Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Depopulated Planet: Your Travel Guide to the
Known World
Depopulated Planet ( If it seems lonely it s
because there s nobody left ) is the number
one travel guide to the known world. Why?
Because we ve been there or if we
haven t it s because it s a damn good idea
not to go and we ll let you know.
Using This Book
We came up with a lot of setting
information and we ve included it here.
This is specific bits: mysteries, places to
visit, things to see, and stuff to look for.
Whether the world is  actually like this is,
of course, up to the participants
(traditionally the GM but that s just
traditional). So you could junk it entirely.
But if you don t, we wanted to point out
two modes of play:
1. Hand it to the players and let their
characters have it as common
knowledge.
2. The players avoid reading it and it s
used as fodder for exploration. If you
are planning on playing in Have-Not,
we suggest that you discuss with the
GM whether or not you should read
this book. In playtest our crew had a
good time finding some of this stuff
on their own.
NOTE: We considered including stuff like
vaccines, weather charts, and all kinds of
The Grand Cathedreal of the Congregation a Must See
other data but decided to keep it to
stop in the BoneYard. Note the hypnotic Plasma-Screen
locale content and commentary.
windows and the neo-gothic architecture. Yes: those
cannons are loaded.
So, traveler, where do you start? Well, let s start with a map of the known world. When you re ready to
travel then we ll discuss stocking up on vaccines, hiring armed escort (never leave home without it),
getting a bank to underwrite your expedition, and otherwise putting the trip together but remember:
before you set out anywhere you have to know where you re going. And we think this is a pretty good
place to start taking a look:
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Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
This is it: the whole thing all that s left of it all that we really know about. Here it is. From the deep
forests of the northern reaches to the toxic jungles of the south and the deserts on either side this is what
you ve got to work with. So take a walk through our data files and see what appeals to you, what doesn t,
and what scares you.
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Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Depopulated Planet: Your Guide To The Middle Ring 4
Getting Around.............................................................................................................4
Getting Along: Superstition and Etiquette in the Middle Ring.......................................5
Revival, Superstition, and the Congregation ............................................................5
The Blight .................................................................................................................5
The Aliens Amongst Us ............................................................................................5
Mall Day ...................................................................................................................6
Exiles........................................................................................................................7
Places and Things in the Middle Ring.............................................................8
Middle Ring > Northward Travel > Lake Powell (The Water Barons) ................................................... 8
Middle Ring > 10:00 Northwest > Death Alley ...................................................................................... 9
Middle Ring > Northeast > The Valhalla Mines....................................................................................10
Middle Ring > 3:15 Far East > The Chade Rim...................................................................................11
Middle Ring > East > 1:15 and Middle > Four Corners Area ...............................................................12
Middle Ring > East > 2:30 and Through > The Freq Corridor..............................................................13
Middle Ring > 7:00 Southwest > Sonora Desert..................................................................................14
The Inner Wasteland..............15
Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel ............................................................16
Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel > Falstaff ...................................................................................16
Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel > The Canyon ...........................................................................17
Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel > The Hanging Valley................................................................18
Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel > Vegas, Baby...........................................................................20
Inner Wasteland > Southward Travel............................................................21
Inner Wasteland > Southward Travel > Tybalt.....................................................................................21
Inner Wasteland > Southward Travel > Carnivorous Saguaro.............................................................22
Inner Wasteland > Southward Travel > The Lady of the Toxic Lakes .................................................23
Inner Wasteland > Southward Travel > The Weeping Hill (The Observatory) .....................................24
Inner Wasteland > Eastward Travel ..............................................................25
Inner Wasteland > Eastward Travel > Route 88..................................................................................25
Inner Wasteland > Eastward Travel > The Manufacturing Ruins.........................................................26
Inner Wasteland > Westward Travel > Neurosphex ............................................................................27
Inner Wasteland > Westward Travel > Neurosphex ............................................................................28
Inner Wasteland > Westward Travel > The Reservoir.........................................................................29
The Outer Wasteland .............30
Outer Wasteland > North > Northern Reach .......................................................................................30
Outer Wasteland > South > The Pharms.............................................................................................31
Outer Wasteland > South > The Church of the Congregation .............................................................32
Outer Wasteland > East > The Onion Empires and the Kingdom of IZ ...............................................33
Outer Wasteland > West > The Pacific Desert and the Shelf ..............................................................34
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Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Depopulated Planet: Your Guide To The Middle Ring
The Middle Ring's a pretty big honkin' piece of land to try to sum up in a few paragraphs. There's so much
there there that I could spend a week and a half on the basics and you'd be bored dead and I still wouldn't
have told you half the things you need to know to get by.
But, hey they're paying me to write this, and you've paid to read it.
Getting Around
When you're in the Middle
Ring, there's four directions
but they're not your basic north,
south, east, and west. Instead,
there's clock[wise],
counterclock[wise], in, and out.
You still need to know that
north is noon, and south is six
(so bring your compass), but
when a local tells you
Bakersfield's "sixty clicks clock
and in" you'll know he means to
go north by northwest around
30 miles.
So now you can figure out
where to go. Let's talk about
how to go.
I really recommend you get
your own transportation.
Relying on anyone else is like
being that kid in high school
who didn't have a car. If you
had a car, you know what I
mean, and if you were that kid,
you really know what I mean
(And if you are that kid: No I
won't drive you out to Radium
Flats; not even if you promise
to pay for ammo. You still owe
me for ammo from last time.
Ask your mom, man. That's her
job & )
Lonely roadside chapels exist throughout the known world. Many are ruins.
Some are inhabited but not always by people. In any event, beware: many are
equipped with automated guns.
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Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Getting Along: Superstition and Etiquette in the Middle Ring
Let s say you roll into a new town and you see the streets pretty empty, a bunch of horses and a few rusty
cars and pickups around a big barn just a hundred yards outside of town, and from in that barn you see
lights and hear music and singing. Looks like a town party. Do you pull on up and help yourself?
No. You don t. And that s why you re reading this.
They might be having a big  ole barn-dance and likely you ve got no idea what that really entails
anyway but it s just as likely they re having a revival and you don t want to walk in on that without
knowing the town. Trust me.
Etiquette in the Middle Ring can get you killed or save your life. So pay attention.
Revival, Superstition, and the Congregation
There are some funny things out there. Some of what people believe ain t so. Some of it might be so. And
some of it is. So be careful what you dismiss. Most of its just kinda & there. In Cherborg they keep these
old radio-antennas broadcasting high-frequency static they believe wards off Nuclear Bombers that are
still circling. Never seen one? Fine but keep your mouth shut and don t go messing with those radios.
That s not so bad. Some things are worse.
The Blight
The Blight may or may not exist, but out in the ring, even those who dismiss it & wonder. A certain
number of towns go ghost town every year. It s the law of averages: A well goes bad. A C-Rex
demolishes the place. There s a fire or a plague or raiders or, well, just about anything. But some of those
ghost towns don t have a good explanation. That s where the Blight comes in. People disagree about the
signs. Monsters coming, strange sounds in the night, and clusters of pregnancies all seem to coincide.
Water going bad or livestock dying in numbers can be corroborated too. Finally there s the killer
ingredient: People & acting strangely and secretively meeting in out of the way places & or new
strangers in town. If this sounds like it could apply almost all the time & you re right. So take the hint:
don t be the stranger.
The Blight isn t seen so much as a disease as something you can bring to town by being too & inquisitive
& too wanton & too cheerful & maybe too promiscuous & too different & or by having met someone
who brought the Blight to a town before. Refugees from places that are going bad because of  the Blight
get shut out. But make no mistake: No one thinks it can be treated with medicine.
And if they think you re bringing it to town & they ll hang you and burn the body. If you see a town with
doors with red Xs on them and some smoldering foundations, hit the gas, don t pick up survivors, and
drive at least one more town before stopping. Some places don t take it all that seriously. Some places ll
shoot you if you come down the wrong road at the wrong time. Sometimes even the townsfolk themselves
don t know which is which until something bad happens.
The Aliens Amongst Us
In the Grand Ruins are all those orbital particle beams that were ready to broadcast terawatts of
destructive energy into space the aliens were something the people of the Age of Wonders feared and
waited for and dreamed about. Maybe because they didn t have anything better to do. Maybe because on
some level they hoped to see the Haves get their asses handed to them. Who knows? But what got us
first was the lights going out and then us eating our own babies for breakfast & right? The aliens never
did come. Did they?
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Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Turns out not everyone s so sure. You can find educated people who say that what happened to the earth
was the result of orbital bombardment. There are a lot of legends of inhuman things coming out of flying
machines. And today, when nothing much flies around, there are persistent stories of lights in the sky,
and odd geometric shapes in the tall grass after their passing.
It turns out that the aliens want to corrupt us. They take one of us and reprogram him or her to be an alien
in mind if not body. This can, you see, happen to anyone. Wives, husbands, mothers, daughters, sons,
and friends may all be co-opted by an alien and once they get one of you, that person will try to get
more of you. This happens by being alone with the person for a little while. Maybe it involves a machine.
Maybe deep kissing or sex. Who knows? It changes. Those aliens are sneaky, right?
But when the alien thing is going around, it s best to leave town but, you know, maybe not too fast.
Because an alien who s been found out would want to split out of town so they could continue their
business elsewhere. Everyone knows that.
This is bad stuff too. There are laws on the books about fraternizing with  external influences  that s
code for the aliens. The penalty is death. Sometimes creatively. Nothing dissuades those aliens like a
good example to others. And trying to prove your innocence is & well, that s just what an alien would do.
See? So when the alien thing is going around, you want to steer clear. Failing that, get someone
important to vouch for you. That ll usually help. But sometimes, if it s bad enough, they ll just hammer the
last nail in your coffin.
Mall Day
The Age of Wonders loved the strip mall. It loved big indoor malls even better but most of those got
hammered pretty bad. Some of the strip malls out on the roadsides survived. They re mostly big cement
husks now with great big  cubbyholes where shops used to be and vast parking lots now mostly cracked
and grown through with weeds. The best have big pylons that used to have lights on them. A few, lucky
survivors, even have signs.
If you happen to catch a town on Mall Day, you can relax somewhat: It s not like the aliens where people
get killed, but don t just think it s a big party either. Get too rowdy or disrespectful and you ll discover why
it s more than just a celebration.
On Mall Day (and there are several days, the first of Mai being a big one) everyone dresses up and goes
to the mall. There are pavilions there that sell stuff in each store and in the parking lot there s usually big
tents with ale and sweets. If you have a car you re expected to take it and park inside the yellow lines. If
you look like you have a few extra cred, you re expected to shop. Everything s on sale (never mind that
the prices on Mall Day are usually higher than normal).
And if you do shop, it can be a great time if you obey the rules. Firstly: it s not a ruin it s a mall. You re
there for a day of shopping with the kids and the world didn t fall apart so you don t swear, you don t
spit, and you keep your gun in your car (or get permission from the sheriff). Secondly, everything  works.
There are lines to the old e-terms to check your  bank account. Stand in one. Pretend to push the
buttons. Don t make a fuss. It gets dark and dusty back in the backs of the shops. Don t make a point of it:
The lights are on, get it?
There was no war on Mall Day. The Haves might be out there somewhere, but you don t mention them. If
someone asks you about watching your  shows, you have and they were great. On Mall Day no one is
sick from a neo-plague (they have a  chill ). And so on. If there s been a tragedy, it s better to stay home
than to go there and cry. No one cries on Mall Day. The rules vary from place to place so pay attention
because if you screw it up you ll get everyone really the hell mad at you.
See, it s not just a celebration. It s well & look at that husk and imagine it bright and painted with glittering
lights and marbled facades. It s gone now, but on Mall Day they want to bring it back. Don t mess with
them.
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Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Exiles
Just so you don't get too carried away with yourself, consider the Exiles. What's an Exile? Well, an Exile
is a person, just like you or me & maybe & who hears a "call." Now the big-heads in the BoneYard are
pretty sure this "call" does exist and is a for-real telepathic phenomena, but what exactly causes it, and
why it works the way it does the diabolical way it does is still a mystery. There are places in the Outer
Wasteland & in the Inner Wasteland & and in the Ruins (and even a few "just out there" in the Middle
Ring) where the Haves buried & something.
If you ever see one of these places, get the hell away right then as soon as you know, and if one of
your buddies wants to go and isn't taking 'no' for answer? God help you: He's hearing the call.
Whatever it is that's down there, it's under a cement block about two to five acres in area and surrounded
with telepathic broadcast markers that give you a feeling like fingernails being drawn across a blackboard.
On the stone itself are warnings in about a billion different languages:  Do Not Dig. Do Not Disturb. Leave
Immediately. And, if you're there, and you're fairly fortunate, that's about it.
But that's because you're not hearing the call. If you do (and you can hear it from anywhere in the known
world as far as anyone knows) when you get there something else happens. The general belief is that
whatever's entombed there can "impregnate" you with its malevolence. Then you mutate radically and
you become a monster. Very few people have studied the psychology of Exiles: They terrorize, they kill,
they're tough and with age they get tougher, they're isolated and take to the ruins (thankfully) but they
lurk there, looking for people to dine on. Before whatever happened to them happened they were, well,
ordinary people.
Well, maybe not exactly ordinary. The records suggest it's a certain anti-social character type that hears
the call. A sort that's drawn there but is already anti-social, anti-authoritarian, and self destructive. When
you consider the other superstitions, consider this: We don't know the aliens never came. We do know
that more than one family has had a young man leave home, and never come back & only to be an
eternal monster lurking in the ruins. That, at least, is something to be afraid of.
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Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Places and Things in the Middle Ring
When you're out on the road, it looks like an infinity of nothing and if you don't have a map it just might
be. There's not a lot of space in the Middle Ring & compared to the planet, but there's way more than
enough to get lost in and there are bad things out there waiting for people who do. Here are just
some just a few of the things you might see, or some of the places you might go. And remember:
This is in the Ring. Get too far off the trail and you're out of the Ring & and then there's no guide
anywhere that'll help you. Then you've fallen off the edge of the world. And if you thought there were
monsters at home & you ain't seen nothing yet.
Middle Ring > Northward Travel > Lake Powell (The Water Barons)
Middle Ring > North > Lake Powell > The
PRECIS: Above the Inner Wasteland, lies one of the few remaining
Water Barons > The Family Estates
unspoiled sources of clean above-ground water. Lake Powell.
