Librarian's Almanac for August, 2000
August 3
Traders from Hobbs, New Mexico arrive with stories of three-foot cockroaches and grasshoppers the size of horses flocking around the ruins of Carlsbad. What happened to the thirty-odd townsfolk in the area as well as the struggling farms? More than a few nearby settlements are depending on food from Carlsbad to survive.
Scouts in the Valley of the Sun report in Apache Junction that there have been numerous reports of blasting in the Superstition Mountains north and west of the ruins of Phoenix. Piper is also a might curious as the last party of Black Hats was wiped out to the last man with no chance to report back. Or so he thinks. Some of the other local Junkers are looking up guides to begin searching the mountains for the source of the enigmatic blasts. Or course, they will need guards ever since that eight legged, purple bobcat turned Stew's skin radioactive last month.
The mayor of the raft-town in the ruins of St. Louis, one Andrew Cunningham, has a problem that needs solving. Several townies and a few Law Dogs have vanished from the floating homes of the town only to turn up a few days later in the ruins on shore, stripped of their major organs. People are beginning to panic and the mayor needs things solved quick. There is already a Templar named Jude the Penitent out in the ruins near the remains of the arch but she has not reported back in a few days.
Scouts from the Treetown of Lafayette report sightings of a force of raiders slogging through the swamps on some of the biggest Clydesdale horses that anyone has ever seen. They made no move towards the tree-born encampment but all reports state that they were searching the grounds for something or somebody. Things get creepy when one of the scouts later reports that with all two score heavily armed men on the backs of seven-foot horses; there were no tracks in the muddy ground.
Seven days until the Great Pilgrimage!
August 8th
Bad talk arrives with a trader from the Shattered Coast. It seems that a tall, powerfully built figure in ragged clothes was seen in three separate towns with plenty of goods to barter with. Bullets, a box of milrats, kevlar vests, sugar candies, movie slugs, and the list goes on and on. The kicker is what the man was shopping for. Scuttlebutt says that he's looking for the best gunslingers in the area. More than a dozen are said to have already been drifting in to see what the man has to offer and what the bargain might entail. Law Dogs up and down the coast have heard of the man looking to buy the best. And are starting to worry. What does the mysterious Mister Whisper want with the talents of the Wasted West's most proficient gunmen? Where does he get all of the amazing desirables to pay for their services? Time to polish those guns and start practicing your swagger.
A lone truck driver named Gertie McDonough arrives at the fort town of Near Beaumont with sightings of smoke and steam coming from one of the old coastal refineries near the Texas/Louisiana border. Gertie swears despite the thirty-hour days she had been putting in, she saw ghost rock fumes billowing from one section of the compound. And her nose is telling her that there is Spook Juice somewhere in there. She wants to go in and dig up a few barrels of go-juice. The chances of some good salvage are pretty high.
"Manacles" Monroe, a bounty hunter of some repute is looking for some brave souls to earn some scratch. It seems that "Manacles" is hot on the trail of an individual named Cedric. This waster is known to be a very skilled cat burglar that fingered the prized palmtop computer of James Carpenter, a Law Dog from the Shattered Coast. Carpenter promised a fortune in bullets and food to Monroe if she could get the palmtop back and now the bounty gal wants to share the wealth. The complications? Cedric was last reported heading into the New Orleans swamps during the stormy season. Oh before I forget, there is also a matter of the pack of witches that have been the victim of Cedric's sticky fingers and are on his trail as well. Cedric himself happens to be an infiltrator cyborg with amazing skills at mimicry. Who's really chasin' who?
Maude Cody owns a small trader caravan that runs out of Brownsville and up the coast to the remnant villages up north. She has a little spare merchandise that a posse member or two just might like for a little favor. She wants to know how her best caravan truck got found emptied out in the middle of the San Antonio ruins. The last place that the caravan was seen was near the Corpus Christi Lighthouse Community a few weeks ago. Maude doesn't really trade with the San Antonio mutie tribes and one would think that with a Syker navigator and two dozen guards, things would be safe. Just can't trust anyone these days.
Robbie Franklin, a one of the Trader Barons from the Fortress town of old Mesilla, is looking for some canny folks to find out what happened to a shipment of scrap metal headed for the Ysleta Indians on the outskirts of the El Paso ruins. The locals swear that the wagons were spotted being chased by a biker gang into the remnants of Sierra Vista, a rich folk's playground where pilots could park their private planes next to their homes. The area was looted not long after the Mexican Army staged a sortie across the Rio Grande during the Final Show. Robbie is real anxious to get the shipment back, even to the point of giving the posse guns, ammo and food. Wonder what's so special about a load of scrap?
