Welcome, my little critters, to Tales from the Crit Season 2, The Level Up.
We're an actual play podcast with an ever-changing cast of players making our way through a bunch
of different RPG systems, from micro-RPGs to some of the more well-known role-playing
games out there, and the occasional highly narrative tabletop game.
Content warnings can be found in the episode's description.
My name is Riley Groves, and I am the Crit Keeper on this episode of Tales from the Crit.
Previously, on Vault 69, our lovable band of raiders set out on a quest for unimaginable
riches.
With time to spare before they're able to enter Vault 69, they decide to do some gallivanting.
First stop, New Springfield, to take out a rival band of raiders.
However, when they get there, they're quickly rerouted by a Brotherhood of Steel Paladin.
Licking their wounds, they decide to go camp out at a red rocket station nearby, and in
doing so, encounter some less-than-friendly Radroaches, who, for some reason, are much
more difficult to defeat than originally anticipated.
Get ready to find out the next chapter of Vault 69!
Welcome back to Tales from the Crit.
I'm super excited to continue playing our Fallout RPG.
I've got Rebecca.
Hello.
Tim.
Howdy.
Mikey.
Hi.
Derek.
Hey.
I'm gonna go back in and get our asses whooped by Radroaches and Power Armor.
But before we do that, a quick question from our pod deck interview deck.
That question is, when you're feeling sick, what makes you feel better?
Sleeping.
Solid answer.
Add cold to that.
Add cold?
Add cold.
Okay.
Like sleeping in a cold room.
Sleeping in a cold, dark room.
Okay.
With good blankets.
Yeah.
With a good tea or coffee.
For me, chicken noodle soup and like a grilled cheese.
Yeah.
Yum.
Yeah, I usually call my mom when I'm sick and I'm like, can you make me some soup?
And maybe like a good, like a little ginger ale.
Like, depending on what kind of sick.
Yeah.
Mostly for me, I think it's just curling up on the couch, laying on the couch.
I'd prefer to be on a couch rather than a bed when I'm sick.
That was fucking easy.
Last time I had to call in sick, it wasn't because I was actually sick.
I pulled the muscle in my back and I just couldn't do anything.
I had to walk around with ice packs and couldn't do anything.
So it was like the only thing that made me feel better was just not moving and being
on the couch and just having the heating pad with the little massager.
I love that thing.
All right, cool.
So we are picking up where we left off at the Red Rocket Station.
All four of you are crammed into its garage, taking a rest for the evening.
We'll say we pick back up in the morning.
You guys did not have a chance to scavenge the station itself.
You were able to scavenge around so you can still look for stuff inside or you can leave
this place.
Melvin.
It's Marvin.
All right, Milton, did you see anything last night while we were sleeping?
No, I didn't see anything.
It was perfectly quiet.
All right, I'm going to start scavenging.
You can start looking around.
Me too.
All right, everybody going to scavenge?
Yes.
Go ahead and give me scavenge rolls.
That is perception and we'll call it survival.
I have a success and a failure.
15 and a 60.
I have one success.
I have one success as well.
Nice.
Three success.
Okay.
Augusta, you find 100 caps.
Wow.
Guys, I found 100 caps.
That must have been the cap stash you were talking about.
It certainly does seem that way.
Guli Roberts, you find some metal torso armor.
Oh, well, that's nice.
I'm going to put that on.
That's going to give you a physical force reduction of two and an energy reduction of
one.
I already have one in physical, so now I have three.
I think you would have two.
Are you already wearing armor?
No.
Yeah, what are you wearing?
A drifter outfit and casual clothing.
Okay.
I guess I would go over top of it.
I would.
That sounds right.
Yeah, take a three to physical reduction.
What was it?
It added a one to the energy?
Yeah.
Okay, so now both three now.
Awesome.
Nice.
And Old Talman, you're going to find 20 energy bullets.
20?
Okay.
20 ammo for an energy weapon.
I have them written down as energy cells.
Okay.
Works for me.
And the Red Rocket Station is?
What I find.
You all rolled a success?
I had a success.
Oh, wait, you didn't roll a success.
No, I didn't get the success.
Sorry.
You get 20.
I find 20 energy cells.
20.
So my Flamer, that says energy.
That'll work, yeah.
I can use it as Flamer fuel.
Yep.
And you guys have spent two hours of the day.
What are you going to do now?
What else is nearby?
In the same territory is Maslow's Motel.
To the south, you guys have Section 8, which is the old farmhouse and where Augusta knows
the entrance to Vault 69 is.
You also, there's the Commonwealth territory off to the one side.
Above you guys is also the irradiated lake and nuclear crater.
And then back to the northwest is New Springfield.
Should we keep heading towards the farmhouse?
Or I believe there was a sewer system between here and the warehouse.
I believe it's between the Commonwealth territory and the Rad Rail Station.
Oh yeah, sewer to warehouse.
Yeah, Commonwealth.
Oh, warehouse.
Rad station.
The warehouse and the rad station.
I haven't read.
Probably goes to the brothel.
Yeah.
Oh, is the Commonwealth warehouse to the railway?
So three to four is where the sewer is?
Yeah.
Okay, gotcha.
Hmm.