Those big castles you see up in the mountains
Water, in the Middle Ring, is life. It is said that the only commodity
surrounding the lakes are Family Estates. Each
more precious that water in the Middle Ring, is time. You can buy
one houses a Patriarch or Matriarch of one of
water; you can't buy time. The Water Barons might disagree 
the Baron's families. That means a medical
through the sale of water, they have bought themselves time.
facility, a data center, a nuclear power plant and
a backup or two. The Barons, see, are no
If "civilization" exists anywhere outside of The Yard, it might be
longer mobile. They've given up walking around
Lake Powell. The Barons are ancient families run by ancient to become massive, distributed machines.
They've paid all but the last kernel of their
patriarchs. All of them trace their ancestry back to the powerful men
humanity to ensure survival. How much does
and women of the Age of Wonders. Some of them lived through the
that cost? I've heard it's a fortune apiece a
Age of War  the Water Barons are cyborgs. Their incredible wealth
week... but as long as the water flows, it's their
has bought them eternal life, so long as the money flows and the
fortune to burn.
power stays on. For the Barons, their families, the medical and
technical crews which service and maintain them (almost a
priesthood), and for their valued employees, life around Lake
North > Lake Powell > Glen Canyon Dam
Powell is magnificent and rarified. Comfortable. Wealthy. A tiny
The secret to Lake Powell, the Water Barons,
sliver of paradise surrounded by vicious nothingness.
and the whole deal is the Glen Canyon Dam.
Built ages ago, it controls the flow of water,
For you, it's a nice place to visit, but don't let the rustic charm fool
keeps the lake full, and provides the Water
you: the a night in those little inns costs as much as a luxury suite
Barons with their hegemony. The private
in the city. A drink in the clean, inviting tavern costs more than a full security forces you see in the area mean
business. They're there to make sure nothing
tank of premium gasoline. And a cottage in the hills? Don't even
ever happens to that dam, and they're very well
think about it. The prices are set to keep you out. To keep everyone
paid and very well trained.
out. And they're very serious about paying. And they're very serious
about curfew. Unless you fit in to their nice, clean fantasy world, be
You can look at the Dam at a distance. At dusk,
careful. You see, the Barons didn't live to be 300 by being sloppy,
its lights, reflected on the river, surrounded by
trusting, or incautious. They know you're jealous. They know they're
living greenery, are one of the most beautiful
bastards. And they know that the only thing worse than being dead
things imaginable. Look. Sigh. Then move on.
is being poor. So they'll do anything to protect their investment and
that might include making an example now and again.
Middle Ring > North > Lake Powell > The Water Barons > Speed Traps
One of the rights townships have is the right to impose "velocity limits" on their domain. This is ostensibly to have the "right" to fire
on someone blitzing them but it gets a different deal in places that don't like travelers that much. The speed trap consists of a
posted limit in the middle of nowhere (and trust me it looks like one of those ancient signs) and a fast heavily armed "patrol car."
Sometimes it's just a stiff fine. Sometimes it's a night in the stockade and a stiff fine. Keep an eye out around here. Observe
posted limits, even if it feels silly. You're driving on their land and often they don't like it one little bit.
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Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Middle Ring > 10:00 Northwest > Death Alley
PRECIS: You've heard of the Alley Run: a 90 mile race for people who
Middle Ring > 10 O'Clock > Death Alley >
think swallowing a live grenade isn't a flashy enough suicide for them? This
Culture
is where it happens (when it happens it was never an official event of any
About midway down the Alley and outside of
sort it's just something people have done from time to time: stupid
it is a nifty little town called Rhyolite. It's as
people). Death Alley is the lowest stretch of land that isn't off the Pacific
thriving as it gets out there and there's a good
Shelf. It's 120-degrees easy in the summer and you'd need 4 gallons of
deal to see and do. For a few credits, they'll
water a day to hike it. But don t break out the big canteens yet: you'd never
even take you on a tour to the edge of the
survive it on foot. Not a chance.
Alley and you can look down with rented field
glasses and see the Gilas. It's worth it. If
Down in the Alley is another eco-system. The story, and there's enough
while you're there, you run into a group of
history types that say it's true, is that just before the collapse the Haves
women who have long dark hair, big brown
granted the ability to a geno-artist to create an alternate eco-system. He
eyes, and sun-browned skin Keep Your
created two spheres: the New Sun, a big one, and the New Moon, a little
Distance: this is definitely "look, but do not
one. Both were encased in tungsten steel and both contained & well &
touch territory." When they do speak, they're
something. Whatever code it was that made life spring up out of the earth,
hard to understand. That's because they don't
they say. I think it contained tiny machines to build creatures from the
use their voices much. The Alley girls are
ground up. But what do I know? Anyway, he took both down there. He was
telepathic. They're also powerfully
an important guy back then (we don t even remember his name today) and
pyrokenetic which means they can set you
he had clout to do some things, like commission volunteers & well & a
on fire by looking at you. Finally, they're all
volunteer to be the caretaker. It was supposed to be a monument to what
clones. Don't ask me what they have down
could've been. It's not making that statement any more.
there that makes them, but they (she?) are all
descendants of the original caretaker. They
The moon broke open. There's some stuff about an agent of a Warlord with
guard the New Sun where it still lies in its
a voucher for money and power and drugs and anything else you could
temple.
want. There's a story about a little army of powered troopers and them
driving around in the Alley taking shots at things. But it comes down to this:
they went to the Sanctuary (it's still down there) and they broke open the
Middle Ring > 10 O'Clock > Death Alley >
Moon. The story ends with them all dying but who really cares? They
Fauna
were only the first.
So what is down there? What animals did the
New Moon bring upon us? Well, you've heard
Whatever it was, it's stayed confined to the valley and that's a good thing.
of the Gila Monsters, right? Tiger-stripped 90-
Now, when people have zero sense and a lust for death they start at Big
ton lizards the size of a semi-truck? Did you
Pine and barrel down 190 until they hit Mushroom Rock then they take the
know they vomit a super-charged "plasmatic
bad road (West Side) going right and then either merging with 190 and
acid?" Yes? Okay. There are the lizards, and
"chickening out" by heading east to the Death Alley Junction or finishing
they are worth the look (from the tour, up in
the run on the really bad road (Harry Wade) and exiting south. Not too
the mountains) but there are other things too.
many vehicles can do it fast and a whole legion of people who've started
haven't finished. And if you're not nuts, you can take what's left of 95 and
The acid-rattlers are snakelike things that
just go around it.
inject what I'm told is a "super-acid." How
super is it? Well it'll eat through an armored
tire in a matter of seconds. Combine that with
Middle Ring > 10 O'Clock > Death Alley > Badwater
the fact that they litter the road and
Badwater's a lake in the south section of the alley. It ain't much of a lake,
aggressively attack oncoming vehicles and
but next to it is the Temple: the place where the caretakers guard the New
you have more people changing a tire in the
Sun. If you stop in Badwater, make sure you have permission (and if you're
Alley than you'd think. And changing a tire
not sure: you don't) and don't be too curious. After the thing with the New
can be deadly.
Moon, they've upgraded to turreted mini-guns, smart mines, and snipers.
And then there's the whole telepathic thing. They'll probably know if you're
There's also the Shard Birds. They come
coming so don't. Anyway, what's it look like inside? A big tiled plus-sign of
from one-inch to about fifteen feet across and
a floor and in the middle is something that looks like a gazebo a little
look like flying black triangles. As their name
house they used to have out in gardens. Inside that is a 1yard in diameter
implies, they're pretty sharp too. A swarm
metal sphere that floats in air. I'm told it's almost indestructible, unlike the
(they're more like insects than birds, really)
New Moon which was a lot less thick-skinned. Good thing too. I'm told if it
can impale you like a storm of sharp pieces of
did break, the whole world would be taken over by the new eco-system and
glass. There are acidic carpets of moving
we'd be history. Believe it if you want & but please don't go finding out for
lichen that, if you walk on, will suck you down
yourself.
like quicksand.
Yeah, it's a nice place.
9
Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Middle Ring > Northeast > The Valhalla Mines
Middle Ring > Northeast > The Valhalla
PRECIS: When the world ended, that is, when the domes went dark, not
Mines > Topside
everyone rioted. Some started building armies right away. Some tried in
When you get to Springs you can still see some
vain to put society back together. A few tried to do something else they
of the old loops of the rollercoaster things that
tried to escape. Most of these attempts involved either mountain retreats
were in the amusement park. They're a bit
(which were overrun), a whole lot of drugs (which worked & kind of), or
radioactive and mostly buried (more Tech-
virtual-reality tanks. The latter had promise but inevitably failed due to
nukes) but they're pretty to look at: Like the
either lack of power or lack of external defensive systems. That, and the
skeletal spines of mammoth Cyborgs.
fact that VR, while "advanced," was never a really good substitute for real
life (so we are told).
There's also "the Pit." A massive strip mine that
runs pretty much day and night. There are
The histories that remain tell of former paragons of their respective
deeper shafts around probe shafts and
communities being ripped naked out of VR tanks by a warlord's troops who
people have tried all kinds of sonar imagery, but
wanted the gear for other purposes. In short, mainly, it didn't work.
there's so much stuff buried there, and the rock
is so dense, that it's not conclusive. But
But there's always the story of that one that did, right? Well this is it. The
somewhere down there is heaven and the
city known as Colorado Springs had been home, during the Information
Yohan Kelvin Mining Company means to find it.
Age, to a military nerve center called NORAD. As such, it not only boasted
a big granite mountain but substantial corridors and rooms under that
mountain which were meant to survive a nuclear strike.
Middle Ring > Northeast > The Valhalla
In the Age of Wonders, all that had been more or less dismantled. They Mines > The Yohan Kelvin Mining Company
built an amusement park there, gave tours, and laughed at the barbarism The YK Mining company is one of the most well
of their ancestors. Word is that in the early days of the Age of War, one of funded in the world. Don't make the mistake of
the first tac-nuke mortars was fired at Springs just because. Anyway, it got thinking the mining is profitable no Yohan
hit and pretty hard (but not very hard at least not by a nuke). makes his money right here in the BoneYard,
with military contracts. And he does pull a lotta
No. When things went bad, a mover and shaker known as Seymour junk out of the pit, but it's not worth so much
Caligrad had slammed the big metal bulkhead doors on his internal system (mostly radioactive). But if the mining isn't
after admitting his chosen few (who probably came from quite a distance profitable, the mine is: There are people who
away to get in). Those people, it is said, got to see a nuclear powered, self- think he's gonna hit pay dirt and dig down to
sustaining VR-tank with life extension gear to grant them eternal bliss and Vahalla still running, still offering heaven to
all of it protected by five-foot thick armor-steel doors and many megatons those who can get in and hook up. Yohan has a
of solid rock. These privileged people would live in the heavenly virtual list of benefactors and special people, and if
estate for as long as they desired and then re-emerge to take advantage of you're on it, and he digs it up, you get in. People
a world that had put itself back together. They were probably planning on pay to be on that list. They pay a lot.
something like 25 years of downtime. But still, it sounded like a good plan:
The kind of plan that makes people jealous. But normal folk can get on it too, they'll tell you.
You sign up to mine. First you prove you're
They found the door. Well, a warlord known as Virtuvious Ignacious III worthy by handing over everything you came
found it, and he wasn't happy with them. He probably could have broken in with (which isn't much). Then you and your
if he'd had a mining machine, but he didn't. He'd just defeated the force family (even the little ones can find something
that was holding the old NORAD complex and he was looking to leave it to do) work day and night. You dig hard, take no
cleaned out, hopefully for good, and having a bunch of formerly important pay (the company will keep you alive) and live
guys inside a metal drum dreaming happy dreams just plain rubbed him right. And if you do, one of the secret over-
the wrong way. But, as I said, he didn't have mining machine he'd need to watchers with the authority might take a shine
get them out. to you, and you're on the list. They're gonna find
it any day now. Just listen to them.
He did have a Tectonic Warhead, however, and he set it off inside what
remained of the NORAD command complex. The part he could reach.
Tectonic warheads turn the ground to soup for several hundred meters
based on power. This was a big one. The mountain today looks melted and
the VR-tank is, in theory, still in operation some 4000 yards down & or
further. It's said he attached a couple to it, all timed. No one knows how
many.
10
Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Middle Ring > 3:15 Far East > The Chade Rim
PRECIS: Heading east into the Red Desert gets ugly fast, but until Middle Ring > 3:15 and OUT > The Chade Rim
you hit Chade, you're still in the part of the Ring where people can > Fauna
and commonly do travel. By the time you've hit Chade though, The tribes hunt the Chade Shark. You've heard of
you're in the dunes. There are a few scattered outposts here, the Sand Dragons that burrow under the dunes. The
outer edge of western civilization before you hit the Onion Empires Shark does that too, but it's different. There are
and then further east to the near mythical Kingdom of IZ. But Chade natural Cyborgs like the C-Rex, Cycletaurs, and
is far enough east and plenty desolate for most people. War Dogs. The sharks take that a bit further. Cut
one open? It's got a valve in its lungs that's a
perfect fit for an engine fuel injection system
Middle Ring > 3:15 and OUT > The Chade Rim > Corosong
control system. Muscle? You don't even have to
Outpost
cure it it comes out smooth and shiny like
The Outpost looks like a collection of mudbrick houses amidst the
leather. Veins? Surgical tubing it's not plastic &
red dunes. The road there is covered some times of the year and
but it doesn't rot. They have bones with regular
there is a water well down there, but expect to bring your own. They
holes that make a full set of socket wrenches.
don't share, they sell. Go most times of the year and you'll see
Trust me, these things are vicious and deadly but
people with shawls and hoods and desert robes walking around. But
they did not happen by accident.
go when a trade crew from the Onion Empires or IZ comes through
and it's a whole other story.
