Atomic Postman
Vault Archives Overseer
New California Dreaming
New California Dreaming is a one shot intended for the Vault Archives PnP system, set in the year 2252 along New California's Pacific Coast Highway. Attending to accompany (or you might say prelude) my Van Buren Worldbook in that it adapts one section of Van Buren omitted due to it being canonically located in New California: The Ciphers of the West. Players are intended to be around Level 4 for this adventure, either using pre-made characters by the Overseer (me) or opting to create their own Vault Dwellers (who could be carried over to the Van Buren campaign should they so wish).
Intro Theme:
Vault 18
OST Theme:
Vault 18 was constructed in the hills east of San Luis Obispo, California. Vault 18's Experiment was that it was to, under all circumstances, remain sealed until an "All-Clear Signal" had been sent. However, no such signal would be sent and Vault 18 itself was isolated from any radio or outside communication methods barring its own technology. Effectively the Vault would remain sealed until the Overseer made an executive decision, or it would remain sealed indefinitely.
As of 2252, Vault 18 has a problem. A big one. The hydro-electric magnetosphere regulator (Hy-Mag) for its nuclear generator has given up the ghost. They can't make a new one, and the process is too complicated for a workaround system. Simply put, the Vault has become a ticking time bomb. If the part can't be replaced, the reactor will experience complete meltdown. The end of the Vault. Consultation of the Vault Archives resulted in the identification of what should be a pre-war atomic power plant in the nearby region, it is likely to hold the part they need, if it's no longer in use.
When the problem was identified, a Vault Security team was organized and sent out. However, they've been gone over a week and haven't reported back, and two days prior Vault 18's Security Hub received an SOS ping from the team's signal-beacon.
So, Overseer Marsha made potential backups draw straws. Enter the players. Their mission is two-fold - use their Pip-Boy 3000 to track the SOS Beacon, and locate the Hy-Mag. Time is of the essence.
The Wasteland
OST Theme:
Emerging into the Wasteland from the Vault 18 cave, the party will walk through the ruins of the former San Luis Obispo. Now a series of sand-swept brick buildings and decaying foundations. Along the sides of the main boulevard, they will see a series of large lumps of sand at almost equidistant intervals. Investigation will reveal them to be the large mutant Radscorpions , burrowed under the sand to shade from the morning sun. They won't be too pleased to have been awoken, and will attack in a pack of six.
Surviving this, the party have only one path to follow: southwest, to the SOS Beacon. Which will take them about half a day. As they approach, they will find themselves in what was once Pismo Beach, and is now the town of Grizzly Tail.
Grizzly Tail
OST Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI3ZJX3lFgk
Grizzly Tail is a podunk fishing community at the ass end of New California Republic territory. With about two dozen people living there amongst ruined houses with a small single-story adobe building housing the jail and office of the Marshall: the mustachioed NCR Ranger Delaney. Delaney was part of a small band of NCR Rangers given the task of clearing the Pacific Coast Highway between the NCR's Boneyard and the Shi's San Francisco of minor violent raider-tribes. They've successfully campaigned against them so far, but the remaining gangs have scattered. The small group of Rangers are overstretched, leaving Delaney alone at Grizzly Tail. NCR Congress wants the trade route clear, but won't authorize troop mobilization under President Tibbets.
Being that the NCR Rangers aren't officiated and can use their own methods, Delaney is protecting the town alone whilst working with a group of Boneyard mercenaries, The Calvera Posse, paying them per tribal scalp they can bring back, with tribal tokens as further evidence. Calvera and his group have already massacred one raider-tribe, the Arrowheads, and are hungry to find another. They're well equipped with old world LAPD armor and hunting shotguns.
The townsfolk themselves usually fish along the pre-war pier, but recently the fishing has dried up: something is irradiating the fish further north. Some of the older fishermen say there's something evil in the waters, "The Devil Spawn" but Delaney writes it off as nonsense. The coastline always has periods of poisoning, this is just another one. That being said, without the fishing the town is losing its reason to exist, and the folk are likely to disperse.
