@Hardboiled Android here's the revised section of Lone Mesa
When the players reach Lone Mesa, (of which they can learn the location from Isaac Gant or the Luddites) they will find the bunker entrance protected by two Power Armored sentries – who will quickly call to their attention and ask their purpose, before noticing their unique Prison-Boys, and bringing them inside for interrogation and Prison-Boy analysis. If the players are honest about their situation – they will be allowed to walk the bunker freely, as they understand the precarity of the situation and their missing Scribe, Isaac Gant, is a fellow 13. Otherwise, they will be ejected from the Bunker.
There are four main levels to Lone Mesa:
Level 1 Entrance:
The cliff-side entrance to the bunker, two small old world advertisement billboards border each side of the gate and bare the sigil of the Brotherhood of Steel – outside two Paladins equipped with Miniguns stand – Costello and Burnes. They’re two of three Paladins with PA left.
Level 2: Archives
Home of the Scribes, who in monk-like fashion go from archive terminal to archive terminal in dim-lighting, piles of books, papers and pre-war junk litter the tables, and the walls have multiple pages of schematics and blueprints fixed to them, connected with red strings. The Scribes seem unusually calm, but entirely focused on their work. They don’t like to be bothered. This is also where former recreation rooms were located (now converted to store more archival junk)
Level 3: Maintenance
Home of the woefully understaffed Knights, where hydroponics, water pumping, mechanic repair and experimentation took place. Much like the Archives, it is absolutely littered with piles of junk navigated by the handful of Knights, who seem over-stressed and over-worked.
Level 3: Mess Hall and Habitation:
A large mess hall, gym, kitchen and habitation quarters. Where the unarmored Paladins now live.
Level 4: Command Center and Armory:
Home to Elder Brixley’s command center and the locked off armory section containing the PA. The armory door has multiple scorch marks. The third and last remaining armored Paladin, Head Paladin Deering, stands guard in front of Elder Brixley’s quarters, where she lies near-comatose from an unknown sickness.
Important Characters of Lone Mesa:
Elder Brixley: A dedicated soldier of the Circle of Steel and one of its original members. She is the heart of the Brotherhood through and through. Mission before herself and before others, always. The “mission” being extended to the mission of the Codex itself – the preservation of technology and the prevention of it getting into the wrong hands. She is, or was, aware of Head Paladin Deering’s feelings for her but considered it an unnatural breach of protocol and would distract her from the focus of her duties to indulge in such nonsense. To do away with this, she issued the Reproduction Order (A decree allowing “reproductive activities” to occur after a Chapter has suitably settled and is in stable condition, with a caveat allowing the Elder to have full control at will of any matter of reproduction or relationships.) and assigned Head Paladin Deering and Knight Tamara Young to have the first child of Lone Mesa – they would test the ground for further reproduction after their first child. Now she lies near comatose in her quarters, the Brotherhood having lost its top Med-Tech in Isaac Gant, nobody is sure how this has happened or what to do about it.
Head Paladin Deering: A member of the Circle of Steel much like Brixley, though not an original. Since his days in New California operating with her, he has stuck with her like glue, making some excuse or finding some reason to stay by her side. At heart knowing she would never indulge his feelings, he still stayed with her out of his love for her – but also his respect as a member of the Brotherhood and the Circle. He believes that her state is no sickness, but a deliberate poisoning, and that there is a Luddite spy in the base. Technically he should take over command position to resolve the freeze in the “Chain That Binds” but he is unwilling to do so as it would concede her incapacity, and she’s been through worse.
Knight Tamara Young:
Formerly a Head Knight and weapons designer at a southern New California chapter, she was relocated to Lost Hills following an accident with an experimental weapon and demoted. She took great displeasure with the Brotherhood’s decision in recent years to cease the manufacture of weapons and instead focus on preservation – most of all because her designs for an electrical based weapon, a Tesla Cannon based off of Old-World design footnotes, will never come to fruition.
A prized gift she took with her everywhere, it was discovered by Head Paladin Deering, who reported it to Brixley and it was suitably confiscated to the archives. She is not happy about having been paired up with Deering, but now at nine months of pregnancy is looking forward to raising the future of their Chapter.
Paladin Corsetti:
A loyal career Paladin of the same New California Chapter as Young, Corsetti has been the lead on the majority of expeditions in the Wasteland and is determined to find the Malpais Army Depot for its store of weapons and now for its potential store of Power Armor. Gung-Ho a little bit too testosterone fueled, he has interrogated two Scaven Pickers (A local scavenger tribe) but was unable to get the information out of them, frustratingly, before killing them. He’s very wary of outsiders, but will turn to them for help if it means securing more technology.
