Librarian Almanac
May 8th
BEAR CREEK BAYOU, TEXAS- The renown scouting duo of Preston and Childs have logged a report of an abandoned caravan just west of the Houston ruins. After a quick recon under the cover of darkness, the scouts spotted a translucent figure wandering between the vehicles. The cargo appears intact but there is no sign of the Trader Baron or the caravan guards. A local has commented that the figure's description resembles Elliot Bell, an elderly Law Dog that has been missing for two months.
OLD MESILLA FORTRESS, NEW MEXICO- The Postal Inspector is announcing the first Annual Postal Carrier Competition. Seven teams of multiple contestants will attempt to carry the mail from Old Mesilla to Santa Fe, New Mexico. After a night's rest the contestants will have to get a five-hundred pound package from Santa Fe to the township of Globe in Arizona. Once that leg of the game is completed the remaining teams must get a three-page message delivered from the Mayor of Globe to Piper, the head of the Engineer's Society in Apache Junction. The message cannot be recorded by any usual means. It must be recited precisely from memory.
MEDICINE LODGE, KANSAS- Speed Bump, the resident contributor within the Convoy, is logging a warning concerning Medicine Lodge. Three days past, the Convoy rolled though town with a shipment of food, fertilizer and slugs from Movie Town. Unfortunately, the town has been deserted. There is no sign of the previous seventy inhabitants. Perimeter scouts for the Convoy however, have a strange coda to the report. As the cavalcade was departing, the last cars reported a series of wormling corpses in the outlying buildings. The monsters had been frozen solid.
May 14th
YUMA VILLAGE, ARIZONA- Judge Fargo, a venerable Law Dog, is looking to form up a posse for the purpose of uncovering the murderer of Professor Cathode, an emissary of the mysterious Junker organization known as the Chamber. The victim was discovered dismembered on the old Spacewarp movie set located a day's walk northwest of the village. The mutie population reported in a previous issue of the Librarian's Almanac has not been sighted for nearly a week. Fargo is looking for wasters with impressive tracking abilities.
TEXARKANA BAZAAR, TEXAS- Emmanuel McCain, one of the wealthiest Trader Barons in the community, is offering a fully reconditioned ambulance to the wasters that can recover his stolen statue of Athena. Discovered missing from the Baron's residence last night the statue is a family heirloom cast from bronze and standing three feet in height.
May 21st
BURR OAK, KANSAS- a roaming gunslinger going by the name of Herrod is reporting a bizarre occurrence sighted on the Kansas plains. For twenty miles in either side of the old Mason/Dixon border walkin' dead are starting to appear in groups larger than ten. They appear to be forming rough ranks on either side of the wall and standing at attention. The phenomenon has been ongoing for nearly eight days.
FORTRESS OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON- the heavily armed inhabitants of Olympia are reporting the arrival of a heavily wounded messenger from the village of Pistol River in Oregon. The victim was suffering from exhaustion but has stabilized with some Schismatic Doomsayer medical attention. Pistol River is under siege by a force of bizarre hybrid creatures. They appear to me a mutated mix of spider and centipede that stand four feet off the ground and have been spotted as large as thirty feet in length. The creatures have potent venom and some victims have developed mutations after being bitten. Denizens of Fortress Olympia have agreed to donate weapons and food and are now looking for relief workers as well as caravan guards.
May 24th
FRANKLIN MOUNTAIN ENCLAVE, TEXAS - Nomad the Librarian has asked for the immediate recovery of a steamer trunk full of books stolen from the renovated El Paso Community College. The trunk was roughly four feet by two feet by two feet, made of old oak and bound in brass. Some of the titles include: The Book of Eibon, Les Mysteries, Lieber Ghoules, and the Pnakotic Manuscripts. Those who recover the tomes will be made honorary Librarians
AUSTIN RECLAMATION ZONE, TEXAS - Work has come to a temporary halt in the southeast portion of the Zone today. Amy Harwood, the project head, is looking for several people with psychological skills, a Syker as well as replacements for her structural engineering staff. The circumstances are nebulous but there are a few facts. A work crew uncovered a subterranean tunnel underneath a ruined strip mall. Each person who has approached the lone doorway at the end has come raving back to the surface, completely in the grips of an apparently induced severe phobia. Two cases of arachnophobia, one case of agoraphobia and a case of elurophobia (the fear of cats) have been reported so far.
May 30th
APACHE JUNCTION, ARIZONA - Piper, the leader of the Engineer Society, is passing on a message from Goose Maddox of the Convoy. To anyone in the Four Corners area, the individuals in a tan Dooley pickup truck are not, I repeat, not members of the Convoy. They do not speak for this organization in any fashion. There is a reward for anyone who turns the individuals in for questioning to a local Law Dog.
FORT DODGE, KANSAS - Art Murdock, the so-called mayor of Fort Dodge is looking for some wasters with nighttime fighting skills. For the past month, the village has been losing inhabitants that have been wandering out of doors after the sun has gone down. There is no sign of any breach in the village security and no corpses, either. The victims simply vanish. The tally stands at six wall guards, one town deputy, three "social workers," two caravan guards and three local children.
June 1
Two traders quite the worse for wear, stumble into Lordsburg. After a night rest and medical care, they gasp out that the town of Columbus, down near the Old Mexico border was wiped out by an unusually viscious hellstorm that lasted for almost a day and a half. When investigators arrive, there is a town full of people hale and hearty. But they all have the same odd purple sheen to their eyes...
The town elders of Mogollon, a small mining town in the White Mountains of New Mexico have a small problem. Every Law Dog that arrives to track down the mountaineering bandits that have plagued that area turn back up, under the light of the new moon with complete amnesia.