I think we should head towards the displaced settlement.
I thought we were going to find the treasure from Vault 69, like the guy who died in the
opening scene.
Yeah, but we've got days of still accomplished that.
We should scavenge and find traders and upgrade.
Because I don't think it's going to be easy.
Okay.
Don't forget with action points, you can ask the GM questions, which I will answer mostly
truthfully.
So if there's something specifically that you guys are looking for, I can point you
in a direction.
I just wanted to throw that out there.
I want to spend one to find out where the nearest big gun is.
The abandoned Tesla lab has a powerful gun inside.
He's not wrong.
The most powerful weapon is in fact in the abandoned Tesla lab.
Hmm.
What do you guys think?
Are you on?
So I'm confused.
We have 10 days, nine days to get to the farmhouse.
Can't do anything there until then.
Yes.
The door opens on June 30th.
It is going to be locked until then.
Okay.
So at best we could find the door.
Yeah.
That's why I wasn't going to head there.
Okay.
I figured we could head towards the nuclear crater and hit up that displaced settlement
to see if they had anyone willing to trade, see what they had, see if there's anything
to find.
That doesn't sound like a bad idea.
That grenade is not going to get us through the front door of that vault, even if it's
open.
I have heard the displaced settlement in section six has been overrun by radroaches and giant
ants.
Oh.
Hmm.
We didn't do so good against those.
Hmm.
I mean, we could change our tactic and use the grenades against the bugs like, uh, Tallman
suggested.
He's got a flamethrower.
Or we could throw flames at it.
I think both of those.
I do have a flamethrower.
The combination of those two.
Yeah.
And then we could be close to the Commonwealth territory where it says vast resources.
Um, yeah, but there are also the minimum, the minimum.
Wow.
Yeah.
But they're currently hunting us as well.
And they're looking to expand, which means they're probably going to be in areas surrounding.
So we should be careful.
Yeah, but they don't have power armor.
They're just.
I think I need an organized group that outnumbers us.
Trying to take into consideration with our concern.
That is just my, my opinion.
We could be sneaky about this stuff too.
So do you think that we, do we all think then, uh, this idea that a more powerful weapon
would be the best way to succeed when the vault door finally opens?
Yeah, probably.
So what if we go past this nuclear crater, pop into camp for a little bit, fix up Melville
and then go to the lab, maybe the super duper mart.
Or the, uh, the trading station at the red rail station.
I like, I like that plan.
Making the loop around and coming back.
Okay.
So where are you guys going?
I think we should head to the display settlement and then wrap around through the crater up
to the rail station across super duper mart and then to the Tesla thing.
That would take us two or three days to go from nine to six to three to two to one.
Yeah.
And we can hit our camp at any point in there.
We're going to be brushing up against that a few times.
True.
Okay.
So.
Okay.
This guy fixed on the way.
I'm almost at full health again.
I think you guys are pretty close.
Okay.
So you guys are headed to location six and repair when we get to three.
Uh, yeah.
That's the crater.
Nuclear crater.
Okay.
Four hours pass and you guys make it to section six, section six, which is the nuclear crater
with the irradiated lake in it.
There is a small smattering of huts along the edge of the crater overlooking the lake
itself.
They're pretty disheveled.
Just, I mean, everything in the world is pretty disheveled.
There are no humanoids or creatures in or around these huts when you come by.
Can we search them?
Yeah.
Are you searching the huts itself?
Yep.
There was two things I wanted to do here.
I wanted to either collect water and a piece of irradiated material if we can find it somewhere
around the crater and look to see if there's anything in these huts that are worth finding.
Always up for a good scavenge.
What do you want to do first?
Uh, search the huts first.
Coming up to the huts, let's get a group difficulty two.
It's going to be perception and you guys didn't say you're sneaking.
So perception and let's call it survival.
Okay.
Difficulty is two.
Yep.
I got a six and a 12.
One success.
I got one success.
And what else?
Uh, 13.
Okay.
So a six and a 19 and a crit for the survival.
Okay.
So that's four successes.
Um, I had to get an eight and I got an eight.
That's good.
Okay.
I also got an 18.
So that's five successes.
So go ahead and give yourself three action points back.
I think that maxes out your guys' pool at six.
You guys are coming up on the huts and you can see that in and around every hut is either
a rad roach or a gigantic ant inside of them.
And with so many successes, I'll also give you that there are, you guys can see that
at least one of the ants is also a fire ant.
Hmm.
Okay.
They're giant ants and bugs.
Like if I leave sugar in one of the huts, are they all going to go to it?
I mean, I would have you roll for such a thing.
Well, I mean, I don't have sugar.
I was just curious if like I would know something of that nature.
Um, you can also spend luck points to try to find stuff like that out in the world.
So don't forget about your luck points are helpful too.
Is the sugar a bad idea?
No it's not.
I think it might've actually been a quest in one of the games.
Okay.
I'm going to look for some sugar stealthily.
Do you want to spend a luck point or?
Oh yeah.
I'll use a luck point.
So reduce your luck point by one.
And while you guys are just like lurking around, you trip over a like plastic container in
the ground.
And when you dig it up a little bit, it is a jug of checkers sugar.
