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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tmart" data-source="post: 3595599" data-attributes="member: 11198">Day 247We made it up the cliff to Newver.  We gave aliases and tried to be inconspicuous, but with our gear it’s hard not to stand out.  After I asked around about Vault locations the mayor, Darren, asked to see me.  It turns out he’s a super nice guy, and has the same goal of rebuilding civilization just like I do.He told me their chief trade good was ethanol which they make from crops grown around the city.  But they don’t have the weapons to patrol the farmlands, so they’ve been having to abandon some of the farms to bandits.  As a result they’ve been taking in a lot of refugees, hundreds of them.  But to feed them they had to produce less ethanol, which means even less to trade for weapons, so the problems just keep getting worse.  He proposed to trade me the location of the Vault for trade relations with Haven, since we have scav rifles to trade by the boatload.  I’d take the trade straight up because we could really use fuel.  But to trade we’d need a road, so we’re taking a volunteer group of refugees to repair the road across the cliffs.Day 248Dinner tonight was awkward.  It was a big political event to annouce the trade deal.  I got the feeling that some in the city weren’t pleased with the situation.  This woman Candace Beaumont, some snob landowner, talked me up to get a feel for where I stand and wasn’t pleased.  She could be a problem.I also spoke with two representatives from the refugee camp.  One of them, an old woman named Mair, was very pleasant.  I proposed to her that she ask for volunteers to repair the road, which would let them go back to their farms.  She thought it was brilliant and promised a hundred workers within a few days.  The other representative, Dole (no relation to the Mule), had some crazy conspiracy theory about Beaumont rounding up the refugees and killing them.  He wanted to arm the refugees.  This man is crazy.After the dinner I made my big speech about rebuilding civilization and how this deal would help both our cities and especially the refugees.  It went pretty well.Day 255We’re back in Haven now to get construction equipment for the road repair and to pick up the Athena case.  On the road back, we saw a sign “You are now entering Blue Lake.”  It turns out that the Sandovals, who run Blue Lake, are trying to expand and probably take over Trade City, which would be a disaster.  Worse, I spoke with Dorn and he said Mittlewerk has the exact same idea.  They’d be trying to annex it peacefully like they tried to annex Haven back in the day.  Yet worse, the territory they’re both trying to annex happens to be home to … our goddamn colony.  I wonder if it’s time for the colony to come out of the closet.  I consider that a worst case scenario, if we can’t take the land ourselves.  If we lose it to either Blue Lake or Mittlewerk, the colony can stand up and claim it, I guess.  Considering they were there first, they’d get the land by default.I had this great idea, which was to go to Trade City and warn them about the impending takeover and get the people to defend their city through force.  It worked for Golandt in Haven.  Hopefully we can then ally with Trade City. We talked it over with Haven Council and the guys had some other ideas.  Dexter suggested making a deal to supply Trade City with ethanol now that we’re trading for it.  Dorn said the Sandovals bought a large amount of weapons from Trade City.  It looks like they’re arming.  I wonder if it’s because I’m in charge here.  They probably think we’re insane, after what Hexagon Jack did to them.  Speaking of which, after the Council meeting Jack said he’d go off on his own and try to assassinate the Sandovals under the radar.  He hasn’t been seen with us for a long time now, and we’ll be somewhere else if it happens, so we have plausible deniability and they can’t go to war over it.On the other hand, I’ve been wondering about the Sandovals.  We never did figure out what their deal was, and we parted at least peacefully when we ran into them in Blue Lake before the military base deal.  Maybe we can work something out.  Maybe they have the same goal Darren and I do.  But would they believe me if I told them?  Jack did some pretty awful things to their family when he was with us.  I don’t know if I could convince them that we never wanted those things to happen.  It’s not as if anyone would believe me when I tell them that I’ve been given a sacred mission by God, Mother Earth, or whoever it is giving me my powers.Day 278We drove the electric Jeep back to the mountain road and met up with the refugee work force.  Damon set the Jeep up on the cliff, with the turret overlooking the road in case of an attack.  He also got the workers to fill burlap sacks with sand, and sandbagged some fortifications in key spots.  He’s pretty smart about that kind of thing.  I was worried about Beaumont doing something crazy, but it turns out Dole the Lesser’s conspiracy theory was wrong.The only person who did show up was Benjamin Saunders, the hobo who told us about Petrie Pond.  He was furious.  He said he came here to be away from people because he hated people, and if we fixed the road it would mean people.  Normally I try to be nice to people, but I could tell I wasn’t going to get anywhere with him.  So I basically threatened his life, and used one of my powers, the one that scares people and sends the little mutants running.  I feel bad whenever I use it on humans.  I feel like Jack would approve, and that’s never a good sign.  Moomba loves it, though.  That scares me too.  Every time I see Moomba I remember Jack slitting Adam's throat, and I feel responsible.  I am responsible.  Anyway, when I did that Benjamin looked terrified.  He right away reached into his jacket and I saw some TNT on him.  I managed to dive behind a row of sandbags as he exploded.  The guy was so crazy, he was willing to kill himself over this.  I think he meant to blow up the road and our construction equipment, but I just scared him into blowing up where it didn’t damage anything.  He must have got the TNT at Petrie Pond, in the false bottom of the locker that was empty.So the road is all set now, and we’ve put up a toll booth to be leased to Newver.  It should pay for defending the pass as well as the trade shipments going both ways.Day 279Okay, we’re idiots.  We found the Vault Darren told us about.  It’s the wrong damn Vault.  This is the Hephaestos Vault, with weapons.  Our keys are for the Athena Vault, which must be on the other side of the mountains.  We nearly found it – we passed right by it! – when we were first scouting around after we left the colony.  Hell, Dorn even knew exactly where it was, but he assumed we knew and we never asked!  I guess this is a reminder that I'm still human, despite my "altered brain chemistry."  And Athena's right in the middle of Sandoval territory.  I wonder if we can work something out with them.To do: <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">try to disown Jack and make friends with the Sandovals</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">talk to Trade City about their offers and dangle ethanol in front of them</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">send someone to scout around Athena Vault to see what force is guarding it if any</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">talk to the colony elders about the possibility of going public</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">get Dorn to write reports for the Council on the military strength of both Blue Lake and Mittlewerk</li> </ul></blockquote>

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