Middle Ring > 3:15 and OUT > The Chade Rim
When the caravan is in town there's music, there's trade, there's
> Getting Around
alcohol (who knows where they keep it the rest of the time). There's
Roads are unreliable out there: The dunes shift.
dancing and psychoactive onions and all kinds of things. Trade
But you can usually off-road it pretty well. If you're
happens here first. A lot of small weird things that never make it to
adventurous, you can try a Sand Board. The
the  Yard get sold here. If you're obviously a gawky tourist you'll just
natives build them and you may see a sail or two
get drunk and robbed (hopefully in that order), but if you can blend
in the distance. Take a board of polished, waxed
there are always interesting deals to do and people to talk to. Sure,
wood that looks like it belongs in the water and
most of the soldiers are strung out on Dead Line, but their
put a sail on top (brightly colored translucent
commanders aren't, and they aren t as cautiously cool as they are
plastic), a small jet engine on the back, and a
by the time they make the 'Yard.
light-hover pod to make it almost weightless and
you have a Sand Board. It takes skill to ride and it
won't work well on earth harder than the dunes,
Middle Ring > 3:15 and OUT > The Chade Rim > Markarak's
but if you're good you can do 35 miles an hour or
Spur
better all day long or as long as your fuel holds
The Spur is an ancient installation. It rises out of the desert, 8
out.
stories of gray steel with massive industrial vents, fans, and twisting
pipes showing. It belonged to a warlord named Markarik (its origin is
a mystery) and was taken by the 'Yard in the far distant past. If you
can reach it, you will find what is probably the furthest reach of the
'Yard's civilization. The spur is some sort of huge machine. In the
multilevel basement are huge generators and ancient fuel cells.
Even more strangely, the writing on the controls is of a language
unknown to historians. It is not the Standard Alphabet that was
spoken world wide in the Age of Wonder. A research team, an
observation team, and a guard team labor there (and have for
decades) trying to plumb its depths and discover its mysteries. If you
can reach it, you may get a warm reception if you power down your
vehicles and peace bond your weapons. With so little contact, the
crews are less hostile than they might be if you can show 'Yard ID.
Who knows? Maybe you'll even discover something.
11
Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Middle Ring > East > 1:15 and Middle > Four Corners Area
PRECIS: When the end of the Age of War came, most of the major players had Middle Ring > 1:15 and Middle
> Four Corners Area > Events
already been hit with a nuke. The final battles were tiny compared to the first few, and
more often than not, ended in compromise of some sort. The Four Corners Area was > Samhain
controlled by a warlord whose defeat was one of the final chapters in the rise of the In the middle of Yuly is the
Hierarchy. But it's one that's not quite done yet. Horatio Umberto the Fifth was taken event known in the Corners as
without a fight, but his spirit lives on in the "Corners." It isn't a wholly nice spirit, but it's Samhain. It's a musical event
one you might not want to miss. and a chance to drop some
really strong drugs and a
Umberto was one of the great winners of the history lottery. The records that remain chance to engage in wanton
show him as an amiable hedonist who wound up in control of his family's army just in revelry as few people ever
time to win a few wars and then fold like a house of cards before the might of engage in wanton revelry. It's
Hierarchy, saving his life and leaving his citadel as a monument rather than a crater. the night all the shapechangers
are out in force and putting on
Today the "Corners" look like a slightly sprawling collection of little mud-brick villas and their freakshows. The real
radicals come up from The
slightly larger estates. If you drive through it, you'll see all the normal town-life stuff but
there's something a little different in the atmosphere: there's music. There's a little Canyon to hang out and listen
to the live musicians play. And if
celebration every night when the sun goes down (see the Dance Floor) and in the
distance is the ruin of Umberto's castle. Oh and something else? When people go to you've got two arms and two
the Corners they pay careful attention to who they make deals with or who they sleep legs and, y'know, could pass for
with: they say everyone in the town is a shape shifter. normal in a trench coat, wear a
mask. It doesn't fool anyone, it
shows respect.
Middle Ring > 1:15 and Middle > Four Corners Area > Sight Seeing > The Dance
Floor
Sometime in the past, four great states met to decide on & something. I can't tell you
Middle Ring > 1:15 and Middle
what, nobody remembers. For all I know it may just have been that they were "four
> Four Corners Area >
great states and hey, here's where we all meet." It doesn't matter they put up a flat
Metamoprhs
expanse of concrete with steps cut into four equal square sections (Get it? "Four
There's something in the gene
Corners?" See why I might think they had little poetry in their soul?) Anyway: Umberto
pool in Four Corners. Umberto
turned it into a monument of his own called The Dance Floor, and there's always live
was a shape shifter and so was
music during the dusk hours. Nice lightshow too.
his family the word is that he
slept around a lot (easy to
believe from the records: he was
Middle Ring > 1:15 and Middle > Four Corners Area > Attractions > White Pit
more party animal than warlord
Saloon
even in his heyday). As a result
An odd little place: The food is cooked by a salvaged "automated kitchen" hauled out
the sleepy little town is host to
of one of the ruins. It has a "distinctly Mexican Flavor," whatever that is. You can see
shape shifters, mimics, and
the inner workings through the windows. Want the real scoop? The machine's a fake;
meta-morphs. That lovely
all the food is made by hand.
Senorita who s giving you the
eye might turn out to be a bald,
muscular leather clad male biker
Middle Ring > 1:15 and Middle > Four Corners Area > Attractions > Snake
type the other 364 days of the
Dancers
year and yes, it seems that
One of the more interesting sights that s common in the Corners are the Snake
stunt never does get old. Watch
Dancers. They re (mostly) lean, hairless guys covered with tattoos and  wearing
yourself.
snakes. Not snake-skin. Snakes. Brightly colored ones. Both parties are intelligent
and they re symbiotic. No one knows how it got started, but they have a reputation for
being mystics, con-men, artists, and shamans. Be careful: the snakes (which are
highly venomous) are basically married to their host and if you insult one of the
 dancers by telling him his  pet can t ride with you but he s welcome, you re asking
for trouble later.
12
Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Middle Ring > East > 2:30 and Through > The Freq Corridor
PRECIS: The Freq's (pronounced Freaks) are a mystery. A nasty brutish mystery that Middle Ring > 2:30 and
probably wouldn't be all that fun to crack, but a mystery nonetheless and a big hazard. Through > The Freq Corridor
I've seen a Freq attack and if you can imagine a squad of armed dune buggies with > Strange Desert
grappling hooks and machine guns and stuffed with idiot, leering, bald-headed guys There s a place in the corridor
roaring out of the desert towards you, you're dead on the money. Imagine them with about the middle called the
unhealthy looking yellowish skin and blocky radio gear slammed into their skulls and Moon Walk Café. It s a diner,
you have a complete picture. out in the middle of the desert
and I ve been there: it s like no
And they keep coming. They come en mass. They come with guns and ammo. And place else you ll ever go. It s all
they come to kill. Maybe there's still a warlord somewhere up there, breeding Freqs chrome and Formica and vinyl.
and sending them down in wave after wave. Maybe it's some kind of sick cosmic joke. They have this great big lit-up
Certainly someone knows or knew something we don't. But whatever the case, a music machine called a Juke
stretch of land about 75 miles wide is called the Freq Corridor and it's where they're Box and they serve hamburger
most active, all the way down to the Inner Wasteland in some cases. It makes and great big mikshakes and
traveling through this area dangerous. Living there is almost insane, but traversing the more or less act like the world
corridor is better than going through the Inner Wasteland (there you know you'll see never ended. It s got a dream-
something horrid and in the Corridor you don't have to drive 125mph just to live), so like quality even in the middle of
it's a fact of life for too many people. the day. It s strange.
Places in the Corridor run jamming fields, broadcast signals that hold the Freqs at bay. There are stone pyramids. Not
This sounds simple, but it takes a loud frequency, a stronger signal than even most so big but well crafted and
convoys can manufacture. So getting enough power out there is always a problem. obviously not an accident. No
one knows who built them, or
why. Or when. They re strange.
Middle Ring > 2:30 and Through > The Freq Corridor > Places To Go > The
There s an outpost called
Library
Texaco with a giant glowing red
There's something about the Congregation that makes you think they're never telling
star that you can see for miles.
what they really think. That everything they say or do is meant for the audience and
They battle with the Freq s
that they're keeping all the good stuff for themselves. If that's true, if they are, then
almost constantly they live
that good stuff is probably hinted at in The Library. You can see the building, a bunker
and die by the power to their
with steeples, gun towers, and all that. It's open for services, of course, but you have
Jammers. What are they
to go through two security arches and there's acolytes watching your every move. And
guarding? Nothing. Sure, they
they have submachine guns under those robes, buddy.
save travelers who get in over
their heads often, but the Yard
If you want to see the stacks you need permission, and you gotta have more pull than
doesn t station them out there,
I do. But I've talked to people who've been in there (down there, through there) and
and it s hard bad land. They
this is what they tell me: The Stacks hundreds of miles long of shelves with thousands
could just move. But they don t.
and thousands of magnetic-tape cartridges. The readers are special machines: ugly,
They re fiercely proud of the
black metal. Heavy. You sit and press your face against the view port and forward
little clump of rocks they ve got.
wind and rewind to find the records you need.
It s strange.
So what's in those tapes? Where did they come from? Some people I've spoken with
Whatever you choose to
said that these stacks contain the records of the Aquarian Heresy the telepathic
believe, people in the corridor
movement of the Age of Wonders that so offended the Haves that it was banned.
vanish and it isn t all due to
Others say that they're Have diaries, that they're personal records left before the
Freqs or monsters or bandits
domes went dark. There's other theories as well: That they're records psychic insights.
at least not statistically. So if
That they're a riddle left by the Haves to explain why they left. That they're messages
you re crossing it, stay in radio
from the aliens. The really cool thing is that no one can agree on what they say. Two
contact (they say it helps). And
people view (read?) the same tape and come away with completely different
don t take anything anything in
understandings. Sources familiar with the translation effort (now in its 108th year) say
the corridor for granted.
that the true hazard of the job is the overwhelming frustration of the work. No wonder
those acolytes at the gate are always in a bad, hair-trigger mood.
Watch yourself.
13
Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Middle Ring > 7:00 Southwest > Sonora Desert
PRECIS: South of the Inner Wasteland is the vast, empty Sonora Desert. If you go The Middle Ring > South >
deep enough into it, you'll find the jungle again and the Pharms. But those things The Konkaak
are so far away, they might as well be myths. Before you get there, you'll find Ask any Sonoran, and they'll tell
yourself in Sonora. For the most part it's typical Middle Ring with a little less water you the Konkaak don't exist any
and a little more industry. Small towns, strung out along the fading highways. In the more. They're clear about that.
heat of the day, it's siesta. The streets are empty. Even the larger towns look like Back in the Age of Wonders
they've gone ghost. But then, as the sun shifts, shadows start to move and people they were already a legend:
emerge. By the time the sun goes down the hanging candles have been lit, and the People who lived in the worst of
music starts up. Before dawn, and after dark, Sonora comes alive. the badlands. People lived in
the sand and the ruins back
Like most places in the Ring, strangers who spend their money and keep to when they weren't sand and
themselves are appreciated. Strangers who ask questions or cause trouble are not. ruins. The Konkaak. A people
Even visitors from other parts of the Middle Ring find the Sonorans a little strange who were mythical, even in a
though, but usually in ways outsiders might not even notice. They say they're mythical time.
dreamers and that they keep secrets. Maybe they have secrets to keep. That makes
me think of the Konkaak.
The Middle Ring > South > The Konkaak > The
The Middle Ring > South > The Vale of Cortez > Spawning
Dreaming Turtles
Grounds
Out there on those weird, endless plains you
The middle of the Vale of Cortez is a low place on the earth.
might (if you're very lucky) come across a fat,
Sheltered on all sides by high rock walls (the cliffs) it is one of the
dome-shaped rock covered with bright colors;
most inhospitable landscapes ever imagined. Few people have
psychedelic blues and yellows and oranges, so
seen it. Travel there is problematic; there are no roads. There are
bright it's hard to look at. If you do look, though,
soft sands that confound even the most hearty machinery. The
long enough, you'll see the rock move. These are
heat is brutal, the wind furious. Even on an apparently calm day,
the Dreaming Turtles -- la tortuga que sueńa.
the sands never stop shifting. Lay down for an hour to rest and
They're all different sizes, but the average is about
you might find yourself being slowly buried.
a yard across and almost that high.
Those who have pressed in and returned say that there is a thin
According to reports, the dreaming turtles emit a
strip of damp, dark earth that runs the length of the middle of the
variety of radio signals. They're not powerful, but
Vale of Cortez, and it is the Spawning Ground. Here, black worm-
with the right equipment, you can pick'em up miles
like things as long as a man's arm breed, grow, consume each
away. Most folks say it's nothing but gibberish. But
other, and die in the sun. It is said that on hatching day, the earth
it's interesting gibberish. It's words and phrases in
erupts in an orgy of mating, howling, and cannibalistic violence.
a human voice. Sometimes it the voices talk over
The dark eel things are murderously intense, their frenzy is part of
each other. There's a name for it; word salad. I
a strange, pathological lifecycle that returns their bodies to the
don't know what that means, but it sounds about
earth, fertilizing the ground with their blood for the next iteration of
right. According to the legends, the Konkaak could
life in this forsaken place.
understand the turtles and knew their radio
broadcasts were transmissions from the turtle's
The worm things are nameless, except that they are called eels
dreams. So far, so good, but they also said the
by the humans who live in the vale, and they are harvested by
wise, ancient turtles dreamed about the future. I
those who know the secret ways of the vale (how to get in, how to
guess that's a good thing. A good sign. Means we
get out, how not to get lost or buried in a sandstorm, and how to
still have a future. Keeps the hope alive, you
collect the eels without being consumed in their tight, vicious
know...
circle of life). It is said that the meat of the eels makes one strong,
hard, and brave.
The Middle Ring > South > The Vale of Cortez > Upstairs, Downstairs
Up on the cliffs there are magnificent private mansions where the Jefe's live. Down, on the plain, there is baking death and
stultifying poverty. Money  what little of it trickles in  comes from shell hunting (the collection and sale of the baked
exoskeletons of long-extinct sea life), salt mining (the ground is permeated with salt; it is the engine that keeps the Jefe's
far above living in the style to which they are accustom), and the sale of unique salted meats from the spawning grounds
deep within the Vale.
Travel up and down the cliffs is done on narrow stone stairs carved ages ago. The lowest of the cliffs are eighty meters
high and in many places, they're over two hundred. Travel from the top to the bottom is exhausting and even dangerous; a
misstep or slip on the vertical cliff face can mean a quick death on the jagged rocks far below.
14
Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
The Inner Wasteland
The Inner Wasteland is not a fun place.
It's not just a waste of land because the
ground's poisonous, the rain's toxic,
and the radiation count out there is
higher than you'll find in some freaking
nuclear craters. No, it's wasteland
because the things that do live out
there are bad.
Most of the time, you'll want to get
through the Inner Wasteland part of
your trip as quickly as possible. Once
you're out of the Yard Oversight Zone,
your driver should keep the peddle
down and your gunner should keep an
eye on everything. Fast, furious, and
don't hesitate to worry about conserving
ammo if you didn't bring enough,
you're not going to make it anyway.
