Matt Black City Report 11 - The Wanderer

Journal of Senior Mag Stevo.
Date 01070117

Day 11 The Wanderer

Today we spotted a lone human moving towards our position. Quickly we moved to intercept him especially as he is the first human we have seen since arriving here.

Monk and I stopped the man with Warren acting as overwatch. Black circled behind him and watched the way he came in case he was a advance scout for a war party.

The man was a "grey hair" as they call older folks out here. Yet he moved like a much younger man. Maybe life in the wasteland has prematurely aged him? His jacket and kit looked ragged and worn. This strange character carried a old hunting rifle with a large knife tied to it so it could be used as a impromptu spear.

 Figure by Project Zeke Miniatures

This raggedy man said he was called "the Wanderer" and he didn't know his real name. He was just a lone nomad scavenger, trading and helping where he can, although I don't fully believe him.

The Wanderer told us that he came across some Trogs the day before. They were not interested in him as he was and he quoted "a weedy ooman, not wurf de effort. No proper fightin wiv im" (note: he even did a Trog voice). The Trogs did seem interested in the amount of scrap and junk they could salvage from a old vehicle wreck.

Images grabbed from one of our patrolling drones show that this gang is still in the area. They show no clan affiliation but all carry red x markings. We shall I.D. them as the Red X mob.

The Red X mob came from a huge box of Orks my friend Xander gave me. I rebased them and added the Red X gang markings. One Trog got a Mek backpack and is mob's blackthumb.

The Wanderer said he had followed the chasm (dry river bed) into the city and had come across two settlements to the east of our position.

The closest is what appears to be a well equipped military unit using old world kit. The Wanderer claims they wore a claw marking. If that is true our nearest neighbours are the infamous Claw Company mercenaries.

The other settlement seemed to hold a group of bandit raiders wearing black. Both settlements will need further scrutiny.

As a Utopia Magistrate I know when some is lying or hiding something and I got nothing. But just in case I had Monk scan his thoughts. She too said he was hiding nothing. We both have come to the conclusion that the old timer is possibly crazy.

Despite Black's protests we gave the Wanderer a meal after which he thanked us, winked and said he had to go. Monk asked if he was going to be ok or need our help. He just turned to us, cackled and said "you better hope that you never need my help!". With that he wandered off.

All this data has been recorded in my daily report to Utopia.

Warren and Monk have been sifting through the data Utopia sent us about these lands and the city as they were.

The city itself is built over thousands of Hab Domes early settlers built. This was over filled covering the domes with plascrete. The cot had a deep network of transport "metro" tunnels. Did humanity survive down there? The tunnels links quite a few blocks and the central shrine, tomb and government buildings. Many blocks had metro entrances in the grounds or in the under levels.

In addition to this a military command bunker is housed under the city along with three SOS bunkers. Dotted around the city is ten recorded Vaultsys vaults for civilians. Sadly it seems none of these installations survived. No doubt the new inhabitants of the ruins will be delighted to find them.

To the west lies the old port now buried ruins. Some fifty miles north there was a space port come repair facility for military craft. I suspect that was destroyed long before the nuclear rain.

Further north there was a coastal military base and a atmosphere air defence base. Most interesting is the notes about a missile bunker/silo. This is linked to the command bunker under the city via a tunnel. I wonder if it is still there?

To the south of the ruins lay much industry including a lead mine which during the latter days of the wars served as a munitions factory. There are notes about a water aquifer and other heavy industrial sites. They are probably long gone.

All we know of the eastern hell zone is that there is a lost Vaultsys Vault some where out there. There are also hints that there are a number of secret laboratories out there too. These are rumoured to have developed several weapons during the wars. These where given the designation prefix X. I hope they are never discovered. This world has suffered enough.

The mountains surrounding the city was once a impact crater probably created long before man walked upright back on Earth. Glaciers and billions of years of weather have carved them into what they are today.

The mountains have/had two military comms/radar bases, an observatory, mines, a power station and many farms. More interestingly there is a Continuance of Goverment (COG) bunker located there. This place would be well hidden and with good reason. Not only does it have all the materials and stores to restart a world after disaster, it has enough kit to equip an army of thousands to fight a war for many years. No one has found it I am sure as there we haven't seen a force like that since before the nuclear fires. Unless that is where the Trogs found the terraforming elements?

In addtion there may be another SOS bunker someplace in those hills. Any of them could set up a kingdom.

Food for thought.