The Vault

By
o c a l y p t i c Toys #8
Quinn Post Ap

Co n k l i n y
Art B
And Ashe
d er
Gary R h y
Montgomery
 Contents
Into The Vault 3
History 3
Description 4

People 5
Phineas Cain, Overseer 5
Dorothy Hide, Rebel 5
Geneva Ono, Freetrader 6
Josiah Schalts, Citizens’ Watch Commander 6

Possibilities 7
A Vault World Rebel 7
Groundhog Day 7
I Got What You Need 8
A Job for an Outsider 8
Paradise Found 9
Idiot Lights 9

Encounters 10
Salvage 10
Rumors 11

2
 Into The Vault
History
In the halcyon days before the world came apart the
powers that ruled the golden age must have had some
inkling that devastation was headed their way. They
constructed the Vault. They filled the Vault with
people enough to assure that once the crisis was past the
world would be populated anew. Designed to house future
generations of survivors, the success of the Vault relied
on rigid adherence to schedules and plans. The Valt was a
nearly closed loop, only taking in brief breaths of outside
air when the scrubbers and environment machinery were
shut down for maintenance. Strict control of resources
was absolutely necessary for survival.
In the early days the populace of the Vault had high
morale. They felt like intrepid explorers, paving the way
for humanity’s triumph over... whatever. An initial design
decision had cut the Vault off from contact with the
outside world save for a few automated sensor suites,
ruggedized and well camouflaged. The concern was that
scenes of terror, tragedy, and barbarity would sow depres-
sion in the emotionally-sealed environment and fester
there like mold on bread. Or worse. Some well-meaning
fool might undertake to use the Vault’s store of medicine
and technology to give some doomed, radiation poisoned
wretch a few more hours of life and once again introduce
the possibility of mental contamination to the populace.
Not to mention loss of resources.
The monitoring room in the depths of the Vault, the
sole Indigo 01 level, has no screens showing the world
outside. There are no charts, no graphs, no satellite
photos, no readouts of any kind. All the sensor informa-
tion is fed into a single monitoring computer, and based
on a sophisticated algorithm, the computer lights one
of two lights on its panel - red, to indicate that the
world above is still unsuitable, or green to indicate
that a return to the surface is recommended. In all the
long history of the Vault, the red light has not even
flickered.
Years passed, decades, even, and with a new genera-
tion of Vault dwellers came a new set of problems. The
initial group had been carefully selected on the basis
of genetic suitability and psychosocial profile. Their
children, however, had not. Certain among those who grew
up in the white painted tunnels performing maintenance
tasks by rote and studying such fascinating subjects as
waste conversion and water treatment began to chafe. By
that time, the elders of the Vault were already think-
ing of themselves as “the Originals,”a twist of apoplexy
inducing behavior unforeseen by their psych profilers, who
had, fortunately, died gruesomely in the meanwhile. These
elders convened a council with the intent to impose
some restraint on the errant youth. In that hour was
born the position of the Overseer and a Vault which had
once been pointedly egalitarian transformed over the years
to a benevolent dictatorship.
With the establishment of the Overseer the stage
was set for a caste system within the Vault. As the
occupation stretched on quite past the designers’ most
pessimistic scenarios and the monitoring room in level
Indigo 01 continued to show only a single, baleful
red light, specialties became jealously guarded family
secrets. Birth permits were handed out and withheld
at Overseer discretion for offenses real or imagined. A
system of demerits was in place to advise all Vault
dwellers of the latest transgressions of scofflaws and
reprobates.
Of all the tasks in the Vault the Overseer
had the hardest and most thankless - constant
3
vigilance. The Overseer was assigned to be on constant ing. Medical zones, a familiar, friendly hospital-pink
lookout for any waste or inefficiency. By some engineer- in color, feature perfectly maintained machines not seen
ing fluke, the Originals who were appointed as the first since the collapse of civilization. There are supercon-
Overseers were predisposed to bear identical twins and ducting quantum interferometry devices for diagnosing
ever since they’ve used the Vault’s medical machinery to brain function ailments. Rooms silent but for the hush of
continue that tradition, splitting zygotes when neces- cooling fans have orderly rows of stasis tanks for stabi-
sary to ensure the continued presence of twin Overseers. lizing the badly injured or the terminally ill. Surgical
robots wielding precision laser scalpels carry out blood-
Description less, nearly painless surgeries on patients calmed with
nothing more than mild sedatives.
