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OPEN FOR BUSINESS
- Gemini Labs: The leading production and experimentation of clones, led by the notoriously ambitious Doctor Gregory Weiss.
- The Nest: A highly secret black market arms dealing service, operated by Ladybird. Ladybird enjoys the classic look of weapons, and chooses to preserve their power, beauty, efficiency, and practicality from the old days. Knowledge of the shop's existence is usually spread by word of mouth. The shop is generally located in the Victorville subways.
- The Broken Sink: A very sorry excuse for a bar. The Broken Sink is located to the left of Victorville's main entrance. Built from a collection of old shipping containers, the atmosphere inside is dark and dingy - mostly due to there being no windows. Old festive multi-color lights cast a colorful, albeit dim light over the patrons. Behind the counter you'll find Nan, an older woman with sharp eyes and connections; rumor has it that she runs a commission guild of sorts.
- Deetz Arms: A mobile gun shop set in an old Wenibango wagon, pulled by two donkeys. It is run by Chadwick Deetz, specializing in gunsmithing unique, powerful, and incredibly sexy custom firearms. Buy, sell or trade for the most exclusive armaments in the Cradle.
- Meemaw's Soup Kitchen: Meemaw is an elderly woman who runs a soup kitchen in a little shack in Paradise Falls. While the line is usually long, remember that it is first come, first serve, but there is one exception to this rule: if someone brings in an ingredient to the pot, then they get first dibs.
- Bar-N: A dirty and dilapidated barn stands tall, although crooked atop a crumbling foundation, among the shacks in the Projects. Bar-N is the only watering hole in town, advertising cheap booze and “rooms” in the loft to travelers. It is owned and operated by Henry, an older man with a white bushy beard and warm smile.
- Brown Dog Brewing: A shoddy factory on the outskirts of Paradise Falls, and the only business still brewing beer in the Cradle. Brown Dog bottles and sells only one beer: Plutonium-239 pale ale, named after the isotope used in the production of nuclear weapons.
- The End Times: While not the only source of news in the Cradle, it is the one that holds old-world integrity and is generally agreed upon to be reliable. Renowned in literate circles as unwilling to pump up the NWO without merit, and criticize when able, they have built a reputation among the populace as being a force of good by giving bad news.
They commission intrepid journalists to embark to the far reaches of the Cradle in order to trade stories for facts. Additionally, they also rely on ‘freelancers’ to provide reliable information in exchange for currency.
An informed populace is a safer populace, and the paper’s printing press produces reams of reports to do just that: weather patterns, pestilence and plagues, radiation spikes, raider attacks, and pronouncements of the NWO are regularly published. Editorials with less factual accounts emotionally relay rumors and whispering, but as many survivors in the new world are finding, yesterday’s ridiculous rumor is today’s sentient blobby rad-skeleton.
Most importantly, the editors and journalists have created a community between their readers. In a world gone mad, a physical record of their day-to-day life is something important. They are here, they are still fighting, and The End Times connects them.
The End Times is based outside of Paradise Falls.
- Titus’ Tech: Titus Abernathy is the proprietor and operator of a merchant business located primarily in Victorville: Titus' Tech. He deals almost exclusively in tech, be it old tech, new tech, or simply tech materials. While his primary focus is sales, the wheel doesn't turn without a steady supply of inventory so, should you need to offload anything you find, he also does plenty of buying.
- Aphrodite’s:
- Gemini Labs: The leading production and experimentation of clones, led by the notoriously ambitious Doctor Gregory Weiss.
