon drops their deceased onto the waters. They are either turned into manure, chemically treated to become lumber, or completely incinerated and stored. Perhaps this explains the why of such cultural customs.

"Many moons have passed since then. Far too many. We have shrunk in size, we are a shadow of what we once were. Now we not only are starving, but the souls above actively hunt my drones. We are owed many souls. We were ready to add our bright champion into our fold. She would have caused damage and sent many bodies to the waters, allowing us to regrow once more. But you killed her. We saw it. We saw you."

"I saved her from being a slave."

"You saved nothing. We did what we had to do, we entered the cold labyrinth, made it ours, fused our minds with their machines, sang to the air, and returned to normalcy. We are gathering bodies, growing back, and we won't stop until we are paid what we are owed."

After saying that the girl finally dies, the coral takes absolute control over her body, her hair completely falls off, and so does part of her skin and even a couple teeth. It's a fast and horrifying experience.

She's completely feral, you won't get any more information out of her. If you leave her here she will slowly mutate and get covered by more and more coral, becoming stronger and more resilient by the day. You think she is fully dead, but who knows, some part of her might still cling to her body. You saved the tailor from a terrible fate, and you'll do the same with this poor girl.
>>
>>4549617

With another well aimed harpoon shot you pin her to the wall, not very far away from the monster that transformed her.

There's nothing for you in this room, and you do not dare to loot the girl and risk infecting yourself. You leave the room and see Nanna sitting on the floor, reading a book while holding a small flashlight with her mouth. You close the door, and go as far as using your armor augmented strength to destroy the valve handle before ripping it out, effectively sealing the room.

Apparently the Coral has been living under Fallen Horizon for years, feeding from their deceased in exchange of keeping the biggest marine threats away. At some point one of the divers saw a Coral Walker and felt threatened by it. The town stopped dropping their dead into the waters, and this has ended starving the Coral. It was expecting to use the Glowing One tailor has a living bomb of some kind, destroying part of town and sending many corpses into the depths, but you came by and stopped its plans by killing her before the Coral could have total control over her. Now, the Coral has somehow fused with the submarine's radio, and has been emitting hypnotic soundwaves that force people to kill themselves by jumping into the waters. This has allowed the Coral to regrow its numbers, but you are sure that it won't stop anytime soon. You need to destroy it, otherwise the lives of all the inhabitants of Fallen Horizon will be in danger.

"What are you reading?" You ask her, trying to forget the experience you had just lived, trying to return to a sense of apparent normalcy.

"The smuggler of Love... I try to read a book to distract myself from...everything that surrounds me. Killing ghouls, mutant creatures and all that I can take, but seeing people being transformed is something that truly creeps me out. Even before the war I couldn't stand Zombie movies. Ironic, since I now look like one."

She's reading the book that you wrote, but you do not want to boast about it, and simply sit next to her, trying to make her feel secure and protected, if only for a while, before you continue with your expedition.

Nanna ultimately finishes the chapter she was reading and closes the paperback.

"I have seen a few more divers in a nearby room, a couple of them even passed by here. I hid and they didn't see me. Do you think we should follow them?"

> Yes. Follow them, perhaps we might discover some new area, or even find where their camp is located at.

> No. That would be putting us at risk. Let's just continue exploring.

> Tell Nanna that she needs to rest. Send her back to the campsite and explore on your own.

> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4549620
>> No. That would be putting us at risk. Let's just continue exploring.
>>
>>4549620
> No. That would be putting us at risk. Let's just continue exploring.
>>
>>4549620
>> Yes. Follow them, perhaps we might discover some new area, or even find where their camp is located at.
>>
>>4549620
> No. That would be putting us at risk. Let's just continue exploring.

"It could be a trap. Let's just explore on our own." You say, standing up and lending her a hand.

The room you are at leads to a set of stairs, the upper floor is covered with debris, but perhaps with enough time you might be able to clear a path. Yesterday the lower parts of these stairs were covered in a thick radioactive fog, today they are perfectly safe and clear of any kind of mist.

You could also use a nearby elevator, it seems to be still working but the buttons seem to be faulty to a degree, as they are constantly turning on and off at random.

A few feet away from you there is a door blocked by half rotten wood boards, you are sure you could simply rip them off and see what's on the other side.

> Go to the stairs, clean the debris as best as you can and ascend.
> Go to the stairs, descend into the lower levels that yesterday were covered in radioactive fog.
> Go to the elevator. Press to go up.
> Go to the elevator. Press to go down.
> Go towards the blocked door and open it.
> Return to camp.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4549734
>> Go to the stairs, descend into the lower levels that yesterday were covered in radioactive fog.
>>
>>4549734
> Go towards the blocked door and open it.
>>
>>4549734
> Go to the elevator. Press to go up.

Maybe we can find the bridge or a command deck. Then a self-destruct button!
>>
>>4549752
you want to end the quest by blowing ourselves and Fallen Horizon to shit?
>>
>>4549758

Worked for Megaton!

But seriously, I figure rather than endlessly exploring a city sized submarine for a signal transmitter, we may have better luck just disabling the entire vessel. Or activating the engines and sending it back to China. Or activating its security systems. Lots of possibilities on the command deck.
>>
>>4549758
Blowing the submarine would not destroy the three ships, but the shanty town would be severely affected by the sudden waves that would come from the bottom.

The waters would also become extremely radioactive, making fishing and submarine scavenging an impossible task. Several of the nearby fishing ships might also end damaged and sinking into the bottom.

I think that the town would be damaged enough to force its survivors to hop into the ships and find a new place to settle in.
>>
>>4549752
>>4549745
>>4549736
We have a tie. It's almost 1 am for me and I'll head to sleep soon, but I want to write another reply before doing so. If there isn't a tie breaker in 30 minutes I'll do a dice roll.
>>
>>4549734
>Go towards the blocked door and open it.
>>
>>4549855
You are 4 minutes too late... but I'll let it slide. Writing now.
>>
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>>4549734
> Go towards the blocked door and open it.

"Follow me." You tell Nanna, as she stores her paperback and stands up with your help.

Together you walk towards the blocked door. All of the doors in this submarine are airtight hatches that can be easily closed to seal entire portions of the submarine, this makes sense as it was designed to be an underwater vehicle that could suffer from water leaks and even entire floods if damaged enough. This particular door doesn't has a hatch connected to it, the hatch does exist, it is in fact a couple of feet away, lying on the floor and mangled open. Whoever did this was strong enough to crumple the thick metal as if it were mere paper.

There are several wood boards nailed to the door frame. On the floor lies an old drill, several hammers and a dozen rusty nails. This was a quick and sloppy job, done desperately by terrified people.

You grab the wood boards and one by one pull them off, easily removing them and letting you two explore the other side.

The door leads to a small rusty and weathered staircase that goes down and then opens to a laboratory or nursery of some kind- There's heaps of trash everywhere and a disgusting mixture of grime and dust cover every inch of the walls and furniture. Several parts of the floor are now broken and ripped, and lead into a dark chasm below, but a few wooden boards have been put to cross the gaps. Your Geiger counter starts to beep once more, there's a lot of background radiation in this place.

You survey the room and see several hospital beds, a couple of terminals, some microscopes, heaps of strange chemicals, and what looks like an Auto-Doc.

> Study the Auto-Doc, if it still works it will prove incredibly useful to remove radiation and heal your team mates.
> Check on the Terminals, hopefully they won't be in Chinese, but even if they are Nanna might work as a translator and help you understand what do they say.
> Loot the room and head out. The chems, bandages and other medical instruments around might prove useful for the campsite.
> Remove the wood boards and see if you can jump down. There's more to explore.
> Return to the corpses of the Coralwalkers and conduct an autopsy on them, learn how they look on the insides.
> Check if there are any books on medicine written in English, check if there's anything you can learn from them.
> Other options, write in.
>>
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>>4549896
Ok I just noticed a mistake. I said that the place looks like a nursery.

Nursery isn't the correct word. I cant recall the word right now, its not a hospital or a clinic, its a place to treat people, where nurses work. Like when you are at school and you scrap your knee, you go to that place to get it treated.

I'm too tired to remember the word. Sorry.
>>
>>4549902
Infirmary! I had to go reread Hero Academia Quest to remember that.
>>4549896
> Study the Auto-Doc, if it still works it will prove incredibly useful to remove radiation and heal your team mates.
>>
>>4549926
> Infirmary
Holy fucking shit thank you. I couldnt sleep because not being able to remember the word was messing with my head. Thanks and goodnight fren
>>
>>4549896Check The Terminals
We need information on what this thing is and how we can stop it. We don't want to find out about some unexpected strength of it the hard way.
>>
>>4549896
>Check on the Terminals, hopefully they won't be in Chinese, but even if they are Nanna might work as a translator and help you understand what do they say.
>>
>>4549896
> Study the Auto-Doc, if it still works it will prove incredibly useful to remove radiation and heal your team mates.
> Check on the Terminals, hopefully they won't be in Chinese, but even if they are Nanna might work as a translator and help you understand what do they say.
> Loot the room and head out. The chems, bandages and other medical instruments around might prove useful for the campsite.

In this order then bug out to the campsite. I got this feeling we are pushing our luck.
>>
>>4549896

> Check on the Terminals, hopefully they won't be in Chinese, but even if they are Nanna might work as a translator and help you understand what do they say.

If they are in Chinese study the autodoc while Nanna reads through the entries
>>
>>4550027
+1
>>
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>>4549896
> Loot the room and head out. The chems, bandages and other medical instruments around might prove useful for the campsite.

Together with Nanna you inspect the different containers and desks and find an assortment of useful chems and medicines. Several Stimpaks, two Doctor's bags, three Rad-Away, seven bottles of Rad-X, four Buffout, three bottles of painkillers, a blister of anti-biotics... and even a couple of condoms.

Not all of the chems are American made, but you are sure that they will work with you or anyone that might need them. You store them all in your bag and continue exploring.

> Study the Auto-Doc, if it still works it will prove incredibly useful to remove radiation and heal your team mates.
You head into the strange chamber located in one corner, above the thick door there's a glowing sign that says Subject H. You look across the dirty circular window and see nothing but darkness on the other side. Suddenly a light inside flickers for a while. Then you see it, a mummified corpse inside, long dead, its face stretched in an expression of horror. The lights go out for a second, and when they come back the corpse is gone. Once more the interior of the chamber goes dark, and when the light returns, the body is once more inside.

"What's inside?" Nanna asks, trying to peek from behind you.

"A corpse, nothing, I don't know." You say, walking back.

You aren't sure if this is an Auto-doc. But perhaps it would be for the best to stay away from it.

> Check on the Terminals, hopefully they won't be in Chinese, but even if they are Nanna might work as a translator and help you understand what do they say.
One of the terminals is completely busted, nothing but a garbled mixture of chinese and western characters constantly flashing on the screen. You turn on the other one and to your surprise, find that it isn't encrypted, and its even in english, its a very normal and plain looking RobCo Terminal. Despite being a Chinese Submarine this particular room is teeming with American Technology. It seems that it was here were the local scientists investigated the american tech that they acquired.

After booting up the Terminal displays several possible options:

> Check Journal entries
> Check Investigation reports
> Print Submarine Map
> Liberator Experiment logs
> Stealth Boy Experiment logs
> Other options. Write in.
>>
>>4550299
Quick question. Do you like the terminal entries in picture form or prefer plain text?
>>
>>4550299
>> Print Submarine Map
Then
> Check Journal entries

>>4550309
Plaintext. Pictures can get missing or messed up on the archives
>>
>>4550379
+1
>>
>>4550299
> Print Submarine Map
> Liberator Experiment logs

Liberator sounds interesting...
>>
>>4550299
>> Check Journal entries
> Print Submarine Map
>>
>>4550379
+1
>>
>>4550430
Support
>>
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>>4550299
> Print Submarine Map

A map could prove useful. You press the button and for a moment the terminal screen turns black. A few feet away a big and bulky dust covered dot matrix printer sparks as its lights turn on and its internal mechanisms whirr with energy.

Slow and steady a long sheet of old paper starts to come out from one end of the printer, a crude and basic map of the submarine being printed on it. Due to the old age of the printer several parts are badly printed or not printed at all, and the ones that are clearly visible have their indications written in Chinese. Hopefully Nanna will be able to read them all.

As the print is about to finish the machine suddenly stops, sparks begin to spew from its back and soon enough a small fire erupts. You try to pull out the unfinished map but the pincer is holding onto it with its mechanical clamps. Finally, and with Nanna's help you two manage to rip the paper and pull it before the fire even reaches it. The printer begins burning completely, and you are forced to throw nearby trash and dirt to cull out the flames.

You have ended with an unfinished and nearly tattered map, but the good thing is that the part that has been printed is the one where you are located, so it might end proving useful after all.
>>
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>>4550717
> Check Journal entries
While Nanna studies the map you return to the terminal, and decide to check the Journal entries to see what happened here.

Journal Entries: 23/06/2076

We have left the port of Qingdao. My wife and daughter cried all night. I did as well.

Even the most slow-witted of the crewmembers knows that this will be a year long mission. One that might even last decades. We all expect to return home turned heroes, but who knows, if nuclear war truly happens, there might not be a home to return to.

The "Fu-ts'ang-Lung" will reach Hawaii in a few weeks. It's a slow submarine compared with other models, but its massive armament, sheer size and stealth capabilities make up for it.



Journal Entries: 13/08/2076

The "Fu-ts'ang-Lung" has finally reached American waters. To avoid any kind of detection a few days ago we cut all of our radio transmissions. No outward or inner communications will be done. We are completely isolated from China.

Even if I cannot send them I will still write letters to my family. I'll also make a copy of each letters in these terminals, just in case.

Huang out.



Journal Entries: 03/09/2076

To better infiltrate the enemy our spies have been studying the local culture and been subject to many surgeries that will make them look more western like. Many of these procedures were experimental, a few ended in fatalities. These agents are absolutely loyal to the Chairman. They have been trained and taught how to endure torture, and still, many of the surgeries made them cry and ask for mercy. Changing the shape of a face is easy, it's something that has been studied and done for years, but changing someone's hair color, skin tone, eye hue... those were the surgeries that we were doing. Hair color was easy, we just used permanent dyes, for the skin we used a mixture of naturally tanning chemicals and radiation to darken the dermis and make it look like the local population. But changing the color of the eyes... I still have nightmares.



Journal Entries: 31/12/2076

Happy New Year to America. We have been listening to them partying all day. Celebrate it now capitalist pigs, because it might be your last year.



Journal Entries: 05/05/2077

Our spies have infiltrated mane facets of the Hawaiian society, some have even conscripted into the army.

Every day we get more and more reports and important military information. Once in a month a small submersible is filled with holotapes full of sensible and valuable data. The submersible meets with another Chinese vessel, relegates the information and returns empty.

I wish I could fill it with all the cards that I want to write to you.
>>
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>>4550720

Journal Entries: 29/07/2077

The first Wednesday of every month one of our small submersibles leaves with all the reports and data gathered by our spies stored in high density holotapes. It meets with another undisclosed Chinese vessel in some secret coordinates and delivers all the vital and sensible military information, then returns empty to us. I wish I could give the submersible driver a sack full of the letters that I want to write to you, but I know that they would never reach their destiny.

Every single day I miss you more and more. It's been more than a year since we left the homeland. It's the first time that I miss the annual visit to my parent's graves. Does the little Chunhua remember her father's face? Do you, my dear Ling-Fan, still love me?



Journal Entries: 23/08/2077

It has happened, it has finally happened.



Journal Entries: 05/09/2077

The Fu-ts'ang-Lung launched all of its nuclear missiles, some landed on Hawaii, some went as far as San Francisco and Las Vegas. This act drained most of our energy reserves. To avoid a total blackout the Liberators were not launched. We expected to refill our batteries and be able to return home in less than a week, but during the nuclear exchange several American military vessels were damaged and sank to the bottom. During their fall an unknown warship ended sinking just on top of our position, and the crash sent its nuclear reactor into a meltdown, exploding and causing irreparable damage in our hull. We cannot return home. I'm so sorry...
>>
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>>4550723
> Liberator Experiment logs

We have several Liberator robots in our arsenal. They are weak and easily destroyed, but their duty is to sow fear and spread propaganda. Even after the event of a nuclear war.

Experiment 0001: Install several speakers on them that will nonstop play Communist quotes and music.

RESULT: FAILURE. The speakers made them easier to detect and destroy



Experiment 0002: Add the capability of attaching to American robots and hacking their encryption to take control over them.

RESULT: FAILURE. All of the American robot models, even the Protectron, ended hacking the Liberator instead.



Experiment 0003: [DATA EXPUGNED]

RESULT: [CENSORED]



Experiment 0004: Giving the Liberators a communist AI that will explain the American youth and liberals intellectuals the benefits of Communism over Capitalism.

RESULT: FAILURE. The Artificial Intelligence became Capitalist instead. It has been captured and is in possession of the US Army.



Experiment 0005: Filling the Liberators with an explosive charge and several communist pins, turning them into propaganda bombs when they are destroyed.

RESULT: FAILURE. They have become 120% more lethal, but the pins become too damaged upon the explosion. And the damaged people have a 0% of switching to Comunism.

ADDENDUM: General Mao has ordered to cease the experimentation with Liberators. In case of need they are simply to be released upon enemy territory.
>>
>>4550727

As you read the last experimentation log a new option pops up on the Terminal.

Release Liberators in Bay 04

You have never heard of a robot like this, you have never seen a Chinese robot in fact, but apparently they are easily dispatched, acting more like a nuisance than a real threat.

"Nanna, can you see on the map where Bay 04 is located?" You ask her.

"Uh...let me see. Pretty far away, near the end rear of the sub. Why do you ask?"

If you released the robots they might prove useful against the local creatures, and rival diving teams. You might not cause many kills, but you will surely weaken whatever roams around these parts.

"Nevermind. How are you doing with the map?"

"Good. I have found a way of accessing an armory, some sleeping quarters, a secondary engine room... and a communications hub? I don't know what that means."

> Release the Liberators. Then wait for a couple of hours until the Chinese robots are dealt with and do not pose a danger for you anymore.
> Go to the Armory. Better firepower is always welcome.
> Go to the Sleeping Quarters. You deserve some rest. Real rest, in a real bed.
> Go to the Engine room. Perhaps it can be used to power or de-power other areas of the submarine and that way mess with the other diving teams.
> Go to the Communications Hub. A place like this might have a radio powerful enough of reaching the surface, and allow you to speak with Daphne.
> Continue checking the Terminal.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4550740
>> Go to the Sleeping Quarters. You deserve some rest. Real rest, in a real bed.
>>
>>4550740
> Release the Liberators. Then wait for a couple of hours until the Chinese robots are dealt with and do not pose a danger for you anymore.
this sounds way too much fun to not do it
>>
>>4550740
> Release the Liberators. Then wait for a couple of hours until the Chinese robots are dealt with and do not pose a danger for you anymore.

And while we wait for the danger to pass:

> Go to the Sleeping Quarters. You deserve some rest. Real rest, in a real bed.

We grabbed the chems and condoms right? Party time!
>>
>>4550783
+1
>>
>>4550740
>> Release the Liberators. Then wait for a couple of hours until the Chinese robots are dealt with and do not pose a danger for you anymore.
>>
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>>4550740
> Release the Liberators. Then wait for a couple of hours until the Chinese robots are dealt with and do not pose a danger for you anymore.

You walk towards the entrance, seal the door and without a word go back to the terminal and press the Enter key to release the Liberator robots in the rear areas of the submarine.

The light goes out for a moment and then in the far distance the sound of laser blasts and bullet fire commences, followed by screams, both human and bestial alike. The sound can only be faintly heard thanks to the ventilation shafts, otherwise it would be too far away to be detected.

You were expecting the battle to take hours, but in reality It doesn't lasts long, ten minutes at most. Hopefully it might make a difference at the end.

"What have you done?" Nanna asks, as the screams and explosions end.

"Give us as much advantage as we can." You say, hiding from her the truth.

Despite being more experienced, you cannot avoid feeling as if she isn't fit for this job. She has told you that she was barely an adult after before being turned into a Ghoul, and even if she has literally centuries of experience on her back she still looks too soft for this kind of jobs, for this kind of world.

Ever since you saw her panicking after witnessing the diver becoming a Coralwalker you haven't been fully honest with her, giving only vague answers to her questions. You think its for the best, that perhaps the pure and unadulterated truth might be too hard for her. You don't want to share the burden, you want her to be as innocent as possible. She has seemed to notice this, and lately she has been acting kind of cold with you, not being as warm and touchy as she was before. Perhaps you rejecting her offer of sleeping together also made her see you with different eyes. Whatever the reason, you hope that she doesn't ends angry with you. After all, and even if she cannot understand your viewpoint, you are doing this for her.
>>
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>>4551739
> Go to the Sleeping Quarters. You deserve some rest. Real rest, in a real bed.

After being sure that there won't be more Liberators around you reopen the door and head out.

"Guide me towards the Sleeping Quarters, I need to rest."

She doesn't answers you, and simply grabs the maps and starts walking, to which you follow her closely.

Soon enough you reach the sleeping quarters, a small set of rooms with bunk beds and little to not furniture. There's a couple of desks and chairs in each room, but other than that they are pretty much empty. On top of the beds there are several skeletal bodies, and an assortment of mementos that they left behind. There's a dead plant under a bed, a couple of drawings next to some pen and paper above one mat, a few old black and white photographs glued to a wall, and scattered around there are several Chinese books and magazines along another similar trash that the submarine crew used to look at before going to sleep.

You get out of the armor and slowly lie in one of the dirty mattresses, centuries old springs loudly cracking under your heavy weight. There isn't any mirror around, but you are sure that you must look terrible. You have not only spent more than twenty four hours awake, but most of that time has been inside of a heavy suit of armor that doesn't fits you. You look at your body and see several bruises, the continuous use of the armor is slowly proving to be torturous for you.

> Ask her to make guard while you sleep for a few hours.
> Ask her if she wants to sleep with you.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4551744
>> Ask her if she wants to sleep with you.
>>
>>4551744
> Other options, write in.
take the first guard. Let her rest for a while, then it's our turn. She won't fuck if we're a dick.
>>
>>4551744
> Ask her if she wants to sleep with you.

And apologise for turning her down before. Obviously she feels snubbed
>>
>>4551744
>> Ask her to make guard while you sleep for a few hours.
Muh radioactive dick
>>
>>4551744
>Ask her to make guard while you sleep for a few hours.
>>
Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>4551744
There is a tie so I'll do a dice roll.

>Ask her to sleep with you
1

>Ask her to make guard
2
>>
Rolled 87 + 800 (1d100 + 800)

Alright, convincing her to sleep with you would have been a hard difficulty (+30) Speech dice roll. Since our Speech is 52, even if I got a nat 20 I wouldn't meet your result. This makes this action be an automatic success that grants us 1d100+800 exp. Rolling now.
>>
>>4551744
> Ask her if she wants to sleep with you.
> Automatic success

You look at Nanna and see her kind of angry. She is looking at the different magazines and books that are lying around with some disdain. The paper of these reading material has suffered a lot since the Great War. Two centuries of being in a stale and humid place has been terrible for them, to the point in which most of the pages have ended covered in mould or even mushrooms. These magazines and books are barely readable, but she still whips through them, in an attempt at ignoring you.

"Nanna, I'm sorry if... I have been acting like an idiot. It's just that after I saw you so shaken after witnessing... you know what I'm talking about. I've been trying to protect you from the ugly acts of this job. I'm sorry for rejecting your offer of sleeping together. This is my first expedition, this isn't what I was expecting, I'm under a lot of stress, I've been awake for about forty hours now. I just don't feel like myself anymore."

She turns around and looks at you with sad and pitiful eyes, any hint of anger gone from her face.

"It's the first time that you have gotten a taste of the wasteland. Don't you?"

"What do you mean?" You say, looking back at her.

"I don't know your past. But you look like you might have lived a sheltered life. One without risks and traumatising experiences. I'm really good with faces, I've been living in Fallen Horizon for more than a century and I've only seen you around for the last couple of months. You are not from this city. Did you perhaps come from a rich family somewhere in the wastes? Did you lose your fortune and are now facing the harsh reality of what life really is? Don't tell me, I don't really want to know."

She throws away the mouldy book that she was reading and slowly sits in bed next to you.

"Look, Diego. I've been in really bad situations, really really bad ones. But I've never let them turn me into something I was not. I've seen what despair can do into a person, it can turn Ghouls like me into ferals, and humans like you into psychopatic raiders. I've done terrible and unforgivable things to survive, became something I was not to stay alive, but when times got better, I always returned to be the real me. Don't protect me, I know how to handle myself, do what you need to stay alive, and when you finally find a moment of respite, breathe and rest your mind, do what you need to become the person that you were."

"I... I know that many people had to kill to survive, that's the way things are. And I just took my first life a few weeks ago. Now I might have killed a few other persons, and it didn't even affect me as much as I thought it would. The Diego of my past, of a single year in the past, would be horrified by my situation, by the things I've done, by the things I might end doing. I'm scared."
>>
>>4552116

"I know how you feel." She then replies softly, putting her hand over your chest, calming you down. "The Diego of the past wouldn't like the Diego of the present. But what you need to do is endure, and when things get better, then become the Diego that you want to be. The best version of yourself."

She sighs and shows you her weapons, there are a few notches and kill marks on the handles.

"I might kill and steal in these expeditions, but once I'm back I try to be the kind of woman that I would have wanted to become, if the nukes had not turned me into a Ghoul."

"Is it easy to... forget everything and return to normalcy?"

"It will be hard. It will become easier with every time, but it will always be hard. But don't worry, it will get better."

"Perhaps I should find myself something that keeps my mind occupied as well, I would ask you to share your book, but I've read it already."

"Oh really?" She says, clearly trying to shift the topic of the conversation to distract you from your own demons. "And what did you thought about it?"

"I mean... I liked it. I'm the writer after all. But I guess it could be better?"

"Wait... you wrote it?" She says surprised, grabbing the book and reading in the cover the name of the writer.

"Yeah..." You say kind of shyly, trying to sound humble and modest, not wanting to boast about it.

"And... the sex scenes were all part of your imagination?"

The love scenes, as you prefer to call them, between the handsome pirate and the rich lady were heavily inspired by moments that you had with Daphne.

"They..." You say blushing, as you remember the times that you embraced the illustrator girl and the beauty of her naked body. "They were inspired by real experiences you could say."

"You know, the woman that I would have become had the nukes never exploded, would have been a pretty prudish person. One that might have ended saving herself until marriage. But I have learned that this kind of life, a life where you will never know if you will be alive tomorrow, is a life where being prudish doesn't pays. So while in expeditions, I become into... a nympho horndog. I saw you looting condoms from the laboratory. Wanna use them?" She says with a wink and a cooing moan that sounded slightly feral-ish.

You nod and soon enough the two of you were completely naked and fucking like dogs in heat, your combined moans echoing across the sub's vents and being audible by dozens of divers and critters alike. It's the first time that you ever do it with a Ghoul, and despite being a curious and different experience, it isn't something that would disgust you as much as you believed. You would be willing to repeat in fact.

Both naked and embraced together, and surrounded by piles of skeletons and mould you sleep peacefully.
>>
>>4552116

You don't know for how long you sleep. It's had to say in a place like this, where it's impossible to know if its daytime or nighttime without the use of a clock. You two wake up together and feel refreshed and happy.

"Hello there stud." Nanna says, as she puts on her wetsuit.

You smile and wink at her, as you look at your slightly cramped and bruised body. You put on the armor and head out of the room.

"I think we should head back into camp. It might be pretty late and if we don't return soon they might try to search for us, leaving the campsite empty and ripe for raiding."

You agree with her and together return to camp. You find Harris making dinner, and Marcus and Kalili sleeping together inside a makeshift tent that they must have mounted while you were away.

"Hey there." You say, as you open your bag and start taking out all of the chems that you had found in the laboratory.

"Oh hello there. Chems and medicines? Nice, we can never have enough of those." He says, handling you a cup of some kind of stew. You aren't sure of what kind of meat might be in there, but you are so hungry that you don't even want to know. After so long without eating you are ravenous, and quickly devour it all and go for more.

"What else have you found?"

You tell him about the laboratory, the terminal entries, how you released the liberators for them to attack whoever was in those parts, and such action makes him enter into a hysteric guffaw. Imagining the different robots fighting ghouls, mirelurks and other divers simply filled him with joy, murderous joy.

"And we also found this." You tell him, showing him the half printed map.

"Uh, let me check it out." Harris says, as he looks at it.

You handle him the map as you go and grab your second cup of stew and Nanna soon enough joins you, giving you a lusty wink as she passes next to you.

"Have you checked the Communications Hub?" Harris suddenly says, as he traces a pathway with a pen.

"No, why?" Nanna asks.

"Well, we are looking for something that is messing with radio waves. A Communications Hub must clearly have some radio capabilities. Whatever we are looking for must be in there!"

"You really think so?" You ask.

"I'm one hundred percent sure. The other team has found some weapons, tools, and scrap. Upgrade your gear if you want or go to sleep. Tomorrow morning we will all go there."

> See what kind of weapons and gear they have found.
> See what kind of upgrades you can add to your weapons.
> You don't want to go to the big fight tired. Sleep and be as rested as you can be.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4552138
> See what kind of upgrades you can add to your weapons.
>>
>>4552138
>> See what kind of upgrades you can add to your weapons.
>>
I guess next on the list is a qt3.14 supermutant waifu. Hope we have more rubbers QM!

>>4552138

> See what kind of weapons and gear they have found.
> See what kind of upgrades you can add to your weapons.

Presumably we can both of these?
>>
>>4552180
>I guess next on the list is a qt3.14 supermutant waifu.
Don't forget a FISTO sexbot.

>Hope we have more rubbers QM!
Jimmy hats will be easy to find, and cheap to buy, don't worry.

>Presumably we can both of these?
Yes, but we might end pretty tired after an entire night of hard work. I won't be extremely punishing since our character just woke up from sleeping. But we will be kind of tired nonetheless.
>>
>>4552138
>> See what kind of weapons and gear they have found.
>>
>>4552190

I figured we slept pretty well in a proper (albeit mouldy?) bed, especially after getting laid. Or are we still tired somehow?
>>
>>4552197
We are not tired, we are in fact well rested. But doing both actions would take us all night long. And it would be hard work, so it would exhaust us to a degree.
>>
>>4552200
OK, gotcha. I figured we would just have a quick rummage through what was found and then work on upgrades. But if doing both will take a long time then I would just focus on upgrades.
>>
>>4552210
>I figured we would just have a quick rummage through what was found and then work on upgrades
It will take long because they have found and brought a lot of things. There would be loads of stuff to search from. But I'm in a good mood. We will do both things and still have some time to nap. You guys deserve it for being superb players.
>>
>>4552138

> See what kind of weapons and gear they have found.
Looking specifically for gear for the armor. I'm assuming we get to keep this as ours with our bargain with Harris. If so, try to find something that will increase our uptime. Maybe a charge condenser for more power or a few mirco cores for operating longer.