Drilled deep into bedrock, the Vault is designed with
What Vault dwellers do not know, what they do not
durability foremost in mind. Comfort takes a far distant
see on omnipresent screens or hear on tiny flesh-colored
second to a rigorously utilitarian and modular sensi-
earbuds is the perversion that this healing machinery
bility. Geothermal power from shafts sunk far into the
has become. They do not know that the Overseer’s gen-
earth’s crust keeps the dim, high efficiency lights on.
erational abuse of the SQuID to transfer memory and
Groundwater that trickles into the sumps of the Vault
emotion between twins has, in essence, created a single
is used to supplement the endlessly recycled waste. A
asynchronous mind in two bodies. People are unaware that
highly tuned bacterial culture helps digest the Vault’s
stasis tanks do not harbor the aged and infirm against a
waste products. The rubbery bacterial mat is processed
cure, but are instead a dumping ground for dissidents and
and consumed by the Vault dwellers as food, washed down
liabilities. People do not guess that surgical robots use
with water distilled from the waste stream.
their blades and clamps not to heal, but to inflict aw-
The tunnels and barracks of the Vault are arranged by
ful torment with no chance of escape to shock or loss of
color and number in a scheme originally created by semio-
consciousness. So deft are these machines, their mercies
ticians and psychohygienists to encourage tranquility and
leave no mark.
obedience. Living quarters are restful shades of brown,
You understand. These things must be done. To protect
recreation areas are exciting pale yellow or soothing
Order. To protect the Vault.
blue depending on the sorts of activities intended to
take place there. The Vault’s infrastructure areas are
color-coded green or grey, for water and power respective-
ly . Vault dwellers have been conditioned for generations
to respond to those colors with fear and respect.
As may be imagined, the Vault was packed with the
best available technologies when first loaded with
their human cargo. No expense was spared to assure the
continued survival of the human race. Illnesses of
the body and mind were deemed to be most hazard-
4 ous to the Vault dwellers’ continued wellbe-
 People
Phineas Cain, Overseer
History
The Overseer sits in his offices at the lowest, safest
level of the Vault. Around him are his ministers, agents and
advisers. His office is a stark white, white leather, white
counters and white tiles. The place shines with an unnaturally
clean brilliance. The wall in front of his desk is filled with
screens which are in turn filled with images and data about
life in the Vault. He can tell the air pressure in any room with
a glance, see who is using more than their share of water or
producing too much waste.
Phineas sits in this white womb watching the screens
and issuing commands day and night. The only time he leaves his
post is when he sends one body to sleep and moves his waking
consciousness to the other. Phineas was born as twins, like all
the Overseers that have come before him, and like all the other
Overseers he has been changed into one mind living in two bodies.
From a young age the twins were forced to live on different
schedules, one always sleeping while the other was awake. The
sleeping child was fed the thoughts and actions of the waking
child until both boys were one person, dreaming half their lives
the actions of their twin.
This means that the Overseer is always on duty, always
watching, always knowing what is happening in the Vault. He
was raised to a life of service and does not understand why
others do not see the good of the Vault as he does. Why do they
drink more water than they are supposed to? Do they not know
that means the scrubbers will have to work harder. Why do they
create so much waste for the fission chambers to process.
Why can’t everybody just live by the rules for the good of
everyone? It is not as if he wishes to hand out demerits or to
order the execution of those whose only crime was to be born a
second child. He does not wish these things, but if the people
of the Vault are to survive, the rules must be followed. They are
there to make life livable, not to make life pleasant.
