Moe Lane

Smoke-Clouded Transylvania – Google Docs

Smoke-Clouded Transylvania

[The Day After Ragnarok]

In theory, the portions of Kentucky that were on the far side of the Appalachian mountain range should have come through the Serpentfall reasonably well, at least by post-apocalyptic standards.  And, as far as anybody remembers, for the first three months or so people in Kentucky seemed to be more or less surviving about as well as anybody else. Then again, people weren’t actually surviving that well in the Poisoned Lands; so it took a while for others to really notice that cities in Kentucky were disappearing from the radio waves, and that neither raiders nor traders were coming out of either the coalfields or the bluegrass. It took even longer for enough of the local Mayoralities to recover to the point where they could afford to pay for adventuring parties willing to survey the area.

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Pollocobras – Google Docs

Pollocobras

Cygnus columbianus malumultra

[The Day After Ragnarok]

This monstrosity from northern Mexico used to be the humble tundra swan, until venom from the Serpentfall turned it into a rapacious flying nightmare with the instincts of a locust. While pollocobras are still herbivores, a flock of them can clean out a field of grain within hours — and they spit gobs of poisonous mucus at anyone who interferes with them. Or otherwise annoys pollocobras, which can include simply being in the same county with one.  

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Horse-Eaters of Rockford – Google Docs

The Horse-Eaters of Rockford

[The Day After Ragnarok]

City: Rockford, Illinois

Population: 20,000/100,000

Controls: parts of northern Illinois

Government: Despot

Problem: Hostile City: Chicago

Heroic Opportunity: Mercenary Work

City Aspect: Tense.

Rockford’s elected mayor was assassinated about one month after the Serpentfall by would-be Marxist revolutionaries; they might have succeeded in actually taking over the city, except that factionalism immediately turned bloody among the revolutionaries.  When the dust settled, the city found itself to have been instead taken over by Sgt. Frank Hammer, a soldier from the local Camp Grant who was in the right place at the right time. Hammer had two advantages: the first was the enthusiastic help of selected ‘rehabilitated’ World War II POWs at Camp Grant; and the second was his seizure of the Ken-L Ration factory, and its supply of canned foodstuffs.  Horse meat might have been fit only for dogs in America, but by the winter of 1945 Americans were ready to eat dogs if that’s what it took.

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Grand Vizier Bartholomew Morraine – Google Docs

Grand Vizier Bartholomew Morraine

[The Day After Ragnarok]

Bartholomew Morraine is the very model of a classic grand vizier: he is tall, saturnine, sports a goatee, wears silken robes whenever he can get away with it, and never goes anywhere without his blackwood staff.  He is currently more or less in charge of whatever North American petty-kingdom the players next encounter, and it is widely (and accurately) whispered that Morraine is a sorcerer of no little skill. Certainly he has no trouble with binding others to Morraine’s service, and probably his will as well.  Ah… the King’s (or Premier’s, or President’s, or Mayor’s) service, of course.  There’s always a figurehead in place, while Morraine rules from the shadows. He prefers it that way.

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Roomans – Google Docs

Roomans

[The Day After Ragnarok]

For some reason, the English had been always peculiarly interested in kangaroos and wallabies, to the point of importing them to British soil.  Most of these creatures died in the Serpentfall, of course; the few survivors were horribly mutated and poisoned by the Serpent’s venom. Reports for those parts of the British Isles not under the Serpent increasingly tell of the presence of tall, furry, fully carnivorous monsters with a powerful punch, even more powerful kick, and an unceasing hunger for human flesh. Individually, they’re somewhat nasty but not invulnerable; unfortunately, Roomans run in packs of about six to ten.

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Melvin and the Maniacs

[The Day After Ragnarok]

Melvin Kaminsky is very possibly the best ghoul hunter that the French have, and his team of Maniacs certainly has an exceptionally dramatic track record when it comes to keeping ghouls out of French North Africa. He’s technically a corporal in the U.S. Army: his unit of combat engineers was east of the Serpentfall in Europe, which would have normally meant that they would have been quietly swept up and stuck in a Siberian work camp for, well, ever.  Melvin managed to avoid that fate by successfully convincing the Soviets that he was Jewish (true), that his entire unit was also Jewish (not true), and that they were all eager to go to the People’s Jewish Republic and be good Communist soldiers (not true, either). Melvin is good at talking.

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Steel Nation

[The Day After Ragnarok]

City: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Population: 68,000/350,000

Controls: Southwestern Pennsylvania

Government: Despotism

Problem: Monsters

Heroic Opportunity: Bounty

City Aspect: Militaristic  

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Denvertown, California – Google Docs

Denvertown, California

[The Day After Ragnarok]

Officially, it’s the Owens Valley Resettlement Camp in California; in a heavy bit of irony, the camp existed prior to the Serpentfall as the Manzanar War Relocation Center. The Japanese-Americans who were interned there have long since been repatriated to their (suddenly-vital) farms and fishing boats, of course; in their place were put those who managed to get out of Denver and the Rocky Mountains in the Evacuation of ‘46, but who lacked immediately useful skills (like farming and fishing). The Warren government has had little luck in finding these refugees better living conditions.

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Billy the Barbourian and the Witch of Yazoo – Google Docs

Billy the Barbourian and the Witch of Yazoo

[The Day After Ragnarok]

City: Yazoo City, Mississippi

Population: 4,000

Controls: Yazoo City

Government: Strongman

Problem: Monsters

Heroic Opportunity: Trade Goods

City Aspect: Militaristic.

Yazoo City got through the Serpentfall itself well enough, but the collapse of order and civilization in Mississippi was particularly dramatic. The town only survived because of the leadership of the Barbour family, who adapted to the new conditions with remarkable speed.  Within two years, what was once a family full of lawyers and politicians had transformed itself into a sprawling clan of fighters and scouts of ever-increasing thews. Today, Judge Jeptha Barbour reigns over the Clan of Barbourians, but practical day-to-day leadership seems to be falling upon his brother Billy, who runs scouts and sorties throughout the Delta.

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It is shockingly difficult to track down online what percentage of the population of Yazoo City, Mississippi was African-American in 1940.  It shouldn’t be: the Census asked that question, I believe, and they took down the answers. Shouldn’t this be readily available public information?

Moe Lane

PS: Because I want to know what kind of neo-barbarian tribe would have taken over the town after The Day After Ragnarok‘s Serpentfall, of course.  I was originally going to have it be ruled over by an increasingly-thewed Barbour Tribe, of course — it’s like they’re just handing me the idea — but if the town was already majority-black at the time then I gotta fiddle with the idea some more.