Odd Treasure Troves

[kato13]

Along the lines of Last Voyage of USS RAZORBACK I thought it might be a good idea to post some ideas for odd treasure troves.

The following is a real world example I was exposed to in the mid 90's. On the 34th floor of an office building in downtown Chicago with a room sized safe containing between 201 and 1300 (2d6*100 + d100) high end desktop servers. The servers were being preloaded with software before being shipped to retail automotive repair locations as part of an intranet development.

The status of the servers would of course depend on the Effects of EMP within your game, however I feel the servers would have a reasonable chance of survival for the following reasons.

• They were behind a 2 inch steel door (Combination lock).
• They were stored without power cords attached.
• They were resting on wooden shelves (on metal frames)
• The room itself was shielded from every radio frequency I could test easily. (Pager, walkie talkie, Radio, TV)
• The room was located in the center of a middle floor, with 20 floors above and 32 floors below. (Might provide protection from a high altitude burst)
• Other buildings would block line of sight to most low/mid level bursts in the vicinity.

The pre war value of the servers was over 10 million dollars. The post war value would be priceless.

[BigEd]

Not my weapons cache, but a fellow reenactors' private collection.

View from one side of the room.
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i32/dxdunner/GR1a.jpg
View from the other side.
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i32/dxdunner/GR2a.jpg
Picture of home.
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i3...r/Exterior.jpg

Stumbling across that cache would be "intense" to say the least.

///ed///

[Grimace]

Good Golly that's a weapons room!!!

That's someone with a ludicrous amount of money to spend. But you ain't kidding about finding it! He'd likely never give it up, but just imagine some unfortunate occurence happening....a heart attack, for example, and then house sits empty. Someone checks it out after fire demolishes nearly the entire hourse, but the basement/weapons cache is untouched. The stragglers see the sealed door, bust it open and WAAAAHOOOOO!!! Jackpot!

[Haven]

I've 'read on the internet' (and we know how reliable that is) that these pictures were from Charlton Heston's estate?

[pmulcahy11b]

I once gave my players an intact, perfect-condition pallet of Cottonelle toilet paper. They got a fortune for it in trade goods!

[Mohoender]

Paul, you make me think of "Baa baa black sheep" and "Operation Petty Coats", two great stuff in my opinion. Both are comedies on WW2 but they are almost entirely about that: What you can get in exchange for toilet papers and a box of old true Bourbon.

I find them nice for inspiration. By the way, according to a friend of mine, working in the french army, it is still working that way (If you have something to give you get some supply faster than the next unit). Does this work in the US Army (navy, air force...)?

[Earthpig]

Originally Posted by Haven

I've 'read on the internet' (and we know how reliable that is) that these pictures were from Charlton Heston's estate?

These popped up at the Game squad forums.....I believe the house was owned by a wealthy lawyer type somewhere in the southeastern part of the US.(ie South/North Carolina's, Virginia, Maryland...or something...not sure).

[Rockwolf66]

Originally Posted by Earthpig

These popped up at the Game squad forums.....I believe the house was owned by a wealthy lawyer type somewhere in the southeastern part of the US.(ie South/North Carolina's, Virginia, Maryland...or something...not sure).

I know that Michael "Mad Mike" Williamson knows the guy who owns that room. According to Mike the Owner recently sold a Livingston rifle for $500,000. And yes it was once owned by that Livingston.

[Nowhere Man 1966]

Cool ideas. Working for Fed EX and now Advanced Auto Parts, I'm trying to come up with an idea of a team and/or cache where the main purpose is to repair and rebuild vehicles and equipment in a Morrow Project or Twilight 2000/2013 environment. I'm getting ideas what I see in the store of what would be needed plus I'll have to beef things up more. BTW, Chalkline, you have a good idea for a cache.

Chuck M.

[ChalkLine]

Originally Posted by Nowhere Man 1966

Cool ideas. Working for Fed EX and now Advanced Auto Parts, I'm trying to come up with an idea of a team and/or cache where the main purpose is to repair and rebuild vehicles and equipment in a Morrow Project or Twilight 2000/2013 environment. I'm getting ideas what I see in the store of what would be needed plus I'll have to beef things up more. BTW, Chalkline, you have a good idea for a cache.

Chuck M.

I think my favourite type of campaign is a mix of the patrol-and-encounter and nation-building.

Most of my PCs are not straight out war dogs, but are usually paramilitaries (I play with a lot of RL soldiers, and I've come to accept it's an entirely different culture and society of which the outside knows little) with emphasis on rebuilding and law and order skills.

