Escape Vault 99: A Dungeonalia Inspired Fallout Adventure

Lucie and John gathered round while Leeland browsed through the terminal’s menu, taking each section in turn and reading the contents in detail. Audible gasps were regularly heard from all three of them as the true secrets of Vault 99 were revealed!

The crew spent a long time poring over all of the information in the terminal. It was all there. The reason for the inner vault, records of tests performed on its inhabitants, and the Overseer’s personal communications.

To summarise..

The inhabitants of the inner vault were sealed in before the outer vault was populated. The outer vault residents were aware of the inner vault, but only the Overseer and his close science team (and their subsequent generations) knew of its true purpose. Even the inner vault Overseer had no knowledge of this. He was also a test subject who naturally assumed the inner vault was all there was. He went to his desk every day to lead his underground society, following the procedures he was trained on, and actioning the limited instructions that came through from Vault-Tec.

However, it transpired that Vault 99 had been installed with some experimental cryogenic technology, and the inner vault residents were its test subjects. Vault-Tec had been working on cryogenic technology for many years, and had some success in putting subjects into a deep freeze and awakening them after a long period of time. However ‘thaw sickness’ was common, and some subjects didn’t fully recover all of their cognitive function. In rare cases, cell damage meant the subject did not wake up at all. It was therefore not considered safe for commercial use, and it was certainly not something a person would undergo willingly unless they had no choice.

A better solution was being sought, and Vault 99 was to test one such solution. Using a combination of drugs administered via inhalation of an odourless gas, and lowering the room temperature such that metabolism slowed almost to zero, but not so cold that cell damage was caused, the theory was that a person could be frozen and unfrozen repeatedly without suffering any noticeable ill effects or long term damage. It wouldn’t pause the ageing process completely, but ought to slow it such that it was almost imperceptible.

The scientists at Vault-Tec were so confident in this new technology that they claimed a person could be frozen and unfrozen, while they slept, without their knowledge. They petitioned for a live test to prove the theory.  Given the potential uses for such a technology, the Vault-Tec executives agreed to set up Vault 99 as a testing ground. The inner vault residents were to be subjected to this procedure, without their knowledge, for increasing durations of time.

The early tests were intended to induce a freeze for a few hours, gradually increasing until ultimately the duration was a number of years. Science staff in the outer vault would monitor the test subjects, using remote viewing technology, as they went about their days. They were looking for any signs that the residents were becoming aware of the tests, whether there were any noticeable behavioural changes, or whether their cognitive function became impaired at all.

The test logs showed that the trials were actually very successful. When the vault went to bed, the gas was released into the bedrooms. Once the subjects were unconscious, the temperature was lowered. The process was reversed a few hours later, and nobody seemed to notice. The occasional morning headache or grogginess was passed off easily enough as ‘one of those things’ and no-one became suspicious. Hours became days, days became months, months became years – it all went to plan. The scientists claimed victory, but Vault-Tec commanded that the trials continue, for longer and longer periods. A new generation of scientists were required as the first generation ‘retired’ and there were instructions as to how the Overseer would ensure that the ongoing secrecy of the project was maintained.

And so it was explained how two years for Leeland and Lucie had represented two hundred years of real time. Lucie was crying, unable to comprehend what she was hearing. John was agape. This was all new news to him as well. Leeland put an arm around Lucie as he continued to work through the terminal entries.

It was within the Overseer’s personal logs that the reason for the recent events became clear. As communications from Vault-Tec had dwindled over time, the Overseer had become increasingly frustrated. He was getting no news about the current state of the world or when it might be safe to be released. The inner vault Overseer (who was called Jeremiah Houston) had no knowledge of the outer vault, or its leader, but the outer vault Overseer (Frederick Love, 6th Overseer of Vault 99) became suspicious that perhaps the inner vault was receiving communication that he was unaware of. His attempts to remotely hack the inner vault Overseer terminal were clumsy and had actually alerted Jeremiah to his presence. Computer expertise dwindles as it is passed down from generation to generation in a closed environment, but Jeremiah still remembered the training he had received directly. He was a far superior technician and was able to reverse engineer the hack and gained a direct line of communication to Frederick as well as access to all of the information our crew were currently reading!

Jeremiah had demanded that the inner vault be released. Frederick had responded to say that his orders from Vault-Tec were non-negotiable, but even if he wanted to release them he had no way of doing so. The door was remotely controlled from Vault-Tec HQ.

