Janie's Slit (aka The Slit)
Janie's Slit is a large town or small city of around fifty thousand humans, and D-Bees.
Demographics
| Population | Total: 51,576 Humans: 24,894 (48.3%) D-Bees: 19,737 (38.3%) Mutants: 6,753 (13.1%) Supernaturals: 192 (0.4%) |
|---|---|
| Education | Literacy: 52% Elementary: 72% Secondary: 27% Post-Secondary: 3% |
| Exports | Biotech, cyberware, bionics, seafood, lumber, spare parts |
| Imports | Grain, ore, fruit, vegtables, ammunitions, weapons, vehicles, robots |
Founding
Nearly a decade ago scavenger Hunter Clinton IV stumbled into a hidden gorge along the Atlantic seaboard. When he awakened from his drunken coma he discovered a trove of Pre-Cataclysm technology.
Hunter named his new town after his favorite prostitute. While she would later try and murder him, the name stuck. Earthy prospectors and scavenger's delighted in the crude puns the name lent itself to.
The site Hunter lead his neighbors to soon became a hamlet. Before the settlement became a town Hunter Clinton IV got hammered and fell to his death in the gorge. Things took a turn for the better as new people moved into the easily defensible area and set up livelihoods. It wasn’t long before the town reached its current size.
Economy
The primary export remains scavenged Pre-Cataclysm Tech, mostly consisting of biotech, including cybernetics and bionics. Lumber and fish are also large sources of income. The city trades preserved fish with surrounding farming communities for a more palatable diet.
Janie’s Slit is a rough and tumble place with weak law enforcement. Crime is common and various criminal organizations have carved the city into districts. Each gang has black market connections that extend far and wide. Goods of all types flow freely due to this laissez faire attitude.
If you want to buy an item check both availability and scarcity/rarity. Janie's Slit is a city: +0, so don't adjust the book value.
These items are more common.
- Cyberware +1
- Bionics +1
- Medical Technology +1
Gear from Northern Gun or Naruni Enterprises is usually available, assuming that you have the credits.
Factions
There are many different factions that compete within The Slit. All factions are looking out for themselves, but a given faction’s goals may align with the PC’s goals.
Faction information is generally a Common Knowledge check.
A.R.C.H.I.E. 3
A.R.C.H.I.E operates in secret, so almost no one knows of his existence. Nonetheless the AI has many agents within the Slit. Most of these agents are unaware of their true natures. As sophisticated androids they seem human or D-Bee. For now the super AI is content to monitor the situation within the city. He is intensely interested in some local inventors and their creations as an alternative source of ideas from Hagen.
Black Market
Various Black Market gangs control the economy of Janie’s Slit. Common interests keep overt hostilities to a minimum. There are six primary gangs, called Families, that run things.
- The Bumbercatches deal in drugs, narcotics, alcohol, and even actual medications. They are the most laidback family, and rarely involve themselves in unsavory violence. Trade in mind-altering substances is not illegal in the Slit, and the Bumbercatches would rather bribe their way out of trouble than fight. Still they are wealthy and maintain several mercenary companies on retainer.
- The Letterman Group is the what the city’s organized thieves call themselves. Muggings, burglary, robberies, extortion, and swindling are all part and parcel of this family's daily income. The thieves have a hierarchy, with conmen and -women at the top. Muggers and robbers are at the bottom. All pretend to sophistication and culture, however. Style alone can earn a charismatic thief rank and notoriety. At heart they remain thugs.
- The Ogunleye Clan is one of two families that share the gambling trade. Gambling is perfectly legal in the city, but the cut-throat nature of the trade as practiced in the Slit is not. The Ogunleye clan practices a very vicious form of corporate capitalism. Murder, kidnapping, blackmail, or whatever it takes are all allowed in the pursuit of profit.
- The Ortegas deal primarily in weapons, and munitions. They have a close connection to many manufacturers, including Northern Gun and Bandito Ams. While they are not the most violent family, they aren’t forgiving either.