Delaney himself has the SOS Beacon, and can inform the party that their Vault Security team passed through here, one of them deathly injured from a Radscorpion Poison sting. They left him in the care of Grizzly Tail's sawbones whilst they moved on, but he didn't survive. If the players ask where they went, Delaney will point them in the direction of the ruins of Osos, and say they were following a route up into the mountains: He will warn them that raider-tribals are in the region, particularly the hills, and if they see any to report them. Calvera, skulking in the back, will repeat this to them.
The Wasteland, Part 2
OST Theme:
Whilst traveling through the Osos ruins to follow the canyon trail of the Security Team, the party will be beset by four Cliff Racer raiders: men in Leather Armor wearing metal welding masks, wielding spears. They will ask the players to give up everything they have, or face death. Persuasive players could potentially talk their way into leading them to their gang in the mountains, but it's more than likely this encounter will result in a fight.
The Cliff Racers
OST Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fnIz-XTQVg
In the mountains, there's a single canyon route following out to the coast. Currently, it's occupied by a camp of 20 of the Cliff Racers. A group of raider-tribals from just north of the Boneyard, they've been pushed out by NCR and are desperate. They are trying to besiege another tribe that live in these mountains, but the tribe is well fortified. They're led by Drake, a man in Metal Armor carrying a Fire Axe. They've killed the tribe's Molerat population in a nearby cave, which they were using to farm, and are now simply waiting to starve the cliff tribe out.
There are four potential routes of getting past the Cliff Racers:
1. Disguise. Using the outfits taken from the four dead Cliff Racers, if Deception checks are passed well and a distance is kept, the metal welding masks will do well to conceal their true identities
2. Sneaking into the Molerat Caves, guarded by only two Cliff Racers who frequently wander back to the camp
3. Taking them head-on.
Either way, this will then lead the party to the fortified mystery tribe: The Ciphers.
The Ciphers:
OST Theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axDcW88oHZU
The true origins of the Ciphers are lost even to themselves. They're descended from a science team at a lab at UC Santa Monica who worked on Tesla Coil technology. Following the Great War, the group carried only a limited amount of technology with them as they traveled. Originally they had intended to settle at Poseidon Energy Atomic Power Plant No.1, but the reactor had failed and they barely stopped the facility from reaching meltdown. For safety, they settled instead in nearby cliffs, leaving the old facility to rot, the threat safely contained. The scientists carried one barely working computer, enough parts to build several water makers and a crude wind turbine to power them, a box containing their Tesla experimental technology, and a small supply of medicine. The rest of the band had a variety of miscellaneous gear which most contributed for group use.
A decade later, the computer began to fail. Fearing that the technology of the Old World would be forever lost, the scientists began painting and carving electronic schematics into the walls of the cliffs. At the same time, they insisted that mathematics be emphasized when
educating the village children so that their descendants would understand how to use the schematics.
Because they were steeped in math from a very early age, the villagers tend to use a lot of math terms to express themselves. This occasionally confusing, cryptic way of speaking caused them to be dubbed "Ciphers" by educated wasteland travelers who thought they might be speaking in some type of code. The Ciphers merely shrugged and accepted the name.
As the years passed, the Ciphers forgot their disciplined, scientific roots and became more concerned with everyday survival rather than meaningless scientific theories. When it comes to electronic devices and weapons, the Ciphers know more about how it works than why it works: "The symbols say put this and this together, and then this happens. Why? Who knows? As long as the numbers are right, who cares?"
The emphasis on mathematics in their culture has led to Ciphers to assign an almost mystical significance to specific numbers. It's the closest thing to a religion they have. Each Cipher is believed to have a personal number, determined by the sage-like Nemonik at their birth. Ciphers will take their personal number into consideration when doing almost anything, from heading out to hunt on the sixth day of the month to choosing whom to marry. It's all very confusing to outsiders. They are led by Azkee, "The Counter", who wears an Old World pocket calculator on his junk armor to signify his rank.
The tribe infrequently sends out "Cipher Nomads" on journeys to collect technology and bring back for disassembly and enciphering onto the walls and onto their bodies. The village itself is well defended, junk fortifications manned by "Blastmasters" - a handful of Cipher guards who wield junk energy rifles powered by Tesla technology, glowing with orange electricity. Their disassembly and reassembly is something of a rite of passage. Though they cannot truly withstand the might of the Cliff Racers, their fortifications and electrical beam weapons are enough to scare the Cliff Racers into thinking they'd be a tough fight.
