Session 1

We gathered at Alex Medenberry, the village elder’s house at her request. She informed us that the settlement’s scavenging team is out on a mission and hasn’t checked in at the expected time. They’re carrying some valuable equipment, and have the settlement’s smaller truck with them. Given how important these things are for our survival, the elder wants us to head out after them immediately in the larger truck, in case things have gone south and they need help.

I’m not entirely sure about the team that’s been assembled, but at least Cliff and Finnick are coming along, so the trip won't be too bad. I’m only going because Jerrod Hanes (the tech guy) took one of my inventions with him, and I really want to get it back in one piece if possible.

After a brief round of introductions, we loaded some supplies (1 week food, 2 weeks water, some recovery tools, winches, cabling, rope, three 2-person tents, firewood etc.) into the settlement's 8-wheeled truck and set out. Finnick is driving of course, and John is sitting up front with him. The rest of us are in the back.

Finnick knows his way around these parts, so we made good time in the morning. We checked in with home base after four hours of smooth travel, though we didn’t have much to report. John and Lenka noticed that some of the trees and rocks around had been cleared recently. Keats said that the road has deteriorated since he was last here 2-3 months ago, but someone seems to have cleared the debris a bit.

After about 2 hours, John noticed tire tracks heading off-road into the forest. They looked like they belonged to our small truck (Bessie). Finnick decided the big truck (Lisa) could fit through the trail, so we headed in. Lenka and Keats decided to scout around on their own in different directions, and jumped out of the truck.

After some slow and careful driving through the thick growth, we spotted the camouflaged trailer that the scavenging team usually takes with them. Looks like they’d camped here for a while before heading on in the truck, leaving the trailer behind. They’d also left their long-distance radio setup here, so they must have planned to come back soon.

I felt something calling to me, and headed into the forest wondering what it was. In hindsight, I should have told someone where I was going. Soon I heard a faint voice asking me to “present id card”. I tried convincing the voice that I had an id, but all I heard was “Invalid id, please present valid id card”. While trying to find the source of the sounds, I stumbled upon a small man-made clearing, with a huge hole in the ground.

Tire marks from Bessie lead up to the hole, and disappeared into it. As I stepped forward to take a closer look, I heard a loud click - a large landmine had been triggered. Not daring to move, I yelled out to the others, “Guys, I found them, and I’m in big trouble!”.

Thankfully Cliff heard me, and brought John and Finnick to the clearing. A few tense moments later, John managed to jury-rig a counterweight to get me off the mine. Finnick was then able to safely disarm the mine. He decided to hold on to it, in case it proved useful.

Carefully avoiding the other mines, we examined the 40’x40’ hole. It looked like a set of thick steel blast doors had been buried under some 3 feet of dirt. Somehow the doors had opened, and the truck had fallen in. Keats caught up to us while we were stowing the mine. Peering into the hole, he saw Bessie at the bottom of the 30’ deep pit. She was lying on her side on top of the mud and trees that had been covering the blast doors before they opened. He also noticed that there were two doors at the bottom of the pit leading into the concrete structure. One of the doors looked like it had been hot-wired open, but was now closed. We yelled out to see if anyone was down there, but no one answered. I did hear a jumble of faint voices that seemed to be chattering about maintenance overdue and unauthorized entry, but didn't bring them up to the others' attention right then.

After carefully marking the other mines in the small minefield, we headed back towards the abandoned camp, arguing about whether we should climb down into the pit now, or wait for morning. When we got to the camp, we saw Lenka had found the spot, and had built a fire.

John was adamant that we should wait till morning and check in with Spier Falls before heading into the pit. His argument was that we should tell them what we found, and since the radio was solar-powered, we could only do it in the morning. I managed to hook up the radio to my RTG and got it working, so John could make his damned check-in right then. Cliff managed to convince John that any survivors might need our help, and we trekked back towards the pit with rope and other supplies.