A copy of the email was not on this terminal, but Jeremiah must clearly have written a very terse communication directly to Vault-Tec. In Frederick’s logs, dated only two months ago, was a high priority message from Vault-Tec saying simply:

There followed a number of unanswered messages from Frederick to Vault-Tec, demanding answers, asking if it was actually safe to leave, how to communicate this to the residents, what was to become of the inner vault. It made for upsetting reading.

Next Frederick turned his questions to Jeremiah, asking what he had done, what he had been told. Again, no replies.

After that there were a number of redacted messages which ended abruptly, exactly 30 days after Vault-Tec’s bombshell.

“Can you access the redacted messages Leeland?” asked Lucie.

“No,” replied Leeland. “They’re gone.” He spent a while entering text prompts that Lucie couldn’t follow, and finally he said “I can tell you one thing though. The messages were redacted remotely. Not from this terminal.”

“But who would do that?” wondered John. “Vault-Tec?”

“Possibly,” speculated Leeland. “But if it was Vault-Tec, wouldn’t they have wiped the entire terminal? This is really incriminating stuff for them.”

“We may never know,” said John. “But I can fill in the rest from my perspective.”

John went on to explain that over the course of those 30 days, Frederick had started acting more and more strangely. He spent all day in his office, holding secret meetings with certain members of the vault personnel. Mostly the scientists but also influential members of the general populace. On that 30th day, the alarms had sounded, and Frederick’s voice sounded over the loudspeakers. He announced that the inner vault was about to be breached. The residents would emerge armed and hostile. All security should take position along the exit route and shoot on sight.

“And so we did,” recalled John. Adding more detail to the brief version of events previously shared. “The inner vault opened, the residents poured out in a surge of violence, and we fought. We fought for about an hour before we were overwhelmed. They were more prepared than we were and their mass of numbers pushed through each of our defensive positions one by one. There were many casualties. Those of us still in the fight broke and ran for the cover of adjoining passages as the hostiles made straight for the main door. When we finally came out from hiding they were gone. As was Frederick, the science team, and most of our vault compatriots. Only a handful of us remained, all as confused as each other.”

“The part I don’t understand,” said Lucie, “is how come this all happened without us noticing? Tell me again how long after this happened was it that we met you John?”

“30 days,” replied John. “We spent the first couple of weeks giving the fallen a decent burial, cleaning up the mess, and trying to find a way to close the door. With it stuck open, all manner of creatures started to find their way in. You’ve encountered some of them of course. We’ve been fending them off ever since. We were more than surprised when we saw you, thought you were the escapees who had come back to finish us off.”

“30 days?!” exclaimed Lucie. “We must have been unconscious that whole time!”

“Yes,” concluded Leeland. “Jeremiah must have found a way to gas our room from his terminal. Put us to sleep while he and his conspirators carried out their plan.”

“Jeremiah?” asked Lucie. “Why would he do that? And why just us?”

“Because,” continued Leeland, “he knew we would try to stop them…”

Main Quest: Escape Vault 99

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

Shellshocked from what they had just learned, Lucie, Leeland and John exited Frederick’s office through the unopened door. The terminal had revealed a map of the vault so they knew in which direction to head, [the Overseer’s Office room card allows for a successful computer hack to reveal the next 3 sections of the vault. In this case a corridor, a reactor room and a utility room], but John resolved to come with them for the next part of the journey. He knew the way and also wanted to find a way to help Kate. There was an outside chance that a Vault 99 resident may have returned with news of a safe place where she could get medical assistance.

John led the way into the corridor. It was unoccupied, but there was a computer terminal in the corner. It was beyond John’s ability to hack, so he shouted to Leeland that his skills would be required and then moved to open the opposite door in the corridor. He opened the door and peered into the reactor room. There were two protectrons patrolling inside!

“Er, guys..” called John. “We have a problem. Two protectrons and they are hostile.”

Lucie recalled their previous close shave with just one protectron. “Oh no, how are we going to get past those?”

“There might be a way,” suggested John. “Protectron protocols can be controlled via computer terminals. My guess is that the terminal in this corridor might have a command to take them off hostile mode. We’ll have to do it quickly before they spot us, but with Leeland’s computer skills it might be possible”. [In the video games, in vaults, there are usually options to change the protocols of any robots or turrets. Finding a terminal can be an alternative to fighting the robots off. Indeed, turning robots to your side can actually help you against other enemies within, so this can often be a good plan. So I introduced that as an option here for a true Fallout experience!]

“I’m closer,” said Lucie. “Let me try”.