I'm going to hold it up and kind of point to it.
So the group sees and then I'm going to point to the hut that I'm going to dump it into.
Are you going to sneak over?
Yeah.
Uh, agility plus sneak.
No, I failed.
I needed like a seven and I got a 10 and a 19.
Do you want to spend any action points to try to make that successful?
I'll do two.
So roll two dice.
You need to use three action points.
Do it.
Okay.
It's not a one to one.
The first one is one.
The second one is two.
So reroll three right now.
Roll me two more dice.
Nope.
Still no.
Nope.
I have close.
So anybody want to try to help?
Sure.
What can we do?
Can try to distract things or I don't know.
You tell me how you would help in this situation.
So she has just snuck up to dump some sugar into a hut and just.
So she's trying to sneak.
We'll put it this way.
She's making her way over to the hut and like she's not being nearly as stealthy as she
thinks she is.
And you can definitely see that the roaches and ants in this area know that something
is going on.
They're aware of a presence and they're looking for it.
Can I walk away from where she is like some that would draw them all away from her and
clang my baseball bat and machete together and yell, make noise?
You can.
I will say that this will definitely attract every bug that's here.
No bad idea.
I mean it's up to you, but how many are there?
A lot.
There's a fair number.
Any other ideas?
Kind of pick up a stone, kind of throw the stone just toward that one ant.
You can throw it towards a single ant.
Sure.
Give me a strength plus throwing.
Okay.
It's a four.
Okay.
All together that's a four.
Yep.
And I got a three and a 15.
All right.
That's a success.
I have zero in throwing.
Nice.
Awesome.
So you hook a rock and you're able to distract the ant that's closest to her and it turns
around and walks a few paces away.
No longer interested in Guley Roberts.
Okay.
Awesome.
Marvin, what are you doing, man?
Perimeter secure.
Checking the perimeter again?
I think I was just going to be like a noise maker or something and distract like that,
but I don't want to attract all of them.
I'm just going to ready.
Okay.
So we're going to be in action with the help from Augusta Byron, Julia, Guley.
Julia, Julia, Julia.
Why don't you go ahead and make a second attempt?
I got a six and a 14.
Is that six?
All right.
So you're able to sprinkle all the sugar in this one shack and then retreat back to the
group.
Yeah.
I'm assuming everybody's covered kind of at least a little bit.
So you make your way back to the group and you all watch all of the different bugs descend
onto this one hut and go inside.
Marvin, flamethrower and I'll throw this grenade.
I have another grenade.
Someone else want to throw a grenade?
Here you go, Tallman.
Definitely the Tallman.
Yeah.
You have a zero in throwing.
You have quite longer.
Oh, definitely.
Big zero and short arms.
Should I have a zero in throwing too?
Want me to throw two grenades?
Do you want to throw two grenades?
I'm not going to guarantee that.
So I also have a three in melee and I've fucked that up like six times already.
Well, it's not melee, right?
It's throwing.
Yeah.
It's just the same stat.
Oh, okay.
Stat amount.
Yeah.
So for throwing, I'll let you guys decide.
It's either perception plus explosives or agility plus throwing.
Perception plus explosives.
Oh, I got two explosives.
So I'd have an eight for explosives.
It's a seven either way for me.
All right.
Let me throw one with explosives.
Okay.
Perception.
Yeah, perception and explosives.
And Marvin, what are you doing?
You're going to wait until those go off, I'm going to assume, before rushing in with a
flamethrower?
Correct.
Okay.
You guys want to upgrade any attacks before you or any rolls before you do what you're
looking to do?
I'm going to ready my pistol in case anything starts coming toward us.
I'm going to be ready to grab my, my rifle is ready to grab immediately.
No, I'm just going to roll my dice.
Roll them if you got them.
I needed an eight and I got a six and a seven.
Awesome.
I needed a seven and I got a three and a 12.
Okay.
That's three successes.
Awesome.
So give yourself an action point back.
What kind of grenades were these anyhow?
Baseball.
Oh, baseball.
Cool.
They do five damage.
Actually, if I did agility, that, that, that one's a crit actually.
That three is a crit.
Each of you roll five damage dice.
Three and a crit.
Okay.
And nothing.
All right.
I got one head, two blanks and one shot.
Okay.
So that's three for you, three for you.
Didn't you say roll five?
Roll five.
Yeah.
I only have four.
There's only four.
So roll one again.
Oh, and another head.
Okay.
Yeah.
I got four successes.
All right.
And then cause you crit, go ahead and roll these twice.
There's a crit and a blank.
So you got five successes.
Yep.
You got?
I don't have a clue what they mean.
I got two heads, two blanks and a bullet.
Three.
So that's eight.
All right.
So let's blow up the fucking shack completely obliterating most of the bugs that are inside.
The only two that are left come skittering out towards the group.
There's one red roach that is on fire and one fire ant that is missing two legs.
Marvin and Augusta, you guys were readied with your actions.
Initiative order.
Why don't you guys act?
My initiative is 11.
So is mine.
Oh.
You guys choose or just act together.
It doesn't matter.
With our powers combined and so on and so on.
So what would it be for me to, when I have to use my flamethrower, big guns and what's
it tagged as?