A Librarian arrives with talk of a pack of Loyalist Doomsayers that have discovered an old Uranium mine in the Arizona Badlands. Someone needs to find the local Schismatics and form up a posse to run them out before the term of "gettin' the glows" becomes a permanent phrase in the local vocabulary
The Engineering Society at Apache Junction gets word from the local Scavenger crews that there are people walking out of the Ghost Storms over the ruins of Phoenix. They are rounded up and they swear that a woman lives in the ruins that can heal mutations with a touch.
The twin maelstroms that cover the ruins of El Paso and Cuidad Juarez in Mexico seem to be covering a new threat. The locals that live in the Franklin Mountains are reporting that the resident cemeteries are being raided and torn to pieces. Hardly a tombstone or grave marker is being left standing.
Reported by "Big Pete" the Law Dog fer Montana:
A fourth child was abducted in Sheridan, Wyoming. Samantha Willis was snatched from her bed, and the words "BSB 4 eva" were scrawled on her bedroom walls. Local Law Dog Azalea Molson and the Editor of the New Epitaph, John Clum XI, are looking for help in investigating.
A new Templar Martyr has been discovered. Jason Towers, a noted Templar for five years, has reported that none other than John Shaft, of TV and movie fame, gives him "way increased BadAssitude", to quote Towers. It was long held that Shaft, who was called "The black private dick who's like a sex machine to all the chicks", was a fictional. Some, most notably the famed Jo, say that Towers is either hallucinating or lying. There will be a hearing on the matter.
June 6
The Silver Nun logged a story of flying lights spotted in the maelstrom around the old Alamogordo Air Force base. Those who have investigated have returned badly wounded with stories about being shot at by small flying drones.
A scavenger crew from the ruins of Dallas report that the Warlord "Blackeye" Farrel was seen with heading into the maelstrom with seven large construction trucks. The crew was run off with automatic fire and some of the local would really like to know what a second rate warlord would need with construction vehicles.
A traveling caravan crew is looking for guards as they move west. At each town they visit the mixed bag of folks puts on a small variety act for the locals in exchange for board, food and information.
A Schismatic Doomsayer arrives in the township of Yuma and begs for shelter from the "hideous machine-animals" that are on his trail. During the night, the town guards fight off what appears to be an eight legged-mechanical bull that stands at seven feet at the horns. The local Law Dog is nervous because the delirious radiation priest mentioned animals in the plural.
A wandering Indian Gunslinger named Red Feathers logs a report with the Librarian in Apache Junction concerning the appearance of a new organized raider band. The township of Globe in Northern Arizona was attacked in the middle of the night in a surprise strike. The raiders were all dressed in black and spoke not a word during the assault. They made off with a fair amount of food, clothing, and every black haired child under the age of 15.
June 12
The floating town of Houma in the Greater Louisiana swamp reports several sightings of a large square sided vessel dredging isolated spots in the bayou under the cover of darkness and storms. Anyone hailing the vessel is fired upon with automatic weaponry. No report has made mention of any crew yet.
The locals in Baton Rouge are putting out the word for a crew of capable people for a dangerous job. One of the local scouts has claimed to find a group of pirates living in the remnants of a small shipyard between Baton Rouge and the New Orleans bayou. Any materials that could be scavenged would be of immense help to the struggling towns. Of course, the shipyard is within spitting distance of the Huey P. Long Memorial reactor...
The sheriff and town mayor of East Canaan Texas, one Debra Jory, has instituted a new law. Each and every person must wear a badge when they come into town. All of the locals wear one and seem to like the sheriff. The badges are a little odd though. A round purple field bearing an infinity symbol over a white nine-pointed star.
A local Syker is looking for some aid. Her long-time traveling companion, a Junker named Phillip Wheeler, was kidnapped by several large Cyborgs. The group took him from his guard duty at the gates of the Stratford Township and vanished east with him. The 'Borgs were all wearing painted symbols of a bizarre nature that the Syker has yet to identify. The same markings have been reported on the ruins of Wichita in northern Texas. Or course most people don't go there since the CAS Special Air Command Base was on the on the outskirts, and the Northern Alliance made sure it was taken care of. No less than five separate Ghost Storms rage in the sky around Wichita.
June 16
The town of Agua Dulce in New Mexico is requesting the attentions of a Law Dog or two. It seems that there has been a series of misunderstandings between some townspeople and a tribe of thirty or so nomadic Indians. The Indians are threatening to "Call down the Father of All Storms" if one of their young women is not returned to them. The townsfolk say that the girl does not want to go back. There have been sightings of a raider gang in the area as well. And then there is the small matter of the youngster's recent hair loss and strange dreams...
The fortified town of Santa Fe is offering an outrageous bounty for the heads of five notorious gunslingers. The reward is whopping 500 rounds of ammunition for each cranium returned to the Fortress town. J. Dennis Anderson, the mayor, swears that the fearsome five started an impromptu shooting competition in the town gardens. When one of the locals actually beat several of the gunmen, they shot him to pieces and made a blazing, bloody getaway. The group is lead by Deadeye Dave Barney, a large ex-marine. The others include Stinky Peter Godsey, a smelly waster with a deep Cajun accent and fear of water, Gerald "the Gimp" Russ, with his polished .44 revolvers and lame left leg, and "Gleamy" Julian, a Syker veteran of the Banshee Campaign which left him a bona-fide sociopath. The fifth, one Jeremy Smokebreather, is currently in the small jail maintained in Florence, Arizona. Smokebreather swears that he was never near the place and doesn't even know the others.
