Ugly Acres
Past the Drylands desert, where the Overgrowth has not reached, lies a collection of old farmland, decrepit highways, and abandoned military facilities beneath tall yellow grass and crumbling buildings. Ugly Acres looks bleak from every angle. It also shelters some of the most innocent people left in the wastes.
The residents have lived in extreme seclusion, apart from raiders, the Overgrowth, and the wider conflicts that define life elsewhere in Lorado. Deaths come primarily from mutated animals, accidents, or the rare murder rather than from war or undead. The people are gentle to a degree that feels almost painful to outsiders who know what the rest of the world looks like. This innocence has never been tested by the wastes' worst predators, and increasing numbers of strangers crossing the desert are arriving each year to change that. Some come seeking solace. Others see a fortune in exploiting what has not been tested.
Red Farm sits on the remnants of an old cattle farm, a community composed almost entirely of free Iron Slaves, most of whom have never known slavery. Red Farm produces the vast majority of crafted goods and food in Ugly Acres, recognizable at night by the gentle glow of dozens of Irons visible across the flat terrain. Enterprising Vegasians have discovered Red Farm and begun selling whole families into slavery or to the Pillar of Man as experiments, replacing openness with fear. Further out, the Bunker occupies an abandoned military outpost colonized by Lascarians who expanded underground tunnels. It may be the most heavily and strangely armed community in all of Lorado, though internal violence may have caused a nuclear detonation underground, trapping hundreds of undead in the tunnels below.
Ugly Acres stands on the cusp of becoming either the purest land in Lorado or a dark shadow of exploitation. The innocence is still there. So are the predators.
The residents have lived in extreme seclusion, apart from raiders, the Overgrowth, and the wider conflicts that define life elsewhere in Lorado. Deaths come primarily from mutated animals, accidents, or the rare murder rather than from war or undead. The people are gentle to a degree that feels almost painful to outsiders who know what the rest of the world looks like. This innocence has never been tested by the wastes' worst predators, and increasing numbers of strangers crossing the desert are arriving each year to change that. Some come seeking solace. Others see a fortune in exploiting what has not been tested.
Red Farm sits on the remnants of an old cattle farm, a community composed almost entirely of free Iron Slaves, most of whom have never known slavery. Red Farm produces the vast majority of crafted goods and food in Ugly Acres, recognizable at night by the gentle glow of dozens of Irons visible across the flat terrain. Enterprising Vegasians have discovered Red Farm and begun selling whole families into slavery or to the Pillar of Man as experiments, replacing openness with fear. Further out, the Bunker occupies an abandoned military outpost colonized by Lascarians who expanded underground tunnels. It may be the most heavily and strangely armed community in all of Lorado, though internal violence may have caused a nuclear detonation underground, trapping hundreds of undead in the tunnels below.
Ugly Acres stands on the cusp of becoming either the purest land in Lorado or a dark shadow of exploitation. The innocence is still there. So are the predators.
History
Ugly Acres developed in isolation, sheltered from the wasteland's broader conflicts by the inhospitable Drylands desert that separates it from the rest of Lorado. The community grew slowly among pre-Fall farmland and abandoned military facilities, its people largely unaware of the horrors that defined life elsewhere. Red Farm emerged as a community of free Iron Slaves, most of whom have never known slavery. The Bunker was colonized by Lascarians who expanded underground tunnels to create a heavily armed complex. Internal violence within the Bunker may have caused a nuclear detonation underground, trapping hundreds of undead in the tunnels. The recent arrival of outsiders from the desert is forcing Ugly Acres to confront a world it was never prepared for.
Geography
Ugly Acres sits past the Drylands desert, in territory untouched by the Overgrowth. The landscape consists of old farmland, decrepit highways, and abandoned military facilities beneath tall yellow grass and crumbling buildings. Red Farm occupies the remnants of an old cattle farm, visible at night by the gentle glow of its Iron Slave population. The Bunker, an abandoned military outpost expanded with Lascarian underground tunnels, sits further out. The flat terrain offers little concealment and few natural defenses.