- The Skullbones are a bunch of pirates that use the Slit to launder their ill-gotten gains. Selling anything and everything, all of the goods they peddle were taken from other vessels on the high seas. The Skullbones do not shit where they sleep and raid far from the Atlantic coast. Numerous stories constantly circulate about how they get past the Splugorth.
- The Vitorino Family is the other family that participates in the gambling trade. The bitter competition between the two families is intense, but follows the one rule that the collateral damage cannot spill over onto other businesses.
Coalition States
The Coalition States maintain an embassy in the diplomatic quarter. The Coalition mostly uses the embassy as a hub for spying and other observation tactics. The CS strongly “disapproves” of all the D-Bees and mutants living in the Slit, yet they stick to a passive strategy of indirect confrontation. The ambassador is well aware that the CS is outnumbered and general opinion is not in their favor, as a large number of Tolkeen refugees settled in the city.
Karen Krumholtz, age 61, heads the embassy as its ambassador. She is a stern woman who tolerates no nonsense, but is surprisingly mentally flexible. She believes whole-heartedly that humans are meant to rule the Earth, but does not discount the abilities of D-Bees or magic users.
A full company with attached psionics protects the dignitaries and their families. The force is well equipped with both arms, and veteran personnel. The Slit is a valuable source of bionics and cyber tech. They have no interest in disrupting the flow of knowledge.
Federation of Magic
The Federation of Magic has no official presence within the city. Unofficially they have numerous agents, saboteurs, and spies. The idea is to keep the Slit from ever becoming a threat. Leaders espousing ideas that would lead to a brighter future are assassinated or discredited. Mages making advances based on the Ley Line or nearby Providence Nexus are captured for what they know and eventually executed.
The Federation has no interest in technology, particularly the cyberware and bionics that are common to the city. They fear only that their actions will be discovered by the Coalition, and thus operate in the shadows whenever possible.
Free Quebec
The Quebecois also have an embassy in the diplomatic quarter. The frosty relationship with the Coalition rarely devolves into open hostility. Now that Free Quebec is cut off from the libraries and knowledge capitol that trickled out of Chi-Town, they are eager to supplement their formidable tech base. Janie’s Slit is a tremendous resource for biotech in general, and bionics in particular.
Marc Brown, age 49, is the ambassador for Free Quebec. He loves fast women, good wine, and the sound of poker chips. He's an avid card sharp; who knows when to fold them. Despite his vices he is not in debt to the families and represents his nation’s interests well.
Lazlo
Lazlo is interested in two things in Janie’s Slit: the biotech that could cure diseases, and wounded warriors; and in the Providence Nexus and the ley lines that make it. The lines and nexus should produce storms, rifts and other harmful phenomena, but they don’t. That means there should be something like a stone pyramid at the nexus, but one has never been found. Curiosity fills the Lazlo contingent with unending excitement.
Carmenthexia is a young adult forest runner dragon. At only one-hundred-eighty-three years-of-age she’s barely out of childhood by the standards of her people. Immensely powerful compared to most beings, she lacks confidence and is constantly second guessing herself, or overthinking a problem. Her indecisiveness stems from her fear that she will make things worse or cause a catastrophe.
Like other major powers with proximity to the Slit, Lazlo has an embassy in the diplomatic quarter. The embassy guard is not as numerous as either Quebec’s or the Coalition’s, but quality makes up for this. The Lazlo Guard’s TW gear is second to none, and Carmenthexia herself is a massive deterrent (pun intended).
Naruni
The Naruni know someone is working against their interests on Rifts Earth and they aren’t happy about it. They don’t know that A.R.C.H.I.E. is the enemy they seek, or even that A.R.C.H.I.E. exists.
They intend to find out, however. The plan is to use the newly opened Naruni Weapons Emporium as bait for their foes. If it works they can identify and crush this skulking enemy. If not there are only two actual Naruni at the store – no big loss.
New German Republic
Relations with the Coalition States and the New German Republic are comfortable for now. Ever practical, the NGR looks to be prepared for any eventuality. Janie’s Slit is being evaluated as one such possibility. The Slit’s location is very convenient, despite the pirates and Splugorth in the area. It’s a much shorter trip by sea to the Slit’s wharfs than to the Gulf of Mexico. Even the air field outside the city proper is more accessible than cities further west.