A waster calling himself Iron Patrick arrives in the Upper Nevada town of Desperation, with wild claims that a pack of Mutants have gotten their claws on three full sets of Powered armor and are savaging any settlements that they come across. The tale sounds like it was seen at the bottom of a brewer's barrel until the refugees start coming in to town. Refugees full of stories of great iron creatures that tore whole ceilings of off buildings and that could just shrug off small arms fire. The real worries begin when the Loyalist Doomsayers are spotted fleeing North and west into Templar Country...
A Junker by the name of Sparks Roberts in the fortress town of Santa Fe stuns the town with a startling revelation. She claims to have finally completed a satellite transceiver rig and is going to start broadcasting news to all those within reach. The celebration is short-lived however when Roberts, her lab and the transceiver array perish in a huge explosion a few days later. Things start getting really weird when those people with radios start hearing little voices calling for help in the static. Lots and lots of little faint voices.
June 20
An Indian scout named Boxcar Joshua arrives in Santa Fe with stories that there are signs of life in the wrecked town of Socorro, New Mexico. Joshua relates that he saw figures in some sort of rough compound around the old New Mexico State Police headquarters. He cautions that the area is full of walkin' dead and the local mutants won't go near the place. The muties told him that there were demons of light and wind that lived there that can kill in a heartbeat.
The gunslinger called Shrike relayed a story to the inhabitants of Lordsburg concerning the nearby ruins of Deming, New Mexico. During his last trip through, a number of buildings were seen sporting the black Maltese Cross of the Anti-templars. The Silver Nun has already expressed an interest in an investigation along with Brother Thelonius, a local archivist. Are there any other volunteers?
The Schismatic Doomsayer called Old Deuteronomy has announced that his is putting a crew of healers together to make a journey to Silver City to render aid to the walled settlement there. He is looking for Junkers to provide some form of transport as well as any one who can handle a gun to act as guards. There is talk that the Mountain Devil raiders are in the area as well as what seems to be a Black Hat scouting party with several Heavy Cans in tow.
The locals in Baton Rouge are reporting that the pirate gang hidden in the shipyard near the Huey P. Long Memorial reactor was a smokescreen. A party of folks went in to clear them out and to see what was salvageable. Of the fourteen, only two escaped and one died on the boat trip back. The survivor spun a tale of ambushes and booby-traps on the three beached ships with pitched battles between human raiders and some form of shadowy wraith-like creatures. The survivor spun wild tales of things folding out of shadows, gunfire having no effect and equipment being snatched away by invisible hands. The locals are feeling considerably out of their league.
June 22
A scout from the hidden community in the Franklin Mountains reports that some form of bizarre siege is taking place in the ghost storm around the old Fort Bliss Air Force Base. The base was thought to have been sacked during the Mexico invasion, then gone for good when the missiles went up. The stories are of a force of Anti-Templars and a big tribe of Mutants having some sort of running battle over the course of the last two weeks. The fight had gone on in and out of the storm around the base until both sides seem to stage a final assault inside the maelstrom wall. The next day a patrol of Black hats in full HAZMAT gear arrived from the northern plains and drove straight in to the storm. Three days later, a group of twenty Green-robed Doomsayers trooped down out of a boat on the Rio Grande and made straight for the same place. The locals are very nervous about so many powerhouses in one place and the local Law Dog, "Vaquero" Manny Felix is asking around for anyone to go with him to try and figure out what the Hell is going on at the Fort. The final pieces of the puzzle making themselves known is the blue-white ball lightning that the maelstrom wall is beginning to emit and the lone unmarked Hummer that has been seen skulking in the ruins of the areas around the base.
Traders from the fortress of Santa Fe arrive with news of the town of Van Horn. The town elders are shocked to learn that the traders have tanks and tanks of spook juice that the people of Van Horn were asking to trade with. The traders took it gratefully but have no answers as to where the "Hornies" got their hands on so much go-juice.
A cattle baron from Clint, Texas named Luis Munoz is looking for some capable individuals to track down a missing cattle drive. It was supposed to have gone to the settlement of Far Houston, but he got word that the cattle and its caretakers never arrived. Time to hunt something that goes "Moo" in the night
A report comes from the ruins of Seattle that s group of strange, automaton-like creatures are enslaving the local humans. The one human the reporter managed to talk to said that the robots said to go into Seattle and break down anything standing, and, if they see a cat, to kill it. The human then went on to describe that the automatons live in burrows, and a group called the "Owsla" is in charge. Another local claims to have seen these robots jumping over each other, as if playing. (Report logged by Big Pete the Law Dog)
July 7
Boxcar Joshua logs a report of a small settlement he discovered along the remains of the old Elephant Butte Dam. The settlement is willing to trade time at the remaining generators in exchange for supplies and ammo needed to defend them against the local raiders.
An Indian scout named Lightning Shadow arrives with a story that the inhabitants of Van Horn are raiding anyone they come across to make spook juice. She only escaped when her companions bought her enough time to escape on a motorcycle. The scout is out to put together a posse to try and free her friends as well as anyone else she can as well as put an end to the abominations in Van Horn. The problem is that it's not just Spook Juice that they're cookin' up behind the walls of Van Horn.
Judge Miles Fargo, an aged Law Dog, arrives with a spectacular catch. Surtur, the so-called King of the Raiders is in his custody, doped to the gills to keep him from exercising his Syker abilities. Judge Fargo insists on giving the notorious bandit a fair trial in town, but a local scout arrives with word that a big chunk of Surtur's underlings have been spotted heading towards town, armed to the teeth.