The Cipher village is now also home to the last few remaining members of the Vault Security team (who will act as backup PCs in case of death of any up to this point, should they all survive, there will only be one Security Team member). The Vault Security Officer was let inside by the Counter after seeing he was injured - a decision he is now pressured for by the Nemonik, who believes outsiders are trouble.
The Ciphers can point the party in the direction of what they need, on the other side of their village lies a gateway to a canyon leading straight to Poseidon Energy Atomic Power Plant No.1, but it is highly irradiated and the only way to survive the plant is using Rad-X and Rad-Away provided by the Ciphers, as well as a Poseidon Energy staff ID card held in their possession. To get these things, the Ciphers request the players assist in resolving the situation which was caused by the wounded Vault Security Officer wandering their way: The Cliff Racer encampment.
There are multiple ways to solve this:
1. Returning to Grizzly Tail and rallying the Calvera Posse to help clear the Cliff Racer, however this will lead to the Calvera Posse also wanting to slay the Ciphers to gain further bounty from NCR
2. Direct combat
3. Stealth attrition
4. Persuasion of option no.1, and that NCR is already at their doorstep, a strong Persuasion check will result in them moving on and leaving in fear
5. Trig, a young Cipher girl, has been building a large Tesla Cannon with the rest of the Blastmasters that if fired, will burn out and explode, but not before wiping out half of the Cliff Racer numbers. The issue is that due to the limitations of Cipher knowledge, they only know how to construct certain parts of the cannon and lack the ingenuity of finishing the entire thing, requiring players with Repair and Computer Science rolls to finish the job
Either way this is resolved, or if the players take the Ciphers by force, they will lead onward to Poseidon Energy Power Plant No.1
Poseidon Energy Power Plant No.1
OST Theme:
[URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGMqV2oa8Rg&t=1101s[/URL]
What was once Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant became Poseidon Energy Atomic Power Plant No.1, and now simply is referred to by the Ciphers as "The Invisible Fire Pit" - they aren't kidding either. The surrounding area is filled with radiation, and several shambling Glowing Ones in tattered lab coats and uniforms can be found on the grounds outside, turning and howling at the party once they reach eyesight.
Entering the facility with the Poseidon Energy Staff ID Card leads to a decayed art-deco nightmare of facility pathways, however the pathway to the main reactor has been smashed open and exposed to the sea, it is as the party cross that a huge, shifting mass will emerge from the brown tides, several car-sized tentacles slamming and grabbing onto the ruin as if it were prey as it lifts its main head to the players level: The Devil Spawn, the Kraken, The Giant Fucking Squid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKmm02e264g
The players will have to kill off each of its tentacles, wounding it until it rears its head and attempts to smash, bite and grab the players. The mighty beasty is no joke, and it's gigantic radioactive tentacles can make for a quick end.
When the party vanquish the beast, its huge corpse will slip into the ocean, and they can continue to their final challenge: the reactor.
The reactor core containing the Hy-Mag is critically irradiated. Enough that less than a minute of exposure would kill someone, Rad-Away or not. There is a robot control terminal that would allow for a Mr. Handy inside the chamber to safely receive the part and pass it to the less irradiated control chamber, but it's logic circuits are fried and it needs instructions for basic shutdown procedures entered in correctly, in the correct order. Only two incorrect commands are allowed before the system locks out.
The instructions are:
Otherwise, a player will have to enter the chamber and sacrifice themselves.
Return to Vault 18
Upon return to Vault 18, Overseer Marsha will send out two Vault Engineers to retrieve the part, and a Vault Science Team member to perform a scan on the players, before asking them to wait and give a full report via microphone. The team will then re-enter the vault, and the vault door will seal, trapping the players outside.
Overseer Marsha will then drop the hard outcome: The party have been heavily irradiated, whether they are healthy now or not, they risk a major contamination threat to the Vault on numerous levels, and they cannot afford such a high risk to either the Vault in general or to its future bloodlines. They're heroes, but they have to leave.
And so, the party leaves into the Wasteland to parts unknown.