Then
> You don't want to go to the big fight tired. Sleep and be as rested as you can be.
>>
>>4552138
>> See what kind of weapons and gear they have found.
Great, now we have ghoul stds
>>
>>4552254
No. We used a condom and even if we didn't. Nanna is clean.

Someone being a Ghoul doesn't equals to having an STD.

You shouldn't be worried about Ghouls. You should be worried about fucking Raiders and Tribals.
>>
>>4552257
Just let me be racist towards ghouls in peace
>>
>>4552257

I love that this has turned into a weird PSA about racism.
>>
>>4552138
> See what kind of weapons and gear they have found.
> See what kind of upgrades you can add to your weapons.

LASER PISTOL BAYONETS: PICK ONE

> Regular Bayonet: In close range you can use your ranged weapon as a melee one. It counts as a Combat Knife.

> Needlepoint: A metallic needle filled with acid. In close range you can use your ranged weapon as a melee one. It counts as a Switchblade with Acid Damage.

> Taser-fork: A metallic fork connected to a small battery that electrifies its prods. In close range you can use your ranged weapon as a melee one. It counts as a Switchblade with Tesla Damage.

> Hot-Red Rebar: A small rebar pole that is has been turned red hot thanks to a Fission Battery. In close range you can use your ranged weapon as a melee one. It counts as a Switchblade with Pyro Damage.

> Icicle: An icicle that has been sprayed with a weird solution that makes it impossible to melt, harder than steel and colder than ever. In close range you can use your ranged weapon as a melee one. It counts as a Switchblade with Cryo Damage.

> Magnet: An active magnet, with two nails protruding from them. In close range you can use your ranged weapon as a melee one. It counts as a Switchblade with EMP Damage.

> Bequerel's Bone: A bone knife made from the corpse of a Glowing One, it is still glowing and emitting radiation. In close range you can use your ranged weapon as a melee one. It counts as a Switchblade with Radioactive Damage.

LASER PISTOL MODS: PICK ONE

> Rifle conversion: More damage, longer range.

> Shotgun conversion: A lot of more damage, very short range.

> Sniper Rifle Conversion: A lot of more damage, very long range. Decreased ammo pool.

> Automatic Chamber: Makes the Laser Pistol automatic. Attacking three times instead of a single one.

(cont)
>>
>>4552282

ARMOR MODS: PICK ONE

> Shadowed Armor: +15 to all stealth dice rolls.

> Pocketed Armor: You can carry two extra items.

> Lightweight Armor: +1 to AGL

> Durable Armor: Less chance of it breaking after receiving a critical attack.

> Temperature Regulator: Immunity to being frozen. You’ll still suffer damage from Cryo weapons but you will never become frozen.

> pH Neutralizer: Immunity to Acid corrosion. You’ll still suffer damage from Acid weapons but your equipment will never corrode and break.

> Anti-shock pads: Immunity to Electric Paralysis. You’ll still suffer damage from Tesla weapons but you will never become paralysed.

> Asbestos lining: Immunity to Afterburning. You’ll still suffer damage from Fire and Fire weapons but you will never catch of fire.

> Artificial Muscle Bundles: These wiry tubes can be placed over the armor and across your spine, arms and legs. They use electric shocks to bend or straighten and imitate your movements, helping you hit harder. +1 STR

> Mate Dust: Your armor has been covered with a special black dust that absorbs light, avoiding your armor from shining and blinding you. +1 PER

> Strange Canteen: Somehow this canteen signed with the name R. Sanchez has made into your hands. The liquid inside isn’t water but some sugary and sour substance that seems to refill on its own and gives you energy. +1 END.

> Pre-War Accessories: These items range in appearance but they all were designed Pre-War and help making you look more humane and charismatic. They can be a flower, a tie, some pins and so on. They are accessories that made people unique before the war. + 1 CHA

> Pocket Books: A set of two miniature books that easily fit in your pockets. One is a Encyclopedia while the other is a Dictionary. They allow you to understand things better and faster. +1 INT

> Flexible clothes: Under your armor your clothes have been adapted to be made from a flexible material, giving you a better range of movement even if you are wearing heavy armor. +1 AGL

> Lucky charm: A lucky charm is any item that is believed to carry luck. It can be a small vial of sand, a coin, a four leaf clover or even the mutated toe of some abominable creature. +1 LCK

(cont)
>>
>>4552284
WEAPONS: PICK ONE

> Machete: Simple, sharp, menacing. Always good in a fight.

> Bone Blade: A short serrated blade made from some kind of animal jawbone. These weapons are apparently common in the tribal areas of Hawaii.

> Butcher's Cleaver: A crude sword made from a sharpened slab of metal bolted to a handle. Heavy and slow, but lethal in the right hands.

> Chainsaw: No description needed.

> Jackhammer: Construction equipment capable of breaking and breaching even the toughest of Power Armors. Very heavy and slow.

> Mirelurk Axe: A strange weapon made from a Mirelurk Claw. It has been covered in strange chemicals to harden and conserve it, and now can inflict poison damage.

> Sharkfist: The Hawaiian version of the Mojavean Beartrap Fist. This unarmed weapon is a crude beartrap made from real Shark Jaws.

ACCESSORIES: PICK ONE

> Military Backpack: A durable military backpack with pouches designed to carry ammunition, water, food and tools required to survive a warzone. +5 Melee +5 Guns +5 Survival

> Cryocaster: A small Fusion powered freezer. Before the war it was used by meat packaging factories to freeze their meat before pack it. Now it has been modified to be used in combat. The Cryocaster will add Cryo damage to your melee attacks, and can freeze enemies. It will also blow cold air around you, putting off fires in case you get burned.

> Energy Pack: A big Fusion battery that can be connected to Power-Armor or Energy Weapons to give them an extra boost. Power armors will last double +15 to Energy Guns.

> Work Bot: A small chinese Robot designed to repair or do sabotages. It won't last long in combat, but might prove useful.

> Kinetic Dampener: An experimental backpack that will affix you to the floor, and make you impossible to topple no matter how hard you are hit. It won't reduce the damage received.

> Motion Tracker: A small scanner capable of detecting movement even across solid walls. It isn't always a hundred percent accurate.

> Portable Campfire: A small hot stove that can be used to cook anywhere. Very used among merchants and travellers.

> Spy Drone: A small spider drone capable of capturing video and audio and then transmitting to you by using a terminal or a ham radio. It won't be very useful without a terminal or a radio, both of which you lack.
(cont)
>>
>>4552286

> Hack-o-Tron: This device is capable of brute hacking all terminals and robots given enough time, the more complex the encryption time the more time it will require. It can be powered with a fusion battery or installed in any Pip-Boy model and works by using a couple of cables and two numerators.

> Compass: Very useful among navigators, merchants and pirates alike. It always points north and is a must have when navigating with maps.

> Blowtorch: This device allows opening or sealing metallic doors or surfaces. It can also be used to set something on fire.

> Flashlight: It illuminates anything that it’s pointed at; it’s powered with a high capacity Fusion Battery.

> Grappling Hook: The Grappling Hook is a device that can shoot a projectile, capable of perforating rock and metal that is linked with a chain. This chain can be then tensed and retracted, allowing people to reach places that are out of their reach. It can also be used to disarm or pull people.

> Life Support System: A small backpack sized portable Auto-Doc. This single use items allows s

> Game Console: This small portable console will keep your mind busy and distracted from the horrors of the wasteland. As long you have and use it your insanity gauge won't ascend as fast.

> Bolt Cutters: This item is useful to open closed locks or wired fences.

> Zap-Trap: This single use gizmo can destroy or temporally render useless any Power-Armor, Robot, Vehicles and even some Forcefields. It needs to be magnetically clamped to the machine that is going to be sabotaged. The machine is destroyed after being used.
(end)
>>
>>4552282
> Icicle
> Automatic Chamber
>>4552284
> Pocketed Armor
>>4552286
> Sharkfist
> Energy Pack
>>4552287
> Grappling Hook
>>
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>>4552271
Just to spite you I'm gonna only introduce Ghoul waifus from now on.
>>
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>>4552282
> Hot-Red Rebar: A small rebar pole that is has been turned red hot thanks to a Fission Battery. In close range you can use your ranged weapon as a melee one. It counts as a Switchblade with Pyro Damage.
> Automatic Chamber: Makes the Laser Pistol automatic. Attacking three times instead of a single one.
>>4552284
> Strange Canteen: Somehow this canteen signed with the name R. Sanchez has made into your hands. The liquid inside isn’t water but some sugary and sour substance that seems to refill on its own and gives you energy. +1 END.
>>4552286
> Butcher's Cleaver: A crude sword made from a sharpened slab of metal bolted to a handle. Heavy and slow, but lethal in the right hands.
> Grappling Hook: The Grappling Hook is a device that can shoot a projectile, capable of perforating rock and metal that is linked with a chain. This chain can be then tensed and retracted, allowing people to reach places that are out of their reach. It can also be used to disarm or pull people.

>>4552299
pic
>>
>>4552282
>> Taser-fork: A metallic fork connected to a small battery that electrifies its prods. In close range you can use your ranged weapon as a melee one. It counts as a Switchblade with Tesla Damage.
> Automatic Chamber: Makes the Laser Pistol automatic. Attacking three times instead of a single one.

>>4552284
>> Mate Dust: Your armor has been covered with a special black dust that absorbs light, avoiding your armor from shining and blinding you. +1 PER

>>4552286
>> Mirelurk Axe: A strange weapon made from a Mirelurk Claw. It has been covered in strange chemicals to harden and conserve it, and now can inflict poison damage.

>>4552287
>> Game Console: This small portable console will keep your mind busy and distracted from the horrors of the wasteland. As long you have and use it your insanity gauge won't ascend as fast
>>
>>4552282
> Hot-Red Rebar
> Automatic Chamber
> Shadowed Armor
> Chainsaw
> Motion Tracker

>>4552299
You are the best QM
>>
>>4552295
Whoops, I picked two accessories there. Take out the energy pack
>>
>>4552282
> Icicle: An icicle that has been sprayed with a weird solution that makes it impossible to melt, harder than steel and colder than ever. In close range you can use your ranged weapon as a melee one. It counts as a Switchblade with Cryo Damage
> Automatic Chamber: Makes the Laser Pistol automatic. Attacking three times instead of a single one.
> Strange Canteen: Somehow this canteen signed with the name R. Sanchez has made into your hands. The liquid inside isn’t water but some sugary and sour substance that seems to refill on its own and gives you energy. +1 END.
> Mirelurk Axe: A strange weapon made from a Mirelurk Claw. It has been covered in strange chemicals to harden and conserve it, and now can inflict poison damage.

> Grappling Hook: The Grappling Hook is a device that can shoot a projectile, capable of perforating rock and metal that is linked with a chain. This chain can be then tensed and retracted, allowing people to reach places that are out of their reach. It can also be used to disarm or pull people.
>>
>>4552282
>> Hot-Red Rebar: A small rebar pole that is has been turned red hot thanks to a Fission Battery. In close range you can use your ranged weapon as a melee one. It counts as a Switchblade with Pyro Damage.
> Automatic Chamber: Makes the Laser Pistol automatic. Attacking three times instead of a single one.
> Flexible clothes: Under your armor your clothes have been adapted to be made from a flexible material, giving you a better range of movement even if you are wearing heavy armor. +1 AGL
> Chainsaw: No description needed.
> Energy Pack: A big Fusion battery that can be connected to Power-Armor or Energy Weapons to give them an extra boost. Power armors will last double +15 to Energy Guns.
>>
Rolled 1 (1d2)

Let's see:

Weapon wise there's a tie between Chainsaw and Mirelurk Axe. I'll do a dice roll.

> Chainsaw
1

> Mirelurk Axe
2
>>
Rolled 2 (1d2)

> Bayonets
Red hot rebar wins by one vote.

> Weapon Mod
Automatic wins by a landslide.

> Armor Mod
Rick Sanchez's canteen wins. +1 END

> Accesories
Grappling Hook
>>
>>4552282
No wonder why Marcus and Kalili went to sleep before dinner time, the cache of resources, weapons and items that they found is massive. They must have ended absolutely exhausted after carrying all of this. Hopefully after the expedition is over you will be able to bring most of this to the surface and sell it for a profit.

You start to rummage across the trove of things that they have gathered and with the items and tools around get to work to improve your gear as much as you can.

Among all the scrap you find a set of sharp rebar pieces, some bundles of wire, a roll of duct tape and a couple of fusion batteries.

You attach the rebar and the battery to the underside of your Laser Pistol, then connect the metal to the battery with the wires. Several sparks come out as you do this, but ultimately the effect that you were looking for happens. The electricity of the battery causes the metal to get superheated and glowing red hot. It might not be as sharp and dangerous as a proper bayonet, but anyone stabbed with this glowing beauty will sure feel a burning and painful sting.

Among the trash you also find an automatic barrel for your Laser Gun, and without a doubt you attach it to your weapon. With the mods installed the Gun is now heavier, longer and slightly harder to aim, but a lot deadlier.

Continuing on your rummaging you encounter several useful items. The first item that you find is a small canteen with the name R. Sanchez acid etched onto it, you open the lid and smell an odd aroma coming from inside, you take a small sip and taste a sour and sweet liquid that shortly after going down makes you belch and burp. Strangely enough you feel filled with energy afterwards, this is pretty much Jet in liquid form. Hopefully it isn't as addictive and wrecking as the real chem thought.

The next item that you find is a big and old yet powerful chainsaw. A Romington-brand Super 76 powered by a high octane engine. The thing is heavy but hard to handle, but you are sure that most enemies will end absolutely slaughtered under your sharp chain blades. You put the chainsaw on your back and continue searching.

It's getting late now, the rest have gone to sleep already. You won't search around for much longer. The last item that you find is a powerful grappling hook. The device seems to have been created post-war, it's construction isn't shoddy, but it isn't as good and perfect as pre-war technology is. Looking around you find a small message bolted to the underside "Property of the Sons of Kanaloa." This confirms it, the Grappling Hook was made after the nukes. You don't know much of the Sons of Kanaloa but judging by this device their technology level must be on par with the Brotherhood of Steel.

The Grappling hook doesn't seems to be strong enough to lift you while you wear the Submariner Armor, but it might still be useful to disarm or pull enemies.
>>
>>4552792

You walk back to the campsite and find everybody asleep, even Harris is taking a light nap. You get out of the armor and lie on the floor to rest for a while. Despite the room being as cold and damp as it was yesterday you manage to sleep for a couple of hours. Perhaps you are getting used to this inhospitable environment.

The next morning you are awakened by Harris and given a nice cup of blackdrop coffee, along with several pastries and other junk food.

"Eat as much as you can. I need you all strong." Harris says to the group, before proceeding to inform about the Communications Hub and how today we are going to move together and raid the place.

"Alright. We will expect many enemies down there, the place must be full of Coralwalkers and god knows what else. We can do this several ways, the direct approach, go all in and guns blazing. We could also surround the communications hub and perhaps get Nanna inside the ventilation shaft so she can observe the interior and relay us what might we find there. And there's the last option, relaying the location of the Comm Hub to the other diving teams and let them do the dirty work."

> Go guns blazing. You have had enough of this damn submarine. Go inside, kill whatever might be inside, shut down the transmission and return home.
> Let Nanna travel the ventilation shafts and spy the Communications Hub. This option will take time and she will be constantly in danger, but might give you an edge.
> Relay to the other teams that the main objective is in the Communications Hub. Wait for them to get inside and deal with the monsters. Then wait for them outside and reap the fruits of their labor.
> Other options. Write in.
>>
>>4552793
> Go guns blazing. You have had enough of this damn submarine. Go inside, kill whatever might be inside, shut down the transmission and return home.

No need to overthink this shit, let's go try out our new gear.
>>
>>4552793
> Go guns blazing. You have had enough of this damn submarine. Go inside, kill whatever might be inside, shut down the transmission and return home.

We have power armor, a turret strapped to our back, and a chainsaw! Time to go full Doom Slayer.
>>
>>4552793
>> Go guns blazing. You have had enough of this damn submarine. Go inside, kill whatever might be inside, shut down the transmission and return home.
>>
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>>4552793
> Go guns blazing. You have had enough of this damn submarine. Go inside, kill whatever might be inside, shut down the transmission and return home.

"We have been more than enough in this damned sub. Let's go guns blazing. Destroy the transmitter, stop the suicides, and return home turned heroes." You say, back in your armor and ready to unleash hell, raising your heavy harpoon gun and chainsaw above their heads.

There's a brief and awkward silence at first, but then they all look into each other, nod and raise their weapons as well, loudly cheering and nodding. They seem to be as tired of this expedition as you are.

After everybody is well fed and equipped the final trip begins. Map in hand and filled with determination Harris leads the way, Nanna, Marcus and Kalili stand in the middle, and you cover the rear.

As you turn a corner you suddenly reach a frozen corridor. "There has been another shift. This place was fine yesterday." Marcus speaks

"Fucking faulty temperature regulators, they are a pain in the ass." Harris adds, as he grabs a small device and analyses the area. "The temperature descends further in the corridor, reaching almost Minus 60 Fahrenheit at the end. We cannot cross it without suffering heavy frostbite. We need to take another path."

You all turn back and after exploring for a while find a massive hole in the floor, it's hard to say what caused it, perhaps damage during the great war, pipes bursting and weakening the structure, or maybe even the relentless degradation and pass of the years. It doesn't really matters what caused it, the only important aspect of it is that it can be used to descend into the lower floor and after some detouring finally reach your destination.

Since you are the heaviest one you are the first one to jump down. As you loudly land the floor trembles under your heavy weight, but it maintains integrity and doesn't breaks down. The floor below is chilly and completely devoid of light.

You turn on your helmet's flashlight and suddenly see a creature quickly approaching you. Screaming with an inhuman screech and erratically moving as it swings its heavy limbs.

It's a Coral Walker, but one that isn't as old and mutated as the one that you first encountered. The skin of its head is all but missing, a dread inducing skull taking place for a face. It's still wearing some parts of a diving suit and firmly grabbing a rusty hatchet. It shows heavy signs of decomposition, but the mutant coral hasn't extended very far, so it lacks a natural armor. There's fresh blood in some parts of its body, human blood, parts of its bloated body are wounded and damaged as well. This monster has recently killed.

> Fire the turret and rev the chainsaw. Chop that monster in half.
> Fire the turret and use your automatic Laser Pistol. Turn that monster into ash.
> Fire the Harpoon launcher. It has worked before, it should work now.
> Other options, write in.
>>
File deleted.
>>4552928
Use the grappling hook to grapple and yank the scum into a unzip, stab tip of chainsaw into it's groin and pull up with both hands.
>>
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>>4552936
MY EYES
>>
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>>4552939
The coral walkers face when.
>>
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>>4552939
I'm just saying we can scorpion grab this Lil fella and introduce him to our chainsaw, with our meaty mutant girth it should be a breeze.
>>
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>>4552977
Our mutation only makes us bigger and more resilient. Basically a bullet sponge. It doesnt makes us stronger.

Our Strenght is only 5. Average at best.

Right now we can wield the harpoon gun and chainsaw with ease due to the Power Armor. Once we are out of it we wont be as skilled with those heavy weapons, we will have trouble to aim and carrying them.

We are not as mighty as you might believe.
>>
>>4552928
>> Fire the turret and use your automatic Laser Pistol. Turn that monster into ash.
>>
>>4552936
Let's do this shit
>>
>>4553044
Yes.
>>
>>4553021
kinda retarded then that we went for the endurance option just for the Rick and Morty reference, lol
>>
>>4553083
Not really. Our lowest SPECIAL stat was endurance, we did well by raising it.

And in the last thread the players chose to not have a "Wild Wasteland" experience, so its not like Rick will suddenly open a portal and cross it with its flying saucer car and demand the player to return the flask.
>>
>>4552936
+1
>>
Alright: This is the winning option:

>Use the grappling hook to grapple and yank the scum into a unzip, stab tip of chainsaw into it's groin and pull up with both hands.

Everybody roll 1d20! Best of three

Also, I'm a ESL, what does "yank into a unzip" mean?
>>
Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>4553164
>>
Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>4553164

I'm not sure what that means either lol, and English is my native langiage
>>
Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>4553164
>>
Rolled 9 (1d20)

Alright, our melee is 15. So our highest roll is 31 (16+15)

This will be a Normal difficulty roll, so I'll have a +15 bonus as well.

I need to roll a 16 or less for you to succeed.

In case of you succeeding I'll roll 1d100-200 exp.
>>
Rolled 78 + 200 (1d100 + 200)

>>4553185
Rolling for experience.
>>
>>4553187
We end with 3125 total experience. Only 1335 more experience points to level up. We will probably level up at the end of this quest. So go already considering what perk do you want and where do you want to allocate the skill points.
>>
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>>4552928
> Write in:
> Use the grappling hook to grapple and yank the scum into a unzip, stab tip of chainsaw into it's groin and pull up with both hands.

You grab the heavy two handed grappling hook and quickly aim at the Walker's hatchet. As you press the trigger the hook is released along with several loud gases, the device whistling like a steam train as the mechanism fires. The projectile whistles as it flies across the darkness and it magnetically clamps into the foul and rusty weapon. You release the trigger and with a powerful pull the hook and the chain is quickly retracted, sparks coming out from the gearwheels and other pulleys.

Unfortunately you cannot study the obtained weapon, for the creature is not stopped by your actions and continues relentlessly advancing towards you with its heavy and festered arms raised high. Quickly you put the grappling hook into your
back and grab the chainsaw, pulling the cord and turning on the engine only a few inches before the monster reaches you.

With merely an inch to spare the engine roars with strength and the blades begin to spin. You sink the blades onto the walker's huge and bloated chest, aiming low and starting with the groin and going upwards.

The blade completely stops the monster, the sharp diamond tips sinking easily onto the fat and diseased body as if it were warm butter. As the blade ascends a huge stream of blood, infected creatures and a salty black liquid sprays all over you.

Swiftly you remove the blade and the monster falls onto its back, countless of infected slugs crawling out of its massive torn body, and screamingly dying shortly after.

With the flashlight on you look around and see no more monsters. Ironically enough you find a couple of dead Liberator robots, but nothing else.

"You can go down. It's safe." You say, as you clean your armor from all the dead slugs that stuck to you.

The rest jump down one by one, grimacing and belching after seeing the nasty vivisected corpse at your feet.

Harris' descends lasts and after doing so opens the map and gives it a quick look.

"Oh fuck me." He mutters under his breath.

"What's wrong?" Nanna asks.
>>
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>>4553252

"We need to cross the nuclear reactor plant. It's what keeps the submarine powered and the lights on, but it will surely be radioactive as hell."

"Can't we turn it off, there's perhaps a control station that might do that." Kalili asks.

"Yes, you are right, but that would leave the entire submarine dark. And for all we know these monsters might be able to see in low light or even have echolocation."

"Wouldn't that turn off the transmission as well, wouldn't that solve our problems?" Marcus says.

"Yes, but it won't be a permanent solution. Sooner or later the Coralfucker that is controlling everything here will find a way of turning it on again. And it will be really pissed and crank it up to eleven."

"What about someone staying behind and turning it on afterwards? Perhaps my armor might let me endure the rads." You say.

"Yes, that's another option, but a restart might activate defence systems that have been dormant for now, or even cause a shift with unpredictable consequences."

> You have managed to get some Rad-X and Rad Away from the laboratory that you raided. Share the medicines and power thru the nuclear reactor.
> Shut down the entirety of the submarine. Continue in the dark.
> Turn the Submarine off and let them cross the dangerous area. Then turn it on again, and cross it yourself. Save the Rad-X and Rad Away for you.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4553253
> You have managed to get some Rad-X and Rad Away from the laboratory that you raided. Share the medicines and power thru the nuclear reactor.

Let's power through to our objective.
>>
>>4553253
>> You have managed to get some Rad-X and Rad Away from the laboratory that you raided. Share the medicines and power thru the nuclear reactor.
>>
>>4553253
> Turn the Submarine off and let them cross the dangerous area. Then turn it on again, and cross it yourself. Save the Rad-X and Rad Away for you.
I want to see what happens when we restart this big boy.
>>
>>4553253
Eat some anti rads and book it through.
>>
>>4553253
>You have managed to get some Rad-X and Rad Away from the laboratory that you raided. Share the medicines and power thru the nuclear reactor.
>>
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>>4553253
> You have managed to get some Rad-X and Rad Away from the laboratory that you raided. Share the medicines and power thru the nuclear reactor.

"No time to lose. Let's just use all the Rad-X that we have and power through it." You say, opening your bag and sharing the bottles full of anti-radiation pills.

Together you ingest all the pills that you can swallow and use some dirty water to help them go down. Every now and then one of you coughs or belches after ingesting several of the pills. It's a hard feat, but its will be better than the alternative of being heavily irradiated.

After the last of the pills goes down you all exchange looks. This might be the last time that you see each other alive.

Your steps take you to the reactor's control room. A huge mosaic depicting soldiers and scientists around the power of the Atom decorating the entrance gate. There's a message written in cyrillic on the mosaic, but you cannot read or understand what it says. It seems that this particular part of the submarine was built in the Soviet Union. With a great effort you manage to open the great hatch door and enter inside finding a great trove of skeletal scientists in lab scrubs and anti-radiation suits.

The radiation inside isn't as strong as you were expecting. By the looks of it the scientists around did their best to avoid the submarine from going critical, there are a lot of technical documents, scribbled equations and broken pencils all across the floor and walls. There are a few dead ghouls scattered as well, bullet holes in their chests and heads. They are in a heavy state of decomposition, almost mummified.

This room tells a story. When the Great War happened and one of the destroyed american warships ended sinking and pinning down the Chinese submarine the dead scientists around you tried their darn best to avoid a critical mass chain reaction that would have turned the sub and everything around it into a great radioactive crater. Apparently a few of them turned into Ghouls afterwards, the ones that became feral were gunned down by their non feral counterparts. The last survivors killed each themselves, they preferred it over living in a scorched world that they helped to create.
>>
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>>4554136

This is only one of the many histories that are not spoken, but witnessed. The world is full of sad little stories that will never be told. Since the fall of the nukes there are far too many of them. You only need to learn to look around.

There's nothing for any of you here. You stop looking around and continue on, entering into the submarine's beating heart. As soon as you step in a sickly green light starts bathing everything, your Geiger counter beeps and crackles like crazy.

You reach a set of catwalks that cross a flooded chasm full of nuclear waste and irradiated water. There are no lights around, the only illumination comes from the glowing liquid underneath and its bright enough to lit the entire room. If the submarine had been in a good condition this would have been an easy journey, just cross the catwalks towards the exit and reach the Communications Hub. But of course this damned submarine would continue being a pain in the ass. The catwalks were broken and rusty beyond use. To add insult to injury as soon as you all step in your combined weight causes the pathway to break down and fall into the chasm. The lot of you don't fall into the waters by a miracle, but you nonetheless need to descend a set of stairs and dive into the sunken parts of the sub to reach a small pathway that goes back up and finally lets you reach your objective.

"Helmets on." Harris says as you descend into the waters.

Everybody except you put on their headgear and connect the oxygen canisters to be able to breathe underwater. The greenish liquid is cold and salty smelling, it seems that the reactor was breached and filled with sea water, perhaps this was deliberately done and that's what ultimately made it not explode, at the expense of turning the submarine unseaworthy and forever damn it to be trapped in the bottom of the ocean.
>>
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>>4554140

Together you descend into the waters and find a completely new environment around you. The old rusty metal walls and pipes are now completely covered in coral, algae and all kind of maritime life. Strange and small bioluminiscent life forms gracefully swim around you as you advance across the gloomy depths.

It takes a long time to reach the other side, the scattered debris along with the blocked and ruinous pathways ended turning what otherwise would have been a quick stroll into a torturous walk. The waters are also extremely dark and muddy, and your powerful flashlights cannot breach more than a few feet in front of you. Finally, and after getting lost for a couple of times you find the staircase that goes up. Since you are the heaviest of the group and the one with the biggest risk of breaking the staircase you are the last one to go up.

One by one they all ascend, and as you are about to climb up as well a strange figure forms in the corner of your eye. You turn around and see it, another Coral Walker, perhaps the oldest and most mutated one that you have witnessed so far.

A small swarm of infected carnivorous fishes and sea snakes slither and swim surround the walker, all moving in strange patterns and jerky movements, clearly all working together and controlled by the hive mind.

This particular walker is almost little more than a walking skeleton, but it looks like its bones and whatever flesh it still has turned extremely durable and hard due to fusing with the Coral. It's absolutely massive in size as well, towering a couple of feet over your already impressive height. Its limbs have been turned into spindly and elongated extremities covered in spiky coral, each one of its clawed fingers almost as long as one of your arms.

Then you realise it. This particular walker wasn't a human while alive, but a massive Super-Mutant.

All of the fishes and snakes around the walker suddenly stop swimming around it and the creature raises its arm and points at you. Suddenly the radio inside of your helmet cracks to life.

"The Reef is owed a life. This champion will reclaim it."

Was the Coral speaking through it, or was the "Champion" speaking for itself?

"Motherfucker." You mutter to yourself.

> Harpoon that motherfucker.
> Chainsaw that motherfucker.
> Laser blast and bullet hole that motherfucker.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4554148
>> Harpoon that motherfucker.
>>
>>4554148
> Harpoon that motherfucker.
>>
use the turret to deal with any small fish fuckery
>>
>>4554148
Time for some POON.
>>
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Rolled 20 + 15 (1d20 + 15)

>>4554150
>>4554154
>>4554174
Very well. It will be a normal skill dice roll so it will have a +15 dice roll modifier. I will roll 1d20+15

Our Guns Skill is 17 so you guys have to roll 1d20+17

> Roll 1d20+17
> Best of three!
>>
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>>4554225
Lmao nat 20. You guys need to roll 18 or higher. Good luck with that.
>>
Rolled 4 + 17 (1d20 + 17)

>>4554225
oh fucks sake
>>
Rolled 9 + 17 (1d20 + 17)

Here we go
>>
Rolled 5 + 17 (1d20 + 17)

>>4554225
fuck it it's been an hour i'll roll the third one
>>
Sorry guys, you miss. Writing now.
>>
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Dem rolls
>>
>>4554148
> Harpoon that motherfucker.

Despite being a massive creature with impressive reach the hardened mineral body of the coralwalker makes it slow and sluggish in its reactions. This might be easier than you thought.

You raise your harpoon gun, the only weapon that you know that will perfectly function while underwater and once more aim and press the trigger. It has worked several times before, it should work now.

To your surprise, all the hivemind sea creatures form a shield in front of the walker, the harpoon stabbing several fishes that got in front of the projectile to slow it down. By the time the harpoon reaches the walker it was too slow to even pierce its skin. To your horror, the walker grabs the harpoon and proceeds to eat the dead fish out of it. Blood and rotten bodily fluids violently spraying everywhere as it violently rips the meat out of the metal.