There should be big guns and the rotating and inaccurate.
So for big guns, it's endurance plus big guns.
You need a six.
I have two failures, 12 and an 18.
Okay.
Failed.
You both failed.
So we're going to start up an initiative order and I guess we'll just, I think we just go
around the table.
Starting with Guli Roberts.
You guys have the first initiative round.
I will say they are pretty much close to dead.
Any damage done will most likely murder them to death.
Okay.
Well then I'll shoot them with my pipe gun.
One success.
Yeah, it does three damage.
I'll shoot the one on fire.
You're aiming at the red roach?
Yeah.
I'll blank in two shots.
Here roll the location die.
Right arm.
You blow its remaining right arm off and it collapses into a pile of flaming rad roach.
Great.
Also, you guys can carve up rad roaches and eat them.
Oh shit.
I meant to have mentioned that other thing that I wanted to harvest those.
It doesn't matter.
And then Augusta.
All right.
There is two more, right?
Or just the one?
Just one.
Okay, cool.
I'll do it with several legs missing.
Okay.
I'm going to try and shoot it, which is agility plus small guns.
Correct.
All right.
That'll be a seven.
And I got a seven and then an 11.
All right.
How much damage do you do?
That's going to be four damage.
Thank you.
Two faces in a bang.
You do amazing damage splitting it into and it falls dead.
All the bugs are now dead from the settlement and there are several shacks that you were
able to look through.
You guys want to spend some time scavenging?
Yes.
How much time do we have left in the day roughly?
About four hours.
Okay.
So we spend two hours searching, then we could potentially get back to our camp.
Oh wait, you wanted to spend the night to heal.
Well, we could also heal and resupply the camp.
It takes four hours to get from one section to another.
Four hours.
Okay.
We wouldn't make it.
So two hours.
So we can go back or we can spend two hours searching and then crash here.
I'm okay with crashing here or even spending the two hours that we have left.
Like I don't know, can we get halfway back and camp down or no?
I have full HP so I don't.
I don't care.
It doesn't matter to me.
I also don't know what the repercussions of not sleeping are.
For a few hours, not too much, but if you guys do push like further into the night,
there will be detriments.
Okay.
So we could push those extra two hours after searching for, so.
You could, you're going back to camp.
Because we're going back to camp, yeah.
Right.
That's why I was, yeah.
Let's do that.
Let's search and then push back to camp.
Seems like a nice safe bet.
Scavenge rolls, give me perception and survival.
Oh, I got a crit one.
I got a crit one.
And a 16, that failed.
14.
I got a crit three and a 16.
Marvin.
I got one success and a 12.
Three of you got crits?
Yep.
Yes.
Marvin, you find another robot repair kit.
You also find five physical ammo.
I'll give it to somebody with a gun.
In one of these huts, because all three of you crit, you guys find a very old stash of
magazines.
I need everybody to roll me one D20.
Not you, Marvin.
Sorry.
Only the people that crit roll me one D20.
Seven.
Eight.
17.
For the seven, you find a future weapons today magazine.
Okay.
What did you?
Eight.
You find a grognak the barbarian magazine and you rolled a 17.
You roll, you find a tumblers today magazine.
The grognak grognak the barbarian.
If you use it, you can make one successful melee attack you make and flex plus two damage.
One successful melee is two damage.
Okay.
For the tumblers today, you may reroll one D20 on a single lock picking test and you
got future weapons today.
Okay.
We're going to call that a guns and bullets magazine.
One attack with a small guns weapon gains the vicious damage effect if it didn't have
it already.
So you can add the vicious damage effect to one of your attacks and that'll give you a
plus one damage for each effect rolled.
So on that, if you roll any crits, so any guys with a little heads, you're going to
do additional damage for every dice you roll that has a head on it.
Very cool.
And because you all did so well, you also find two Nuka colas.
Nice.
What does that do?
You instantly feel like you have the ability to stay up an extra three hours tonight to
play video games.
You can rip a phone book in half.
Yeah.
You gain two HP and you immediately gain plus one action point.
So it's been about nine hours today.
Anything else you guys want to do here or do you want to push on?
I think we've probably looted this for all it's worth.
Kill the things, display settlement.
Check that out.
Do we want to harvest any of the food?
Oh, right.
This one's already cooked.
I'm munching on the one that was on fire, like popcorn.
Okay.
You can regain two HP and you're going to take one radiation damage.
I don't take that.
No, you just take one radiation, one rad.
Because it counts towards our health.
Yes.
Then we're ready to go back to the old camp, right?
I'm ready to go back if there's nothing else to be found.
I mean, not without checking out that nuclear crater, but I think it's probably best to
just...
Yeah, the nuclear crater is filled in with radioactive water.
It's making a pretty sizable lake.
At the bottom or it's all the way up to the rim?
The crater's filled.
It's pretty filled at this point.
It's not too far from the top of the crater down to the top of the surface of the water.
Yeah.
Should we go back to camp?
Yeah.
In the future, I might like to take a swim in this crater.
Me too.
Maybe on the way back.
Okay.
So you guys head back to your camp?
Yeah.
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You guys go back to your camp for night two.