While bunkers may seem a bit of a drawback in a world where you can carry the a packload of RPG rounds, they can be good strongpoints to base a fluid battle on.

[headquarters]

along the lines of Graebeards posts about obsolete technology I guess displays of old gear like ox drawn plows and hand crancked water pumps etc that some place have for decoration or as an educational exhibition would have stuf that could be useful .Most scavengers would go right by not knowing what it is or not having the means to haul it off.

( survivor a:"what did you do before the shtf ?"

survivor b:"I was a financial analyst and senior acount manager at JP Morgan .And you ?"

a: "I was pool guy and gardner at the houses of senior account managers.I got to do some serious thinking about our potatoplanting operation .Go get some pails of water in the meantime and do not disturb until I tell you". )

Same could apply to weaponry as well.Factory loaded or well made handloads ,reliable ammo in general will get expensive in relative terms.Having a firearm that is useful on "homegrown ammo" is going to be an asset. Shooting every pesky stray dog that threaten your rabbit cages with a .223 or scaring of a hungry vagabond with a warningshot from your 9mm is going to be costly over time.Collections of nice blackpowder firearms ,crossbows etc could be a useful gaming objective .
A few civil war-/revolutionary war -/Indian wars-/subjugating the wild west- etc - display cases with uniforms,a musket and maybe a Colt navy 1851 along with bulletmoulds etc .As long as weapons are well kept since they were made ,you could use them .Or trade them etc

[weswood]

Great info, Ed, thanks. I can't imagine having a years supply of food stored. I've got about a week's worth for my family of scavenged MREs left over from Ike and they take up some space.

[Raellus]

There was a piece on the NBC national news tonight about something called Iron Mountain. I'd never heard of it before. Apparently, it's a giant, underground storage facility in a converted coal mine in Pennsylvania somewhere. It countains hundreds of thousands of original government documents, film reels (E.T., Jaws, etc.), music recordings (Elvis' "Houndog"), patents (Edison's lightbulb), and other items. It's all temperature controlled and they said that it was "earthquake safe". I'm not sure if they meant that there are few earthquakes in that region or that the facility is structurally reinforced somehow. Anyhow, being underground, under a nominal mountain, would probably protect it from the effects of nearby nuclear blasts (not sure what PA sites are on the T2K target list).

Seems like one could find some helpful (or harmful) information- technical, legal, historical, cultural, etc.- for the process of rebuilding CONUS there. I didn't catch it if it was specifically mentioned, but I believe that the entire facility is privately owned and operated, although they did say something about 2000 odd government employees working there (the government won't specify what it is they exactly do there nor what documents are stored in the facility).

Anyway, Iron Mountain could make for a neat campaign destination.

[Targan]

This Iron Mountain facility sounds like it might have been the inspiration behind the government caches in the Allegheny Uprising module.

[chico20854]

The facility is in Boyers, Pa (not far from Pittsburgh). It's a former limestone mine in a very hilly (but not necessarily mountainous) area. It is owned by a private company and the US government, among others, stores records there.

A TV news piece on it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aou6c2MOmg

I found this about it on the net:

A long Washington Post article about Boyers, published in the mid-1990s, began this way: “Ten thousand years from now, space aliens are doing to discover the catacombs of Boyers and think they have hit an archeological jackpot: Millions of government documents stored in acres of filing cabinets 250 feet below the Earth’s surface, safe from flood, fire, famine, Iraqi nerve gas, nuclear holocaust and roaches. . . . OPM [Office of Personnel Management] started to move records to Boyers in 1960, a few years after National Underground Storage, Inc., a Pittsburgh company, bought the mine from U.S. Steel and converted it to a secure facility so individuals, companies and the U.S. government would have a safe place to keep things. . . . The only thing above ground is a parking lot and a tunnel mouth wide enough to accommodate a railroad car.”

As far as earthquakes, strangely earthquake "waves" move along the earth's surface down to a depth of about 10-15 feet. In the 1950s or 60s, a pair of scientists volunteered to go into Carlsbad Caverns, 700 feet below the surface, during a nearby underground nuclear test. The felt nothing and came back up and asked why the test had been canceled.

[TiggerCCW UK]

Originally Posted by Raellus

There was a piece on the NBC national news tonight about something called Iron Mountain. I'd never heard of it before. Apparently, it's a giant, underground storage facility in a converted coal mine in Pennsylvania somewhere.

I think that might be where they filmed Dawn of the Dead - certainly a facility something like that.

[Nowhere Man 1966]

Originally Posted by TiggerCCW UK

I think that might be where they filmed Dawn of the Dead - certainly a facility something like that.