The coral spikes around its body start to multiply and grow in size. You are sure that if it had any kind of injury this grievous process would also have healed him. You are fucked.

> Your grappling Hook cannot lift you while you are still wearing the Power Armor. Get out of it and ascend upwards. Leave the monster , and the armor, behind.
> Slowly walk back, keep the distance, reload and shoot again.
> Dash and grapple it. Grab its arms and stop it from eating more fishes and growing stronger. Let the turret shoot it to pieces in the meanwhile.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4554360
>> Dash and grapple it. Grab its arms and stop it from eating more fishes and growing stronger. Let the turret shoot it to pieces in the meanwhile.
Does grapple count as unarmed? We are fucked anyways.
>>
>>4554360
>> Dash and grapple it. Grab its arms and stop it from eating more fishes and growing stronger. Let the turret shoot it to pieces in the meanwhile.
>>
>>4554366
>Does grapple count as unarmed?
It does yeah. Our unarmed skill is 23, it's not half bad.
>>
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>>4554385
Chunk used tackle.
>>
Rolled 19 + 30 (1d20 + 30)

Alright, wrestling it is.

It will be a hard difficulty dice roll so it will have a +30 dice roll modifier. I will roll 1d20+30

Our Unarmed Skill is 23 so you guys have to roll 1d20+23

> Roll 1d20+23
> Best of three!
>>
>>4554477
My total score is 49. Your highest possible score is 43

Since you cannot achieve that same score the only way of succeeding is with a nat20. Good luck
>>
Rolled 4 + 23 (1d20 + 23)

>>4554477
Oh fuck off
>>
>>4554482
We seem to be low on players, so feel free to roll another two times.
>>
Rolled 9 + 23 (1d20 + 23)

>>4554549
Cool, if we die its all on me.
>>
Rolled 3 + 23 (1d20 + 23)

>>4554550
RNGsus i'm begging you
>>
>>4554552
>>4554550
>>4554482
Don't feel bad, we needed a nat20, that's pretty hard to get.
>>
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...wait a second.

I'm a fucking idiot.

I forgot to add the bonuses that this particular power armor adds!

Your highest roll is 9! If we add the +23 of our unarmed skill and the +20 of the armor then we get 52! We succeed!
>>
>>4554564
Oh what a twist!
>>
>>4554567
Alright, we get 1d100+400 exp.

Do you wanna roll or should I?
>>
>>4554593
You do it, you kinda beat me at it every time.
>>
>>4554595
I want you to do it. Redeem yourself brother.
>>
Rolled 33 + 400 (1d100 + 400)

>>4554601
Alright fine, it's not that much of an exp loss anyways.
>>
>>4554605
Not bad. We are really close of levelling up. Thanks dude.
>>
>>4554360
> Dash and grapple it. Grab its arms and stop it from eating more fishes and growing stronger. Let the turret shoot it to pieces in the meanwhile.

You run towards the gigantic monster and feel the synthetic muscle bundles inside of your Power-Armor tensing up, its servomotors spinning and screeching as they cycle and the internal Fusion Engine roaring with power as you push your body to the limit.

The fish get in front of the walker forming a meat shield but you are far too heavy and powerful to be stopped by them. You breach their wall, sending dead and wounded sea creatures everywhere. Outside, far above you the rest of the team observe nothing but murky radioactive waters and several bubble pools, then dozens of dead fish that suddenly ascend and float into the surface. As the dead critters around you ascend you grab the massive Coralwalker by the forearms. As you press and close your fists you sense the pistons of your armor whistling as they apply countless of tons of pressure into the hard rocky body of the monster.

After a couple of painful seconds your metallic fingers finally manage to claw and pierce into its skeletal body, a strange black liquid quickly pouring out from the open wounds. This is nothing like fighting a living creature, its body is so hard and sturdy that it feels as if you were fighting a tree.

It takes your turret a while to finally detect the Coralwalker as a living creature. No wonder why thought, the water around being so dirty and the walker having almost no pulse or body heat of its own must have confused the turret's sensor. The rifle mounted on your armor rests on your left shoulder and starts firing, each bullet leaving behind a trail of small bubbles and a brass casing.

At first most of the bullets simply ricochet. You have seen this happening with Mirelurks. You need to soften him up. Slowly you lean your head back and then quickly headbutt the monster. The walker has literally a thick skull, but your metallic helmet beats its strange coral and bone surface. After your third powerful headbutt its skull cracks and dents inwards, more strange liquid pouring out.

The turret continues firing, the bullets finally penetrating into its weakened face and slowly tearing a hole into its rotten brain. Suddenly, and as the turret is about to explode its head the bullets run out. Despite being blinded the monster seems to notice this and with one of its long legs pushes you back, releasing itself from your grasp.
>>
>>4554657

It's head is nothing but a deformed mound of bone, coral and rotten flesh. You can see the hole where its throat is, its lower jaw is hanging by a thread, and the few chunks of brain that it has left palpitate violently.

Suddenly the few remaining fishes and snakes start gathering around the walker's head. To your surprise they start shoving themselves onto the walker's throat. It is trying to devour more flesh to heal and regrow, but without a jaw the fishes don't have any other choice but to cram themselves onto the interior of its body.

You have run out of ammo for the turret. You load another harpoon and get ready to fire before it can recover but as you are entering the long projectile the coralwalker suddenly falls onto its knees. It's thin stomach is bloated and has grown several times in size, making it look like a pregnant woman. Its rotten skin is extended far beyond its limits and ultimately ruptures violently, spraying dead carcasses and rotten guts everywhere.

Your violent attack had left the monster almost dead, and in its desperation the Coralwalker attempted to recover and regrow as fast as it could. It crammed every infected fish under its control inside of the walker, not giving it enough time to process and transform the flesh that it was being force fed.
>>
>>4554659

The body falls down and goes limp. The fishes that come from its stomach float up, adding to the other many dead carcasses. You leave the area and ascend the stairs, finally reaching the surface and going up.

You were expecting the rest of the team to meet you up, but instead only find Harris, which is surprised to see you covered in blood, dark and nasty slime and dead carcasses.

"Coralwalker." You simply say, as you clean the armor as best as you can.

"Of course. I've sent the rest of the team ahead of us. Apparently things get...grizzly from here on."

"What do you mean?"

"The Coral, the hivemind, the big mama reef, has settled on the Communications hub... God there's no easy way of saying this. Apparently it has been gathering all the suicide victims and all the other infected people and creatures that were under its control and fused them all together into a strange mass of coral and meat that is also fused with the radio transmitters? I didn't fully understand it, but apparently things get weird and gory further ahead. Some other diving teams got here first, and they now belong to the Coral as well. We need to win this Diego, otherwise we will become one with that monstrous thing. I don't want to spend the rest of eternity being a fucking mass of writhing and shivering meat."

"So, what do you suggest?"

"The rest have set camp in a safe zone not very far from here. We have come up with a few plans, but I'll be honest, they are all fucking crazy and suicidal. Follow me, I'll take you there."

You walk along with him and find an ample room that the Chinese used as an storage room. Several tents have been built along with some crude beds, cooking stoves and even a small latrine. Marcus, Kalili and Nana are there, along with several other divers. These people seem to be the survivors of other teams, as they have decided to leave the rivalry behind and are instead working together to stop this. In one corner several maps of the submarine and notes about its layout have been stickied to the wall, there are notes written around the maps, but you cannot make sense of any of them.
>>
>>4554660

"Alright! Gather around everybody." Says Harris, as he enters with you and walks towards the tents. Soon enough they all stop doing what they were doing and approach him, there are around twenty divers in total.

"We believed that this would be another expedition. Go to some creepy place, fight some critters, gather treasure and go home. But we were wrong. This place is cursed, our ancestors knew it and barred us from visiting it, but our greed and hubris rejected their teachings, and now we pay the price. We have all heard of the Coralwalkers, strange ghoul like people infected by mutant coral that roam the depths. Today we are not dealing with average coralwalkers, but a massive Coral hivemind that has taken root in this submarine and is controlling not only the walkers, but many other marine life around us. It has somehow fused with people and critters alike to become something...bigger, dangerous. It has been using the radio to lure the people of Fallen Horizon into killing themselves, it has been feeding upon them. We have to stop this, or not only us will be in danger, but every single person above as well. We all have friends, lovers and family up there, we have to do it for them!"

They all mutter and talk between each other, nodding and exchanging worried looks. Then one by one they raise their arms and do a strange sign with their fingers, doing a symbol that apparently is significant for the diver's guild.

"We are with you old man." One says from the back.

"Now here comes the harsh reality. We cannot stand idle. We have come up with several plans. None of them will be perfect, each one will have casualties. I'll explain them all and then we will vote."

One of the diver then starts distributing pen and paper to let everybody cast their votes.

"Plan A: Go all in. We go, we fight, we destroy whatever its in there, and we return home with our shields or on top of them. Plan B: Overload the nuclear reactor and send this entire submarine to Hell. This will heavily irradiate the waters around Fallen Horizon, but it will be fastest and safest option, as only a small group of divers, which have already accepted to do this task, will need to stay behind. Plan C: Go into the weapon's control room and fire several cannons installed on top of the sub and destroy the warship that is pinning it down, after the warship is destroyed we can activate the engines and send it far away from us. The submarine is kind of damaged, but it might be able to travel far enough. This plan will be dangerous and hard, and it doesn't really solve the problem, it only sends it somewhere else, hopefully to some place where not many people live. Voting starts now."

> Plan A: Go all in. Fight!
> Plan B: Explode the submarine. Go back home without shedding more blood.
> Plan C: Destroy the warship on top of the sub, turn on its engines and send the Coral hivemind far away.
>>
>>4554662
>> Plan A: Go all in. Fight!
All or nothing, fuck it.
>>
>>4554662
> Plan C: Destroy the warship on top of the sub, turn on its engines and send the Coral hivemind far away

Send the bloody thing back to China. But we should make sure it indeed goes west from Hawaii and not crashing into some other island.

(Maybe we could cause it to run aground near us to make it easier to salvage the tech, or sell the salvage rights to the BOS or the Sons of Big Kahuna Burger (I forgot their name!))
>>
>>4554662
>> Plan A: Go all in. Fight!
We're taking this sub boys
>>
>>4554662
>> Plan A: Go all in. Fight!
>>
>D: Diplomacy
Disgusting as it may be, maybe we can reason with this thing? Apparently Fallen horizon once had a working relationship with the Coral. They could be powerful allies.
>>
>>4555038
where are we gonna find enough bodies to sate it
>>
>>4554662
> Plan A: Go all in. Fight!

You write a big and bold A letter on your fragment of paper and fold it. When everybody has finished voting Harris' picks the votes one by one and puts them inside his diving helmet.

Then the counting begins. As the first votes are counted it is quickly clear that the majority of them wishes to go all in and fight. These brave souls are adventurers, explorers, scavengers, but most of all they are fighters, and if they have to perish to save a life then they will do it without a doubt.

They don't care about dying, they only worry about doing it without a good cause. If they manage to destroy the coral then they will become heroes, in this life or the next one, and if they meet their demise then at least they hope to cause as much damage as possible.

When the counting finally ends the winning vote is fighting, it is the chosen option by and landslide, almost reaching absolute majority. You look around and see that most of them are grizzled and strong warriors wearing metallic diving suits and equipped with powerful weapons. There are a few others with Power-Armor like you and only a couple wearing wetsuits. This makes sense, only the strongest and most well equipped divers ended surviving this hellhole. How many poor souls did this submarine devour already? Far too many for sure.

"It is decided then. To me every one of you is a hero already. We have pooled all the ammo, chems and food that we have found in that corner." Harris says, pointing to the other end of the room.

"Go and eat, reload your weapons, get a grenade or two and get ready. We will depart in an hour." He then continues, raising his arm and doing that strange hand gesture.

The rest follow through and you join them, imitating the gesture as best as you can. Everybody then walks towards the place of the room where the resources are stored and proceeds to get as much as they need.
There's no need to hurry or fight for the items, Every diver has added what it had found in the submarine and now there's plenty and more than enough for each person. You wait for your turn and then rummage across the different boxes. One is full of ammunition of all types, you grab from it several Fusion Cells for your Laser Pistol, a dozen Harpoons and three 5.56mm magazines for your turret, and also a couple of frag grenades as well, just in case. You are not a heavy chem user, so you don't search around the medicine box for long, and end only grabbing a couple of stimpaks and nothing else. Finally you look across the food box and find several bottles of dirty water, a few nuka-colas and some pre-war food of both American and Chinese origin, which you eat and sample with gusto.

With your stomach sated and your weapons restocked you are finally ready to battle the Coral. The rest soon enough follow through and soon everybody is ready to fight.
>>
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>>4555206


Together and in one big group you all advance towards the Comms Hub. As you cross the corridors the area starts to get warmer and warmer, to the point of becoming uncomfortably hot. The air around you turns foul smelling and then, you all see it. A gruesome transition from cold and rusty metal to warm and pulsating flesh until pretty much everything is covered in bio-matter.

"Guns hot." One of the diver whispers as he readies his plasma rifle. The rest follow through and the sound of clicking weapons soon echoes across the corridor.

These flesh covered walls are made from several creatures, you can see fish scales and other animal features, but what horrifies you most is how every now and then you find a tattoo or a face stretched and contorted in an expression of absolute horror. Some of the walls have eyes on then, most are dead fish eyes but a few human looking ones can be seen as well, they all follow your movements, twitching and even tearing up as you pass by.
Every few steps you find coral growths, spiky mounds or strange coloured rock like formations covered in heavy and thick pulsating veins that fuse with the flesh around them.

Finally and after a long journey you reach the thick hatch that leads onto the Communications Hub. When you fist encountered the flesh walls they were almost unresponsive to your presence and other stimuli, they were almost dead, too far away from the hive mind. But now you are closer to the source, the flesh pulsates and trembles, perhaps in fear, perhaps in anticipation. From the other side of the door several inhuman screeches can be heard, they are waiting for you.

> Kick down the hatch door and enter guns blazing. Advance as you shoot and kill everything that you encounter and let the entire team pour inside and wreck chaos.
> Surround the Hub, use explosive charges to breach the walls and surround the Hivemind. Shoot from all directions and use guerrilla tactics to cause as much damage as you can.
> Go to the floor above the Hub and use explosive charges to open a hole, throw all of your explosives down the hole to weaken the hivemind and kill as many coralwalkers as possible and then jump down and finish the job.
> Other options. Write in.
>>
>>4555208
>> Surround the Hub, use explosive charges to breach the walls and surround the Hivemind. Shoot from all directions and use guerrilla tactics to cause as much damage as you can.
>>
>>4555208
> Go to the floor above the Hub and use explosive charges to open a hole, throw all of your explosives down the hole to weaken the hivemind and kill as many coralwalkers as possible and then jump down and finish the job
>>
>>4555190
could return to the old ways of throwing the dead in the sea. But I guess after all this nightmare shit this kind of dark deal is off the table...
>>
>>4555208
>> Go to the floor above the Hub and use explosive charges to open a hole, throw all of your explosives down the hole to weaken the hivemind and kill as many coralwalkers as possible and then jump down and finish the job.
>>
>>4555208
>Go to the floor above the Hub and use explosive charges to open a hole, throw all of your explosives down the hole to weaken the hivemind and kill as many coralwalkers as possible and then jump down and finish the job
>>
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>>4555208
> Go to the floor above the Hub and use explosive charges to open a hole, throw all of your explosives down the hole to weaken the hivemind and kill as many coralwalkers as possible and then jump down and finish the job

These warriors are brave and bold, but they are not suicidal. A direct approach would have been a bad idea. Together you look around and use maps and compasses to find a pathway towards the upper floor and reach and area located just above the Communications hub.

This particular part of the ship isn't as infected and meaty, so the prying eyes of the Coral shouldn't be able to reach you here. You should be able to act without the hivemind being able to predict your movements.

Several demolition charges and other handmade explosives are placed in a circle around the floor. They are all connected with copper wire and a demolition expert diver connects everything to a remote detonator.

Everybody walks away and takes cover behind crates, furniture or walls, you hide behind a particularly ugly desk and see Nanna, Harris and the rest nearby as well. The demoman diver presses the button of the detonator and one by one the explosives blast away, launching huge chunks of twisted metal and fire everywhere as they leave torn open holes.

If you had gathered all the explosives into a single pile the explosion would have been far stronger and bigger, but the final hole wouldn't be big enough for all of you to head in at the same time. By separating the charges and creating several small holes in a circle you ultimately weaken the floor enough to make it fall down under its own weight.

Everybody moves away from the cover and looks down, seeing dozens of violently writhing coralwalkers trapped under the broken floor, a few of them have died, but most continue still alive. Without any time to waste each one of you start throwing your explosives, launching molotovs, grenades of different types, mines of all kinds and even the own furniture that was lying around into the hole, filling the communication hub with fire and death. You join as well, removing the pins of the two frag grenades that you had obtained and throwing them down, your explosions killing a couple of coralwalkers and turning them into nothing but rotten and petrified bodies.
>>
>>4555630

Despite all of your efforts the situation down there is worse than you expected. The room below is far bigger than you could have imagined, and the hole that you created didn't end crushing all of the coralwalkers, far from it instead. The floor below is absolutely packed with walkers, and infected fauna like sea slugs, snakes, mirelurks and other mutant abominations.

You give a quick look down the hole and calculate that you must have killed at least one third of all the monsters down there. The fight is far from over, they more than double you in number, but at least you drew first blood.

The area under the hole finally stops burning, now nothing but a mess of twisted metal and dead corpses lie down there. One by one all of the divers proceed to jump down and as soon as they land they start shooting at whatever they might find. There are plenty of monsters ahead, they don't even need to aim. You jump as well and see countless of monsters ahead of you. Those aren't only coralwalkers, but an unholy amalgamation of flesh and coral, an impossible mixture that only the radiation of this infernal submarine could create.

In front of you several flesh abominations approach, their bodies are covered in dangerous spiky coral and their arms have been turned into coral blades or claws. Adrenaline starts pumping in your body. This is it, the last stand. In the past the coral hivemind might have been happy feeding upon the corpses that the people threw into the ocean, but now it has become a twisted mutant. It now won't stop until everybody in Fallen Horizon has been turned and twisted as well. You cannot let that happen.

(TEMPORAL ADRENALINE PERK: Thanks to the adrenaline pumping inside of our bodies and the power armor we can use two handed weapons with a single hand and do two actions per turn! This perk will be only granted in extreme situations, use it wisely!)

> Use the Harpoon gun, Laser Pistol and Turret to become a hailstorm of laser blasts, bullets and harpoon projectiles. Kill everything around you.
> Thanks to the Grappling Hook you ended disarming a Coralwalker and obtaining its rusty and heavy cleaver. Grab the Cleaver with one hand the Chainsaw with other and RIP AND TEAR.
> These spiky coralwalkers don't have a chance against your mighty frame and your sturdy power armor. Start running and tackle every walker that crosses your path. Become a pain train.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4555632
> These spiky coralwalkers don't have a chance against your mighty frame and your sturdy power armor. Start running and tackle every walker that crosses your path. Become a pain train.
>>
>>4555630
>> Thanks to the Grappling Hook you ended disarming a Coralwalker and obtaining its rusty and heavy cleaver. Grab the Cleaver with one hand the Chainsaw with other and RIP AND TEAR.
>>
>>4555632
> Use the Harpoon gun, Laser Pistol and Turret to become a hailstorm of laser blasts, bullets and harpoon projectiles. Kill everything around you.
why the hell would we go straight into melee? We can do that when we're out of bullets from having killed 200 walkers
>>
>>4555632
>> Use the Harpoon gun, Laser Pistol and Turret to become a hailstorm of laser blasts, bullets and harpoon projectiles. Kill everything around you
>>
>>4555632
>Use the Harpoon gun, Laser Pistol and Turret to become a hailstorm of laser blasts, bullets and harpoon projectiles. Kill everything around you.
>>
Ax is really taking his time, huh.
>>
>>4557213
So it seems.
>>
>>4557259
>>4557213
Yesterdat I started a new job. I wanted to write buck came back home exhausted. Today I will write an updatep
>>
>>4557311
Sorry for the typos. I was mobileposting while walking lmao
>>
Sorry all. Update will be tomorrow. Life is kinda hectic right now
>>
>>4557694
S'cool man, we'll be here.
BTW is this what ghoulette looks like?
>>
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>>4557898
Fuck no. More like pic related
>>
>>4558141
Don't waste time on banter OP, we want action!
>>
>>4555632
> Use the Harpoon gun, Laser Pistol and Turret to become a hailstorm of laser blasts, bullets and harpoon projectiles. Kill everything around you.

It is time. The final battle for Fallen Horizon rages on. In one side are a ragtag group of divers, on the other a seemingly endless swarm of mutant abominations.

The divers have years of experience behind them, countless of encounters against mutant creatures and other foul beasts found in the depths and they are pretty well equipped as well, thick metallic diving suits around their bodies, and heavy weaponry on their hands. On the other side there is the Coral, a mutant hivemind capable of infecting and covering creatures and people with its hard coral. Their walkers are absolutely monstrous, but they are lacking in intelligence and complex weaponry, possessing only the spikes and blades their bodies are covered with.

You had used explosives to open a hole in the ceiling of the room where all of the Coralwalkers were located. The falling roof crushed several of them to death, and then each one of you launched all of your explosives onto the floor below, filing the area with fire and killing many more in the process.

But it wasn't enough.

After seeing that there were still survivors divers stormed the hole, jumping down with their weapons hot and ready to kill or be killed. You have just jumped as well. It is the time to prove your worth.

All around you the divers fight with unparalleled ferocity. As the battle rages on hundreds of projectiles and energy blasts fly everywhere, cries and screams fill the room, heavy metallic boots crush rotten flesh, fire and death reign as far as you can see.

The coralwalkers have no means of attacking from a distance, claws, swords and spikes are all the weaponry at their disposal. Every second more and more and more of them get destroyed, dying by the troves as they jump into the divers in a suicidal manner. For each diver a dozen coralwalkers die, but every time one of those abominations manages to reach one of the them, it ends in a gruesome death. The walkers are simply unrivalled when it comes to close quarters combat and the divers simply cannot compete.

You grab your heavy harpoon launcher with one hand and hold your automatic laser pistol with the other. With a scream you proceed to join your companions in battle, firing deadly projectiles and killing enemies by the droves. Normally you would require both hands to operate your harpoon launcher, but you have become a shattering force. Pumping adrenaline courses thought your veins, pure high octane undistilled rage fuels your body, and nothing but killing occupies your mind.
>>
>>4558559

Soon after starting with the murdering a small mound of corpses start to pile in front of you, some turned to ash thanks to your powerful laser gun, others killed by your turret and absolutely covered in bullet holes, and the rest skewed and impaled to the walls with massive harpoons.

One might think that the hivemind is stupid by rushing to battle in such a manner, but there are clever undertones to its suicidal tactics. Every diver that is killed gets turned, and soon joins their ranks, becoming not only a coralwalker, but one fitted with armor and equipped with weapons. The rest of the coralwalkers are too rotten and stiff to properly wield weapons, that's why the coral has covered them in hard shells, sharp spikes and serrated blades, but these newly converted coralwalkers are still fresh enough to operate complex weaponry and even shoot with surprising accuracy.

On top of that, some of the previously killed coralwalkers suddenly rise back again to life, many times surprising divers in the process and killing them before they can react. The Coral can control and mutate bio-matter at will, and the room you all are located in is surrounded by its flesh, the walls are covered in synew, veins and skin made from its previous victims. But there a strange phenomenon happening around you, the coral infestation has become smaller,you have noticed that the flesh that used to cover this room isn't as prominent as before. It isn't until you see a coralwalker resurrecting that you finally understand it. The hivemind is using tbe meat around the room to patch up its dead soldiers. Resurrecting them over and over until they are finally too destroyed to be able to stand on their own.

This will not be an easy win. This is a battle of attrition. What will run out sooner? The flesh, or the bullets?

> You have noticed that the Communications Hub has some fusion generators at the end of the room. Those were probably made to act as backup in case of an emergency. Perhaps you could try to reach and sabotage them to cause a great explosion and kill a lot of the coralwalkers at once.
> Your power armor gives you and edge over the rest of the divers. Jump into a great group of coralwalkers to focus their attention on you, and give the rest a bigger chance at surviving.
> Shooting at a distance has been working fine so far, no need to fix what aint broken. Keep on killin'
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4558560
>> You have noticed that the Communications Hub has some fusion generators at the end of the room. Those were probably made to act as backup in case of an emergency. Perhaps you could try to reach and sabotage them to cause a great explosion and kill a lot of the coralwalkers at once.
>>
>>4558560
> You have noticed that the Communications Hub has some fusion generators at the end of the room. Those were probably made to act as backup in case of an emergency. Perhaps you could try to reach and sabotage them to cause a great explosion and kill a lot of the coralwalkers at once.

Let's 'sea' what we can do here. Cool quest idea by the way, OP. Always wanted to see Fallout in Hawaii!
>>
>>4558560
>You have noticed that the Communications Hub has some fusion generators at the end of the room. Those were probably made to act as backup in case of an emergency. Perhaps you could try to reach and sabotage them to cause a great explosion and kill a lot of the coralwalkers at once
>>
>>4558645
Welcome welcome!

We have rusty hula-bots, mutant sharks the size of a school bus and a crazy ukelele wielding radio DJ!

Enjoy your stay!
>>
>>4558560
>> Shooting at a distance has been working fine so far, no need to fix what aint broken. Keep on killin
>>
Looks like we have a winning vote.

> Roll 1d20!
> Best of three!
>>
Rolled 18 (1d20)

>>4558731
>>
Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>4558731
>>
>>4558760
>>4558746
Almost an hour has passed. Feel free to vote again.
>>
Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>4558731
aight'
>>
Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>4558808
>>4558760
>>4558746
My turn
>>
>>4558815
r u fucking kidding me
>>
>>4558817
Sucks to be you guys lmao
>>
>>4558817
10% chance. Not that unlikely.
>>
>>4558815
I have a bad feeling we're about to blow our nuts off messing with the generators...
>>
>>4558560
> You have noticed that the Communications Hub has some fusion generators at the end of the room. Those were probably made to act as backup in case of an emergency. Perhaps you could try to reach and sabotage them to cause a great explosion and kill a lot of the coralwalkers at once.

You holster your many weapons and proceed to run. You are wearing a heavy diving power-armor, on your back there is a heavy harpoon rifle, a grappling hook gun, a heavy hatchet, and in your hips there are a laser gun and a knife, plus the bag that you carry around with all of your junk. You are on heavy warrior, and no coralwalker can stand in your path.

Several of those abominations die on your wake or under your heavy boots, but for each one that you kill two cling to your armor. At first you manage to run at an impressive speed but soon you decelerate to a crawling pace, each step your speed decreases and more creatures climb to you. Several of your diver companions try to take them away from you by shooting at them, but they cannot focus their efforts on helping you without risking their own lives.

It seems that the hivemind has learned that tag teaming is a useful tactic against heavy hitters like you. A couple of feet away you see another power-armor user fall down under a pile of coralwalkers. The monsters jump onto him and violently try their best to breach it open as if he were a tuna can.
At first the steel of the armor holds against the coral of the walkers, and many of them end killing themselves by punching and headbutting the armor to death, but still piece by piece the armor ultimately ends chipping and breaking away, until the monsters finally reach the precious marrow inside of it, and the diver is forcefully butchered and turned into a bloody mess.

Out of nowhere a bright warning message quickly flashes on your HUD. Your fusion core is almost drained and about to go out. Your legs suddenly falter and make you heavily fall down onto the floor. You start to scream in desperation as you try your darnest to stand up and continue running towards the generator. But it's all futile, there are too many monsters slowing you down, forcing you to push harder and harder, draining your core even more.
>>
>>4558901

As you are about to fall and die suddenly and with a cheerful laugh Harris appears out of nowhere while smoking a fat cigar and wielding a flamethrower. He bathes you in burning chemicals until all of the coralwalkers that were accosting you die and then throws a bottle of beer onto your body to more or less extinguish the fires. He leaves before you can thank him and continues with his jolly killing spree, laughing maniacally as he burns the walkers. He's having the time of his life, he could be killed right now and he would still die a happy man.

You stand up, and see your body covered in dried blood, burnt flesh, charred coral and warm beer. The alarms and warning messages in the display of your helmet aren't as critical now that you aren't carrying such a heavy burden and draining the core as fast. You still have around 10% of charge, it should be able to last for a while. Your armor is severely damaged as well, but it should still hold on. The moment the core runs dry the servomotors, hydraulics and artificial muscle bundles of your armor will be unpowered, making the armor be incredibly heavy and hard to use. You would still be protected but also forced to move at a snail pace, leaving you completely at mercy of the coralwalkers.

The generators are closer now, but still a battlefield away, literally. You could try to make a run for it and reach them, but this will probably empty your Fusion Core. You could also try to run towards the dead power-armor user and see if you can loot the Fusion Core that he was using and exchange it for yours, or perhaps, you could simply stay still and fight without moving at all in an attempt at extending the lifespan of your core as much as you can. And... there's also a desperate option, get out of the Power-Armor, sabotage the Fusion Core to make it explode, grab as much gear as you can and run towards the rest of the divers. Let the exploding armor take as many walkers as you can. You could perhaps abandon the armor, sabotage the Fusion Core, turn it into a grenade of some sort and try to throw it to the generator, this would leave your armor-less but solve many problems, but its a very risky option.

> Run towards the generator, even if it means draining your Fusion core and ending without Power-Armor.
> Run towards the dead Power-Armor diver and take his Fusion Core. Then do the exchange while surrounded by enemies.
> Stay still and use your ranged weapons to kill as many enemies as you can. Survive for as long as you can.
> You doubt that the coralwalkers can differenciate between a occupied and an empty Power-Armor. Sabotage your power-armor and have its Fusion Core explode. Leave it and return to the other divers. Fight wearing nothing but a wetsuit.
> Get out of your Power-Armor, remove the Fusion Core, sabotage and turn it into a makeshift nuka grenade and throw it at the generator. Hope for the best.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4558902
>Get out of your Power-Armor, remove the Fusion Core, sabotage and turn it into a makeshift nuka grenade and throw it at the generator. Hope for the best.
>Wear the Shroud and hope the walkers can't see you.
>>
>>4558907
>Wear the Shroud and hope the walkers can't see you.
Good thinking.
>>
>>4558908
I would call it poetic in a way
>>
>>4558902
>> Run towards the dead Power-Armor diver and take his Fusion Core. Then do the exchange while surrounded by enemies.

Then take the old fusion core and turn it into a makeshift nuka grenade and throw it at the generator.
>>
>>4558908
Is the shroud big enough to cover our power armor, even partially?
>>
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>>4558919
>Is the shroud big enough to cover our power armor, even partially?

