The Shadowlands - An area in Idaho that is in perpetual twilight. There are 10 or so major cities, and various minor settlements. The area is aa circle, with a 150 mile radius. The total area is 70,650 square miles. The perimiter is covered with laser sniper turrets. If you come within 25 feet, or attack them, they attack back. Nobody has ever gotten in or out, to the knowledge of the natives at least. The natives know a lot about history, thaks to the great archives. Natives assume that the cloud that keeps them in eternal twilight was produeced by the old government. All the natives are decendants of the denziens of either Vault 48 or Vault 61. There were no surface dwellers to be found when the first vaultians left the vaults. The Great Archives are dual-domes that are constantly maintained by robots. These robots protect the Archives from being taken over. The Archives contain information on most of recorded history. Natives regard it as a sort of holy place - no fighting is allowed inside the archives (the robots make sure of this, they kill anyone who disturbs the internal peace) or outside in the courtyard. The Archives is considered a neutural territory, so no colonies are allowed within a 1/2 mile radius. Both vaults have direct links to the Archives, and any vault linked to the central vault network (few are). Both links were established by cables running underground, placed there by the old government. The natives live primarily off of potatoes, mushrooms, and other sun-less foods. There are also brahmin herds. Rad scorpions don’t exist in this area, nor do Deathclaws. Wanamingos and rats are the primary critters, along with manti. These critters tned to stay away from the cities, but the small settlements have problems with them. Most of the cities were setlements that banded together for protection from the critters. About half the cities/settlements were founded by Vault 48-desended people, and the other half was founded by V61. There’s a rivalry between the two vaults overall, and lesser rivalries between the individual city/settlements. V61’s terrirory is primarily to the west, while V48 is to the east. V61’s main city is Crater Town, a city built in what apeared to be meteorite craters just a mile from Vault 61. The Vault is in what is now the suberbs of Crater Town. The city has several sattilite farms near and around Crater Town, all of which are connected by primitive roadways. The town is governed by an elected council (elections held every 2 years), and a mayor (elected every 3 years). There is no real army, the citizens are expected to defend the city on their own initiative, out of obligation. This has always worked in the past. Since the city is so deep in what is commonly considered V61’s territory, it’s rarely threatened by V48 cities. Dry Run River is a city to the north that has a sort of cold war with Crater Town. It’s a city in a dried-out riverbed. It’s a farming town that is very imperealistic, and hell-bent on breaking the barrier. The city is also ruled by a council, but there is no mayor to precede over them. Dry Run River is the home of the Storming Dragoons, soldiers on two-headed “horses”. These have let them forge a small empire, by offers of protection. They ocasionaly expand through military means when new land and resources are needed, but they tend to treat these new colonies well. DRR and Crater Town both have teritory disputes often, leading to a state of constant near-war. DRR wants to break the barrier because they’re so close to it, only 2 miles away at the closest point. Several minor towns exist in the CT-DRR-Great Archives triangle area. They would be caught in the middleof a war should it start, but patrols in this area kill critters on sight, making it relatively more safe than the wastes. It’s a calculated risk. On the pre-dominantly V48 side, the main city is Lake Side. Few cities in the Shadowlands have very imaginative names. As its name suggests, it’s alongside a lake. It’s an artificial lake aparently, made before the war and uncontaminated by radiation. They barter and fish here. Since it’s right on the unwriten border between the two Vault’s territories, it trades with both sides. Lake Side wasn’t the original city established by V48, but it grew as fish began breeding en