Escape Vault 99: A Dungeonalia Inspired Fallout Adventure

Main Quest: Discover the Secrets of Vault 99
(Optional) Find and Search the Overseer’s Terminal for Information
(Optional) Find and Persuade a Vault Dweller to Give you Information

“That was close, TOO close.”

Lucie and Leeland spent a while in the clinic recovering from their ordeal and speculating as to what on earth was going on.

“I just don’t understand,” said Lucie absently. “We left the vault, yet we emerged into this place, which looks a lot like another vault.”

“It’s definitely a vault,” replied Leeland. “You can tell from the construction. It’s basically the same as our vault, only it looks a lot older.”

“But how can that be?” quizzed Lucie. “We went in through that vault door. None of this was here then.”

“Do you remember much about our admission to the vault though?” asked Leeland. “It was all so rushed. The threat of the bombs. Sirens wailing. We were transported in the back of that truck. It had no windows… Is it possible the last part of the ride was indoors?”

“I suppose,” agreed Lucie. “But I definitely remember the door closing behind us before we were taken through the corridors to the briefing room.”

“Me too,” replied Leeland. “And do you remember what you could see through the door as it closed?”

“I couldn’t see anything, it was just bright light,” remembered Lucie. “Presumably because it was darker inside?”

“A bright light,” repeated Leeland. “Like the one we emerged into earlier…”

The confused pair spent a while longer nursing their wounds and speculating about what was happening, but they couldn’t figure it out. Why is there another vault? Were those ghoul things PEOPLE? Is there a way out? All questions that would not be answered by sitting still, but they decided it would be best to spend the night in the clinic to ensure they were fully recovered before pushing on.

Neither Leeland nor Lucie slept very well but come morning they were rested and healed enough to continue. The exited the clinic through its other door and emerged into some form of storage room or work room, it’s purpose was hard to tell. The ceiling had collapsed making it dangerous to pass through but Lucie made it through unharmed. She thought she heard a gruff voice saying “I’m going to eat you”, but Leeland told her she was imagining things. [A failed lockpick test on one of the searchables revealed a ‘Danger’ card called ‘Dinner Time’ which would have been bad news if there was a Super Mutant nearby, but instead it was just the sound of a voice!]. Leeland also found a weapon under some pieces of collapsed ceiling – a flamer! Any damage to the weapon looked to be purely cosmetic, and this weapon could be useful if any more of those giant roach swarms turned up! Unfortunately his digging around to extract the flamer meant that another piece of ceiling came down and gave him a fresh injury. Nothing fatal [1 point of damage], but not a good start to the day! They pushed on into the next room. It seemed to be some form of computer room, with three large floor standing terminals which appeared to be partially working. There were indeed more radroaches between them and the next door.

Seeing the perfect opportunity to test his new flamer, Leeland fired but missed the roaches completely. This weapon would take some getting used to. Learning from the previous fights with these creatures, Leeland drew his stun baton while Lucy fired in through the window. Seemingly better in hand to hand combat than wielding a gun, Leeland set about the roaches with his baton and Lucie followed suit. They finished off the roaches but not before Leeland had taken a couple more bites in the process [now carrying 4 points of damage]. They searched the room before moving on. A successful hack on one of the terminals opened a hatch in the wall revealing a compartment containing a Combat Rifle. Definitely an upgrade from the Pipe Rifle. Having survived the fight unscathed, Lucie took the lead in opening the door to the next room. A maintenance room. The room was empty, and Leeland followed Lucie in. They found a stimpak in an open crate but otherwise nothing of note. Lucie suggested that Leeland use the stimpak straight away but he assured her he would be fine for now.

The opposite door opened into a corridor. And there were people in that corridor. And those people, on seeing Lucie and Leeland in the doorway, immediately opened fire! [I finally rolled a 3 on the ‘occupant’ roll and this meant the pair had now discovered real people who could help them in their quest. Unfortunately these people are hostile until they can be subdued. For my scenario I decided that once both have been taken to half health, the crew can take Charisma checks to attempt to persuade the enemies to stop firing and talk.]

Both of the hostiles were wearing Vault 99 jumpsuits, but Lucie and Leeland recognised neither. One, male, looked to be a security officer, he was armoured and carried a shotgun and a baton. The other, female, looked to be regular vault personnel, but she was still armed with a 10mm pistol.

“GET THEM!” shouted the security officer to his companion. “DIE, CODDLED SCUM!”

Coddled? Lucie and Leeland had no time to wonder what they meant by that, as bullets were zinging all around them. Leeland could see that their hands were shaking, making it hard to get a true aim. They were clearly petrified and firing wildly. This was good news. Leeland called on his training, steadied his gun and fired back.

“Aim and fire Lucie!” Leeland called to his partner. “We can take them.”