The Louisiana scavvie known as Pere Bayou has put out a call for any Junker that can make the journey to the swampy ruins of New Orleans for a most unique competition. Pere Bayou has a very unique prize for the person that can assemble the most beneficial junker device for the citizens of the Wasted West. The prize will be the precise location of a submerged tank of LOX, almost two cubic tons of the powerful fuel. The junkers are already converging on the swampy remnants of the Crescent City to see who can claim the prize. Unfortunately, the Luddites have also gotten wind of things and plan to crash the party. Look for fireworks amid the mud and cypress trees in the land of gators and good times.
The fortress town of old Mesilla in southern New Mexico has put out a bounty on the heads of the Dust Demons road gang. The ornery packs of raiders have harassed the tiny enclave for months, depriving them of food shipments that are badly needed from the nearby orchards. The bounty is one restored motorcycle for each posse member or several pieces of armor made to order. The head of the Dust Demons has heard of the price on his head and is planning to put some of his own people in the posse and lead them to a trap.
A caravan from the Red Rock Trading Company reports that an old locomotive was spotted on the rail line from Tucson, heading in the general direction of New Mexico. Not long after, scouts from the company start finding discarded bits of clothing from gangers along the rails. No weapons or a vehicle just clothes.
Several towns report the visitations of Old Ned. Old Ned is a battered and rather shopworn combat Borg who arrives in town pulling an old four-wheeled cart. He badgers and pesters the locals for any recent dead to be put on his cart so that he may take "them on to a proper funeral" He never has raised a hand or plasma blade to anyone and depart swiftly if given any corpses. He heads into the wilderness with his charges and some of the locals are getting a little curious as to what is going on.
July 10
A scout from the enclave of Far Houston arrives with a report of three-meter tall mechanical spiders spotted along the coastline of east Texas and West Louisiana. They have been attacking road gangs and eliminating drivers while removing the vehicles to another location. While no one is shedding any tears over the loss of the gangers, there are worries that trading caravans
may be next.
The badly wounded remnants of a scavvie crew arrive with word that they think they have discovered the location of one of the old submarine bases belonging to the CAS. They were scouting the ruins of Corpus Christi inside the maelstrom when they were attacked by a large number of mutated animals. One of the scavvies swears that the mutated critters acted like someone was leading them with tactical ability.
Scouts from Hobbs, New Mexico arrive with a report of a squad of Anti-Templars duking it out with what looked like a pack of witches in the abandoned town of Midland-Odessa in the Texas panhandle.
Convoy couriers log in with a couple of sightings of what looks like a skeletal biker racing through the desert freeways of Texas and New Mexico.
July 13
Indian nomads arrive with stories of undead Templars gathering in the Ysleta district of the El Paso ruins.
Word arrives of a horrible massacre at the Clint cattle farms. Range riders arrived back to find the compounds in flames with no survivors to be found. All of the cattle were mutilated beyond recognition and left to rot.
The old Mesilla fort has announced that it will serve as the hub of a new mail service and is now looking for folks to start braving sleet, snow and dead of night.
A Red Rock trading caravan arrives with stories of strange happenings in the town of Alamagordo. The town was cleaned out thirteen years ago during the infamous Death March across the American southwest. The Caravan reports that the strange symbols that decorated parts of Wichita in Texas have now appeared on the old National Space museum in town. There are also guards that talk about sightings of large Cyborgs hiding from view in various buildings in town. There were also signs of patrols that were heading in the direction of the maelstrom that covers the Alamagordo Airforce base and the White Sands Missile Range.
July 17
The Silver Nun reports of a pair of Combine Raptors being found deactivated along the roads in upper Arizona. Upon investigation, the craft appeared to be in perfect working order but missing their powerplants with the cannons and ammo left intact.
The last three months have seen a disturbing trend among Sykers in Arizona. There have been over six Sykers spotted in various parts of the state having been horribly mutated but still having perfectly normal heads. The Sykers have made no attempts to communicate and have retreated every time they have been spotted. Local Doomsayers are puzzled as well.
Judge Miles Fargo made a terrible discovery in the small enclave of Black Canyon, just North of the Phoenix ruins. The town was discovered to have over twenty wrecked tractor-trailers inside the Town Square. It appears the towns folk died in some sort of gun battle with an unknown force. There were large amounts of spent shell casings and what look like grenade fragments. The enigma deepens when it is revealed that there is no sign of the inhabitants or the attackers and some of the trucks have the markings of the Red River Trading Company
Scouts from Apache Junction arrive back with a report of what appears to be a compound off a secondary rail line in the southern Arizona desert. They are looking for a crew to help them get past the rattlers in the area to get inside to see about some juicy salvage.
Townsfolk in New Mexico are starting to hear some disturbing stories making the rounds from the local mutie tribes. The muties are saying that the time of "The Great Unmaker" is near and soon she will be among the faithful to reward them for their devotion. No one knows what the mutants are talking about and the Doomsayers are really nervous because no one had heard of another religion among mutants before now.
The Arizona nighttime sky just got a little darker. A band of wasters managed to bag one of the flying creatures near Apache Junction. Two Junkers, a Syker and a pair of gunmen went out for the bounty and ended up with the fight of their lives. Once safely in a cage at the Engineer's Society, the flyer was revealed to be a form of feral, winged vampire. Piper and the other Junkers in town are now looking for volunteers to head in to the storms over the Phoenix Metroplex to see if the source of these creatures can be found. There are friendly mutant tribes known to be inside the ruins as well as a number of scavvie crews that could be contacted to act as guides or scouts. Piper is willing to pay very well for any information on these flying bloodsuckers.