Perhaps to cover our head and shoulders, and part of the chest, but not much more. Kinda like in the picture. So it wouldn't be really useful unless we are in the middle of the night.
>>
>>4558930
Gotcha, sticking to my original plan then. I assume if we sneak out of our power armor it will still get attacked by the coral drones
>>
>>4558902
>> Run towards the dead Power-Armor diver and take his Fusion Core. Then do the exchange while surrounded by enemies.
This can't go wrong
>>
>>4558915
+1
>>
>>4558902
>> Run towards the generator, even if it means draining your Fusion core and ending without Power-Armor.
>>
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>>4558902
> Run towards the dead Power-Armor diver and take his Fusion Core. Then do the exchange while surrounded by enemies.
> Get out of your Power-Armor, remove the Fusion Core, sabotage and turn it into a makeshift nuka grenade and throw it at the generator. Hope for the best.

Fucking hell, you will have to make a run for it. You holster your Harpoon and Laser Gun and grab your rusty hatchet in one hand and the Cosmic knife in the other. The situation doesn't changes, you dash and plow over dozens of walkers that violently explode into a gory mess as you tackle or stomp them. The ones that survive the pain train that you have become use their claws and stiff limbs to hold onto your body but now you are prepared and use your sharp blades to stab and cut anyone that dares to get too clingy.

You finally reach the dead power armored diver and see a grizzly spectacle, a body butchered and gutted with an unseen violence. Guts, flesh, blood and bones sprayed everywhere along with the broken and torn metal of the armor. It seems that the Coral is unable to properly give its walkers enough dexterity to use Power-armor, and due to this the hivemind drones do not attempt to convert them and instead go for the kill. This is good, a possessed power-armor user would be an absolute nightmare to deal with.

From his twisted remnants you grab his blood splattered Fusion Core and see that it still has around fifty percent charge. Perfect.

In an almost suicidal manoeuvre you prepare to momentarily leave your Power-armor to perform the exchange. Ideally this would have been performed by a specialised person, but this isn't the time or the place to ask for help. With a loud grunt you pull the internal lever that will release you from your iron suit and with a pained whistle the mechanisms on the backside start whirring and sliding as they open and let you out. As soon as you are away you grab your shroud from your bag and cover yourself with it. The battlefield around you is all but dim, there are dozens of terminals, mainframes and all kind of machinery full of blinking lights and glowing monitors showing strange readings, all coupled with the bright stream of swarming red hot bullets and laser blast that fly everywhere. Your shroud might not be very useful here, but perhaps it might still work, it's hard to say as you don't exactly know if the coralwalkers have sight or navigate using other methods like echolocation.
>>
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>>4559489

There are still dozens of slow and creeping walkers around, crawling and dragging their half rotten half coral limbs across the cold floor to reach you. Nervously you unsheathe your cosmic knife and use its sharp edge to forcefully eject the Fusion Core. As it goes out with a pop the surface gets scratched and damaged but this doesn't matters, you then put on the new core in the Power-armor and jump back inside. As soon as the Power-armor detects the new core and sees that it is still half full many of the warning messages in your HUD disappear.

You grab the old core in one hand and the knife in the other and proceed to stab it until you manage to breach its hard shell. Green glowing radioactive liquid starts to pour out of it. Your geiger counter starts to emit cracking sounds. Whatever this green slimy goo is it is pretty radioactive, and hopefully explosive as well. There isn't much of the goo inside of the core, as most pf it must have run dry already, but hopefully it should be enough to generate a big enough bang.

Quickly you holster the knife and grab the Laser Pistol instead, then throw the leaking Fusion Core as if it were a grenade. The thing spins in the air and traces a perfect arch towards the generators in the back, spraying radioactive fluids to several walls and coralwalkers as it flies. Before it can land you raise your gun, aim and press the trigger, a loud cracking bolt of pure energy forming and flying across the room.

Time seems to slow down as the energy projectile breaks the air. You gasp and then... Jackpot!

It lands on the flying core and makes it explode in a thousand pieces with the power of a mini-nuke. The explosion reaches one of the two generators and damages it enough to make it explode as well, creating a chain reaction of explosions and fire that engulfs at least fifty walkers.

The rest of the walkers suddenly scream and shriek as they fall to the floor. It seems that such a devastating and sudden blow has destabilised the connection that the hivemind had over its drones. Before they can wake up again the divers take advantage of the situation to finish off many of the monsters that are now on the floor. Still, not all of them can be dealt with, and soon enough the walkers are all back on their feet.

You have clearly changed the tide of the battle, what once were overwhelming numbers of coralwalkers are now roughly paired with the number of warriors at your side. There are almost no traces of fleshy corruption in the walls now, most of it has been used to heal and patch their drones.
>>
>>4559495

As the second generator finally dies the lights go out. The ample room momentarily goes dark, but a few seconds later several intermittent red lights start to flash. Without the electricity the radio transmission has been cut, your mission has been accomplished, even if every one of you died the city above would be safe.

The entire room shakes violently and the sound of metal being violently torn and twisted echoes all across you. Suddenly several pipes explode and several holes burst on the walls, pouring sea water on the room and slowly filling it up.

To everybody's surprise the walkers suddenly stop fighting and quickly gather together, fusing their flesh and coral to violently create a single massive entity. As their bones break and their limbs twist the hivemind suddenly speaks in unison with a dozen echoing voices.

"You h𝕒ve destroyed our mouth, but we 𝕒re f𝕒r from de𝕒d. We h𝕒ve become one with the vessel, end us 𝕒nd this will become your tomb. Your bodies will be p𝕒rt of the Reef. It is inevit𝕒ble."

The coral has ingrained so deeply inside of the guts of the submarine that it has turned itself into a dead man's switch. Kill it and the submarine will break down and immediately fill with water. Every one of you is wearing diving gear, but even still the chances of surviving are close to none. If the rushing water or flinging debris doesn't kills you then the sudden pressurisation will.
>>
>>4559500

"Inevitable my ass." Suddenly screams a female voice from behind.

You look back and see Kalili removing her diving suit. You knew that the tall and amazonian woman was a psyker, but you did not suspect how powerful she really could be. The wetsuit under her diving gear is torn and ripped, revealing a muscular body covered in strange bulging veins that brightly glow red.

She starts to walk and as she advances the fire around her suddenly extinguish, their heat and fire adding to her body, making her glow hotter and brighter until she becomes a red hot silhouette. Despite the floor being at ankle level now her feet never touch the water, she is so hot that with every step she causes a small cloud of steam to violently rise up.

"Kalili no!" Screams Marcus, her boyfriend.

"Protect me!" She screams, as several of the walkers detach from the great mass of flesh that the Coral had become and proceed to violently lunge towards her.

> Shoot at the incoming coralwalkers. Protect her and let her reach the hivemind so she can explode and sacrifice for the good of everybody.
> Shot at her instead. If she can absorb fire she can absorb your laser bolts as well. Feed her more and more energy. Be sure that she has enough energy to truly kill the hivemind.
> Get out of your Power-Armor, remove your half full Fusion Core and pass it to her. Let her feed on the Core's energies to become an even more powerful living bomb.
>>
>>4559502

> Shoot at the incoming coralwalkers. Protect her and let her reach the hivemind so she can explode and sacrifice for the good of everybody.
Those divers are fucking badass!
>>
>>4559502
>>4559513
+1
>>
>>4559513
Hell yeah brother!
>>
>>4559502
>> Get out of your Power-Armor, remove your half full Fusion Core and pass it to her. Let her feed on the Core's energies to become an even more powerful living bomb.
>>
>>4559502
>> Shoot at the incoming coralwalkers. Protect her and let her reach the hivemind so she can explode and sacrifice for the good of everybody.
I rather play it safe
>>
>>4559502
>> Shoot at the incoming coralwalkers. Protect her and let her reach the hivemind so she can explode and sacrifice for the good of everybody.
>>
>>4559502
>> Get out of your Power-Armor, remove your half full Fusion Core and pass it to her. Let her feed on the Core's energies to become an even more powerful living bomb.
>>
>>4559541
>>4559865
the room is getting flooded. Leaving and disabling our diving suit means suicide.
>>
>>4559925
We have a wetsuit underneath, and we can surely gather some oxygen tank and breather from a dead diver nearby. But yeah, it's pretty much suicide.
>>
>>4559502
> Shoot at the incoming coralwalkers. Protect her and let her reach the hivemind so she can explode and sacrifice for the good of everybody.

As you regroup with the rest of the divers you continue shooting and blasting away, your laser and harpoon causing untold damage and killing the walkers before they can reach her. Everybody is doing their best to stop and destroy them all, giving her plenty of time to advance. When Kalili passes next to you several warning messages appear in your HUD, she is literally scorching, burning, reaching temperatures that no living being should be able to survive, if you stay too long then your armor will end melting and turned into slag.

Wherever Kalili passes fires get snuffed, somehow added to her heat and radiance. The few machines and lightbulbs that are still on also get stolen of their energy and power, turning off and shutting down as she walks by. You have heard of psykers before, centuries ago the Master congregated a few inside of his cathedral, there were rumours of one living in the Mojave that could foretell your future for money, and of course there have always been urban legends and exaggerated stories about people with crazy powers.

She's not the first psyker that you have met, but so far the rest of them only had very minor powers, things like creating small lights, weak telekinesis, power over small rodents. But this... this is on another whole level. Still, this kind of power comes at a step price, as she walks she leaves behind a trail of steamy footprints, bloody footprints that are soon followed by more burning droplets. Due to her radiance it's hard to see, but she is bleeding profusely from all of her orifices, her organs are slowly shutting down, her skin is ripping at its seams...

Kalili is becoming a living nuke, and suffering the dire consequences.

The Coral seems to understand what is she trying to do, and in a desperate move stops attacking, seeing as it is futile as she has become so hot that the walkers get destroyed even before they can reach her. Instead the coral gathers all of its biomass into a single entity made of stringy sinew, rotten muscles, putrid skin and hard bones. It's becoming as big as it can in a pitiful attempt at surviving the inevitable.

All of the flesh around the walls, around the submarine retreat and clump into a tumorous and massively blob. Without the meat holding the sub in place more of the walls around you stall to break down under the pressure, the water quickly floods the entire room, mixing with the blood and other nasty fluids that are splattered everywhere. Now that the rooms are full of water the coral can use its infected fishes, snakes and insects as well, they all come in a massive swarm, ignoring each one of you and instead joining into the already disgusting mass. You all proceed to shot at it, to slowly grind and shred it down in size to give her a bigger chance at destroying it.
>>
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>>4560068

With all of the biomatter added together the titanic hivemind becomes absolutely massive, almost big enough to fill the entire room. When Kalili finally reaches it she calmly extends her arms, her hands touches the flesh and as if it were nothing but soft sand she slowly pushes herself and sinks inside of it, until, she completely disappears. For a long and uncomfortable while nothing happens, there's a dreadful silences where everybody's hopes get exchanged for despair.

Then it suddenly happens, a massive explosion that shakes the entirety of the submarine, had it not been for the flesh that absorbed most of the explosion and shockwave, the water that was surrounding you and acted as another shield, and your heavy diving suits then each one of you would have died vaporised.

You hold onto a pillar and see it. The last piece of the hivemind, the last living host exploding, Kalili's spirit burning with intensity, the two becoming ashes and ceasing to exist from this world.

As the explosion ceases a thick veil of darkness surrounds you. The submarine is too damaged to even have its emergency lights on. Slowly one by one the divers proceed to turn on their flashlights, you do too and see around a chaotic and gory landscape full of death and destruction. Not much of the Coral has remained, and the few chunks behind are completely dead, nothing sentient clinging onto them. The Coral is dead for good.

You have been lucky and ended unscathed from the explosion, but not everybody had the same fortune as you did, several of them have been heavily wounded.

Nanna, who did not posses a diving suit and relied only on her wetsuit, died horribly. The upper half of her body is found under some heavy rubble, too heavy to be removed, her corpse will remain down here forever. At least her fear of becoming feral or a coralwalker will never become true. You cannot even say your goodbyes, you have to help the wounded.
>>
>>4560071

Along with Harris and Marcus you carry and load three heavily wounded divers onto the Submersible that you used to descend into the depths. You are finally coming home, after three long days that felt like an eternity. After a quick ascent the submersibles finally reach the surface and you all breathe fresh air. Soon enough the other submersibles join you and together they all sail into the Diver's guild.

The wounded are carried inside and carefully stripped from their heavy armor. The place is lucky to have a couple of Auto-Docs that some divers found years ago. The guild has been using them to treat their own for years, but never with such an extent and with such a hurry.

As the first divers are finally put inside of the Auto-Docs and treated Harris approaches you. He's battered and his diving suit is heavily dented and caked in blood, but he seems happy.
>>
>>4560073

"Diego, a word please." He tells you, asking you to follow him to a more private part of the guild.

"Yes?" You ask him, as you finally have some privacy.

"Alright, I've talked with the upper brass, the upper echelons of the shipborn. I explained everything and despite this victory belonging to everybody, they agree to granting the prize to us. I'll be getting a citizenship status and a house soon. Since Kalili and Nanna are goners the 10,000 caps prize will be shared between Marcus and you. Be happy, you can do a lot of good things with five thousand caps here. There's a catch thought, they don't want any information from leaking out, if the belowdeckers discovered about the coral hivemind under them they would panic and chaos would ensue, they want to avoid it at all cost. I know you are a journalist, but you better be a good boy and stay quiet about all of this, or else I will be sure of destroying you and everything that you love. I'm a shipborn now kid, above you in every aspect. I can make your life hell. And by the way, I'm sure that you are a way better diver than journo, you should be working for me instead, remember that with my savings I plan to open a diving business. Just think about it..." He then says, patting you in the forearm.

"Oh, and before I leave." Harris then adds quite nonchalantly, as he pushes a small button in your armor and forces you out of it. "The armor and Harpoon gun are mine, your other belongings are in a locker. If you wanna keep 'em you gotta work for me."

And with that said, he leaves you alone to ponder.

> Fuck him. He has saved your life but has been a terrible person during all this time. You have a duty to fulfil, tell the truth no matter what. Write a long and scathing article detailing everything that happened in the submarine. Worry about the repercussions tomorrow.
> Take the money and use it to pay for a ferry ticket that takes you out of this dammed city. You have had enough. You need to explore more of this wild and unknown wasteland.
> Take the money and use it to pay for fuel and resources needed to kickstart John's sailing enterprise. He knows of fish banks, unexplored islets, and sunken treasures. This might be a good way of getting some good caps.
> Take the money, return to the bookstore and don't publish the story. Talk with Mr. Aikue and give him part of the caps to repay for the three days that you were gone. Continue on as normal.
> Accept his offer, leave the journalist work and work for him as a diver.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4560075
>> Fuck him. He has saved your life but has been a terrible person during all this time. You have a duty to fulfil, tell the truth no matter what. Write a long and scathing article detailing everything that happened in the submarine. Worry about the repercussions tomorrow.
Ah fuck, I saw Nanna's death coming but I still had hope...
>>
>>4560085
>Ah fuck, I saw Nanna's death coming but I still had hope...
Am I really that predictable?
>>
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>>4560088
You kinda made it very clear that divers in wetsuits had very little life expectancy.
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>>4560092
Damn, I guess I give too many details. Sorry about that.
>>
It's about 3 am so I'll go to sleep now. But I forgot to mention something! We level up! Chose what option do you wanna go with, where do you want to spend your skill points and then what perk do you want to earn:

> +80 HP
> Current HP: 645
> + 16 Skill points
> + 1 Perk

> Character Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17h2Zm77a7A6MuvcRf4QdBZ-agS7B90SsgInJJ-O9COA/edit

> Standard perks:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17lByiQu0HWGGJrxEx-L1yL5pFQTAbE_abbrSClSn-Ps/edit

> Racial perk:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bDWe2DsgK5dr-WPCZx9wpKEAu7JyG-8biuiWqaOBrRM/edit
>>
>>4560121
> Also a note about this particular adventure.

In this reply >>4550299 I mention something called "Stealth Boy Experiment Logs" and then mention an Auto-Doc like machine that has inside a mummiffied corpse that appears or disappears every time that you look.

Well, if you guys had investigated about it you would have discovered that the scientists on the sub had developed a Stealth Boy implant that could make people invisible at will, regardless of what wear they were equipped with. It would have had some side effects of course... but you guys could have gained the ability of becoming invisible at any moment!

Oh well, you missed that train and it won't appear again.
>>
>>4560121
Since death flags are starting to pop up
>Perk: Do not die on me!
and +16 Medicine just in case.
I can't prevent every single curved ball we get thrown at but I can at least undermine the attempt.
>>4560125
Oh that sucks, I guess we'll now have to... use regular Stealth Boys.
>>
>>4560075
> Fuck him. He has saved your life but has been a terrible person during all this time. You have a duty to fulfil, tell the truth no matter what. Write a long and scathing article detailing everything that happened in the submarine. Worry about the repercussions tomorrow
>>
If we return the dive armour make sure we pry the turret off of it, it’s not his and was made with scrap from the sub and given to us hence it’s ours; as a journalist we’re gonna have a lot of enemies and having a semi-portable turret on/around us makes me feel safer plus we might even be able to improve it later
>>
>>4560253
Nah, we can just buy better ones. If we do get the money.
>>
>>4560075
>> Take the money and use it to pay for fuel and resources needed to kickstart John's sailing enterprise. He knows of fish banks, unexplored islets, and sunken treasures. This might be a good way of getting some good caps.
Treasure hunting is a far more preferable enterprise.
>>
Actually, maybe we should talk to Mr Aikue first before we do anything. See if Harris the newly minted shipborn can indeed fuck us as much as he claims if we do publish the story.
>>
>>4560075
>> Take the money and use it to pay for fuel and resources needed to kickstart John's sailing enterprise. He knows of fish banks, unexplored islets, and sunken treasures. This might be a good way of getting some good caps.
>>
>>4560352
Yes do this. I want to tell the story of the brave souls who died down there, then jump ship and become a treasure hunter/traveling journalist
>>
>>4546216
Supporting this. I reaaaaally want to off this cunt. He tried to screw us over at every moment, and now he's probably pissed at us because of what we talked about in the sub.
We really need to talk to Aikue first, though, and make sure everything's dealt with before telling him to shove that turret up his ass and get the fuck out of this shithole.
>>
Daphne would probably not join us if we decide to go exploring isn't she? Or could she be convinced to?
>>
>>4560352
I mean, everyone with money can send a bunch of crooks after someone or just spread a lot of bullshit about you, doesn't mean we can't deal with that.
>>4560561
Journalism and treasure hunting are a bit mutually exclusive.
>>4560723
Supporting what?
Heeeellll noooooo, we went trough all of this fucking trouble to get our own newspaper and we are jumping ship at the first sight of trouble? What happened to journalistic integrity? In California we went on for a while before being shanghai'd and back then we couldn't fight back. I want every shipborn's secrets out for everyone to see, even if it sends this city to the bottom of the ocean.
>>4560767
If her parents are going and we are going it's almost sure that she will go with us. I say that if we stay we send her out with her parents so Harris won't attack them, it'll hurt the newspaper lacking an illustrator but it's for the best.
>>
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Alright there is a tie.

There are two votes for going against Harris' wishes and writing a scathing journalistic report that would shake the entire city.

And there are another two votes for taking the money, staying quiet about the whole ordeal and using the caps to fund John's business.

I'll wait for another 3 hours for a tie breaker, if it doesn't happens then I'll do a dice roll.

Regardless of what the winning option is we will pull the weapon from the turret and take it for us, and we will also speak with Mr. Aikue and explain what happened. We might give a more or less truthful version of what we lived, but he won't be left in the dark.

>>4560767
> Daphne would probably not join us if we decide to go exploring isn't she? Or could she be convinced to?
Depends, she won't move away from her parents. If we decide to explore on our own she will stay behind, our relationship with her will cease, we will be lovers no more. If we decide to explore with her father then Daphne and her mother might join.
>>
>>4560561
if it's unclear, I want to write the article. Just don't be rash about it.
>>
if Harris wanted to keep this thing secret he shouldn't have taken a journalist.
>>
>>4560913
He prolly didnt believe that we would survive so far.
>>
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Fuck it, we will do both, taking the money to kickstart John's sailing business and also writing an article for the newspaper, we owe it to Mr. Aikue. Writing now.
>>
I think he's scared actually. Shipborn would grudgingly accept him but are probably already regretting the deal and would jump at any opportunity to get out of it. Like if a tell-all were to be published detailing all his shit.
>>
>>4560075
> Take the money and use it to pay for fuel and resources needed to kickstart John's sailing enterprise. He knows of fish banks, unexplored islets, and sunken treasures. This might be a good way of getting some good caps.
> Fuck him. He has saved your life but has been a terrible person during all this time. You have a duty to fulfil, tell the truth no matter what. Write a long and scathing article detailing everything that happened in the submarine. Worry about the repercussions tomorrow.

Harris leaves with a smug smile and a nasal snort. What a fucking jackass. He not only lied and fooled you into participating in an almost suicidal expedition, but also doesn't seem to care about Kalili's and Nanna's deaths and has blatantly threatened you into staying quiet.

Down in the depths you saw him cheerfully killing and he seemed to enjoy shedding blood. He's clearly a dangerous individual and you are sure that he wouldn't doubt about killing you if that advanced his goals. You are not afraid of him, you are not afraid of bringing the truth to light. Back in the NCR your journalistic endeavours made several very powerful people mad and you ended being threatened several times as well, everybody has skeletons in their closets and nobody likes having them revealed and exposed.

You have been in the sights of corrupt politicians, greedy water barons and sociopath crime lords, and you have always ended unscathed. This puny sailor is bluffing and talking out of his ass. Fuck him and all of his empty words, you will take the money, use it for a good cause and then, write the most scathing article that you will ever write, you will reveal the whole truth of what happened down there.
>>
>>4561362

Fallen Horizon has been deliberately located on top of a heavily radioactive battlefield full of nuclear waste, derelict warships and leaking fusion reactors, and the shipborn knew about it, they allowed it because the debris and scrap was useful for them. Had the city been placed somewhere else their waters wouldn't have been as radioactive and lethal, the fish around them not as cancerous, and the water that the belowdecker population drink not as toxic. To protect their own shipborn population the three vessels had also been without any kind of radar or enemy detection methods for more than three days, absolutely at the mercy any enemy that might have dared to attack, its a miracle that Ohana or the Enclave did not take this opportunity to strike. And then there's the fact that there was a mutant hivemind made of coral and flesh under the city, forcing the citizens to jump into the waters to feed on them. The citizens deserve the truth, you will bring it to them.

There have been revolutions for less than this. Hopefully your words won't end in a bloodshed.

With a grunt you remove the Chinese Assault Rifle from the Submarine Armor's turret, place it on your back and walk towards the locker where your possessions are.

You not only find your beloved trench-coat and other items inside of the rusty locker, but also a big metallic box full of bottlecaps. You don't count them, but you are pretty sure that the five thousand are indeed there. There's a small note on top of the coins as well. "Speak and you are dead kid." You crumple the note and throw it to the floor, as you put all of those heavy caps in a bag and tie it to your back.
>>
>>4561364

Now that you are out of the power armor all of your gear feels several times heavier. You are starting to carry a lot of gear, too much gear, you are on the edge of being over-encumbered. You should be careful with what you decide to loot from now on.

As you are about to leave one of the divers stops you. You don't recognise him, you don't recognise anyone around here as most of them were wearing diving helmets, but his face is all battered and bruised, he clearly participated in the fight.

"Wait, why leave so soon? The rest of us are going to use the Auto-Docs once all of the wounded people are stable and out of danger. We might look fine but who knows, we might be wrecked on the inside. You should stay and do a checkup, heal yourself and then party with us."

"Are you really going to do a party? You are not going to receive the reward that the shipborn were offering." You say, feeling bad about him.

"Perhaps, but there's more to life than money and privileges. We saved thousands of lives. We will never be recognised but it's all fine and dandy. We will get rewarded in this life or the next one." He says, doing that weird hand gesture that the divers do.

Honestly you should stay here for a while, get some rest, eat some food and get checked in the Auto-Doc, your body feels terrible.

"What's that strange gesture?" You ask, curious and wanting to do some chitchat and some idle time.

"This?" He says, repeating the gesture. He looks downward as he raises his two hands towards the sky and places them one next to the other, pinkie and index fingers fully stretched and the rest tightly clenched. "This is the Trident gesture, an old symbol for those that believe in the Fiddler's Green. You are pretty new around here aren't you?"

You reply with a squat nod and a quick shrug and the diver chuckles.
>>
>>4561366

"It's an afterlife for sailors and divers like us. Other faiths believe in a paradise in the sky or eternal reincarnation. We simply go to a jolly place were food is plenty, beer is never warm or stale and there's music everywhere you go. It's simple, but I couldn't think of a better afterlife. The trident is also an old maritime symbol as well, we believe that if you are a heroic and a good person you will be granted a trident shaped key that will let you access the Fiddler's Green. If you aren't good enough, no key for you, you will be barred from entering and forced to roam the wastes as a spirit forever."

"Kind of grim isn't it?"

"Nah, makes us strive to be good and make the world a better place. Since the nukes the world has been kind of fucked. There's plenty of evil everywhere, no need to add more to the pile. You look like shit, you must have been in the fight right? I think that makes you worthy of the key already, just don't stray of the good path and everything will be alright."

You smile at him and he returns the kind gesture. Afterwards you decide to stay in the guild, Harris has left the place and went up to the ships to reclaim his citizenship, so there is no danger and you don't feel uncomfortable at all.

Food and drink is passed around, the wounded are tended, and one by one everybody gets its chance in the Auto-Doc. As the time passes the divers get more and more drunk, and soon enough sloppy makeouts and even whole fucking sessions erupt in several parts of the building. You cannot blame them, they have barely survived a massacre, they must feel absolutely alive and ecstatic. You indulge in the food and drink, but you pass the chance of getting your crotch wet. You are simply not in the mood, Nanna's death has affected you too much to get horny in a moment like this.
>>
>>4561370

When your turn to use the Auto-Doc finally comes you strip down and enter in the sarcophagus like machine. Once the doors close a warm orange lights starts emitting from the base and proceeds to bathe you completely. A small screen installed inside then proceeds to show how damaged you really are:

Radiation: 27%
Pollutants in blood: 13%
Pollutants in lungs: 41%
Several anomalous bio-organisms detected.

INITIATING CLEANING PROCESS...


Pollutants? Anomalous bio-organisms? What's all that about? Then it hits you, Nanna mentioned that these kind of underwater vessels were full of stale air filled with strange bacteria, mutant spores and all kinds of nasty stuff. Were all the things that you saw in the ship mere hallucinations caused by the pollution? You will never know, but it will keep you awake for the days. You would have died without Nanna's guidance. Hopefully she is in the Fiddler's Green along with Kalili, if anyone deserves it then its them.

The machine proceeds to inject you with several serums, cover you with healing creams and sew your wounds. By the time its done you feel almost as good as new. Some of your wounds will take still some time to fully heal and close, but at least you are completely purged of radiation and pollutants.

It hard to say how many minutes the procedure took, by the time you get out the party has turned absolutely wild, a full on alcohol and chem fuelled orgy. You would love to join, but you simply don't have the energy for it.

In silence you leave the building and breathe the airs of Fallen Horizon. Damn it feels good to be out of that underwater tomb. It's pretty late, the sky is clear and full of stars and a bright full moon. You don't have a clock around but it has to be past midnight, most of the rooms and bars are closed and there aren't almost any people on the streets. Perhaps the newspaper article will have to wait until tomorrow.

> Go to your room above the bookstore and sleep. Wait until morning to talk with Mr. Aikue and write the article.
> Go to your room above the bookstore and write the article. Pull an all nighter and write as much as you can. The truth cannot wait any longer.
> Go to Mr. Aikue's room in the bookstore, wake him up and explain everything that happened. Ask him what kind of article should you write.
> The article can wait, go to see Daphne and her family. Explain everything and tell them about the money, get on starting their business as soon as possible.
> The article can wait, go to see Daphne and her family. Keep them in the dark and simply say that you have made the money that they need to start their business.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4561372
>> The article can wait, go to see Daphne and her family. Explain everything and tell them about the money, get on starting their business as soon as possible.
Get them the hell out of dodge, this place is going to shit soon.
>>
>>4561372
>> The article can wait, go to see Daphne and her family. Explain everything and tell them about the money, get on starting their business as soon as possible.
>>
Alright, it's getting pretty late so this will be the last update before I go to sleep. Next update will be in around 9 hours, perhaps more.

I really liked this underwater quest! It's been a real first taste of how cruel the wasteland can be. Diego has lived a sheltered life so far, he has grown up in the heart of the NCR and this has been his very first time in a really wild and dangerous environment.

So far I have been pretty benevolent with you all. The Rustbucket was a tutorial, Fallen Horizon is a pretty shady town, but its overall safe, and so are the rest of the settlements and cities, but the wilds, the wilds will be brutal.

>Anyway, If you have any question about the quest, the lore or whatever you wanna ask feel free to do it and I'll reply as soon as I wake up!
> Thanks for playing!
>>
>>4561429
It was pretty alright. Though I think you opened the eldritch box a bit too early and now future paranormal encounters may not feel as threatening. But we'll see.
>>
>>4561372
> Go to Mr. Aikue's room in the bookstore, wake him up and explain everything that happened. Ask him what kind of article should you write.

>>4561429
Great quest, really enjoyed it. Too bad about our ghoulette waifu though.
>>
> The article can wait, go to see Daphne and her family. Explain everything and tell them about the money, get on starting their business as soon as possible
BUT grab our typewriter and paper first so we can type that sucker up while we are there. Maybe get Daphne to illustrate some pictures for the article of the coralwalker etc.
Quest is Kino m8.
>>
>>4561562
+1
>>
>>4561372
> The article can wait, go to see Daphne and her family. Explain everything and tell them about the money, get on starting their business as soon as possible.

Slowly you walk towards the Cove of Mysteries, the great bookstore-publisher that has now become a newspaper as well. The building is in the outskirts, to it takes you a little while to finally reach it, but its fine, you are not in a hurry so you walk at a calm pace, enjoying the views as you pass by the different neighbourhoods.

After finally reaching the place you ascend the side stairs towards the third floor and enter in your bedroom. It's a really small room, but it's yours, a place where you can truly feel safe. The bed is neatly made, your possessions are stored under the mattress, your desk full of notes, pens and an assortment of junk is still looking messy, and of course your beloved Carlisle typewriter is still resting on it, it's rich smelling ink still coating its mechanisms and hammers.

You would love to lie on bed and rest, god knows that some sleep would do wonders to you, but you cannot, you need to attend to some matters first. With a grunt you grab some sheets of paper, a couple of bottles of ink and you heavy typewriters and put everything in your already packing bag. Slowly you leave the room and hear several snoring voices in the nearby rooms, it seems that Mr. Aikue has decided to shelter several of the orphans in there as well.

