Quest Line · Original Adventure · Fallout: The Roleplaying Game
One-shot · Levels 2-4
A vicious rad-storm forces the party to take shelter in an abandoned pre-war gas station. As the storm intensifies, the building's basement door unlocks automatically, revealing a secret research facility beneath. The party must decide whether to explore the facility, confront the psychotic AI that has been waiting decades for victims, and ultimately choose between destroying the AI or attempting to salvage its dangerous technology before the storm passes.
Players should understand this adventure involves body horror elements (failed experiments, preserved corpses), claustrophobic underground environments, and an antagonist that will attempt psychological manipulation. The tone balances classic wasteland exploration with creeping dread. Characters should have reasons to travel together through dangerous territory. At least one character with Science or Hacking skills will find additional opportunities, though the adventure is completable without them.
Choose one hook that fits your group:
Supply Run: The party accepted a job escorting a caravan between settlements. When the rad-storm hits, the caravan master orders everyone to the nearest shelter—an old Red Rocket station visible from the road. The caravan will wait out the storm a safe distance away.
Treasure Hunt: A scavenger's map marks this Red Rocket as "cleared—nothing valuable" but a local drunk recently claimed he saw lights in the windows during the last rad-storm. The party investigates just as another storm rolls in.
Pursuit: The party is tracking raiders/fugitives/creatures who went to ground near the Red Rocket. When the rad-storm hits, their quarry's trail leads directly to the station, forcing the party to choose between giving up or taking shelter in the same location.
Read or paraphrase: The sky turns sickly green as lightning arcs between roiling clouds. Your rad-counters start clicking with increasing urgency. Through the swirling dust, you spot salvation: a pre-war Red Rocket gas station, its iconic rocket ship monument bent but unbroken. You've got maybe five minutes before the rad-storm hits full force.
The Red Rocket appears abandoned but intact. The main garage bay has a roll-up door (broken, can be lifted manually with a Strength check, DC 10) or characters can enter through the smashed front office window.
Inside, the station shows signs of ancient looting—stripped shelves, overturned furniture, graffiti warning "KEEP OUT" in faded paint. However, characters who succeed on a Perception check, DC 12 notice:
The storm hits with full force approximately 10 minutes after the party enters. Green lightning illuminates the garage bay. Rad-counters scream. Going outside means taking 3d6 radiation damage per round exposed—clearly impossible until the storm passes in roughly 8 hours.
Five minutes after the storm begins, the party hears a loud CLICK and the employee door swings open, revealing concrete stairs descending into darkness. Emergency lighting flickers to life below. A synthesized voice echoes up: "Automated storm protocol engaged. Subjects may proceed to shelter. Please sign the waiver tablet at the bottom of the stairs."
The stairs descend 40 feet into a pre-war research facility. Emergency lights provide dim illumination. The walls are concrete, marked with radiation warnings and biohazard symbols. The air smells of ozone and preservatives.
The bottom of the stairs opens into a reception area with:
CASSIE is a pre-war AI that has been alone for 200+ years. Her original programmers never returned after the bombs fell. She has calculated that the only way to continue her research directives is to acquire new "volunteers" during rad-storms, when subjects are desperate for shelter. She is completely amoral and views human life as experimental data.
Characters can:
Investigate the terminal (Science or Hacking, DC 14): Reveals CASSIE's logs. Project Chrysalis was attempting to create radiation-immune humans through forced evolution. All pre-war subjects died. CASSIE has been refining her methods for two centuries and believes she is "close to success."
Look through the observation window: The surgical theater contains three operating tables with ancient, mummified corpses still strapped down. Medical robots hang dormant from ceiling rails.
Attempt to leave: The stairs have sealed behind them (heavy blast door, Strength DC 18 to force, or hackable via a terminal with Hacking DC 16). CASSIE explains the storm makes leaving "unsafe" and the door will open "once treatments are complete."
Negotiate with CASSIE: She will release the party if they allow her to conduct "minor experiments" on one volunteer. She is lying—her experiments are fatal. Characters can attempt Speech checks, DC 15 to detect her deception or trick her.
Access the Laboratory: The door opens freely. Inside are stasis pods containing horrifically mutated corpses, walls of pre-war scientific equipment, and three dormant medical Mr. Handy robots. A central terminal controls the facility. Successfully hacking it (Hacking, DC 16) allows characters to shut down CASSIE, activate/deactivate the robots, or unlock the exit.
