Act One

Scene One

Open this adventure by reading or paraphrasing the following text:

The man is Scribe Galen Portno . In his mid-seventies, his days of rushing off to adventure are well behind him, and even when he was young he preferred tinkering with pre-war tech to physical exploits. His suit of T-60 power armor is one example.

The armor has been jury-rigged and modified many times over the years to Galen’s personal preferences, including a biometric lock keyed to the scribe himself – only he can operate it.

Scribe Galen introduces himself to the player characters (PCs):

The scribe gives the PCs a quick rundown of the situation. When Galen received the distress beacon from the downed Vertibird he sent for reinforcements, but they are still days from arriving. Seeing no other option, the old scribe loaded up with (far too much) gear and set out. When he encounters the players, he seizes on the opportunity for help. PCs may examine Scribe Galen INT + Medicine Test with a difficult 1 to assess his condition.

Success reveals that his eyes are cloudy with cataracts, and his hands tremble slightly due to his advanced age. Even if he’d drawn his laser pistol, he probably would have missed by a country mile. He’s clearly in no shape to be traipsing about the Wasteland.

Failure means the PCs don’t spot anything notable beyond the man’s significant age and frail build.

A PC who spends a moment studying Scribe Galen can make a PER + Survival test with a difficulty of 1 to assess his comically large traveling pack. A success lets the PC realize that Scribe Galen has stuffed veritably everything but the kitchen sink into his pack; a rookie move that would leave him over-encumbered and a victim to exhaustion within a day. He’s clearly inexpe rienced at surviving the Wasteland.

Scribe Galen is a gregarious, chatty fellow. He shares the following details with the PCs, often stopping to sip water and “rest his bones.”

• Listening Point Echo is normally a quiet posting. Other than relaying messages from knight patrols, Scribe Galen spends most nights tuning into the radio broadcasts of nearby settlements or keeping radroaches from Beriday Gulch out of his tato patch.
• A few distant settlements went off the air in recent days. They’re miles away, and interference is common out here, but the settlements of Brahmin’s Crossing, Kinnikon, and Slatville have been silent – Scribe Galen suspects foul play.
• Scribe Galen was eavesdropping on the radio chatter aboard the Vertibird when it went down. One of the knights onboard mentioned “something moving below,” then there was a loud warning klaxon before everything cut to static. A character can attempt a INT + Science test with a difficulty of 2 to correctly identify the attack as some sort of EMP-based attack.
• The Vertibird was over Beriday Gulch when it went down. An INT + Survival test with a difficulty of 1 lets a player recognize the region. It’s an uninhabited stretch of wasteland noteworthy for a high volume of aggressive mutated animals, especially radroaches.

Speaking with Scribe Galen, it’s clear that he’s holding something back, but the old scribe is a tough nut and doesn’t easily let his secrets slip. A PC can attempt to press him for more information with a CHA + Speech test with a difficulty of 1.

Success causes Scribe Galen to reveal a suspicion.

Beriday Gulch is about a half-day’s walk from where the PCs encounter Scribe Galen. The PCs can get there faster if they hustle, though they will need to make an END + Survival test with a difficulty of 1 to keep up the pace. On a failure, the PCs arrive at Beriday Gulch exhausted and sweaty from their journey and lose the opportunity to initiate combat against the robots attacking the downed Vertibird.

Scribe Galen offers a reward for aiding him. He will give 25 Caps per person or 35 Caps with a successful CHA + Speech test with a difficulty of 1. Additionally, Galen has a substantial cache of fresh water courtesy of Project Purity in the Capital Wasteland that he can offer upon completion of the task: 5 bottles of purified water. He marks the location of Listening Post Echo on a map or Pip-Boy for the PCs. (Or failing that, Galen points eastwards and says below)

If the PCs turn Scribe Galen down and continue on their way, he moves off, painfully slowly, into the Wasteland. A day or two later, they discover Galen’s body being picked over by a Radroach Swarm, the automated distress signal of the Vertibird chirping away from a radio in his pack.