The woman who was less combat trained was downed relatively easily, she was out of the fight and hunkered in the corner of the corridor, while her companion continue to fire. With two against one, and the security officer still firing wildly, Leeland and Lucie quickly gained the upper hand, hitting him twice and nearly putting him down. [The threshold to be able to persuade the vault dwellers was quite easily reached in the end, but a Charisma check was still required. Lucie drank her moonshine which adds +2 to a Charisma roll, with some side effects that she’d worry about later, but it made the test successful!]

“STOP!” Shouted Lucie. “Leeland hold your fire! You, security man, we don’t want to hurt you, we just want to talk!”

“OK, OK!” Cried the security officer, dropping his weapon and holding up a hand. “We’re done, you win.”

Leeland made to lay his gun on the floor in an act of peace but the security officer stopped him. “I would keep that close if I were you. There are all kinds of horrors in this vault – no thanks to your lot. If you are unarmed you are dead.”

The woman was badly hurt but still alive and crawled over. “I….w-want answers….t-too. You t-talk….we t-talk..” she hissed through her pain.

The conversation started tentatively but it soon became clear that each party was as confused as the other, and the last thing any of them wanted was a fight. The vault security officer was called John, and his companion was called Kate. Due to Kate’s injuries, John led the conversation but Kate chipped in as and when she could. Leeland and Lucie learned that they had actually been living in a vault within a vault. John and Kate, along with their ‘outer vault’ compatriots were aware of the ‘inner vault’, but they were told that those that dwelled within were ‘special’ and one of the functions of the outer vault was to protect them. Hence the “coddled” moniker that had been shouted during their fight, a term that was apparently common parlance among outer vault residents. The outer vault had no idea who was living in there or why they were ‘special’ but it was always a source of aggravation for the outer vault inhabitants. Speculation ranged from the inner vault dwellers being high ranking government officials through to being deranged criminals who needed to be kept separate from society. The latter theory made no sense, given the nuclear bombing and resultant fallout would be an ideal way to rid the planet of such folk but, without answers, all theories gained traction.

John and Kate learned from Lucie that there was actually nothing particularly special about the inner vault inhabitants. They were all local to the area, being residents of Independence, Kentucky. It came as a surprise that Lucie and Leeland had absolutely no knowledge of the outer vault, and had assumed that the entirety of Vault 99 was the part that they inhabited.

It wasn’t until they had chatted for a while that the one staggering difference in worldview became apparent. Leeland and Lucie believed the year to be 2079. The Great War happened in 2077, and they had been sealed in the Vault for almost 2 years. However John and Kate insisted that the year was 2287, a full 210 years after the Great War. Initially each party assumed the other was lying, and the trust between them dipped significantly. But after a time each came to accept the other’s view, leaving them all thoroughly confused.

The conversation turned to the topic of their respective circumstances that had led to them meeting in this corridor some half an hour earlier. Lucie and Leeland explained that they had been awoken to the wail of the alarm and the instruction to exit the vault. They were surprised to find themselves emerging into the outer vault, having fully expected to be greeted by an irradiated wasteland. They then described their adventure up to this point, including the horrors they had seen along the way. John was not surprised by anything that was described, but understood how this might have been frightening for ‘coddled’ dwellers for whom the term was seeming more and more relevant!

John’s story was of great interest to Lucie and Leeland. He described how he had been born in the vault and had grown up as part of a small, but self-sufficient community in which each person took on a vocation for the good of the society. There was an elected Overseer in charge, but all of their instruction and direction came via electronic communiction from Vault-Tech headquarters. Vault-Tec were not hugely forthcoming with detail about the world outside, but they had told the first Overseer that the war against the Eastern threat had been won, but that due to the nuclear strikes, the world outside was irradiated and unsafe. Vaults would be informed when it was safe to leave. Subsequent Overseers had received messages to the same effect, fairly regularly until about 25 years ago. The incumbent Overseer was becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of communication and had apparently sent more and more frequent, more and more demanding emails to Vault-Tec requesting an update. None were forthcoming.

Then one day, about a month ago, the door to the inner vault opened suddenly and unexpectedly, and the inhabitants poured out brandishing weapons and dealing out extreme violence. They tore through the outer vault, looting any weapons or supplies they could find, and fighting anyone who stood in their way. They made it to the main vault entrance with as much loot as they could carry. Somehow they got the door open – they must had had some kind of code or hack for the door terminal. Then they disappeared into the world outside.

The outer vault inhabitants were stunned, but given they had no way of closing the outer vault door, they quickly realised that the outside air was breathable, and started to venture outside. Some never returned, and those that did recounted stories of the extreme horror of the post-war world. There were some people, and things that looked like they once were people. There were mutated creatures, and areas that were still highly irradiated. There was very little in the way of food, and no organised society that was in any way discernible. People fighting the world, and each other, in a desperate bid to survive. John and Kate were among those who had never been outside, instead feeling that they were better off in the relative safety of the vault until they had a better plan.