Outro Theme:
New California Dreaming is a one shot intended for the Vault Archives PnP system, set in the year 2252 along New California's Pacific Coast Highway. Attending to accompany (or you might say prelude) my Van Buren Worldbook in that it adapts one section of Van Buren omitted due to it being canonically located in New California: The Ciphers of the West. Players are intended to be around Level 4 for this adventure, either using pre-made characters by the Overseer (me) or opting to create their own Vault Dwellers (who could be carried over to the Van Buren campaign should they so wish).
Intro Theme:
Vault 18
OST Theme:
Vault 18 was constructed in the hills east of San Luis Obispo, California. Vault 18's Experiment was that it was to, under all circumstances, remain sealed until an "All-Clear Signal" had been sent. However, no such signal would be sent and Vault 18 itself was isolated from any radio or outside communication methods barring its own technology. Effectively the Vault would remain sealed until the Overseer made an executive decision, or it would remain sealed indefinitely.
As of 2252, Vault 18 has a problem. A big one. The hydro-electric magnetosphere regulator (Hy-Mag) for its nuclear generator has given up the ghost. They can't make a new one, and the process is too complicated for a workaround system. Simply put, the Vault has become a ticking time bomb. If the part can't be replaced, the reactor will experience complete meltdown. The end of the Vault. Consultation of the Vault Archives resulted in the identification of what should be a pre-war atomic power plant in the nearby region, it is likely to hold the part they need, if it's no longer in use.
When the problem was identified, a Vault Security team was organized and sent out. However, they've been gone over a week and haven't reported back, and two days prior Vault 18's Security Hub received an SOS ping from the team's signal-beacon.
So, Overseer Marsha made potential backups draw straws. Enter the players. Their mission is two-fold - use their Pip-Boy 3000 to track the SOS Beacon, and locate the Hy-Mag. Time is of the essence.
The Wasteland
OST Theme:
Emerging into the Wasteland from the Vault 18 cave, the party will walk through the ruins of the former San Luis Obispo. Now a series of sand-swept brick buildings and decaying foundations. Along the sides of the main boulevard, they will see a series of large lumps of sand at almost equidistant intervals. Investigation will reveal them to be the large mutant Radscorpions , burrowed under the sand to shade from the morning sun. They won't be too pleased to have been awoken, and will attack in a pack of six.
Surviving this, the party have only one path to follow: southwest, to the SOS Beacon. Which will take them about half a day. As they approach, they will find themselves in what was once Pismo Beach, and is now the town of Grizzly Tail.
Grizzly Tail
OST Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI3ZJX3lFgk
Grizzly Tail is a podunk fishing community at the ass end of New California Republic territory. With about two dozen people living there amongst ruined houses with a small single-story adobe building housing the jail and office of the Marshall: the mustachioed NCR Ranger Delaney. Delaney was part of a small band of NCR Rangers given the task of clearing the Pacific Coast Highway between the NCR's Boneyard and the Shi's San Francisco of minor violent raider-tribes. They've successfully campaigned against them so far, but the remaining gangs have scattered. The small group of Rangers are overstretched, leaving Delaney alone at Grizzly Tail. NCR Congress wants the trade route clear, but won't authorize troop mobilization under President Tibbets.
Being that the NCR Rangers aren't officiated and can use their own methods, Delaney is protecting the town alone whilst working with a group of Boneyard mercenaries, The Calvera Posse, paying them per tribal scalp they can bring back, with tribal tokens as further evidence. Calvera and his group have already massacred one raider-tribe, the Arrowheads, and are hungry to find another. They're well equipped with old world LAPD armor and hunting shotguns.
The townsfolk themselves usually fish along the pre-war pier, but recently the fishing has dried up: something is irradiating the fish further north. Some of the older fishermen say there's something evil in the waters, "The Devil Spawn" but Delaney writes it off as nonsense. The coastline always has periods of poisoning, this is just another one. That being said, without the fishing the town is losing its reason to exist, and the folk are likely to disperse.
Delaney himself has the SOS Beacon, and can inform the party that their Vault Security team passed through here, one of them deathly injured from a Radscorpion Poison sting. They left him in the care of Grizzly Tail's sawbones whilst they moved on, but he didn't survive. If the players ask where they went, Delaney will point them in the direction of the ruins of Osos, and say they were following a route up into the mountains: He will warn them that raider-tribals are in the region, particularly the hills, and if they see any to report them. Calvera, skulking in the back, will repeat this to them.
