There have been many interesting announcements this week in The Wastelands, so I’ll get right to it:

UPCOMING EVENTS: Once again, this coming Saturday will see another vicious Fight Night, held at the Arena in Hambone Slash at 3pm SLT.

There will be a Wastelands Public Works meeting in Fort Stygian afterward, at approximately 4pm SLT.

At approximately 5pm SLT, possibly later to accommodate the WLPW meeting, Aposiopesis Fullstop will be spinning an Anti-Valentine’s Day set of skewed and sarcastic love songs at The Pipe Bomb in Malady Bog.

Bait your hooks, because Oku Ghost’s Swamp Rats Fishing Tournaments will continue next Sunday at 12pm SLT at The Pipe Bomb in Malady Bog. In a new feature, the contest will include a Bounty Hunt, where an extra prize will be rewarded to any lucky fisherman, fishermanimal, fishermutant, or fisherghoul who should happen to catch a specific targeted fish. Furthermore, the contest will now be twice as long, and will run until 2pm SLT!    Prizes are L$1000 for first, L$600 for second, L$400 for third, and bait buckets for the fourth and fifth place finishers.

Also, NeoBokrug Elytis intends to create a new pen-and-paper gaming group, open to all Wastelanders and spectators.  The game would follow the Pathfinder 3.5 rulebook, which can be purchased as a PDF for USD $9.99 , and sessions would likely meet from 10am SLT to 2pm SLT every Saturday.  One or two character creation help sessions will be hosted to help newcomers learn the ropes.

EVENTS HIGHLIGHTS: This week saw another rousing rendition of Fight Night.  After a hectic and bloody three-way fight for first place, VoidTraveler Seetan barely defeated Moondoggie Iger, with Enenra Ghost coming in third.  Void received a L$1000 reward for his win, and L$500 and L$250 went to the second- and third-place finalists.  Be sure to read Aki’s full report for more details!

Giuseppe Spicoli returned to host Movie Night at the Burnt Oak Drive-In on Saturday evening.  This week’s fare was 1995’s Sonic Outlaws, a documentary on the legal and moral issues of media copyright law.  Filmed in a collage style itself, the film delved into the legal and ethical impact on musicians like Negativland, the Tape-Beatles, and EBN, who use sampling and audio collage to satirize or criticize the media.

Immediately following the film, DJ Aposiopesis Fullstop set up at the nearby Boat House to play a set of “fair use” themed music, including many bands featured in the film as well as other mash-ups, audio collages, covers, and parodies.

PROJECTS: The Wastelands Public Works meeting that followed Fight Night was a very productive one indeed.  For anyone who missed the notice, Wastelands land-owners can now pick up building textures and corrugated sheet metal sculpts in the Heapkeeper’s Shack just behind the Junkyard telehub point.

Also,  there are free, high-quality Ghoul, Tribal Mutant, and Botan avatars available for everyone on the counter of the shack opposite it.

Furthermore, new and dangerous features may be added to the Fort Stygian sim in the coming days, so be on the lookout. All these textures, items, avatars, and features have been handmade by the WLPW crew, so special thanks go out to them for the hard work! 

ESTATE NEWS: The time has come! Plots of land in Hambone Slash are now ready to rent!  It has features unlike any other sim in the estate, with a different prim bonus and new land sizes — including 512 square meter plots, holding 176 prims, for roughly L$425 a week.  As with other non-Homestead sims, salvage will be spawning on public land — so plot your new scrap-hunting routes accordingly.  More information can be found in the Notecard that was distributed in Group Notices; the full text can also be found in this Forum thread. IM or email NeoBokrug Elytis with any questions or comments.

Neo has also announced that he’ll be spending the week ahead on new Wastelands game content.  The long-awaited new recipes and items should soon be on the way, so prepare for the next wave of the arms race!  But as you bash each others’ faces in over that uncommon crate, keep in mind that the  Healing Rocks may soon see some changes of their own…

Additionally, Neo will be retooling the salvage spawn system.  While most of the improvements will be behind-the-scenes, he did hint that the new system “[...]will allow [him] to make more games that work with salvage.”   Moreover, he discussed a new item to be found in the spawn: a Land Token, which could either be redeemed for paying a portion of your current tier, used to buy a new chunk of land, or sold to someone else for use on their own land.  There would be one Land Token in the spawn each month, and each token would be redeemable “for a 512, valued around L$6625.”