So that's the end of the good advice for
traveling in the Inner Wasteland. But
someone always wants more. "The
things that live in the desert are bad,"
they repeat incredulously (you know
who you are). "We're bad," they say
(yeah you), "Bring it on!"
So I'm gonna climb up on my soapbox
for a second and tell you something:
the Inner Wasteland is dangerous. It's
not sexy. It's exciting the way a pack of
rabid wolves trying to kill you is
A convoy travels through Falstaff. Keep your weapons trained and
exciting. It's not fun. People will tell you
your eyes open. And beware of believing anything you hear on the
there's fortunes to be had not a two
radio.
hours drive from here. Well, I've been
there (that's why they pay me to write
this) and I've seen damn few people come back with a fortune. I've seen damn few people come back
at all.
So take my advice: You wanna see the Middle Ring? Fine, you can survive the Inner Wasteland the
way I told you a couple of paragraphs up: Drive fast, fight hard, and don't relax for a second until you're
through. And that goes for the first time and every time. I did the Run six times before I had any trouble,
and when it came, I was glad I had a round in the chamber. Death's that fast out there. But they (the
editors) want what comes next. They think it'll sell books.
So against my better judgment, here's the rest of it. The things you might catch a glimpse of as you go
by at ninety miles an hour, squinting through your gun sight. Here's the things to see and do in the Inner
Wasteland.
15
Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel
North's not a bad direction to go. At least there's water in that direction (if you don't mind boiling it), and
once you get where you're going, things are pretty cool up there. If you're going to be spending time in
the north Middle Ring, don t forget to visit Lake Powell or Zion. But for heaven's sake, stop there.
Unless you're a lunatic, you don't want to keep going and head for some nightmare Outer Wasteland
horror show like Salt Lake or (don't even think about it) Denver or Detroit.
But before you can check the Middle Ring, you've got to survive the Inner Wastes, and there's a few
things we should talk about.
Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel > Falstaff
PRECIS: Not one of the grand ruins, but for a wreck close to home, Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel > Falstaff >
When To Go
it's pretty intense. Falstaff saw a lot of violence during the last age
and there're a lot of things around there, asleep, laying in wait. Do Never. Ever. Don't get off the main road in Falstaff.
not be the phucker who wakes them up. See, it's not just your ass. It looks calm. Peaceful. Dead. Empty. It looks like
It's yours and the next couple of guys who take seventeen straight, the kind of place that might have something that
trying to save time on the bypass. Once the things in Falstaff get would make you a rich man lying under a thin coat
excited, it takes a few weeks for them to totally settle down. of dust in some office somewhere, just for the
picking up. It's really full of deadly things sleeping in
What's in there? Some folks say it's a machine hive. There's a the shadows under the off ramp, listening with one
standing bounty for anyone who can prove this by taking it out. cybernetic ear for a fool like yourself. Do not get off.
Other folks say it's just a lot of old weapons systems too stubborn
and stupid to admit they're obsolete. But if it were just the robots, it'd
be bad enough. It's not just the robots...
Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel > Falstaff >
Environment
Very deadly. Ruins in the Middle Ring are bad
Inner Wasteland > Inner Wasteland >
enough. Ruins in the Wasteland are impregnated
Northward Travel > Falstaff Northward Travel > Falstaff
with microbes and alpha particles and heavy metals,
> Roadside Temples > Don't Do It > Voice
and all kinds of wonderful fun-to-eat things. Inhaling
See, I think they leave those Channels
the air there is bad. If you, for some reason, eat
skulls out there so people like Don't trust them. Whatever
anything there, you might get lucky and get sick
you will say, "Hey, where do you do, man, don't trust them.
immediately. Otherwise, say hello to a bouncing,
all those skulls come from? On the radio, anyone with a
baby tumor or three.
You know, maybe if I were to voice synthesizer and a dirty
just get off the highway and mind can be a dream
poke around I might find out! princess just waiting for
Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel > Falstaff >
What a brilliant little idea I just someone like you to come
The pipes under Falstaff
had!" I think the moment you along and rescue her. Like
Falstaff has a curious underground pipe network
get there you notice that your just about everything else
which violet reek flow through. The reek is, in
compass is going all screwy coming out Falstaff, it's a trap
essence, living toxic sludge. It is mindless, liquid
and you notice that each of and a pretty obvious one. So
aggression. Reek attacks in colonies that come as
the little skulls has all these sure, have CB-sex with the
small as your fist and as large as a swimming pool,
spindly hermitcrab-little legs voices if you feel like it, but
but on average, they're about the size of a small car.
coming out of it and then it's don't take her up on the "let's
too damn late and the next meet in person" part unless
According to BoneYard records, the Biomass
time someone comes along you never want to be heard
Recycling and Processing Center lies somewhere
there's another little skull... from again...
under the Municipal Offices. In theory, a brave and
capable team could fight their way through the
Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel > Falstaff > Events > undercity and manually close the valves that spill
Spring geysers violet reek throughout the city. In theory. In practice,
They melt your flesh, but if you can stay away from them, they're I wouldn't go in there unless you're looking for a
pretty cool. I'm not saying you should go, but... really painful way to commit suicide.
16
Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel > The Canyon
PRECIS: You've heard about the Canyon and you want to see it. Sigh. I
Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel > The
don't blame you. I've seen it; it's worth it (and you'll only hear me say that a
Canyon > Culture
couple of times about stuff in the Wasteland). So here's how you don't go
Unlike a lot of the Inner Wasteland, the
through the wasteland. You don't get off the main highways. You go up
Canyon has an indigenous population. The
all the way up to the Ring, and then you come down from the top. Got it?
mutant tribes, as they call themselves, are at
Good. Now I can tell you about The Canyon.
once too warped to live in "normal" society
and hearty enough to make a life in the
The first guy who ever saw it (and every guy after that) knew he was on to
inhospitable mess called the Inner
something special. It's ancient. So ancient it makes the ruins look young.
Wasteland. Even when you're a radiation
And it's magical in a way no one's ever been able to really capture. What
emitting, rock-eating mutant, life in the
can you do at the Canyon? You look at it. You marvel at it. You go out
Wasteland is hard. These guys are brutal by
there and stare and go Damn, something beautiful survived after all. And
necessity. But they're primal by choice. Don't
you think to yourself that when the ruins are finally gone, the Canyon's still
forget that. They might dress like primitives.
gonna be there.
They might not have had formal schooling in
a few generations. They might not really
Wow.
speak your language, and they might cover
their bodies in ritual scars and tattoos. But
For a place in the Inner Waste, the Canyon's got a pretty thriving
they're not stupid.
population. It's close enough to the Middle Ring to make it a handy place to
hide out for raiders and bandits. It's also a maze of cliffs and caves  plenty
The Mutants out here generally reject (and
of places to hide, all kinds of good places to defend from. The water in the
have been rejected by) normal civilization
river is poison sludge, but there's plenty of animals (lethal ones) that don't
(and relatively human looking people) except
mind drinking poison sludge, and with the right equipment and a little
when it suits their purpose (trade, military
patience (and iodine pills) you can make it into a frosty beverage that
arrangements, etc.) These guys have been
agrees with you.
excluded from a society that thinks two heads
is better than one, and a weird red eye is
I suggest sightseeing with a heavily armed party in the middle of the day,
pretty cool, so, yeah, you might want to visit
and I suggest a guide from one of the mutant tribes that lives in the shadow
for the freak show aspect... but don't get
of the Canyon. You can pick them up in town and for a nice fee they'll take
caught staring.
you there and back. You can find ones that'll work for free, but they'll
probably roll you once you're out there, and they might eat you. Some
mutant tribes do that.
Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel > The
Canyon > Activities
Some folks go to The Canyon looking for stories. Over the years a lot of
Staring at the landscape's the big one.
things have happened out there. Little wars. Big ones. Fortunes were made
Prospecting, treasure hunting, and various
and the people carrying them lost out there. There's a forgotten history up
kinds of non-intrusive profiteering are not
and down the Colorado River, and if you're into history (you know what I
unpopular either. There used to be some kind
mean, Prospector), the Canyon's not a bad place to go looking. Me? I just
of "black water rafting" club, but I heard they
recommend looking  a good, long look to remind yourself that there's
all got eaten by carnivorous catfish. Oh yeah,
something beautiful they couldn't wreck. And then get the hell out of there
and bounty hunting. Most patrols from the
before nightfall.
Ring won't go in, so raiders brave enough to
make their home here, do. If you're brave
Because remember all that history I was talking about? Round sundown, it
enough to go after them, there's a living to be
comes looking for you.
made. Most of the really successful guys I've
known who hunt the Canyon do it with a lot of
help from the Mutants. Mostly, the Mutants
Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel > The Canyon > Environment
ignore raiders who are dangerous enough to
Being at the edge, the Canyon's not as bad as the heartland. But
fend them off and keep to themselves, but
remember, the river that runs down the middle has been through some
they do keep track of where they are, when
rough territory. Don't drink the water.
they're moving, how many and so on. And for
the right price, they're almost always willing to
sell out a neighbor.
17
Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel > The Hanging Valley
PRECIS: I mentioned there were a couple of things worth seeing in the Middle Inner Wasteland > Northward
Ring? One's the Canyon. T his is the other one. They call it the Hanging Valley, also Travel > The Hanging Valley >
the Floating Mountain. I guess those are OK names (I can't think of a better one), Environment
but... damn. This is a weird place, and floating
rocks are just the beginning of it.
Like the Canyon, the Valley's right at the edge of the Wasteland, just about as far I've heard folks who spend a lot of
north as you can go and still be in the soup. Which is a good thing, because it time there say that it's folded,
means you can take 17 all the way up and cut over through the Ring. whatever that means, in most
places and downright twisted in
If the Canyon's a natural wonder of the world that survived the Fall of Mankind, the some. People turn strange out
Valley's a natural wonder that was enhanced by it. Some folks say a UFO crashed there. They have visions, or
here. Other say a Have took a natural work of art and in an incomprehensible act of maybe they just meet some really
arrogance, signed it as his own. And many who have looked at it say it was touched strange things in the Hanging
by the hand of God. Valley. I guess what I'm trying to
say is that it doesn't just look
I don t know the truth, but I can tell you what I see: a landscape so bleak and dreamlike, it is dreamlike. And not
beautiful, no painter's imagination could possibly evoke it. And out of these amber always in a good way.
plains come weird rock towers  spires, loops, great boulders leaning against each
other. And unlike the Canyon, there is no water there to coyly hint at what might They talk about the haze. About
have carved the pressed rock. three days is safe (don't spend the
night if you're psychic). After that,
But then I look up, and I see the rocks hanging, unsupported in the air. Great rocks. you start to perceive time passing
Some small mountains, others boulders, or even stepping stones, hovering silently differently. People talk about
above the ground. And if some rocks float, some are simply light, so that they stack, forgetting things or remembering
like unbalanced, irregular toys, in great towers that go up, and up, and impossibly things that never happened.
up. The whole scene looks like something from a dream or a hallucination, but it's People talk about seeing time
real. You can walk on it. You can climb up, into the heavens, on stones that float. slow down or speed up. And
people who spend even more time
There is some kind of explanation for this  science types talk about "quintessence" there talk about the valley getting
and "a-polarity" but I won't even try. It's enough to say it's real, it's there, and it's long. That is bigger. Wider. They'll
awesome. Don't miss the Valley. tell you about places you can only
get to and things you can only
meet when "the Valley's long for
you." I'd call it delusions (and hell,
Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel > The Hanging Valley > Activities
maybe it is), but there's freaking
There are folks who never go into the valley and folks who go there often. The
floating rocks out there.
Congregation, for what it's worth, hates the place. Scared of it, it sounds like to me.
They probably know something I don't, but if it was just a matter of "it's dangerous,"
Trust me, look at the Valley. And
well, there's all kinds of dangerous places out there that don't offend them. If you're
then get the hell home.
trying to be good friends with The Congregation, just don't bring it up and stay away.
I'm serious. If they find out you've even visited there's some of them that won't trust
you...
Inner Wasteland > Northward
As for the rest of us, the folks who live within a day's travel or so from the Valley
Travel > The Hanging Valley >
(that's Middle Ring folks; if you go in from the Valley, you'll find toxic swamp and
History
some very nasty, disease-ridden turbo-rodents) have made a living out of exploiting
I've heard that the Hanging Valley
it. You can visit the little temples and listen to speeches about alien space ships or
became the Hanging Valley
Have magic, or whatever for days if you're inclined. Some of it's entertaining. Just
sometime during the Age of War.
make sure you don't end up paying for any of that. And if you feel like buying a seat
This makes me think there's more
in a "seminar" that "explains" the science there, make sure the money comes from
likelihood to the story that its
your entertainment budget.
peculiar properties are the result
of something crashing there rather
In the Ring, you'll find all kinds of guides willing to walk you in under the pretext of a
than something the Haves did. It's
bewildering array of ancient customs. Some that even predate the floating rocks.
been blowing people's minds ever
The Valley was a pretty weird place even way back. Most of these adventures
since.
involve going out at night and watching the stars. If that turns you on, go for it. Go
with a well organized, respectable, well-armed group. Don't go on a "Totem Quest"
with some guy you met in a Middle Ring bar who offers to show you the Valley.
Those stories all end with someone being left in a dry riverbed with nothing but their
underwear and a flare gun.
18
Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel > The Hanging Valley > The Crater
You can also go visit "The Crater," or, as some folks put it, "The Crash Site." The crater's big and looks (to me) like a 25 kt nuke. It's
also hot, very hot, like it was a dirty bomb. There are these stones around it that were put there a long time ago, and the whole thing
is creepy and mysterious. There's also a legend that the "early responders," the guys who went out to see the site, were executed
by their commander (presumably they saw too much!) and are buried somewhere in the area. Now, this sounds like prospector bait,
but it seems there's just enough evidence that there were responders, that there was something worth investigating in the crater,
and so on that I'm gonna say, "If you're interested, look into it." Just remember to bring a serious rad-suit.
Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel > The Hanging Valley > Pinnacle
Oh, and if you're into climbing, you can get what I guarantee is the most surreal climbing experience this side of virtual reality. There
are "stepping stone" rocks that an agile and risk-inclined person can use to get up on top of those rocks. There are three "peaks"
and the highest one is called Pinnacle. I didn't go up there, but I'm told that there's a stone circle up there that's just like the one
around The Crater!