The Wasteland, Part 2
OST Theme:
Whilst traveling through the Osos ruins to follow the canyon trail of the Security Team, the party will be beset by four Cliff Racer raiders: men in Leather Armor wearing metal welding masks, wielding spears. They will ask the players to give up everything they have, or face death. Persuasive players could potentially talk their way into leading them to their gang in the mountains, but it's more than likely this encounter will result in a fight.
The Cliff Racers
OST Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fnIz-XTQVg
In the mountains, there's a single canyon route following out to the coast. Currently, it's occupied by a camp of 20 of the Cliff Racers. A group of raider-tribals from just north of the Boneyard, they've been pushed out by NCR and are desperate. They are trying to besiege another tribe that live in these mountains, but the tribe is well fortified. They're led by Drake, a man in Metal Armor carrying a Fire Axe. They've killed the tribe's Molerat population in a nearby cave, which they were using to farm, and are now simply waiting to starve the cliff tribe out.
There are four potential routes of getting past the Cliff Racers:
1. Disguise. Using the outfits taken from the four dead Cliff Racers, if Deception checks are passed well and a distance is kept, the metal welding masks will do well to conceal their true identities
2. Sneaking into the Molerat Caves, guarded by only two Cliff Racers who frequently wander back to the camp
3. Taking them head-on.
Either way, this will then lead the party to the fortified mystery tribe: The Ciphers.
The Ciphers:
OST Theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axDcW88oHZU
The true origins of the Ciphers are lost even to themselves. They're descended from a science team at a lab at UC Santa Monica who worked on Tesla Coil technology. Following the Great War, the group carried only a limited amount of technology with them as they traveled. Originally they had intended to settle at Poseidon Energy Atomic Power Plant No.1, but the reactor had failed and they barely stopped the facility from reaching meltdown. For safety, they settled instead in nearby cliffs, leaving the old facility to rot, the threat safely contained. The scientists carried one barely working computer, enough parts to build several water makers and a crude wind turbine to power them, a box containing their Tesla experimental technology, and a small supply of medicine. The rest of the band had a variety of miscellaneous gear which most contributed for group use.
A decade later, the computer began to fail. Fearing that the technology of the Old World would be forever lost, the scientists began painting and carving electronic schematics into the walls of the cliffs. At the same time, they insisted that mathematics be emphasized when
educating the village children so that their descendants would understand how to use the schematics.
Because they were steeped in math from a very early age, the villagers tend to use a lot of math terms to express themselves. This occasionally confusing, cryptic way of speaking caused them to be dubbed "Ciphers" by educated wasteland travelers who thought they might be speaking in some type of code. The Ciphers merely shrugged and accepted the name.
As the years passed, the Ciphers forgot their disciplined, scientific roots and became more concerned with everyday survival rather than meaningless scientific theories. When it comes to electronic devices and weapons, the Ciphers know more about how it works than why it works: "The symbols say put this and this together, and then this happens. Why? Who knows? As long as the numbers are right, who cares?"
The emphasis on mathematics in their culture has led to Ciphers to assign an almost mystical significance to specific numbers. It's the closest thing to a religion they have. Each Cipher is believed to have a personal number, determined by the sage-like Nemonik at their birth. Ciphers will take their personal number into consideration when doing almost anything, from heading out to hunt on the sixth day of the month to choosing whom to marry. It's all very confusing to outsiders. They are led by Azkee, "The Counter", who wears an Old World pocket calculator on his junk armor to signify his rank.
The tribe infrequently sends out "Cipher Nomads" on journeys to collect technology and bring back for disassembly and enciphering onto the walls and onto their bodies. The village itself is well defended, junk fortifications manned by "Blastmasters" - a handful of Cipher guards who wield junk energy rifles powered by Tesla technology, glowing with orange electricity. Their disassembly and reassembly is something of a rite of passage. Though they cannot truly withstand the might of the Cliff Racers, their fortifications and electrical beam weapons are enough to scare the Cliff Racers into thinking they'd be a tough fight.