Scene Two

To reflect the long walk to where the Vertibird crashed, the Overseer can include the following challenge: Most of the roadways built pre-war are crumbling. Lack of maintenance leads to large sections falling into disrepair, and the impressive highway overpasses that once crisscrossed the nation are now perilous to traverse. After about half the distance to Beriday Gulch, one of these overpasses crosses most of the Kullen Gap, a narrow but deep gorge. When the PCs approach, read or paraphrase:

On the far side of Kullen Bridge, a scavenger named Sam Breckinridge has constructed a small shanty. The planks he laid to span the broken section of the bridge were enough to hold his weight, but not much else. Breckinridge fell victim to a radroach swarm a month ago – failing to heed the survivalist wisdom of never leaving open food out in the Wasteland did him in. The radroaches have made a nest of his old shanty, and investigate any significant noise in the area.

PCs may choose to navigate around Kullen Gap, but the bridge is the swiftest route to Beriday Gulch.

Kullen Bridge

Kullen Bridge is a two-lane span crossing Kullen Gap. Rusted vehicles litter its surface, a few still containing the skeletal remains of their passengers. A section of the bridge, just before its highest point, has collapsed into the ravine below, but is spanned by a precarious makeshift walkway.

The bridge can only support the passage of a single person at a time. If two or more PCs, or a single larger PC like a super mutant or one in power armor, tries to cross, they must make a difficult 1 AGL + Athletics Test.

Success causes the bridge to groan under the weight and sag ominously. Characters on it have enough time to cross to either side, but should not linger. Failure means the character fails to move off the bridge to safety. A normal failure means the character halts in place, swaying to maintain their balance. The character can attempt the roll again during their next turn.

Rolling a complication means one of the following: either the sagging planks cause a character to completely lose their balance, or one of the fragile boards gives way beneath their weight. The result is the same: falling one zone onto the rocks below for 3dC6 Stun physical damage.

Derelict Cars

The derelict cars on Kullen Bridge are what attracted Sam in the first place. He’s looted most of them, leaving their doors open and tossing out the skeletal remains of the occupants. PCs can scavenge the cars for things Sam might have missed. The cars are an Average location, and Mostly Searched.

The derelict cars’ Item listing is as follows:

2-4 Clothing, 1-2 Food, 0-1 Beverages, 3-6 Junk, 0-1 Weapon (Ranged), 0-1 Ammo, 0-1 Chems.

There are four other cars that look untouched. They are described below:

• Cargo Truck. A large cargo truck with a locked rear door has a broken pick jammed in the lock. Sam tried – and failed – to secure the contents. A character may attempt a PER + Lockpick test with a difficulty of 1 to open the lock. The truck contains miscellaneous goods from a department store, including several appliances (toasters, alarm clocks, etc.), which collectively amount to 2d20 Junk items.
• Military Transport. A battered military transport headed for Joint Base Lewiston contains the remains of several soldiers. Their uniforms are in tatters, but a patient PC can scavenge and piece together a single set of military fatigues.
• Boobytrapped Sedan. Near Sam’s shanty, he’s boobytrapped a sedan to discourage looters. Sam scattered 10 Caps near the car’s trunk, which he’s left slightly ajar. A PC approaching the car must make a PER + (Explosives or Survival) test with a difficulty of 1. Success means that character notices a strand of wire running between the trunk and lid. Failure means that if that character opens the trunk, they will trigger the trap (a grenade with a tripwire attached to its pin) and suffer its effects accordingly.

A PC may attempt an AGL + Explosives test with a difficulty of 2 to disable the trap.

Success means the PC successfully deactivates the baseball grenade and may remove it if desired. Failure means the PC triggers the trap, detonating the baseball grenade.

