// THE PREMISE
What this world is
The Scour is what the old world left behind - a sun-hammered wasteland of rust-towns and ruin, forty years after the Burn ended everything. Pre-collapse highways still cross the dust, and the Long Road runs through all of it: a cracked ribbon of asphalt where water is currency, fuel is power, and the law is whoever is holding the most ammunition this week. You are a wanderer riding in with a vehicle, a weapon, and a reputation yet to be made.
This is gritty frontier survival: scarcity, salvage, hard travel, and a name that rides ahead of you down the road. Mayor Cole guards Ledgewater and the only reliable aquifer for a hundred miles, trading away a little more freedom every year to keep the water flowing. The Tallyman controls the fuel and collects his debts without mercy. Saw's Rust Kings take what they want from the weak. The Caravan Concord runs the long routes and remembers who keeps the road safe. And the Hollow Choir hoards working pre-Burn machines as sacred relics.
The Scour is balanced on a knife. Ledgewater's aquifer is starting to fail, the Tallyman is squeezing the settlements, the raiders grow bolder, and a rumor moves down the road of an intact pre-Burn waterworks out in the deep waste - a prize that would make whoever holds it master of the Scour. You ride into the middle of it, free to scavenge, settle, raid, broker, or chase the rumor.
// PLAY PROFILE
What this world plays like
Begin with water, fuel, and a reason to take the next stretch of road. Find work in Ledgewater or a Drylands waystation and decide how much of the Tallyman's protection you can afford to accept.
You could travel with the Caravan Concord, salvage pre-Burn machinery, or try to build a place to stay. Mayor Cole needs the aquifer, the Rust Kings take what they can, and the Hollow Choir sees more than scrap in the old world's machines.
The waterworks rumor gives a longer journey a possible destination. Follow it, broker a deal around it, or keep the story about the people riding with you. A vehicle may offer distance, but deciding what to carry and whom to help gives the road its meaning.
// FACTIONS IN MOTION
Principal factions
The de-facto government of the last major settlement with clean water. The Collective is a society built on the brutal pragmatism of survival, enforcing strict water rationing and a zero-tolerance policy for threats to their aquifer. They are insular and deeply suspicious of all outsiders.
A ruthless syndicate controlling the last working oil wells at Pump Forty. The Cartel operates on a simple principle: all fuel has a price, and all debts will be paid, in Chits, barter, or blood. Their branded enforcers, the Gaugers, are the most feared debt collectors in the Scour.
A loose confederation of raider gangs united under the iron-fisted rule of the chieftain Saw. They live by the law of the strong, seeing the ruins of the old world as their personal salvage yard and the Long Road as their hunting ground. They respect only strength and fear nothing.
A secretive cult of technology-worshipping ascetics who inhabit a pre-Burn communications array. They believe the Burn was a divine punishment for hubris and that old-world machines are holy relics. They listen to the static between worlds, awaiting a 'Second Signal' that will herald the world's renewal, and violently defend their holy sites from scavengers.
A nomadic coalition of merchant families who are the lifeblood of the Scour. They operate armed convoys along the Long Road, adhering to a strict code of neutrality and mutual defense. The Concord moves goods, news, and people, connecting the isolated pockets of humanity for a price.
// KEY FIGURES
People you'll meet
// SITES OF RECORD
Places that matter
A windswept expanse of cracked desert and salt flats, dominated by the black iron fortress of Pump Forty. The ground is stained with oil and the sky is hazed with refinery smoke. The constant roar of machinery is the only music here.
A maze of shattered overpasses and skeletal forests from the Burn, centered on a massive, ruined interchange. This is the domain of the Rust Kings. The wind howls through broken concrete, carrying the sounds of shouted threats and tortured metal.
A cracked ribbon of pre-Burn interstate running through open plains and coastal flats, littered with the husks of rusted vehicles. Dotted with tiny, fortified waystations, it is the lifeline of the Scour. To travel it is to be exposed to all the wasteland's dangers.
A high, forested plateau, cooler and damper than the lowlands, hiding a massive pre-Burn communications relay station. Strange antennas and satellite dishes poke through the canopy, humming with stolen power. The air is filled with a low, electronic thrum.
A wall of unnaturally vibrant, pulsating jungle and swamp on the eastern edge of the known world. The air is thick with shimmering spores and the smell of alien blossoms and decay. The growth is so dense it creates its own toxic weather systems.
A network of toxic swampland and sickly jungle, fed by runoff from the Green Blight. The trees here are twisted and pale, and the water is a rainbow slick of chemicals. The ruins of pre-Burn coastal towns sink slowly into the muck.
// STORY PASSAGE
A passage from the published profile
Spike Raddick leans on your hood like he owns it, which out here he nearly does. "Tallyman's ledger says you took on diesel at Pump Forty and rode out light on the payment," the enforcer says. "He don't forget a barrel. You want to settle that in coin, or you want to settle it the way that costs more?"
Behind him the heat shimmers off the Long Road. A full tank is a kind of wealth and you are carrying his.
Selected story passage. Your choices can lead elsewhere.
BEFORE YOU ENTER
Choose a first decision
Start with a person you want to meet, a place you want to see, or a problem you want to understand. You make choices through written actions and read the Narrator's response. The people and places above introduce this world; they do not promise a fixed sequence of scenes.
Completed turns save to your account. Review the latest scene and the relevant in-game information when returning. Check current access and Spark allowances before a longer session, and use the player guide for help with saves, artwork, possessions, and other supported features.
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