July 18
The towns of Battle Mountain, Austin and Winnemucca, Nevada have been overrun by Dust Devils. A small posse of heroes have bloodied the Dust Devil's nose's several times over the last month, but this has resulted in large numbers of refugees immigrating to the towns of Elko and Wendover Nevada. Population levels in these towns have reached dangerous levels.
Submitted by the Junker partners of Boojum & Quark
Junkers from the Apache Junction Engineer's Society arrived in New River, Arizona to uncover an extensive garden in several hidden greenhouses but no sign of the forty-odd previous inhabitants of the small village.
Boxcar Joshua logs a report in the enclave of Yuma of what appears to be several landed aircraft in the depths of Death Valley.
Scouts from the Red River Trading Company report seeing several Templar corpses strung up on Telephone poles along secondary roads in the mountains of New Mexico. The total count so far is eleven.
Several Sykers have reported hearing "electronic"sounding telepathic transmissions from around the old NASA areas in Houston. The messages are garbled and intermittent but some common recurring threads involve the words: thought-eater, low-orbit, Comsat, and invasion.
July 21
Mama Titubu in New Orleans is in need of some help. A large pack of witches has moved into the muddy ruins of New Orleans and have been doing their level best to kill or run off the few locals that remain in the old Crescent City. Mama wants to know why the witches are have picked New Orleans and what can be done about them. There might be some folks over the river that could help. Any one up to earning a favor from an old fashioned Voodoo Queen?
The Law Dog called Steel Zachary has a problem. One of her deputies who happened to have an extra leg was sent out to investigate stories of a large group of mutants gathering in the abandoned town of Belen, New Mexico. The deputy has not returned and by all accounts, the gathering is still getting bigger. Any volunteers to find the missing deputy and see what the big mutie attraction is?
A refugee stumbled into Apache Junction claiming to be from an encampment in the old Mammoth Cave roadside park. Over forty people had hidden in the cave to seek cover from a nearby road gang and from an impending Hellstorm. He says that one of the group scouts had discovered some sort of bunker in the depths of the cavern, but the their light sources gave out and something attacked the group. He and several others split up to try and find help for those still underground. Spelunking anyone?
Scavvie crews report several sightings of what looks like a one man Gyrocopter flying around the ruins of Phoenix. Could this be the mysterious person that sounds the old air raid warning siren when a Hellstorm builds over the city?
Only twenty more days until the Great Pilgrimage!
July 24
A Schismatic Doomsayer reports that someone is starting up the old copper mines Northeast of Phoenix. There are fresh trailings on the mountainside and recent tracks from heavy equipment. Piper and the Engineer Society are interested because of the recent rash of Black Hat sightings in the area.
The small community built in the trees outside of Lafayette, Louisiana announces that they wish to trade equipment and clothing for food and seed crops.
A Postal worker from old Mesilla says the enclave in the ruins of Albuquerque is reporting repeated attacks from automatons demanding quarts of blood.
Scouts from Apache Junction arrive with stories of a huge outbreak of mutations overtaking the nomadic Indians in Northern Arizona. There are no known Doomsayers in the area and there have been no reports of radstorms recently either. What could be causing such a huge plague of mutations?
Only 18 more days until the Great Pilgrimage!
July 27
Piper, the head Junker in the Apache Junction Engineer's Society is raising a posse to go after a thief. Two weeks ago, a waster dying of blood loss appeared at the Apache Junction gates. He was made comfortable and had a small private talk with Piper before passing on in his sleep. Piper was given a map and directions from the wanderer and secured them in his strongbox. Rumors began to float around the town, (Junkers do love to gossip, ya know) and the directions were said to lead to a classified military base, a backwater cybertech factory, a hidden enclave of rich folks in the mountains and a fortified farm in a secluded valley. Many stories were making the rounds and Piper was getting a mite upset at the rumormongering when his box vanished. The prime suspect is a trader and scout known in the area, one Boxcar Joshua. He was the last one seen near the box before it disappeared.
The wandering gunslinger named Red Feathers logs a report of the destruction of a trader caravan from Brownsville. It seems that Red Feathers and a number of other individuals were taken on as guards. Outside of the ruins of Fort Worth, the caravan was besieged by faintly glowing translucent humanoids whose touch could kill. Red Feathers says that a hasty retreat was all that saved him and the caravan is still there, waiting for salvage.
14 days until the Great Pilgrimage!
July 31
A small posse left the town of Wendover, Nevada and headed north on a salvage expedition. Sketchy reports are that they have located a pre-war amusement park (Six Flags Over Nevada) and are exploring it. However they have not been sighted in several days, so what has become of them and the exact location/condition of the park is unknown. Also as the group was very secretive about their route and they have not been heard from yet, it is unknown where these rumors are originating from.
Submitted by Boojum & Quark, Junkers Esq.
Scouts from New Orleans are reporting a beached cruise liner in the lower reaches of the Greater Louisiana swamps. No one can say how it got there, in such shallow swamp mud. The scouts are looking for a number of technical and mechanically inclined folks to get past the bizarre and incredibly complex system of locks on all the lower bulkhead doors.
A caravan owner needs some guards who can think fast and shoot straight to get a small set of boxes to Doc Schwartz up in Junkyard. He wants to leave real quiet - like before anyone gets wind of the seven state of the art computer cores that he plundered from somewhere. The volunteers need to get him and his high tech prize all the way to Junkyard, dodging whatever lies in their path as well as the mightily upset Mexican Warlord that he liberated them from. El Sangre Dio, the Blood God, has no patience for those who would steal his holy CPUs.
Robin Lansing, a renowned Librarian arrives with a story of an outbreak of crippling nightmares among the townies living at the old Mesilla Fort. One Templar is rumored to be heading down to investigate. Would the posse be interested as well?
