The years following the Uprising have seen many changes for Steel Horse Crossing. Most of the area’s infrastructure was suddenly up for grabs: a naval base, the harbor, a rail hub, mines. All were quickly commandeered by various interests who moved in as the Ironworks crumbled. Their business boomed, making the settlement quite attractive as a remote trade and research hub on the Great lake, away from the oversight of large cities and ethics boards. Underneath it all was a settlement just trying to keep itself together.
The Steelblood mercenaries who had negotiated their way into town in exchange for defense took advantage of their numbers and the sudden power vacuum to take control of Steel Horse Crossing. At the same time, the fascist New United Kinship Movement was worming their way into all levels of the Steelblood hierarchy and furthering their own goals. Unsurprisingly, many of the locals were… displeased, leading to a protracted and ugly conflict that literally split the town in half with the Steelbloods controlling the ‘other side of the river’.
That was the situation Steel Horse Crossing lived in for years without real resolution. Skirmishes. Posturing. Sabotage. Murder. Secret Alliances. Unsecret Alliances. Martial law. Bombings. Assassination. All with stretches of uneasy peace between. It all kind of blurred together into a shit soup that just became part of life, easy enough to ignore as folks still had to keep going on with their day.
The extra problems kept piling up though, and eventually they outweighed the benefits. Steelblood infighting. Rodger’s experiments. Fermi’s experiments. Fungus. Radiation. An abundance of dangerous wildlife. Rumors of Archons. Giant squid monsters in the mines. Aliens. Near Mortis collapse. Saltwise Raids. NUKM. More radiation. Actual Archons.
Despite that much of it has calmed down many folks have already decided to seek their fortunes elsewhere including many Steelbloods.Some have returned home to the larger cities. Some have joined newer settlements forming further afield hoping their situations to be less volatile and less of a target. And some have simply ceased to exist, rendering some parts of SHC a ghost town with many buildings and homes now standing empty.
ARCHONS/OUTSIDERS/GOO-THULHUS
These nightmares were discovered in the area the year before last. The good news is they didn’t seem to be feeling aggressive toward us or intent on destroying us. The bad news is they don’t seem to regard us remotely as a threat and have been studying us like we were particularly interesting ants. They appear to have left since those encounters but there is no real way to be sure. There are more ways to defend ourselves these days and much more information available, thankfully. It doesn’t make them any less concerning.
DOCTOR RODGERS
His experiments with Strains and the Mortis were dangerous and utterly immoral. There isn’t time enough to list off all the shit he did. Anyway his location was given up by one of his own assistants in the end and the town descended on that bunker like a swarm of angry velocigeckos. Word has it that the things that go bump in the night circled up and had a little murderdive party as well but either way, he’s super dead. These fancy new Byproduct syringes were found in the bunker so that was pretty dope. Just don’t think too hard about how the science behind them went.
BLACK FUNGAL DISEASE
BFD ran rampant through town for a while, owing to the terrible shape the Mortis Amaranthine was in after a combination of Rodger’s experiments, Archons, and a few other factors. Thankfully the town got that under control, more or less.
FERMI CHADWICK
The brilliant mind behind Project Arrowhead, determined to bring cheap and plentiful energy to the wastes. Great idea. Terrible execution. The last efforts involved building a nuclear device inside of an Abyssal Stitch procedure to rip open a portal to the home of Archons, believing that it could be harvested as a power source. Fermi was dead by the time the town showed up to stop the process, leaving them to try solving the problem from his notes alone. In the end it was too late to simply shut it off and they were forced to redirect the device’s power into the Mortis itself. Actually removing the device and cleaning up took several months while it continued actively irradiating the entire region.
THE ARCHIVISTS
No one ever tries to ply them for the knowledge stored in their extensive libraries any more but these pains in our collective asses have become strangely popular in recent days, now that this order of Final Knight monks are known to be the source of the best cheese in the Midwastes. They flat refuse to share the secrets of its production but have been open to having it sold in town.
BERTHA HARDWOOD AND HER TEAHOUSE
The be-tentacled Host of Sensation Bertha Hardwood runs the brothel across the river. Her entertainment palace hasn’t seen any loss of profit, customers, or rumors, regardless of what hits the town. As a busy business woman she may not be seen often these days, but her associates may be and she would never say no to a letter.
NEW UNITED KINSHIP MOVEMENT
Despite the Rover supremacy organization enjoying a degree of acceptance or tolerance in the past due to finessing their way into all corners of the Steelbloods, they have largely been driven into obscurity. No doubt there are some remaining in town, but they know better than to claim to be a member or openly wear the NUKM knotwork.
STEELBLOODS
The loss of a single strong leader can be devastating. Dr Rodgers, Zane, Magnolia, Junior Black, amongst many others are all either dead or missing and unsurprisingly it has utterly destroyed Steelblood cohesion. Whole factions like Apex have simply left town. Even many of those that represented the organization just last year in negotiations aren’t around anymore. Other factions have fractured, splintering into smaller families and crews. The ones that remain are ones who genuinely wanted a place to settle down and have been working with the non-Steelbloods on the other side of town to keep things stable. While some cling to the Steelblood name for identity and mutual support, as a monolith force in SHC they are largely defunct. A few Steelbloods came over during the last winter trade, trying to help us with information about the frozen zed swarm.
HUNTERS LODGE - A group of sport hunters and nature lovers have been scoping out new hunting grounds and have been marveling at the largely untouched possibilities around Steel Horse Crossing. They joined up with other local hunters and conservationist groups to better manage activities in the area and protect the ecosystem.
ASTOR & FRICK
One of the firms who invested heavily in the railroads as trade and business restructured. The perceived decline of stability and profit to be found in Steel Horse Crossing has made them nervous. The assassination of one of the Fricks at the Winter “Fuck It, We Ball”, the Labor Union ‘fiasco’, sabotage, and other events this last year have made them exceptionally skittish and ready to withdraw entirely. Rumor has it the Bank is maneuvering to snatch up their remaining assets in the area.
LABOR UNION
Just dealt with a massive worker strike over mine safety. It got kinda heated in the middle. The owner of the Tallywish mines got himself dead after he sent union busters at the strikers. Some say he was mailed explosives. Some say his kid ganked him. Negotiations quieted down real quick after that.
THE LITTLETONS
They’re “Fine.”
THE MORTIS AMARANTHINE
It’s “Fine.”
TOWN GOVERNMENT
Another election. Our new councilors and bribery targets are Canary, Liberty, Miette, Sev, and Wayra. The judges are Jimothy and Michelle; and our sheriffs Alex and Gene.