masse in the Lake Fish. You can find anything here, including merchant clans that have inter-city wars ocasionaly. Each one wants to be the most profitable. Each could also wipe out at least one of their competetors with the small, private militias they finance, but there’s a sort of rock papper scissors situation in Lake Side. If clan A attacks clan B, clan C will use this opertunity to attack clan A, clan D will attack clan C for the same reasons, and once clan A is defeated, clan B will attack clan D. After that, there’s no real certinty as to the outcome, except that whoever starts the war will be crushed. So instead, the merchant clans try to win more buisness through competative market practices, a lot unlike modern day buisnessess who would have already bought 75% of each other clan’s stock. This makes it a very good place for wandering travelers to pick up gear. Another major city is Brons, a very unpleasent city. They sell slaves, drugs, whores, and brahmin. It’s one of the biggest brahmin ranching city in the Shadowlands, if not the biggest. It started out as a rest point between two major brahmin ranching cities, but then the more southern of the two cities got wipped out by a stampeding brahmin herd (which ran all over the city, into buildings, then out into the border, where they were promptly shot by the turrets). Brons began growing into a major brahmin center shortly after, due to the increase in buisness since they became the new southern point for brahmin herding. Various riff-raff brahminboys started living in the town after they retired, and this sort of group started the whole slave/drug/whore buisness Brons now pofits from. A very major location is the Glowing Crater. It’s a bomb crater that glows green. The rad count is far too high to travel near it, even after some 160 years. Rumors have it this was a pre-war crater, and not from the actuall nuclear exchange between the US and China that destroyed the world. Nobody can get near the crater, since the rad count would kill after a minute or two’s exposure. Why a bomb would hit there is unknown, since no major cities were nearby. Popular opinion has it that this was a miss, or a hit on a target that wasn’t recorded in the Great Archives. A few nearby settlements are filled with Ghouls. One of the major problems in the Shadowlands are the Shadow Raiders. As I said, despite knowledge gained by the Great Archives, those in the Shadowlands aren’t too good at making names. They’re a group of nomadic raiders who prey on wanderers in the wastes, and ocasionaly small settlements. What makes them so threatening is that they can aim riffles in the poor light of the Shadowlands, and know how to forge bullets. Few people in the Shadowlands use guns, since they never learned how to aim in the dark. The Shadow Raiders travel from reigon to reigon, making them very hard for the larger cities to hunt down with their armies, since the Shadow Raiders could be anywhere in the Shadowlands. Rumor has it the Shadow Raiders can see normally in the dark. They’re ocasionally seen riding on horse back. Most people in the Shadowlands relly on melee weapons (knives, axes, spears, swords). The major cities all have at least one forge. The average armor in the reigon is a type of Leather Armor, thicker but more flexible. Stimpacks abound, and you can find Mentents, Buffout, and some Psycho ocasionally. New, post-war chems are unavalibe. Anything developed in the post-war era is, generaly speaking, unavalible. The average temperature in the Shadowlands is around 50 degrees F. The terrain is mostly flat, getting a bit more rugged up north. The ground is healthy enough to grow plants, but there’s not enough sunlight. The sun’s rays never penetrate the clouds. Some hydroponic farms exist in the Vaults, but not enough to feed more than the Vault denziens usually. Pip-boys are used by 1 out of 10 people. They’re all fully functional, as the Archives robots can fix just about anything mechanical. 1 out of 3 Pip-boys can connect to the Central Vault Netowrk via a radiowave connection to one of the Vaults. The GECKs were used by both Vaults, giving the surrounding areas a good deal of ground and surface water and nutrients in the soil. Some hydroponic farms exist outside of the vaults, in the wetter areas.