Lucie stepped into the corridor and across to the terminal, taking care not to become visible to the protectrons through the open reactor room door. She was no slouch with computers, but without the level of expertise of Leelend her attempts to gain access were unsuccessful.

“I’m coming,” called Leeland. “John, don’t move, one sudden movement and they’ll see you.”

Leeland joined Lucie at the terminal and after a couple of attempts was able to gain access. There was indeed a protectron control, and he was able to change their protocols from ‘hostile’ to ‘friendly’. There was an option to shut them down, but ‘friendly’ meant that they might be of some use in keeping any nearby critters at bay.

As a bonus the terminal also opened a nearby safe, and Leeland picked up a silencer mod for a gun. They all entered the reactor room that had been made safe, and searching it revealed a stimpak and a Radaway. They passed the stimpak to John to clear the woulds that he was carrying from their earlier fight. The Radaway was pocketed for future use.

They moved through to the utility room. In it were a number of crates which the crew searched, but they were all empty.

“We’re close to the exit now,” said John. “Anything useful in here would have been looted.”

The next room was a residential room, completely unoccupied, and again completely empty. [One of the searchables revealed a Danger card but Leeland passed a skill check and was therefore unharmed].

“The entrance room is through here,” said John. “We should be careful, the door is open, anything could be inside.”

Anything indeed. As the crew peered in, they could see the hulking shape of a huge monster just inside the vault door. [Deathclaw Matriarch!] It seemed occupied with something in the corner, and hadn’t seen them yet, but it looked impossibly dangerous. It must have been 8 or 9 feet tall, with claws on each hand that were as long as a human forearm!

“Holy…”

John silently pointed to some piles of crates within the room. They could take cover behind those before the Deathclaw saw them, and see if weight of fire could bring it down before it could close the distance to them. John ran first and got behind the nearest crates, and readied his gun [took a Prepare action]. Lucie came next, taking position behind another set of crates.

“I’ve got a shot”, whispered Lucie.

“No, wait for me,” replied Leeland. “Let’s all fire at the same time.” But it was too late, Lucie took a shot. Her aim was true but the bullet bounced harmlessly off of the creature’s scaly hide. The Deathclaw reared up in surprise and turned its head towards the source of the attack. Wow it was ugly. To the crew’s surprise, the creature’s response was to retreat back further into the room. [Its AI roll resulted in the ‘Fall Back’ action].

Back in the reactor room, the Protectrons responded to the sound of gunfire. They exited their patrol routines and started moving through the utility room, towards the residential room and on the way to the entrance..

Leeland rushed into the entrance room and joined Lucie at her shoulder. The Deathclaw was starting to make some very angry noises. He decided to take a shot while it was still seemingly confused by what was going on. It was a tough shot into cover, and it missed.

Lucie fired twice again, proving a much better shot than Leeland she hit both times. One of the shots bounced off in the same way her first attempt did, but the other shot found a fleshy part and actually seemed to hurt the monster. [The critical meter on Lucie’s rifle was charged and the shot did extra damage and gained an armour break. Even with the Deathclaw’s huge armour value, one damage crept through].

The Deathclaw again seemed surprised by the attack and initially shrunk back again. It was definitely now realising that it was under attack and its attention was fully turned onto the crew. It moved forward cautiously, staying in some cover behind the partition in the room. It seemed intelligent. It knew it needed to protect itself until it got in range to make a charge. John and Leeland fired but to no avail. There was no way they were going to bring it down before it closed the distance to them. Their vault suits would be no match for those claws. The crew each looked at each other in desperation. John saw Leeland and Lucie look at each other and mouth some words which he could not quite make out. From their faces it looked like a loving goodbye… He teared up at the sight. He thought of the life he’d led, and the future he’d never see..

The Deathclaw threw its arms wide and set to launch into a charge. The crew braced themselves for impact. However, just as the creature was about to move, it was distracted by movement out of the corner of its eye. The protectrons had arrived! They bimbled in towards the Deathclaw, firing from their hand lasers. The lasers didn’t appear to be causing much damage but the robots had grabbed the creature’s attention. It let out a huge roar which struck fear into the hearts of the humans in the room, but the robots were unphased. [Deathclaw Roar is actually a ‘weapon’ the Deathclaw is equipped with, but it only works on humans!]. The robots bravely placed themselves between the Deathclaw and the crew. Their weapons were not powerful enough to bring the creature down, but they might be able to hold it for enough time for the crew to get some more shots at it.