Red Feathers the gunslinger logs a report with the Librarian in Houma about a patrol of Black Hats making a systematic sweep of the coastal bayous of Southern Louisiana. Red Feathers says before he was run off by a full auto greeting, he heard a few strange topics of conversation among the patrol members. The Anubis Project, somebody called Professor Aurora Flambeau, operation Werewolf and the numbers 47,23,44 were all being discussed during his little spy job. The gunslinger is more than a little curious as to what would bring a patrol of Black Hats so far outside their usual stomping grounds. Is the posse up for the job?
Cindy "the Chameleon" Rick is a Syker that works out of the township of East Canaan, Texas and the Cham has a worry spot. Last night, a real nightmare of a mutie paid for a room in the boarding house in town. Sheriff Jory had a feelin' about the unfortunate in question and asked for Cindy to keep an eye on the mutie for as long as it was around. In the early morning, the suspect made an unscheduled exit over the town wall. Cindy tried to gather a few of the mutant's thoughts to figure out what spooked it, but the only thing the Syker got was a splitting migraine and the phrase, " Slitting the gap at dawn" What does the posse think?
The stakes have been raised in the swamps of Louisiana. Refugees from the tree-town of Lafayette have straggled into Baton Rouge, badly mauled and spouting stories about flocks of ravens, crows and other birds that began randomly killing folks in the early morning hours. Most of the unlucky either died from their wounds or dropped from the trees into the swamp. Harry Carmon, the leader of the refugee party, has grimmer tales. One of the few buggers they managed to bring down turned out to be a fully lifelike automaton. He's never seen anything like it but the posse sure will. The swarms are already visible in the western sky.
Mutants from the ruins of Dallas, Texas are evacuating the area and moving in troops to the coast. Brownsville, the remnants of Far Houston and Near Beaumont have all logged reports about mutants arriving at the beaches, very peaceable-like. No one has reported any trouble yet, but there are rumors that Loyalist Doomsayers have been spotted heading east out of the Arizona deserts.
Two days until the Great Pilgrimage!
August 15
A Schismatic Doomsayer with a small problem approaches the posse. It seems that he lost a young newbie Doomie to a Black Hat gang that was taking prisoners on a raid outside the ruins of Fort Worth. He says that the youngster was the nephew of his Mentor out west and would really like some help to get the kid back. Is the posse up to it, and just why are The Black Hats taking Doomie prisoners anyway?
The Silver Nun logs a report of the location of what appears to be the remains of a good-sized road gang all shot to Hell on a secondary Highway in South Texas. The gangers were all long dead but their rides and equipment seemed to be just left to the elements. Junkers and salvage crews from across the state are gearing up to get there first. The only real problem for the wasters is that area is a little near the stomping grounds of the Mexican Warlord called El Sangre Dio. The Blood God as he is called, just might make things a little chancy.
The mysterious Mister Whisper seems to be at it again. "Steel" Zachary the Law Dog, has gotten numerous reports that the strange raggedy clothed person is offering a fortune in bullets and cybernetic equipment for the person skilled enough to bring in the infamous Anti-Templar known as "Dread" to him, alive, in the refuge town of Brownsville in southeast Texas. Zachary and a few others are worried that this Whisper person may be stealing things to offer as bounties.
August 22
Bonhomme Boudreaux, a trader Baron based in the ruins of New Orleans puts multiple reports of horsemen bandits running down his caravans in the northwestern portions of Louisiana and the northeastern sections of Texas. The only thing missing from his wagons is shipments of salt.
The wandering Librarian called Nomad arrives in the El Paso ruins with a report of the appearance of a strange graveyard in the Mesa range of mountains south of the city. A scout from Las Cruces, New Mexico shows up with the same report days later, but the field of shallow burials is ten miles closer to the ruins than what the bookworm was saying.
Jeremy Smokebreather, a gunslinger from out west arrives in the fortress town of Old Mesilla, on death's door from all the wounds covering his body. He says that he was riding herd on a party of scouts and scientists that hired him in Hobbs for an armed escort to old Mesilla. They said they were from a secluded corporate research station in the Grand Tetons mountain range, near the old Rattlesnake National Park. The purpose of the research station was solar power studies. The scientists wanted to run power lines to some of the nearby enclaves in exchange for supplies and were hoping to open negotiations. Jeremy swears that a well-armed road gang ambushed the caravan and everyone was deliberately taken prisoner. He also whispers that there someone wearing a purple robe in the background while the scientists were taken away.
Scouts from the Yuma Township arrive at the Engineer's Society in Apache Junction with tales of packs of refugees arriving from down south. Those that can still talk despite some really horrifying disfigurements are full of disgusting tales of being experimented on by a group of mutants based in one of the old resorts down on the Baja Peninsula. They describe several rooms of advanced medical equipment and regular shipments of new "raw materials". Piper, the head of the Society, doesn't like this one bit.
