Fallout Sandbox: Close Encounter

Elara looked out across the waste cautiously. She could see the slumped form of the 'engineer' and the tracker on her Pipboy confirmed that the chip was still on his person, but something wasn't right.

This felt like a trap.

What had happened to the man?

If he had been grabbed by one of the many creatures than prowled the wasteland, the body would be gone. If he'd been got by raiders, the chip would be gone.

It didn't make sense.

Welcome back to my Fallout campaign using Five Leagues from the Borderlands and Fallout Wasteland Warfare to tell the story of my lone survivor Elara.

It's been a while since I posted for a variety of reasons (all good actually) but it's been even longer since I posted to this campaign and this is mainly due to getting sidetracked by other projects.

To cut a long story short, Elara and her sole companion, Robbin, made it to Haven City, but before going after the Super Mutants, they decided to search up some contracts to raise enough money to hire some help on their mission.

They actually turned up two very similar contracts - which I decided would have the same goal. The water purifaction chip used by the city had been absconded with by an engineer and the city authorities wanted it back quickly - they knew where it was, but the area was mysterious and dangerous, and no locals would risk it. Another shady individual was offering more for the chip and with more time flexibility. Elara opted to help the city, but having a fallback if she was delayed was helpful.

Travelling to the undiscovered location, Elara and Robbin tracked down the engineer's body lying undisturbed in the ruins of an old building.

***

Sensing a trap of some sort, Elara advance cautiously whilst Robbin covered her.

All she needed to do was get to the body, grab the chip and get away quickly.

Suddenly, a flash of energy shot through the air and Robbin saw small shape scuttling towards Elara.

He could only make out a silvery grey suit and a bulbous green head. What was it?

Whatever it was, Robbin decided it needed to die and opened fire. If he could keep its head down, Elara might be able to retrieve the chip quickly.

However. He quickly spied another green head popping up from the rubble. There were two of them, which meant the firefight was even.

Damn.

Energy blasts and bullets spat back and forth across the open ground where the chip lay. To entered the killing zone would be fatal.

Elara yelped and fell back as a splash of energy struck her arm. She dragged herself further into cover, but was out of the fight.

Almost simultaneously, Robbin's shot hit home and the enlarged cranium of one of the creatures exploded in a shower of green goop.

The second creature suddenly and inexplicably dashed forwards. Perhaps It sensed that it's blaster would be more lethal at close range, perhaps it wanted the chip.

Its thinking was completely alien to Robbin.

Robbin took a breath. The creature was getting closer and if he didn't get a good shot in, he and Elara were going to join the engineer in death.

He squeezed the trigger of his bolt-action pipe rifle...

The creature's head popped like a balloon and it's body slumped into a heap.

Robbin dashed over to where Elara was struggling to maintain consciousness.

After quickly administering a Stimpak, Robbin helped Elara up and they moved slowly towards the engineer, carefully scanning the ruins for more bulbous heads, but none appeared.

The creature's body was strange. It had spinly arms and weird three fingered hands. It was wearing an odd sort of hazmat suit and the blaster was of a design that neither of them understood.

The engineer was also strange. He'd clearly been hit by a blaster from the energy weapon, but his clothes bore a strange insignia of an 'E' surrounded by stars. Elara didn't know what that might mean and Robbin didn't have answers either.

Fortunately, the chip was still intact, and now they needed to get back to Haven quickly.

***

I don't fully remember all of the details of this game and the turns leading up to it. I do remember that I bought some armour which then got lost on the journey to the alien area. The journey took longer than expected and so Elara needs no delays getting back to complete her first contract.

I suspect that the second contract might be the Enclave, who I decided to start to bring into the campaign in a small way.

At least Elara has an alien blaster for her troubles.

Fallout Sandbox: Wilderness Walk

"You see," Scope continued, "Super Mutants aren't too hard to track visually, but they do leave traces other than a trail of blood and gore.

They disrupt background radiation in identifiable ways, if you know how to look and have the right tech."

He smiled, "fortunately for you, I can teach you how to look and tell you where the tech is."

He explained that the old RobCo factory just outside Haven City had the necessary sensor arrays but Elara and Robbin would need to bypass the security measures.

Scope studied their faces and pointed to the PipBoy on Elara's wrist, "I can programme that to do what's necessary when it's linked with the RobCo system, and I'll also programme it to download the data I need in return to get you back into your Vault."

