Rivers in the Barrens:Main Page

"The overriding problem is to change the structure of society so that people gain power. The best arena to do that is the municipality — the city, town, and village — where we have an opportunity to create a face-to-face democracy." - Murray Bookchin

"Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better." — Albert Camus

Game Threads

IC Thread
OOC Thread
Recruitment Thread
Re-Recruitment Thread

Characters

Character	Player	Concept	Notes
Sunflower	sizzle	Physical Adept	Ascetic
Promo (Character Sheet)	Fedifensor	Media / Decker	Former Horizon reporter
Coppertop	NightGoblyn	Rigger	Scion of a wealthy family
Shrike	Corrigon	Street Samurai	Former military
Rouge	Eplov	Shapeshifter Magician	Awakened Fox

Retired Characters: Ushitara, Twilight, Pyrus, Doc Wilson, Doctor_Potre, Amber, Archimedes (Archie)

Group Resources

Shadowruns

Poisoned River - BTL Warehouse Run (Post #1)
The Tarnished Star - Lone Star Protest (Post #287)
Fall and Rise of Icarus - Glenn Arcologies (Post #704, formal briefing #732)
Short and Sweet - TBD (Post #1468)

Contacts (Current)

"Crazy Ivan" [Everyone]: Operator of The Wall, a dive bar in northeastern Ashbarrow, who claims to be a retired member of Black Star. This grizzled anarcho-syndicalist dwarven fixer is not at all Russian, but he does speak the language and put on the accent, because "you would not be buyink Kalashnikov from Canadian, da?" Behind the bar's façade, Ivan moves civilian goods, information, and shadowrunner/revolutionary essentials through Ashbarrow and beyond; the notion that he's "retired" is probably more unbelievable than the claims of being ex-Black Star. Ivan has a complicated relationship with Tylr Mikell, owner of the Working Class - Ashbarrow's *other* leftist bar.

Joe Jones, AKA Double J [Sunflower]: He's a 30ish orc man, who dabbled as a shadowrunner for awhile, but got out of it, because "that shit is bad for your karma, you know?" Cool and laid back, he now works as a bouncer at The Wall, where he's good at talking down rowdy customers before violence happens. Owns a customized Evo Falcon off-road bike, which he occasionally lets Sunflower borrow ("..., but I'm charging you for every new dent I find in her, understand?")

Lizzy McDonald [Sunflower]: A human woman, aged 24. She's a comparative religions grad student at the University of Washington who is particularly interested in new religious movements (NRM), which includes cults like the one Sunflower grew up in. She's been occasionally interviewing Sunflower about his experiences. She's a fast talker who fixates on the task at hand, often to the exclusion of everything else. She sometimes slums it at The Wall, which is how she met Sunflower.

Vassili Sideras [Coppertop]: The patriarch of the sprawling and influential Sideras family. The Sideras are mostly orks with a handful of satyrs by birth, but both humans and trolls have married into the family. Vassili owns Sideras Repair and Body, which started as an auto garage about a century ago and has since expanded into all kinds of repair work. He has ties to the Orc Rights Commission, but usually isn't interested in "talking politics" with people.

Hordemode [Coppertop]: Presents himself as a Reality Hacker that specializes in running swarms of micro- and mini-drones, but only meets in VR. Has a good line on hacked software and illicit drone components.

Mr. McKenzie [Promo]: Promo's guardian angel in Horizon and his former producer. A Horizon media mogul with considerable sway over local operations, McKenzie cancelled a pending wetwork operation on Roscoe and arranged a freelancer position so Promo could keep submitting stories.

Contacts (Former Characters)

Victor Nguyen [Ushitara]: A "fisherman" who technically lives up in Everett, but frequently comes down the Puyallup River into Ashbarrow. Vic actually does fish, but he's *also* a smuggler and small-time coastal pirate, of the strictly inglorious variety. He's usually full of tales from friends in low places, even when the catch of the day isn't a net full of grenades.

Abigail Petrowski [Twilight]: A member of the Petrowski family of farmers. Twilight met Abby at Petrowski Farms and befriended her over a mutual love for animals. Abigail knows a lot about what goes on around the farm, but not about that occurs off of it.

Kenna Dahl [Amber]: Amber's older sister, who works as a bartender at the Working Class.

Gillian Higurashi [Amber]: A Horizon News Network investigative reporter willing to brave the barrens for a scoop. Amber suspects Gillian is actually corporate spy, but is willing make trade for the high-level information Gillian is privy too. Of course, that information is filtered through Horizon's interests. Always keep in mind: you are not immune to propaganda.

