Librarian's Almanac for September, 2000
September 5th
NEAR TUCSON, ARIZONA- a caravan from the Red Rock Trading Company reports the town of Flagstaff is being harried by a very large and bold pack of wolves. Caravan guards fought off a pack on their way out of the region and the frightened gunslingers say that only a junker-made plasma rifle was able to bring down one of the ferocious beasts. They have the one corpse, and are looking for a sawbones to give it an examination.
STRATFORD TOWNSHIP, NORTH TEXAS- Rich Curtis, the proud owner of a horse ranch in the township, has a little problem. For the last month, once a week he has been finding one of his horses skinned and the corpse left just outside of his property. He is curious about why no one is taking the meat of the animal and why the skinnin's seem to be timed with the changes in the
phase of the moon.
LAS CRUCES RUINS, NEW MEXICO- Ranger Scouts from the Convoy arrive in the ruins with a strange sighting from the deserts north of the mountains, near the Old White Sands National Park. Both scouts swear that they stumbled across an old abandoned ranch in the dead of night. They holed there to hide from a rampaging mutant hunting party when they discovered the corrals out back were full of sinister looking skeletal cattle. Both scouts bailed out when the muties arrived and something started hollering in terror from the barn on the far side of the property. Old timers might remember a few stories about a fearsome fleshless herd with an appetite for heroes...
APACHE JUNCTION, ARIZONA- Two bedraggled folks arrive at the Engineer's Society, dragging a cartload of processed copper and asking for help. The township of Globe in northern Arizona is under siege by armed walkin' dead, an APC full of small combots, and a pair of creatures that sound like huge scrap golems. The townsfolk are low on ammo and running out of time, the two scouts are offering payment in copper from the mines as well as meat and furs from trappers. Piper, the head of the Engineering Society, has put out a call for volunteers to form up a posse to head north to try and break the siege.
September 7th
SANTA FE FORTRESS, NEW MEXICO- "Two Bucks" Little the Law Dog is logging a report of more stolen goods. During a celebration at the fortress town, a pair of familiar thieves struck again. The man with red skin helped himself to a salvaged fuel tanker truck. The young oriental woman has unfortunately upped the stakes in the matter; two deputies were gunned down when she made a getaway in a stolen Four Wheel Drive pickup. "Two Bucks" is offering a bounty of 300 bullets made to specification to the people who can bring in the thieves.
FRANKLIN MOUNTAIN ENCLAVE EL PASO, TEXAS- Red Feathers the gunslinger logs a report with the resident Librarian about strange goings-on in the wastes north of town. Roughly sixty miles northwest of the city is Hueco Tanks, a natural rock formation the size of an old big city tenement building. The old Natural Park was a historical site in the Pre-War days as a hidden Indian village with a natural spring-fed water supply. Trader caravans had taken to stopping there on the way to the El Paso/Juarez ruins for the H2O. Red found three dead witches with no physical wounds on them, not far from the four dead Anti-Templars that looked like they had been fed to a wood chipper. That water source is vital to traders across the Texas and New Mexico deserts.
LAS CRUCES RUINS, NEW MEXICO- Perquita, a Hispanic scout from the village of Agua Dulce, New Mexico arrives with wild stories of a compound in the northern New Mexico Mountains. The excitable lass claims that she has found a manufacturing plant, outside of the abandoned town of Hatch, New Mexico; completely sealed off from the elements. Through one dirty window, she saw a whole room full of cybernetics and armaments. A few locals are gearing vehicles for a fast trip, along with a few unsavory roadies...
GLENWOOD, NEW MEXICO- Old Deuteronomy the Doomsayer logs a report of a strange group of blue robed figures that have left fresh perishable foods outside of some of the smaller refugee towns in the area. No one can see anything wrong with the sustenance and the azure robed figures have always vanished down the roadways in the night.
Cassidy Grey, a fledgling tale-teller out of Nevada, reports quite a bit of activity of late. A large "war-band" of mutants loyal to Silas and led by a Doombringer named Caliban was seen traveling NE across Nevada looking to clear out the area of norms to make way for expansion of "the chosen". This band setup camp in Macguire, NV where they fell victim to a series of guerilla type raids designed to wither their forces down. In the end the job was accomplished, but by wormlings. Evidently Macguire had one of the largest concentration of wormlings recorded in the wasted west living under it. And they've surfaced, collapsing the town and the warband. The
warband was last seen trudging back towards Vegas with the doombringer's body in tow.
