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Rusty Springs is a small city of sixty thousand or so, a boom town of warehouses and railroads and smelters. The sky is dark gray and the occasional rain is a black sludge that stains anything it touches. The town is built on a huge natural aquifer and there are hundreds of natural and artificial springs in town. The buildings are adobe and scrap metal and wood from tree farms along the railroad. People are either settlers or greenhorns, with screwing over greenhorns being one of the few spectator sports in town. Since there's no local government to speak of, everything from the layout of the streets to public services like sewer and power is a hodgepodge and barely functional. North side of town has the Trans-Holden Railway and the official Alliance spaceport. Northeast to east is the warehouse district while the heavy manufacturing and smelting of ore goes on in the northwest. East side holds the general-purpose spaceport run by the Boyarski/Ng clan; prices are cheap even if you include the guards you'll need to have on board to keep the clan from stealing everything off the hull. West side is home to the Rusty Springs Public Baths, one of the largest indoor baths in the 'verse and where most of the shady deals are conducted. West side is also where most of the bars and entertainment is. The center of town is where people trade and scam while the south is mostly residential- further south you go, the swankier the neighborhood.
The center of nightlife and criminal scheming is at 'The Big Casino', run by Senor Canonez. He's tough and connected and collects information but his casino is neutral territory. He run things with a bit of charm on the surface and a code of honor he never breaks.
The Public Baths is a huge complex fed by several springs. The architecture runs from brick to cargo container to inflated domes and many deals are done in the steam rooms or pools. There's a bar in the center of the largest pool and the bartenders are known for the gossip they freely pass along.
Lo Chan's Theatre is a bar/playhouse/movie theater that provides much of the culture in Rusty Springs. Lo Chan hates Canonez (not that Canonez knows why) and tries to outdo the casino for entertainment. The higher-class types in Rusty Springs tend to hang out at Lo Chan's.
Rick's Cafe is next to the non-Alliance spaceport and is where most spacers hang out. The place is clean and the drinks aren't watered down. The food is amazingly good because he gets exotic and tax-free supplies from crews in from the Black. The owner, Dwight, is a friendly dwarf that tells a great story and hears more than most.
Fifteen miles out of Rusty Springs is the Akira Shepherd Retreat, a large retreat that trains new Shepherds and provides spiritual support for any seeking guidance, a new outlook or inner peace. It also has a small hospital and it is rumored that there are some Shepherds that help people create new identities. The leader of the retreat is Shepherd Dolen, an elderly woman that came to the order after a career in the military that ended in a Browncoat generalship.
Forty miles out is Cripple Creek, a small settlement that was attacked by Reavers three weeks ago. An Alliance cutter was at the spaceport and detected the incoming Reavers and organized a rescue posse. The rescuers and Alliance killed the Reavers and saved almost a third of the adult population. All of the children and the schoolmarm were saved by a stranger that killed over forty Reavers. A grenade and blood loss left him without long-term memory and crippled on his left side. He bought the surviving Reaver ship, an old Firefly, for a single credit and is trying to recruit a new crew.
Characters can be anyone that would fit into the Firefly universe. Pilots and gunslingers and mechanics and companions and medics and gamblers and snake-oil salesmen and Shepherds and entertainers are welcome. So's anything else you can think of that would fit. I'm looking for people that can play in a fast-paced game (four or more posts a week), though we can probably fit in those that want to post less as minor characters. I don't have the site up yet (give me a day or two) but there'll be one. Right now there is a NPC page to see what the 'verse is like in the game.
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