Exploration of The End

Walk forward.

>>189289
Are we aware of any towns or cities that might hold good loot?

If not, start walking, the direction doesn't matter.

>>189301

There are no notable cities nearby that haven't yet been sacked entirely.

>>189297

You struggle on, for hours and hours - the heat of the sun scorching your skin, unused to this much intense solar light, for this long a period in time. Haven got smaller and smaller, behind you, until you couldn't see it at all.

The sun is halfway across the sky, as you spot smoke in the distance, just over a mound of sand.

>>189307
Hope it's a settlement with shelter. Approach the mound carfeully.

>>189311
Second. But stay low don't want to be spotted by something.

>>189311

As you begin to approach the mound, and hike upwards, the sound of rifle fire can be heard, if not faintly, along with a distant scream, though whether it's human or something else entirely is uncertain.

to stealth and be safe, or to rush and be a hero?

My vote is stealth.

>>189327
See if you can peek a bit over the mound, just enough to see what is happening.

>>189343
>>189341
Second, lets be stealthy. If it's a hostile we could get the drop on them.

>>189341
>>189343

You crouch down low and peek over towards the scene, the sound of screams getting louder as you approach..

You see the scene of four- no, five figures, obviously humanoid but from this distance you cannot make out their features nor gender, though they seem to be wearing sandy-white clothing, wrapped around their whole body, including heads.

Three of them have taken to the left side of the mound, taking cover against a large chrome rectangular object, one of them sprawled against the floor and twitching. Their arms occasionally reach topside of the object, the rifles in their arms firing against the other two individuals.

The other two seem to be simply standing there, occasionally firing their own ammunition back, but do not seem to even react when one of the phase lasers hit them, bar the occasional jolt of surprise.

>>189366
//my next reply will be a bit late, due to some travel, so keep that in mind

>>189374
Let it play out. Then loot the dead.

>>189378
If we do this it is very likely that the wealthy defenders will lose, outnumbering the attackers and all.

>>189398
*unlikely

>>189413
Move around towards the attackers then. Wait for them to get killed, then loot, and run. We have no context for this fight and we don't really know who's friendly. So I think we shouldn't make contact.

But then again I am Paranoid about stupid shit.

>>189423
sounds good

>>189423

//This is OP, on a different computer//

After some decision-making with yourself, watching the event, you decide to simply move towards the unfortunate three, bag whatever is upon their soon-to-be corpses, and run for it - adrenaline running through you at the very thought of being at the business end of two rifles while doing so.
As you watch, one by one, the remaining two are eventually shot down, holding each other in embrace. It is quite obvious that the individual who had fallen before you had gotten here is male, from where you are now, though you cannot quite view the face, you assume he must have died looking the other way during the battle, no longer writhing around in agony.

The two seemingly indestructible victors seem to begin trodding towards the chrome object that was once used as cover, their movements slow and clunky - their heads fixated towards the aforementioned object, entirely ignoring the bodies.

Do you continue with your plan to loot what you can and run?

>>189624
Yes, very quickly. Our pistol wont do anything to them anyway, and we are technically on a scavenging mission.

>>189624
Affirmative.

>>189651
>>189655

You quickly sprint towards the corpses, your hands stretched out as you go to grab whatever you can - and as you close in on them, you get the slightest peek at their faces.

Their cybernetic blue eyes stare down at you from within their wraps, their 'skin' of a similar material of the box they are attempting to acquire. As you near the corpse, and the object, they aim their rifles at you.

You're at their corpses, and you have a choice to make, you only have enough time to either take a weapon, or one of their backpacks before you are fired upon flatfooted.

Which do you take?

>>189693
>Take the backpack

The weapon is likely to have lost some ammo.

>>189724
Seconding.

>>189743

You grab one of their bags, your body seizing as you briefly touch a corpses arm, but otherwise you run off - a flash seen just ahead of you where one attempted to shoot you, but it seemed more like a warning shot than anything else.

You make it out alive, and unharmed. A brief thought goes to those who died, and another to whatever those things were.

You find yourself walking away from the mound, the unopened bag in hand, do you open it and check inside?

//Roll D20 to determine//

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>189778
Open it! We didn't risk our life to not open it.

>>189778
open sesame seed bun

>>189794

Inside the bag, you find:

A sleeping bag.

A flask filled with a grey, lukewarm fluid.

A logbook, written in symbols you don't recognise at all.

What seems to be a map of the nearby area, and all surrounding it.

Three days worth of salted rations.

The sun is almost meeting the horizon, you still have a few hours left until it gets dark, and cold.

>>189840
Look around the area and try and find a high point in the landscape. Then compare the map to what we can see around us.