Three heavy combat cans in a bad state of disrepair arrive looking for help. They were friends with a lady named Dr. Stephanie Malcolm. Dr. Mal was a skilled cybernetics specialist and was fixing them up in return for guards and assistance in scavenging ruins for salvage. Three weeks ago in the burned ruins of Tucson, a warband of Anti-Templars ambushed the Cans and made off with the good doctor. The cyborgs are falling to pieces and have no way to make repairs. They say that the Black Templars were immune to their gunfire and were riding some bikes that gave them a clean getaway.
Dumas the Storyteller is looking for an escort to the Northern Reaches of the United States. He is a regular figure in the southern states but now says that he needs to find some new stories and new audiences for them. On the trip, he confides that he is also searching for some one to teach the trade to. Ol' Dumas has got a bad dose of the glows and ain't got much time left. Anybody ever tried to sniff out an actor before?
August 25th
Bonhomme Boudreaux and Lightning Shadow the Indian Scout arrive in town with a van load of mercenaries and a very bad report. Nine days ago, a small caravan of what looked like Junkers arrived into the ruins of New Orleans and announced that if they were not given tribute of what ever they desired, they would detonate the scavenged Ghost-rock nuke they had found. Pere Bayou, a technoshaman from the area, told Boudreaux that it sure looked like they had the genuine article. They took the payment and made out, heading west. Shadow, Boudreaux and a few others are trying to catch up with the bums and take them out before a new Ghost Storm pollutes the sky. Boudreaux is really worried about where they got that piece of ordinance.
Anybody know how ta steer this thing? A courier from the ruins of Galveston arrives looking for a few mechanically oriented folks. He has a few friends that have discovered an oil supertanker anchored a few miles off shore in the Gulf of Mexico. They want to try and get it operational again to make a floating traders' bazaar for the remaining port towns. There is also a member of the Watch in the group who wants to try and get the sucker armed and make a recon run around the Florida Keys and up the Eastern Seaboard to try and get more intelligence on what's really going on over the Mississippi.
Scouts from the township of Clint in west Texas report the theft of a tractor-trailer. Under the cover of darkness, the truck was run through the town gates and vanished into the night. Witnesses report the two perpetrators had a few distinctive marks. One was a tall male figure with long braided brown hair, dressed in simple rags with bright crimson skin. The other was a small female of oriental descent, dressed in urban fatigues, wearing a brace of pistols and a rifle slung over her back. The truck driver, Marcus Owens, will pay almost any price to get his livelihood back.
Two Templars arrive at the town of Globe looking for help. One week ago, the Templar called Hutch was ambushed and killed while on his way to the Engineer's Society in Apache Junction. Some of the Arizona technoshamans found him during his last moments. He said that he was ambushed by muties being led by a purple robed Doomsayer, and that they were very interested in getting a hold of his energy blade. Once he had been disarmed, they vanished with their prize, leaving Hutch to die. The Junkers report that a Doomsayer in green robes passed through, heading for the Phoenix ruins a few days later. The two Templars are looking for some brave souls to act as back up.
August 28th
YUMA VILLAGE, ARIZONA- a local Librarian gets a report from some Great Maze scouts of Black Hats chasing folks out of the desert wastes north and west of the town. One or two old timers remember tales of military airfields north of Yuma. Other more recent folks also have first hand accounts of snakes with heads the size of shoeboxes, roaming herds of feral iridescent camels, a variant of the wormling creatures that sport barbed chitin armor, freak sandstorms that chase folks and more than three tribes of hostile, cannibalistic mutants living in abandoned movie sets.
MOVIE TOWN, CALIFORNIA- Wily Tadaka, a Chinese trader baron from the Great Maze is looking for some enterprising souls to track down a missing person. Tadaka deals partially in movie slugs and three days ago his best courier, Slick Baker, vanished from the baron's warehouse. Three slugs were found missing; one compilation of pre-War music videos, one old flatvid detective movie and a recent production of the Director entitled "Seige of Santa Fe". Wily Tadaka is offering substantial pay for anyone who can get to the bottom of things.
TEXARKANA BAZAAR- Three separate scouts arrive with reports of a strange surreal caravan. Each time it was spotted, witnesses swear that they saw roughly constructed wagons being pulled by heavy combat cans. The cyborgs are all sporting the strange arcane sigils seen in Wichita and Alamogordo. The wagons themselves were all covered with rough tarp, so no one knows what the strange man-machines are hauling but almost everyone would like to know why all three caravans are heading for the ruins of Houston.