The steps creak heavily as you descend them, your weight straining the old and half rotten wood. As you are about to leave you find a small gazette on the floor, it's the first issue of the "Unsinkable Truth", before leaving you give it a quick look and see that it's really weak and poor, a very far cry of the newspapers you worked for. The pages are of poor quality, the articles are mostly uninteresting, based on rumours and written with typos and strange wording, and the illustrations and photographs that weren't made by Daphne are equally as bad. Had you been here to proof read and correct this gazette would have been much, much better. The kids still had much to learn, and some even showed talent, but it is clear that without you the newspaper will never truly light off and become something that people will want to read, something profitable.

With a promise to repay them in full, and a promise to do better you throw the gazette away and walk towards Ethel and John's house. The heavy typewriter and all of the gear that you are carrying with you slows you down to an almost snail crawl, its ever hard to walk with a brisk pace. As you walked you got lost several times, forcing you to retreat your steps. Why were you so disorientated, did you forget the layout of the city during your three days in the submarine? Or were you too tired and stressed to properly navigate your surroundings? Whatever the reason is, you ultimately end reaching your destination, but not before the dawning sun starts to appear in the horizon.
>>
>>4561892

You sigh weakly and proceed to ring on the bell. How will Daphne take your sudden return?

Weakly you ring on the doorbell and after a while Ethel finally opens the door, the moment she sees you she gasps, and her eyes start to water. Honestly, you cannot blame her, you must look like shit.

"Diego, what happened, where have you been these days? We believed that you were dead, with all of the suicides and such."

"Yeah... I'm sorry, I couldn't contact any of you, I was working on something, I ended the suicides."

"What...what are you talking about?" She says, as she steps back and lets you enter inside.

John and Daphne join soon after, both equally as shocked to see you. Daphne cannot hold her emotions, and starts crying.

Everybody walks towards the kitchen, where freshly brewed coffee and warm toasted buns are served around.

"Alright... first of all, I'm sorry for being missing for three entire days, but there's a good reason behind it. Let me explain..."
>>
>>4561893

You tell them everything, and spare no details. You tell them about Harris, the diver's guild, the chinese submarine, every single thing... well, you omit the hot and steamy night with Nanna, but its fine, it's not important.

When you are done you show them the caps, and tell them that you want to use them to fully repair Daphne's boat, fill it with fuel and use it to kickstart John's sailing company. And finally, you tell them how you plan to write a journalistic report that will reveal the entire truth to the citizens of Fallen Horizon, because they deserve it. There's a brief silence at first, you were expecting to see them disagree with you but to your surprise they agree. You need to bring the truth to the people, no matter what.

"Alright, its settled then, the money will go to the boat, it will help us earn our own money." John, the ex-pirate, starts to say with a slap on his knee. "But I don't like accepting money from friends like you, so I will consider it a lend, I'll repay you with interest, think of this money as an investment. Now, do you want me to spend the money as I see fit or do you wanna come with me and help me choose?"

"Perhaps you should simply let my dad decide how to manage the money." Daphne adds. "He's the expert sailor after all. I think that you should come to the publisher with me, explain everything to Mr. Aikue and help us write a good newspaper. Since you were missing our first number was pretty... shitty. And it didn't sell really well."

"Well, since everybody it's telling their opinion here are my two pennies. Diego, you need to rest. You might have been in an Auto-Doc but those things only patch you up. You need some real rest, you need to sleep and let you body and nogging recover."

"Yeah..." You say, scratching your aching and tired neck.

> Go with John and help him spend the money in upgrades for the ship. Decide what kind of upgrades should you focus on. Let Daphne explain the situation to Mr. Aikue on her own.
> Go with Daphne, speak personally to Mr. Aikue and explain everything. Help the newspaper return to the good path and become a respectable and interesting read.
> Rest, sleep, help you body get better. You have been awake for almost three entire days now.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4561894
> Rest, sleep, help you body get better. You have been awake for almost three entire days now.
then
> Go with Daphne, speak personally to Mr. Aikue and explain everything. Help the newspaper return to the good path and become a respectable and interesting read.
>>
>>4561894
>> Go with John and help him spend the money in upgrades for the ship. Decide what kind of upgrades should you focus on. Let Daphne explain the situation to Mr. Aikue on her own.
>>
>>4561894
>> Go with Daphne, speak personally to Mr. Aikue and explain everything. Help the newspaper return to the good path and become a respectable and interesting read.
>>
>>4561918
+1
>>
Alright, I just came back from work. Writing now.
>>
>>4561894
> Rest, sleep, help you body get better. You have been awake for almost three entire days now.
> Go with Daphne, speak personally to Mr. Aikue and explain everything. Help the newspaper return to the good path and become a respectable and interesting read.

"If you don't mind, I'm going to sleep for a while..." You start to say, stretching and feeling all cramped and tired. "It's been a really long time since I last slept well. Can I use your couch?"

"No, of course not!" Ethel intervenes. "You are going to sleep in our guestroom!"

"In my room you mean." Daphne adds, kind of annoyed, seemingly not wanting for you to be around, she seems kind of angry by your acts and how cold and distant you have been with her as of late.

"Yeah, you got a problem with that?" Her dad adds.

Daphne looks down, shakes her head, and with a disgruntled face leaves to work. Perhaps, if you talk to her your relationship can reignite. But perhaps, and only perhaps you two should simply part away as little more than friends and workmates.

You enter inside of her room and see that she has filled it with pre-war books about photography and illustration, books about museums that were probably nuked in the war, the history of art and different artistic movements across the years... The room is also decorated with old plushies and pictures of a teenager Daphne, pictures of when she was a lanky girl with almost no breasts, a face full of full of pimples and and a mouth covered in braces, god she looked like an absolute dork.

With a smile you remove your trenchcoat, leave your heavy gear on the floor and rest on the bed, falling instantly asleep.
>>
>>4562445

You sleep soundly for a pretty long time, and wake up well rested and refreshed. Apparently Ethel entered at some point in the room, as a pretty nice batch of freshly made cookies, a big cup of still warm cocoa and a couple of sandwiches wait for you next to the bed. As soon as you see the food your stomach growls and you quickly eat it all without even stopping to appreciate the flavors, albeit you are sure that they are delicious. It is true that it had been long since your last meal, food and drink were passed around during the diver's party, but you are a pretty big guy that needs lots of food, and some beers and quick snacks are no substitute for a hearty meal.

Now that you are properly rested and fed you stand up feeling energetic and cheerful. It is slowly dawning on you that you have indeed survived what you survived. You are still taking some time to process and accept it.

You pack your things and leave the room and find the old couple slowly dancing a waltz to some pre-war song.

"Daphne has left for work." John says, without stopping his dance. "And she seemed irked with you. I've been married for most part of my life, so listen to my advice son. Talk with her, don't leave her out of your thoughts and worries, even if you think that they will be painful."

"Honestly is a reward on itself, even if the truth is bitter, it will always be better than a lie." Ethel adds.

"We know our daughter, we taught her that lies and dishonesty are poison for the soul. We could have moved somewhere else, falsify and lie about my past as a pirate, but that wouldn't have been a good solution. Running from your past is something that we don't believe in. And Daphne proved it, she tried to run from her past, and now she regrets it dearly. I don't know what kind of things you are involved in, but I know that you are a good person, I don't know if there is a disagreement between my daughter and you, but everything can be solved."

You simply nod at them and leave.
>>
>>4562447

Honestly your relationship with her was far better when you two lived alone. There was plenty of sex, plenty of booze, plenty of laughs. But now that she moved with her parents there was no privacy, and all the jolly times and hardcore debauchery had to end. Did you really love her, or did you simply enjoy your time with her?

Grumbling under your breath you walk back into the bookstore. Why did you carry your heavy as hell typewriter? Only to bring it back all the way to the starting point? God you can sometimes be an absolute moron. Did you really believe that you could have written something good while absolutely sleepless and exhausted, your pages would have been way worse than the worst of the articles that the orphans wrote. Writing while tired is only good to create a messy bundle of words full of typos and so hard to read that nobody will be ever able to enjoy it.

When you reach the place you see several people in the shop area, they are buying books, comics, but almost no newspapers. You ascend the stairs and go straight to Mr. Aikue's office/bedroom. You knock on the door and he speaks from the other side, asking you to enter. As you get in you see that the place is as messy as always, but he seems happy to live there, and happy to see you.

"Come in come in! Welcome!" He says, grabbing some Fancy Lad Snake Cakes and inviting you to grab one.

"You seem happy to see me." You say, kind of confused, you were expecting him to be mad at your sudden disappearance just when the first issue of the newspaper was about to be printed, just when you were needed most.

"Well, I was at first. Then the suicides came and my anger turned into worry. Then you were missing for days and my worry became sadness. But now you are back! And Daphne has told me that you solved it!"

With a respectful nod you grab one of the cakes and sit on a chair, opposite of him.

"She did?" You ask.

"Oh yes, she came to my office in the morning, and said that you reappeared, that you stopped the suicide spree and that you needed to rest. She didn't explain much more, she told me that you would come by later, and here you are!"

"Is she still here?"

"Well, yes. But it's almost closing time, she won't be here for long."

"Alright, whatever. First of all I owe you an explanation."
>>
>>4562449

You then proceed to explain everything that happened, how you were lured into participating in the expedition, how the shipborn knew of the nuclear waste that littered the waters under them... every single thing.

Aikue gets hooked on your words and absorbs them as if they were the most delicious of meals. He's a wordsmith, a natural born storyteller, a person that needs stories as much as it needs to breathe, and your living experiences are absolutely what he longed for.

"My god..." He whispers as you end your tale. "Look, I... I quite understand why do you want to tell everything, but something like this could end in a great bloodshed. There are a lot of tensions between the shipborn and the belowdeckers, and tipping the scale in such a manner could lead into a full on civil war."

"Do you suggest something else then?"

"Well, ignorance is bliss... and people here enjoy being blissful. We don't have enough reach to write about stories that happen outside of the city, we are of course absolutely barred from entering in the ships, and writing about the misfortune of the locals won't help anyone. And even if things were different... they wouldn't be better, if we somehow had reporters outside their news of the lands beyond the city would only make the locals more xenophobic, and if we could safely navigate and investigate around the ships we would only make the belowdeckers madder at the shipborn....Perhaps this newspaper business will never take off, perhaps it was a beautiful dream, but one that won't work. I think I could modify the printers to make more books instead, books are fine, they sell well, people here want escapism, not to be reminder of how miserable their lives are. I think you should tell your story yes, but do it as a novel, and who knows, perhaps that way Harris won't be angry at you."
>>
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>>4562451

You scoff at the idea and angrily start chewing on the cake that he offered you.

"I... I don't know."

"Well, you might have doubts, but I don't. The printers will be modified tomorrow morning, it is settled. The orphans will be taught how to be storytellers or how to work the printers."

And with that said he dismissed you, asking you to leave with a mere look. You finish the snack and head outside of his office. The printers haven't been modified yet, so you could perhaps write the article and print it during the night, perhaps you could simply ignore the whole ordeal and turn it into a small paperback novel, or you could go and talk with Daphne before she goes back home.

> Write the article before the printers are modified. Then use the orphans to distribute the article everywhere in town.
> Go to your room and slowly work on turning your life experiences into a novel. It won't be the whole truth, it won't shake the foundations of the people to the ground, but it will avoid social disruption and the unnecessary shedding of blood, and it might even end being profitable for you.
> Go and talk with Daphne. You two need to have a long conversation about your relationship, and if it is worthy to keep it up.
> There are still a few hours until night time. The shops must still be open and John didn't end taking the whole five thousand caps, so you still have a couple hundred to spend as you see fit. Go shopping for a while, see if you can sell, buy or mod some of your gear.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4562454
>> Write the article before the printers are modified. Then use the orphans to distribute the article everywhere in town.
DO IT
>>
>>4562445
>"You are going to sleep in our guestroom!"
>"In my room you mean."
Wasn't it explicitly said that they had a guestroom that wasn't also Daphne's room?
>>4562449
>Why did you carry your heavy as hell typewriter? Only to bring it back all the way to the starting point?
yeah why? Two people just added that after it was agreed that we wouldn't write before we got Mr. Aikue's input
>>
>>4562454
> Write the article before the printers are modified. Then use the orphans to distribute the article everywhere in town.

Damn the torpedos!
>>
>>4562454
>> Go and talk with Daphne. You two need to have a long conversation about your relationship, and if it is worthy to keep it up.
>>
>>4562454
>> Write the article before the printers are modified. Then use the orphans to distribute the article everywhere in town.
Fuck it. But we have to take Daphne and get the hell out of dodge immediately afterwards before this town turns into a war zone.
>>
>>4562676
+1
>>
Write a full expose on the sub, then go find our woman, we need to talk to her, plus ya know illustrations for the paper.
>>
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>>"You are going to sleep in our guestroom!"
>>"In my room you mean."
>Wasn't it explicitly said that they had a guestroom that wasn't also Daphne's room?
Yes! You are right! for some reason I thought that they only had a spare room, that the old couple had turned Daphne's room into their guest bedroom.

I should start taking notes of what I write...

>>Why did you carry your heavy as hell typewriter? Only to bring it back all the way to the starting point?
>yeah why? Two people just added that after it was agreed that we wouldn't write before we got Mr. Aikue's input
Because I'm borderline retarded and I don't think before writing. That's why.
>>
>>4562845
>Because I'm borderline retarded and I don't think before writing. That's why.

Don't worry, it makes sense IC since Diego is a sleep deprived nervous wreck
>>
Alright, just came from work. Gonna get into posting soon.

Writing the article before the printers get modified is the winning option.
>>
>>4562454
> Write the article before the printers are modified. Then use the orphans to distribute the article everywhere in town.

In silence you ascend the stairs and go back to your small room. There are some orphans scattered around the stairs and corridors, reading comics or books, playing card or dice games, painting the floors and walls with chalk or simply chatting. After their day is over most of them head into the streets the loiter and run wild, but it seems that as of late more and more are starting to prefer spending their free time inside the common areas of the bookstore. They are slowly becoming... more adult in a sense, more civilised, less wild.

After reaching your room you get in, unpack your stuff and get to work. Despite not having written a real journalistic article in months your skills didn't get rusty, in fact your experiences with the submarine and the events that developed are so fresh that the words and paragraphs simply come out of you as if you were possessed by some unseen force.

In little more than an hour you end your magnum opus, a four page article detailing everything that happened below their feet. After finishing you look at yourself in the mirror and see your frown completely covered in shiny sweat drops, your pits absolutely swamped. You have literally poured blood and sweat into this.
>>
>>4563277

With the freshly printed pages in hand you leave the room and find several of the orphans still hanging around.

"Hey kid, how much for you to make a thousand copies of this and delivering it all across the city." You say to one of the oldest orphans, a twelve year old girl that was smoking a fat and smelly cigar.

She raises one eyebrow and grabs your pages, reading them and shifting from perplexed to afraid, and finally angry.

"We know every nook and cranny in this floating dumpster. We can also draw something good to make this article less tiresome to read, most of our readers need a drawing every couple of pages to stay interested. Pay us enough and we will even deliver to the big ships." She replies, with a surprisingly deep and raspy voice.

"How much?"

"Uhh I don't know? 200 caps?"

You have that money with you, but paying full price would leave you almost capless. Perhaps you can negotiate a better deal.

> Just have them print the article and deliver it in the streets and neighbourhoods around the bookstore. Pay only 20 caps. Word of mouth should do the rest.
> Just have them print the article and deliver it around the entire shanty town. It should reach every corner of the city except the three big ships. Pay 50 caps.
> Have them print the article and add drawings of the submarine, the divers, the coralwalkers and such. Make the article flashy and more attractive. Have them deliver in the streets and neighbourhoods around the bookstore. Pay 75 caps.
> Have them print the article and add drawings of the submarine, the divers, the coralwalkers and such. Have the article be delivered around the entire shanty town. It should reach every corner of the city except the three big ships. Pay 100 caps.
> Have them print the article and add drawings of the submarine, the divers, the coralwalkers and such. Have the article be delivered around the entire shanty town. It should reach every corner of the city INCLUDING the three big ships. Pay 200 caps.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4563278
>> Have them print the article and add drawings of the submarine, the divers, the coralwalkers and such. Have the article be delivered around the entire shanty town. It should reach every corner of the city INCLUDING the three big ships. Pay 200 caps.
We took a perk to make that money back ez
How many caps do we have btw?.
>>
>>4563278
>Have them print the article and add drawings of the submarine, the divers, the coralwalkers and such. Have the article be delivered around the entire shanty town. It should reach every corner of the city except the three big ships. Pay 100 caps.
The word of mouth that reaches the ships will likely be worse anyway.
>>
>>4563295
>We took a perk to make that money back ez
You are right! I love when you guys remember this stuff. This is the perk:

Caps Rule Everything Around Me:
You've got a head for business that lets you walk away with the better end of a deal. You gain a +1 bonus on all Barter (CHA) Tests. Once per in-game day, you may buy or barter one item at 50% of its value. You may instead sell or barter one item you own for 200% of its value, if the buyer has the Caps.

So we could get the 200 caps deal for only 100

>How many caps do we have btw?
We only had 77 caps. After the submarine quest we ended with 5077 caps. We decided to invest most of that money in John's shipping enterprise, and he took 4800 caps out of it, allowing us to keep 200.

So right now we have 277 caps!
>>
>>4563307
Hey, can I get a quick meta micromanagement bit with you so we don't have to spend several updates running around town entering shops and waiting for votes and I can spend our perk at the right time?

If we go up to the ships, find a shop, sell our leather armor, chinese assault rifle and chainsaw and barter a bit, how much we can get? And how much does it cost a Sons of Kanaloa costume from the Jolly Outfitter at our size?
>>
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Rolled 45 + 250 (1d100 + 250)

>>4563318
>Hey, can I get a quick meta micromanagement bit with you so we don't have to spend several updates running around town entering shops and waiting for votes and I can spend our perk at the right time?
Yeah, we can do that, otherwise a single shopping trip could take real days to do, and I would have to write countless of paragraphs about the different shops and whatnot. And it would get boring real fast.

>If we go up to the ships, find a shop, sell our leather armor, chinese assault rifle and chainsaw and barter a bit, how much we can get?

Let me see.
- Leather Armor: 160
- Assault Rifle: 100 caps.
- Chainsaw: 125 caps.

That's the base value in this town, it might vary depending on where you are and what's your reputation.

For each 2 points in barter things become 1% cheaper to buy and more expensive to sell. In case of having an odd number it gets rounded down. Since our Barter is 47 then we get a 23% discount in everything we buy and 23% bonus in everything we sell.

The formula to calculate something would be Base Value+(Base value * (Percentage/100)). In case of the leather armor it would be 160+(160*0.23). And that gives us 196.8 caps. We round it up to 197 caps. Here are the real prices.

The armor would sell for 197 caps, the Rifle for 123 caps and the Chainsaw for 154. If we sold all of them we could get 474 caps. If we use the perk for the sale we would get x2 times as much, and earn up to 948 caps.

It would be WAY WAY MORE PROFITABLE to pay the 200 caps now and use the perk to sell the gear that we dont need.

> And how much does it cost a Sons of Kanaloa costume from the Jolly Outfitter at our size?

Costumes aren't cheap, they allow you to enter inside restricted areas unimpeded and also act as armor to some degree.

I will roll 1d100+250 to calculate the price.

>And I want you guys to roll 1d50, best of 3.

This last roll will be to calculate how much it would cost to adapt the costume to our size, so the lower you roll the cheaper it will be. The cheaper it can get is 102 caps, the most expensive it can get is 525 caps.
>>
Rolled 21 (1d50)

>>4563345
>>
Rolled 47 (1d50)

>>4563345
Alright that's pretty okay, we can work with this. I hope other voters agree to spend the caps that way. Judging by what others said we are probably running away from here so the SoK are the next best thing. And I want their tech.
>>
>>4563359
>Rolled 47
Ah, just my luck.
>>
>>4563359
>>4563353
It seems like there are no more active players so feel free to roll again.
>>
Rolled 28 (1d50)

>>4563278
>> Have them print the article and add drawings of the submarine, the divers, the coralwalkers and such. Have the article be delivered around the entire shanty town. It should reach every corner of the city INCLUDING the three big ships. Pay 200 caps.
>>
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>>4563353
>>4563359
>>4563381
Alright, since in this particular case we were aiming for a low roll the best result is 21.

I rolled a 45.

Here's the formula:

(45+250)+(45+250)*(21/100) = 356.95

We round it up and get 357 caps. The Son of Kanaloa costume would cost us 357 caps.

If we pay the 200 caps we would end with 77 caps. If we then sell the leather armor, assault rifle, and chainsaw using the perk we would earn 948 caps, leaving us with a total of 1025 caps. If we then proceed to buy the Son of Kanaloa armor we would end with a total of 668 caps.

Not bad.

> Since we have money to spare you guys wanna buy something else as well?
>>
>>4563388
Some kind of gift to Daphne as an apology
>>
>>4563388
> Since we have money to spare you guys wanna buy something else as well?
Well, bobby pins or a lockpick set would be nice. And a plasma rifle if possible, since we main energy weapons. That's all that comes to mind right now.
>>
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Sorry guys but I'll end it for today. I really, really wanted to write another update before going to bed but I'm simply too tired and I don't wanna burnout myself.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to write before going to work, if not then the next update will be in about... 22 hours, maybe more.

> You can ask questions about the quest, its lore and other details and I will gladly answer them all as soon as I wake up
> I am also open to constructive criticism and suggestions or ideas

Thanks for playing!
>>
>>4563399
This
>>
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Post already QM. I need my Fallout fix
>>
>>4564167
Just wait 3 more hours maybe more
>>
>>4564208
No
>>
>>4564167
Patience. Op has to work too.
>>
Alright, I'm back from work. Gonna get into writing soon. Thanks for your patience, you guys are awesome.
>>
>>4563278
> Have them print the article and add drawings of the submarine, the divers, the coralwalkers and such. Have the article be delivered around the entire shanty town. It should reach every corner of the city INCLUDING the three big ships. Pay 200 caps.
> Sell your Leather Armor, Assault Rifle, Chainsaw and use your charisma to get a good deal out of it. Use the profits to buy a Son of Kanaloa costume and a nice gift for Daphne.

You grab a pillowcase from your room, return to the corridor and start filling with caps. You let the skinny urchin girl see the falling coins and her eyes suddenly widen and her smile gets increasingly bigger as the shiny caps start to fall onto the case. The clinking sound of the metal quickly attract a small group of urchins as well.

"Here's a hundred caps for printing a thousand copies of these pages." You tell them. "Read them and read them good, because every word is as true as it gets. Draw the monsters I speak about, and share the copies every-fucking-where. I want them even in the three ships."

"But mistah, the three ships are outta bounds, Aikue says so." A grubby kids says.

"Did I stutter?" You reply, looking at him straight in the eyes.

The kid scurries behind some of his friends and you continue speaking. It's obvious that your sheer size intimidates them, perhaps that's why none of them installed in your room, whereas in the other several kids lived at once.

"A hundred more caps for completing the job. It has to be done quickly, the printers will be modified tomorrow."

With that said you close your continue pouring caps inside of the pillowcase until a hundred are in there and throw it all onto the floor, and the cigar girl quickly grabs it.

"It will be done." She adds, as she grabs the pages as well.

Soon enough she proceeds to call the rest of the kids and the few ones that are away are quickly summoned and called upon. She seems like one of the oldest orphans around, and the rest obey her.
>>
>>4564568

In the meanwhile you return to your room. Aikue left a couple bags of rice, water and cheap food in one corner, its your residuals for the book that you wrote, it's selling well, but not well enough to truly be rewarded with caps. You had just earned five thousand caps and invested pretty much all of them, the riches didn't last more than a few hours in your wallet. Thanks to the food you won't be going hungry anytime soon, but you still need to get some caps and spare money, for emergencies or other unforeseen expenses. You look at your possessions and what kind of items you can get rid off and sell for some quick money.

The chainsaw and the assault rifle that you had gotten in the submarine were good weapons, but they are pretty unwieldy and impossible to conceal. Nobody will ever want to get an interview with a journalist that carries a massive chainsaw on its back. You also decide to get rid of your old leather armor, it was gifted to you by Saltgut after he fished you out of the sea, and while you have some fondness for it the thing has surpassed its usefulness, your Trench Coat is your usual garb now, and something that you feel more comfortable with.

With the three things packed and stored on your back you leave towards the markets. It's kind of late but the markets will continue opened for a few more hours, and a few pawn shops and general stores will even be opened all night long.

You shuffle across the streets and vendor stalls, pass by shops of all kinds, selling items of all types, and finally find a nice armor and weapon shop that might be interested in your gear and seems to have the caps to buy them. The shop is made from shipping containers, the walls are completely lined with weapons, ammo, explosives of several types, and the mounted heads and limbs of several creatures. Calmly you walk towards the counter and a nice grizzled psyker with ambarine glowing eyes greets you.

The two of you barter and negotiate, discuss and argue, and after a couple of hours you finally manage to reach a pretty good deal, an excellent deal you would even say. You sell your three items and leave the shops with more than a thousand caps in your bag and a smile on your face.
>>
>>4564571

As you leave you suddenly notice several kids running across the tin rooftops, using the swaying rope bridges that connect several of the buildings and gleefully raining copies of your article everywhere that they go. They seem to consider this a game, and at no point they touch the streets and piers below, using whatever method available and even jumping between houses to continue with their daring task. Several of the pedestrians cannot avoid noticing that what their are throwing are in fact your article, several of them simply ignore it, the first number of the Unsinkable Truth was so weak and pitiful that most of the people have started to seen the newspaper as something not worth of their time, but the few ones that do read it are absolutely shocked and appalled, and soon proceed to speak about your words with the nearby people, spreading the news like a disease across the streets.

You didn't sign the article, it is supposedly Anonymous. You are sure that Harris, Aikue, Daphne and her parents will know that you wrote it, and that soon enough the high brass of the ships will get wind of it as well, but you don't care. With a confident smile on your lips you head back into the market and buy yourself a Son of Kanaloa guard costume. The thing looks almost exactly like their armor, or at least the vendor assures so, the steel and metals of the armor are pretty weak, and the cloth is rough and crude, but they should be able to fool most people, and after dropping such a truth bomb having a costume that will let you walk unnoticed will always come in handy.

After buying the costume and getting it tailored to your unusual dimensions you head back into the markets to buy Daphne something nice. As you walk you see more and more people reading your pages, speaking about them, some are even fuming about the shipborn. You have planted a seed, will it become a seed of justice and truth or discord and bloodshed. It's still to soon and hard to say.

You still have around seven hundred caps in your bag. What kind of present will you buy for Daphne?

> Sex toys and some kinky costumes, along with a night in a nice motel. Your relationship was excellent when you two had privacy and could fuck like dogs in heat. Ever since her parents appeared your relationship strained and turned cold. Perhaps you two are too pent up and simply need a crazy night to release some steam.
> Something that she will truly enjoy. A set of tattooing tools along with some ink, some canvases and oil paints, a new set of brushes. Things like that.
> A nice dress and some flowers. Classics always work.
> A ring. Propose to hell. Why not?
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4564572
>> Something that she will truly enjoy. A set of tattooing tools along with some ink, some canvases and oil paints, a new set of brushes. Things like that.
>>
>>4564572
>> Sex toys and some kinky costumes, along with a night in a nice motel. Your relationship was excellent when you two had privacy and could fuck like dogs in heat. Ever since her parents appeared your relationship strained and turned cold. Perhaps you two are too pent up and simply need a crazy night to release some steam.
>>
>>4564572
>> Sex toys and some kinky costumes, along with a night in a nice motel. Your relationship was excellent when you two had privacy and could fuck like dogs in heat. Ever since her parents appeared your relationship strained and turned cold. Perhaps you two are too pent up and simply need a crazy night to release some steam.
>> Something that she will truly enjoy. A set of tattooing tools along with some ink, some canvases and oil paints, a new set of brushes. Things like that.
>>
>>4564572
>> A nice dress and some flowers. Classics always work.
>>
>>4564572
> Something that she will truly enjoy. A set of tattooing tools along with some ink, some canvases and oil paints, a new set of brushes. Things like that.

love motel is still an option after.
>>
>>4564572
Get everything except the ring. We have enough right?
>>
>4564572
> Sex toys and some kinky costumes, along with a night in a nice motel. Your relationship was excellent when you two had privacy and could fuck like dogs in heat. Ever since her parents appeared your relationship strained and turned cold. Perhaps you two are too pent up and simply need a crazy night to release some steam.
> Something that she will truly enjoy. A set of tattooing tools along with some ink, some canvases and oil paints, a new set of brushes. Things like that.

You get shopping and after some searching end finding a nice hidden sex shop behind a flower store. The shop is small, and clearly hidden to avoid vandalism from the more puritan townspeople, but it also seems to be pretty popular among some folk, as despite its small dimensions its pretty crowded.

As you enter you see that some of the walls are lined with sex holomovies. There are great films like Great Balls for Hire, Good Will Humping, Vault Sexteen, Pokeahotass, Pullout: Post-Nuclear Boogalo, Tokyo Decadence... another parts of the shop are full of old pre-war porn mags, sex toys of all kinds and kinky costumes. There's pretty much stuff of all tastes and "sizes".

Most of the people around seem to be flustered and embarrassed to a degree, and try to avoid eye contact with you or even get out of the way. You don't care much about being seen here to be honest, after all you don't know any of these people.

As you are looking at the price tag of a nice maid outfit a shady and greasy looking woman suddenly approaches you.

"Hey there stud." She says with a lewd and cooing sounding voice. Then, before you can turn around and look at her she suddenly puts her hand over your muscular arm, feeling it. "Nice body, and you seem to know what to look for, you aren't like these shy guys, you really know what a girl likes don't you honey?"
>>
>>4565013

You turn towards her and raise an eyebrow. She's a forty something woman, her face slightly caked in makeup, her body tightly fit inside of a leathery corset and then covered with some nice pre-war clothes.

"Please don't touch me." You simply reply, wishing her to go away.

"Awww c'mon, don't be such a prude. Look kid, if you want to make some good caps contact me here ok?"

She shoves a card inside of one of your pockets and then winks at you and blows a kiss before leaving. You look at the card and read the following. "Madam Fowlet's escort agency." followed by directions to reach the whorehouse where she works.

You roll your eyes and sigh before continuing to shop. After a short while you ultimately decide to buy the maid dress, some handcuffs, a small leather whip, a ball gag and a blindfold, and also some nice flowers to boot.

Afterwards you continue shopping and find some nice platinum inking gun that she can use to tattoo along with some special inks. She told you that tattooing is her dream, and she has talent for it, but it's hard to say if she will ever change her profession and become a tattoo artist. Her job as an illustrator pays well, and you are sure that her parents will not approve of her becoming a skin inker. Just in case you decide to add a couple of more presents to the lot, a couple of canvases, some oil paints and a few nice brushes.