Bedraggled and wounded folks arrive; full of stories of the multi-story, six legged armored mechanical monstrosity that flattened the town of Far Houston. There are conflicting reports of the use of cannon fire, flame-throwers and missiles in its rampage through the small community. There are also whispers that the walker was laughing at the plight of the refugees but seemed to have no interest in following those who fled. What is the mystery of the destruction of Far Houston, and what does the supernatural machine intend to do now?
Eleven days until the Great Pilgrimage!
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.
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.
October 2nd
BROWNSVILLE REFUGE, TEXAS- The Brownsville Reclamation Crew returns to the refuge town with a stunning pronouncement. Beneath the ruins and Ghost Storms of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, the crew claims to have discovered the mythical Warehouse 23. Often thought to have been an urban legend, the Warehouse was rumored to have been the storage area for the items that the Texas Rangers considered to be too dangerous to be in public hands. Tales would often circulate about Pancho Villa's frozen head, Billy the Kid's six-guns, Houdini's favorite cuffs, the mysterious Rainmaker's basin, the complete list of the colonel's secret herbs and spices and the scalpel of Jack the Ripper, all locked away forever from the light of day. The scavvies are full of stories of half-collapsed tunnels big enough to drive a tractor-trailer through, row after row of steel doors sealed with old touch pad locks, and rooms full of darkened windows that look into shadowy operating chambers. There was apparently no power in the complex and none of the doors could be opened by any means. The crew is offering a full share of the haul to anyone who joins up to help them claim this mother load of goods. Brownsville is exploding at the seams as wasters are crawling out of the woodwork for a shot at the big prize. Local Law Dogs are having the Devil's own time trying to keep things down to a dull roar.
CLINT, TEXAS- "Sticks" Leibowitz, a former Hockey player turned Templar logs a report of another sighting of the skeletal motorcyclist. "Sticks" was present when the bony biker made a few passes around the village in the ruins of Midland in the Texas panhandle. The biker sports ragged leather clothing and rides a dirty, monstrous bike of unknown make. After a few unnerving minutes, the strange entity vanished back into the night. Leibowitz thinks that the biker is a conjured demon of some sort.
October 9th
BROWNSVILLE REFUGE, SOUTH TEXAS- the town elders have called in Law Dogs to quell a riot. Less than a week after the Reclamation Crew announced the discovery of the possible location of Warehouse 23, six of the ten members have turned up dead. Three have been the victims of throat slitting in the late evening/early morning hours, one has been the victim of a Syker's "Melonhead" power, one had her eyes gouged out and the last was discovered broken in half and stuffed in a trashcan. The remaining four Crew members have vanished and the wasters that showed up in town for the hiring call have started to turn ugly. Rumors have started to fly as rival scavvie crews have begun to accuse one another of doing in the Crew members. Now no one knows where to start looking for the Warehouse and there is talk that someone or something may be trying to keep the location a secret. The wildest rumor involves the ghosts of Texas Rangers that have fallen in the line of duty have came back to protect something still kept in the Warehouse.
BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA- Nevada Carl the mutie gunslinger logs a report with the local Law Dogs of the state. Carl happened to be bartering for supplies in the Texarkana Trader's Bazaar when he spotted someone resembling Surtur, the renegade King of the Raiders, purchasing a large amount of powdered Ghost Rock in a secretive backroom deal. Among those in the room were another Syker covered in primitive tribal-type scars, a Loyalist Doomsayer and a woman with compound eyes, insect wings and bright yellow skin. The gunslinger also spotted two figures in black body armor and helmets. Surtur reportedly paid for the mineral with a wagon load of purified water.
OLD MESILLA POST HEADQUARTERS, NEW MEXICO- Beverly Smalls, a veteran postwoman, arrives back to the Post Office in the fortress town with a report of a new settlement discovered at the old Running Indian truck stop between Deming and Lordsburg in New Mexico. The residents are looking to trade clothing and wood for food.
October 12th
BROWNSVILLE REFUGE, SOUTH TEXAS- Burt Whittaker, a Convoy Scout, logs a report with the Librarian for the Refuge. Whittaker was running a shipment of clothes and seed to the village of Rocky Gorge along the old Texas-Mexico border but after his van made the final turn into the valley, he decided against it. The valley that held the town was completely shrouded by some kind of thick smoke. Burt kept watch for almost four hours, but the smoke never lifted and there were no signs of movement from the valley. When his Geiger counter began to sporadically detect radiation spikes, Burt decided to retreat and get the word out. Local Law Dogs are calling Rocky Gorge off limits until matters are resolved..
BLACK KETTLE, OKLAHOMA- Rob "Double-Barrel" Dixon, a Law Dog, logs a report of a Black Hat convoy spotted moving out of Colorado. Heading east across the Oklahoma Panhandle, Dixon swears that there was better than fifty foot soldiers, three heavy trucks, a squad of light cans and a semi hauling a heavy construction crane.
APACHE JUNCTION, ARIZONA- The Engineer's Society has been the recipient of a gift. During a guard change, a small package was discovered outside the main gates of the Society compound. Inside was a collection of microchips and circuit boards in pristine condition. A review of the compound security cameras only reveals a small humanoid figure, wearing a big concealing duster with the collar turned up, dropping off the box and vanishing off the scanner screens.
BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA- The gunslinger called Shrike logs a report from Port Smith on the Arkansas River. Captain Molly Stewart is looking to hire a number of gunslingers and other assorted folks to get rid of the river bandits that have been plundering villages along the waterway. Captain Stewart is offering free passage in perpetuity on her renovated river barge and the towns are offering a large amount of trade goods as payment. The pirates have eight large recreational boats and have shown over thirty well-armed individuals as well as a pair of Sykers in the ranks. There are also questions about where the pirates are getting their fuel supply.