Overnight here, in order to kind of repair yourselves, it's going to take about four
hours.
So if you guys come and sleep, you can regain your HP to resupply and repair.
It's going to take about four hours in the morning to get Marvin back up.
How broken are you?
I think only three hit points.
But you only have a maximum of eight, right?
Yeah.
Okay, that's not many.
It's not much.
Not much.
I don't think.
If you took a hit to the face like Old Tallman did, you'd be down pretty hard.
I'd be spare parts.
What is everybody's maximum hit points?
12.
10.
So yeah, at the camp, resting.
Okay, if you guys are going to rest in your camp, we're going to take about four hours
out of day three, but you guys can regain any lost HP.
And I don't think really you need to resupply because you haven't used too much.
So you guys are pretty much starting mid-morning.
Can I pick up more grenades?
Actually, yeah.
Go ahead and give me a luck plus survival.
Okay.
Six.
No.
How do you...
You have a luck of five.
How do you get...
I used one.
It's four.
Oh, you still...
Like your luck score doesn't go down.
You just have five luck points that go down.
But your luck score stays the same.
Oh, okay.
So in that case, I passed.
You find one grenade.
Okay.
Where are you guys going now?
Did Marvin say that he had ammo that he can't use and needs to get rid of?
Is it the physical kind?
Yeah.
I would love to take some of it off your hands.
Give you five caps.
How much ammo did you say I found?
You found five physical ammo.
Yeah.
Here you go.
Perfect.
Tragedies.
I'm going to subtract five caps.
Where do you guys go set off on day three?
So we could go to the Radrail station, which is trading and more repair and that nudie
place or the Super Duper Mart.
Well the Super Duper Mart's the next section over.
Oh, you're right.
Sorry.
We're not touching the Radrail.
Yeah.
Super Duper Mart.
Okay.
That sounds like an adventure to the Super Duper Mart.
Sounds good.
Because we were next to Super Duper Mart and the Tesla factory.
Yeah.
So should we go to the Tesla thing first and then over to the Super Duper Mart and then
over to the rail station?
Well, I was wondering what if the Super Duper Mart had some excellent things that we could
purchase that might help us acquire that more powerful gun quicker than we could hit the
camp if we have to or swing back over.
Yeah.
Okay.
Super Duper Mart it is.
You guys spend the part of the day heading towards the Super Duper Mart and you get there
and I'm sure you guys have gone by it before, but this time you see larger number of dead
bodies strewn around the outside of it than normal.
They look like no more than a few days old.
This front of the Super Duper Mart has been mostly shot in, mostly scavenged already.
It's been here for a while.
But yeah, the scene's pretty macabre as you come onto it.
This does not bode well.
I don't think that we'll be getting anything from here today.
Can I look around to see if I see any actual movement to see if we're dealing with Raiders,
Super Mutants?
Yeah.
Make me a perception and are you sneaking?
Yes.
Perception and sneak.
Marvin, you also have a pretty high perception score, do you not?
I do.
I have a six in perception.
Are you going to help look around at all?
I will look around.
Okay.
Good, because I needed to roll a six and I got two eights.
I'd like to try to evaluate if the bodies have been looted or they're just dead.
Mainly because if they've been looted, that means people might be around.
Everybody make me a perception and sneak check then.
And I'll give you, we'll call it a group check of two.
So everybody will group our successes here.
I got a three and a 17.
Is that a success?
One of them is.
Okay.
I had two successes.
Okay.
I also got two successes.
So that's five.
All right.
So you guys can take all the rest of your action points.
You're back up to six.
Looking around, you can tell that the bodies have not necessarily been picked over.
There is a tomahawk stuck in the wall.
Most of the bodies here are of raiders.
Maybe even raiders that you guys have known at one point are now dead.
We'll say that you guys also found a sledgehammer as well as the tomahawk and a bottle of dirty
water.
You also see in one of their pockets, you find a note that says black market slash super
duper mark.
So the group looks like we could know them as fellow raiders and the evidence of weapons
that killed them is a tomahawk and a sledgehammer.
I think we should spend a point to see what group specifically uses those weapons.
And then we would potentially know who is running the black market.
What would an investigation check be?
Well, we could just ask Riley if we could pop a cap.
So essentially, what question do you want answered?
According to the evidence seen and the knowledge that we have on the various clans, so to speak,
that are around the wastelands, who does it appear did this?
It appears that these raiders may have tried to forcefully take over the black market or
infiltrate something that was not theirs and paid the ultimate price in doing so.
Okay.
So with that, then I feel like maybe the best thing to do is to hail the black market.
We should actually get a character because this is probably better there than maybe more.
I think that it looks like these raiders were taken out from whoever is inside and maybe
they were trying to take it by force.
So we should hail the super duper mark and see if we can enter the black market in peace
and maybe find ourselves some weapons.
And if all goes well, check these guys on the way out for more.
How do you propose we go in peacefully?
Put our guns away.
Shout hello?
Will we come in peace?
Kind of the old fashioned way.
Well, you're welcome to try.
I just start floating over to the front door.
You float over to the front of the super duper mark.
Inside is mostly dark.
You can see a dim light coming from the back of the mark.