It's getting late, most of the shops are closed already, and you expected to find some calm and empty streets, but as you are about to leave you suddenly see a commotion, people running everywhere, the sound of screams echoing across the streets. Several soldiers from the three ships are patrolling the streets, violently searching and destroying copies of your pages, throwing them into the radioactive waters or burning them with lighters. You look into the distance and suddenly see a smoke pillar. It's... in the direction of the bookstore.

Without hesitation you proceed to run as fast as you can. Everywhere you look the soldiers raid houses, shops and abuse of their power to find more copies of your writings. The guards are being too violent and thorough, people are getting beat, doors and windows get smashed, and furniture gets broken in the search for your seditious pages.
>>
>>4565014

After a while you finally reach the Cove of Mysteries, the bookstore and publisher that gave you a job, gave you a home, gave you a future. It's burning, fire filling its interior and tumor like smoke clouds and wildly spinning glowing embers coming out of the windows and cracks. Most of the people around are looking with frozen horror, despite being surrounded by water in almost every direction almost nothing can be done, as the water is highly radioactive and it cannot be safely extracted without a pump or some other method. Even if the waters could be safely extracted the people couldn't do anything about it, several highly armoured guards are posted around the burning building, creating a wall that stops anyone from entering, or leaving.

There are people trapped inside, slowly burning or jumping to their deaths into the radioactive seas below. Unable to do anything you join the witnesses, fear and regret overcoming you as the spine chilling screams of the children slowly burning inside ascends into the night sky.

Suddenly, one of the guards around the building recognises you.

"Hey, that's the one we are looking for!" He screams, as he grabs his combat rifle. It's clear that Harris has tipped the shipborn, and they have mobilised and retaliated. You are a wanted man now.

Before the guards can mobilise and attack you suddenly a ship horn blares across a nearby pier. You turn around and see Daphne's old boathouse, now completely repaired and in a seaworthy condition. They have even named the ship "Buenaventura" in your honor. From the deck Daphne appears, waving her arms and urging you to run towards them.

> Fight the guards that are around the burning bookstore. It's obvious that the citizens are scared, but perhaps if you rally them they might turn their fear into anger. It seems that all of the shipborn guards are in town now. If you manage to defeat them then the ships should be undefended. Perhaps it's time for a little Coup.
> Run across the guards and enter inside of the burning bookstore. This is all of your fault, you don't care if this ultimately leads to you getting wounded or captured, you need to rescue as many children and workers as you can.
> This city is doomed, it always was. Run towards the ship and leave. Ethel, John and Daphne will be there, perhaps its time to start anew.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4565015
>> This city is doomed, it always was. Run towards the ship and leave. Ethel, John and Daphne will be there, perhaps its time to start anew.
Fuck this place
>>
>>4565015
>This city is doomed, it always was. Run towards the ship and leave. Ethel, John and Daphne will be there, perhaps its time to start anew.
>>
>>4565015
> Fight the guards that are around the burning bookstore. It's obvious that the citizens are scared, but perhaps if you rally them they might turn their fear into anger. It seems that all of the shipborn guards are in town now. If you manage to defeat them then the ships should be undefended. Perhaps it's time for a little Coup.
>>
>>4565015
>> Fight the guards that are around the burning bookstore. It's obvious that the citizens are scared, but perhaps if you rally them they might turn their fear into anger. It seems that all of the shipborn guards are in town now. If you manage to defeat them then the ships should be undefended. Perhaps it's time for a little Coup.
>>
>>4565015
> Fight the guards that are around the burning bookstore. It's obvious that the citizens are scared, but perhaps if you rally them they might turn their fear into anger. It seems that all of the shipborn guards are in town now. If you manage to defeat them then the ships should be undefended. Perhaps it's time for a little Coup.
Might as well go all in now
>>
>>4565015
>This city is doomed, it always was. Run towards the ship and leave. Ethel, John and Daphne will be there, perhaps its time to start anew.
>>
>>4565015
Come on guys, do we really want to sit on a stupid boat with bitchy daphne and her parents? Or stage a coup, lead a revolution, and take over the ships for glory and loot?

(plus letting the orphans burn to death for nothing will cause havoc on our mental health)
>>
>>4565372
I'd take a treasure hunting and exploration boat any day over this shit.
>>
Fuck those children. Burn in hell.

We have adventures to live and bitches to fuck
>>
>>4565015
>> This city is doomed, it always was. Run towards the ship and leave. Ethel, John and Daphne will be there, perhaps its time to start anew.
>>
So instead of letting enclave wreck this place we are doing their job for them. neat-o. Stay and fight!
>>
>>4565015
>> Fight the guards that are around the burning bookstore. It's obvious that the citizens are scared, but perhaps if you rally them they might turn their fear into anger. It seems that all of the shipborn guards are in town now. If you manage to defeat them then the ships should be undefended. Perhaps it's time for a little Coup.
Don't be the asshole that causes problem and doesn't solve them.
>>
>>4565015
> This city is doomed, it always was. Run towards the ship and leave. Ethel, John and Daphne will be there, perhaps its time to start anew.
>>
Holy shit, just came back from work and there are so many replies!

You guys are fucking awesome!

I'm gonna get into writing soon.
>>
>>4565015
>> Fight the guards that are around the burning bookstore. It's obvious that the citizens are scared, but perhaps if you rally them they might turn their fear into anger. It seems that all of the shipborn guards are in town now. If you manage to defeat them then the ships should be undefended. Perhaps it's time for a little Coup
>>
>>4565015

> Fight:
>>4565116
>>4565154
>>4565191
>>4565434
>>4565527

Total: 5 votes

> Flight:
>>4565023
>>4565060
>>4565319
>>4565389
>>4565436

Total: 5 votes

There's a tie ladies and gentlemen. I'll leave another hour for voting. If the tie is not broken a dice roll will choose.
>>
>>4565542
I'll change my vote >>4565154 to
> This city is doomed, it always was. Run towards the ship and leave. Ethel, John and Daphne will be there, perhaps its time to start anew.
It could be lurkers but there's a chance someone on the fight vote is samefagging. And I also don't want this to be a coin toss.
At least I can feel validated with the fact that the whole journalist shtick was a huge waste of time. I wonder how the anons who stuck with it feel now, if they are still around.
>>
Alright, skipping town is the winning option. I would have preferred to stay and fight, but you guys have the power here. Writing now and then I'll head to sleep.
>>
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>>4565015
> This city is doomed, it always was. Run towards the ship and leave. Ethel, John and Daphne will be there, perhaps its time to start anew.

You are not a hero. You never were, and...looks like you will never be. Your journalistic endeavours and vitriol filled articles almost got you killed, and ultimately ended with you being expelled from your homeland. And now, you are repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

With a scream and tears forming on the corners of your eyes you leave the burning building behind and push away city guards and townspeople alike.

Oh god, the sound of theirs screams, of the fire, of their last breaths. It will haunt you for years to come.

This is all your fault. You never wanted this to happen. What do they say? The road to hell is paved with good intentions? Deep inside you were certain that your article would cause some uproar, but your hubris and your need to be considered a hero and a figure of importance ended causing untold damage.

Several of the local folk have taken to arms, they have had enough of the shipborn's abuse, and are now grabbing their guns and whatever is at hand to combat the heavily armed guards. This will be an absolute massacre, each guard will be easily able to kill at least a dozen citizens, but the people outnumber the guards in several magnitudes. Both sides will suffer heavy loses. Regardless of the outcome, nobody will really win this war.

As you run hundreds of bullets and energy bolts fly all around you, swords loudly clash with metal and flesh, shrieks and screams go up in the night sky. Everywhere more fires erupt, accidental fires that are caused when jury rigged generators get too damaged or fuel deposits get ignited. Tonight the city will burn, tonight the Reaper will feast.
>>
>>4565708

Thanks to the civil war around erupting all around nobody manages to focus on stopping you. After a short while you quickly reach the ship and as you are about to hop in you turn and look back. The Cove of Mysteries is a massive pyre now, fires burning absolutely high and creating a deathly glow that illuminates almost every part of the city. With a loud creak the building finally goes down, the many souls inside condemned to a premature death, if the debris doesn't kills them then the smoke, fire or radioactive waters will do. There's no salvation for them.

You truly hope that down below no living remains of the Coral survived. Because if the hivemind is alive, even if it is a really small chunk, then with all of the bodies that are falling down it would have more than enough to rebuild itself, grow big, and amass an army of coralwalkers that could easily finish any of the survivors above.

With a grunt you jump into the ship and once you are finally on board John quickly changes gears, puts the engine in reverse and gets the tugboat away from the burning city. A few ships around are doing the same, sailing away to save their belongings. On the decks of these fishing tugboats and mercantile schooners there are several survivors of the fires, people that were rescued before the fires reached them. They might have been saved and will live to tell the tale, but they have lost their homes, their friends, their families.

The people on these boats don't look at you, they only look at the ever burning city. As the fire grows the city shrinks, its wooden streets and buildings being ferociously devoured by the minute. Nobody thinks that you are guilty, this was a reckoning that couldn't be forever postponed, you were only the kickstarter. Would this have happened even if you weren't around? You like to think so.

"We need to talk." Daphne says, as the ship goes further into the dark waters, as if leaves the burning city in the horizon.

You look at her and see a face that you barely recognise. She looks terrible, her eyes are all red and her mascara ruined, it's obvious that she has been crying until recently. Her body also looks chubbier, fuller, you in fact doubt that the maid outfit that you got her would even fit, did she really grow fatter or is that perhaps your perception of her has changed. Do you now see her differently now that you aren't as in love as before?

You nod and stand up, your body feeling tired, cramped and bruised. You haven't escaped unscathed, during your escape you have been hit and burned, the fires and projectiles reached and graced you. It's a miracle that none of them ended reaching any vital part of your body.
>>
>>4565710

Grunting in pain you get inside of the ship. You know the layout pretty well, back in the day you lived here with Daphne. John is in the captain's cabin controlling the ship, Ethel is in the kitchen sobbing and crying. You two enter inside of her private room and she locks the door behind.

"I know this is your fault. This is all your FUCKING FAULT!" She says grabbing a copy of your article and shoving the pages onto your chest.

"My mother doesn't knows what happened yet. She doesn't knows about...this! I know that Aikue asked you to not write about your experiences and yet you went against his wishes and did it nonetheless. Hell... you went as far as sending children back to the big ships! Despite what happened before! Apparently less than half returned, these poor children will now be executed or something even worse...."

She starts to cry and slaps you straight in the face. It is painful, but her words are much more crippling and damaging.

"My mother won't know about your participation. Her poor heart wouldn't be able to endure it. I've talked with my father about it, and we don't want anything to do with you. We believe that the four of us will be better without you."

Daphne's family was conformed by John, Ethel, their robo-butler and Daphne herself, but you didn't see the robot around, they probably had to leave it behind.

"Four?" You ask.

"Yes. Four." She replies defiantly, as she raises her shirt and places a hand in her belly.

"The baby I'm bearing, our baby, will never know about you. Now go with my father, tell him where do you want him to drop you off and get out of this ship and out of our lives, forever."

> Chose to go to Kaua’i, the island inhabited by gunslingers, mercenaries and soldiers.
> Chose to go to O’ahu, to city of Honolulu. The capital and biggest city in all of Hawaii.
> Chose to go to the PMV Valdez, with the Brotherhood of Steel.
> Chose to go to Lana’i. The Sons of Kanaloa operate here, and apparently they were the ones that wanted to buy you as a slave, perhaps you can get some answers there.
> Chose to go to Kaho’olawe. It's a pretty normal island, nothing too exceptional about it, so perhaps someone like me might blend in and have a normal life.
> Chose to go to Maui. They don't take fondly of strangers, but its a good place as any other to start a new life.
> Other options, write in.
>>
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Sorry guys but I'll end it for today. It's almost 3 am for me.

> You can ask questions about the quest, its lore and other details and I will gladly answer them all as soon as I wake up
> I am also open to constructive criticism and suggestions or ideas

Thanks for playing!
>>
>>4565712
>> Chose to go to Lana’i. The Sons of Kanaloa operate here, and apparently they were the ones that wanted to buy you as a slave, perhaps you can get some answers there.
Oh, the cherry on top of the shit cake. There couldn't be a better ending to this relationship. Good thing I planned for this.
>>
>>4565712
> Chose to go to the PMV Valdez, with the Brotherhood of Steel

Let's see what the BOS is up to.

And let's avoid Lanai unless we want to end up in a slaver collar.
>>
>>4565712
>Chose to go to the PMV Valdez, with the Brotherhood of Steel.
Fucking hell, all I want is to chill on boat looking for stuff from the old world.
>>
>>4565743
>Let's see what the BOS is up to.
They are racist assholes and might be Enclave drones, I wouldn't get my hopes high.
>>
>>4565754
Eh, we're still human as far as I can remember. But at least we can report our previous encounter with the enclave and see where that gets us.
>>
>>4565805
We are mutie, it was stated they don’t like mutants back in the Rustbucket right before we came to Fallen Horizon and last run they were explicitly said to only accept pure humans as members.
We might pull it off with our speech but if we don’t then we are stranded in the middle of the sea with a huge heavily armed militia.
>>
>>4565712
>Chose to go to Kaho’olawe. It's a pretty normal island, nothing too exceptional about it, so perhaps someone like me might blend in and have a normal life.
>>
>>4565827
We are a mutated human. Kind of odd looking but a human nonetheless.

We are on the edge. Another Break the rules perk and we will be considered a mutant by society at large.

The BoS might accept us into their ranks, the Enclave wont
>>
>>4565712
> Chose to go to Lana’i. The Sons of Kanaloa operate here, and apparently they were the ones that wanted to buy you as a slave, perhaps you can get some answers there.
Why else buy this costume?
>>
>>4565902
To escape Fallen Horizon if needed I think. I doubt we'll pass as a proper SoK member, though axi will have to confirm.
>>
>>4565914
> doubt we'll pass as a proper SoK member
We will. Costumes kind of work like in New Vegas, they will fool most people but some higher ups will find flaws in our costume and discover us.

The costume will be good to enter SoK territory but we shouldnt meet with faction leaders because they wont be as easily fooled
>>
Ooof. OG fallout, everything's fucked and it always seems we made the wrong choice.
Love it, QM! Curious to see our redemption arc after this inevitable clusterfuck.
>>
>>4565914
We pretty much look like a super mutant already
>>
Rolled 1 (1d2)

Alright, posting from work to count the votes let's go!


> Lana’i:
>>4565728
>>4565902

> PMV Valdez:
>>4565743
>>4565747

> Kaho’olawe:
>>4565879

There's a tie between the Valdez and Lana’i, so I'll do a dice roll.

> Lana’i:
1

> PMV Valdez
2
>>
>>4565712
> Chose to go to Lana’i. The Sons of Kanaloa operate here, and apparently they were the ones that wanted to buy you as a slave, perhaps you can get some answers there.

Choking back tears Daphne exits the room and leaves you alone with your thoughts. It's been a long time since you last slept here, honestly you missed this room with its small mattress full of creaky springs, the many drawings and drafts that cover the walls, the smell of cheap food and wet ink. You notice that there's a small mirror in one corner, you walk towards it and look at your own reflection... the face in the other side is a face that you barely recognise, it's not the mutations what made you a shadow of your former self, its your past actions that have molded you into something radically different. The person on the other side looks at you with a near smug and mocking aura, as you look at yourself you cannot avoid seeing your failures, your sins, your flaws. There's another thing that you notice on your direful reflection, there are bruises on your neck, old bruises, marks from a tightly clasped explosive collar that not long ago choked you with its cold metal and rugged leather.

With a grunt you turn back from the mirror, open the door and stride towards the captain's cabin. You pass by the kitchen and see Daphne consoling her mother, both are crying profusely, you ascend the stairs and find John sailing and steering the boat while smoking from an ornate wooden pipe, despite being late night his cabin is barely lit, there are only a couple of candles dimly lighting the room. His hands are tightly clenched on the ship's controls, his eyes affixed on the sea ahead.

"Lana’i." You simply say.

The old ex pirate simply nods slightly and continues looking at the dark waters, completely ignoring your presence. The man is an open book, his face says it all, he despises you with all of its soul. You are sure that he will do everything in his power to keep your unborn child from meeting you. Perhaps its for the best.
>>
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>>4566490

You have chosen this particular island because of its significance with the Sons of Kanaloa. You don't know much of them but you have heard that they are a pretty powerful and technologically advanced faction and that they heavily make use of slaves to work their factories and mines. They apparently love mainlander folk like you, and pay dearly for a slave from the continental. These shangained slaves don't have a home to return to, and don't know the land surrounding them, making them extra docile and less chancy to rebel. This is an absolutely inhuman practice, but economically speaking... it makes sense, and the Sons of Kanaloa value profit over everything, to the point of gladly trading with raiders or or other lowlifes if it benefits them. There are even rumours about them arming several pirate or mercenary groups to cause mayhem and skirmishes and then sell equipment and medicines to everybody that has been trapped in the crossfire.

Pretty much nobody likes them, but everybody has dealt or traded with them out of pure necessity. People consider them a necessary evil, they are the cause of untold misery, but without them and their tech a great deal of the wasteland would be living in even more squalor.

Honestly, you don't know what kind of answers might you find in there, perhaps your reason to be here, or your way to return home might lie in the island of Lana’i

"The journey won't be long." John suddenly chimes in. "In a few hours we will reach Lana'i and dock in Murkwater."

Despite being angry and hating your guts at you he still seems cordial to a degree, he more than anyone knows what being absolutely loathed feels like, and perhaps he's the only one that still believes that you might end redeeming yourself and deserving a second chance. You consider asking him about the settlement with the lovely name of Murkwater, but ultimately decide to stay quiet during the entire time.

After tense journey and with the morning sun almost dawning your ship finally reaches the island. You were expecting a real island, something surrounded with sand, dotted with mountains and grass, perhaps even small forests of palm trees... but instead you find something else, something far worse. Lana'i is not an island, but the biggest junkyard that you have ever seen.

"The island is composed of three rings. Murkwater is the coastline, Moltenspur is the middle ring, and the Ashcourt is the inner ring." John adds with hatred on his words, he clearly despises this place almost as much as he despises you. He purposely didn't told you sooner about how bad this island would be, and now its too late to go back and chose some other destination.
>>
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>>4566493

At a loss for words you give a look at the island and feel absolutely appalled by what your eyes witness. The entire coast is surrounded by what is known, for obvious reasons, as Murkwater. The area is made of a ring of haphazardly constructed buildings made from whatever material was at hand. There isn't a single inch of naked sand or rock, everything is covered with metal, concrete and wood. The few areas that aren't covered in harbours or crude buildings are instead full of rusty sewage pipes that constantly spew dirty water, human waste and noxious chemicals onto the open ocean.

The Hawaiian oceans are normally quite crystalline and clean, but as you approach the island the waters suddenly turn
thicker, slimy and completely dirty. These waters are choking with rubbish, dead fish and oil stains that freely float around. On top of that there are several fires surrounding the island as well, a few of those are floating platforms that have been purposely filled and covered in trash and then lit on so the locals can get rid of their trash, the other are were not cause deliberately, and are simply oil and fuel stains that have caught aflame by some reason. The smell, oh god the smell. You thought that the shady areas of Fallen Horizon were stinky, but they were nothing compared with this disgusting aroma.

As soon as the Buenaventura docks you grab your stuff and jump down. Luckily most of your belongings were in John's and Ethel house before the civil war erupted, so they were able to save all of your gear. The ship then leaves, none of them say goodbye, you are once more on your own.

You find yourself in front of an extension of shanty sacks made from scrap metal and half rotten wood. There are some high buildings here and there made from trailer homes, crude concrete or shipping containers set one on top of another, all tied up with rusty metal and damaged wires. Not every building around is a house, there are several businesses as well, shops of all kinds and types, things like hair saloons, gambling dens, whorehouses, restaurants... every business, regardless of how small it is has a great neon sign next to it, there are so many of them that its even hard to see the morning sky. Along with the neon there are also cables everywhere, a black spiderweb rubber coated copper cables choking the skies above you.

"Well... I better get moving." You say, as you enter inside the smelly streets.

> You have enough caps, but more money will be useful. Sell some of your junk, you don't need a typewriter anymore.
> Go shopping, let's see what kind of crap is sold in this disgusting island.
> Go to a bar and ask around, learn more about this place and the Sons of Kanaloa.
> Focus on finding a place to settle on, install yourself somewhere before night falls.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4566495
>> You have enough caps, but more money will be useful. Sell some of your junk, you don't need a typewriter anymore.
>>
>>4566495
>> You have enough caps, but more money will be useful. Sell some of your junk, you don't need a typewriter anymore.
>>
>>4566495
> Go to a bar and ask around, learn more about this place and the Sons of Kanaloa.
we are wearing the costume, right?
>>
>>4566541
>we are wearing the costume, right?
Nope, the trenchcoat, but it would be easy to find a place to change our clothes.
>>
>>4566541
It would be weird to ask about the SoK dressed as one.
>>
It seems that selling our stuff is the winning option. Choose what do you want to sell and tomorrow I'll tell you guys how much do we earn.

>> Inventory:
> Weapons:
Ranged Weapon: 1/2 Slots
- [EQUIPPED] Automatic Incendiary Laser Gun with Fire Bayonet

Melee Weapon: 1/2 Slots
- Clean Cosmic Knife

> Armor:
- [EQUIPPED] Trench coat: +1 PER, +1 CHA, +5 guns
- Fishscale Waxed Tux: Energy weapons do 50% less damage, If equipped +5 Radiation per QM post
- Fallen Horizon Light Combat Armor: 17 Damage Resistance
- Roentgen's Shroud: +40 Sneak, If equipped +2 Radiation per QM post
- Sons of Kanaloa Guard Costume: 12 Damage Resistance

> Other items:
- [EQUIPPED] Old Medal: +1 LCK
- Aurore's solution: Heals all crippled limbs without any hunger, thirst, or sleep penalties.
- Carlisle Typewriter.
- Grappling Hook.
- [EQUIPPED] Strange Flask: +1 END
- Journal & writing tools.
>>
>>4566584
If you guys want to buy something as well then write what do you want to buy and if we can afford it then we will totally buy it.

You can also write what kind of questions do you want to ask around, and I'll also include them as dialogue that we will speak while bartering.
>>
>>4566584
>Carlisle Typewriter.
>The gifts for Daphne
>Fallen Horizon armor
I think thats about it
>>4566585
Buy some stimpaks for sure. Bobby pins or lockpicks too.
Ask about important landmarks, what's in each of the rings, how do the SoK police this place and how to stay out of trouble, that kind of thing.
>>
>>4566584
>- Fallen Horizon Light Combat Armor: 17 Damage Resistance
- Carlisle Typewriter.
>>
I want to dress as a SOK ASAP, and ask our questions indirectly, to find out what we need without appearing as an outsider. A journalist should know how to do that. We do NOT want be identified as a foreigner in this cutthroat place.
>>
>>4566605
agreed, except for the gifts. We'll find another girl down the line.
>>
Very well, we will sell our stuff, then dress up with the costume and ask around town to learn more of the Sons and the city itself.

We have 668 caps right now.

> Selling:
The typewriter has a base value of 25 caps. With our barter skill we can sell it for 31. The combat armor has a base value of 185 caps, with our barter skill we can up it to 228 caps.

If we use the "Caps rule everything around me" perk and sell both items then we can get a total of 512 caps instead. Not bad, it's pretty good money.

> Buying:
We can buy Bobby pins at the price of one cap per pin. They will break down when we fail a lockpicking dice roll, but they are cheap. With the perk we could buy two bobby pins for each cap, effectively doubling what we acquire.

There are several alternatives to regular Bobby Pins as well.

We can buy a set of locksmith tools. It would have a base value of 150 caps, and with our barter skill it would be reduced to 115 caps. With those tools we get a +20 to our lockpicking skill when it comes to opening normal locks, doors and chests. Unlike Bobby pins the tool won't break down. If we use the perk to buy it the price would be reduced to 58 caps.

We can also buy a Wattz Electronics Micromanipulator FingerStuff electronic lock pick. The device would give us +20 to our Lockpicking skill but only when it comes to high tech doors, robots and force-fields. It has a base value of 375 caps, with our barter skill we can get it for 289. Unlike Bobby pins, this doesn't breaks. If we use the perk to buy it the price would be reduced to 115 caps.

Stimpaks are kind of expensive, at 48 cap of base value per stimpak. With our barter skill this gets reduced to 37 caps. I think we should buy them thought, with our newly adquired perk "Don't die on me!" we can create a makeshift defibrillator with a Fusion Cell and a Stimpak and revive someone who has died. (This won't work if the death is traumatic, don't expect to revive someone that has been turned into mincemeat after being shot with a mini-nuke). If we use the perk to buy them then their price would be reduced to 19 caps for each stim.

Honestly, I think we should save the perk for buying instead of selling. But its your call.
>>
>>4567284
Ok then, can we get 20 Stimpaks with CREAM then? Do they have that many even? Also get the locksmith set.
>>
>>4567361
Yeah, they have the 20 stimpaks, and much more.

Son of Kanaloa controlled shops don't have the best gear around, but they have a lot of items on them. They basically produce stuff for the rest of the wasteland, so they have plenty of inventory to barter with, but most of it is low quality or of common rarity to a degree.

They have the capability of producing high quality and high tech armors and weapons, but they very rarely trade those, they normally prefer to keep the rare and the best gear for themselves.

We have 668 caps. After selling the typewriter and the armor we earn another 228 caps and end with 896 caps.

The 20 stims and the Lockpick with CREAM would be 438 caps.

After buying them we would end with 458 caps. While it isn't a fortune it isn't little either, with those caps we could comfortably while for a whole month, give or take.
>>
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>>4566495
> You have enough caps, but more money will be useful. Sell some of your junk, you don't need a typewriter anymore.

Despite being early morning most of the shops around are open, and they seem to have been open for a long time, hell, it looks like most shops around don't close at all. It looks as if trading and bartering is in the blood of this particular place, of this particular culture and society. Everybody seems to be negotiating something, every-single-body. Stalls pop up everywhere, travelling merchants walk the streets, people argue and loudly bargain, caps endlessly exchange hands...

With so many deals being continuously done pickpockets are also rife in these streets. People walk with their bags tightly grasped, and the ones that don't quickly fall prey to the swift hands of the thieves. Many shopkeepers are heavily armed to deter the thieves, but still many of them try their luck and shoplift whatever they can.

Several guards roam the streets, but their participation in keeping the city safe is mediocre at best. The thieves that they catch quickly fall and are subject to a brutal beatdown that leaves them to an inch of death. The ones that are simply left to their own devices, and weirdly enough, the people that were stolen are instead chastised for not protecting their goods well enough.

These guards wear armors very similar to the costume that you brought, they all wear masks as well, and you think that you know why. These masks not only protect them from the smog and toxic fumes that coat the streets like a dark and sticky veil, but also protect their identities. These guards are people too, people with friends and families, and if their faces were uncovered you are pretty sure that many local townsfolk would retaliate against them. The uncertainty of not knowing who can be a guard keeps the citizen even more docile, if you attacked a guard you could be attacking a friend, a family member, or even a loved one, and you can never speak too harshly of the Sons of Kanaloa, because perhaps an off duty guard might be listening.

The costume that your brought will not only give you moderate protection and access into several restricted areas, but it will also instil fear in the poor and wrecked citizens of Murkwater.
>>
>>4567507

You sell your heavy typewriter and the Fallen Horizon's light combat armor and make some good caps. And afterwards barter your way into buying twenty stimpaks and some lockpicking tools for a really good price. Now that you have gotten rid of your armor and the typewriter you feel much lighter, you haven't feel as light in days. You still have around 500 caps on yourself, that's pretty good money.

Before continuing on you decide to search for some inconspicuous place away from privy looks and change into the Son of Kanaloa armor. After a short while you finally find a small and semi-hidden alley behind some dumpsters and change your clothes. It's a good thing that they could tailor the costume to fit your body. The armor is slightly heavy and the mask makes breathing hard, but it otherwise fits you pretty well. Despite wearing a gas mask you are pretty sure it is all looks, and doesn't really filter the air around you.

As you leave suddenly the people's attitude towards you change. When you were wearing the trenchcoat most people simply ignored you or looked oddly at you due to your high stature, but now that you are wearing the costume you can feel and see the fear in their eyes.

Before the change of clothes people didn't move out of your way, many of them even ended forcefully colliding against you, now, they all steer away. They seem to fear the guards, but one as big as you? You are an absolute nightmare to them.
>>
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>>4567510

You need answers, and you need them now. You cannot go blind into the Son's territory, that would be a deathwish, you would be practically asking to be captured. Since you don't know where to start asking any person will really do. You put your hand over the a random and poor pedestrian that crosses your path and start interrogating him with a deep and gravely voice.

"You, citizen, tell me about this place. Tell me about this island."

"W-what? Is this a test?" The raggedy man starts to whimper, sweating bullets. You cannot avoid noticing an explosive collar around in neck. In fact most people around are wearing these collars.

"Answer me." You scream at him.

Several people stop and stare, wondering what the hell is happening. Murmurs start to happen around you two. This impromptu interrogation cannot last for long, sooner or later other guards, real guards, will appear.

"Shit...let's see... T-this is Murkwater, the residential part of the island, w-well, one of the two residential areas. The island is Mount Lānaʻihale, the big volcano that was dormant until the Great War, we all love and pray to the volcano, are...are you testing my faith?"

You look to the sky and see that the smog and toxicity in the city doesn't only come from the many fires, and far away factories, but from the volcano located up ahead. From its gaping maw a black pillar of smoke ascends into the skies. You weren't able to see it when you came to the island, the night sky concealed it from your naked eyes.

"Tell me more of the island and the volcano." You simply reply, not answering to his question.
>>
>>4567512

"The outer ring is Murkwater...it's were workers live, merchants trade with sailors, and it is were ninety percent of the island's population lives. Then...there's Moltenspur, it's were all of the factories are built... t-t-the factories are powered by the geothermal generators built in the volcano, and some even use the magma in their forges. The factories build and manufacture all kind of things, from simple nuts and bolts to massive airships and their complex engines. I-I work in a factory that makes pliers and tools. There's also the Ballam Canal, it directly connects Moltenspur with the ocean, only the biggest ships can access the canal and enter with resources or leave with products to trade with, that way the factories can be provided with what they require without the need of crossing the city."

The man then suddenly gets silent, as if scared of what he is about to say.