There are still too many damn D-Bees to the NGR’s way of thinking. The open and frequent use of magic is also a downside. Toleration of magic using nations, like Lazlo are also met with disdain.
The need for profit and intelligence outweighs such considerations. The NGR has an embassy. Triax has a sales emporium, and numerous warehouses in the Slit. The embassy has a small garrison, while the commercial locations hire mercenaries for protection.
New Navy
The New Navy recently become aware of the Slit. This has caused both excitement and trepidation. Greater access to cyberware and bionics is tremendously valuable. There are many wounded and sick that need a better supply than Tritonnia can provide. But all the Dimensional Beings and magic is worrisome. More investigation is required.
Northern Gun
For Ishpeming, Janie’s Slit is the gift that keeps on giving. Northern Gun sells an immense volume of goods at the shopping mall sized campus they maintain. Travelers from all over the east coast not welcome in Quebec come to the Slit to stock up. Sales have been up 23% year-over-year for the last five years. Northern Gun has only been a presence in the city for six years.
Ishpeming rents a small embassy in the diplomatic quarter, but Northern Gun owns vast swaths of real estate within the Slit. The embassy has a handful of guards to keep out the riffraff, as Ishpeming has no real enemies that require a more substantial military force. They hire many mercenaries to protect their goods, and can call on serious firepower should the need arise.
Shemarrians
The Shemarrians have a trading camp outside the southern portion of the city. There they trade with the locals for just about everything, They rarely enter the city proper itself, and sightings of them within the city itself are met with unadulterated surprise. They are seen as heroes to most residents who have at least one friend or loved one that only avoided slavery due to Shemarrian intervention.
No one within the city (unless Hagen makes a visit) is aware of the Shemarrians’ connection to A.R.C.H.I.E.
Splugorth
The Splugorth are aware of the Slit’s existence and it’s active interference in their affairs. Such is to be expected from primitive beings. Splynncryth is mostly indifferent to the growing city as it isn’t a big enough threat. It’s even convenient for him that the slave stock gathers together for easier harvesting. Or so he believes.
Splugorth slavers are a constant threat in the area. Outlying villages live in constant fear of losing family and friends to the depredations of Slavers. Raids are not uncommon, but increasingly are stymied by Shemarrians or forces from the Slit itself.
Tomorrow Legion
The Tomorrow Legion has a few agents in the city. All of whom are attached to the Lazlo Garrison. The Legion is interested in the same things as most outsiders, biotech and the Providence Nexus. Lazlo has more proximity and so the Legion is content to follow their allies.
True Atlanteans
There are several True Atlanteans in the city. They keep a low profile, as most are using the Slit as a base to scout the Splugorth. Jade Papoulis runs a tattoo parlor, where she provides both mundane and magic ink to clientele. If asked about her Atlantean nature, she admits it. But most don’t know to ask.
Vampires
There is no Vampire Intelligence with influence over the The Slit. However, there are two that would like to. Neither supports the other, and Vampires are hated by all the other influential factions. Thus vampires are not one of the influential factions within the city.
The master vampires Thomas Freedman and Alicia Koh mostly vie against each other for food and leverage over mortals.
Before the Cataclysm
This information is known to characters with d10 Academics or better.
Once upon a time Janie’s Slit was part of the great Metropolis of Providence, Rhode Island. The area has long been one of technical achievement, and the city was tasked with developing cutting edge biotech. The development of advanced bionics was of particular interest given the growing global hostility. Many companies, including Cyberworks, built infrastructure in the area.
When the Rifts came, Atlantis returned and the resulting tidal waves smashed the east coast of North America. Providence was recessed in a bay and spared the walls of water. It suffered when the land itself buckled upwards. Lack of sustenance, disease, and creatures emerging form rifts killed the vast majority of the population. The survivors fled the great city for places with more food. Providence fell into memory and ruin.