Most of the shelves inside have been picked over.
There might be one or two things left on them.
There's nobody visibly inside the mark at the moment.
There's also nothing that you would stand out to say, okay, this is a black market.
There's no vendors or anything inside there.
I'd like to approach the store as well.
See the same thing that's going on in there as I sneakily, carefully approach the doorway
and just kind of look in from the threshold.
All looks the same as described.
Yeah.
Hello?
Is there anyone inside?
Give me a intelligence plus speech.
We see all these fellows, actually charisma plus speech.
We see all these fellows on the ground out here.
Well, we'd prefer not to end up like them.
Charisma plus what?
Speech.
Charisma plus speech is eight or lower.
I got a five and a two.
Five and a two.
Those are both pretty decent roles.
With a difficulty of one, so go ahead and gain an action point back.
You hear from the back of the store yell out, who's there?
There's four of us here and we're just looking to see if there are any wares that we can
invest in and we'll be on our way peacefully.
We're just...
We don't want any trouble.
Peacefully?
Yes, sir.
Ma'am?
You?
Hey, boss.
They say there's four of them that want to come peacefully.
Well, all right.
Yeah, we could let you in.
No guns.
Put them away.
All right.
Yes, sir.
Come down to the freezer.
I'm going to cautiously with my hands in a very visible area where it doesn't look like
I'm up to anything shady, just going to walk right back to the freezer section there.
I'm assuming everyone's following me?
I'm going last.
That's what I was going to do.
Oh, we'll go last together.
I'll be right behind you.
Okay, very cautiously you guys head into the Super Duper Mart to the back, to the walk-in
freezer and standing in the freezer itself, which is obviously not operational or cold,
is a ghoul.
He's standing next to a trap door that has flight of stairs leading down into the basement.
You looking to buy and sell?
Yeah.
At least buy.
Yeah.
Yes.
Well, all right.
You come to the right place.
You guys take any weapons out, especially you, Mr. Handy.
You keep your hands to yourself.
I'm a robot.
Any funny business and you'll end up like the folks outside.
Understood?
Yeah, that seems simple enough.
Down the stairs, you find that there's several makeshift shops set up down here and actually
a little food station as well.
Behind the place are four additional ghouls who are all armed and a Colonel Gutsy robot.
To the one corner, there is a store that says, protect your neck.
Another one says, weapons, weapons, weapons, and a third says, chem dog.
And the fourth little area says, push your luck.
And there's a good number of people down here actually.
I'd like to head to the protect your neck store.
Yeah, me too.
You guys head right over to the protect your neck store and there is a female standing
behind the desk and she has several pieces of clothing and armor behind her hanging up
kind of on the wall or strewn on her desk.
Hey there, what can I do for you?
I'm looking for something to protect my neck.
Well, I don't know about your neck precisely.
I guess it's kind of a fucked up name and nobody's ever brought it up to my attention
before.
I got an army helmet.
I got some other things.
I got another vault jumpsuit if you want to put it over top of the vault jumpsuit you
got on now.
How much for the helmet?
The helmet's going to be 30 caps.
Okay.
You only have one helmet?
What does it do?
I got two helmets actually.
And yeah, yeah, I'm curious about these helmets.
What's up with these helmets?
The helmet, two physical damage reduction to your dome.
It's close to your neck as it's going to get.
Okay.
I also got some leathers and then a lab coat, my brotherhood of steel fatigues, another
jumpsuit like I said, a few things, bits and bobs.
How much are those fatigues?
40.
Are there any benefits?
Two damage reduction for physical and energy.
Not too bad.
Yeah, I would like to purchase that please.
All right, looks better than your vault suit anyhow.
All right.
Yeah, here is 40 for that.
All right.
Here's some fatigues.
I hope they fit you well.
They used to fit me.
Oh, pre-worn.
They are definitely pre-worn.
Everything is pre-worn.
I just didn't.
All right.
Didn't need to put a face to it, but thank you.
Well, all right then.
What about you, Guli?
I'm going to think about that helmet and I'm going to check out some other stores first
because that's as much money as I got.
All right, I'll be right here.
All right.
I'm going to meander over to weapons, weapons, weapons.
Did you say plus two physical and plus two laser?
It's two physical, two energy and it's going to be for your torso.
All right.
Then do I keep the stuff that's already happening on the torso, those benefits or is that from
...
This is going to replace that.
Okay.
Man, but that gives me two against radiation.
The Brotherhood of Steel Fatigue also give a two reduction to radiation.
Okay.
So it's two physical, two energy, two radiation.
Oh, and actually, sorry, it covers your arms, legs and torso, not just your torso.
So it can replace your arm and leg reduction as well.
So everything, all my arms, legs and torso would be two, two and two.
Correct.
Oh, that's way better than what I'm wearing.
I'm totally switching to that.
Okay.
So, Gavin, what are you doing?
I'm going probably over by weapons, weapons, weapons with Ghulia.
I'm going to head over there as well.
Come right over.
My name is Gavin.
Hello, Gavin.
You fine folks look like ones that could use some weaponry.
Who couldn't?
Good question.
That's a funny one right there.
Yeah.
Tell me what you got, Gavin.
I've got all sorts of stuff.