"T-The upper ring is the Ashcourt, I-I have never been there, only the most important people in the island can live there, the high priests, the engineer lords, the factory rulers, army generals, artisan masters... it is said that there are air scrubbers that keep the air clean from the smoke of the factories and the volcano, and that it's the only area in the island where trees and flowers can grow. Up ahead is the cathedral, a temple built in dedication to the volcano, every Sunday there is a ceremony attended by the most important people on the island, the rest of us have to see it on our TVs or hear it by radio. The ceremony speaks of the necessity of working for a better future and how our jobs make us better beings. Then the sacrifices are made..."
>>
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>>4567515

"Sacrifices?" You ask, horrified and curious at the same time. The terrified man gives you a puzzled look, as if you had asked him the most obvious thing, and then continues speaking.

"Yes... Fusion Cores, nuclear waste barrels, captured enemies and ships, glitched robots, mini-nukes. The volcano needs to eat to stay awake, if it ever goes to sleep then the factories will die... and the priests say that every one of us will be forced into the volcano to reawaken it. If we don't work caps don't circulate, if caps don't circulate food for the volcano isn't obtained. If food isn't obtained... yeah." He seems to be terrified of such a fate, most of these poor people aren't only enslaved and forced into terrible works and miserable living conditions, but are terrorised into believing that if they stop working the entire island slowly die and they will be sacrificed.

A great group of people have surrounded around you two. Guards will soon come around, you better get moving.

"Good work citizen, you make the volcano and the high priests proud." You then say, placing a hand over his skinny shoulder and moving away from him. Luckily for you the people around open a way and you can easily leave, and soon enough everybody returns to their duties. Not too much of a scandalous fuzz has formed from your impromptu interrogation.

Well, at least now you know more about this place, its culture, and how things work around here. The answers you might be looking for, the reason as of why you were enslaved have to be in the Ashcourt, but not even your costume will let you get inside, you have to find a way in.

> Travel to Moltenspur, look at the factories, perhaps with your costume on you could even access warehouses and other restricted areas and easily steal valuable stuff.
> Travel to the Ballam Canal. Apparently cargo ships are constantly entering and leaving. It might be easy to get inside of one and leave this cursed island.
> Continue in Murkwater, find a place to live in, ask for some work around.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4567518
>> Travel to Moltenspur, look at the factories, perhaps with your costume on you could even access warehouses and other restricted areas and easily steal valuable stuff.
Damn, people just shit themselves when they see us, the costume works wonders. I love this, this might have been my best idea yet.
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>>4567525
> Damn, people just shit themselves when they see us, the costume works wonders. I love this, this might have been my best idea yet.
Good job anon!
>>
>>4567518
>> Continue in Murkwater, find a place to live in, ask for some work around.

We should probably make sure we have a place to crash before we go exploring/stealing/etc
>>
>>4567638
We can crash on a warehouse or something, it’s probably way less crowded there.
>>
>>4567518
> Travel to Moltenspur, look at the factories, perhaps with your costume on you could even access warehouses and other restricted areas and easily steal valuable stuff.
yeah check out the factories
>>
>>4567518
>> Travel to Moltenspur, look at the factories, perhaps with your costume on you could even access warehouses and other restricted areas and easily steal valuable stuff.
>>
>>4567518
> Travel to Moltenspur, look at the factories, perhaps with your costume on you could even access warehouses and other restricted areas and easily steal valuable stuff.

With your convincing costume you could easily con and hustle the poor people iof Murkwater, but honestly, you aren't ruthless and heartless enough to do it, these poor folk have already too many problems in their daily lives. Besides, even if you bullied them into giving you part of their goods you would only obtain scraps, the good stuff has to be in the factories and the warehouses.

You have to go to Moltenspur, the industrial district of the island. Moltenspur is the middle ring of the island, and by far the biggest one. Most of the people of Murkwater live in narrow streets choking with crowded buildings, there are no cars around as the streets simply aren't wide enough to drive them, and even if they were the locals wouldn't be able to afford a working vehicle anyway. Unlike Murkwater in Moltenspur the streets are clean and ample, there's plenty of space to drive and several at all times you can see working vehicles moving from one side to another delivering cargo or workers from one side to another.
>>
>>4568166

Since moving across the streets is a difficult task the city has an extensive network of cable cars that allow easy moving between different areas and even between the rings. These cable cars are suspended several feet above the city below and while many come haphazardly close to several of the buildings none of them really touch or even grace any of the many houses, antennas, cables and neon signs that dot the city. To reach one of those cable cars you have to walk towards their stop stations, constructed on high towers of gunmetal iron.

As you calmly walk towards one of those towers you notice another nice perk of your costume, no pickpocket dares to approach you. With a smug smile you finally reach the tower and see a long set of spiralling staircases that go all the way up. It has to be at least ten floors before finally reaching the station. To your surprise there's also an elevator located between the tower's pillars, you walk towards it and see that to be used a special key is necessary, one that only powerful individuals or real guards might have access to. You sigh and leave the open elevator and go towards the staircase, ascending it up and slowly going upwards. After a short while you finally climb the ten floors and find a waiting room with some metal benches and a few vending machines, along with an old TV screen that indicates when the next cable cars will come.

There isn't many people around, it seems that while the cable cars are a relaxed and quick way of reaching Moltenspur not many of the locals use this method. When you approach a ticket vending machine you understand why. Each ticket costs twenty five caps, an insultingly high price for a mere journey that wouldn't last more than a few minutes. The poor folk that live down there not only are enslaved, indoctrinated, terrorised and worked to death, but they are also forced to endure painstakingly long communes to reach their dead end jobs. Luckily for you, guards don't need to pay, which is why the cable cars are mostly used by other guards that need to patrol the different areas of the city.
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>>4568181

You approach a ticket vending machine and a small screen prompts you to chose your destination. After doing so a ticket will be printed, informing you of which car you have to take, how many minutes until the car comes and how long the journey will be. In Moltenspur there are several areas that can be accessed, each one might give you some interesting benefits.

> Go to the canning plants:
They can all kinds of foods and then distribute and sell them across the wastes. There will be plenty of food in there, you might be able to make some good profit by selling part of their goods among the local population.
> Go to the weapon forges:
The Sons of Kanaloa have the schematics of many pre-war weapons and armor models, and pretty much every weapon or armor piece that circulates in Hawaii has been created by them. You might be able to find better substitutes for your actual equipment or useful mods, perhaps even a Power-Armor.
> Go to the vehicle shipyards:
The Sons of Kanaloa have pretty much absolute monopoly over the local shipping industry. They control the fuel markets and in case of having a mechanical problems they are the biggest provider of tools or pieces. The Buenaventura, the tugboat that had been once Daphne's home had been repaired and filled with Son of Kanaloa pieces and fuel. Apparently they not only build ships, but also land vehicles and even airplanes.
> Go to the implant clinics:
Bionic Implants are a very complex technology that was not commonplace even before the bombs. Most post-war implants are simply crude substitutes of lost limbs, but there are a few high tech ones that can make a person into something superhuman, give them incredible abilities, or make them do nearly impossible tasks. You are pretty sure that their bionic implants will be something very well kept, but if you ever manage to get one inside of you then you will gain an incredible advantage.
> Go to the Laboratories:
The laboratories is where they develop their medicines and chems to later sell them across the wastes. You don't know much about chemistry, but this place might be great to learn.
> Go to their Robot Assembly Lines:
The Sons of Kanaloa make heavy use of robots, to them they are the perfect soldier and worker, if they weren't so easy to hack, so glitchy, or so prone to confusing simple orders then they would gladly change every one of their slaves for a robot. Perhaps you can secretly build yourself a robotic companion in there, a travelling pal that will hold your back.
> Go to the General Factories:
The Sons build all kinds of stuff. If you go to these factories you will end finding an assortment of wildly different items. Searching across the warehouses of those factories will be a gamble, you could find something absolutely useless or something incredibly useful and valuable.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4568186
>> Go to their Robot Assembly Lines:
A Robot pal seems like a good place to start. I want to go all transhumanism ahoy but it might be too hard forn now.
>>
>>4568186
>> Go to the weapon forges:
>>
>>4568186
> Go to their Robot Assembly Lines:
>>
>>4568186
>> Go to the vehicle shipyards:
A Bote of our dreams is just waiting for us
>>
Off topic slightly but honestly I was expecting ghoul whales or other sea creatures to destroy the ships and town rather than civil war due to us killing the coral walkers which said they acted as protectors against big aquatic life; still less traumatic than having the settlements nuked like we did last time lol
>>
>>4568680
Well, we didn't give them much time to come before we fucked everything up. And to be fair, we really couldn't have done much to prevent the settlement from being nuked whereas now we started a civil war fully knowing the consequences of our actions.
>>
>>4568688
True, could be the civil war turns into an aquatic slaughter fest (although the settlements were doomed anyway, either by enclave or hive mind or sea creatures regardless of us) and while we undoubtedly fucked everything by writing the article and doubly so by spreading it so far to the point of us losing our unborn child potentially for good, we still have the most important thing - journalistic integrity, the truth must be illuminated no matter the cost; wait until our exposé on the sons of Kanaloa gets us and throngs of slaves and workers thrown into the volcano
>>
>>4568186
>> Go to the vehicle shipyards:
>>
>>4568186
> Go to the weapon forges
all options have their advantages but I think gunning up is the most sensible choice now. we should hit the shipyard only when we made up our mind to leave this godforsaken place.
>>
>>4568810
we just sold our typewriter. I think we are no longer a journalist.
>>
>>4568680
>Off topic slightly but honestly I was expecting ghoul whales or other sea creatures to destroy the ships and town rather than civil war due to us killing the coral walkers which said they acted as protectors against big aquatic life
The dangerous fauna will sooner or later return to the waters around Fallen Horizon, it will take years, but they will return.

> still less traumatic than having the settlements nuked like we did last time lol
True, Idk why I have a penchant for destroying settlements lmao.

>>4568902
> we just sold our typewriter. I think we are no longer a journalist.
I think so, in fact I planned to add some paragraph about how selling the typewriter symbolises abandoning your roots and how Diego considers himself a true citizen of the wastes. But alas, when I finally had some time to write I couldn't come with the words.

We might have a redemption arc, and return to our origins, bringing the truth to the wasteland and whatnot.
>>
>>4568186
Let's count the votes:

> Weapon forges:
>>4568338
>>4568898

> Vehicle shipyards
>>4568532
>>4568831

> Robot assembly lines:
>>4568201
>>4568458

There's a tie. I'll wait a few hours for a tie breaker, if there isn't any then I'll do a dice roll.
>>
>>4568898
I'll switch to robo bros to break the tie. I really think boat can wait.
>>
Very well, building a robot it is. Writing now.
>>
Alright, we will use some creation tables to see what kind of robot we end obtaining.

First roll: What kind of robot do we find?

> Nothing functional, just a pile of scrap. (1)
> Cyberdog (2-3)
> Work thrall (4-5)
> Eyebot (6-7)
> Protectron (8-9)
> Mister Handy (10-11)
> Miss Nanny (12-13)
> Mister Gutsy (14-15)
> Robobrain (16-17)
> Securitron (18-19)
> Assaultron (20)
> Sentinel Power Armor AI (21)
> Sentry Bot (22)

Best of three!
>>
Rolled 19 (1d22)

>>4569416
Do we roll a d22?
>>
>>4569423
>Do we roll a d22?
Oh yeah, sorry, forgot to say it.
>>
You know what, to make things faster it won't be best of three, only the first roll will count, fuck it, we are playing hardcore more.

It's ok thought, we will be able to mod our robot in the future, perhaps.

>Securitron:
We have found a Securitron. The PDQ-88b securitron is a large, monowheel robot with a titanium alloy housing, resistant to shrapnel and small arms fire, with a screen capable of displaying a wide array of images, from static images to pre-War commercials. They are normally found in the Mojave Wasteland, and very rarely, elsewhere in the wastes.

>Next roll: What battle scars does the robot have? 1d20
>1: Death of a Companion:
The robot still bears the mark of the death of its old handler, forever reminding the new owner of this tragedy. The Robot's AI might act erratically if the owner is severely damaged.

>2: Trophies of Battle:
Embedded in the steel of the robot are remnants of battles and duels, telling the story of the previous owner. Engraved bullet casings, pinned leathers, feathers and horns of mighty beasts, kill marks stencilled on the body. The AI might take pride in its kills and gruesomely take mementos of its victories.

>3-4: Blood-Soaked:
No matter how often the robot is cleaned, there are some bloodstains which simply cannot be removed. The AI might become berserk and change to melee in the middle of combat.

>5-6: Mark of Those Who Came Before:
The inside part of the robot's chassis is etched with the names and deeds of its previous owners. The AI will take pride in travelling with you, and will be incredibly loyal.

>7-9: Battered by War:
The robot has unrepaired bullet holes, scars and scratches from previous warzones. It is patched up and jury rigged yet still seems to work fine. The AI will be very violent and love to combat.

>10-20: Pristine Condition:
Fresh, undamaged and ready to be used, the robot looks like it has just come from the factory. The AI won't have any particular flaw or quirk.
>>
Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>4569451
Securitron huh, those are very silly. But that's cool.
>>
>>4569455
NICE, that's exactly what I wanted.
>>
So, we will obtain a very loyal and very cool Securitron. Awesome!

>Next roll is: What stories are bound to the robot? 1d10

>1: Rad Taint:
The robot has felt the touch of powerful radioactive areas and carries an unnerving aura, sometimes it even glows with a sickly green light. The Robot will emit weak radioactivity at all times.

>2: Hero's Shame:
The previous owner of the robot was a renowned warrior who failed at a critical moment and suffered the dire and humiliating consequences. The robot's AI is still punishing itself for allowing such fate. To atone the robot will sometimes try to act as a living shield and suffer attacks that were directed at you.

>3-4: Saviors of the Wasteland:
This particular robot has been the companion of many legends and heroes of the wasteland, will you be the next one perhaps? The robot itself is well known and become a symbol of salvation and hope. Being seen with it will make people around you accept you more.

>5: Undefeated:
Whether because of the combat skill of its AI or simply pure luck, this robot has never seen defeat on the battlefield. It takes pride on it, and might sometimes be a little bit cocky.

>6-7: Lone Survivor:
This particular robot has seen incredible stress and heartfelt courage. It has been the only survivor of a great massacre, and it has been on the verge of death too many times. It's hard to say if the robot is incredibly lucky or absolutely jinxed.

>8-9: Pristine Condition:
A heroic and paragon AI seems to live in the circuitry of this robot. The AI will help and guide you towards great deeds and feats, but if you become an evildoer it might end abandoning or turning against you.

>10: Unknown Provenance:
This robot is an absolute mystery, all records of its existence have been struck from the annals of history. It's serial number has been erased, its metadata has been deleted, its positronic memories scrubbed to delete all mentions of its origins and creation. This robot, should by all means, not exist.
>>
Rolled 9 (1d10)

>>4569487
These are all interesting...
>>
>>4569497
FUCK, it might get bitchy if we go stealing shit. Well, stealing from an oppresssive regime can hardly be considered bad. It might be the spark of our redemption arc.
>>
>>4569497
DAmn dude, you are getting awesome rolls!

We now have an heroic and loyal securitron that travelled with lots of people before.

> Next Roll: What personal touches have the wastelabnders added to the armour? 1d8

>1: Destroyed and Rebuilt:
This robot has seen one too many battles. It has been completely destroyed in battle and later painstakingly rebuilt. This robot has weakpoints and makes weird grinding noises when moving, sometimes even sparks come out of the joints and servos.

>2: Cannibalized:
This robot has been reassembled with parts originally taken from several other robots, and now it is a far cry of its original model and shape. The robot itself has learned to jury rig what it can to keep on truckin, so it will be easier to repair it with scrap metal and other robot parts.

>3: Alien Parts Included:
Zetan technology has somehow been integrated in the robot. Sometimes the robot might do feats that are near impossible, other times it might acts erratically and speak gibberish or do nonsensical actions. You gotta be careful with it.


>4: Overclocked CPU:
The Internal Proccesing Unit of this robot is remarkably advanced. Compared with other similar models this particular robot will have overworked servos, increased hyper-sensitivity in the autosenses and upgrades int other systems, allowing it to be much faster, stronger, intelligent and charismatic. Because of this the Robot might also need to halt to a grind and release steam to cool itself down.

>5: Far Away Marks:
This Robot has been used far and beyond, it has reached areas of the wasteland that most people don't even know about. Part of it's body is now made from exotic materials like the Saturnite from the Mojave or Ceramite from Appalachia and it has drawings and symbols from far and exotic wastelands. The robot will always have interesting stories to tell and might know a little bit of everything when it comes to wasteland lore.

>6: Ancient Iconography:
This robot was built and used before the war. It even has symbols that mark it has having belonged to the United States army at some point. The AI will be knowledgeable about military tactics and technology and might even tell you the location of ancient bunkers and codes to enter them.

>7: Reinforced:
Heavily modified and rebuilt to be almost completely different from the model it was based on, this robot has been changed to withstand the attacks of raiders and super-mutants with extra plates, fortified steel mesh and strengthened servos. The extra weight makes it slower than other robots of the same model.

>8: Masterwork:
Whoever made this particular robot was a master of its craft. While most robots have small defects due to errors of fabrication, old age or damage received, this robot is perfect in every sense, it looks even better than new.
>>
Stealing from the SoK hardly counts as evil.
>>
Rolled 3 (1d8)

>>4569523
>>
>>4569530
Now it's getting weird, it's an ALIEN heroic AI.
>>
>>4569531
Well, stranger things have happened. Alright, last dice roll

How is the robot painted like? 1d8

> 1 - Tribal:
The robot is decorated with pains and dyes made from natural pigments like red dirt, black soil, green moss and white chalk. Small ropes with beads, seashells and animal fragments cover its chassis as well. The robot will be better received among tribal people.

> 2 - Raiders:
Old road signs, crude drawings, human ears and fingers, rusty nails and spikes... this robot has been decorated by Raiders and made to instil as much fear as possible. The robot will be better received among raiders.

> 3 - Military:
The robot has been decorated with ammo pouches, old war medals, camouflage patterns and foliage. The robot will be better received among mercenaries, soldiers and guards.

> 4 - Old world colors:
A paintjob that depicts the extreme industrialism and capitalism of the old world. Icons and names of old pre-war foods and products like Nuka-Cola and Abraxo are painted over the metal. The robot will be better received among the average wastelanders.

> 5 - Ohana's Markings:
A paintjob with the colors of the Ohanan flag. It clearly depicts the robots as belonging to the country of Ohana. The robot will be better received among the citizens of Ohana.

> 6- Enclave's patriotic colors:
The old red white and blue along with screeching eagles, golden stars. and the Enclave's symbol. This patriotic paintjob clearly declares that the robot belongs to the Enclave. The robot will be better received among the soldiers of the Enclave.

> 7 - Brotherhood's of Steel Holopaint:
A holographic paintjob that shifts from white to blue depending on angle. Only the BoS knows how to manufacture this paint, and it extensively uses it among its members to identify each other and avoid moles or spies. With this paintjob the robot will be better received among the members of the Brotherhood.

> 8 - Sons of Kanaloa's Sea and Skies:
A maroon, white and light blue paintjob with covered religious writings of the Kanaloan beliefs. Every ship, robot and armor pertaining to this faction is decorated with those colors and style. With this paintjob the robot will be better received among the members of the Brotherhood.
>>
Rolled 3 (1d8)

>>4569600
>>
>>4569607
Fitting, we are pretending to be a guard.
>>
>>4568186
> Go to their Robot Assembly Lines:

After looking at the different possible destinations you ultimately decide to go to the robot assembly lines, perhaps in there you might find a robot workbench and enough resources to build yourself a nice automatron that will cover your back when things turn ugly.

You select the destination and the machine craps a small ticket with a loud whirring sound. A few minutes later your cable car finally comes. You put the ticket inside of a slot located in the car's door and it opens for you. The car you are in is completely empty, in fact most of them either go completely empty or have two occupants tops.

With the buzzing of its electric engine the car goes ahead and starts to cross the ruinous city below. From a couple of speakers installed on the ceiling a nice jingle sounds and the morning news then get broadcast.

"Good Morning Murkwater. The High priesthood has decided to increase its tax on chems and food. The Kanaloan Guard will from now on forbid singing in the streets from three PM to seven PM. The drinking fountains of the second, seventh, and tenth districts will be shut down until further notice. A nest of rad rats has been found in the sewers under the fourth district, the streets will be fumigated with anti-radiation powder for the next following days, citizens are advised to find somewhere else to live. More news in an hour. Volcano bless us all."

The jingle repeats and several strange prayers in a weird mixture of Hawaiian, English, Chinese and an unidentified language then get broadcast. You don't understand much of the prayers, but they make you feel unnerved.

Most of these sudden changes in legislation seem to be nonsensical, why increase a tax, why prohibiting the usage of drinking fountains in several districts? It has to be to keep the citizens stressed, nervous, obedient.

As the cable advances across the smog choked city several small ventilators turn on as well, keeping the toxic gases at bay and cleaning the interior of the cabin. The people look so small from here, little more than insects, no wonder why the guards end so detached, cruel and apathetic towards the common population. Travelling for free with these cable cars while the rest of the people have to cross the dirty, smokey and muddy streets will end giving people a dangerous sense of superiority and entitlement.
>>
>>4569747

After a short while you finally manage to see the border between Murkwater and Moltenspur, a great concrete wall separates the two rings. The wall is heavily armed and defended, it looks like the Sons care more about their factories and goods than about their own citizens. In case of an attack or invasion you are sure that their soldiers wouldn't be fighting in the streets of Murkwater, but congregating in Moltenspur to protect their interests.

"Fucking diabolical." You then whisper as you see a defence measure that only a heartless person could come up with.

You had been told that some of the factories around use the magma from the volcano to power their kilns and forges, but the Sons of Kanaloa have found other uses for the red hot molten rock. There's a conduct in the concrete walls filled with lava and molten metal. If any invader ever managed to reach their walls then they would open the valves and let the burning liquid fall upon the city, burning citizen and foe alike. Most of the city is made of wood or scrap metal, if the lava was released then the entire city would fall. Would the Sons really go that far to protect their belongings?

The other side of the wall looks like a different whole planet. In Murkwater the streets were narrow and covered in trash or choking with people, here they are wide and spot clean and barely transited by people or vehicles. Murkwater is covered in countless of different lamps and neon signs, causing untold headaches and covering everything in a multitude of eye gouging colors, here there are simple streetlights that illuminate with a nice and soft orange glow. The buildings in Moltenspur, while kind of rusty and old looking, are in much better shape than the haphazardly built shack towers of Murkwater. The chattering sound of a hundred voices ceases to be heard, and quickly gets substituted by the sound of a thousand grinding gears, hammering pistons, and rattling chains. You are leaving society behind, and entering into a world of industry.

Several minutes later the cable finally leaves you in your destination, a whole industrial park dedicated to the creation, upgrade, modification and programming of all kinds of robots, from mere mining bots to advanced combat drones.
>>
>>4569751

The cable car stops and you get down, the streets here aren't as dirty or covered in smog, but they smell weirdly, they smell like chemicals and fuel. You walk around the street and quickly see that the only pedestrians around are guards. The workers are moved from one side to another in buses or trucks, they are not allowed to walk the streets. Since the guards walk in pairs and you are all alone if you ever crossed paths with one of them you might be asked why are you alone, raisin suspicion. To avoid being detected you enter in an alleyway before the two guards can see you and continue deeper into the alley until you finally find a door in a side of a building. You enter in and to your surprise find a massive warehouse full of old robots and robot pieces.

It's hard to say if this place is used for spare pieces or recycling, but regardless of what they might do here there are no workers or guards around, so you can freely look around and see what kind of interesting stuff might be in the many boxes and crates that dot the warehouse. Honestly you have been really lucky, this is the perfect place to get a robotic companion.

After searching for a while you ultimately encounter an odd find. Among the derelict and half broken bots there is a Securitron. This is noteworthy because these type of robots are almost impossible to see outside of the Mojave wasteland, and they have to be much rarer so far from the mainland. This robot might even be the only Securitron in the entire Hawaiian wasteland. The robot isn't like the dark blue counterparts of the Mojave thought, this one is painted in olive green colors, it has a camouflage pattern covering its body and several ammo pouches, weapon and grenade holsters, fake foliage and even military metals have been added to it, giving it the appearance of belonging to some army.

The robot seems to be shut down, and it seems to need some minor repairs, but it's nothing that you cannot fix. Part of its chassis has come out and some small pieces need to be reconnected, but other than that the robot is in pretty good shape. As you grab the chassis to put it back in its place you suddenly notice that there are several names etched in the inside, there are around twelve names on it, with some of them being newer and perfectly readable and others centuries old and faded away to the point of being impossible to read.
>>
>>4569753

Seems like this robot has been travelling with a lot of people, and lived its fair share of adventures. Hopefully it also be a good companion for you as well. As you install the chassis you notice that the guts of the robot have some strange chromed pieces with glowing bits and oddly shaped gizmos, you have never seen technology like that before, it is clearly out of place in a robot like this. With a shrug you reassemble the robot and turn it on.

The screen continues black for a while, but then it suddenly turns on and starts showing nothing but static.

"... Hello?" It suddenly says in a robotic sounding voice.

"Can you hear me?" You speak back, looking around to be sure that nobody can hear your conversation.

"Yes, yes I can. Where am I, who am I, what's my name?"

Apparently the robot is suffering from amnesia, this is commonplace among robots that spend shut down for more than several years, the small battery that keeps their inner memory drives powered goes out and they forget huge chunks of data, perhaps even years worth of memories.

> Choose a name and a face for our new companion!
>>
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>>4569762
>Jay CDN10
>Pic related
Oh boy oh boy, this is pretty exciting.
It's funny, someone mentioned finding our own Yes Man last run and we might have just done that.
>>
>>4569829
For the record, I looked around a bit for inspiration, I thought of what I wanted and then settled with searching my image folder and see what I find. I saw a Denton meme and thought "Ha, he had funny quotes, I liked his voice" and thats my whole thought process. Feel free to make something else.
>>
>>4569829
I'm OK with this.

>>4569416
Surprised you didn't give us a chance to own our very own FISTO Axsi! Lol
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>Cicero
We are a man of education.
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>>4569829
Thinking about it, maybe JC-DN10 instead? Could be a manufacturing code on the robot, and then we could call it JC for short.
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>>4570095
That's better, I just wanted to call it Jay. I'm having second thoughts about it though, on one hand a Denton-bot would be great, on the other doesn't it kinda go against the "No Wild Wasteland" vote to have a companion being such a blatant reference?
>>
>>4570111
Maybe we could keep the name with a different face. But that being said even vanilla fallout has plenty of references.

If the robot said stuff like "I never asked for this" (dxhr I know) then that would be more of a wild wasteland thing I think.
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>>4570137
>Maybe we could keep the name with a different face
That could work. I tried drawing one, this is as good as I can do.
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>>4570148
That works lol. Our too cool for school version of Yes Man
>>
Hey there guys, just came back from work, gonna get into photoshopping our robot and writing the next update now.
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>>4569762
>JC-DN10

Before you can reply the Securitron's TV screen goes black for a couple of seconds and then a progress bar appears, with the message "Self Repair" on top of it. As the bar fills several sparks come out of the robot and its limbs begin to twitch and rattle with sudden and jerky movements. It seems that the robot has started to run its diagnostics and data recovery programs and its memory flaws are now slowly getting repaired, in laymanns terms, he's recovering it's old memories.

After the proccess is finally done the screen goes black once more and slowly a face appears, it's a pretty simple cartoonish face with a cute smile and some nice sunglasses over its eyes.

"Hello there soldier. I'm JC-DN10. But people prefer to call me JC. Rolls easier on the tongue. Not that I would know, I have no mouth." His voice is now more human like, deep, gravely, kind of raspy, slightly lispy and clearly male sounding.

"I'm Diego." You reply, surprised to see how well it works, most robots either break down or get all kinds of crazy after years in the wasteland.

"Diego uh? Nice to hear. I don't remember how I got here. All I remember is fighting some punks of the Legion. I hate them all, everyone who is a torturer and slaver gets me on my bad side. Raiders, Legion... all of them are on my naughty list. Heh, I remember how at one time two of those Caesar's morons captured and tried to cruxifix, I ended falling down and crushing them both, I was simply to heavy for their flimsy cross. Anyway, what's going on here? It's obvious that you don't want to scrap me down, if you were you would have done it while I was asleep."

> Ask him about his past experiences
> Ask him about himself.
> Tell him about you and your past experiences
> Tell him about the Sons of Kanaloa.
> Other options, write in.
>>
Sorry for the short reply, I spent most of the time editing the picture.
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>>4570502
>> Tell him about the Sons of Kanaloa.
kek
>>4570505
It's so goofy, it's great.
>>
>>4570502
>> Ask him about his past experiences
>> Tell him about the Sons of Kanaloa.
>>
>>4570516
Sounds like a good start. Great visuals as always OP! Really appreciate the work you put in!
>>
>>4570502
Great job on the picture QM

> Other options, write in.

Ask him if he's running the Mark 1 or Mark 2 operating system.

Then

> Ask him about his past experiences
> Ask him about himself.
>>
Ayyy, I'm glad you all liked the image. Writing now.
>>
>>4570502
> Ask him if he's running the Mark 1 or Mark 2 operating system.

You smile at the robot and help him get on its legs, well, on its off-road wheel more like. It seems that the robot is friendly enough, it shouldn't be hard to make it ally with you. Still, it's hard to measure how strong it really is. The Securitron has a pistol holstered to the left side of its hip and a knife sheathed and bolted next to its face screen. You are pretty sure that like all other Securitrons it also has access to a small machinegun in one arm and weak laser Gatling in the other.

Despite of its rugged and military looking appearance it's hard to say if it is a mere Mark 1 or an upgraded Mark 2 model.

About fifty years ago several Securitrons in New Vegas were suddenly upgraded with a mysterious program of some kind that unlocked a great set of hidden weaponry that the robots had inside of them. What once were a mere police force suddenly became an unstoppable army equipped with the aforementioned weapons and also incredibly powerful grenade and missile launchers. On top of that it was an army that didn't need to eat or sleep, that never got tired, immune to radiation or disease, with a never faltering morale, and whose loyalty was absolute.

It's hard to say what really happened back in the day, it was far away from your home, and it happened more than five decades ago. Most of the soldiers that participated in the Mojave campaign are now old and mostly senile, and the ones that are lucid enough don't like to talk about it, the second battle for Hoover Dam was apparently brutal and none of the following novelisations and radio serial adaptations make justice to what really happened.

"So, are you a Mark One or Mark Two?" You ask him, as he tries his wheel and checks if it still works.

"Watcha mean?" I'm JC, not Mark. Are you... one of them special boys?"

You roll your eyes and ask again.

"What kind of weaponry have you got?"

"My trusty knife, my lovely pistol, and two nice machineguns inside of my arm, one shots lead, the other laser fire. I'm a killing machine, you will be safe with me."

"And... you don't have access to anything else?" You ask, helping him remove all the dust and cobwebs that cover its body.