Description
Thin, pale and wiry Phineas dresses in white, hates music
and refuses to have any small talk in his presence. He does not
speak much and when he does it is to give an order or direction,
and on occasion address the Vault.
Stats and Skills
Phineas is a keen observer and can absorb and process huge
amounts of data quickly. He has a keen eye for detail and is often
two steps ahead of everyone around him. He knows how the people
in the Vault will react and knows all their names without
having to look them up.
Dorothy Hide, Rebel
History
Dorothy used to believe in the necessity of the Vault. The
purpose of preserving humanity was, and is, a sacred duty that
requires some sacrifices to be made. Now she feels that time
is over. She has lived her life in the Vault, but unlike most of
her fellows she has left on more than one occasion and come back
with stories to tell. The demerits be damned.
Dorothy’s mother and father were both members of the
facility maintenance team and she followed in their footsteps.
She gained her first demerit at age five for tampering with
Vault property. She took apart a pen to see where the letters
came from. Since then she has had a subversive streak that the
Overseer and all his rules cannot beat out of her.
As she grew she started learning the proper care and
cleaning of the Vault facility from repairing air movers to
scrubbing bio-waste disposal facilities, or as the Vaulters call
it, the can. While she has always had a better grasp of repair
work than most others her age, she has been kept down in the
ranks due to willfulness and for not always working to the best
interests of humanity.
Low on demerits and wanting to clean up her record a bit
more, she volunteered for the near-surface repair team. This was
a dangerous assignment according to the Overseer. There was no
way to know if it was safe this close to the surface. During
a routine servicing of the surface repair array Dorothy
noticed that the camera was out of service and looked
like it had been for many cycles. Rather than gaining 5
a demerit for shoddy work, she put on one of the dusty evo-suits
and over her coworkers pleas for her to stop she went outside…
She did not find plague, she did not find disease, she did
not even find hordes of flesh eating beasts that were once human.
What she found was an apple orchard and a broken camera. She
returned to the Vault, but the memories of the apple blossoms
have haunted her and on more than one occasion she has traveled
suitless to the surface, traveling the back ways, the places
where the cameras are dark and the power is out.
Dorothy has begun smuggling fresh food into the Vault and
spreading tales of the paradise above ground. But she tells these
stories in whispers, wrapped in the legends of the old times so
as not to tip her hand. She has also begun to deface Vault property
once again, this time leaving anonymous graffiti telling of the
wonders of the surface world.
Description
Dorothy is pretty in a grass-stained and freckled, lavender-
smelling sort of way. She is tall and stands up straight and is
not afraid to look anyone in the eye. Lately there is something
about her. People have not put a finger on it yet, but she is the
only one in the Vault with a tan.
Stats and Skills
An excellent mechanic and an alright janitor, Dorothy
knows the Vault better than most. She knows where the cameras
work and send signal and knows where they don’t. If you need to
do something without anyone knowing about it, she is the one to
talk to.
Geneva Ono, Freetrader
History
As a child Geneva hitched a ride in Tradertown and never
looked back. Among the lights and wonders that Tradertown had to
offer she saw the best and worst that humanity had to offer, from
slave markets and flesh palaces to other less savory places. She
has seen people treated as a commodity. She has held in her hands
tools to make life so much more comfortable than any Vault rat
will ever know and she has done all this before she turned
20.
6 Geneva was born in a small village of
psychics and while her power is relatively weak, nowhere near
the level of her elders, she can read people’s emotions quite
easily and has a gift for telling the value of an item as well as
its history with just a touch. She has used this gift to climb
the ladder from working as a fence to where she is now, running
her own free trade operation far from the wonders of Tradertown.
Geneva lurks in Gray 17 and runs a small trade market there
where the locals of the Vault come to get all their outlawed
goodies. Gray 17 is one of several parts of the Vault that are off-
line. Services failed and it was exposed to the surface. While
it is still perfectly safe to travel in, environmentally at least,
it is no longer officially part of the Vault.