>>189840
Look at the map. Don't bother climbing any hills.

>>189853
>>189858

You take a good thirty minutes to compare the now distant mound with what seems to be a rocky mountain in the distance to roughly figure out where you are. The map itself, when holding it for this long, seems incredibly old, or extremely badly kept, the edges curling, mould growing on the back.

To the south of you, you now know, if where the mound was.

To the north, although you cannot see it, should be some kind of city, although the only label on the map it has is with those same odd symbols in the logbook.

To the west, quite some while away, seems to be a large pool of water. Judging distance, it might take you more than a day just to get there.

>>189872
Head towards the city. We don't need water yet, but lets also check out the water source at a later time to see if we can use it.

>>189872
Head towards the city.

City it is, to begin our career as outlander mercenary

>>189897
>>189904

You decide to trudge forth, north, to the rough direction of the city.

The sun is beginning to dimmen, slowly, as you travel, your stomach beginning to rumble from the days exertions. Before you can even consider taking a bite, however, you notice an odd man walking east to west, in front of you.

He seems to be wearing a metallic armour, some type of solar panel upon his back to power it, and widely brimmed hat on his head. He seems rather aged, a grey beard sprouting from his chin.

He doesn't seem to have spotted you yet, how do you proceed?

>>189935
Approach cautiously. Call out to him, see if he is friendly.

>>189935
Carry on walking towards the city; don't sneak around or we'll look like a bandit.

Are you an ESL, OP?

>>189935
Make contact, I suppose?

>>189952
>>189960

You call out to him, excited to actually speak to another, friendly, peaceful human being.

"Hey, you, over there!"

You wave at him for a few moments, until he looks back at you. Wholly unamused.

"Wyz yi stun d'der?"

He replies briefly, narrowing his eyes - before completely ignoring any other attempt to speak with you. Instead, he simply walks up to you, throws a circular piece of wood on the ground, at your feet, and walks off.

So much for first contact.

>>189978
Pick up the wooden object and examine it.

>>189953

I'm not sure what that means, had to search it. if it's about language, english is my first language but not the one I use every day.

>>189980


It doesn't seem particularly extraordinary, just a piece of wood. Not any kind of breed that is grown in Haven, it must be an oldworld type.

You decide to keep it, if only so you have a memory of this odd meeting.

As you are about to travel onwards, to the city, you notice that the old man has left tracks in the sand, already being blown away - but with your basic tracking training, you could manage following him.

However, it is also beginning to get quite dark, and chilly...

>>189978
"Why are you standing there?" Or something like that

or is it just gibberish?

>>189996
Carry on to the city and find some shelter.

>>189984
It's because you said ' dimmen '. I'm not looking to nitpick your grammar, though.

>>190003

The city must have been further than you initially thought.

You are hungry, thirsty, and tired. It has been dark for a long time, perhaps three hours? You should have insisted to get a watch by the Keepers. A tent too, for that matter.

The temperature is freezing, too, and you wrap your arms around your torso for a little extra comfort.

Eventually, you begin to spot something grey in the distance, only just viewable in the darkness.

Drawing closer, it seems to be a small hut of some kind, not quite the city you were expecting, though perhaps it was the fault of your lack of knowledge to the odd runic language, upon the map? Or maybe you're just not there yet, and this is just in the way.

The hut has no windows, though a door is visible enough in this light.

>>190081
Draw weapon and try to enter the hut. We'll camp there for the night if it's safe.

>>190081
Knock on the door while standing to the side, just in case whoevers in there decides to greet you with bullets.

>>190111

You draw your weapon, nearing the hut - and as you do, you notice that there seems to be no keyhole upon the door, easily swung. Regardless, you push it open, your pistol at the ready.

Inside, you see no humans nor anything that may cause you harm. Beside a few skittering rats, too large to be unmutated, but the most they could do is give you a nasty bite.

A chair is to the left of your vision, a simple wood, looking far too old to entirely stable.

To the other side seems to be some kind of huge circular chamber, impossible to see inside. There is an electric panel next to it, which still hums, as if powered.

>>194278
Go cautiously over to the far side then. Don't touch the console yet but exam in

>>194296
What this guys said

>>194278
>small hut
>electric panel
It's the hidden entrance to a Vault?
Touch buttons on the console, you know machines, no problem - red buttons do the important stuff.

>>194296
In interest of making something happen, attempt to open the door using the electrical panel

>>194278
He didn't say there was a door in the way, otherwise how would we see into the chamber or know it was dark?

Break the wooden chair and use one of the legs as a torch. The rest can be firewood for later. Use some of the wood to act as a foot or door stop for the door we came through. Hopefully if anyone comes in after us we will at least know or hear them.