October 16th
ELK CITY, OKLAHOMA- Nathan Ball, the one of the Town Elders, is offering food and a free reclaimed home for anyone who can come to the aid of his town. The past three months have seen over a dozen well-executed mutant attacks on the small enclave, most of them coming from the old Black Kettle National Grasslands nearby. Scouts have failed to turn up any sort of base or leader for these attacks and Elk City is running out of bullets. The neighboring ruins of the town of Sweetwater held a large Toxic Waste Storage facility, but no one has ever returned from scouting the area..
JUNKYARD, UTAH- A spook calling herself Burning White Wind arrives with a warning. The Apollonian Luxury Resort located outside of Redlands, Colorado has been the victim of a mysterious assault. The Apollonian was a way station on the route around the Combine on the way to Junkyard for traders and travelers to rest up before heading into the wastes of Utah. Burning White Wind arrived to a silent building with several vehicles out front and a scene of horror within. Two dozen travelers and most of the staff were discovered barricaded in the third floor flop rooms, dead from extreme hypothermia. The rest of the staff and the headman of the local mutant tribe were found dead in the kitchens, having expired from excessive blood loss from hundreds of cuts. It looked like the kitchen implements were used in the assault. None of the trader's wagons have been touched nor is any of the resort's weapons or food missing.
GLOBE ENCLAVE, ARIZONA- Nomad the Librarian arrives with a very odd tale from the northern region. It seems that there is an armed feud going on between the neighboring towns of Cedar City and Enoch in southwestern Utah. Nomad relays that both sides are claiming that the other is raiding food stores under the cover of darkness. The Enochians claim that folks from Cedar City have been tunneling under their towns protective walls while the Cedarites are shouting that their neighbors are poisoning the local streams. Both sides are calling for three Law Dogs to mediate the dispute.
OLD MESILLA POST HEADQUARTERS- "High-dive" Mason logs a report with the Postmaster of a second hand sighting of a large group of Loyalist Doomsayers traveling north from the remains of the Elephant Butte Dam. The wasters that passed the word to him mentioned that the dam's remains are now highly radioactive.
October 19th
YUMA VILLAGE, ARIZONA- A scout from the ruins of Tijuana, Mexico arrives with a report of some kind of construction underway in the stretch of northern Mexico desert named the Journada del Diablo. The Devil's Road as it is called on C.S.A. maps, holds nothing but long stretches of lonely highway. But the scout, one Ferdinand Gutierrez, swears that a large group of people are building a huge stone pyramid in the desert waste.
BROWNSVILLE REFUGE, SOUTH TEXAS- Steel Zachary the Law Dog reports a very strange occurrence outside the Refuge walls. A local trouble making waster going by the name of Fearless was found in the early morning hours just a few dozen meters from the gates of the town, in a state of deep shock. After a visit to the local sawbones, Fearless spun quite a tale. He has no memory of arriving at Brownsville; he was part of a caravan heading for Near Beaumont. Fearless can't account for the rest of the traders and has no idea how he ended up in Brownsville with a bright, shiny new cyberarm.
OLD MESILLA FORTRESS, NEW MEXICO- A Syker mercenary named Lilith arrives with a plea from the township of Clint, Texas. The town has suffered heavy damage from a very bad acid rainstorm and is looking to trade horses and water for building materials and some skilled architects.
TEXARKANA BAZAAR, TEXAS- Word arrives with the Librarian called Nomad that the Venomfang mutant tribe from the Nebraska flatlands has been spotted on the march about a week's travel time from the mercantile trader depot. There is also a suspicion that the tribe is harboring a number of Corruptor spooks within their ranks. "Flamboyance" Greene, a master trader in Texarkana is offering a fully restored King Cab pickup to anyone that can find out of the tribe is on the warpath. If they are, Greene is also offering food and water to anyone who brings back help.
October 24th
NEAR BEAUMONT, TEXAS- a trader caravan from Texarkana arrives on its last legs. On a routine pass around the Dallas-Fort Worth maelstroms; individuals wearing clothes that resembled pre-war Haz-Mat suits attacked the caravan. Out of the three trucks and twenty-five guards only one vehicle arrived in Near Beaumont with four survivors. The guards swear that the masked attackers had fully automatic weaponry and heavily outgunned the caravan members. The trader baron is offering a substantial reward for anyone that can clear up the matter.
SANTA FE FORTRESS, NEW MEXICO- The town is offering good-sized lots in a number of reclaimed storage units for wasters to store non-perishables. Doomsayers needing to store radioactives will have to look elsewhere, unfortunately. In payment, a waster will be contracted to a three-day stint on guard duty of the town and watchman duty on the storage lots. Any waster that does not show up to put in their contracted time will forfeit their stored goodies and the materials will become the property of the Fortress town. The New Bank of Santa Fe is declared open for business.
STRATFORD TOWNSHIP, TEXAS- A waster named Rivets Muldoon logs a report of a jerry-rigged Blimp sighted in the skies over the southern Panhandle. On either side of the monstrosity was painted a large multicolored Doomsayer sigil. There was no word on who was piloting the craft and no Doomsayers could be reached for comment.
OLD MESILLA FORTRESS, NEW MEXICO- Reports reach the Law Dogs of a new warlord running rampant across New Mexico and Texas. A force of thirty armed wasters led by a mammoth specimen calling himself Rictus have hit three small settlements. The gang has taken food, ammunition and small machine parts thus far. Resident Law Dogs Gary Jefferson and Christie Zimmers are placing a two hundred round reward for the folks that can offer up any information on the warlord and his crew.