Make of that what you will. My take? The same guys who put up the first one did it again...
Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel > The Hanging Valley > Activities > Vortex Tours
The Valley has about eleven "mapped" (that is, people know where they are) active vortices. Most of them are "owned" by folks who
live nearby and do a reasonably good job of camping them (Water Barons, Rock Mountain merchant princes, and the like). You can
take a tour. These are above-ground, open-air doorways, so there's scattered, rusted junk spread around them in all directions. A
sort of cosmic, surprisingly artistic-looking junkyard. Go with a tour, and you won t be accused of trying to loot them; go by yourself
and you might get lucky.
Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel > The Hanging Valley > Culture
There are no organized, indigenous cultures that live in the Valley. There are all kinds of cults and drug cultures, and false prophets
and real prophets living ringside around it. There are also several powerful interests in the area who are concerned with owning the
Valley, controlling or at least monitoring who goes in and comes out.
There's also a lot of scientific speculation about what happened (and is clearly still going on) there. Some people think that The
Valley holds the keys to the secrets to our world. It's certainly spectacular enough.
All this concern and interest leads to a good deal of activity (and sometimes violence) in the region surrounding the Valley, but the
valley itself is preternaturally tranquil and serene.
19
Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel > Vegas, Baby
PRECIS: You could write a whole guide to Vegas. I could write a whole
The Vegas Ghosts
guide to Vegas. But they offered the gig to someone else, so I'll just tell you
The Vegas Ghosts are a mystery. People have
that after hundreds of years of war and collapse, Vegas still hasn't lost its
reported signs of "life" in the empty, radioactive
charm. You've heard it's not a ruin. You're right.
Vegas-strip zone: Cards on a blackjack table. A
cup of coffee on a counter in a diner. Stuff like
Technically, they say that Vegas was hit with neutron weapons, high
that. Then, if you stay a little longer, you start
radiation bursts that killed everyone and left the buildings standing, and left
seeing people: A guy checking in at a hotel. A
the whole place glowing in the dark. But then, Vegas has always glowed in
figure down the street. These images dissolve if
the dark.
you get too close, but if you're seeing them, it's
time to leave: People who see them vanish. Some
What that means is that as you approach, you can see the spires and glass
people say they try to separate groups. Others,
towers, and signs and images and the iconic Welcome to Las Vegas sign,
who've stuck together report a psionic assault as
rising out of the desert like some impossible Camelot dream. What that
though by a Level 3 Telepath of some power.
means is that if you're willing to take the risks (and radiation is the least of
Whatever the case, if you're seeing the ghosts
it), you can visit a city frozen in time. Empty and quiet (except for other
and you lose consciousness alone & you don't
people like you and a vanishingly few weirdoes who live there), it's been hit
come back.
by the only preservational act of the Age of War.
And about the ghosts, there are ghosts. They might not be spirits of dead
people. I don't know what they are, but there are, definitely ghosts. I've
seen them. And yeah, you've heard right, they do want you to join them in
their creepy, lounge-lizard eternity. I recommend not.
Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel > Vegas, Baby > Events Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel > Vegas,
Anytime's a good time to go to Vegas if you're well armed and up, up, up Baby > Events > Nomdex
on your meds. I don't even really count it as Inner Wasteland (if not for the The other time to go would be Yarnary. That's
ultra-rad there, it'd be a Middle Ring phenom). But there are a couple of when the Strip Plaza opens its doors and the
events that are especially worth your while if you're in the area. lights come on in the Temple Anu for the Ritual of
the Naming (also known as Nomdex). A lot of
people think Nomdex is a Congregation ritual, but
Inner Wasteland > Northward Travel > Vegas, Baby > Events > The it's not  it started way before the Congregation
Mint 4K
existed  they were doing Nomdex, even before
The  Yard sponsors the Mint 4K every third Corvember a three hundred the Fall.
mile roadrally right through the Inner Wasteland, up to Vegas, and back. If
you've ever seen it on TV, you know it's exciting (the shooting starts as The Naming was an appeal to the Haves by the
soon as the racers are out of the control zone and doesn't stop until most wretched and oppressed of the people of the
everyone's bleeding or someone's won). Real aficionados watch from the Age of Wonders, namely sex workers and
Sands. You can't get rooms there unless you know someone (and, buddy, engineers. They would gather together (the
I'm guessing you don't know anyone that well), but you can hang out in the legends say Nomdex was the only time engineers
Keno lounge and watch the racers roll into town, party together during had anything to do with sex. Ha. Ha.) and appeal
"Amnesty Night at Midway," and then resume the carnage on the way to the Haves to provide the kind of future they
home. knew they deserved.
The Mint Committee opens the hotel for that one night only, with a full staff They would Name their future, describing it in
and kitchen (in the high-radiation atmosphere, they say the chicken-rama colorful booths and with seminars and shows, and
actually cooks itself) and a wetbar to die for. It's a good place to watch Celebrate it with wild parties that went beyond
some really over-the-top action (the cars are sponsored by the big banks, orgies into cybernetic revelries and perversions
and are always way over-loaded with eye-catching firepower), get drunk, that have no name. We don't have the capability
and meet some real movers and shakers. to party like they used to (and maybe it's a good
thing), and these days the ratio of sex workers to
I recommend staying away from the journalists, however. They're just there engineers is a lot higher than it used to be (which
to have fun and if you're not careful, you might end up in one of their is probably also a good thing), but Nomdex is still
stories. a sight to behold and experience to... experience.
Just remember the visitor's mantra: rad
medication, antibiotics ... rad medication,
antibiotics ...
20
Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Inner Wasteland > Southward Travel
If you take 10 south, you're going to the Dreaming Planes. Without the Colorado River in the north, the
land here is parched and dry. Desiccated. It's a lot flatter, also. Cracked mud-plains stretch on for miles.
Mutant cacti rise to mountain-like heights. The air shimmers with heat coming off of it (even in the early
evening), giving everything a harsh, liquid quality.
Inner Wasteland > Southward Travel > Tybalt
PRECIS: Once you've hit Tybalt, you're halfway through. Don't
Inner Wasteland > Southward Travel >
stop to celebrate. While not as vicious and deadly as Falstaff,
Tybalt > Activities > The Dome
Tybalt is a ruin you probably don't want to have anything to do
If you take the Highway 10 south south-east
with. Its reputation as a good "starter" ruin for newbie prospectors
you'll run right through Tybalt. Over it, really.
comes from its accessibility (it's only about an hour away, and you
When you're on the freeway you can stop (on
can't miss it) and its reputation for being relatively well preserved.
the road, not an exit) and take a look at the
dome. It's big, blue-green, and about 3/4th of it
You see, Tybalt saw its action  two small nuclear events  early
survived the nuclear shelling Tybalt took. It's
in the Age of War. Shattered and gutted, a mass pyre for its
kind of pretty. It's an old government building
inhabitants, Tybalt was abandoned in every meaningful sense. To
that grew and grew when the place was
the extent that it remained in further use, it saw waves of refugees
inhabited.
passing through it, stopping long enough to get radiation sickness
on their journey south. There are a few minor battle fields to the
west and some footnotes of history taking place within Tybalt, but Inner Wasteland > Southward Travel >
instead of just getting wrecked or buried it mainly just got Tybalt > Utopia Farms
evacuated. That means someone already took the good stuff. You may notice that not so far from Tybalt is the
one none-BoneYard exit that doesn't look so
But, of course, you never know what "the good stuff" is going to bad. You'll see billboards great big painted
be a long, hard century later, and as the prospector's cliché goes signs if you don't know what that is all over the
"There's always something left." So people keep coming back. place (and in the 'Yard itself) for Utopia Farms.
That brings other things back too. They show a happy young couple dressed in
gray overalls standing with a hydroponics PH-
meter on rolling green hills with a brilliant blue
sky and sun overhead. They promise food,
Inner Wasteland > Southward Travel > Tybalt > Environment
lodging, and medicine. Whatever you do don't
> Twin Craters Outlet Mall
stop there. Even if you break down, don't walk
The word "mall" had strong connotations to the survivors of the
there. If you're being taken there, save a bullet
early strikes in the Age of War. To them it a mystical place where
for yourself. I don't know how the commune
anything you wanted or needed could be had and at reasonable
survives or what exactly they do (it is
prices. The Twin Craters Outlet Mall was therefore a monument to
hydroponics farming they export food). But the
the lengths of cruel deception man will go to in order to pull off a
psychological damage I've seen from people
scam.
who've escaped (and there's damn few of
those) makes me shiver even now. Do NOT
The mall (a mass of shopping, parking, and parks) did exist and
stop at Utopia Farms.
even kind of survived on the edge of the primary central crater in
the middle of Amphitheater Road. The shop keepers had, at the
time, nothing to sell save rags and old cardboard boxes. But the
owners (and at this time there were refugees streaming through
Tybalt) charged admission and there are photo-records that show
lines stretched around the shattered streets hoping that
something they needed could be satisfied at Twin Craters (which
was neither an outlet mall nor near the other crater).
All they got was radiation sickness. That's all that was left to give
them for what was highly probably their last shopping spree, but
you can go by and look at the building. It's been shot up in the
decades since it and Tybalt closed business, but it still has that air
of hope about it somehow. That gleam that promises three floors
of food, fashion, and family fun that glow that's gone now from
everywhere but the architecture.
21
Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Inner Wasteland > Southward Travel > Carnivorous Saguaro
PRECIS: A lot of mutants will hurt you even if you've got
Inner Wasteland > Southward Travel > Heela Bend
no intention of hurting them. Not the Carnivorous Saguaro.
Heela Bend is south-southwest. You'll go by it if you're
My biology tutor taught me that billions of years ago "good
heading to the great ruins one way (8) or the other (10).
old fashioned" cacti developed a tough outer skin and
There's an exit off the interstate which is why anyone
spines and thorns to protect themselves from tenacious
even remembers it's there. There used to be a town, but
desert predators (desert insects, birds, like that).
a warlord parked his mobile command center in there
Apparently it worked pretty well for a long time.
and it was hit by a Tectonic Nuke. The whole town is
about 30-feet underground (sorry, they already
Not anymore. Now to protect yourself from tenacious
excavated the command center), and pretty well
desert predators these days you need 24" maws and
preserved if you want to go digging. I don't advise it: you
tentacles covered with poisonous spikes. The Saguaro in
can see from the few ruins that do stick up that there was
the South Wasteland are bad, and they will eat you and the
some pretty fierce fighting there (and lots of old craters
jeep you road in on. But not because they're hungry,
and unexploded ordinance). But the real kicker was that
they're just taking care of themselves.
some idiot flew an aircraft over it and dumped several
hundred gallons of a mercury-super-fluid alloy. Now it's
And that, dear traveler, means that if you keep your
skin-toxic and it will kill you. Happy digging.
distance, you can take a good look at these majestic, butt-
ugly towers of spines.
Inner Wasteland > Southward Travel > Flora >
The Carnivorous Saguaro rise up to 15 meters from the
Jumping Cholla
desert floor. Normally, when they are undisturbed, they do
They bear some mention. They re a white-ish cactus that
what cacti have done for millennia sit there and soak up
looks like a fuzzy collection of stubby tubes. It's actually
the bright desert sun. But should you come to close you'll
kinda cute to look at. Firstly, they leap at you if you come
discover that they'd learned a few tricks since the insect /
close. It's disturbing to see. Secondly, they're covered
bird days. The Saguaro come to life violently, lashing out
with spines. Thirdly, the spines are barbed. Fourthly, the
with blows that'll rend metal. They don't need to eat meat,
barbs are toxic. But, hey, they look cuddly! It s like a
but a little extra fertilizer never hurt.
vicious poisoned teddy bear!
Just because they're not relentlessly aggressive doesn't
Inner Wasteland > Southward Travel > Spotlight
mean I'm suggesting you go and spend time out there (you
Basin
can see them from the highway just fine, and there are
If you go South and West (and there's no reason you
plenty of things in the South Wasteland that will hunt you
should it's not like there's a road there, or anything),
down and kill you. But I thought I'd mention them: they're
and you travel at night (and there's no reason you
interesting to think about, just in case.
should; the whole region's under a mosquito-born plague
advisory and the mosquitoes are the size of your hand),
And, yeah, those stories you've heard about there being
you'll start to see some columns of light coming up from
good prospecting in the Saguaro fields aren't entirely
a vast, deep sinkhole travelers started calling Spotlight
untrue. Here's the bottom line: you can never be sure what
Basin.
the safe distance is. So people who go wandering around
off road long enough tend to get eaten by a cactus. This
You might start to wonder: What is that? Who put it
leaves their stuff lying around, and if the next group comes
there? What keeps the spotlights running? Man, I wish I
along with the right mix of wenches, grappling hooks, and
could tell you. But first off, it's a trap. There's a zone
harpoon guns, they might be able to haul some relatively
there of about 3 miles by three miles where not a lot
undamaged junk out there.
moves. That means some of those rocks are raider
vehicles covered with cameo-tarpS. And if you don't
I've seen Cactus Fishers make some pretty good hauls. I
belong to their club you'll be attacked.
also know that every time you cast a line, you're taking a
risk; rolling the dice. Roll long enough, and you'll end up
But when you get closer to the lights, something
cactus food. All those successful Fishers I just told you
happens. They say there are big toothy mouths under
about? They've all lost a lot of friends. By all means seek
the sand big enough to eat a bike whole and strong
your fortune, man. Just not in the Inner Waste.
enough (and sharp enough) to disable a car with the first
bite. The few people I've talked to who are incurably
curious and somehow have managed to survive that
usually terminal condition say they've seen the light
attracting other things, "natural things," to their doom.
The mindless things in the Wasteland apparently head in
there on a regular basis. Try to be smarter than that.
22
Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Inner Wasteland > Southward Travel > The Lady of the Toxic Lakes
Inner Wasteland > Southward Travel >
PRECIS: People talk about "The Toxic Lakes." That doesn't even
The Lady of the Toxic Lakes > The Story
sound very nice, but the truth is even uglier. Out beyond everything
The story doesn't stop there. It just takes a
else, so far west you're just about in the red desert, there's an
break. And it starts up a few hundred years
above-ground chemical weapons dump. Someone left hundreds of
later, when the Age of War was drawing to
thousands of gallons of what they call "non-aerosolized" chem in a
a close, and Marmoch The Deposed was
series of bedrock quarries and channels.
exiled from the BoneYard, never to return.