Elara and Robbin looked at each other the back at Scope and nodded. If Scope was right, Robbin could rescue his brother and Elara could be one step closer to going home.

Following the mission to find the tech-salvager Scope Calder, Elara and her companions, Robbin the Scavenger and Marlene the Settler decided to head to Haven City before making for the RobCo factory.

The reasons for not going straight for the factory were twofold. Firstly, although Robbin had recovered from his rat bites, Marlene was still poisoned as I've decided that 'injured' on the recovery table means the character has a condition. Poisoned made most sense.

The second reason was that Robbin managed to injure himself again whilst foraging and would miss the next battle. Therefore I needed to get to a settlement and get my team healed before making for the factory.

Unfortunately, the travel table had other ideas.

I was once again 'waylaid by foes' and so another 'passing through' battle needed to be fought, this time in the 'wilderness' and on a 4'x1' table.

I was going to have to run the gauntlet.

To complicate matters, I was without Robbin (at least this would save on medical bills) as he was injured and bringing up the rear whilst the others scout ahead. Also, unless I found some healing, Marlene only had five rounds until she collapsed from the poison coursing through her system.

I was going to have to get moving.

The closest inhabitants were generated as a pair of Feral Ghouls. They are least should be slower in getting to me, but they had the punch to cause me real issues if they got close.

Two more inhabitants tokens lurked further down the table, waiting for Elara and Marlene to get closer before revealing themselves.

"That's the direction I saw movement in," said Elara. "We need to check it out, but it's probably best if we let Robbin rest that ankle of his."

Marlene nodded silently.

Elara had noticed that the settler she had saved had barely spoken for the last hour and was not looking too well. She tried not to think too hard about it. She could let them both rest, who knew what was lying in wait.

Suddenly the all too familiar shapes of Feral Ghouls lurched towards them. These seemed more robust that those Elara had encountered in the vault, but they were definitely suffering from the same dreadful affliction.

One of the stumbled forwards but to Elara's surprise suddenly ducked behind a ruined wall.

Could they think? Were they sentient? Elara's mind raced.

Two loud shots boomed out of Marlene's pipe-rifle and the still visible ghoul crumpled into a heap. Marlene was one hell of a shot!

Seeing no reason to wait around for the hidden ghoul to jump out at her, Elara darted forward, trying to draw the creature into Marlene's deadly sights.

As she ran, she tripped on what seemed to a pipe jutting out of the ground and a jet of noxious fumes billowed out, enveloping her and sending her Pipboy's Geiger counter into overdrive.

As Elara coughed a spluttered in the toxic fog, she turned just in time for her streaming eyes to see the ghoul staggering towards her...as planned.

Marlene's pipe-rifle sounded and a chunk was blown out of the creature's side, but it still came one.

Narrowly avoiding it's clawlike hands, Elara managed to bring her pistol up beneath its chin and blow the ghoul's head clean off.

Her head still spinning, Elara pushed on. Looking over her shoulder she saw Marlene following.

Elara was glad she had the support. Marlene's deadly aim was reassuring, although the way her shoulders were sagging and her head dropped were equally worrying.

A rattling and whirring sound drew Elara's attention back to the mission at hand as a battered pre-war Protectron lumbered slowly into view.

The robot was walking steadily forwards and didn't seem to have registered their presence.

Elara hoped it would stay that way. She was not sure that either of them were in a fit state to take on the Protectron's deadly lasers.

The robot continued trundling forward, as if on some preprogrammed route. Marlene was right in front of it, leaning on a pile of rubble got support, but the Protectron carried on past, oblivious.

Looking further ahead, Elara though she saw a larger shape emerging from behind a burned out car, but breathed a sigh of relief when it turned out to be just a knot of tumbleweed caught on the fender.

A noise behind her caused Elara to look back.

The Protectron had stopped and was apparently facing her. Had it recognised a threat?

After several tense moments Elara realised that the robot had responded to the noise, just as she had.

It was the noise of a body falling to the ground.

Marlene lay in a heap by a ruined wall. Whatever she'd been struggling with had finally overcome her.

Elara didn't know what to do. She had no medical supplies and they were far from help. With Robbin injured, she would not be able to move Marlene, let alone get her to Haven City.