NORHAM PROVINCE, SOUTH DAKOTA- Librarian Esienberg logs a report of the delivery of six copies of various inspirational fiction from Boise, delivered on the 19th of October by newly knighted templar Robbie Dawson with companions Alfred Cassidy and James Gilbert Quincy. The group then accompany a caravan back to Boise via the small town of Blue Ridge, Southern North Dakota.
(Submitted by Dom, Journeyman Librarian and Defender of Knowledge)
October 25th
BOISE, IDAHO- The caravan from Norham Province arrives missing two vehicles its cargo and the party from Norham. Apparently they were attacked just outside of Blue Ridge by a large green insect which stole the cargo (4 pounds of irradiated ghostrock from the Deadwood reactor), then to add insult to injury they picked up a single naked hitchhiker about 3 miles down the road, who killed four guards, stole one truck and destroyed the other. Eyewitness reports state that he acted "like a child, destructive but not malicious".
October 26th
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA- "High Dive" Mason logs a report in the Grand Library of a stunning find. The eccentric courier swears that the public library in Lincoln, Nebraska is intact. However, Mason says that the enclaves in the area have stories that the local mutant tribes will not enter the Ghost Storm around the city for some reason.
APACHE JUNCTION, ARIZONA- In an effort to promote goodwill and communications between settlements, Piper of the Engineering Society is offering a fully assembled water purifier and a military grade Geiger counter for each town that will field a Skullchucker team for some regular games in Junkyard.
LYNCHBURG, CALIFORNIA- Panderborn the Junker logs a report to Law Dogs that the notorious "Hellcat" Bradley has been spotted north of the Shan Fan ruins. Bradley was driving a junker-modified hover truck sporting heavy weaponry and was seen in the company of a light combat cyborg. Panderborn has heard rumors that Hellcat is talking about buying recovered bio-weapons from someone on Turtle Isle.
NEAR BEAUMONT, TEXAS- Bonhomme Boudreaux, the Trader Baron from New Orleans, logs a report with the Law Dogs concerning the enigmatic character called Mister Whisper. The person in question had stayed a night in town and was offering another mysterious bargain to the locals. Whisper has a standing offer of six Northern Alliance automatic rifles, a footlocker full of ammo, and a backpack full of antibiotics to anyone who can journey to the flooded ruins of West Memphis, Arkansas and uncover the location of the General J.T. Cornpone Memorial Hospital. The interested parties must return with a small portable freezer hidden somewhere on the upper administration levels. The unit must maintain a constant sub-zero temperature. Boudreaux and "Hardcase" Curtis the Law Dog are offering a fully furnished home in Near Beaumont, free of charge to anyone that brings the freezer to the Texas town for examination
BOISE, IDAHO- Scouts from the Convoy report twenty-seven bodies dead from radiation poisoning, most corpses are covered with insect bites. They were found just off the interstate between Deadwood and Boise, heading toward Boise. Strange things may be afoot in Blue Ridge, any one willing to go and investigate will be paid in ghostrock on the following scale: 2 oz. = scout and report, 8 oz. = details of the attacks, 1 lb. = rescue of Robbie and party in addition to the above, 12 oz. irradiated ghostrock = return of the ghostrock from the caravan and elimination of attackers along the interstate.
(Boise, Idaho logs reported by Brother Dom, Librarian Journeyman and defender of Knowledge)
October 27th
TEXARKANA BAZAAR, TEXAS- A Templar named Jude the Penitent arrives with word that something is driving mutant tribes south, out of the Kansas and Nebraska Grasslands. Few have tried to communicate with the sub-literate muties but Jude has heard rumors of Toxic spooks on horseback that have been eradicating mutants in nighttime raids.
TEXARKANA BAZAAR, TEXAS- Texas Law Dogs are raising a posse for a hunting expedition to the Midland-Odessa region. The village there has sent word that a strange creature has taken up stalking among the ruins, slaughtering anyone attempting to leave the enclave. A waster calling herself Gunnysack got an eyeful of the beast in question and is recommending heavy firepower. It stood nearly eight feet tall, was composed of bones and armored scrap metal, had arms made of saw blades and razor wire and could pace a speeding motorcycle on its eight spider-like legs.
NEAR BEAUMONT, TEXAS- Robin Lansing the Librarian brings word of a horrific massacre in the rough township in Mesquite, Texas. Lansing and her traveling companions arrived to find the three local watering holes filed with corpses and the walls covered in gore. Each scene had some identical details; there was signs of heavy weapons fire in all three saloons. The forty-seven corpses died from gunshot wounds and a heavy, edged implement but there were no bullets in any of the deceased's bodies. Thomas Pulos, a Junker companion of Lansing's, discovered a clue in the belongings of one of the ex-customers. One of the wasters was playing with an old video unit in the final moments before the slaughter. The unit's video function was wrecked but the audio portion recorded its owner's final statements. There were a few minutes of loud bar talk and then a moment of dead silence. Someone shouted "It's got no legs!" and then the shooting began. Intermittent screams and gunfire pepper the playback but the most chilling part was heard very faintly in the background. Something was whispering the phrases - "Unlawful assembly, selling liquor with out a license, bearing un-licensed arms, failure to abide an officer of the law..." Lansing also noted that the saloons reeked of brimstone and were slightly radioactive.
STRATFORD TOWNSHIP, NORTH TEXAS- Judge Fargo reports the sighting of a pair of unmarked VTOL craft, heading east, out of the outskirts of Wichita, Texas.