THE GHUL (party poison)

HOLLYWOOD ARCHIVE

COOPER
HOWARD

OCCUPATION: ACTOR
FORMER SERVICE: U.S. MARINE
GENRE: WESTERN
FAMILY: FATHER
STATUS: MISSING
RECLASSIFIED: GHOUL

VAULT-TEC APPROVED

ARCHIVE TAPE

PUBLICITY REEL // PRE-WAR

FROM SILVER SCREEN TO WASTELAND

THE
GHOUL

THE MAN BEHIND THE COWBOY

Long before the Wasteland knew him as the Ghoul, he was Cooper Howard: a decorated former Marine, a husband and father, and one of Hollywood's most recognizable Western stars. America knew the easy smile, the clean hat and the honest cowboy he played on screen. His face sold films, household products and, eventually, the promise of Vault-Tec safety.

On October 23, 2077, Cooper was working a child's birthday party with his daughter Janey when the first nuclear blast tore across Los Angeles. The old world disappeared in a series of mushroom clouds. Cooper put Janey on his horse and rode through the panic as the bombs continued to fall.

Somehow, he survived the end of the world. Radiation changed his body, stripped away the face printed on the old posters and stretched his life across more than two centuries. Cooper Howard became the Ghoul: scarred, exceptionally difficult to kill and feared throughout the Wasteland as a ruthless gunman and bounty hunter.

His name became a story told between settlements. He could track what others lost, shoot faster than most people could reach for a weapon and endure what should have killed him. Whatever remained of the gracious Hollywood cowboy stayed buried beneath hard bargains, black humor and the simple discipline of surviving one more day.

Eventually, he crossed Dom Pedro. The punishment was slow and deliberate: a coffin beneath the dirt, kept alive through an IV and unearthed only once a year so his captor could cut pieces from him before putting him back.

Years later, three bounty hunters came to the cemetery after dark. They found the grave, cleared away the earth and opened the coffin.

That is where this story begins.

CHRONOLOGY

BEFORE 2077
MARINE · ACTOR · FATHER

OCT 23, 2077
THE BOMBS FALL

AFTER THE WAR
COOPER BECOMES THE GHOUL

THE WASTELAND
GUNMAN · TRACKER · BOUNTY HUNTER

THE GRAVE
BURIED BY DOM PEDRO

219 YEARS LATER
THE COFFIN OPENS

WASTELAND SIGHTING

KNOWN AS

THE GHOUL

COOPER HOWARD
COWPOKE
BOUNTY HUNTER

▶

PLAY

NOW BROADCASTING

WELCOME TO THE BLACK PARADE

MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE

SIGNAL
■■■■□
ONLINE

PROPERTY OF THE IMPERATOR

CASE FILE
0887

SUBJECT: PARTY POISON
STATUS: DECEASED
CORRECTION: ALIVE
AGE: 200+ YEARS
THREAT: IDEOLOGICAL
VOICE: UNCONTAINED

DECLASSIFIED

ARCHIVE TAPE

BEFORE THE FIRE // STATE PROPERTY

WANTED

DEAD, ALIVE, OR STILL SINGING

Sabotage of military broadcasts.
Destruction of propaganda stations.
Theft of classified frequencies.
Repeated disrespect toward uniforms.

BOUNTY: 25,000 CAPS

OFFICIAL ADVICE: DO NOT APPROACH
PERSONAL ADVICE: KEEP THE CAPS

WHO THE HELL IS PARTY POISON?

PARTY
POISON

THE PARADE STILL PLAYS

Two hundred years ago, they called him a patriot. They handed him a uniform before they ever handed him a choice.

The Imperator built a country that marched to music instead of freedom. Every anthem became another weapon, every concert another piece of propaganda and every voice another lie fed to the public until the sky finally answered with fire.

Party Poison and his band tried to hide truth inside their songs. The regime took their anger, polished it, changed the words and sold it back as loyalty. Their faces appeared on posters while the Imperator prepared a war that would leave no country standing.

When Party Poison turned against the machine, the state did not call him a traitor. It called him unstable, corrupted and dangerous. His execution was arranged as one final performance for the cameras.

The world believed him dead.