Karli Svensdottir [Amber]: A talismonger of Norse magical paradigm whose services Amber makes use of, based out of Loveland. Markedly amoral, Karli sells her wares to Odinists associated with Humanis and more old-school fascists without hesitation. Her craftsmanship is trustworthy, that's about it.

Ahamkara [Pyrus]: [WIP]

Kseniya Kuznetsov [Pyrus]: [WIP]

Important People

Alarota, AKA Vainav Andavan (He/Him): The founder and presumed leader of Icarus. Rarely left the group's headquarters, leading to rumors about if he was even still alive. Witnesses consistently described him as a thin, Latino, human male with dark brown skin and long, greying, black hair. Presumed to be awakened due to the deeds ascribed to him, though separating truth from urban legend is difficult. The First Teacher was confirmed to exist when Amber met Alarota in person to request aid against the Blights.

In the following course of two shadowruns, the runners learned that Alarota is more a role or character played by Vainav Andavan, aka former Televisa actor Keshvad Khan. Andavan has clear history, and responsibility, relating to the Homeoessentiacoccus proteus project, and thus to Aztechnology, Saffra, and the Blights. He seems to have joined Icarus early on after a struggle with depression and substance abuse. Alarota accompanied the shadowrunners on the Glenn Arcologies raid, prepared to sell his life as the target of a powerful ritual magic bomb. However, thanks to the shadowrunners' extraordinary methods, the bomb wasn't necessary and Andavan survived.

Eleesh (She/Her): De facto leader of Icarus' militia, the Wardens. A mystic adept of above average might, Eleesh is skilled at close quarters combat using blade or shotgun, highly athletic, specialized in enhancing magics, and a capable tactician. Fiercely loyal to the Icarus cause and prickly with outsiders. Eleesh accompanied the shadowrunners when they raided by corrupted hydroponics farm at Glenn Arcologies.

Snake_Charmer (He/Him): A veteran member of the Reality Hackers who specializes in communicating with artificial intelligences. Knows how to safely uplift certain types of near-intelligent program into true AI. Irked at being kept out of the loop by Crazy Ivan regarding the raid on the black BTL factory, Snake_Charmer tried to spy on the handoff between the shadowrunners and Mr. Johnson. Later sought out by Promo to help uplift BASILISK BLACK IC into an AI.

Medusa (She/They): Former BASILISK Black IC, now evolved into a Xenosapient AI. Detailed in post #723 of the OOC thread.

Dr. Hajera Sultana (She/Her): A humanitarian street doc in Ashbarrow, and an open member of the Anarchist Black Crescent (essentially a decentralized, anarchist version of Doctors Without Borders). Dr. Sultana runs the only medical clinic in Ashbarrow worthy of the name, treating those most in need for free.

Duane Petrowski (He/Him): Patriarch of the Petrowski family, whose farming complex in Puyallup district has defied volcanos, economic collapses, and hordes of go-gangers. Employment on Petrowski's farm is one of the few legitimate paying jobs available to inhabitants of the Puyallup barrens, but his family isn't a charity - they sell their crop for profit.

Lon Campa (He/Him): Mayor of Puyallup district, and the city's only orcish mayor. Mayor Campa gets his strongest support from Carbonado, but works hard for all inhabitants of the district. Lon is also the first Puyallup mayor in years who isn't a puppet for organized crime, possibly explaining the two attempts on his life since he was elected.

Sojourn (They/Them): A shapeshifter mystic adept who considers themself as much an orc as a hyena, Sojourn is a respected activist among neo-anarchists and minority rights groups alike. A good friend of Crazy Ivan, Sojourn is a member of the Barricades and often bartends at The Wall. Their friendship with Ivan was strained after Ivan's reckless decision making at the Lone Star protest, with Promo advising the two to spend time apart on separate tasks in the aftermath.

Survivor (Any/All): A potent spirit of man within the court of Rat, Survivor was called forth by Nez in her final moments and has since persisted in the barrens as a free spirit. Survivor's current goals are unknown, though she set up a cult to herself within the homeless encampment next to Glenn Arcologies. He purports to dislike needless death and to be a poor fighter. Survivor dislikes the Viridian Wind and Icarus, and warned Promo not to trust them: "There is nothing that kills quite like good intentions."