Tele-hub routing continues to be off at the moment, though the matter is still being considered.   If you’ve seen any positive or negative effects, or if you have an opinion, weigh in on the Forum thread found here.

RP NAME-DROPS: Tensions are rising between the Ghouls of the Black Market and the Manimals of the Paw Tribe.

Meanwhile, Tresha Gothly and Steve Eizenhart have founded the Pure Bloods, a clan that seeks to unite Humans for protection and power.

The following is from the Relic Excavator’s bloody and still slightly glowing Field Notes from a few weeks ago.  The writing is clear at first and some words are scribbled out.  But the text becomes messier, scratchier, harder to read as one scans down the three-folded page…

Folks are gathering again at the Potato Farm for War Zone.  A few spectators.  Willing combatants line up, clearly interested in participating.  Too few to make even teams.  Step up and fight folks!  Hope we don’t have to revert to Fight Night.

Tin Man’s tapped me on the shoulder to join the ranks.  Even out the teams.
Team One is myself, Pirate Graves, Zendo Zhangsun, and Malice Shepherd as the captain.
Team Two is Riptorious Ulrik, Oleg Kiranov, Cigi Sahara, and Syruss Constantine standing as their captain.
We plan for a couple to jump the fence, one backing up the other and go for the flag.  The others will guard the exits.
Other team probably do the same or similar.  Tactics vary sometimes.
Usually makes no sense for everyone to jump in for a dance on the traps.
Looking over at the other team, seems like both will keep their guns stowed away.  It’s just clubs, flayers, crowbills, kidney bursters…maybe a rattlesnake.  Time to get ready.

-rough wrinkled creases in the paper from being quickly folded over and stuffed in a pocket-

FIRST BATTLE
Been awhile since I ran the flag out for a long stride.  Forgot how damn sick you get from it.  Head hurts some.  Folks are healing up at the rawks rocks now so I got a bit to jot this down.  (Hmph.  Note to self: You know how to spell ‘rocks’ by now.  The glow’s confusing me.)
Malice got tangled up in the barbed wire when we jumped over, but I cleared it and wound up being the one carrying the greenglow banner.   Kept it for a pretty good spell while the other team gave chase and then I lost track of them.  Nearly lost track of my own team too but Malice caught up with me for the passing.  Tried to give some cover.  Intercept the pursuit but I was still carrying too much of the greenglow from the flag.  Dropped quick and sick and the teams ran out of sight after Malice.  I finally got back to my feet and puked up some fruit I ate earlier.  No idea who had what.

Saw Syruss running with the flag far across the dunes.  Figured I’d see if I still had some of the ole deadeye in me.  Aimed and fired off a few shots from my rifle before it clicked empty.  Didn’t have much left in it anyways but I might’ve tagged him once.  The ghoul dropped soon enough, more from the greenglow sickness I’d wager than any of my bullets, but Riptorious was there to pick up the flag.
I was still too far away and had my hands full with Cigi and Oleg after they’d seen me with the rifle.  Riptorius didn’t have it for too long. Pirate stole it away and I think he kept it until the end.

According to the Tin Man, Team 1 took that battle.
Malice laughs “Same plan, this time I’m gonna make it over the fence.”

-another fold in the thick paper.  Blood stained and dried in the cracks of the crease where it pooled-

BATTLE TWO
Ouch.  Know don’t Don’t know if puked up meat or slugs.  Prbolaly Probly both.  Tough battle.  Malice cleared fence this time and got flag but Syruss yanked it away.  Teams running all over dunes, garrisons, quarry, hanging out in the arena.  Cigi and Oleg persistent.  I snatched it some point.  Not anymore when.  Think I found Pirate by pipeline and gave it to him.  Syruss-n-Slugthrower dished out some hurt.  Outta nowhere.  Stealing again but Pirate got it back.  Then to Malice.  Long line of chasers slashers bashers.  Riptorious came out with the glow-green flag.  Stole it off him at the hilltop, headed south.  I barely had sense in the sick enough get Zendo’s attention for help.  Took the sick trip again.  Woke up to hear Zendo and Malice had finished the battle with flag possession.