It was almost right.

EXECUTION CONFIRMED

FALSE

RECOVERED FILE // AFTER THE FIRE

Radiation found what the bullets had left behind. It altered him without taking his face and stretched his life far beyond anything natural. When he returned, the flags were ash, the Imperator was history and the people who had controlled his voice were bones behind sealed doors.

Two centuries later, Party Poison crosses the wasteland as a bounty hunter. He takes contracts only when the target deserves disappearing. He refuses ranks, uniforms and anyone who introduces themselves with too many titles.

He travels alone because loneliness asks fewer questions and makes betrayal considerably less complicated.

His weapons are built from dead instruments: guitar bodies reinforced around rifle mechanisms, microphones turned into shock batons, brass sections converted into railguns and drums rebuilt to feed explosives.

The voice that once served the Imperator now moves through stolen transmitters and pirate frequencies. He sings names, crimes and truths that settlements are paid to forget. Raiders hear the broadcast and check the roads. Officers order the signal jammed. Ordinary people turn the volume higher.

His humor is dry, sharp and usually delivered after everyone else has stopped finding the situation funny. Hope has disappointed him too often to be spoken about sincerely, but some stubborn part of him still behaves as though the world might deserve saving.

He does not want followers. He does not want another flag. He does not want another parade built around his face.

But when authority begins polishing its boots and teaching frightened people how to march again, Party Poison loads the next chorus.

THE LAST PARADE

1985 · BORN UNDER THE IMPERATOR

1999· FORCED INTO THE PARADE

2004· VOICE OF PROPAGANDA

2077· THE GREAT WAR

2077+· KILLED, BUT NOT GONE

2277+· TWO CENTURIES LATER

NOW· THE TRUTH SINGS BACK

EVIDENCE

SUBJECT STILL ACTIVE

KNOWN BY

RAIDERS
GHOST ON THE RADIO

SETTLERS
THE TRUTH SINGER

MILITIAS
PUBLIC ENEMY

BROTHERHOOD
UNAUTHORIZED ASSET

PROPERTY OF VAULT-TEC
AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY

STOLEN

THE BLACK PARADE

WORLD TOUR

CANCELLED
STILL PLAYING

“They used his voice to sell a war.
Now he uses it to bury their lies.”

DO NOT TRUST
MEN IN UNIFORMS

NO GODS
NO KINGS
NO IMPERATORS

PROJECT 01

NUKA-CASTER

Guitar flamethrower. Still plays three chords.

PROJECT 02

VINYL REPEATER

Record-player saw launcher.

PROJECT 03

LAST CHORUS

Live-current microphone hammer.

PROJECT 04

BRASS VERDICT

Saxophone railgun.

PROJECT 05

BASS GEIGER

Radiation rifle hidden in a bass.

PROJECT 06

DRUM-MINE

Portable percussion launcher.

FILE 11 // SIGNAL HIJACK

INTERCEPTED BROADCASTS

[88.7 / LOG 02]
“Any man asking for a salute usually needs reassurance more than respect.”

[88.7 / LOG 11]
“Dying was brief. Surviving it has been extremely time-consuming.”

[88.7 / LOG 18]
“I do not kill for money. The money merely helps me maintain professional standards.”

[88.7 / LOG 31]
“The parade never ended. It just stopped asking permission.”

FILE 31 // COMMENTS REDACTED

LIVE PIRATE FEED // SIGNAL CANNOT BE OWNED

RECENT RADIO LOGS

[2277.04.12] Contract fulfilled. Target was full of shit.
[2277.04.15] Sang in a settlement. Kids remembered how to smile.
[2277.04.18] Brotherhood requested assistance. Request denied with laughter.
[2277.04.22] Found a guitar. Made it louder.
[2277.04.25] Imperator’s statues still fall the same.
[2277.04.28] Writing a new song. It will get me in trouble.

ANOTHER PERFECT DAY
IN THE WASTELAND

LAST CONFIRMED SIGHTING

CURRENT STATUS

ALIVE.
UNFORTUNATELY.

NO KINGS.
NO GODS.
NO IMPERATORS.

JUST NOISE, TRUTH
AND ONE LAST LOADED SONG.