Tylr Mikell (They/Them): Owner of the Working Class restaurant in "The Weeds" between Puyallup City and Ashbarrow. A democratic socialist, Tylr alternatively cooperates or clashes with the more anarchist elements in the Ashbarrow, while developing strong connections with mainstream center-left Seattle politicians and worker's unions. Their strained relationship with "Crazy Ivan" is renowned in Ashbarrow and the subject of much idle speculation. Hired Archie and Shrike to protect the other shadowrunners during the Icarus jobs on their own initiative.

Vök Rútsson (She/Her): Local head of the Rútsson family, who operate the unauthorized Landsblood Artery power plant in Hell's Kitchen. Vök handles the business and community side of the Artery's operations, leaving engineering and maintenance to her sister Voney, Voney's husband August Kresinger, and their employees. Widely believed to have connections to the Stonecutter's Guild.

Key Adversaries

Kenneth Brackhaven (He/Him): Governor of Seattle Territory, Brackhaven is a member of the Archconservative Party. Brackhaven's policy focus seems to be advancing his barely veiled human (and white) supremacist agenda. Pounding the old "law and order" canard, many fear Brackhaven will repeat the bad old days of the late 30s under Governor Allison. Brackhaven's economic platform is blatantly pro-corp, with tax cuts and "business friendly" policies exchanged for the assistance of corporate security in the "war on crime."

The Gardener (?/?): A powerful toxic magician who serves the metaplanar entity Antichthon, the Gardener is the mastermind behind the Blights. Made a personal appearance at the protest to cause chaos and carnage - spoke to Amber of "revenge" at the time. Had a much more solemn demeanor when manifesting to beg Sunflower not to destroy the portal to Antichthon hidden below Glenn Arcologies. Presumed still alive.

Nez (She/Her): a rat shapeshifter and mystic, Nez allied herself with the Troll Killers and their yakuza patrons at the black BTL warehouse. The agreement seemed to involve Nez warding the building in exchange for being able to do magical experiments on the Troll Killers' captives. What little the shadowrunners could comprehend of her work involved isolating a genetic cause for awakened abilities, possibly with the goal of passing on her heightened sapience to her offspring. Nez had a portion of the Viridian Wind's soul bound in a totem, but Amber and Sunflower freed it. Deceased.

Saffra AKA Dr. Serafina Valerio Ueman (She/Her): Arcanist, parabiologist, and lead researcher on the Homeoessentiacoccus proteus project in the 2050s, Andavan recruited Saffra to restart her research for Icarus. However, repeated failures eventually pushed her to join with the Gardener, betraying Icarus and opening a portal to Antichthon. By the time the shadowrunners found her, Saffra had willingly fused with toxic spirits. Deceased.

Shotozumi-gumi: The leading and most traditionalist branch of the yakuza in Seattle, the Shotozumi-gumi is organized and run like a business association, with Hanzo Shotozumi as its chairman. They offer their 'protection' to residents of their territory and strike deals with corporations to avoid disruptions of business and smooth underworld connections. Beyond protection rackets, the Shotozumi have interests in gambling parlors and “entertainment” services like prostitution, chip-dealing, and smuggling (including human trafficking, often straight into or out of their other concerns). Kuga Ieyasu AKA Akai Kōto, one of Hanzo Shotozumi's personal bodyguards and enforcers, was present at the black BLT warehouse in Ashbarrow; this is notable as normally yakuza operations in Puyallup are left to the lowly Kenran Kai branch.

Tacoma Forever: A majority orc gang that holds territory in Tacoma and northwest Loveland. Coppertop's family has history with the gang's boss, Spring-Heeled Jack, as well as Jack's hatchetman, Zakriz Taz'rakk. Based on their appearance alongside the Pacific Suns at the Lone Star protest, Tacoma Forever seems to be working with, or suborned by, the yakuza. One of their leaders and heavies, Bad Enough Trog, was subdued and detained at the protest.

Troll Killers: A third-stringer gang made up of human supremacists, known for extreme violence against metahumans (especially orcs and trolls). Has lately become more active and better equipped, as seen at the black BTL warehouse. Presently run out of Ashbarrow thanks to the shadowrunners' efforts.

Major Concepts

The Blights: Local name applied to the sudden slew of widescale problems facing Ashbarrow since early 2072.