At least the route was clear. Well, it would be when that damned robot stopped staring at her.

***

For the second time, and Into the Wasteland scenario begins with life-threatening danger and peters off into tense, anti-climactic exploration.

I will admit that with Robbin injured, Marlene poisoned and Elara on half health after drawing a danger card from searchable token, I thought the mission would be impossible to complete.

However, I got very lucky drawing a Battered Protectron that did not engage and the third inhabitant token turning out to be nothing.

On the other hand, I got less lucky when the recovery roll resulted in Marlene's death. It's a shame because she never really got into the storyline and her accuracy was a massive boost.

To add insult to injury, she broke the bolt-action pipe-rifle in her fall, so I only managed to retrieve her measly switchblade.

The only upside of this mission was that the News Travels roll turned up a contract when we get to Haven City. Maybe this was the reason Marlene was heading in that direction and Elara found the details on her body. I'll wait and see what theduce turn up before making a final decision.

Elara and Robbin look like they are going to have to face the defences of the RobCo factory without any backup.

Fallout Sandbox: On the Trail

"I'm coming with you, you know."

Robbin looked at Elara quizzically. She smiled.

"You're obviously thinking of going after these Super Mutants, or whatever they're called, and given how close we came to being killed by just one of them, you will need some help."

Robbin looked about to protest. Elara interrupted him before he could raise an objection, "look, You've saved my life twice already, and it's not like I've got anywhere better to be. I just have one question before we head off."

Robbin looked stunned, "if it's about where we are heading, I know this guy, Scope, a tech salvager, who might no how to track..."

Elara interrupted again, "no, not that. I just need to know...why does your brother have a Minigun in his tool box?"

After the last game in my Five Leagues/Fallout campaign, I knew that Elara and Robbin would be going after the Super Mutants that have taken his brother Indy, and I knew that would mean going after the quest giver that appeared as a result of the News Travels roll.

Calder Havelock—known in Scrap Hill as “Scope”—is a reclusive pre-war tech salvager and signal tracker. He comes and goes from the town, but Robbin had seen him a few days earlier in the foothills of Rockwind Ridge and figured that if they moved quickly, the pair should be able to catch up with him and get his help locating Ravage's Super Mutants.

However, before they set off, there wwre a few things to do in Scrap Hill first:

 - Elara sold the Minigun and flip lighter they had found;

 - they also engaged in 'hard work' for 10 caps, which I reasoned was a bounty from the sheriff on bringing in a Super Mutant head;

 - Elara then used some of the caps to upgrade her profile to Sole Survivor (which is how I'm addressing levelling up).

 - I equipped Robbin with the board and Elara took the spare bolt-action pipe-rifle as a back up.

With no encounter or location to explore when they caught up with Scope, there was just the small matter of a Travel roll...which naturally turned up a 'waylaid by foes' result.

This result plays completely into the format of the Into the Wasteland scenario generation system, which is designed for random encounters.

The only changes I made were pre-selecting the 'passing through' purpose card, reducing the range of possible locations and having the number of searchables and inhabitants due to the size of my party.

The goal was for Elara and Robbin to get to the other end of the board, dealing with any hostile inhabitants. Most of these were general wildlife, but there was a possibility of coming across a Battered Protectron, a Radscorpion or even a Deathclaw.

As per the Into the Wasteland rules, the closest inhabitants were immediately generated to be somewhat oxymoronic 'protective' Rabid Mole Rats.

As you can see, I'm using alternative models. Given that I've just encountered Giant Rats for the first time in Fallout: New Vegas, I'm really pleased how appropriate my proxies look. Let's hope they are as non-threatening as their digital inspiration has proven to be.

Elara and Robbin looked out carefully across the ruined buildings. Elara could swear she had seen movement amongst the rubble.

She'd already learned the value of caution, and was determined to not get herself hurt again by rushing in without thinking.

Suddenly Robbin was knocked backwards by huge rats that appeared as if from nowhere, desperately trying to bring his pipe-rifle up.

Before she could respond, more of the critters leapt out at Elara, who ducked and dodged, feeling eerily calm as she put a 10mm round through first on rat, then another, then another.

She briefly pondered why nuclear fallout seemed to have made everything bigger except humans.