The Cipher village is now also home to the last few remaining members of the Vault Security team (who will act as backup PCs in case of death of any up to this point, should they all survive, there will only be one Security Team member). The Vault Security Officer was let inside by the Counter after seeing he was injured - a decision he is now pressured for by the Nemonik, who believes outsiders are trouble.
The Ciphers can point the party in the direction of what they need, on the other side of their village lies a gateway to a canyon leading straight to Poseidon Energy Atomic Power Plant No.1, but it is highly irradiated and the only way to survive the plant is using Rad-X and Rad-Away provided by the Ciphers, as well as a Poseidon Energy staff ID card held in their possession. To get these things, the Ciphers request the players assist in resolving the situation which was caused by the wounded Vault Security Officer wandering their way: The Cliff Racer encampment.
There are multiple ways to solve this:
1. Returning to Grizzly Tail and rallying the Calvera Posse to help clear the Cliff Racer, however this will lead to the Calvera Posse also wanting to slay the Ciphers to gain further bounty from NCR
2. Direct combat
3. Stealth attrition
4. Persuasion of option no.1, and that NCR is already at their doorstep, a strong Persuasion check will result in them moving on and leaving in fear
5. Trig, a young Cipher girl, has been building a large Tesla Cannon with the rest of the Blastmasters that if fired, will burn out and explode, but not before wiping out half of the Cliff Racer numbers. The issue is that due to the limitations of Cipher knowledge, they only know how to construct certain parts of the cannon and lack the ingenuity of finishing the entire thing, requiring players with Repair and Computer Science rolls to finish the job
Either way this is resolved, or if the players take the Ciphers by force, they will lead onward to Poseidon Energy Power Plant No.1
Poseidon Energy Power Plant No.1
OST Theme:
[URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGMqV2oa8Rg&t=1101s[/URL]
What was once Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant became Poseidon Energy Atomic Power Plant No.1, and now simply is referred to by the Ciphers as "The Invisible Fire Pit" - they aren't kidding either. The surrounding area is filled with radiation, and several shambling Glowing Ones in tattered lab coats and uniforms can be found on the grounds outside, turning and howling at the party once they reach eyesight.
Entering the facility with the Poseidon Energy Staff ID Card leads to a decayed art-deco nightmare of facility pathways, however the pathway to the main reactor has been smashed open and exposed to the sea, it is as the party cross that a huge, shifting mass will emerge from the brown tides, several car-sized tentacles slamming and grabbing onto the ruin as if it were prey as it lifts its main head to the players level: The Devil Spawn, the Kraken, The Giant Fucking Squid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKmm02e264g
The players will have to kill off each of its tentacles, wounding it until it rears its head and attempts to smash, bite and grab the players. The mighty beasty is no joke, and it's gigantic radioactive tentacles can make for a quick end.
When the party vanquish the beast, its huge corpse will slip into the ocean, and they can continue to their final challenge: the reactor.
The reactor core containing the Hy-Mag is critically irradiated. Enough that less than a minute of exposure would kill someone, Rad-Away or not. There is a robot control terminal that would allow for a Mr. Handy inside the chamber to safely receive the part and pass it to the less irradiated control chamber, but it's logic circuits are fried and it needs instructions for basic shutdown procedures entered in correctly, in the correct order. Only two incorrect commands are allowed before the system locks out.
The instructions are:
- Amplify Plutonium-Gamma Shield
- Deharmonize Neptunium Impeller
- Calibrate Uranium-Rod Driver
- Set Voltage on Saturn-Class Capacitor
- Test Jupiter Wave Complier
Otherwise, a player will have to enter the chamber and sacrifice themselves.
Return to Vault 18
Upon return to Vault 18, Overseer Marsha will send out two Vault Engineers to retrieve the part, and a Vault Science Team member to perform a scan on the players, before asking them to wait and give a full report via microphone. The team will then re-enter the vault, and the vault door will seal, trapping the players outside.
Overseer Marsha will then drop the hard outcome: The party have been heavily irradiated, whether they are healthy now or not, they risk a major contamination threat to the Vault on numerous levels, and they cannot afford such a high risk to either the Vault in general or to its future bloodlines. They're heroes, but they have to leave.
And so, the party leaves into the Wasteland to parts unknown.
Outro Theme:
Last edited:
