Lewiston, Idaho
Gateway to the Poisoned Lands
It’s not the safest gateway, of course. But with the Utahns taxing the best roads, and what with both the Canadians’ and the Texans’ obtrusive oversight over their own paths to the Poisoned Lands, the caravan route from Lewiston to Minneapolis is the best way to get across the High Plains without official notice being taken. It also helps that Lewiston is at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater rivers, and much more that seismic aftereffects from the Serpentfall created a series of natural dams that made the city accessible by sea, with a little help from engineers.
Between those rivers, its access to Albertan oil fields, and the steady, if still insanely dangerous, Eastern caravan trade, Lewiston is currently booming. It is also, of course, a wretched hive of scum and villainy. Politically speaking, Lewiston is barely under the control of whatever ‘mayor’ has currently wheedled an appointment by the beleaguered state government. The city thus naturally boasts a remarkable number of gangs and ‘caravan escorts:’ the exact line between the two is not always clear. In fact, some of the gangs make for more reliable escorts. This pattern repeats itself throughout the Lewiston underworld; whatever else you can say about Lewiston crooks, they at least stay bought.
Fairly wild rumor has it that all this chaos is encouraged by the US government to hide a planned filibustering expedition to annex Alberta. Or sabotage the Utah state government, or crush the Iowa Soviet; the point is, nobody in the game believes that ‘retired’ OSS agent JJ Angleton is really in Lewiston to ‘soothe his nerves’ after almost getting squashed by the Serpent in Italy. Something is going on in the city. The question for many is: is whoever’s planning something currently hiring?
City: Lewiston, Idaho
Population: 20,000
Controls: Lewiston, Idaho
Government: Machine
Problem: Gangs
Heroic Opportunity: Mercenary Work
City Aspect: Corrupt
I’ve spent some time in that area. If you want to fill this out a bit more, I’d be happy to help.
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For starters, Lewiston is down in a hole, and there are only a few land routes out of it.
Also, the Nez Perce tribe is pretty dominant in that river valley and has very good relations with the whites (many of whom actually live in the reservation, with full property rights! Most reservations are deeply depressing. These are some of the few that aren’t. Some of the towns even give the Mormons a run for their money when it comes to bucolic.) In the failure of central government and broken lines of communication, they’re going to be a major player.
By all means. I wrote it up because the core rulebook mentioned a bunch of American cities in the setting, and I’m putting together a fan-based gazetteer of each one of them. It’s cool how the entries write themselves, after just a little research on Google and Wikipedia.
When I was in Lewiston (spent a few months there in ’94), the Potlatch paper mill was the single most important thing in the city. The smell from it was the first thing that you noticed when entering the city. And it was by far the single largest employer.
If the factory is still around in this setting, then it’s probably the dominant power within the city.