Marmoch's greed and tyranny and his
The Toxic Lakes.
apocalyptic visions (the  Yard remolded as
a great, dead Mausoleum dedicated to him)
For ten to fifteen miles, in all directions the air stinks and the land is
are all too well recorded. His exile from the
barren dust. Not even weeds grow. At about six miles, you start to
Yard is as well, but his fate after he
see a heavy haze at the pit of the valley and breathing the air will kill
disappeared on foot into the Inner
you. At about two miles, exposed skin is a lethal hazard. The wire
Wasteland is, officially, undetermined.
and warning signs start about here, and so do the bones. A lot of
people have died out here over the years.
Those who believe the Story of the Lake
believe he came here. They say that he
If you're nuts, and you keep going, you start to see the "canisters":
walked through the blistering heat, heading
Rusted oil-drums piled high by the hundreds, gutted military-looking
toward where he knew he would find
trucks, and other signs of some kind of massive operation. A handful
vengeance. And in vengeance, glory. And
of sand from this range can kill everyone unprotected in the room.
in glory, victory. And in victory, death for
It's a good place to pick up souvenirs for someone you hate.
everyone & or simply death. He came to
the lake, seeking the deeply legendary
Eventually you reach the lakes. They steam and boil, but the gas is,
casket that (supposedly) lies beneath it.
thankfully, lighter than air. The heavy 'fog' that hangs over them
Even in those long ago days, the legends
never leaves the valley. I guess whoever put it there was thoughtful
of the Abnegated Kings were myths, but
that way. If you've gone that far, you've probably come to see "the
desperate men have always clung to myth
Lady" so I might as well explain.
and Marmoch would have been deeply and
truly desperate. So maybe it's true.
They say something lives in the lake. Several somethings, actually.
The Lady's Daughters. I, personally, have been close enough to see
And if it's true he traveled to the lake, then
the mists, and that's it. I haven't seen the Daughters, and the
maybe it is also true that he entered its
pictures I saw could have been whipped up on someone's
waters, unafraid of the boiling death there,
computer. But for what it's worth, they're fat, translucent, amphibian
because he held in his hand RapStar IV,
things with tails and fluted openings and webbed forelegs. They're
the blade forged in the Age of Wonders by
ugly and vicious, and they breathe nerve gas.
the Great Studios. RapStar IV  the sword
that, if you believe the legends, could call
The Daughters are probably real. The Lady I have no idea. But the
down orbital strikes from its own satellite
story keeps the Daughter's fed with flesh and the ground littered
network, and cast a protective field around
with fresh bones.
its owner so that no bullet or beam might
harm him  kept him safe from the poison,
They say that the poison was put there for a reason  not to kill
but not from what the waters hid.
something, but to keep something that would not die dead. That it
was put there by men who had looked upon an abomination and
The legend says that the Lady, protecting
could only cover it with a worse sin. They say that under that lake of
the buried tomb, rose above him and a
death lies a golden sarcophagus and within it lies the body of an
great battle ensued, with Marmoch calling
Abnegated King. I won't go into what that is; if you don't know, good.
down fire from the heavens and the Lady
rending the energies that fell about him like
But suffice it to say that people couldn't live well enough alone, and
a waterfall of light. And the Legend says
the folks pouring the nerve gas knew it. As sure as they could bury
that when the battle was done, Marmoch
something they wanted gone for a million million years, some crazy
was gone and the Great Blade was
phuker would come along and dig it up. So they didn't just leave the
embedded in the Lady's neck where it
poison. They left a guardian. They left the Lady.
remains today.
If I had to guess, I'd say that The Lady is a really big freaking
So that is why people visit the Lake,
Dragon-Lizard-Frog thing. And maybe she is. But those who claim to
Children. To catch the monster. To retrieve
have seen her, say she's beautiful. Whatever that means.
the blade. Happy hunting.
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Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Inner Wasteland > Southward Travel > The Weeping Hill (The
Observatory)
PRECIS: When people wax pretentious about the Haves they like to say, "Everything they did was art." Then they talk
about the domes. If you ask someone who knows (for this book, I did), they'll tell you otherwise. Everything they did
was elegant. Everything they did was beautiful. Everything they did was evocative. But art? No. If you asked a Have
about art, he'd tell you that all that beauty and awe and magnificence came as second-nature to them. They did it
casually, without even thinking about it.
When it came time to do art, they wrote on the sky.
The Haves had a few art forms. One was microscopic and biological; they designed viruses that were beautiful in their
terrifying lethality. The other was "astronomy" or "star naming."
This might all be a joke they played on us, but if you believe it, then their greatest form of art was to co-opt the
heavens, themselves. They would look up into the night sky and invent constellations in what they saw there. And in
the course of a year, as those constellations rolled past, they would tell epic stories.
These stories were not written down, of course. There was no need for it. After all, they were there. Up there. Visible
for everyone to look at. You see, the Have s conceit was that they were not making shit up, or even reading the stars,
but actually writing with them. Creating and imposing meaning on the cosmos's random slate.
Astronomy was a performance art, and was held in outdoor theaters on high, desolate mountains. These theaters
were called observatories and one that's still around (that you could visit if you were a complete phucking idiot) is
south of the Yard on the way out of the Inner Wasteland. Place called Kitt Peak, in the Tohono O'odham Reservation
in the Sonoran Desert.
Inner Wasteland > South > The Weeping Hill (The Observatory) > Standup Astronomy (The Audience)
During the Age of Wonders, Kitt Peak was off limits to most normal humans. The Astronomy that was performed there
was for Haves only, and it was said to be so glorious and incandescent that normal mortals couldn't get it. Apparently
a bunch of bewildered, (or worse, snickering) humans in the back gallery ruined the experience for everyone.
But the Haves were a reserved lot, and so to express their emotion and gratitude, they had servants built  the things
they called "spirits." It is said that there are five spirits-in-residence there and that their names are Mayall, Burrel-
Schmidt, McMath-Pierce, Wiyn, and Sara. These were called, collectively, The Audience.
The Audience, the ancient stories say, were built for the purpose of appreciation. They were designed to absorb and
understand the beauty of the performances they bore witness to. They were to express the emotion that the Haves
would or could not.
It is said that for hundreds of years they did. It is said that they filled the bleak, dark mountaintop with laughter, with
applause, with cheers, and with gasps of awe at the cosmic audacity they observed. It is said that they were gifted
with an impossibly deep understanding of physics and space, that they might better understand how the Haves were
using the universe as their canvas.
The stories go on like this, but they always end with the Last Performance.
24
Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Inner Wasteland > South > The Weeping Hill (The Observatory) > Standup Astronomy > The Last Performance
There were many observatories where astronomy was practiced, but the one here, near us, was the greatest and
every summer, during the darkest months, the greatest Have Astronomers would gather and imprint their stories upon
the cosmos. They all told different stories, but the best (the truest, they said) was the one that stuck.
Year after year, they re-wrote the heavens (of course the stars never moved, the fabric of the void never shifted it
would be more correct to say they re-wrote the meaning of the Heavens), until one year a Have who had never
performed before came to the Observatory and imposed upon the stars, a tale of such power and depth and truth and
beauty that the Audience, for the first time ever, was moved to tears. And try as they might, they could not stop crying.
For the Audience was made defenseless against beauty and in the presence of such magnificent beauty, they were
rent asunder at their souls. And so they cried. And they wailed. And every moment that they look up, into the heavens,
they see that story play out again, year after year. And every moment of it tears at them. Every tick of every clock
exposes them to the unbearable magnificence of the Have's story.
Today, you can still hear them wail. As you approach, you hear soft moans, and as you get closer, you'll hear five
distinct voices, trapped under a vast hammer of artwork inscribed on the heavens. It is said that the spirits have great
knowledge of the world and of the heavens. Of the past and the future. It is said that if there were a way to rescue
them that they might be grateful that whoever should do so would be made a God by them. That might be true, but no
one who has ever approached that lonely hilltop has ever come back, so perhaps we'll never know.
Inner Wasteland > Eastward Travel
Let's face it  there's no good way to go East through the Wasteland. As a result, the Eastern Ring is
one of the most isolated, savage parts of the Known World. If you're going to the Ring, then go North or
South and then take a clock turn. But every year dozens of fools, profiteers, and extreme prospectors
disappear into the Eastern Wasteland, so let's talk about it.
Inner Wasteland > Eastward Travel > Route 88
PRECIS: It's probably the saddest stretch of Inner Wasteland > Eastward Travel > Route 88 > Jake s Corner
self repairing highway the Haves built and its There's a bend in the road north of '88 with a big & well & shelf of rock
one of the most twisted. Furthermore, it lays near it. Sometime during the Age of War someone decided it was a good
at "ground level" which, like a lot of the area, place to move a cache of weapons to, so they dug a hole in the side of
is all the hell up and down heading east by the shelf. Today the weapons are gone, but Jake's still remains. Jake's.
northeast. If you must go east, take the Last I was there, has been taken over by Misuses Jake, a mutant that
Highway J Overarch, not Route 88. looks like a cross between a giant octopus and a grizzly bear. The "café"
is half cave, half diner. It can be a rough place (and the owner eats rock
But a lot of people do take Route 88 or some and doesn't mind breathing poisons so she doesn't care check the
of its tributaries and go winding into the hills. atmosphere before you get out). If there's not a toxin advisory, the food is
A lot of these are people on the run from the actually pretty good. Just don't ask what's in it. I'm not joking.
authorities. If you are taking the "scenic
route" keep away from the low areas: That
Inner Wasteland > Eastward Travel > The Dagger Mirage
fog there is the misty top of a pool of poison,
Out there in the middle of the rocky wilderness is something that creates
and those rocks look melted because they
images. You can see them from the J-Overarch. You can even get out
are, by industrial acids. On the other hand,
there if you really try, but why bother? You don't come back. The images
there are & well, a few places to stop.
look real though; you can see them with field glasses. You'll see a raised
sign with these golden arches on it (One Trillion Served) and see old-
And by stop, I mean if you have a really
style refueling stations and water using Laundromats and what used to be
serious medical emergency and your vehicle
called "24-7 Convenience Stores." You'll see all of that out there a little
is damaged and your radio is out, and your
stretch of lit up town from the Information Age. Something out there
spare is out too. Yeah, there are roads to
remembers it, something near the rock formation Dagger. There are no
drive around on out there and a little bit of
roads that go there, so you have to off-road it, and then, I think, hike. So if
life still clinging to them, but don't go thinking
you're really curious you can go and try to find out what makes the image
it's all that different from the rest of the
of the way the world was sometimes appear out there. But not if you want
mess.
to live.
25
Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Inner Wasteland > Eastward Travel > The Manufacturing Ruins
PRECIS: There used to be a lot of heavy industry, the "milling" of the
Inner Wasteland > Eastward Travel >
Wonders for the whole western American seaboard in this area. It
Manufacturing Ruins >The Depot(s)
was bombed and sunk and otherwise destroyed during the Age of
In the Red Desert, tantalizingly close to the  Yard,
War But the remnants are still there, scattered amongst the hills,
they say, there is a massive train yard  the
some of them apparently have forgotten that they've been destroyed.
legendary Depot, where the robotic rails systems
This is where the Red Desert begins if you head east. It's a ruddy
that connected the Factory complexes came
colored sand that smells of rust and carries tetanus. It's the ground
together, a "nerve-center" or brain of the entire
up bones of the final gasp of the Industrial Age.
sprawling system. And in this Depot, there would
be hundreds of interweaving lines getting denser
and denser  more tightly woven until they meet in
Inner Wasteland > Eastward Travel >Manufacturing Ruins > Big a vast, enclosed hall. The Hall is described as a
Iron (Factory Ruins) pyramid, hollow on the inside, with arches and
As you drive along highway 60, you see rusted towers, lattice grates, buttresses and ramparts built for giants. Inside,
and cement stacks rising out of the corrosion-tinted gravel. These there would be great metal servants capable of
scattered ruins are not the kind of cities you'd find in the north or moving a rail car, or an entire train itself, from one
south. In the Red Desert (and this goes for the wasteland as well as "wheel" to another, a switching hub on a god-like
the ring), the ruins tend to be "complexes," "compounds," or scale.
"factories." In the previous ages (the Age of Wonders and the Age of
War), the vast eastern desert was the compliment to the Distro- If such a place exists (and so many people say it
Points of the west. It was where the modular components and raw must) what would it hold? Certainly fascinating
materials from the points were assembled, molded, forged, or remains of the old rail systems. Offices of the rail
otherwise finished into complex goods. The Red Desert was a administration (where the mainframe computers
massive industrial park and a distribution point (There are still the that ran the factory system no doubt lie). Power
remains of a rail system and a monorail system long gone). floors  halls full of dynamos and nuclear pods.
And what else? Warehouses? Underground store-
I believe that the Kingdom of IZ  that far-away, pseudo-mythical rooms filled with undelivered goods? Defense
place beyond the Outer Wastes was once the same kind of thing on systems (now dormant) loaded with Age of War
an even grander scale. We know that a lot of what the Distro-Point ordinance?
gives us isn't ready for use. It almost must have been.
The stories become even more enticing when one
So what's out there? Factory after factory, and these were can find so many maps to tell you exactly where
mechanized factories: great concrete halls filled with robots working the Depot is! Why it's right there, just beyond the
24/7. There were rail hubs above and below ground to move the end of 60... or over there, near the ringward
goods from one center to another. In the Age of Wonders, the edge... or. The fact is the maps disagree, and the
factories put together the complex and customized consumer goods fact is the Depot, as it exists in legend, is a myth.
that fed and drove the ravenous retail culture. In the Age of War, the
factories made weapons. There was no central switching hub. The "factory
system" was, in fact, a network of smaller systems,
The Factory Complexes were strategic sites, very valuable and in the each serviced by its own, specialized rail network.
end, all too vulnerable. The wars that raged in the Red Desert left Most of the largest switching hubs were destroyed
very few of them standing. Those that you see are only a fraction of (if you're looking for them, follow your Geiger
what was once there, and it must have been astounding. counter to the big, glowing crater). Some train
yards do exist, and in one respect, the legends are
The majority of these structures are simply empty and badly right: they are impressive and evocative. If the
damaged. Empty of anything valuable, that is. Assume that, in the factories are spare, utilitarian bunkers, the train
Inner Wasteland, any structure you see with a roof is full of monsters. yards have an artistic flourish in their architecture.