Scribe Hewitt:
Hewitt can be found running the Archives in place of Head Scribe Gant. Unlike Gant, Hewitt is an unimaginative sort and finds great satisfaction in the banal archivist work that the Lone Mesa Scribes perform. His work on the Archives is more rigidity and mindless than surface level guessing would assume however – and when it comes to details, he can be shockingly careless. He simply trusts in what has already been logged. This is partially because burying himself in his routine hides him from the reality that he’ll never return to New California and see his family again. Taking a more active role and using his brain to problem solve would make that more real, so to speak.
Scribe Whatley
A Scribe from Lost Hills, youngest member of the bunker and a secret member of the Luddites. She lost her brother, Edward, on the journey to Lone Mesa and has held a grudge against the purpose of their mission ever since, only worsened by the long, overstretched nights and madness of the Luddite meetings. She has secretly rebuilt one of the Stealth-Boys and has been using it to poison Brixley’s food, hoping to direct the blame onto one of the Knights who work the kitchens. Hewitt is too focused on the banal, as are the other Scribes, to even notice her barely veiled alterations to the archive logs. She has administered just enough poison to keep Brixley barely lucid and mostly comatose, but not kill her. She is twisting Brixley’s relationship with the Head Paladin to stall the Chain That Binds and give the Luddites as much time as they can get. She believes she will eventually receive some kind of signal from them before she offs Brixley – but she hasn’t entirely thought it through.
Quests in Lone Mesa:
Initiation: To make sure you’re truly trustworthy, you must perform a mission for the Brotherhood. The party must visit the remains of Cheyenne Mountain Complex and breach the lowest level of the facility – where the remains of the Calculator lie, to download remaining computer archive information, Computer Science savvy players can decrypt information on the DoD holotape and learn of the alternate location at Los Alamos here, with a difficult check. Radiation, robots and traps await. Everyone loved The Glow, right?
Find the Poisoner: Doctor minded PCs can deduce that Brixley isn’t dying of disease – she’s being actively poisoned. Following the trail will reveal an ally of Idella stayed behind in the bunker – Scribe Whatley– and has been actively poisoning her food.
An Academic Debate:
Upon entering the archives, Hewitt and another Scribe (Billings) can be found loudly arguing over the interpretation of a Cheyenne Mountain transmission log. It’s an exhaustive list of components and parts – Hewitt argues it’s the components for a supercomputer, whilst Billings argues it’s the parts for a type of generator – they are arguing to the point of near fisticuffs, and Hewitt will knock Billings’ lights out if not stopped by the players. A Prospecting or Computer Science PC can identify it as effectively a requisition shopping list with no particular purpose, settling weeks’ worth of debate.
Motherhood: A week or more after first entering the Lone Mesa bunker, when the players next return Knight Young will be in the middle of a very problematic birth. Without Gant, the Scribes are lost on what to do, as is everyone else. Doctor PCs can help the birth proceed.
Lost In Translation: Corsetti has failed to retrieve the location of Malpais Army Depot from the two Scaven Pickers – primarily because they don’t speak English. They can’t read and don’t use maps, only passing things on through symbols or their own pidgin language. As such, Corsetti screaming in their face pointed at an annotated map didn’t do much to jog their memory. Players friendly with the Scaven Pickers and familiar with their language can learn the location of the base and pass it onto Corsetti for future usage – or they can try and pierce the base themselves.
Retrieve the Armory Key: The “Unseen Brothers” and their Luddite brethren under Idella at Nexus hold the key to the armory. They need it to restore their weapons and armor, so that they can besiege New Mariposa. Force is preferred.
Besiege New Mariposa: A band of Super Mutant Unity remnants have overtaken the town of Underpass and established a ZEUS fence which destabilizes Power Armor – not only is the technology in the hands of dangerous mutants, but their scout/spy there, Isaac Gant, was discovered and is now being held prisoner. They need non-power armored individuals to infiltrate and shut down the fence. If this is done, they will strip the town of all technology – energy weapons, medical tech, ZEUS fence, any electronics or gizmos, leaving Underpass in a primitive state. They will then leave.
If the players assist the Brotherhood, they will deploy a Crack Paladin Assault Team and equip the players with Power Armor upon the siege of Van Buren, but will ultimately demand that the player not meltdown COLOSSUS and instead allow the Brotherhood to take the facility over instead. If they refuse, they will fight the players.
enom I see your point, it does fit pretty well itself. Maybe give the Red Okies Rumble?