Submitted by the Junker partners of Boojum & Quark
September 11th
NEAR BEAUMONT, EAST TEXAS- "High Dive" Mason, an erratic air pirate turned courier logs a report of what looks like a large construction sized hover truck heading into the maelstrom around the ruins of Fort Worth.
AUSTIN RECLAMATION ZONE, TEXAS- A scout from the village of Matamoros in Northern Mexico arrives in the Zone with vague sightings of groups of humanoid creatures stalking the dunes of South Padre Island. The bridges that connected the vacation island to the mainland were a casualty of the Big Bang and no one has ever heard any stories or logged any reports of the area. A local librarian is looking for volunteers who can steer a boat or handle a gun.
BROWNSVILLE REFUGE, SOUTH TEXAS- A heavily damaged boat washed ashore not far from the Refuge. Inside are three bedraggled souls that were in the final stages of dehydration and malnutrition. After a few days rest, they manage to sputter out that they are escapees from a concentration camp established in the Bayou Vista coastal swamps in southern Louisiana. Not long after the missiles flew, a C.S.A. 'borg calling itself Twelve arrived into town under the cover of storms with a force of soldiers and proceeded to subjugate and isolate the town of Bayou Vista. For thirteen years, the citizens have been under the thumb of the erratic commander and his force of brainwashed troops; forced to serve their every whim. The refugees are the result of a three-month plan to liberate a boat and go for help.
September 15th
YUMA VILLAGE, ARIZONA- Couriers from the Convoy log a report of a large pack of mutants bearing automatic weapons setting ambushes along the interstate freeways in the southern reaches of the state.
OLD MESILLA FORTRESS, NEW MEXICO- The Librarian Templar called the Silver Nun arrives with a horrible tale. The entire village of Three Rivers, New Mexico has succumbed to radiation poisoning. Over fifty people were discovered dead in their homes or laying in the streets. The town is considered under quarantine until the truth of the matter is unearthed.
SANTA FE FORTRESS, NEW MEXICO- Eddie Panderborn, a Junker from the Engineer's Society in Arizona logs a report of the sighting of a large six-legged creature blending the size of a rhino with the teeth and scales of a crocodile. Panderborn was unable to save his companion, a Syker going by the name of Melt. The creature was last sighted a day's ride north in the mountains above the remains of Albuquerque.
YUMA VILLAGE, ARIZONA- Judge Fargo the Law Dog arrives with some bad news. Surtur, the so-called King of the Raiders, has been broken out of the penitentiary in Florence, Arizona. Witnesses state that a group of unknown individuals clad in form fitting black body armor and feature-concealing helmets staged a daring midday break-in. Over a dozen guards were severely injured; three died later of complications. Several prison workers swear that the invaders moved like the wind, seemed to shrug off automatic fire and went straight to Surtur's cell. None of the thirty-three other prisoners were even acknowledged. It was also reported that Surtur did not go willingly. He recognized the assailants and was removed from the prison grounds by force.
September 19th
NEAR TUCSON, ARIZONA- Lightning Shadow the scout arrives with tales of terror and woe from the northern reaches. Up near Monument Valley, several small nomadic Indian tribes have come under attack by Black Hat patrols. The tribes all follow the Old Ways and are ill equipped to deal with the mercenaries. Horse-mounted bandits dressed all in black have sporadically attacked a small village built on the southern rim of the Grand Canyon called Sun Ridge. The attacks have been increasing in ferocity every time foragers from the town have tried to approach the canyon to fish in the Colorado River. Winter is approaching and Sun Ridge is in desperate need of supplies.
NEAR BEAUMONT, TEXAS- a two-bit mutie gunslinger going by the name of Nevada Carl arrives with a report of someone carrying out a savage grudge against Librarians. In the past three months, six agents of the Great Library in Sacramento have been discovered dead in small out of the way towns and ruins. Bodies have been discovered in the ruins of Needles, California; Show Low, Arizona; outside the walls of Near Tucson; in the abandoned ruins of Lordsburg, New Mexico; near the walled enclave hidden in the University of New Mexico at Las Cruces and out in the old Balmoreah Hot Springs National Park in west Texas. In every case, the Librarian has been brutally tortured to death with extreme physical strength. Each agent's palmcorder has been found at the scene of the murder smashed nearly flat. Librarians are advised to not to travel alone.
OLD MESILLA POST HEADQUARTERS, NEW MEXICO- Beverly Smalls, a postwoman, logs a plea from the township of Bisbee in Southern Arizona. The townsfolk are having mutual nightmares that are increasing in severity every seven days. Two older folks have already succumbed to heart attacks brought on by fear.