Sam's Shanty

This small shack is built from scavenged pieces of rusty tin and bits taken from abandoned vehicles. Sam’s body, picked clean by radroaches, lies on the bed inside, surrounded by several empty whiskey bottles and open cans of Pork n’ Beans. Various small containers hold Sam’s latest salvage: 2 doses of RadAway and 10 Caps’ worth of random junk (utensils, mugs, an old semi-functioning typewriter, and so forth). Atop a milk crate next to his bedroll is Sam’s journal, which contains notes about his last several finds. He’s made a note in huge block letters:

The note is a reference to Trestridge’s military outpost, which Sam encountered a while back. He’s scribbled in the margins of the page, a crude rendition of the Circle and Star of the U.S. Military. PCs may attempt a PER + Survival test with a difficulty of 1, with success enabling them to scavenge two bottles of whiskey stashed beneath Sam’s bedroll. There is a swarm of 5 radroaches that fight as a group lurking in Sam’s shack. The radroaches emerge after the first character crosses the makeshift walkway.

Scene Three

A short while after traversing or bypassing Kullen Bridge, the PCs reach Beriday Gulch. The long, shallow valley runs east-west for miles, and other than the Ten Hat trailer park to the south and Log Cabin Motor Hotel to the northeast, is devoid of structures. Scraggly trees, wild plants, and boulders dot the expanse.

In this scene, the players discover the downed Vertibird. It crash-landed in a rocky defile in the Beriday Gulch, where Trestridge’s robots proceeded to assault it. Survivors of the crash are locked in a desperate battle with the robots and several knights have already died, though they did manage to disable some of Trestridge’s heaviest hitters.

Even before the PCs can see the crash site, they hear the snaps of laser weapons firing and the mechanical drone of robot voices.

Encounter 1: Crash Site

After dealing with or avoiding the eyebot scouts, the PCs crest a ridge looking down into Beriday Gulch and the site of the crash landing. Read or paraphrase:

The attacking robots consist of: three protectron units. The robots start at long range from the Vertibird. There are a pair of wrecked sentry bots in the gulch that the other Brotherhood knights managed to disable before succumbing to their wounds.

If the PCs intervene, the robots split their attention between the Vertibird and the PCs. During the battle, Dr. Trestridge is constantly updating the machines with new commands, which causes the robots to fight in an intelligent, flexible manner. Characters familiar with robots (such as Mr. Handy PCs) or who have the Robotics Expert perk recognize this unusual behavior without a test, and those within a close distance of a robot hear Dr. Trestridge’s voice shouting commands in a tinny, garbled voice through onboard speakers.

During the battle, at least 1 protectron and 1 eyebot advance one zone on the Vertibird each activation, attacking Knight Layton with +2 difficulty due to her cover.

Sentry Bots: The damaged sentry bots don’t participate in the battle, but can still prove useful. They can be used as cover, and a PC within close range of one can attempt an INT + (Science or Repair) test with a dif- ficulty of 3 to make use of their functioning weapons.

Success allows the PC to perform a single attack with one of the robot’s weapons. The sentry bots suffered quite a bit of damage in the fight, so each weapon can be used only once in this way.

Vertibird & Knight Helen Layton: The sole survivor of the crash and subsequent firefight, Knight Layton is trapped in the wreckage of the Vertibird. She is wounded and has a Critical Leg injury.

After every other character has activated, Knight Layton shoots her laser rifle at the closest robot she can see.

PCs might try to assist the wounded knight. A PC can attempt an INT + Medicine test to render first aid. Success removes her Leg injury, or failing that can dose her with a stimpak.

The Vertibird is a total wreck. It would take months of repair to restore it to working condition, but there is some useful salvage to be had. There is a medical kit on the wall containing 1 stimpak, a pair of binoculars hanging in the cabin, and fusion cells containing 14+7dC6 shots. PC may attempt to further scavenge the Vertibird. It is a Small Location that has been Partially Searched.

