Librarian's Almanac for May, 2000
May 15
Pueblo Flats (between Las Cruces and Deming, New Mexico) announces that the General Market will accept goods from traders from outside the town walls. Two days later, the crowd has reached excessive levels and the Law Dogs are called in to prevent a potential riot.
The Red Rock Trading company announces regular routes to Near Tucson, AZ, Mogollon, NM, Glenwood, NM and Lordsburg, NM from Sedona, AZ. A general call for caravan guards goes out.
Scouts from the Engineer's Society in Apache Junction (near Phoenix, Arizona) log reports of nocturnal flying creatures with a six-foot wingspan. A substantial reward is offered to the person who can bag and identify one of these swift nightflyers.
A trader from Hobbs, New Mexico arrives with a story of the Carlsbad Caverns being sealed up by cement. The locals talk of hearing mechanical digging sounds from under the earth.
May 18
An air pirate left word in Apache Junction, Arizona that three separate automatons have been seen heading into the Ghost Storms around the ruins of Phoenix.
Randall Bills, a Law Dog of some repute, is organizing a posse to investigate the stories of a caravan stuck in the sands near Yuma, Arizona.
The gunslinger known as Shrike passes on a story of Sykers being found dead in the ruins of Flagstaff, Arizona missing only their right hands.
The mutant enclave outside of Casa Grande, Arizona is found abandoned. The makeshift tents and corrals are still in place but all hundred some mutant have vanished.
May 22
The township of Clint, Texas spreads the word that it will begin to start trading cattle with any village that can supply caravan guards for the trip.
A scout arrives in Near Tucson with a tale of a pack of mutants living in what looks like a fully stocked tractor- trailer depot along an old secondary highway.
The Librarian Templar known as the Silver Nun arrives in Lordsburg with a report of a fleet of three helicopters heading south away from the old Rock Hound State Park.
Scouts from the Convoy have arrived with reports of a survivor settlement in Silver City , New Mexico looking for doctors. No one has any idea what the medical needs are, because the settlement was unwilling to open their gates. The scouts are looking for volunteers.
Templars from up north arrive looking for someone called Verner Fulton. He apparently incited a town in Colorado to tear itself apart in civil war by his words alone.
Schismatic Doomsayers arrive in bad need of medical attention. The nearest healer that is willing to take them in is almost a day's ride off. Are their any volunteers to help these purple robes get aid?
May 31
Traders arrive with news that the community in the ruins of New Mexico State University is selling extraordinary amounts of tooled machinery and well-maintained machines. There is also speculation that there may be more settlements on the university grounds in competition with one another.
Traders from the Maze arrive with tales that the Palo Alto Reactor Plant seems to be lit up in the night and that there is some sort of crude fence that has appeared around the ancient facility.
Junkers from Texas claim to have seen a migration of animals away from the Old White Sands National Park. Birds, dogs, mountain lions, all manner of creature forming a line and heading into the desert to the west.
Schismatic Doomsayers arrive from the ruins of Albuquerque with reports of a whole patrol of Black hats being discovered dead in the passes on the way to the Fortress of Santa Fe. There are no vehicles to be seen and there are no sign of any weapons.
The Convoy arrives in Near Tucson with the wild tale about leaving New Mexico and arriving in Arizona missing the last truck in their lines. No combat, no storms, just gone.
The Red Rock Trading Company has lost two caravans to the high passes in the northern parts of Arizona. There have been reports of packs of shadowy man-like forms stalking among the trees, but no two reports are alike. No one can agree on what the stalkers look like.
The Highway Patrol in California reports the near destruction of the small village of Needles. They were under siege by the large motorized gang known as Red Horse. The gang is large but swift with a variety of vehicles and they sport some serious weaponry. Two Law Dogs, James Carpenter and Two-Bucks Tony Little, are asking for posse volunteers. The lucky folks will be trying to get in to Red Horse as new recruits to find out where their source of parts and weaponry is.