Here there are markets that sell all the things that bring
comfort and happiness to the dreary lives of the Vaulters, and at
the center of it all is Geneva. She connects the traders of the
free market with the suppliers of Tradertown and funnels the
coin back home. A cut, of course, still goes to the Overseer and
his staff for looking the other way.
Description
Young and somewhat fierce in dress and manner, Geneva is
tougher than most men twice her age and four times as street
smart as any of the Vaulters she deals with. She dresses in dark
leathers with spikes and chains. Her hair is a mohawk that is
always plastered over the left side of her face.
Stats and Skills
Geneva is a fierce trader who uses her psychic gifts to get
every last penny or favor out of a deal she makes. At the same
time she has purged herself of most desire so that she cannot be
easily swayed once the bargaining starts.
Josiah Schalts, Citizens’
Watch Commander
History
Schalts has dedicated his life to serving the Vault, to
making sure its people follow the rules and do what is best for
humanity. He grew up in what passes for a prosperous family in
the Vault and was a member of the Overseer’s Children from
the time he was five. This youth service club was dedicated to
making sure
the other children of the Vault followed the rules and paid the
proper respect to the Overseer and the purpose of humanity.
When he was 10, Josiah turned in his best friend for
hording chocolate and later another friend for keeping a pet rat.
The other boy was reclassed and sent to live with a new family
in the power processing section of Red 25. That was a long time
ago, however, and from the ranks of the Overseer’s Children
Josiah moved into a position of power in the Youth of Tomorrow.
This group of children were seen to be examples for their peers,
children who lived to make sure humanity would continue into
the future.
Josiah Schalts continued to rise from one organization
to the next until as a young man he was offered the honor of
being part of the Citizens’ Watch. He was now tasked with
making sure his fellow Vaulters lived by the Overseer’s rules
and thought of the future generations of humanity rather than of
themselves. Again he has risen through the ranks and now is in
charge of all the Citizens’ Watch.
Schalts wants to shut down the market that has taken hold
in the Gray Zone, but the Overseer feels that allowing the
people a small bit of freedom is good for them, even more so when
they believe they are stealing the moments they spend there.
Schalts disagrees and is looking for any reason he can to bust the
market and all those who do business there.
Description
A perfect model of the future of humanity, Schalts’ uniform
is always a perfect white, well pressed and neat. He never eats
or drinks more than his allotment and never wastes any of it.
He is fit and just starting to show his age. He had his 45th
birthday last month.
Stats and Skills
Schalts is a leader who worships at the altar of leading
by example. He makes every move as if he is being watched and
expects to be emulated. He is a good fighter and well educated.
He is passionate but does not let those passions interfere with
the future of humanity.
Possibilities
A Vault World Rebel
While avoiding a large cannibal hunting
expedition the party takes refuge behind an array of
automated turrets and find themselves in a pristine
apple orchard. While they are resting a woman who
says her name is Dorothy approaches them explaining
that a friend of hers is in trouble and it’s her fault.
She can pay them if they help save her friend.
Twists
The woman’s friend has been blamed for the anti-overseer
graffiti that has been appearing around the Vault. She is to be
executed for treason in the next few days and is being held in a
cell in one of the lower levels of the complex. Dorothy does not
have the skills to get to her friend.
W
Dorothy tells a lot of stories about the outside world and
has inspired a few of her coworkers to explore for themselves. One
has made it past the guns and will most likely wander into the
cannibal hunting party if he is not rescued.
W
There is no friend who needs rescuing. Dorothy senses the
party’s presence as an opportunity to stage a diversion while she
sneaks into a restricted area where she believes she can find the
controls for the automatic guns. She wants to explore further but
needs to be able to turn the guns on and off so she can pass them
safely.