Its Item listing is as follows: 0-1 Armor, 1-2 Clothing, 4-6 Junk.

Scene Four

After driving off the robots, Scribe Galen broadcasts a message. PCs with Pip-Boys can overhear the message or, failing that, the group can hear it blasting out of the Vertibird’s onboard radio.

PCs can use the Vertibird’s radio to respond, but those with Pip-Boys have no means of confirming the message. Regardless, Galen continues to chatter.

Protectron

Level 3, Robot,

Normal Creature (24 XP)

Another one of RobCo Industries successful robots, the Protectron was designed as a multi-purpose work drone. They are capable of aiding in construction industries, offices and in public service roles. While the unit does feature laser weapons, its design is not for use in combat situations but merely to allow the robot to defend itself. Protectrons also feature the ability to self-destruct to take out their attackers. Various personalities could be programmed to the unit aside from the default, including fire brigadier, law enforcement, construction worker, medical responder, and subway steward. In the wasteland they are often encountered in both active and inactive states in many locations such as subway stations, public and office buildings, and various industrial sites.

BODY	MIND	MELEE	GUNS	OTHER
5	5	2	2	2
HP	INITIATIVE		DEFENSE
8	10		1
PHYS. DR	ENERGY DR	RAD. DR	POISON DR
4 (All)	3 (All)	Immune	Immune

ATTACKS

• CLAWS: BODY + Melee (TN 7), 3dC6 Physical damage
• ARM LASERS: BODY + Guns (TN 7), 3dC6 Burst, Piercing 1 energy damage, Range C, Fire Rate 4
• SELF DESTRUCT: BODY + Melee (TN 7), 6dC6 Physical damage, Blast

SPECIAL ABILITIES

• ROBOT: The Protectron is a robot. They are immune to the effects of starvation, thirst, and suffocation. They are also immune to Poison and Radiation damage. However, machines cannot use food and drink or other consumables, they do not heal naturally, and the Medicine skill cannot be used to heal them: damage to them must be repaired.
• IMMUNE TO POISON: The Protectron reduces all Poison damage suffered to 0 and cannot suffer any damage or effects from poison.
• IMMUNE TO RADIATION: The Protectron reduces all Radiation damage suffered to 0 and cannot suffer any damage or effects from radiation.
• IMMUNE TO DISEASE: The Protectron is immune to the effects of all diseases, and they will never suffer the symptoms of any disease.
• ARM LASERS: If one of a Protectron's arms suffers an injury, the Fire Rate of its Arm Lasers decreases to 2. If both its arms are injured, it can no longer attack with its Arm Lasers.
• LET RIP: Once per combat, the Protectron may 'let rip' with a volley from their Arm Lasers. This adds the weapon's Fire Rate of 4 to the weapon's damage for a single attack (for 7dC6 total), and allows them to use the Burst damage effect without spending ammo. If one of the Protectron's Arm Lasers is injured, this special attack decreases to 5dC6 damage.
• SELF-DESTRUCT: If both of a Protectron's arms are injured, or it has been reduced to half or fewer of its maximum HP, it will move towards the nearest enemy and use its major action to self-destruct. This self-destruct is an attack centered upon itself and destroys the Protectron after it attempts this attack.

If the PCs can communicate with Galen, he offers them more information. Bleakford is a small town northeast of Beriday Gulch along the highway.

Brotherhood patrols classified it as a no-go zone, having no obvious strategic value along with an abnormally high presence of feral ghouls and irradiated wildlife. What salvage might be contained within was considered of too-little importance to attempt a high-risk venture into the town.

Regardless, Galen transmits the coordinates of Bleakford. He suggests the PCs investigate the area to discover what is responsible for the broadcast he noticed, like a radio or satellite array. He also cautions them about the presence of radiation and ghouls.

If the PCs managed to rescue Knight Layton, they might consider bringing her back to Listening Post Echo. If they do, Galen conveys information about Bleakford at this time.