Buoyed by the protections appearance, and Lucie’s earlier success with her rifle, the crew redoubled their efforts. They fired with everything they had. Yes, there was a chance they would hit the plucky robots instead, but it was a chance they had to take. This was their only hope.

The Deathclaw charged the lead protectron, and with one swipe of its mighty claw it took a huge chunk out of the robot’s metal torso. Sparks flew everywhere but the robot was not down. [3 of its 7 health taken with that one swipe!]

The crew all opened fire and sent a hail of bullets towards the Deathclaw. They aimed high to reduce the risk of hitting the protectrons and the plan was working. Yes, a lot of shots missed the creature, but only one hit the robots. The creature was wailing loudly and flailing its claws wildly. But still the protectrons held, gamely firing their lasers and not letting the Deathclaw past. Gradually shots found their way home, and the creature was taking damage. The Deathclaw howled in frustration, but still the protectrons held.

“Aim for the chest!” Shouted John. “It’s bleeding!”

The shots rained in as the protectrons held the monster back. At last it stumbled, it fell, and then with a final thrash of its tail, it went completely still.

For the longest time, the crew stayed rooted to the spot, weapons raised, in case the Deathclaw wasn’t completely finished. But as the blood continued to pool around it, and its tongue lolled from its jaws, they gained confidence that the ordeal was over.

Finally, they had an opportunity to look up at the open door and contemplate leaving. They could actually see the world outside. It was, as they expected, a wasteland. But it would be home now. Leeland and Lucie climbed the ramp to the open door, hand in hand. They were about to see sunlight for, as they now knew, the first time in two hundred years.

Leeland took one last look behind before he and Lucie stepped through the door.

“Shit,” he thought. “I’ll tell Lucie about that later… a LOT later…”

THE END

Main Quest: To be continued…

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

Well, that was intense wasn’t it?  I don’t know about you but I’ve grown quite attached to our adventurers.

I strongly suspect we haven’t seen the last of Leeland and Lucie.  Nor John and Kate for that matter.  There is a wasteland to explore and there will be safety in numbers!

That’s all for another day though.  For now the dungeon exploration is complete. I am sure our heroes will stumble across another vault though, and it will be interesting to see how they get on when they are levelled up and better equipped!

For now, let’s wrap this up.  There were some areas of Vault 99 left unexplored, but we had quite the adventure in the parts we discovered!  Here is the schematic as encountered by our crew:

Who knows, maybe one day I’ll build out this vault properly in three dimensions?  The Battle Systems terrain served me well, but imagine a fully structured layout like this!

Here is the final, shareable, playable scenario that was created via this part playthrough, part playtest. There are some modifications to my playthrough, incorporating the learnings from it.  My hope is that this now works as a standalone adventure than anyone familiar with Fallout Wasteland Warfare can play!

Finally, to finish off Dungeonalia 2023/4, some actual hobby!  While I was playing through my adventure, I decided I really wanted a proper vault entrance for my ‘dungeon’.  The Battle Systems terrain was great for laying out the rooms and corridors, but the vault entrance itself is a really iconic image in Fallout.  I found this one on Etsy.  The STLs are from the Atomic Shelter Kickstarter by M3Studios, and printed via commercial licence by Gray at Woofoo Workshop.

The kit arrived way faster than expected (I didn’t expect it to arrive before the end of my adventure) so I was able to use it for the last scene in my scenario, albeit unpainted.

I only decided to do a Dungeonalia project half way through the 3 month duration, and it turned out that I had bitten off a bit more than I could chew with the adventure/scenario itself and finishing on time.  So I prioritised getting that finished, but having now done so I decided to get some paint on it before February comes to an end!

Firstly, I added 3x1mm magnets to the pieces so that they hold together securely in use, but don’t require permanent assembly.  The kit comes with the holes to do so, which is very useful.

Then I primed it with black spray (Spectre Black from TT Combat), and then a light dusting with a silver spray from Army Painter.

Then some simple airbrushing.  Russ Grey (Citadel) to give a blue/grey tint to the walls.  Then Vallejo Burnt Umber to weather it down and make it look dirty and old.  I used a Citadel yellow to give some industrial colour to the railings, and dirtied that down as well with Burnt Umber.  I also used some blue and green speedpaints through the airbrush onto the vault door itself to give it a kind of reinforced steel look, but again using Umber to make it look old and post apocalyptic.

And that’s it.  I popped some of my bits and pieces in it for some photos.  Perhaps next year, I’ll work on adding to it with some more prints from that same Kickstarter… we’ll see!

For now I am happy to call this project closed.