Anyway, guns, explosives.
What do you got that's ranged?
I've got a hunting rifle.
I've got a.44 pistol.
I've got a double barrel shotgun and an Institute laser rifle.
How much is that laser rifle?
What's its damage looking like?
It's an energy weapon.
It's going to cost you 50 caps though.
Very good weapon.
Does three damage.
What are you guys thinking?
Sorry, how much does laser rifle cost?
60, 50?
50.
Is it better than what you have?
I don't have any ranged.
What about you had other, what was the hunting rifle?
The hunting rifle?
Now that's a very special gun.
For 60, it is a medium ranged weapon.
It does piercing damage as well.
And it does six damage.
As well?
It does piercing and physical.
Yep.
So piercing is an effect.
Oh, on top of it.
Right, right, right.
Okay.
Does it still count as a small gun?
No, it's a medium.
It's a medium range, but you would still roll small guns.
What if I gave you 25 caps in this baseball grenade?
That's a fair deal.
Yeah?
Yeah, sure.
Here's a hunting rifle.
You gave me that grenade right there.
I do like me some grenades.
There you go.
That wasn't my voice when we started.
Close enough.
I'm going to wander over.
Augusta wanders over toward the gun shop there and starts looking around at prices.
Anything in particular you're looking for?
I'm looking for something that's long range.
None of us have a long range weapon, right?
So now we have a medium range.
Is there a long range?
If not, is there another medium?
So we can at least get further then.
So I can shoot from less close.
That'd be nice.
That was the only medium range.
Everything else is short range?
Everything else is close.
Yeah, that he has here.
Okay.
I see that you only have the close weapons.
Do you have any of the long range?
Maybe out back per se.
Those are really pretty difficult to find.
I don't see them very often.
I don't have anything out back.
There was a bunch of dead people out there earlier.
They may still be there.
Yes.
They are still there.
Yes.
But other than that, I do not have any.
I have two grenades.
How much were the grenades?
40 apiece.
That's a pretty fair price.
I may come back.
Well, all right.
They may be here, but who knows?
What's a big damage short range weapon then?
Kind of like a maximum hit thing.
The 44 caliber pistol is the most powerful gun.
And there is a double barrel shotgun, which is also pretty strong, but is not as powerful.
What's the 44 do damage wise?
Six plus it has the damage effect of vicious.
Six plus the vicious.
Man, and how much is it?
Well, the 44 is my best weapon.
That one will cost you 90 caps.
Okay.
And how much is the shotgun?
The shotgun will cost you 50 caps.
I'm going to take a peek next door.
I have a limited amount of time and caps as well.
Well, all right.
I will be literally right here.
Thank you.
Did we pick up a sledgehammer and a tomahawk when we were outside of this place?
Nobody said that they did, although they were there.
They were there.
We did not pick them up.
I was going to kind of search for it after I made sure we weren't going to get attacked.
For some reason, I thought we've somebody picked up.
I thought someone said they grabbed it too, but maybe you were just saying them.
I was saying I was going to grab them on the way back.
Okay.
So they're still out there?
Okay.
By chance, what does a sledgehammer do for damage?
Five.
Oh, okay.
Marvin, up behind you, you hear the unmistakable voice of another robot.
Hello there, robot.
Hello, robot.
What are you doing here?
I'm with my friends.
You have friends?
I do.
Why?
They are so fleshy.
They are.
Do you want to cut them up?
Sometimes.
Ah.
I don't see many of you around here.
Only Gavin.
I don't see many of us either.
Gavin was a robot?
Wrong Gavin.
Oh, other Gavin.
Sorry.
You guys haven't met Gavin yet.
Gavin's another robot?
Gavin's over there.
He runs the push your luck.
Do you not see him?
And then there's another robot over in the corner and he goes, I am Gavin.
I see him.
Wow.
Do you want to stay here with us?
Maybe.
It would be very fun.
Maybe.
Well, excellent.
Don't try anything funny.
I would hate to have to kill you.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Don't worry.
We're here in peace.
Sounds good.
I'll be right over there.
I hope to see you and Gavin again.
I will be right here.
You can see me anytime.
Thank you.
OK.
And old Talman, you wanted to stop at weapons, weapons, weapons too?
I did.
And if I just wanted to sell the pipe rifle, the baseball bat and the machete.
And get what?
A Wazer rifle.
No the sledgehammer from outside.
You have a pipe rifle?
I have a pipe rifle.
What's the distance on that?
Close quarters, unreliable, two hands.
That's fantastic.
It's a piece of shit.
Mmm.
It does three damage.
Just a pipe on a stick.
Woof.
Yeah, the baseball bat does twice that.
It's literally just a pipe on a stick that you just shove bullets in and hit.
I will give you 70 caps for all that, my good man.
Unless that term offends you, in which case my good super mutant friend.
Unless that offends you, in which case I will give you 70 caps for all of those things.
Quietly pull it all out, set it on the counter without talking to him, slide it towards him,
put my hand out.
Here you go, fair trades.
It's what we're all about down here.
Can I meander over to the try your luck?
Absolutely.
You see that there's a group of people at the push your luck surrounding the table.
It's the most popular spot in the black market.