As she put her boot through the skull of the final rats that was troubling her, Elara turned to see Robbin getting the worst of his fight.

Without pausing for breath, she raised her pistol and ran to his aid.

As she engaged the rats, Robbin seemed to sag. He was clutching his arm and the colour was leaving his face.

Concern growing in her, Elara fired into the monstrous rats, and kept firing until all that was left was twitching fur.

Robbin had managed to prop himself up against a wall, but something was very wrong. The would in his arm had already gone green. There was clearly something foul in the rats' bite.

"Stay here," she said, "I need to check these ruins are clear before we try to move you."

Robbin, seemingly exhausted, just nodded.

Advancing cautiously, Elara found no more rats, even when she encountered what appeared to be their nest. It was empty, save for a switchblade knife, which gave Elara a moment's pause before she pocketed it.

Suddenly her attention was drawn to a quiet groaning from behind a rusted vehicle.

Curled up by a wrecked Phoenix Fizz machine, Elara found an injured woman clearly suffering from more similar, but more advanced, symptoms to Robbin.

Unable to help her immediately, Elara promised to return for the woman after she'd scouted the area for further threats.

However, smdespite jumping at shadows a few times, not further creatures materialised, and shortly Ekar returned to Robbin and the woman, hauled them both to their feet, and the trio made their way extremely slowly towards their destination.

***

After a very rough start, I got extremely lucky with no further inhabitants showing up for what remained of the game. On the other hand, very few items were retrieved.

I made the decision to recruit the wounded farmer, Marlene, as a Settler, and equip her with the spare bolt-action pipe-rifle and the switchblade. We might learn more of her story later, but for now she's sticking with Elara, mainly because she's still poisoned.

Fortunately, Robbin made a full recovery.

The other reward for completing this mission was reaching Scope Havelock and being given what I shall now be referring to as the main quest (as a way to differentiate between this multi-part odyssey and the card-based quests like Robbin's Revenge mission.

Scope stared greedily at Elara's Pip-boy. Once he had seen that she was a Vault-Dweller, the old man had been only too happy to provide Robbin and Marlene with anti-venom, offer a solution to tracking the Super Mutants and even help Elara to gain re-entry to Vault 26.

His price: that Elara run a few potentially hazardous errands for him, and, when the time came to return to the Vault, she would take him with her.

With no real alternative, Elara had agreed to his terms.

Fallout Sandbox: Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

Elara trudged slowly behind Robbin as they made their way down from 'Rockwind Ridge' and towards an unpleasant sounding settlement know as 'Scrap Hill'.

Robbin was a scavenger and wandering merchant who had driven off the ants surrounding Elara and dragged her out of danger. He had nursed her back to health and patiently escorted her back to Vault 26, only to discover the door sealed, seemingly for good.

She suspected he had hoped to gain access to the Vault, but now seemed happy for her company and talked openly about subjects she had absolutely no frame of reference for.

Apparently, organisation known as the 'Brotherhood' had destroyed a group of raiders by the 'Old Road', which seemed to be good news.

As she listened and walked, Elara considered her options. With no home to return to and no idea what lay in front of her, sticking with Robbin seemed the best course of action if she wanted to survive in this strange new world.

***

As you have no doubt realised, after the last game, I decided that the passing stranger who wandered by Elara's fight with the ants was the best bet for keeping her alive, and I used most of the items she had gained to add a Scavenger to her party.

However, there was a cost to her failure with the ants. Elara has lost her damaged hazmat suit, which makes sense given the mauling she took.

I also decided how to proceed with my campaign. Having recently picked up the Into The Wasteland expansion, I am going to merge it with Five Leagues from the Borderlands (also from Modiphius).

Five Leagues from the Borderlands will provide the overarching narrative and campaign mechanics, whilst Into The Wasteland will help with scenario creation. I'm not going to go into too much detail, but I'm tweaking both sets of rules as necessary to make it work.

The first step was the creation of a campaign map:

Based on my initial rolls the area includes the formerly industrial Haven City, two settlements: Scrap Hill and Rustown, and a small outpost optimisticly known as Greenleaf.

There are several other areas of note. Rockwind Ridge is a mountainous region containing several cave systems along with Vault 26. To the east are the Rad Wastes, whilst to the south is the Wasteland and Mirelurk Lake (ominously named, I know, but I do have the models). Linking the settlements is the Old Road.

The Five Leagues campaign focuses on the eradication of three major threats. Based on my collection, my threats are: Raiders troubling the Old Road, Super Mutants lurking in the Rad Wastes and an Enclave detachment that has recently moved into the area. It's all very Fallout 3.

The Brotherhood of Steel are also at large, but not viewed as a threat, especially as the first 'News Travels' roll saw them reducing the threat level of the Raiders.

Travelling to Scrap Hill was largely uneventful and gained Elara and Robbin a Story Point, and the following day the pair met the locals and gained another. With no adventures immediately arising, I decided to spend a Story Point to purchase a Quest card - this is my adapted mechanic for Story Points, which can also be used to gain Explore cards.

I drew 'Revenge', which involves an abducted brother (probably Robbin's). Missing family members are in Fallout's DNA, and so I opted to immediately head out on patrol to begin the hunt at the family farm and ran smack bang into Super Mutants.

At least it's clear who has Robbin's brother and why.

The objective was clear. Eliminate any Super Mutants still around the farm and gain information on where 'Indy' is.

***

Despite the clear day, the empty mutfruit fields signalled trouble before they reached Indy's farm.

Robbin noticed immediately, drawing his weapon and indicating that Elara should do the same.

A terrifying roar echoed in the distance, as if something had spotted their approach.

Elara, however, saw nothing ahead and advanced into the ruins in the edge of the farm.

Noticing something glinting in the dirt, she spent a few seconds digging it out to reveal a small golden box. 

Having only recently learned that the local currency was 'caps', she figured she might be able to sell it.

A snarling sound caused her to look up.

She been to distracted and gone too far too quickly and looked directly into the ferocious eyes of some hugely muscled beast.

It looked dog-like, but she struggled to take in any details beyond the the massive slavering jaws.

The creature bounded over the rubble and was on her immediately. Elara's hands pushed desperately against its powerful neck, trying to keep those teeth from her face.

A shot rang out and the hound was momentarily knocked sideways. Glancing up, Elara saw Robbin, who had advanced more cautiously, with his smoking weapon aimed towards her attacker.

Seizing her moment, Elara broke away; the hound's knife-like teeth painfully dragging along her thigh, causing her to stumble.

Bringing up her pistol, she fired. The bullet thumped into the yelping beast's flank but failed to drop the hound.

The wounded hound once again leapt for Elara, but with it's attention focused on Elara, it failed to see Robbin charging. He brought the stock of his rifle thumping into its head and the beast slumped to the floor.

An exhausted Elara looked up and was horrified to see a massively muscled green giant bearing down on her. She scrambled away from the terrifying sight, firing wildl.

Elara now understood what Robbin had meant when he'd used the term 'super mutant'.

"You humans! So stupid and so weak!" bellowed the creature in a coarse grating voice, "could not stop Ravage taking farmer, will not stop Zap taking you!"

The mutant, apparently called Zap, barrelled into Elara, raining blows down on her. Again. Robbin attacked from the side but Zap seemed intent on smashing Elara into the ground.

As she fell beneath its mighty blows, Elara saw Robbin fighting for his life, managing at the last moment to connect his rifle butt with the mutant's skull, caving it in and ending the fight.

***

A victory. A narrow one, but still a victory. It got even more squeaky bum time when I rolled for Elara's injury and she died. However, Five Leagues from the Borderlands has a range of one time bonuses you can use, and so I used up my 'Lucky Break' and was able to ignore that roll. I am going to have to do something about her survivability and lack of caution.

I gained 3 Adventure Points for defeating some Super Mutants, and, using the Into the Wasteland rules for loot, I kept half of the remaining searchable counters on the board - gaining the Super Mutant's bolt-action pipe-rifle and board, and a minigun to go with the Flip Lighter Elara found in the dirt.

The 'News Travels' stage of the turn brought up a quest (the Five Leagues sort, not the Fallout sort) which I would need to travel to in the next two turns. It might make sense to kill two birds with one stone and combine this with the second stage of the Revenge quest cabrd in my hunt for Indy.

One thing that is certain is that that I've decided that the final part of the Revenge quest must involve Super Mutants and their leader Ravage. To make that happen, I might need to deliberately attack their camp in the Rad Wastes.

Which should be fun.