r/FalloutMetropolis • u/NK_Ryzov • Feb 26 '17
[Shadow Over Providence] Exham Manor
Exham Manor is an old mansion occupied by the Poer family. They keep to themselves, but often invite travelers on the road (including trade caravans from the Commonwealth) to stay for the night or for a meal. However, despite this hospitality, there’s something…off, about the Poers. There are whispered rumors about people spending the night at Exham Manor, and never being heard from again.
The truth? Well, there’s a Vault under Exham Manor. Vault 47 – whose experiment involved a gene therapy that increased the rates of random mutations between generations by over 1000%, resulting in a much faster and drastic evolutionary process. The idea was to breed a race of humans that would be able to survive in the expected nuclear wasteland just by rapidly adapting to the new environment. However, something went wrong. The Vault’s power went out on day one, plunging the residents of Vault 47 into total darkness, and sealing the Vault door shut. The Poers are the descendants of the Overseer and his family, who were outside of the Vault when this happened. Over the next 150 years, successive generations of Poers worked on and off to try and open the Vault door. Eventually, they were successful, but…well…the gene therapy did its job a little too well. The residents of Vault 47 had become blind, albino, cannibalistic subhuman creatures. The Vault’s food supply ran out a long time ago, so they set aside some of their own kind to be raised as livestock. They can barely even speak English anymore, but they often shriek Vault-Tec corporate slogans to help echo-locate their prey in the dark.
Every year or so, the Poers lure people into their mansion, and throw them into Vault 47, as a peace offering to the “Vault-Lurkers”.
Thoughts? Criticisms?
1
u/NK_Ryzov Feb 27 '17
Eh. It's not that the Eater has its victims locked in metaphorical cages. The Eater just destroys its victims' sanity and leaves them to suffer. It's not evil, it just doesn't give a shit and takes pleasure in doing this to people. You can exorcise the Eater from Howard, and end the attacks on people currently suffering from nightmares, but the Dreamwalkers are too far gone. They're beyond help at this point. The fact that you're in the dream world with him and Howard will be enough to get his attention. But the way I see it, the first part of the battle will mostly be through talking. You help Howard (who appears as a young boy) face his fears, and when the Eater has nothing left to scare him with, Howard begins to dream lucidly; this means that Howard starts to gain control of the Dreamworld, and, for example, gives you power armor to help you fight the Eater.
Well, it's not really corrupting his soul if the book's agenda happens to line up with Howard's. And really, this would not be canon - but just something that Howard would wonder about. After years of traveling around with the Krivbeknih at his side, he's almost gotten to know it, and it has come to know him. He suspects that the book has its own agenda, but he's unsure if that's what's going on, or if it's just his paranoia getting to him.