And standing on the opposite side of a roulette table, well, floating, is another Mr. Handy.
Oh.
And he is overseeing and people begin to place their bets and he turns.
He doesn't really turn because he's got eyes everywhere.
Hello, are you in on this hand?
I'm in.
All right, come over.
All right.
Put your money down.
My name is Gavin.
Hi, Gavin.
There's a lot of Gavin's here.
I'd float over there too with her.
Oh, hello.
Hello, Gavin.
Hello.
I am Gavin.
Hello.
Do you want to put your money down?
Yeah.
All right.
Here's how it goes.
You can place a bet down on an odd or even, or you can try to pick a specific number.
Or if you want to try your luck on a one or a 20, that is the highest paying roll.
An odd or an even will double your bet if you win successfully.
If you get the number exactly, you will get the pot times two.
And if you roll a one or a 20, you will get your bet times five.
I will throw in two caps.
Okay.
What are you betting on?
An odd or an even?
Or do you want to do a specific number?
Do I have to roll that specific number?
I'm going to roll.
Gavin's going to roll.
I'll go odds.
Okay.
How much are you putting down?
I said two.
Two caps on odd.
I'll do two on even.
All bets are placed.
Plus one cap on eight.
He drops the ball in and it spins around and around and around.
And finally, it settles on a 13.
Odds.
You're going to get two additional caps.
So you're going to take four caps.
Yay.
Marvin, you're losing two caps.
And ultimately you also lost another cap because it was not on an eight.
All right.
Does anybody want to bet again?
Three caps on even.
Excellent.
10 caps on even.
Excellent.
Is there anybody else here?
No, I'm just going to watch.
He drops the ball in and it spins around and around and around.
And finally it settles on a 12.
So both of you can double your bet.
So I think that's 20 caps to Marvin and six to me.
Six to Gugli Roberts.
And he will continue to drop this ball in and play roulette for as long as anybody stays
at the table.
No, I'm good.
Gugli walks away.
You're not going to leave now.
You are on a hot streak.
10 caps on even.
He drops the ball in and it lands on a five.
Thank you for your caps.
You can't quit now.
You've got to get back on the horse.
Do a one or 20.
I'll do three caps on a one or 20.
I'll do eight on odd.
That's a three.
So you win 16 and you lose three.
Whatever.
I'm still ahead.
I'm out.
OK, goodbye again.
What about you, my best friend?
38 plus 16.
54.
You should know that.
14 on even.
He drops the ball in and after a few minutes of spinning around, not minutes, a few moments
of spinning around, it lands on a four.
Let it ride.
Put it all.
Let it all.
You're sure to hit now.
Eight on odd.
It is an eight.
Did you just go broke?
No, I've got 60 bucks.
You couldn't go wrong by betting again.
30 on 20.
It's a seven.
30 on one.
You can't give up a loser.
No, I'm not.
I'm just even.
10 on even.
He tosses the ball in again.
It's an 18.
I'm good.
Oh, no fun.
10 on odd.
That's a 20.
I quit.
You leave the push your luck and it does not seem to affect Gavin at all.
He just goes on and begins making other people place their bets.
Is there a place I can buy ammunition?
You can buy ammunition from weapons, weapons, weapons.
OK, I'm actually going to run back to the defense place first real quick.
All right, I am back regarding the questions.
Helmet, I'm going to buy one of your helmets.
What is the one with the most options?
Excellent.
The only thing I have for helmets is the army helmet.
Plus two to physical.
Yep, that's right.
All right.
And that was only for your head, unless you're like holding it in front of you to when you
get shot, that would probably help.
But then your head will be exposed.
So take it for what it's worth.
And you said that was 40.
Yep.
I will give you 40 for that.
There you go.
Thank you.
I'm going to run to the ammo shop.
OK, it's one cap per ammo, energy or physical.
OK, all righty.
I'm going to do I'll get 20, please.
OK, thank you.
Anybody else have anything they want to do in the black market?
No, no.
After watching Mr. Handy over here lose all his money, I wanted to run out and grab that
stuff that we found out that we saw outside.
I lost no money.
Nice.
Oh, you broke even?
Yeah.
All right.
I made a dollar.
One dollar.
Awesome.
All right.
So you guys leave the black market and it's getting to be nighttime here at the end of
day three.
So you guys leave and a little bit better of a situation than you were in before you're
able to pick up the tomahawk and the sledgehammer.
Would there be anywhere I could get different plating from Mr. Handy?
Not here.
If you spend an action point, I can tell you where I would like to spend an action point.
It's my first one.
Nice.
Yeah.
So there is a person that repairs and fixes up robots in the rad rail station.
Cool.
Do any of the bodies out here have helmets on?
No.
Okay.
They're pretty rare.
Are you guys going to camp outside of the super duper mart?
Yeah.
I mean, it seems pretty safe if it gets attacked the black market.
They want to defend themselves anyway.
Yeah.
So we might as well just hang out here.
It goes into night and that's where we're going to call it for the day.
So until next time, we will see you next next Tuesday.
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What can I do you for?
I wish I had a Betty Bob Cocker voice.
It's pretty close.
No longer interested in.
Whose belly is that?