Team One claims victory again, winning War Zone.

All bit dizzy, headaikeache, some glowin more than others.  One last match for bloodthirsty watchers.  Last Wastelander standin.  Arena only.  Teams line up in cells as Fog Pit rolls across arena floor.

-a final fold in the torn parchment-

FINAL BATTLE FOR HAPPY FUN GAS TIME
Hooper Gambit hootenanny.  Huffer hi-jinks.  Chain-links.  Gas stinks.  Something rhyme with stinks.  Gonna be sick I thinks.
Fog Pit is uppers and downers.  Runaround rounders.
Slash dash completely smashed.

Who won?  Dunno.  No remember and no matter.
Team 1 got a platter.  Team 2 got a platter.
I want greasy bacon.  Twice-cooked.  Eat later.
Gas and greenglow and a stream of red to dam.
And photos for Press!  I need to shoot them all good and dead!
No, no. I need to shoot the teams for photos.
No.  Shoot photos of teams.
Right.  Now, where are they?
And why am I still writing notes?
Stupid gas.

VoidTraveller Seetan (2) and Malice Shepherd (1). Dassina Andel (absent) came in third.

Fighters were pitted against each other under the classical tournament system this week and matches were as follows:

Round One:

Combatants

Weapons

Map

Winner

Aposiopesis Fullstop Flayer Malice Shepherd Flayer

Fogpit Malice Shepherd

Remarks: Poison damage on Aposiopesis early, though Malice also received some poison damage as well.

Dassina Andel Crowbill, Ripper, Flayer, Nailgun Agustsa Jun Crowbill, Ripper, Rifle, Crowbill

Battlechess Agustsa Jun

Remarks: Long fight, lots of weapon switching, but otherwise tight and few traps sprung.

Cigi Sahara Flayer VoidTraveller Seetan Flayer

Fogpit VoidTraveller Seetan

Remarks: Lots of poison on both sides, VoidTraveller gambling on mass doses of gas to sustain life and hanging on just long enough until combined poison and weapon damage took Cigi down.

Raze Repine Flayer Vikki Placebo Rattler

Fogpit Raze Repine

Remarks: Much poison gas damage on both sides.

Redemption Round:

Aposiopesis Fullstop Flayer Dassina Andel Flayer

Candystore Dassina

Remarks: Minimal mine damage on both combattants.

Cigi Sahara Flayer Vikki Placebo Rattler

Space Inverters Cigi Sahara

Remarks: Moderate mine and spike damage on Vikki.

Dassina Andel Flayer Cigi Sahara Flayer

Minesweeper Dassina

Remarks: Dassina overtook Cigi fast and furious this round. Minimal trap damage overall.

Round Two:

Malice Shepherd Flayer Agustsa Crowbill

The Gap2 Malice Shepherd

Remarks: Agustsa experienced multiple instances of poison and healing gas.  While Malice also took on some mine damage himself, Agustsa continued to take on considerable poison damage and was finally put out running in to a mine.

Raze Repine Flayer VoidTraveller Seetan Flayer

CandyStore VoidTraveller Seetan

Remarks: Overall, a very tight fight, but Raze took on mine damage early and two more times after extended combat, taking him out of the running for finals.

Final Round:

Malice Shepherd Flayer, Nailgun Dassina Andel Flayer VoidTraveller Seetan Crowbill

Eye of the Storm 1 3 2

Remarks: Eye of the Storm is a seldom used map for very good reason - it features a tight cluster of mines, saws and gas traps throughout the arena, with one clear tile in the center.  Coupled with the perception that tight quarters make for dangerous stages for gunplay, perhaps this is why all three combattants emerged with flayers and elected to fight largely along the edges of the arena, where a thin drain ledge serves as quite possibly the largest uninterrupted respite from buzzing saws, hair-trigger mines and noxious fumes. All three combattants attempted to take each other down quickly, but soon found that staying tight against the walls was not as easy as one might think.  Malice received mine damage early on, while Dassina and VoidTraveller tested each other, Dassina falling quickly under VoidTraveller’s blade.  Attempting to heal himself by travelling back and forth along the gas vents, Void found himself both poisoned and unable to avoid a mine, clashing with Malice a few more times but eventually falling due to accumulated gas and fire damage.