Leeland and Lucie listened to John with fascination and horror in equal measure. They couldn’t understand what they were hearing, any of it really, but particularly the part about this uprising from THEIR vault happening a month ago..

“When we went to bed two nights ago, everyone was still there. We saw them at dinner.” explained Lucie. “It was yesterday morning that we were woken by the alarms and found everyone gone?”

“Thirty d-days,” reinforced Kate. “Th-thirty l-long days… With that d-door open, and no way to c-close it, all kinds of horrors c-could g-get in.”

“We’ve been fighting them ever since,” finished John. “Hoping to keep the vault clear until we can find a way to keep them out. Or, until one of the others returns with news of somewhere safe to go.”

Leeland and Lucie couldn’t take it all in. None of it made sense. They sat in silence for a very long time..

After some time had passed, Lucie spoke up. “We need answers. The Overseer’s room, sorry, OUR Overseer’s room was trashed. There were no clues in there. Maybe if we can get to your Overseer’s room John, we can get some answers?”

“You’d better be good at computers,” replied John. “There are terminals in there but the security on them is top grade. We haven’t been able to crack them at all”.

“You are looking at the Coddled’s Head of Security and Head of Science,” said Leelend, brightening. “Get us there and between us we’ll see what we can do!”

John was hesitant at first, in particular not wanting to leave Kate, but she confirmed she’d be ok and would stay hidden while John showed them where the Overseer’s office was. She asked him to find some medical supplies while he was at it, and he saw the sense in that. So John, Leeland and Lucie made for the door..

Main Quest: Discover the Secrets of Vault 99
(Optional) Find and Search the Overseer’s Terminal for Information
[COMPLETED] Find and Persuade a Vault Dweller to Give you Information

The crew searched the corridor before they left and found a military grade circuit board. No obvious use, but it might be useful as a trading item. John pointed out a sign on the wall which pointed to a Research Lab, confirming the Overseer’s office was further in that direction. Before that there was a corridor, and indeed through a side window they could see the Overseer’s room, but there was no direct access from here. Lucie searched the corridor, and whilst struggling to open a stuck compartment, dropped her gun causing it some damage [-2 penalty to hit from now on]. The compartment contained a vial of anti-venom balm though and therefore, given her earlier near-death experience, Lucie was overall quite pleased. Leeland also searched [the corridor “incident” was an extra searchable item] and found an undamaged camera. Again, no obvious practical use, but it might be worth something.

John took the lead into the Reseach Lab, opening the door and peering in. “Oh no,” he exclaimed. “Radscorpion!”

“Is there no other way round?” asked Lucie, touching the bump on her hand where the amputated piece of a similar creature had poisoned her earlier.

“No, this is the only way.” replied John. “We’re going to have to deal with it. We killed one before but there were more of us then. They are weaker against energy damage – use your stun batons!”

Lucie administered the vial of Med-X that she was carrying. The label said it prevented damage [+2 armour] and gave immunity to poison [for 3 turns]. She felt more confident having used it, and charged into the radscorpion, dealing it actual damage with her stun baton and stunning it in the process. The radscorpion shook itself to clear the stun and then lashed out as Lucy, but thankfully it missed. Leeland followed in, his first strike also doing damage to the creature but his second swing was wide of the mark. John couldn’t get close to the creature and didn’t want to shoot in case he hit one of his new found allies, so he moved to a stronger position in case he could get a clear shot in future.

The radscorpion seemed to sense that Leeland was wounded from a previous fight and targeted him with his claws. He hit Leeland in the arm, doing him damage and Leeland could feel the poison seeping in. “Ouch!” he shouted. Lucy then attacked again and, outnumbered, the creature succumbed to the blows.

“Great work!’ yelled John. “Stay away from that thing though, it’s dangerous even when dead.”

Lucie knew this all too well and stayed well away from the crumpled mass of chitin and poisonous limbs. Unfortunately, her ability to find any danger in any place came to the fore again and she was stunned and took radiation damage from something nasty in a drawer [a ghoul hand and a failed luck test]. “This place is determined to kill me.”

Leeland had better luck searching in the lab and found a magnifying visor. “This will be handy for picking locks.” he noted. He also decided it was a good idea to use his stimpak before entering the next room, and Lucy threw him the anti-venom balm to cure his poisoning. [Leeland took a damage from the poison on activation, so even after using the stimpak he was still carrying one point of damage].

John led the way into the next room, the Overseer’s office, which thankfully was deserted. The crew rifled through the drawers and cabinets, and found some more anti-venom balm and some industrial solvent but no clues. Confident that there were no nasties lurking in the room, Leeland set about the terminal. Knowing a thing or two about computers and their various encryption methods, Leeland eventually bypassed the access code and logged in. “I’m in!”.