• Concrete and brick edifices fracture and crumble as though suddenly exposed to a fierce freeze-thaw or unfelt earthquake. This first type of degradation heavily stems from existing structural weaknesses, but even slight dent and cracks suddenly expand over the course of days to hours rather than months to years.
• Metal tarnishes and rusts at an enhanced pace. Especially worrisome accounts claim even metals that are painted, kept in dry areas, or oiled can begin to oxidize.
• Weeds, ivies, moss, and other encrusting plants grow quickly and spread aggressively - akin to bamboo or kudzu. Anyone with botanical knowledge can tell this isn't entirely natural.
• A new respiratory illness that causes patients to cough up thickening, rust-colored phlegm. Uncreatively called "Rust Throat" by Ashbarrow inhabitants, this illness results in progressive inflammation of the throat and eventually the lungs. Rust Throat is particularly dangerous when combined with inhaling volcanic ash. There are untested claims the disease also causes behavioral alterations.
• Discovered to be caused by proliferation of toxic-resonant Homeoessentiacoccus proteus.

Setting Information

Year: Summer 2072

Country: UCAS (Seattle Territory)

The United American and Canadian States is the remnants of the United States and Canada after the Ghost War, the secession of the California Free State, the Confederation of American States, Quebec, and Florida joining the Caribbean League.

While still one of the wealthiest nations in the world on paper and a nuclear power, the UCAS is by and large a hollowed-out shell propped up by the megacorporations. The megacorporations find the continued existence of the UCAS convenient, because they rely on the economic scaffolding and laws laid out by the United States in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

City: Seattle

Seattle is a territory of the United American and Canadian States, and the nation’s only remaining port on the west coast of North America. The Seattle area was inhabited by Native Americans of the Duwamish tribe for at least 10000 years before being colonized by Europeans in 1851. The city was retained by the USA, soon-to-be UCAS, following the Treaty of Denver in 2018. Since then, Seattle has existed as UCAS territory while completely enveloped by the Salish-Sidhe Council on all sides. Within the borders of the territory, Seattle expanded into and merged with several satellite cities, including Everett, Redmond, and Tacoma.

The city’s peculiar political position is the product of conflict avoidance, corporate convenience, and mutual benefit between the Salish-Sidhe Council, Tír Tairngire, and the UCAS. The city allows UCAS to maintain a presence on the west coast, gives corporations a port free of the NAN’s strict customs and environmental policies, supports Salish-Sidhe’s tourism industry, grants Tír Tairngire a trade window to the world without completely opening itself up, and gives all three nations around the Emerald City a way to exchange cultural and political dissidents. These competing interests, and the city’s premier placement near national borders by land and by sea, makes Seattle a haven for smugglers and shadowrunners.

The Emerald City is home to over 3,000,000 people in 2072. Seattle is home to a diverse and multifaceted culture, arising from the unique crossroads where people from the UCAS, NAN, Tír Tairngire, many Asian nations, and other international travelers and immigrants meet. Seattle’s original culture is strongly rooted in the old United States, but time, isolation from the main body of the UCAS, and elements from foreign cultures have led to many changes in Seattle’s social character. This social character is further granularized by the metroplex’s division into 1 consular and 11 municipal districts.

District: Puyallup

Puyallup is the second major barrens district in Seattle – bigger than Redmond in area, but with less than half the population density. Prior to the Ghost War of 2017, Puyallup was comprised of various Seattle suburbs grading into parks and fertile farmland. Then, in deterrence against the United States’ and Canada's genocidal Resolution Act, Daniel Howling Coyote and allied magicians detonated the Cascade Range in 2017. Puyallup took the collateral damage head-on, as pyroclastic flows and lahars swept down from Mt. Rainier into the southeast Seattle suburbs. The survivors of the eruption were soon joined by exiles fleeing the formation of the Salish-Sidhe Council and the other Native American Nations, unwilling to abide by NAN laws or believe assurances of peaceful co-existence*. Seattle and the megacorporations initially tried to rebuild the Puyallup region, some seeking to exploit lava fields for geothermal energy, but Crash 1.0 derailed those ambitions. Abandoned thereafter, what was left of Puyallup slid into becoming what is now known as a “barren.”

>* In contrast to the default Shadowrun lore, in my version of things the NAN reasserted their ancestral rights to the land and attained self-determination without exiling every non-indigenous person. The goal of the NAN was to create a harmonious, culturally diverse, and sustainable society - results since 2018 have varied, but the fears of the refugees who flooded into Seattle never came to pass.