Inside, there's a barrenness and a cathedral-like quiet with evocative They are, after a way, things of beauty, even in
fixtures and markings to suggest the floor plan of the past age (An ruin.
auto lathe went here. A smelting laser, there. And a conveyor belt ran
down the middle...) They're also deadly. The materials transported to
and from the factories were very toxic and often
Prospectors keep going in there. Why? Because every so often radioactive. The yards were permeated with
someone comes out with a cache of weapons, or bolts of unrefined poisons long before the Bone Yard began its own
neonium, or a cluster of super servers. But that doesn't happen assembly and finishing work. Even in the Age of
much, and it won't happen to you. Most of what people find in the Wonders, the Inner Wasteland was a toxic swamp.
rusted plains of the Inner Wasteland are what they find pretty much And it's only gotten worse. The depots are heavily
everywhere else in the Inner Wasteland: a fast death if they're lucky fortified installations (like the Factories but a lot
and a slow one if they're not. more so), and the ones that are left tend to be
haunted by the things that live in the Wasteland.
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Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Inner Wasteland > Eastward Travel > Manufacturing Ruins >
Inner Wasteland > Eastward Travel >
Oxygen Mountain
Manufacturing Ruins > Salvage in the Ticking
Oxygen Mountain is still on the air. You can navigate by its radio
Fields
beacon if you're so inclined, and if you get close enough to it, you
If the prospector in you is screaming "Robot
can see the great columns from its exhaust vents. It looks like a
brains! Power supplies! Arms and armor!", hold on
metal anthill rising out of the sand, with antenna and smokestacks
to your horses. The robot soldiers that were
and fluted vents.
thrown away by the hundreds of thousands were
not executive system toys, they were a lot more
Around it, for more than a mile in all directions, is a great "ticking
primitive and that cuts down on the retail value.
battlefield" of blasted robots piled upon each other. The Mountain is
Largely mechanical, they have simple computer
probably the only remaining foundry still capable of making the great
brains that were directed by strategic computer
War Machines that defined battle in the Red Desert during the Age of
minds far away.
War. It is, I guess you'd say, "The Winner." After all, it's still there. Its
cause (whatever that was), its owner (the Warlord who ran it), and
And the power supplies they have are mostly old
even its history are forgotten to the outside world, but the foundry
chemical batteries, long run-down, supplemented
continues to run and the computer general inside, continues to
by geomagnetic filters and solar receptors that
pursue its original goals (defend the complex, capture ground). If
drink in just enough ambient power to track their
Oxygen Mountain were still receiving shipments of supplies and raw
weapons and trigger their clockwork gears. There
materials, it would probably still be sending waves of robot soldiers
are components worth salvaging out there, but
to capture the Bone Yard. Then the Hierarchy would see to it that it
they're few and vanishing far between.
was taken care of "once and for all."
And remember this: If there are things to find
Instead, the Mountain is quiet and waiting. One day its "standing
there, then you're not in an ancient, long defunct
army" (the defense force that surrounds it) will fail, and we'll be able
battlefield, but in an open plain surrounded by
to look inside, a "living museum" from the Age of War. Until then,
almost-working robots designed to target and kill
stay away. It's efficient and deadly.
you. That's a completely different story.
Inner Wasteland > Eastward Travel > Manufacturing Ruins > The Ticking Fields
The "famous" Ticking Field (the one you've heard of) is right at the end of Highway 60. And that one isn't so dangerous. It's
seen a lot of visitors over the years; it's been, largely, pacified. The Ticking Fields are so named because of the sounds the
half-buried war machines make as they try to train their weapons on you. Click-clickety-click. They tick.
They're old battlefields, see. Places where machine armies clashed and suffered mutual annihilation. In many cases,
computer generals sent wave after wave of robot soldiers directly from the factories that made them to the battlefield where
they fell. In cases where the opposing forces were evenly matched, the wars were fought at a devastating stand-still for
months or even decades. Someone I talked to who knows about these things says there are probably millions of robot
carcasses down in the Red Fields. They might be shattered, they might be crippled, but they're still fighting. They're still
tracking targets, and they're still sending  fire-now signals to their cannons, which ran out of ammo a century ago.
The "ticking" isn't loud; you can hardly hear it over the wind, an ultra-soft whisper of gears slipping or locking ratchets slowly
raising the barrel of a cannon. It's kind of creepy, but I'll admit it  it's kind of cool.
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Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Inner Wasteland > Westward Travel > Neurosphex
Inner Wasteland > Westward Travel >
PRECIS: I hate the Neurosphex; everyone hates the Neurosphex.
Neurosphex >The Brain Gardens
Nobody ever does anything about them because when it comes down to
The Neurosphex are symbiotic to a
it, wiping them off the face of the earth is just too darn hard, and the truth
machine that means the machine
is, they keep to themselves. You can find them if you look for them,
needs them (they keep it running) and
though  head west down 10 and start looking for exits.
they need the machine. It's located in a
bunker of some sort that's mostly
Eventually you'll find one that looks like a salvage picker's dream down
underground and is hardened as hell
at the bottom, partly under some toxic fluid that might be water, are a
anyway. The 'sphex are smart, use
bunch of submerged cars. That's when you've found it (okay, numerically
conventional weapons, and have several
it's near 98, there, are you happy?).
vehicular grade turrets around it. What's
down inside is the Brain Garden.
Just incase you didn't know, the Nurosphex are organized intelligent
mutations that look a bit like wasps given a bright red and black armored
The larval form of the Neurosphex feeds
coat. They're about 4-6 feet in length and yes, they have a dangerous
on the telepathic transmissions of
stinger.
dreaming minds and that's what
mummy and daddy bring them: minds &
They're brain-harvesters. If they get you, they pry your brain out of your
your minds if you're not careful.
skull and drop its quivering gray mass into something called a Think
Tank. Think Tanks were created in the Age of Wonders as a way for a
mind to transcend the body: a fluid bath that provides oxygen and
whatever nutrients your noodle needs and symbiotic cerebral parasites
that devote themselves to neuron repair.
Inner Wasteland > Westward Travel > Neurosphex >The Asylum
The Think Tank is a powerful piece of psychoactive machinery. It's telepathic, very powerful, and multi-function. It isn't
artificially intelligent though but the Neurosphex supply the & hmm & brain power? In that department anyway.
They also do some trade in telepathic cracking for special clients (you'd better be a special client if you plan to visit the
hive and return) and psychoactive repair.
They can be quite cordial in a militaristic "we-eat-your-kind" sort of way.
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Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Inner Wasteland > Westward Travel > The Reservoir
PRECIS: You take 93 West and you'll see something incredible. It's old and Inner Wasteland > Westward Travel >
it's big. It's a giant reservoir that was built centuries ago (and reinforced in The Reservoir >Lake Mead > Gambling
the Age of Wonders which is good because it was hit with sub-nuclear Palace
bombardment: you can still see the craters in its face and a big ominous The last casinos didn't die with Vegas not
crack down the middle). entirely. There's plenty of gambling all over
the place but the Texas is, without
It's over seven hundred feet high and over twelve hundred feet wide and question, the most prestigious place to
that's a lot of wall. It used to be some kind of hydro-electric power-plant. play in the known world. It's a river boat
Now the water that flows through it is so full of industrial toxins you could that makes a nightly trek out into Lake
almost just use it for rocket fuel. Mead. Its underside is covered with
electrical rails that create a death-field in
The dam is an armory a Hierarchy base and research station it's also an the water around it if anything gets too
executive retreat: a little home away from home in the Inner Wasteland. You close. It has a glass bottom and search-
can see the heli-ports there and it's, maybe, the one place that air-traffic lights on the underside: you can look out
still runs pretty regularly. into the murky green depths and see the
silhouettes of monsters in the darkness &
If you come in driving, don't bring any trouble: there's a 12" thick steel gate, and you can play with your life: literally.
a mine field and several energy-mortars that create a land-air overkill zone.
Gate crashing is not a good idea. The owners: a private concern in the 'Yard,
will let you bet your life for 250c plus or
Inside there's parking and even executive accommodations (150c per minus various valuation factors. It works
night) although there's a "holding facility" for emergency cases or refugees like this: cash yourself in (you have to pass
if you come in "on fire." a medical screening) and then you have to
buy yourself out. They'll give you a collar
with microbes in it that'll kill you if you
Inner Wasteland > Westward Travel > The Reservoir >Lake Mead >
leave the boat prematurely.
Water Refineries
Above the dam is a 250 square mile lake Lake Mead. It's home to a
If they like the look of you and you lose
variety of life-forms indigenous to the Inner Wasteland, some of them quite
your money, you work for them. If not, well,
big and vicious under the surface of the water but the Hierarchy has
they'll make a statement with you (and
invested money in Water Refineries that can draw clean drinkable H2O from
some of the patrons find this entertaining
the waters. So if you take the path around you'll see the Water Depots.
I suggest you don't even go and look. If
you do, don't try to excuse it as curiosity
These are rough little towns with high electric fences and automated gun-
you're going to see a person get
towers that keep the Inner Wasteland at bay you can find Video Poker
executed). Don't think they won't. No one
Saloons, some of the dirtiest, weirdest Simu-Sex booths (as well as the real
is more heartless than a casino: it's the
thing) and a variety of Chemo-Dens that cater to the disease of your choice.
humanitarian equivalent of absolute zero.
Being outside the 'Yard, some of these places have reputations for being
places where business goes down the kind of business one doesn't do in
the BoneYard. That's a sort of business to be wary of, whatever form it
takes.
Inner Wasteland > Westward Travel > The Reservoir >The Talon Angles
Sometime in the past someone came along and created the Talon Angles. They're indigenous to the place humanoid
mutations that breed true with cybernetics. They've got wings and bronze skin. The look, I'm told, is "Olympian." You can see
them flying in the spray of the sluice gates of the dam.
They're beautiful. They live up in the rocks and have clearance to come and go at all levels of the dam itself. The Hierarchy
guards don't shoot them down or mess with them and if you do they'll shoot you down.
It's not clear why: The Angles (with bird talons for feet) are scary in a fight (they've got heavy armor, they're very strong,
they're fast, they fly, and they have bladed claws) but it's less than fear and more than tradition.
There are those who swear the Talon Angles (who, it seems, have nothing to do with the trials of man) have a racial memory
of the mechanics of the dam and a psionic resonance in tune with it: they know if it is damaged and how to repair it.
29
Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
The Outer Wasteland
It's the last trip a lot of people ever take it's one with no clear destination. Think you're going to the
Kingdom of IZ? Think again yes, there are caravans but we have no statistics at all on how many
people from there never make it here. We know (as well as we can) that about sixty percent of the
people from here don't show up there. But if you want to see a Have dome or you want to visit some of
the really ancient, really mysterious places left on the planet (no doubt looking for somewhat less
mysterious treasure) here's a short-list of places to go, things to see, and ways to die. Don't say I didn't
warn you.
Outer Wasteland > North > Northern Reach
Outer Wasteland > North > Northern Reach > The
PRECIS: Start at Denver and head straight up north. There
Abyss
are some good roads (part of the notorious Denver Death
If you're north of Denver there's something else you can
Trap, I guess) and some pretty scenery. The desert, as you go
find up that way. It's called the Abyss and it's a pit so deep
north, gives way to forest forest that's tangled and dark and
no one knows how deep and that's not for trying: I've
looks like it's a about 1000 years old. It can't be I know but
seen transcript of a radio beacon dropped into it. It fell
if you ever look for yourself, try to tell me I'm wrong. About 30
over six thousand miles before it stopped broadcasting.
miles out of Denver up the highway is the Calanan Outpost
Do some math: either the signals were interfered with or
one of the few places in the Outer Wasteland that's been
that's deeper than the planet. I'm not sure which answer I
beating the odds. It's run by a family of semi-anthropomorphic
prefer. Surrounding the Abyss is some of the strangest
panda bears (and they look fuzzy but they're tough as hell,
terrain going too: massive collections of geysers, rock
trust me on this) and it's a friendly enough place if you can get
formations that look like they might've come from the
there (and aren't bringing trouble). And that's where my tale
moon.
stops. That's as far as I went. Everything else is conjecture.
Outer Wasteland > North > Northern Reach > The Machine
Outer Wasteland > North > Northern Reach >
Herds
Mountain of Faces
Out there in the vast empty stretches as far north as anyone
They say that further up, into those woods, you can go
has ever gone there are reports of machines big beetle like
and keep going and find something amazing. A massive
things sort of like the heavily armed Crawler death machines
mountain carved with about 12 giant human faces.
that inhabit the ruins of cities but these are different. For one
Apparently at one point it was a solemn monument but
thing, they seem to migrate (as far as anyone can tell) for
then, later, there was a game show or something and they
another, they're not reportedly hostile (as opposed to the
just started putting anyone up there. But, I'm told, it hasn't
Crawlers which are unrelentingly hostile), finally, they're
lost its charm: from the massive pile of rubble at the
bigger. The large ones are over 300 yards long and over 50
bottom to the moss-covered heads at the top it's a place to
yards high. But there are smaller ones too. It is speculated that
go and look a place of power. If you're up that way,
the "breed" and the smaller ones are "young.". The herd is
check it out. Take some pictures. I'd like to see 'em.
seen in the plains areas up north, sometimes found in the
massive craters. There are people who believe they are
reclamation machines designed by the Haves to repair
environmental damage.
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Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Outer Wasteland > South > The Pharms
PRECIS: South far south, at the rim of the Outer Wasteland Outer Wasteland > South > The Pharms > The
and on the edge of a savage, ultra-toxic jungle are three Rappaccini Jungle
massive chemical refineries. Still functioning from the Age of South of the Pharms is jungle toxic jungle. They call
Wonders, the Pharms produce drugs, chemicals, and medicines it a Rappaccini Ecology flower's perfume is a nerve
for the world. They produce Dead-Line, an ultra-addictive gas. An insects sting a military grade toxin, the entire
amphetamine that rulers use to keep shock-troops in line. They ecosystem aggressively hostile. People have made it
produce hallucinogens and happy-pills and smart antibiotics and into the jungle (they say there are cities back there,
other things. The people are exotic looking and quiet extremely all overgrown with deadly plants) and there are
quiet, their lives governed by psycho-chemicals that make them stranger stories still. But no one has lasted long
docile and productive and utterly the same. enough to be sure.