It was filmed in Ellwood city which is fairly close to Boyers. BTW, one of our local weathermen and now disc jockey for one of our radio stations played the reporter in that film, "Chilly Billy" Cardille. "Chilly Billy" also hosted a local Saturday nite horror show called "Chiller Theatre" from 1963 to 1983, I used to watchi it as a kid, I remember Dad brought home pizza and pop and we chowed down as we watched it.

Chuck

[unkated]

Originally Posted by TiggerCCW UK

I think that might be where they filmed Dawn of the Dead - certainly a facility something like that.

No. Dawn of the Dead was filmed at the Monroeville Mall. They even refer to it (the zombies swarm the mall due to some bearly-remembered instinct for shopping).

I (along with a dozen friends, awake at stupid o'clock in the morning on different Sat nights/Sunday mornings) was one of the extras, but near as I can see I ended up on the cutting room floor.

Uncle Ted

[Nowhere Man 1966]

Originally Posted by Raellus

There was a piece on the NBC national news tonight about something called Iron Mountain. I'd never heard of it before. Apparently, it's a giant, underground storage facility in a converted coal mine in Pennsylvania somewhere. It countains hundreds of thousands of original government documents, film reels (E.T., Jaws, etc.), music recordings (Elvis' "Houndog"), patents (Edison's lightbulb), and other items. It's all temperature controlled and they said that it was "earthquake safe". I'm not sure if they meant that there are few earthquakes in that region or that the facility is structurally reinforced somehow. Anyhow, being underground, under a nominal mountain, would probably protect it from the effects of nearby nuclear blasts (not sure what PA sites are on the T2K target list).

Seems like one could find some helpful (or harmful) information- technical, legal, historical, cultural, etc.- for the process of rebuilding CONUS there. I didn't catch it if it was specifically mentioned, but I believe that the entire facility is privately owned and operated, although they did say something about 2000 odd government employees working there (the government won't specify what it is they exactly do there nor what documents are stored in the facility).

Anyway, Iron Mountain could make for a neat campaign destination.

One of my former co-workers and now friend, his sister works there and we are planning to get together and we will go on a tour of Iron Mountain. It is to the north of me. If I ever get to go and if I'm allowed to take pictures, I'll let yuns know and show pics if I can. I know before you can get on the grounds, you have to be checked out by the Feds. One time, a truck driver delivering items to the mine had his 11 year old kid with him and they wouldn't let him in with the kid because he wasn't checked out but they finally allowed them to go on after some debate.

I also had a client who worked there too, basically, he told me that it is so big down there, you can drive entire semis down there.

As to earthquakes, I know if you go north a little bit, there have been some small ones, the largest I know if was a 5.2 in 1998 near Greenville/Jamestown, PA, at the time it happened, I owned property up there and I think it was close to the epicenter.

Chuck

Originally Posted by headquarters

along the lines of Graebeards posts about obsolete technology I guess displays of old gear like ox drawn plows and hand crancked water pumps etc that some place have for decoration or as an educational exhibition would have stuf that could be useful .Most scavengers would go right by not knowing what it is or not having the means to haul it off.

( survivor a:"what did you do before the shtf ?"

survivor b:"I was a financial analyst and senior acount manager at JP Morgan .And you ?"

a: "I was pool guy and gardner at the houses of senior account managers.I got to do some serious thinking about our potatoplanting operation .Go get some pails of water in the meantime and do not disturb until I tell you". )

Same could apply to weaponry as well.Factory loaded or well made handloads ,reliable ammo in general will get expensive in relative terms.Having a firearm that is useful on "homegrown ammo" is going to be an asset. Shooting every pesky stray dog that threaten your rabbit cages with a .223 or scaring of a hungry vagabond with a warningshot from your 9mm is going to be costly over time.Collections of nice blackpowder firearms ,crossbows etc could be a useful gaming objective .
A few civil war-/revolutionary war -/Indian wars-/subjugating the wild west- etc - display cases with uniforms,a musket and maybe a Colt navy 1851 along with bulletmoulds etc .As long as weapons are well kept since they were made ,you could use them .Or trade them etc

Heh heh...there's a museum I am part of back home that served as my reenacting unit's home, and sponsor...that has just that, and more... at least two of each gun museum, we call it...owned and operated by an old Red Leg named Bill Douglas...he's been a Class III and Curio and Relics firearms dealer since WAY BACK...1971 is when he went Class III...great guy, and a good friend to have in times like T2K.