Groundhog Day
A Machine Tribe contact comes to the party
with a story that beggars belief. Somewhere out
in the ruins there’s a whole city underground,
filled with holy relics of the Watching Eye
and Invisible Fires tribes – sensor-tech and 7
power storage, respectively. This particular Junker is themselves to stop their friends and neighbors from visiting the
a Skybolt and has no qualms about selling trinkets to free market. Josiah Schalts, the citizens’ leader, has it in his
head that the market uses up resources from the Vault and the
his colleagues. In fact if this works out he’ll corner people who go there are a threat to the future of humanity. This
the market and make enough to move to Tradertown and group is attacking people who try to get to the market and are
join the Drivers. All they have to do is follow this definitely hurting business. Geneva wants the party to pay the
map…. leader of this group a visit.
W
Twists There is a merchant who travels the waste selling seeds
Against all likelihood, the map is mostly correct. It leads to outlying farming communities. It is said that his seeds have
them straight to the orchard, nestled in among the wrack of the special properties and Geneva would like to get her hands on
apocalypse. The map neglects to mention the auto-turrets, though, them. Many of the Vault dwellers keep secret gardens in their
and about the time the party begins to express amazement at homes and seeds always sell well.
this patch of green and growing stuff the lasers start to scythe W
through the air. The Freetrader is supposed to make a delivery to one of the
W cannibal kings in the burn and needs someone to keep her courier
The map is lure tossed out by the Citizens’ Watch. While safe. She will give the party what they are looking for if they
the Vault operations manual strictly forbids any kind of commerce get her agent in and out safely.
with the outside world, the realities of the situation dictate
that once or twice a year an outsider be allowed to discover the
complex, to be captured and interrogated by Josiah Schalts over
A Job for an Outsider
several agonizing days. Phineas Cain, the Overseer has put out word
W that he has work and is willing to pay in tech
The map leads to a concealed hatch and a steep ladder-
and food as well as medical attention. The job is
stair that descends hundreds of feet to a bustling Gray 17 zone
market. The Vault dwellers are shocked by the sudden intrusion dangerous and he will not say more until he meets
of outsiders – though not so shocked they don’t mob the party and the party and extracts a promise not to talk about the
demand to know everything – EVERYTHING – about the world job.
outside.
Twists
I Got What You Need Gray 1, the sector directly below the main fission reactor
has sealed itself off from the rest of the Vault and cut all
Geneva Ono, a Freetrader running a market in a communication. The last image the cameras broadcast was of
derelict section of the Vault is in a position and, murder and lust gone wild. While the Overseer is talking to
the party an aide comes in and tells them Green 1 is off line as
more importantly, is willing to sell something the well. The Overseer wants the party to go in and stop whatever is
party desperately needs. However, she does not want happening.
money in exchange for the item. What she wants is W
help with a small problem she is having. The Overseer wants to use the party as breeding stock. The
people of the Vault are starting to show the signs of inbreeding
Twists and genetic deterioration. The party is given medical care
8 A group of citizens have taken it upon upfront, no matter the condition. They’re glad for the opportunity
to get themselves in great physical health and in the process are
given a sedative. At least one member of the party manages to
stay awake long enough to escape before they are taken to holding
cells.
W W
The message is not from the Overseer, but from his aides.
His SQuID, the machine that synchs his mind between the
bodies is failing and needs a replacement part. The part is
available in Tradertown, but due to bad blood between the
Overseer and the Tradesman, the Tradesman will not sell the
part. The aides need the party to get the part by any means
possible.
Paradise Found
Rumors are spreading like a case of the drippy
itch through the slave pens. They whisper that
there’s a place buried underground where it’s warm
and dry, where there are clothes and food and water
for everyone, each ‘fact’ more fantastical than the
last. It’s hogwash, but it’s making the stock likely
to bolt. A slaving concern – Abigail Wilson, say –
hires the party to bring back the runaway slave who
started this whole nonsense. Alive, preferably. Able
to feel pain.
Twists
Ignorant of the brutalities of the world above, Phineas,
the Overseer has inadvertently captured some runaway slaves to
whom the worst day in the Vault is like a nickel tour of heaven.
The Overseer’s word-of-mouth campaign to, “quietly recruit a
couple more of these people” has spun madly out of control and
escaped slaves are practically wearing ruts into the waste
looking for the entrance to the Vault.
