Chapter 20

When I come to I'm in my warehouse. Back in regular human form taller and stronger then I remember, but normal-sized. In one of the corners, I find all of my gear including the horn, my magic books, Great Reason, and my armor. Manny is lounging around somewhere and my pokemon are back in their pokeballs. In my house, I find a letter and another packet. The letter congratulated me on my quick completion of the Last of the Giants Scenario. The letter informs me that I may now switch between giant and human form at will and any alternative forms I collect in the future. I step outside of my house to test and sure enough, just by thinking hard enough, I can switch between human and giant. The actual switch is kind of like a pokemon evolving. It's not very stealthy as I am surrounded by a glowing orb that slowly reveals my new form. I return inside to finish reading the letter. The letter gives me the option to have the giant's strength boon applied to my human form. The boon made me taller, stronger, and resistant to weather especially the cold. I see no reason not to so I accept. As I do I grow a couple of inches and bulk up a bit. It's hard to determine how tall I am without a proper object for scale, but I'm well over 6 feet tall.

After the letter is a packet for the jump to the next world. This time I'm going to the Fallout Universe. A post-nuclear apocalypse world filled with retro-future technology based in a society that never moved past 1950's America. This time I'm being given a blank check to write out my backstory/origin. I can freely choose any age, gender, or background story. I can't however choose the date or location. I will be starting at the same time as the first game and I will be somewhere in what once was California. Looking over my choices the first thing I do is buy a Vault. Vault 14 an underground fallout shelter made for a group of a 1000 people to live in and survive after nuclear war. With my purchase, I am allowed free reign to design the vault and its experiment.

Vault 14 is a vault filled with scientists. Originally elderly scientists and promising orphans were sent to vault 14. The elderly scientist taught the orphans then died. The orphans continued to learn, teach, live, have kids, and then when they reached 30 years old they were cryogenically frozen in a sublayer of the vault. The vault has been kept at a low active population no greater than 100 at any one time in order to keep resource consumption low. The major goal of the experiment is to study information retention. Seeing the effect of long term isolation on quality of knowledge and how best to educate someone to high levels of competency given a limited time. The cryogenic freezing of residents is for when a legitimate government reforms. The residents will help reeducated the masses. However, the vault is still in lockdown for another 66 years meaning 150 years after the bombs fell. I will be starting as the overseer to this vault 10 days before my 30th birthday where I will be cryogenically frozen for at least 10 years at which point the jump will end.

I write all of that into the form in the packet before it changes from handwritten to a typed part of the document indicating that it was accepted and finalized. Seeing as I will only hopefully be in this jump consciously for at most 10 days I decide to load up with drawbacks. The first I take is called True Wanderer stripping me of any supernatural powers, access to my warehouse, and any of my belongings I don't buy for this jump. The next is crippled which makes it so that at some point before me taking control I will have lost my left arm. Chem reliant is next making me addicted to Mentats, a drug which basically an ADHD med taken to help you focus. Finally, take Good Natured and Ghoulish which makes me reluctant to use violence and also makes me a ghoul from the fallout games.

Now with my full budget to work with, I go back to items picking out a reusable stealthboy. Which can make me invisible for an hour before needing to recharge. I then also get a pipboy and a reliable electronic lock pick. Then for free, I get a 10mm pistol, 4 stimpaks, a backpack, 2 flares, a knife, and a week's worth of food and water.

Next, I pick my SPECIAL. Strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, and luck are on a five option scale. The options are very bad, poor, average, very good, and Heroic. The positive rankings cost points, the negatives give extra points, and average is free. I get a small bonus to spend on just this section. I choose very bad charisma because being a disfigured ghoul overrides any good charisma. I then select heroic levels for everything else. The heroic level stats are not a static increase in ability. It's effect scale to form. For example, heroic strength applied to my human form is significantly weaker than a heroic strength in my giant form. These act like boosters on top of whatever else I have/am.

After Special is skill. I am able to select a number of skills to get an immediate influx of knowledge and competency as well as a greater ability to get better with that skill. I choose four skills Science, Repair, First Aid, and Sneak. I could have chosen combat skills, but I feel I already know a good deal about combat and have several perks helping with that. I do not have any perks for stealth or healing. Picking those skills also gives me a multi-tool, 3 stimpaks, and a dose of mentats.

I then move on to the regular perks. Where I select 4 perks the first Explorer, gives me a sixth sense about interesting locations. I'll always have interesting places to find. Second is Quick Pockets which lets me quickly access any items I may have on my person. It also allows me to freely move no matter how much I'm carrying as long as it is below my maximum carrying capacity. Third is Mysterious Stranger which means whenever I get into a fight there is a chance a mysterious bystander will come to my aid. He will be appropriately equipped no matter the setting but will have a high-end weapon. After helping he will disappear without a trace. My final perk is Psyker which gives me a mutant ability caused by all of the radiation. For my ability, I choose clairvoyance with a focus on danger sense. It starts as an uncontrollable weak ability but can become incredibly strong on it's on through patience and practice. With everything selected I experience a familiar blackout.