FORT DODGE, KANSAS- Big Pete, the Montana Law Dog, has put out a call for some "special" help. The inhabitants of the enclave have been the victims of a strange sort of plague. People have been falling ill with a high fever and night sweats that turn fatal. In a few days, the afflicted spontaneously combust! Local doctors are baffled and the townies are starting to panic.
September 21st
ROCKY FORD, COLORADO- The town has been subjected to the whims of a very strange individual. Last month, a biker gang besieged the small village. The attacks had almost overwhelmed them when a huge man sporting the Maltese cross on his power armor appeared and rallied the inhabitants in a set of cunning ambushes that drove the bikers off. Calling himself Saint Vitus, the strange man demanded that the town provide him with a private home, all the spare parts they had and food when ever he desired. The townsfolk could not meet his demands and the bizarre man called them unwashed heathen, used his power armor to tear his way out of the fort and wreck the few remaining guard towers around the walls. Once outside, he said that the town was under a curse from the Saints and that no Templar would ever aid them again.
NEW ORLEANS BAYOU, LOUISIANA- Bloody Louie, a gunslinger from the area logs a troubling report. It seems that the enigmatic Mister Whisper has been sighted hauling a small wagon to the towers of the Watch along the west bank of the Mississippi in northern Louisiana. When Bloody Louie tried to ask him what his business was, the stranger only smiled and then vanished into the local plant life. The members of the Watch said that Whisper was offering food, blankets, clothes and chemical heaters if the guardians would tell him if their had been any sighting of construction across the river.
STRATFORD TOWNSHIP, NORTH TEXAS- Convoy Scouts arrive with a load of scavenged canned goods and a whopper of a tale concerning its northern neighbor, Lubbock. The scouts had been sounding out the remains of Texas Tech University when they had made a startling discovery; a pair of heavy combat cyborgs that were messily missing all of their mechanical augmentations. The scout said that there were a number of large non-human three toed footprints in the surrounding dirt, but that the tracks simply ended a few feet away, liked they had simply flown off.
September 25th
NEAR TUCSON, ARIZONA- A Red Rock Trading caravan arrives with a report that the community living in the remains of the Elephant Butte dam has been struck down by forces unknown. The buildings were fortified in a manner that suggested that the area was under some sort of siege and the grounds were littered with bullet shells but there were no tracks or other signs to give any clue as to the identity of the attackers. The forty-odd townsfolk were discovered in the bowels of the power station still attached to the dam; every one of them chose to end their own lives. Local Law Dogs are asking that people avoid the station until the cause or culprits can be dealt with.
NEAR TUCSON, ARIZONA- The enclave was given a welcome but mysterious gift. Outside the town gates, the night guards discovered the beaten, bound and gagged forms of ten road gangers that had been harassing the locals in the preceding months. There was a handwritten note attached that read, "These are the first, there will be more. One evil at a time, the world will be redeemed." It was signed with a great flourish by someone calling themselves the Samaritan.
CLINT, TEXAS- The Librarian called Nomad logs a report with the Law Dogs of the sighting of a pitched battle between a Black Hat patrol and a large warband of Anti-Templars. The two forces seemed to be skirmishing over one of the Combine's tribute caravans on the Texas-New Mexico border.
September 28th
CARMEL, CALIFORNIA- The Double Whammy has struck again. The town of Carmel in the Great Maze woke up in the morning to discover four guards dead by strangulation and poison. What was stolen has folks scratching their heads; twenty bags of old fertilizer, a dozen used car batteries and a case of garbage bags. A friendly Doomsayer identified the felonious pair as Red Hide, an Indian from Deadwood and Cho Fat, a young Kanger mercenary from Turtle Isle. The troublesome twosome was tracked as far as the Sierra Madre mountain range where the trail was lost. California Law Dogs have begun to worry about the ease at which these two can come and go as they please; there is a generous reward for the capture of the thieves.
STRATFORD TOWNSHIP, NORTH TEXAS- Traders report sightings of a vintage 1977 Firebird, painted completely gray, racing the back highways of the state making no engine noise what so ever. This marks the first sighting of the so-called "Silent Runner".
APACHE JUNCTION, ARIZONA- From the Engineer's Society, Piper the head Junker made a grave pronouncement. One of his students, Alice Bradley, has been excommunicated from the Society for refusing to follow the organization's strictures. No other member is allowed to have any interplay with Bradley. For other technoshamans, Piper warns that the woman often called "Hellcat" was highly skilled in the crafting of armaments and has a foul and hair trigger temper. She was last seen heading west. "Hellcat" Bradley was armed with a chain-fed double-barreled shotgun and something called a rotary saw railgun.