The USS Germination is a beached pre-War waste freighter that has been repurposed into a farm in the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game expansion Winter of Atom.
Background
Some time in the Winter, prior to the events of Winter of Atom, the USS Germination ran aground in the ruined Boston Harbor. In the years since the Great War, the ship's supply of waste has since decomposed into a rich compost, which had allowed a small conclave of settlers to grow produce and establish a home there, however in recent years the farm has begun failing, and once ran aground in the ruins of Boston, the ship was immediately sieged by Super Mutants, raiders, and others who wished to steal the settlement's rich produce due in-part to the Commonwealth's bitter nuclear winter spoiling most other crops in the area.[1]
In need of help, the Last Son of Atom elected to lend his aid and met with the Settlement's leader, a geneticist named Dr. Yarrow. The Last Son gifted Dr. Yarrow Flesh Fruit fungus, a strange purple seed that would eventually blossom into fruit that would grow in the harshest of situations, so long as it was planted inside of a frozen human corpse. As a token of thanks, Dr. Yarrow aided the Last Son with genetic experiments, creating some of the Church of Atom's most dangerous beasts, such as the Gigapede.[2]
The corpse requirement of the USS Germination's new food source lead Yarrow and the settlers to begin hunting and kidnapping stray scavengers who strayed near the Germination, in order to kill them and use their bodies as fertilizer. Their efforts led to the Germination holding the largest food stores in the Commonwealth at the time[3], however the settlers on board becaome violent and deranged due to their consumption of the Flesh Fruit, physically distorting and twisting in impossible ways. The only people aboard the USS Germination who had not eaten the fruit, including Dr. Yarrow, were barricaded in a storage closet to avoid being cannibalised by their former friends, and Dr. Yarrow worked tirelessly to produce a cure to the affliction, regretting that he accepted the Last Son's help to begin with. [4]
Appearances
The USS Germination appears only in the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game expansion Winter of Atom.
References
- ↑ Winter of Atom p.81: "The USS Germination is a waste freighter repurposed to be a thriving and self-sustaining farm populated by a few dozen settlers. The farm’s rich compost fermented over decades at sea, making the green space possible. Earlier in the winter, the freighter washed inland and almost instantly froze in the ruined Boston harbor. Run aground, the once secure settlement lacked protection against looting Raiders, flesh-hungry Super Mutants, and other starving factions."
- ↑ Winter of Atom p.81-82: "In their time of need, the Last Son of Atom visited the settlement’s leader, a brilliant but ethically bankrupt geneticist named Dr. Yarrow. The Last Son offered Yarrow a food source capable of replacing the freighter’s dying farm—a strange purple fungus that grows delicious fruit even in the coldest climates when planted inside a frozen human corpse. In exchange, Yarrow has helped the Last Son with his genetic experiments, leading to the creation of highly mutated beings that serve the Church—like Radoid Freaks and the Gigapede and its hatchlings."
- ↑ Winter of Atom p.82: "Yarrow and the settlers have recently been hunting stray scavengers near the harbor to provide corpse fertilizer for their new garden. The results have been astounding, and the USS Germination’s food stores, known as the Hoard, have become the largest in the Commonwealth during winter. The mariner settlers who have eaten the fruit have become sick, their bodies twisting and mutating in strange and seemingly impossible ways. The more they eat the flesh fruit, the more they become increasingly aggressive and starving. When the PCs encounter them, the mutated mariners are entirely willing to turn to cannibalism to sate their monstrous hunger."
- ↑ Winter of Atom p.82: "Only a handful of the freighter’s residents, including Yarrow and a pair of identical twin children, have yet to eat the fruit. The unafflicted barricaded themselves inside a storage closet to avoid being eaten by their friends-turned-cannibals. Yarrow continues to feed the mutated mariners more fruit to sustain them (and keep them from eating him) but has become increasingly desperate. Yarrow works feverishly to develop a cure for the sickness destroying the settlement, while cursing the day he accepted the Last Son of Atom’s help."