We got there around midnight. Keats immediately tied the knotted rope around the nearest tree, and rappelled down easily with the rest of us following closely behind. There was no one to be seen, although Cliff noticed there were bloody drag marks leading from the truck to the door with the smashed access panel. He thinks there were two bodies that were half-carried half-dragged away from the wreck. The bunker itself looked very well preserved, with no signs of degradation or looting.

I could hear the voices clearly now, and they seemed to be coming from the coming from deeper inside the bunker. The broken access panel was also yelling about unauthorized entry. Clearly the previous party had hot-wired the doors and managed to get in. Other voices from inside the bunker informed me that fuel levels were low, maintenance was over-due, ventilation was failing, and something about the arms storage. I decided to tell the others what I was hearing. The people who knew me understood, and the newcomers raised eyebrows but didn't say anything.

I decided to try opening the door that was working, while the others tried hot-wiring the broken control panel again. I talked to the door and somehow convinced it to open. I still don’t understand how that works. Finnick managed to hot-wire the broken door the old-fashioned way, and both doors slid open… and slid shut again about 5 seconds later.

We considered splitting up to cover more ground, but ultimately decided that it was more important to follow the first team. So Finnick got the door open again, and some of the others quickly jammed one of Bessie’s doors into the open doorway. The door tried to slide close, but our makeshift door-jamb worked, and the door’s hydraulics gave up after some loud grinding.

Keats led the way into the dark corridor, and soon we heard a voice calling out to him. It sounded like Jerrod Hanes, the tech expert. Finnick, being still pissed at the condition he found Bessie in, yelled out “What the hell did you do to Bessie?” After a brief pause, we heard Jerrod’s reply - “I decline to answer.” Chuckling quietly to myself, I got in a little closer, and shined my flashlight on him. Jerrod looked pretty beat up, and had his leg in a makeshift splint. He was holding a shotgun pointed at the ground. “Dean’s dead”, he said somberly.

Jerrod then explained what had happened to the adventurers. They were out exploring, and had come across the minefield. After carefully driving across it, they stopped, and he got out of the truck to try out the Open-Sesame device he had borrowed from me. It was supposed to trigger nearby remote-controlled doors and open them. The device worked great, but unfortunately the doors that opened were right under them. Jerrod fell straight through, with the truck right beside them. He was lucky, and got away with just a sprained leg. The driver, Deon hit his head and died in his seat. The others had concussions and broken bones. They’d decided to search the bunker for medical supplies and shelter, and were holed up in a room nearby.

He told me he’d seen a control panel in the room earlier, and the console seemed to be working. Cliff and Lenka followed Jerrod inside the bunker to help the others while I examined the console. Finnick went to check on Bessie, while John and Keats climbed back up the rope. John started building a pulley system for carrying the injured people out, and Keats perched on the blast doors at the top of the pit to keep a lookout.

After I exchanged pleasantries with the console and introducing myself, it told me that the bunker was a hidden forward base of the US military, built to help defend against the Canadian invasion. It had been stocked with a lot of food and water, although everything was probably a hundred years beyond its expiration date. It also had power for 20 years of continuous operation. The console then presented me with a choice: “Reboot required - Y/N”. “Yes”, I said, and all the lights on the console went out. After a moment of complete darkness, I heard a deep rumbling sound coming from below the bunker. It sounded like something whirring and spinning up to speed. Suddenly, all the fluorescent ceiling lights in the bunker came on and I heard the blast doors closing with a loud moan. I tried convincing the console to stop closing the blast doors, but it told me that the security reboot could not be stopped.

As the heavy steel doors started closing, Keats nimbly climbed down the rope, followed closely by John. Right as John reached the floor of the pit, the blast doors closed completely and the broken rope fell down on top of him.

We head out in the big truck, find an abandoned campsite, cross a minefield and find the small truck lying in a pit inside a military bunker. We find a member of the previous team in the bunker, who leads us to the others. We reboot the bunker’s control system, causing power to come back on and the blast doors at the top of the pit to close. We are all now locked inside the bunker, with a broken truck. Some of the scavenging team is dead, and the others are injured.