The district’s reputation as one giant refugee camp was cemented in 2039 under the human-supremacist regime of Governor Victor Allison, who rounded up all the city's meta-humans into a series of warehouses for “deportation.” The situation exploded when the Metroplex Guard began opening fire on the trapped masses, with the ensuing slaughter and desperate escape resulting in countless deaths. Protests and riots erupted in a "Night of Rage" as the escapees fled and new of the atrocity broke, some led by metahumans and their progressive human supporters, others led by fascists trying to “finish the job." A large number of metahuman refugees fled to Puyallup in the wake of the Night of Rage and never returned to their former homes. A second Puyallup revitalization effort was subsequently begun, and swiftly abandoned, in the 2040s.

In the three decades since, Mountain Rainer erupted again, several more humanitarian crises ensued, and the SINner population of Puyallup contracted towards Tacoma as the barrens expanded. Throughout it all, a steady stream of debris — both ash and people — trickles into the Puyallup Barrens.

Puyallup district is informally divided into further sub-districts or neighborhoods, most of which are not officially recognized by the metroplex government. The most important of these are:

• Ashbarrow: A neighborhood nestled within the rotting shell of abandoned urban sprawl, which experiences regular and severe ashfalls from Mt. Rainier. Your neighborhood.
• Carbonado: A collection of mining and timber ghost towns re-inhabited by refugees and squatters. The majority demographic is orcs, many of whose families fled here after the Night of Rage, but outcasts of all sorts are welcome in Carbonado’s derelict company apartments and mines. The residents have attempted to salvage from, or even revive, several of the mines.
• Hell’s Kitchen: An almost uninhabited field of lava flows, geysers, and boiling mudpots left in the wake of Mt. Rainer’s 2017 eruptions. The landscape is largely barren, save for the occasional rusting hulk of a derelict geothermal plant. Tourists and mages on pilgrimage are about the only people who come here, and never for very long.
• Loveland: The largest sub-district of the Puyallup barrens, Loveland covers the northwest of the region. Loveland is the most densely populated and violent region of Puyallup, with the crime rate driven by competing efforts to control the local vice industry, black market, and smuggling routes. The primary players are the Shotozumi-rengo and the Commissione, but both sides mostly use lesser street gangs as pawns. Despite all that, Loveland actually has (spotty) matrix-linked municipal services, facilities, stores, and restaurants, unlike the rest of the barrens. As a result, it is a popular, if dangerous, destination for tourists looking to slum in the local nightlife.
• Petrowski Farms: The Petrowski family has stood tall against economic collapse, bandits, and volcanic eruptions for the entire duration of the Sixth World. They still proudly sell their organic produce at the Pike Place Farmer’s Market as they have for more than a century now. That said, some things have changed since the Fifth World, like the triple layered barbed wire and electric fences, or the armed guard towers, or the land spirits said to enrich and defend the place.
• Puyallup City: Sitting between Auburn and Tacoma, Puyallup City is the district’s seat of governance and where most “legitimate” businesses are located. The residents of this relatively middle class, clean, and safe neighborhood put much political effort into fighting perceptions that Puyallup is a lost cause. The dirty little secret of the “Light in the Ashes” is that Puyallup City is propped up almost entirely by organized crime. Administrations sink or swim (sometimes literally) by their ability to judge if the wind is blowing towards the mafia or the yakuza.
• Tarislar: The name of this neighborhood means “Remembrance” in Sperethiel. Home to a large population of elvish refugees displaced by the Night of Rage, as well as exiles and thrillseekers from Tír Tairngire, visitors to this neighborhood receive chilly receptions. Completely abandoned by the metroplex government, Tarislar residents only have access to goods and services they can create, gather, or steal. Security is mostly provided by the Laésa, a Tírian crime syndicate.
• The Weeds: Less its own sub-district and more a transition zone between Puyallup City and the rest of the Barrens. The Weeds is less independent than Ashbarrow, less violent than Loveland, and poorer than Puyallup City. Ashbarrow residents sometimes distinguish between a "North" and "West" Weeds, corresponding to its positioning from Ashbarrow.

Legend: Ashbarrow = grey, Cinders = dark brown; Carbonado = brown; Hell's Kitchen = orange; Loveland = red; Puyallup City = light green; Tarislar = Yellow; The Weeds = dark green. White areas are uncertain or undefined.

NOTE: the rest of Ashbarrow should border the Cinders entirely. Having any part of the Cinders bordered by The Weeds is a mistake.