"Well, sometimes I do weird stuff, I don't know, I blackout for a moment and when I go back to my senses there's plenty of dead bad guys. With the years I had many modifications on myself, some of them...quite unorthodox, that's why I sometimes go all crazy. Better stay away from me when that happens soldier. Don't tell that I didn't warn ya."

Perhaps it does access to the grenade and missile launchers, but its repairs over the years have blocked them they only get unlocked in very. Only time will tell.
>>
>>4570984
> Ask him about his past experiences

"So you fought the Legion uh? I've heard about them. I'm from California myself."

"A Novacalifornian heh? Nice, some of my best friends were from the Republic."

"Tell me more about your friends, about your life."

"Well, I was a mere Securitron, one of many. My memory is kind of foggy, but I think that I was fighting some Geckos for some reason, I was searching some kind of poker chip perhaps? Why would I be doing that? You know what? Whatever, it doesn't matters, the fact is that I ended receiving one too many knocks to the head. My personality module and several other circuits were damaged in the attack. I automatically shut down to save energy and I lied in the desert floor for a couple of years. Luckily for me the Geckos didn't see any point in destroying my already downed body, so they left me alone, but the scorching desert sun and fine sand ended being absolutely wrecking to my body and my exposed circuitry and servos. Hell it still aches whenever I try to crouch down."

The robot then does the motion of crouching down and the sound of painfully grinding and groaning metal comes from its back. Where these robots ever able to crouch anyway? You...you don't really think so.

"Anyway" It continues. "A merchant found my body half buried on the ground, tied my body to its pack brahmin and dragged me across the roads towards Flagstaff. I was repaired, repainted and reprogrammed, and sold as a combat robot. I don't know how the rest of my bot peers feel about being sold and traded around, but I hated it, I saw my sale as something...wrong? Well, I obeyed nonetheless, the person that bought me was a really great woman, a hell of a mercenary too, she taught me pretty much everything that I know, and we travelled the wastes helping people, making friends, scavenging treasures, earning coin, having adventures... but like all other organics, she ultimately became too old, and she retired. She freed me. She told me that I could stay with her during the rest of her years, but I couldn't see the most important person in my life wither away, I simply couldn't, so I ended hitting the road and continued doing what I do best, act as a bodyguard, mercenary, helper of the poor and the wrecked. It's a great life really."
>>
>>4570985

"It sure looks like."

It's a shame that working as journalist or a novelist seems something so impossible and distant now, you could make an entire book series with the stories that JC has lived.

"Yeah, well, not everything was great." He continues. "Some parts of the wastes were terrible, some people were pretty shitty as well, in San Francisco I worked with a mercenary called Kellogg. The money was great, but the guy was an absolute douche. I'm no coward, but after a couple of days I ended breaking the contract and flaking out. I simply couldn't stand him, shit, I think I should have killed him, it would have made the world a favor."

"Hey. I'm from San Francisco as well." You say with a smile, happy to meet someone that has been in your hometown as well.

"Well, I barely remember the city, only spent there a couple of days. Most of my life has been in Legion territory. I gladly fought those monsters, even if there was no payment involved. I... I don't remember a lot, my memory is...fragmented around here. I remember encounters against Legionnaires, Frumentarii... god, but they are all foggy and mixed... I don't know, most of my memories are really mixed now, I cannot tell you much more."
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>>4570987

> Ask him about himself.

"Well, then tell me about yourself." You then say.

"Well, my serial number is JC-DN10, but people simply call me JC. Sometimes when some enemies fight me they yell Jesus Christ! Is that perhaps what JC means? I don't know, I try not to think about me, I prefer to stay ignorant, what if JC means Jalapeño Cheese? Fucking hell, that would be terrible, ignorance is bliss I tell you what. Anyway, I'm a soldier, a mercenary, but I'm not a killer, I hate blood money, I help people that really need it and only ask in return a small reward, just enough to get by, I dislike greedy people. Huh, what else, I know how to play the acoustic guitar, so if you ever have a date and need a romantic touch hit me up, I can even sing like a real Mariachi, I worked with some deadly Mariachi luchadors in Nueva Aztlán. These mexicans are crazy I tell you, they somehow discovered how to distil a deadly mix of Tequila, Schoelt propane and Petró-Chico fuel that was absolutely explosive and deadly to humans, but that somehow managed to get robots piss out drunk. Ironically enough I remember those times with perfect clarity. Weird."
>>
>>4570989

> Tell him about the Sons of Kanaloa.

"You are pretty far from your home JC. Me too. We are in Hawaii."

"Hawaii? No way!"

"Trust me, I thought the same. Back in California I didn't think about this place at all. It seemed to far away to be real."

"I understand what you mean, I have spent a lot travelling, and the world is a very big place, some cities are so far away that you simply end ignoring them. Why think of those places and the problems that they face when there are similar problems much closer you know? It's hard, but you cannot help everybody... so how did we end here?"

"Well...it's hard to explain, but long story short. We are in Son of Kanaloa territory. I don't know much about them yet, I just managed to get one of their guards costume to avoid raising suspicion and I'm investigating around. The Sons have factories of all kinds, we are now in the warehouse of one of these factories. They use a lot of slaves, there have to be tens of thousands of them, an entire island full of slaves. They work them to death, and need a constant supply of people to work their factories. The Sons are powerful enough to import the slaves, they in fact prefer slaves from the continent because they cannot return home, they don't know area and they don't have any friends or family, and hence these poor devils are easier to terrorise and force into work. I was enslaved as well, but I managed to escape and now here I am, in Hawaii of all places. I'm trying to find clues as of why they intended to buy me, and perhaps a way of stopping all this madness."

You raise your mask and let JC see your face in a gesture of friendliness, but also to let him see the marks that the explosive collar left around your neck.

"Oh yeah, I'm with you. Hell yeah." The robot says, loudly revving its internal engine. "So, what are we going to do boss?"

> Sabotage the factories, weaken the Sons from the inside. Use any means necessary.
> Steal from the factories. Stockpile armor, weapons and ammunition and create a small rebel army that will put a stop to them.
> The countless of explosive collars in the island must be controlled by some form of radio beacon, when the collars get out of the radio coverage then they go off, keeping everybody inside of the island. If you find the beacon and destroy it you will release every slave at once, letting them free.
> Their leaders all live in the Ashcourt, go there and conduct assasinations, leave them leaderless and without the powerful figures that terrorised their lives.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4570990
>> Steal from the factories. Stockpile armor, weapons and ammunition and create a small rebel army that will put a stop to them.
Better improve our chances as much as we can before showing our hand.
>>
>>4570990
>> Steal from the factories. Stockpile armor, weapons and ammunition and create a small rebel army that will put a stop to them.
>>
>>4570990
> Steal from the factories. Stockpile armor, weapons and ammunition and create a small rebel army that will put a stop to them

We need weapons for our slave army, but we should also start finding out how to shut off the slave collar signal as we go along.
>>
>>4571149
>we should also start finding out how to shut off the slave collar signal as we go along.
We should also find a way to prevent the SoK from dropping lava on the slave population.
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>>4570990
>> Steal from the factories. Stockpile armor, weapons and ammunition and create a small rebel army that will put a stop to them.
>>
>>4571152
This too. Hopefully this can be our redemption arc after the fallen horizon fiasco.
>>
>>4571149
>>4571152
yes this. Rebel army is worth shit if you can just blow it up on the push of a button.
>>
Actually I have a strong feeling that no matter what we choose we'll end up getting everybody killed again lol. SOK have installed too many killswitches. The collars, the goddamn lava mound and who knows what else.
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>>4570990
> Steal from the factories. Stockpile armor, weapons and ammunition and create a small rebel army that will put a stop to them.

"Alright, what about stealing supplies and delivering them into the city outside of the factories? Perhaps we can over time start building a small resistance group, one capable of fighting their tyrannical leaders and tip the scale to the other side."

The robot thinks about it for a while and then with a grumble accepts it, giving you a thumbs up with his robotic hands.

"Stealing aint cool with me chief. But its for a good cause, and its not like we are stealing poor people, we will be returning them the items that they have made with their own blood and sweat. I will help you."

"Alright, you seem strong, can you carry a lot of cargo?" You ask.

"Yeah, I'm a pretty good pack mule, but I'm not sneaky at all, I'm more of a guns blazing guy. My engine isn't the most quiet one either. How do you plan to do this? I'll help you as best as I can."

> Search together for a sewage tunnel or underground pathway that connects Murkwater with Moltenspur, use it to transport the goods.
> Search around for a parked truck and try to wire it. Use the truck to sneakily transport things out of Moltenspur.
> Learn the times of the different Cable Cars, use them to deliver stuff and have JC waiting on the other side and ready to grab the packagae.
> Other options, write in.
>>
>>4571934
Sorry for the short update, I came really tired from work.
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>>4571934
>> Search together for a sewage tunnel or underground pathway that connects Murkwater with Moltenspur, use it to transport the goods.
>>
>>4571934
>> Search around for a parked truck and try to wire it. Use the truck to sneakily transport things out of Moltenspur.
>>
>>4571934

> Search together for a sewage tunnel or underground pathway that connects Murkwater with Moltenspur, use it to transport the goods.
if it exists it's the best option. we could also capture and interrogate a real guard for intel.
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>>4572027
Capturing a guard has a chance of blowing our cover. We could either try asking around with our costume which is risky but not as much, or find likeminded individuals for our rebellion that have been in this island longer so they can tell us what we should know.
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>>4572049
Slaves will not have the kind of info we need. It is imperative that we learn how to disable all possible kill switches before we start any shit to avoid getting everyone killed again. I'm thinking torture+murder but that's probably too dark for both the robot and Diego. Maybe hacking?
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>>4572089
>Slaves will not have the kind of info we need
Not necessarily slaves, it's likely that more people have escaped the SoK if we have managed to do it through pure luck, and they are sure to dislike the SoK at least as much as we do. About disabling the kill switches, yeah hacking will be the way to go.
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>>4572093
>it's likely that more people have escaped the SoK
Yeah but we are probably the only one retarded enough to come back.
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>>4572181
Well, we might be surprised. We technically didn't come "back" and maybe some of them haven't left.
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>>4571934
> Search together for a sewage tunnel or underground pathway that connects Murkwater with Moltenspur, use it to transport the goods.

You start to think for a while and then finally speak.

"Alright, there should be an extensive sewage system across the entire island. The coastline is full of drains and pipes that are constantly spewing toxic water and chemical waste, surely all the residue that these factories generate is pumped all the way back to the sea."

That has to be the reason of Murkwater's deplorable state. The city is surrounded by toxic fires in pretty much every direction, in one side there's the burning trash and pools of flammable fuel and chemicals in the ocean water, in the other the black smoke of the countless factory chimneys. On top of that there's also the polluted sludge that the industrial workshops generate as well, the sludge is supposedly pumped all the way into the ocean, but many times doesn't even reach its destiny as the broken, old and rusty pipes end leaking all of their shit everywhere across the city. Surely there are many other factors that add even more layers of disgusting trash and grime to the city, but those two have to be the main reasons.

"Fine by me." JC says. "Let's just hope that the manhole is big enough to accommodate me, and that the sewers aren't too irradiated for you."

Together you start to look around the warehouse and find that it is much bigger than you expected, you could fit an entire baseball stadium inside. The worst of all is that this particular building isn't one of the big ones around, during your cable car trip you had seen much bigger edifications in the distance. The architecture of Moltenspur is massive and brutalist, the factories and warehouses are made of an ugly mixture of iron, brick and concrete, their size is harrowing and vertigo inducing and they absolutely dwarf the small buildings of Murkwater, to the point where they block the sun and certain areas of the city don't receive any sunlight until almost midday.

You place a hand one of the walls and feel its rough touch. You are not an expert in architecture, but you can see that all of these buildings were made after the war, certain quirks in their construction indicate so, the quality and building techniques differ from the architecture from before the war. The mere thought of a unified group building all of these edifications is terrifying on itself, most of the wasteland is still trying to rebuild or squabbling in old ruins... the feat of covering an entire island in buildings and factories could even make the Sons of Kanaloa rival with the NCR in terms of power.
>>
>>4572203

No matter how far you go you two never see a human worker, the place is entirely staffed by robots and they seem to completely ignore JC and you. Your costume is good enough to fool their sensors, good thing that you bought it. After studying the layout of the warehouse for a while you find that this particular place connects with two factories, one on each side of the warehouse. One of the factories is focused in building robot pieces and assembling them and the other dedicated to robot repair and recycling. To ease the work of the two places their warehouse is completely connected and their inventory shared, giving you plenty of pieces and things to work with.

Perhaps you shouldn't raise an army, the last time something similar happened Fallen Horizon fell into a civil war. Perhaps you should simply start learning about robotic engineering and start building an army in the sewers, just under their noses. And then when the time comes raise them all from the underground and let them wreak havoc, avoiding unnecessary civilian deaths. I mean, it worked in New Vegas, the Securitron army absolutely wrecked anyone that got in their path.

"Hey. Over here!" JC suddenly says. You walk towards him and see a big metallic opened trapdoor that leads to a sewer full of running water underneath. The trapdoor is big enough to easily accommodate you two and judging by the many discarded fusion cores and other batteries that are lying around it was used to simply throw down the drained power sources into the drain. The area is full of lead acid and other extremely toxic liquids, and the water below seems to be pretty nasty as well, but it might be a good way of travelling between the two rings.

> Descend the trapdoor and explore the sewer, see where it leads, see if it can be used to access other areas.
> Fill your back and your pockets with valuable items, make JC carry as much as he can as well and head into the sewer, instead of explore try to go straight into Murkwater by following the course of the water.
> Other options, write in.
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>>4572205
>> Descend the trapdoor and explore the sewer, see where it leads, see if it can be used to access other areas.
>>
>>4572200
>>4572181
The Sons of Kanaloa value money over everything, their slaves can buy their liberty if they have enough money.

There are several cases of people who escaped from their slavery and later went to work for them. Remember how the guards acted in Murkwater? If they caught a shoplifter in the act then they beat the shit out of it, but if the thief escaped then the guards reprimanded the shop owners for not protecting their goods well enough. That's their philosophy, and they apply it to people as well. If a slave attempts to escape they will go after him, but if the slave is successful then it will have earned its freedom.

If we go and tell them our story they might not want to enslave us, we earned our freedom and we would have proven our worth as well. They might be interested in having us working for them as an independent contractor of some kind, doing missions for them and such.
>>
>>4572216
Yeah, but if they figure out we are making a rebellion then by that logic they'll try to stop us, right? And people who agree with their philosophy aren't really fit for our cause, I don't think we would accept their jobs knowing what they might do with our help.
And by that philosophy stealing their shit is the safest way to go, since anything we take is ours if we get away with it.
>>
>>4572234
>Yeah, but if they figure out we are making a rebellion then by that logic they'll try to stop us, right?
Of course, they will use everything on their disposal to crush the rebellion.

Protecting their "goods" is something they take pride on. Besides, if the rebels suffer a crushing defeat it will be a great reminder of the repercussions and what can happen to the slaves if they try to go against their Kanaloan masters.

>And people who agree with their philosophy aren't really fit for our cause, I don't think we would accept their jobs knowing what they might do with our help.
Also true. Besides JC wouldn't be happy if we work for them. I'm just saying that it can be a possibility in the future.

> And by that philosophy stealing their shit is the safest way to go, since anything we take is ours if we get away with it.
Yes, but just like we stole from them they can steal it from us. And they might not be as subtle as we are, they will go guns blazing if they have to. They will only leave it be if going after the stolen goods isn't worth it.

If the stuff that we steal is under their noses they will obviously go after them, if we manage to move them to another island they might crunch numbers and see that going after them isn't economically viable, and would be operating at a loss, and just ignore it.
>>
>>4572205
> Fill your back and your pockets with valuable items, make JC carry as much as he can as well and head into the sewer, instead of explore try to go straight into Murkwater by following the course of the water.
eyes on the prize
>>
>>4572241
+1
>>
Alright! Everybody roll 1d20! The d20 will be the number of valuable items that we find around! Best of three
>>
Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>4573045
A'ight.
>>
Rolled 18 (1d20)

>>4573045
>>
Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>4573045
>>
Rolled 9, 3, 88, 43, 25, 46, 29, 91, 57, 64, 80, 80, 37, 77, 22, 23, 64, 43, 53 = 934 (19d100)

>>4573130
>>
Highest roll id 19! JC will carry 10 items, we will carry 9.

> Roll 19d100!
>>
Rolled 97, 51, 85, 3, 69, 30, 66, 34, 18, 86, 66, 33, 85, 87, 72, 83, 7, 35, 73 = 1080 (19d100)

>>4573133
>>
>>4573175
>>4573132
Pretty good rolls so far!
>>
Alright, just came back from work, gonna get into writing soon.
>>
Sorry for the delay, I had to create the loot table from scratch:

Robotics Loot table:
https://pastebin.pl/view/f4b35d74

Our results:
97 = Self Destruct Mode: Nuclear Explosion
51 = Resonance Chamber Module: Doubles the Damage of Plasma Weapons.
85 = Asbestos Lining Module: Immunity to Afterburning. The Robot will still suffer damage from Pyro weapons but it will never catch of fire.
3 = Left Shoulder: Grenade Launcher
69 = Radiation Coils Module: Nearby enemies will suffer Radiation damage.
30 = Weapon: Nailgun
66 = Self Destruct Mode: Plasma Explosion
34 = Right Shoulder: Frenzy Gas Grenade Launcher
18 = Weapon: Cryo-Jet
86 = First Aid Module: Can heal injuries in living creatures.
66 = Self Destruct Mode: Plasma Explosion
33 = Weapon: Shishkebab
85 = Asbestos Lining Module: Immunity to Afterburning. The Robot will still suffer damage from Pyro weapons but it will never catch of fire.
87 = Improved Pistonic Muscle Module: Doubles the Damage of Melee Weapons.
72 = Anti-shock Padding Module: Immunity to Electric Paralysis. The Robot will still suffer damage from Tesla weapons but it will never become paralysed.
83 = Well Refined and Oiled Mechanisms Module: Doubles the Damage of Ballistic Weapons.
7 = Weapon: Flamethrower
35 = Weapon: Tesla Gun
73 = Weapon: Missile Launcher

Writing now.
>>
>>4572205
> Fill your back and your pockets with valuable items, make JC carry as much as he can as well and head into the sewer, instead of exploring try to go straight into Murkwater by following the course of the water.

Together you look across the different aisles of the warehouse. Despite being pretty far away from the city and nearly impossible to reach and steal from many of the crates and doors around are locked and accessible only to the bots, it seems that the Sons are extremely cautious and protective with their goods. Their defence measures are incredibly strong as well, you can also see an extensive network of turrets and speakers that would surely start respectively shooting and blaring a deafening alarm should any of the robots see through your disguise. Surely stealing to be able to buy some food is a thought that constantly crosses the head of the slave workers, but they cannot do it, if any of the workers dared to step inside of the warehouse it would be immediately obliterated to smithereens. Such are the twisted ways of the Kanaloan overlords.

Luckily for you every now and then you find an unlocked crate or doors and manage to snatch a thing or two around. Sadly, none of the gear that either JC or you end with is enough to build an entire new robot, but at least you might be able to store your stuff somewhere or make some nice coin by selling it in the black market. Among the gear that you obtain there are several powerful pieces of weapons and armor along with mods for them, all of these items are built to be used by robots and not human hands, so you cannot use them, but perhaps you might be able to find a blacksmith or engineer that could adapt them to be used by you.

JC and you grab as much as you can carry and suddenly hear a whistle in the distance. Slowly the rumble of a thousand feet walking ind and out and the approach of dozens of buses that will carry the workers to the border of Murkwater gets louder and louder. It's the shift change, the slaves are finally being allowed to go home to rest, but the foundry and forges do not rest, they never stop, a thousand workers leave and another thousand enter to take their places. This might be a good time to head out, the guards will be checking on the incoming and leaving slaves, focusing on that none of them stays behind or idle for too long.
>>
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>>4573388

You signal your new robot pal to follow you and together reach the trapdoor that leads to the sewers. You open the hatch and jump down into the great pipe below, the nasty water reaches your thighs, it carries with itself nasty detritus that burns and dyes your skin, whatever it nasty sludge is it looks like it might be toxic and harmful for your body, you better not spend too much time around. JC jumps down as well and soon enough you two head into the dark sewer ahead. After a while the darkness becomes too thick, JC decides to go ahead and get in the front, its TV screen like face at least illuminating a little bit the path in front of you.

It's hard to say for how long you walk, with each step you are forced to sink your feet into the burning slimy liquid that coats the tunnel. It doesn't only make walking a torturous effort, but its also chewing the boots and lower parts of your costume, ruining them as you advance more and more. The tunnel is so toxic that not even rats or radroaches move around, it is absolutely devoid of life.

In a bout of good luck you two end reaching the end of the tunnel and enter some kind of purifier station. The place is eerily empty and illuminated only by some weak industrial lights. Judging by the thick layer of dust and the many cobwebs that are around it has been empty for a long time, too much time perhaps. You look around and see that the place communicates several similar sewer tunnels and apparently was originally used to filter and destroy the detritus that they carried. Had they been working then Murkwater and the coastline would have been receiving somewhat clean water instead of toxic trash. Several of the nearby sewer tunnels are blocked and obstructed with a mixture of trash and grime, it doesn't looks too sturdy, you could open a way and see where it leads. There's also a ladder that ascends into the surface, its hard to say where it leads though.

> Use the ladder, go up. Get ready for combat just in case you are discovered or appear in restricted territory.
> Unblock the sewer tunnels, continue advancing, sooner or later you should reach Murkwater or the Ocean.
> Unblock the sewer tunnels and see if you can reactivate the purifier machine. This would help the city, but it might have unforeseen consequences.
> Other options, write in.
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>>4573389
>> Unblock the sewer tunnels and see if you can reactivate the purifier machine. This would help the city, but it might have unforeseen consequences.
Unforeseen... consequences?
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>>4573394
Yes Mr. yLcObR8Y.

This is fallout we are talking about. Grimm to the end.

Help the city if you want, but no good deed goes unpunished, you might end raising hell. Or...perhaps, you might simply unblock some old sewers and give clean water to a certain part of the town.

It's hard to say.
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>>4573389
>> Unblock the sewer tunnels and see if you can reactivate the purifier machine. This would help the city, but it might have unforeseen consequences.
Bring on the pain
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>>4573389
> Unblock the sewer tunnels, continue advancing, sooner or later you should reach Murkwater or the Ocean.
Again, eyes on the prize.
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>>4573389
>> Unblock the sewer tunnels, continue advancing, sooner or later you should reach Murkwater or the Ocean.
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>>4573389
>> Unblock the sewer tunnels, continue advancing, sooner or later you should reach Murkwater or the Ocean.
I'll change my vote >>4573394 it'll save us a roll and we should avoid unnecessary risks this early
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>>4573389
> Unblock the sewer tunnels and see if you can reactivate the purifier machine. This would help the city, but it might have unforeseen consequences.
Every action has unforeseen consequences unless you're a damn psychic. Screw it.
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>>4573389
> Unblock the sewer tunnels, continue advancing, sooner or later you should reach Murkwater or the Ocean
>>
Sorry guys but there wont be an update today. Perhaps there wont be tomorrow either.

I feel kind or burnout and lacking in inspiration. I will take a small break.

Thread has been archived in case it falls:
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/4541520/
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>>4574303
It's okay, see you later then.
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>>4574303
Take your time Axsi, no worries!
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>>4573389
> Unblock the sewer tunnels, continue advancing, sooner or later you should reach Murkwater or the Ocean.

Unblocking the different sewers and reactivating the purifier or whatever that machine might be would be the best option, but you have to be pragmatic, this is not the time to be a good person, you cannot stop and solve every broken thing that you might find on your journeys. You live in a broken world, finding broken stuff everywhere is just the way things are, sometimes you might have time to repair what you want and help making people's lives a little bit easier, but not today.

Had you chosen to spend your time cleaning the different sewers and tinkering with the purifier you wouldn't have only spent a lot of hours inside of a toxic pool of waste, but you would have also risked getting caught, there might be sensors down there, sensors that would have gone wild the moment you started pressing buttons. And even if you had the safety and the time, you don't really know if these sewer tunnels are really good for the people of Murkwater. It's true that the city is covered in leaky pipes that secrete poisonous sludge, but who knows, perhaps this particular sewers lead into the open ocean, and unblocking them wouldn't really do any good to the people.

Along with JC you simply walk to the nearest sewer entrance and start pulling the blockage of mud and trash. It seems that most of the debrii that acts like a plug comes from wet tissue and bandage like cloth. You try not to think about it, but you are literally getting your arms elbow deep in old shit and toilet paper. Your costume is absolutely stained now, and so is your robotic companion, your stolen goods are safely protected from the muck, but they might end with a foul stench attached to them, hopefully this won't end negatively affecting their monetary value. As you two pull more and more trash you finally end opening a way to the other side, as soon as the breach is created a putrid dustwind blows into your face, making you reek and almost vomit your stomach's contents. You cannot do that thought, you simply cannot afford to puke, its been a few hours since your last meal, and you don't know when the next one is going to be, you better keep your food in your insides for now. Pushing back your instincts and urges to vomit you continue pulling away the mud, shit and trash and ultimately manage to create an entrance big enough to be crossed.

The other side of the sewer is dark and fetid, the air smells stale and there are dozens of cockroaches and rats scurrying around, water again reaches your legs, but this particular liquid isn't as thick, among all the foul and pungent aromas there is a faint breeze, a very weak hint of salt in the air, you are near the exit, near a way out. Once more JC gets in front of you, its bright screen like face providing some illumination of your surroundings.
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>>4576141

There's an eerie silence surrounding you two, only the distant echoing drip of leaking pipes of high pitched squeak of hungry rodents can be heard from time to time. JC's internals are fairly silent as well, and only when you are truly close to him can you hear his circuits and mechanisms buzzing and humming.

"Want me to put on some music? I got a radio on meself." The robot suddenly chimes, apparently disliking the silence as much as you did.

"No. I don't think that would be a good idea."

There's one thing that you have noticed from Murkwater and Moltenspur. The Sons of Kanaloa make extensive use of radios and even TVs to transmit their news or broadcast their religious doctrine, and yet, despite the entire island being full of devices not a single person dares to tune in to a music station or change the channel. You think you know why, their explosive collars might go haywire and have some kind of weird and fatal reaction to the different electromagnetic waves. Perhaps they might even do this on purpose, they would program the collars to explode if they get near any device that transmits or receives a particular electromagnetic frequency that isn't what they use. This would force the slaves to listen to their propaganda and have no better choice, but it would also stop them from trying to use ham-radios to coordinate or ask fro help. Every single thing in this god forsaken island has been meticulously designed and made to make their people as miserable and indentured as possible.

Apparently the robot doesn't understands your reasoning, but he nonetheless accepts your orders and stays silent. He's not stupid, just ignorant, which is understandable has he has just woken up in a completely new world less than an hour ago. You don't know him too much yet, but you are pretty sure that if he turned on his radio and it somehow ended causing several explosive collars up above to suddenly go off and decapitate a dozen of poor innocent slaves then he would felt absolutely appalled and mortified by its actions, and the guilt would weight on him too much.

The sewers go on and on. Since you two are completely surrounded by a thick veil of darkness its hard to say how much you really advance. Sometimes the water is cleaner and easier to cross, another times you suddenly encounter a patch of thick trash covered sludge that takes far too long to overcome. As you are walking JC suddenly notices something to the right and quickly turns around and raises its arms at whatever caught its attention. Despite not truly knowing what had he seen you too raise your laser pistol, just in case.
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>>4576143

In silence the robot continues advancing towards what he saw, you follow him closely and to your surprise you suddenly find several candles. Using the red hot rebar bayonet of your laser pistol you light the candles and illuminate your surroundings. The light shows a makeshift house built from trash and whatever was at hand, the place is not half bad to be honest, it even has some working power and electric lights that illuminate with a nice warm glow and make the place even more cozy.

"Well, it isn't the Lucky 38's presidential suite, but it might be a nice place once we get it cleaned." JC says.

You look around and find a small bed, there's a skeleton half covered in it, almost all of its and clothes flesh gnawed over the years by the rats and roaches. You look at it and see that the neck vertebra and skull are absolutely shattered. It looks like this person was a slave, one that died in its sleep, when he or she didn't show up to work their bosses decided to activate its explosive collar, turning its head into an explosive piñata of teeth, blood and brain matter.

It's hard to say why this particular person lived down here, perhaps he simply hated how overcrowded and saturated the surface is and preferred the tranquillity that the sewers offered, perhaps this person carried within some mutation or disease that made it a pariah, and was exiled to the underground where the rest didn't have to see it. Whatever the reason its home has been unoccupied since its death, you might as well make it yours.

The room has a water collector in one corner, it collects water from a leaky pipe located above it, and slowly refills on its own. Another corner has some glowing mushrooms and other mutated crops growing on it. The food won't be healthy and won't nourish you completely, but eating from it might save you from starvation. There's also a broken fridge with a couple pre-war snacks, a can of cram and several dead rats.

At the end of the room there's a ladder that goes up, it apparently connects with Murkwater as you can hear steps and conversation the closer you get to it.

This place might become a nice safe house, and it's ample enough to store the objects that you might end looting from Moltenspur, but it still needs a lot of work to become a truly liveable space and not a disgusting hole to rest on.

> Continue exploring the sewers, see where they lead, you have to be close to the coast by now.
> Unload your stuff in the room and rest for a while, then go back into Moltenspur to loot even more gear.
> Get a change of clothes and sell your stuff in the city. Make as much money as you can.
> Get a change of clothes and go into the city, buy some Abraxo cleaner, some water and perhaps even a working washing machine and clean your Kanaloan Guard costume as soon as possible. It won't work if it looks dirty.
> Send JC to do a task, meanwhile do another thing. (Choose 2 actions, one for JC, another for you.)
> Other options, write in.
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>>4576145
> Send JC to do a task, meanwhile do another thing. (Choose 2 actions, one for JC, another for you.)
It's getting late right? JC can explore the sewers, I wanna wear the Shroud and sneak around, maybe find a way into Ashcourt for later use and steal stuff on the way back.
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>>4576158
>It's getting late right?
Hard to say. We came to the island during early morning, at dawn more or less. Time is hard to measure because our character doesn't has a clock with himself, and has spent most of the day underground.

It can be anytime between mid-day to late midnight.
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>>4576158
Alternatively, JC can clean the place a bit while we do the shopping.
Going all the way from Moltenspur to Murkwater through the sewers might not be the more optimal way to steal stuff, maybe we should get a vehicle.
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>>4576145
> Other options, write in.

Before we do anything let's carefully investigate the ladder and see where it goes. We could be right under a guardhouse for all we know.

If the location is safe, then we can use this as a base, if not we can continue exploring the sewers till we find a coastal exit
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>New Thread BOYS:
>>4578442



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