Cold Storage

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Encounter Conditions

After exploring the Soothing Stacks?

Initial Text

You find your way to the cold storage section of the vault. The ancient refrigeration units seem to do an okay job of keeping the cold inside, but their sheer number still renders the area rather chilly.

A few units at one end are actually labeled "Available," with a date several years ago. Actually, most of the dates are quite old. They don't seem to get a lot of business here.

Or, after checking for Special Projects:

You find your way back to the cold storage section of the vault. The ancient refrigeration units seem to do an okay job of keeping the cold inside, but their sheer number still renders the area rather chilly.

You've found the Special Projects storage Lo sent you after, but the control panel for it doesn't respond at all. Most of the other units are working properly, so it's either bad luck or some very strange security measure.

Or, after applying a vault bypass the second line changes to:

You've repaired the controls, so you should be able to open the Special Projects unit from back when Lo was working for Midgard.

Summary of Choices

1. Check it out (After applying a vault bypass) - Get a generation zero sample
2. Grab something/Grab something else - Get a random seed sample and 2 XP in Perception
3. Climb in one - Regain 20 HP or more with warm weather gear (see discussion)
4. Check for Special Projects (With Lo as your contact) - Unlocks 'Pry open the controls' and 'Apply powerful acid', removes this option
5. Pry open the controls - Information
6. Apply powerful acid (With powerful acid) - Unlocks 'Check the wires' and 'Use a signal analysis circuit', removes this option and 'Pry open the controls'
7. Check the wires - Information
8. Use a signal analysis circuit (With a signal analysis circuit) - Learn Vault Bypass recipe
9. Add the bypass (With a vault bypass) - Unlocks 'Check it out', removes this option, 'Check the wires' and 'Use a signal analysis circuit'
10. Leave them be - Walk Away

Choice Text and Results

Check it out

You flip through the samples until you find one labeled "Generation 0" that seems particularly interesting. Presumably that should be around the root of all this.

You found: generation zero sample

Grab something/Grab something else

You look through the open refrigeration units. Most of the samples are just labeled with a serial number and "Property of Midgard Agricultural Products. Unauthorized possession of these materials may be prosecuted under corporate law."

You grab one at random.

You found: random seed sample

You've earned 2 XP in Perception

Climb in one

You climb into one of the units. Nobody is going to bother you here, but it's every bit as cold as you expected.

You're forced out with numb fingers after just a few minutes.

You regain 20 hit points!

Or, wearing a containment suit top/containment suit pants or two of warm weather gear (festive knit hat, festive Christmas sweater, Fire In Your Belly):

You climb into one of the units. It's as cold as you expected, but you can handle it.

And there's no chance anybody bothers you here.
You regain 39 hit points!
You've earned 2 XP in Will

Check for Special Projects

You look over the labels on the refrigeration units. Most belong to Midgard Agricultural Products, but a few actually belong to Special Projects.

Only one falls into the right time range, so you punch the pad to open it. It doesn't respond at all… not even beeping or summoning guards.

Looks like it's broken down in the decade since Special Projects stored anything there.

Pry open the controls

You pry at the control panel with your fingers. It's solidly built, probably more for durability than for security purposes, but that doesn't make it any easier for you to get in.

The circuitry seems to have failed long before the casing, which isn't exactly surprising.

Breaking it with a hammer or explosion seems likely to cause further damage to the circuitry beneath, but you could probably melt through it with acid.

Apply powerful acid

You carefully pour the acid into the seam in the casing until you're confident it'll pop off. It'll take a couple minutes, but the casing should be on the floor when you get back.

(Lose 1 powerful acid)

Check the wires

The circuitry in there is a corroded mess. You're not sure what caused it, but it's more than a simple cut wire… it's several cut wires and at least one damaged chip.

You could probably make replacement parts if you had the original schematics, but might be able to fake it out after running things through a signal analysis circuit.

Use a signal analysis circuit

You redirect the inputs from the panel through a signal analysis circuit and play around for a while, recording the results. You think you have a pretty good schematic for a replacement part.

It shouldn't provide any security or, really, do anything other than open that one refrigeration unit, but hopefully that's all you need.

You've learned a new quest recipe: Vault Bypass - Use Thick Cabling to wire a Signal Analysis Circuit and two Circuit Fragments for this task.

(Lose 1 signal analysis circuit)

Add the bypass

You wire in the circuit bypass you constructed and replace the controls. That should do the trick!

You duck back into the vault to avoid a patrol, confident they won't notice your modifications.

(Lose 1 vault bypass)

Leave them be

You decide to do something warmer than dig around in refrigerators.

See Walk Away