(( Fight Night runs on the second, third and fourth Saturdays of each month at The Potato Farm, Hambone Slash, in The Wastelands, 3PM PDT. The above photo and other Wasteland event photos are available here - A.S.))

We’re now one week in to The Wastelands’ third year, and what a week it was.  Ahead are this week’s highlights of events, estate news, and RP goings-on.  If you have a project, event, or RP story arc in the works, and you’d like to spread the word, IM me in-world or simply email aposiopesis.fullstop@gmail.com.

UPCOMING EVENTS: The Wastelands Public Works meeting originally scheduled for 1/30 has been postponed.  NeoBokrug Elytis intends to reschedule it for midweek, and will send out a group notice to members when the new date and time is determined.

Sharpen your weapons for this week’s Fight Night, held as always at the Arena in Hambone Slash at 3pm SLT Saturday.

Aposiopesis Fullstop will again be DJing at around 5pm SLT after Fight Night ends, at a venue to be announced.

Barring the technical difficulties that sadly canceled this week’s event, next Sunday will feature the next of Oku Ghost’s Swamp Rats Fishing Tournaments.  It will be held at The Pipe Bomb in Malady Bog, with a first place prize of L$1000 and a snazzy gold trophy, L$500 and a silver trophy for second place, and L$250 and a bronze trophy for third.  In a new development this week, the fourth and fifth place finishers will receive bait buckets!

EVENTS HIGHLIGHTS: Contrary to what I reported in last week’s Pulp, this week was host to War Zone, not Fight Night, in Hambone Slash.  Team One consisted of Cigi Sahara, Oleg Kiranov, Dassina Andel, and Corwin Bellic, who faced off against Team Two’s Tresha Gothly, Kittykat Borkotron, Pirate Graves, and Aposiopesis Fullstop.  Dassina and Pirate served as captains of their respective teams.  Both matches saw strong effort, deft maneuvering, and cunning steals as the players bounded across the dunes.  However, faced with a steep learning curve, Team Two lost both  matches to the veteran combatants of Team One.

This match meant more than a couple ticks in a Win/Loss column, however — it will most likely be the last game of War Zone played in Hambone Slash for an unknown span of time.  Special thanks go out to Makaio Stygian for creating and maintaining the Hambone Slash sim.  Its deceptively-simple appearance brought out many different strategies from players, whether they took the Pipeline and ran over the heads of their foes, tried to trip others up on the slippery rocks of the Quarry, sought the high ground on its adjacent Hill, or found refuge on rooftops or in the basements of the Garrisons.  Ardent fans of this mass bloodshed may not be out of luck, however — it’s possible that War Zone will be reconfigured, and may return in some form soon.

PROJECTS: Dassina Andel still seeks contributions to and assistance with her Wastelands Gladiators modular obstacle course.  Full details can be found in this forum post.

ESTATE NEWS: NeoBokrug Elytis is still weighing the pros and cons of telehub routing, and looking for community input.  The experiment continues! Read the discussion so far and have your say in this Forum thread.

Work continues to make Hambone Slash ready to rent!  Much of the infrastructure is already completed, and tier meters will soon be set up.  These new plots will be exempt from the Free Move Program for two months, however, so if you want to own a lovely little hovel with a scenic view of the Pipeline, you’ll have to buy that land directly.  While the Sandbox will no longer be available, the current features like the Quarry and Garrisons — and, of course, the Arena — won’t be going anywhere.  Also, by popular demand smaller plots of land will be on offer at a weekly price of around L$420.  See this thread for more details.

Despite recent drama, Neo simply wants to remind everyone who plays the games to do so fairly, and to remind everyone in general to keep the good spirit of the community alive.

RP NAMEDROPS: Remnants of the Lost Tribe have banded together as the Lost Outcasts. Rumor says that Nab Seubert now serves as captain.

Corwin Bellic serves as Captain of a different group — the Wastelands Pirates have returned from a long absence, and have put together a compound on the south road of the Wastelands.