Outer Wasteland > South > The Pharms > The
Outer Wasteland > South > The Pharms > the Dead Line
Pyramid
Trade
As you head south, towards the bottom of the world
The Pharm's "greatest gift" to the world is not medicine but a
you will approach a six-story, silver pyramid,
narcotic: Dead-Line. It is a powerful stimulant, it is fiercely
subdivided into six levels. Around it, breaking
addictive, and if you withdraw, you die. The warlords of the
through the grass are computer-controlled guns in
Onion Empires, the shock troops of the Pharms and the
hardened concrete bunkers. Along each silver side of
Congregation, and the external militia of the Kingdom of IZ all
the building are engraved names of chemicals long
use Dead-Line to keep their troops loyal and controllable. It is
names, nonsensical to almost all those who see
illegal to sell or distribute in all of those lands (to keep deserters
them. At the bottom are the chemicals, the Wonder-
from finding another source) and the Hierarchy (the only major
drugs, that the rulers of the Pharm's claim will serve
power not to use Dead-Line) executes traffickers it catches.
the individual's physiological needs. At the top are
drugs that simulate spiritual peace and
Dead-Line comes pre-packaged in plastic syringes called sub-
enlightenment.
derms. A lot of other things do too, but Dead-Line has a unique
black plastic packaging with a red ring around the top.
Outer Wasteland > South > The Pharms > The
Gulf
Shock-troops out in the desert, glassy-eyed and "jumped up" on
Dead-Line are a cliché of the Onion Empires. Troops on the line The largest known body of water is off the shore of
trend towards things like needless massacres and brave but the Pharms. It's a great gray ocean deemed too
suicidal assaults. dangerous to navigate (there are aquatic hunter killer
robots and sharks the size of old naval destroyers,
There is some question as to why the Hierarchy doesn't use the for starters) but it's there there's still water left.
drug. The most obvious answer is that they don't want to be Judging from a globe either it shouldn't be there, it's
dependant on the Pharms to keep their fighting force going but walled in or something is really strange
(considering the Pacific Ocean, or lack thereof).
analysis of what their spokesmen have said also lends credence
to the view that they find it somewhat repulsive.
Outer Wasteland > South > The Pharms > The Overlords
The rulers those who dominate the plants and govern the
perfectly organized societies laid out around them, are carefully
designed mutations. Obese yet healthy and strong (due to an
intravenous diet of chemical cocktails that warp the genome and
run their hearts and lungs on synthetic fuels) they are urbane,
intelligent (it is said they take intellect enhancers so as to have
minds like computer databanks) and utterly inhuman. Their wet,
broad smiles show teeth which appear normal but house internal
injection devices they command or even dispatch their
servants with a bite. Their cruelty when necessary to make a
point to an observer or simply for their own pleasure, is
legendary.
31
Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Outer Wasteland > South > The Church of the Congregation
Outer Wasteland > South > The Church of
PRECIS: South of the 'Yard, down the Have-built highway is a white
the Congregation > Hell TV
line that stretches up into the sky. Impossibly tall, it simply shimmers
Whatever else is up there on Heavenside,
there for miles and then starts to grow thicker then the dunes of
there's a heck of a broadcaster. The
garbage and broken down vehicles begin to pile up. Radio
Congregation gets world-wide TV coverage:
broadcasters transmit sermons over all frequencies and masses of
and their most popular show is trips through
refugees and supplicants and pilgrims traveling by foot start to appear.
computer generated hells (which await those
In the midst of wretched refugee camps (surrounded with chain-link
who displease the Haves). Spit bodies writhing
fences, guard towers with massive halogen search lamps, and
in electric fire (don t ask us that's what it
electrified razor-wire) are pylons from which The Word thunders for the
looks like) and the stereophonic pandemonium
faithful to hear. And all the while the white strip in the sky gets thicker
of the damned are popular shows both within
and wider.
the 'Yard and outside.
It is called The Needle and it is an elevator a space elevator to
Heaven (or more appropriately the HeavenSide orbital habitat). It is
Outer Wasteland > South > The Church of
built of the same indestructible egg-shell white material as the Have
the Congregation > Pilgrimage and Tithe
domes but unlike them, it is open. Surrounding the "space port" is a
One way you can convince the Haves you are
circular walled city the Holy City of the Congregation. Beyond those
ready for their return is to make a pilgrimage
walls are the filthy disease and garbage ridden masses that come to
to the Holy city. Hundreds die along the way.
ask for blessing, forgiveness, or hope.
More die from dysentery and pneumonia upon
arrival but a steady stream, bearing all their
The chief tenant of the Congregation is that the Haves left us because
passions flows constantly (that's why the city
we were bad that we were cast out like unruly sons and daughters
is surrounded by garbage) into the holding
and must atone for our wicked ways. The Congregation is powerful and
pens.
enjoys support amongst the superstitious and the desperate. Even in
the BoneYard the Congregation enjoys considerable political power.
And their access to the secrets of the Heavenside station, perhaps the
Outer Wasteland > South > The Church of
only remaining Have habitat that is actually opened gives them
the Congregation > The Lottery
bargaining tools in the political machinations in which they engage.
And once it a while the Pilgrimage "pays off."
Each year, a drawing of 10 of the supplicants
is chosen to ascend they are taken to a
platform and give their thanks to the
Outer Wasteland > South > The Church of the Congregation > The
wondrousness of the Haves and then they
Tower of Song
enter the needle and are carried up and
About 150 miles East of the Needle, in the desert, is a crater. In that
up and up. They are never seen nor heard
crater is a piece of one of the orbital that crashed to earth some 95
from again.
years ago. No one is certain of what event led to the ejection of a piece
of the station or if it s landing spot was random or not but it's there
and it "sings" babbling in the telepathic spectrum. You can hear it for
Outer Wasteland > South > The Church of
miles.
the Congregation > The Book
The Tract the text of the beliefs of the
People come from the Ring and the Yard to do penance there (it's a
Congregation is ubiquitous throughout the
pilgrimage) and to visit the outpost around it (which has enough
remaining world. It is sold by missionaries and
inequity that you can go back and do double penance after spending a
updated constantly. In some stops it is a crime
night there). It's a rough outpost and the pilgrims that aren t well
not to hold the latest book (and you never
defended get robbed regularly. But if you're at the Tower, you can listen
have the most recent) of course the
to the "music" the almost incomprehensible babble of voices from its
roadblock will be happy to sell you one for a
broadcast and you can imagine that maybe its saying something to
reasonable price.
you. It's weird, I can tell you that. Or you can make the big donation
that "assures you a place" when the Haves return and the monks will
take you down to the still burning reactor chamber and open the three
seals and let you look in & and blind you.
32
Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Outer Wasteland > South > The Church of the Congregation > The Needle
The space elevator is called The Needle by almost everyone and from a distance it looks like a bright white,
perfectly straight needle that pierces the sky. The Hierarchy, the Pharms, even the Kingdom of IZ would love to
capture it to see what wonders lie in the floating habitat to which it connects. Perhaps the doors at the top of the
Needle are sealed but no body thinks so the Congregation certainly alludes to the wonders that will be bestowed
upon everyone when we are good enough and the Haves bless us with their return.
Although the Congregation has a very elite fighting force, it is small and close enough to the 'Yard that the Hierarchy
could take it in a fight but that has not happened (and probably never will): the Three Protocols ensure it.
The First Protocol: If attacked if an army approaches the outer wall, the first protocol will be enacted: the senior
members of the church will enter The Needle and the Church's army will attempt to hold the wall.
The Second Protocol: If the wall is breached, from within The Needle, the doors (un-openable, and unbreakable)
will be shut and the elders will ascend, rising up to Heavenside station.
The Third Protocol: If the army does not fully surrender the lead technician will generate a random locking code for
the doors and throw a switch: the control chambers will be flooded with a persistent, deadly nerve agent forever
sealing it from the inside. No one will ever use it again
Outer Wasteland > East > The Onion Empires and the Kingdom of IZ
PRECIS: The Kingdom of IZ rests on Outer Wasteland > East > The Kingdom of IZ > the Hourglasses
the far outer edge of the Outer Travelers have reported that within the city there is a hall of 24 pillars,
Wasteland. East of IZ, there is toxic appearing in the forms of hourglasses. They are filled with a thick green
industrial cityscape and poisoned liquid and are fully twice the size of a man. Indeed, within the chambers
fields. The air is deadly. The ground is are men curled into fetal positions, neither moving nor breathing
radioactive, and ancient battle suspended in the solution. The liquid drains slowly over decades. At
machines still prowl the land. some point the men will be exposed and, perhaps, awakened. Each of
Furthermore, even the most dedicated the men appear as idealized "gods" and each bears a number
expeditions have traveled into that appearing as a birthmark, rising naturally from the flesh. Some say that
wasteland and found & nothing. when the last member of the kingdom dies off, the beings in the glasses
Maps tell of an ocean still further will be born and mankind will fall before them; but nothing is really
East but it has never been reached. known for sure.
The Kingdom of IZ revolves around
Outer Wasteland > East > The Kingdom of IZ > the Expiration
20th and 21st century technology
Soldiers
massive industrial plants hundreds
The Kingdom of IZ has little by way of Have era technology save what it
of them, still run (their power sources
salvages (mostly in the form of ancient machines) and what it trades for
unknown but more and more stop
(it trades with the Salt and Pepper complexes, deep-wasteland
every year and they're closer to
prospectors who bring back relics, and The Hierarchy and the Pharms).
running out of people than plants).
However, it has developed its own peculiar breed of Cyborgs. The
Were it not for a working Distro-Point
Expiration Soldiers are thought by some to be phantoms but others
in the 'Yard, IZ would be the
swear they are all too real. They are hooded figures (wearing dark brown
predominant military power on earth.
desert robes that hide their face). Beneath the cloth they are only barely
human. A cybernetic tank keeps the heart and lungs and brain alive but
But they are not. It is said the people
beyond that they are robots and not the relatively clean robots the
worship clocks: time-clocks by which
Haves would have built. They are black-metal clawed nightmares
they live and regulate their lives.
pulley systems, gears, pumps and articulated motors replace bone,
Whether this is true or not, observers
muscle, and tendons. Their faces are misshapen sheets of glass with red
have reported that as a society they
sensor-lasers beneath. Their voice a raspy hiss through a "throat-
are slowly "winding down." There are
mounted" speaker. They are said to shamble as they move but move
more deaths and fewer births each
they do tirelessly, needing neither food nor water, but extracting
year. Although military machinery is
nutrients from air and heat. They are assassins with built in poisoned
produced (mostly sold to the Onion
weapons, expertly aimed firearms, and possessors of exotic combat
Empires for food the Kingdom of IZ
techniques. Their job is to kill those who rebel against the Time Clocks
cannot grow its own in the deep rusty
and to "collect" the lives of those whose time has "expired."
desert and the fields poisoned by
industry).
33
Copyright © Marco Chacon, 2003. Permission granted to copy for personal use
Outer Wasteland > East > The Onion Empires
Head east, across red desert and into the Outer Wasteland and you'll find, amongst the dunes and the ruins, and the
other things a series of roads that fork and lead to great miles in radius cement pipes that rise several hundred
yards out of the sand. These pipes are marked with fading painted numbers and symbols and their purpose remains
a mystery. Built on a scale that is unimaginable they must be Have-era constructs but the technology is not utra-
modern. In any event, within their walls are cement basins with tubes that run to seemingly infinite water wells. Within
these massive walls, cities have been built (soil imported from the greener lands centuries ago, terraced fortresses
built up the walls, and entryways carved or blasted in the outer ring.
Outer Wasteland > West > The Pacific Desert and the Shelf
Outer Wasteland > West > The Yiggs
PRECIS: West is, mostly, the Grand Ruins there are two: LA to Tijuana
Up at the northern edge of the San
and San Francisco. Both of these are massive, quiet, and deadly. Mostly
Francisco Grand Ruins are the Yiggs.
 still standing you can see them from a great distance like concrete-gray
They're trees some 300 stories tall. I've
mountain ranges against the western sky.
seen them hell, you can see them
pretty easily if you know what to look
But you can go past them and down the Shelf off into the Pacific Desert.
for it looks like a nice green cloud of
There s a pretty big drop and down there down there it gets weird fast
smoke but when you click in on the
and hot and dry and mean. Real mean. But you can get around there
field glasses you suddenly see & trees.
and visit the nomads on the other side of the city. Many of them have never
These things are big I was told by a
even heard of the BoneYard a lot of them speak a language we don t know
psychic that in the end days the trees
much about. They have their own legends about what happened to the
got their wishes granted and their
world. You can get there if you re dedicated. A lot of people don t come
wishes were to be huge and they are.
Incredibly. And they're not happy with
Outer Wasteland > West > The University
us. That's what the psychic told me
Smack in the middle of the Grand Ruins is one last gasp of an earlier age.
and I believe her.
The University with the most powerful Research and Development Artilect
(artificial intelligence) left on the planet is an enclave armed, with walls,
In the Age of War there were columns
surrounded by rubble and death that recalls an earlier time. If you can get
of armor and powered infantry that
there (armed convoys run like clockwork buy only two or three times a
were moved through there. They
year) or even get in you get to see a  campus that real students lived at
stopped doing that: the hardware
centuries ago. They have deep reservoirs and the campus is green. There
wasn't coming back out. I've been to
are classes people working to try to reclaim the Breakthrough to
the outskirts of the trees (they come up
understand the mysteries of time and space and history and everything.
right out of the city ruins so getting
there is a trick and half already and I
To most people who even know about it, the kids there taken at a young
can tell you it feels eerie.
age there are teams who travel around with computerized testing kits it s
just a magnificently unfair lottery. To people in power it s (mostly) seen as a
And I've seen tapes old Age of War
waste of money and resources.
tapes. I've seen arms, still twitching,
holding laser rifles sticking right out of
But the Hierarchy the family that controls the BoneYard the most
the massive sides of the trees. I've
powerful force on earth and perhaps one of the most ruthless keeps
seen a tape slowed down so you
writing the checks keeps sending the trucks because who knows, some
could see it of an Armored Personnel
day it might pay off.
Carrier getting sucked under into the
earth solid earth that a tank had just
If you can get out there on official business, take a look around. Inside the
rolled over so fast you'd blink and miss
walls you d never know the world ended. It s a nice, safe, quiet little world
it. There's an intellect there and
where they don t allow weapons or narcotics or foolin around if you aren t  of
secrets amongst those mammoth
age and married. It s weird. And just having been there hurts sometimes
trees no one I've ever met has
knowing that once that was normal and now it s almost all gone.
journeyed far inside.
34


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