Other refugees, coming South from Cordes Junction, met up with the group during a storm where it seemed that the rain would never let up.
The rain did eventually stop, though it took four days and the weather never did return to what it had been previously.
For example, Bloody Basin had not had a lake prior to the Rifts. Now it did. Since the canal system supplying water to the rest of the Southwest desert had been knocked out, the presence of a water supply was deemed important and the refugees thought they'd just move on when things "settled down a bit" - though that didn't actually ever occur.
When insect-like aliens swarmed over the settlement, SOMETHING reached out of the lake and began pulling the attackers in. The Xiticix squadron was completely wiped out within minutes.
Eventually the emergent psychics ventured back towards the lake they'd been pulling fish and water from, at this point for thirty years, and discovered that there was indeed Something in the water. Something that wasn't at all concerned about humans or other native species, apparently because they WERE native. It also wasn't concerned about non-native species that wandered near unless they were extremely hostile.
The emergent psychic Lilliana Jackram came out of the encounter with the Being with knowledge of that creature and its vast mind. Also a migraine. It took three days before she was able to relate the story of the Being, and how it preferred to sleep in peace at the bottom of the lake with the occasional fish to munch on. Doing anything about the humans or other non-hostiles was deemed more trouble than it was worth.
After much discussion, the population of Bloody Basin (at the time - 679) decided that "live and let live" WAS actually a good policy to encourage when your neighbor is an extremely powerful alien entity. As such, they stressed newcomers that theirs was a peaceful community of peace-abiding settlers who didn't want any trouble at all and just to get on with their peaceful lives.
Five times their community had been invaded since the times of the Rifts. If the menace was small, like a gang of bandits, the peace-loving people simply grabbed their peacekeeping weapons and defended themselves. Big supernatural menaces, like the Vampire Bandit Gang in '06 sometimes made raids, only to find out that showing up in a large group all at once made them less easy to ignore. Hence a change in status from Minor Annoyance to Snack Food to Green-Eye-Blue-Shadow. (Also known as the Bloody Basin Monster, GEBS, oh-hell-run-for-it, and Betty.)
In the modern age, with everyone expecting a major power grab and sweeps from the Coalition States soon - the people of Bloody Basin (current population 1341, not counting transients and traders) were alert for anyone who looked like they didn't belong.
Psychics and mages detected the mini-rift and determined that something had appeared in one of the stretches of forest nearby. By the time they'd reached the edge of the forested area and looked out to where Bloody Basin was located - they'd already been determined to be two unrelated humans - most likely a Ley Line Walker and his apprentice.
Bloody Basin had a fine tradition of psychics, including the closest thing they had to royalty in the area - the Jackram family. That didn't mean that they didn't have a few mages around as well though. They'd prefer Technowizards to Ley Line Walkers generally, but whatever. Long as they didn't bring trouble, they'd be tolerated.
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(Posted Thu, 02 May 2013 20:34)
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