The venerable Wankerstein Clapsaddle has rebuilt his General Stoar alongside the Great Fissure — now featuring an upstairs bar.  A “help wantid” sign has been posted by the door, for those who seek to give him a hand.

Not far away, a few more rough tents can be found in the already-mentioned Shady Drifters’ Camp. There is an interesting ledger left unattended in one of them….

((Editor’s Note:  This story will take a bit of imagination on everyone’s part to swallow, but it will stand as the “official” RP explanation for the unfortunate departure of our northwest region, Bloodmoss Swamp.  You might trip over a few “props” I added along the Bog’s northern border.  They serve as morbid clues to the following story. - S.K.))

Bloodmoss.  A stringy clump of disgusting grey-green moss splattered and streaked with red, giving the plant its particular name.  It’s not much to look at but Wastelanders make the  most of it for their diet.  Most Wastelanders know where bloodmoss originates.  Even though the scarlet-green vegetation is now seen among the weeds and roots of Malady Bog, recent newcomers may not realize it was first discovered further north in another large stretch of wetland, the aptly named Bloodmoss Swamp.

A few scavengers made their home around the large patches of the red-hued moss growing among the mounds of mud and vines.  Apart from the scarlet vegetation, Bloodmoss Swamp was similar to Malady Bog in many aspects.  Broken bridges spanned the mire and cracked concrete ruins rose from the dark waters.  A shattered overpass, similar to those seen in the Junkyard, reached up from the muck and pointed mysteriously to the north.

Bloodmoss Swamp was often a quiet outskirt compared to rest of our settlement.  Given its remote location, I rarely encountered others while scavenging.  Sometimes I crossed paths with the Museum curator, Patrice Cournoyer, or the Renegade tigress, Dassina Andel.  Often, I would catch a glimpse between the trees of the ghoul-urchin, Shay McDowwll, as he patiently searched the muck for salvage.  Although activity in the Swamp increased when its salvage masheen became one of the only two remaining (after the mysterious attacks from the Brominites), it still retained a calm quality.

Unknown to all of us, that silent atmosphere allowed a deadly and invisible presence to take shape in Bloodmoss.  Buzzards and swamp rats were found dead without a scratch on their filthy bodies.  Their next-of-kin began to avoid the place…birds steering clear while rodents swam away.  The dark waters bubbled ominously at times as if the earth itself was drowning below, threatening to spit out its last breath.  Flickers of eerie fire glowed within the swamp at night, sometimes erupting in devastating explosions.  Clouds of green gas, thick with poison, seeped up from the roots, coating the trees in ugly spores.  Some shrugged off these omens as nothing more than the usual hardships of living in this tortured land.

Finally, the strangest clue arrived when the bloodmoss suddenly took on a life of its own, rapidly migrating south into Malady Bog.  This was one omen that could not be ignored.

Thus, the exodus.

Humans quickly packed their supplies, leaving by raft or dragging them through the mud.  Manimals instinctively stayed away having noticed the smaller beasts scurrying south.  Even the ghouls, attracted to wet decay, moved out.  They too sensed that this place was no longer safe, even for the likes of them.  Tribal mutants mocked the retreat, preaching and warning of swamp spirits and bog demons, but everyone could see that they also took care to quickly leave and stay away from the swamp.

While the refugees rushed to stake new ground, either in the Bog or out in the sands and junk, some of us took it upon ourselves to rescue the salvager before…before what?  We still had no clear understanding why we were abandoning the swamp, but everyone that pushed and pulled the masheen knew we had to safeguard the device, to salvage what we could, and bring it to a safer location.  The salvager now sits secure within the Bog shack like the one before it.

In the end, the exodus was wise and just in time.  Most scavengers found a new place to set up camp when the toxic gas and ominous fog finally smothered Bloodmoss Swamp in an impenetrable blanket.  Unfortunately, a few unknown strangers must have lingered in the swamp too long.  Their remains can be found along the old border between the Bog and the Swamp.  Slowly decaying corpses snared by the swamp, wrapped tight in a death shroud of bloodmoss.  Grisly memorials, reminding all of the inherent and sometimes subtle dangers of the Wastelands…