[Dog 6]

http://www.manta.com/coms2/dnbcompany_csh6xy


I use to work for them. lol

[WallShadow]

I left a special treat for thieves or marauders in one farmer's smokehouse--cheese made from milk produced by cows that had ingested fallout-contaminated meadow grass. Biologically concentrated, some of the medium and lots of the longer-half-lived radioisotopes would still be present 3 years later. The farmer, rather than discard it, decided to leave this as a delayed-reaction booby trap for the uninvited.

[jester]

I had the PCs find a Royal Engineer Section complete with vehicles all in mid stages of decomposition. It is a lucky thing they never tried the water ine tank trailer.


In the same town near the river, they found a nezt of someone who had been living under a building foundation. They also found several cans of food again, good thing they never tried it, it was contaminated with radioactivity and would have rocked their world.

Its good to be the evil GM

[Brother in Arms]

I had a few thoughts....

One has anyone ever seen the show hoarders? Now most of these people on the show hoard garbage and junk not fit to be around but some of them hoard things like Books and tools. My old boss legitimately was a firearms, ammunition and accessories hoarder. Some people hoard canned food and batteries and household goods useful things to the end of world traveler. My moms house is a mixture of all the above!

The second thought was Liberty tool shed and captain Tinkhams.....two real places here in Maine that have nothing but antique tools and farm equipment!!!!

I read that John Denver was a gas hoarder in the 1970's had several underground tanks full of gasoline/petrol on his property.

Perhaps these are all easy ideas and there could be something more bizzare but also useful.....

what about a place with functioning hot water? Say a farm house with a wood boiler and gravity feed water tank (not that uncommon here in the north east)

ill think of more soon

[pmulcahy11b]

Hoarding books...I'm guilty.

My mother calls me a hoarder, but I don't think I'm that far gone. But perhaps my biggest aspect of hoarding is computer parts and files. I have some old RAM in my closet that wouldn't fit in any computer made for quite some time now. And I have files that I wrote on my first computer in 1991 (just converted into something readable by today's programs), and some of the JPGs have been on one of my computers since the beginning.

A lot of time, these things become useful. It's not hoarding -- I know where to look for everything.

[TrailerParkJawa]

My mother tends to hoard. Its irrational. She keeps unopened bank statements from like 15 years ago, receipts that are decades old, etc. Not very useful in a T2K sense. Aside from a nice source of paper to start a fire with.

[sglancy12]

Originally Posted by headquarters

along the lines of Graebeards posts about obsolete technology I guess displays of old gear like ox drawn plows and hand crancked water pumps etc that some place have for decoration or as an educational exhibition would have stuf that could be useful .Most scavengers would go right by not knowing what it is or not having the means to haul it off.

I just re-read Pat Frank's Alas Babylon. A great book whose only flaw is that I think the author over-estimates the Soviet strike capacity of 1959. The number and armament of the ICBMs comes off like something out of the mid-to-late '60s... 5 megaton warheads on soviet ICBMs just didn't exist in 1959.

Nevertheless, one of the greatest moments of the books (for me) is when one of the kids explores the "attic full of junk" the adults have forgotten about and discovers a treasure trove of early 20th century technology:

A hand-cranked gramaphone and a large collection of 78 rpm records.

A sewing machine that uses a foot-petal to provide energy.

A couple of old kerosene lamps with wicks, but no oil.

An old pot-bellied iron stove with lengths of straight and hinged stove pipe

An old fashioned grooming kit including a strap and two straight razors

Any group of TW:2000 players had better recognize how valuable an intact pot bellied stove would be.

So? What kind of helpful cache of supplies have you thrown at your players that they turned their noses up at because it wasn't ammo, MREs, fuel or medicine?

A. Scott Glancy, President TCCorp, dba Pagan Publishing

[sglancy12]

Just thought of an interesting treasure trove...

What about something like the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation? http://www.mvtf.org/

A private collection of military vehicles... currently there are 240 vehicles in the collection. Most, if not all are functional. The staff has the facilities and th skills to machine parts to restore the vehicles... perhaps even restore or replace their weaponry with something useful.

Obviously the wouldn't be as many tanks in 1997 as there are today, but the tools and equipment for working on tanks might be worth more than the tanks themselves. It's a privately owned tank depot!

For me, this place would have fallen into the hands of the US 6th Army, particularly the 40th ID (Mech), which might partly explain how the unit has managed to keep so many vehicles operational.


A. Scott Glancy, President TCCorp, dba Pagan Publishing.

[kato13]

Found this list of firearms museums when looking for one I saw on "History Detectives"

http://www.armscollectors.com/museumlist.htm

[pmulcahy11b]

Nowhere Man, is that a Burmese on your avatar? We had one when I was a teenager. Fiendish little thing, but she and my dog were best buddies.