LOCATIONS.
ORSA. The first town, and the place where all newcomers start out. Being so far out from the center of the destruction, this town managed to suffer much less than the others. Orsa is well fortified against the elements and runs far smoother than most towns due to it. It has a functioning well which, when the water is treated, can be used at will and electricity in some areas, although for the most part there are broken livewires that are still dangerous to approach that have not been hooked up. Some houses having functioning doors, even lockable ones, but many once used sliding metal doors that have since been replaced with tarps and wood. Toward the back there is a graveyard full of unmarked graves, surrounded by a ramshackle wooden fence and a handwritten sign in scratchy text saying "KEEP OUT." Thanks to their thin, invisible barrier surrounding it, its Pure Strain inhabitants can live comfortably inside, and the mutants are kept out. It is passable from the inside, but impenetrable from without, running on electricity via a generator, which can be turned off (but isn't recommended). Orsa boasts its advancements in technology and started the movement of ostracizing undesirables some twenty-score years ago. Orsa has a large hospital, a small plot of farmland, and an over-abundance of residents seeking to hire adventurers to earn their keep within the town. The locals run a few shops of sorts, offering food and medicine and weapons in exchange for labor or worthwhile items, but otherwise there isn't much else to see. ORSUN is a shanty town about a mile off from the city, which houses it's growing mutant population. They have little to no protection from the elements and rely on their strength as a community to make it through the nights. Most of the settlement is nothing more than make-shift tents surrounded by scrap metal; the buildings are cobbled together from scraps pulled from other destroyed towns and are crudely patched scraps and newspaper, offering little real shelter. The entryway is nothing more than a gateway crafted from sheets of old aluminum roofing. It is generally not advised to drink the water in Orsun as it is untreated and heavily radioactive. LIEFELD is the nearest town and has benefited from Orsa's prosperity. A day's journey north, it's best known as a trade community. It lacks Orsa's sophisticated technological barrier but has an impressive metal dome surrounding it. Liefeld is a little more lenient on it's mutant population, believing that it can be put to work rather than left to starve outside. Liefeld often boasts to have the sexiest female mutants and as such has a booming prostitution business. THE TRAIL. Travellers can easily recognize the winding black road as a highway. Though many of the offshoot streets have now been worn down to nothing, the main highway still leads from one major town to the next. It's a rite of passage to travel down this long strip for most merchants. THE DUNES. In the stretch from city to city there are large clustered of hills, almost entirely empty desert. What little vegetation there is is mostly dry brush and tumbleweeds. The shifting sands occasionally hide caches of valuables, left behind at abandoned campsites and small settlements, though most of these supplies have been picked clean by the locals. Violent, sub-human mutants live in these hills. It is generally not advisable to venture towards one of these areas, even if well armed, as pain does not deter these creatures from their prize. Many of them make their homes up in the mountainous ranges, built up from subterranean caves at their base. These caves can span for miles underground and and house monsters as well as the odd mutant, as well as a little water, mud and mossy plantlife. Some of these caves can be followed up into the cliffs and traversed by foot to the peak, although the winds near the top are very strong and wide open to avian predators. SARIN SWAMP. A beautiful, lush forest about a weeks walk northeast from Orsa. On the outside it looks like a Eutopia, covered with green and filled to the brim with life. However, the water is toxic. The marshy land is filled with plants and animals that are toxic to the touch. Many of the beasts inside possess highly sought after anti-bodies so there is never a shortage of quests posted for brave adventurers to brave it's depths. These beasts are also very interested in protecting the rare, precious springs that are few and far between, as are the plants. Avoiding the volatile ivy, moss, clumps of reed stalks and vines that can and certainly will reach out and try to strangle you is as much a challenge as engaging the monsters. |