Hawks - Hawks is the Chosen One, the supposed savoir of Arroyo. He quested to Klamath to find Vic, and followed him to the Den. After finding that he needed $1K to free Vic, he continued to travel east. He stopped by Vault City, and got drunk. Vault City’ll do that to you. Anyways, when he sobered up, he had somehow gone from Callifornia to Idaho. What was even more suprising was that he had somehow made his way into the Shadowlands. Being as he was drunk, he had no clue how he got in there. Hawks is a good shot with a gun, and good with his spear. He can also repair things, though he rarely gets a chance to. Hawks had with him a sharpened spear, a hunting riffle w/50x .223 FMJ, a few stimpacks, a leather jacket, and a few assorted items. Hawks’ father died in a tribal war, and his mother died from birth complications shortly after he was born. The villiage elder raised him. Before leaving Arroyo, Hawks was trained in melee combat, unarmed combat, hunting and the related skills, and he trained himself in talking his way out of trouble. He learned how to loot in Klamath, as well as how to get something out of the locals. Experience in the Den confirmed his susposion that outsiders are mostly trash. Because of this, he views outsiders much the way they view tribals - worthless. He’s a bit cynical and pestimistic, and prefers to talk before fighting. More of a loner than a team player, he rarely hangs out in groups of more than 3 (including himself). He did spend a lot of time talking with Sulik, but did’t have the money to free him. He’s 5’11”, some 160lbs, has a beard, semi-long hair (brown), green eyes, and he’s 23. Usually travels with his spear in hand, and a gun tied to his back. He has a tattoo over his right eye, of a pair of hawk’s talons. As for stats, he’s average strength for a tribal (7), above average perception (6), tough endurance (7), above average charisma (6), very high intellignece for a tribal (7), above average agility (8), and very good luck for a tribal (6). His traits are gifted (blessing of the Chosen One and all) and bloody mess (a rather strange twist of fate). His tag skills are small guns (practiced with slingshots growing up), melee weapons (a tribal tradition), and speech (had to talk his way out of trouble a lot with the village elder and his aunt). He also has above average skills in repair and outdoorsman, due to some specific circumstances growing up. Hawks was named that because he spent a lot of time watching birds as a baby. He still does. Hawks has scares all along his right arm, from where a gecko attacked him during a hutn and he panicked. Because of this, he usually kills critters on sight. He wants a dog, has since he was seven, but doesn’t know how to tame one. He also really hates slavers, and attacks them on sight when he knows he can beat them. NOTE - plot point: get Hawks some nightvision goggles at the Great Archives or somewhere so he can shoot his riffle. Then get him a better gun.
Jake - Jake is a wanderer from the Shadowlands. He’s traveled all over the area, and knows most of the V61 side by heart. His family migrated from the V48 side, specifically Brons, to Crater Town on the V61 side when he was 6. He has a generaly low opinion of the V48 side, especially Brons, because of his childhood there. His mother is an old lady in Crater Town, while his dad died years ago. Jake’s father, who had a terrific throwing arm, threw a rock at the perimiter from 100 feet away in frustration. A laser blast hit him dead-center in the forehead. Jake was 15 at the time. When his mother re-married, to a man Jake despised, two years later, he headed out into the wastes. He’s been a drifting nomad ever since. He wanders from town to town, spreading news and looking for jobs. He, like most other Shadowians, relies on a melee weapon for protectin. His is a sword, a traditional medieval European-style one, which he and his father forged. HE also is good with knives and throwing sharp pointy things. Jake’s 6’2”, 185 lbs, has dark brown hair, blue eyes, and he’s 26. He wears leather custom (the Shadowlands type), and a leather trenchcoat over it for further protection (as well as more place to hide sharp pointy things suitable for throwing). He also has leg armor. He usually travels with his sword sheived at his side, with throwing knives on the inside of his jacket and shrukin-like objects strapped down onto his shoulders. He’s very well-armored, but still very manuverable. Jake’s excelent at outdoorsman skills, thanks to 14+ years of experience. HE’s very strong (8), average perception (5), very though (7), average charisma (5), above average intelligence (6 + 1 for spending much time at Great Archives), very good agility (7), but very poor luck (2). His skills are melee weapons (tradition in the Shadowlands), barter (trades with other travelers), and outdoorsman (from wandering the wastes). One of his skills is riding horses, though at his entry into the story, his horse has been killed. He can do almost any kind of job, from tracking to guiding to assasination to protection, but he usually turns to brute force instead of diplomacy. He spent a long time at the Great Archives, learning what he could. He has a direct Pip-boy link to its database. He does want to leave the Shadowlands, but doubts it’ll ever happen. He has a sort of “matter-of-fact” attitude, and rarely looses his cool. He also has a tendancy to not care about some things, such as anything that doesn’t concern/interest him. Jake doesn’t like taking on the pathetically weak uless they’re really asking for it.