W duration of the party’s visit to “avoid exposure to biological
The party, through investigation, intimidation, or
stubbornness track the slave, Rennie Zubain, to the Vault and
have the great fortune to catch him slinking around outside. He
begs the party to let him stay and jabbers on at great length
about the amazing city with all the amazing machines inside
that’s just beneath their feet. There’s the door, right there! Just
go in and look!
Schalts and the Citizens’ Security Committee have
never been too keen on this “genetics” stuff – it seems like
just another excuse to let those dirty outsiders in. When he
discovers that Rennie has led the party into the Gray Zone, he
decides it’s time for a purge – starting with Rennie, and not
stopping until every stinking outsider is cooling in the recycler.
Idiot Lights
During the Vault’s long existence, some
knowledge has slipped away. Assignment of a career
at birth does not always produce the best electrician,
programmer, or bacteriologist. The Overseer is in a
quandary. Some of the Indigo 01 machinery is breaking
down and both repair knowledge and spares are in short
supply. A technically savvy party member hears about
a fantastic opportunity to learn some pre-collapse
technology, somewhere out in the wastes…
Twists
Geneva Ono is persona non grata in the Vault, so having the
Overseer come creeping to her for help is too great a triumph to
let pass without collecting some prize bounty. It’s the sparky
free-trader who put the word out for technical help and she
demands a seat at the negotiating table and a cut of the take.
W
The party is led through the twisting depths of the Vault
to Indigo 01, the monitoring room. The place is eerily empty,
the Overseer having ordered everyone to their barracks for the
contaminants.” Any party member with more than novice security
skills immediately recognizes the breadth and complexity
of the security system – as well as its potential for
9
 abuse.
W
In the process of repairing the modest malfunction in
Salvage
A sentry turret packed up and
the security system, the party replaces a component… and the -
1 11
light on the monitoring computer changes from red to green. It’s ready to deploy.
meaningless to the party, but any Vault dwellers who see it go Crates of pallid, rubbery Vault
into hysterics. The Overseer and Schalts try to bottle up the -
12 20
incident, but, too late. Shortly the whole Vault knows it’s time
food. Nutritious but nasty.
A bio-monitor on a wristlet -
to return to the outside world. -
21 31
used in the Vault as a lie detector.
Encounters 32-43 A heavy, rifle-like stun-gas
A pair of bounty hunters with a projector.
1-14
captured runaway slave. 44-55 One of the shock rods used by the
A resident of the Vault, lost and Citizens’ Security Committee.
15-28
terrified by being outside. 56-66 A head-sized crablike medical
A pack of cannibal cultists, ar- drone with comprehensive first aid
29-42
rogant and contemptuous of chows. skills.
Agents of the Tradesman looking 67-78 Fresh apples!
43-57
for a freetrader named Geneva. 79-89 A collection of seeds in a bag
58-71 A pop-up sentry turret that lobs marked with intimidating biohazard
smoke and stun-gas grenades. symbols.
72-85 Junker warriors, a gang of Moto- 90-00 A thin silver blanket.
moto tribesmen on rugged motorcycles.
86-00 The carcass of a Poison Jungle
beast bulging with lethal fungi and
spores.

10
 Rumors
1-14 There are places full of technol-
ogy and people bent on recreating the
old world when the surface becomes
safe.
15-28 The Vault dwellers are supposed
to have no contact with the outside
world, but they still do.
29-42 There is a secret market in an
old unused portion of the Vault.
43-57 The leader of the Vault never
sleeps. He is always watching and
knows everything that happens in
the Vault.
58-71 Even though the Vault is pro-
tected by some old tech weapons the
cannibals are closing in and are more
than willing to lose a few tribes-
men to share their faith with the
Vaulters.
72-85 Sometimes Vaulters are exiled
for crimes and forced to go live on
the surface.
86-00 There are rumblings of discontent
in the Vault. Some say the surface
is safe and it’s time for humanity
to return.

11