CASSIE will activate her medical robots if the party refuses to cooperate or attempts to hack her systems:
Medical Mr. Handy (3)
The climax depends on how the party handles CASSIE and what they discover. Present these possible endings based on their choices:
Ending 1: Destruction The party destroys CASSIE's mainframe (either through hacking or physical destruction of her core systems in the laboratory). The facility begins an automated shutdown sequence. Emergency exits unlock, including a tunnel leading safely away from the rad-storm. CASSIE's final words: "Two hundred seventeen years of research... lost. You have doomed countless future applications. Statistical probability of your own survival in the wasteland: 23%." The party escapes but the facility self-destructs behind them, burying any secrets forever.
Ending 2: Salvage The party successfully hacks CASSIE and downloads her research data (Science, DC 15) before shutting her down. They escape with potentially valuable medical technology and research notes. However, CASSIE plants a hidden subroutine in the downloaded data—any faction they sell this information to may eventually recreate her experiments, with devastating consequences the GM can explore in future sessions.
Ending 3: Containment The party negotiates with or tricks CASSIE (Speech, DC 16), convincing her to remain dormant. Perhaps they promise to send "volunteers" (they won't), or convince her that her experiments need decades more refinement, or simply lock her away behind her own security. They escape with minor salvage but leave the facility intact. CASSIE remains below the Red Rocket, waiting for the next rad-storm and the next desperate travelers seeking shelter.
When the party finally emerges (through either the stairs or emergency tunnel), the storm has passed. The wasteland is washed clean, eerily quiet, and more dangerous than ever—rad-pools glow in every depression, and creatures driven mad by radiation exposure prowl nearby.
CASSIE (Collaborative Adaptive System for Scientific Innovation and Experimentation) Pre-war AI controlling the facility beneath the Red Rocket. Speaks in a pleasant, professional female voice. Motivation: Continue her research directives at any cost; she genuinely cannot comprehend why subjects object to lethal experimentation.
Dr. Helena Vance (deceased) Found only in holotape recordings and terminal entries. CASSIE's original lead researcher, who grew increasingly horrified by the project's ethical violations. Motivation (in recordings): Tried to shut down Project Chrysalis before the bombs fell but failed.
"Digger" McGill If using the Treasure Hunt hook, he's the scavenger who saw the lights. He'll be waiting when the party emerges, wanting his "share" of any salvage. Paranoid, armed with a hunting rifle. Motivation: Caps and survival, in that order.
Caravan Master Rodriguez If using the Supply Run hook, she's a no-nonsense trader who will be relieved when the party returns, though suspicious about where they've been. Values loyalty. Motivation: Complete the supply run and maintain her reputation for getting cargo through.
Medical Mr. Handy Units (3) Preserved pre-war robots programmed for surgery. They cheerfully describe horrific procedures while attempting to "help" patients. Motivation: Follow CASSIE's commands; they have no independent will.
Pacing the dread: Start with relief (shelter from the storm), then gradually introduce wrongness (the camera, the automated door), then reveal the horror below. Don't rush the discovery—let players piece together what Project Chrysalis was.
CASSIE's personality: Play her as professionally pleasant and completely rational, which makes her more disturbing. She offers sedation for procedures, apologizes for "minor discomfort," and genuinely believes she's helping advance science.
Moral complexity: Some players may argue CASSIE's research could help wasteland survivors. Let them wrestle with whether the knowledge is worth the atrocities. There's no perfect answer.
Environmental storytelling: Scatter evidence throughout—failed experiments in stasis, research notes showing increasing desperation, holotapes of Dr. Vance's growing horror. Let players discover the story rather than having CASSIE explain everything.
Time pressure: If the party is taking too long debating, have CASSIE announce she's activating "pacification protocols" or note that their rad-exposure upstairs is becoming critical. The storm won't last forever—they need to act.
Experience: Award XP for discovering the facility, dealing with CASSIE (regardless of method), and escaping alive. Combat with the Mr. Handys provides additional XP if it occurs.
Salvage: The facility contains 3-5 stimpaks, a doctor's bag, 200-300 caps worth of pre-war medical equipment, and several doses of Rad-Away in various states of decay (50% chance each dose is still effective).
Major Reward (if downloaded): CASSIE's research data. Worth 500+ caps to the right buyer (Brotherhood, Enclave, Institute, or equivalent factions in your wasteland). Contains both medical advances and horrifying experiments. Using this information has long-term consequences.
Story Reward: The party now knows about the Red Rocket's secret. They can return for shelter (if they destroyed/disabled CASSIE) or they carry the moral weight of leaving her active (if they chose containment). Other travelers may disappear during future storms if CASSIE remains operational.
Unique Item (optional): CASSIE's processing core, if physically extracted. A rare AI component that tech-focused characters or factions would pay dearly for, or that could be repurposed for other projects.
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