The Winding River Project

[danielcote]

Great update! I love the major development. 

[frostwolf]

That is some rapid expansion on those farms. Poor Gregory Badger should hurry up and expand his land before everything around him is taken, too.

Looking good

[mrbisonm]

Here is a teaser of what the town of Access Center looks like today, June 1965. Many changes in the center of the town. Enjoy this picture until I find the time to bring you all the details of it. It shouldn't be long, maybe on sunday. Some surprizes.

Fred

[KoV Liberty]

This looks awesome Fred!

[mrbisonm]

Update 52   june 1965

The town of Access Center welcomes you, it says on signs of all directions when you enter the municipality. Some money was lately invested to beautify and make the town somewhat interesting for tourism. The budget is tight, but the population increases rapidly in the region, now at almost 45,000. The times that Access was a small town are of the past now. It is a fast growing town that creates a lot of stirring in the Center of Simland. The Winding River region is not just a place anymore, but it has become the talks of the future and it has become a destination .
Mayor Bartlett is proud to present you : The Winding River Project.
On June 12th, 1965, the council and the mayor have officially decided to make Access the Capitol of the Winding River Region. Many projects and many ideas of making this region a wonderful place for our Sims have been carefully planned and a summary report was officially presented. Some 4.5 Million § will be invested in the town's budget in the next two years, plus another 1.2 Million § are added by the federal Government per year to  create an excellent baseblock for the region to develop.

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The Winding River Region today has officially four municipalities and 16 counties. Approximately 75 % of the region is yet to be surveyed and mapped. Most of it is total wilderness and accessable only by hydroplanes or on foot. The biggest town and from now on also the Regional Capitol, is Access Center, then comes Grasslake, West River and Phlox, which is still very new.
Today and for the next three updates, we will concentrate on Access, the town and it's people who made it a town.
Founded by the first Mayor, still alive, Paul Hubert in 1956, the town grew to 40,000 strong in just 9 years. Here is a little nostalgia with a 1956 picture of the center of the town, remember? Some of today's "landmarks" have been indicated in blue to get a better picture of what this place used to look like in its beginnings. Never would anyone have thought of it becoming the town of today at that time.

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Now let's get right into the town and have a closer look of what happened in the last 8 to 10 months. Close to the Shopping mall some new smaller shops and restaurants have surfaced, mostly on what used to be Highway 15 lots. The old Motel is still going, since it is the only one in Access. You can still encounter some spiders and mice in your sleep. No room to expand, the owner is thinking to find a bigger lot for a new one and sell this lot to the highest Bidder, the ways terrains are being sold in Access's downtown today. The Northroad leads right through the town where once the Highway layed.

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It took the town quite awhile to build the promissed new soccer installations, but finally the 1965 summergames will be played on topsoil. The new soccer field moved to the south of the town, where it was planned to go on municipal grounds. Financed by the town of Access, Mr John Gabber and with federal funds, the field now has a Player's building, larger parking, nightlights and more than 2000 seats. The day after it was finished, our Access Loggerteam was already doing a practice game. Go Loggers, Go!

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Only a few blocks to the north and where once a field of bushes stood, today is overbuilt by federal offices. Now Access' population can renew their driving licence, oppose to the income tax, get to know the federal laws, get their social insurance card and much more what concerns officail papers and permits right here in town without making a 80 kilometer trip to Sandom. These offices are about right in front of the firestation on the northroad. Very modern looking, the citizens are very happy.
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We all remember the Olsen Pub, one of the first restaurants in Access. A couple of months ago it was sold to a buissness from Frampton and torn down to make an office building which was more than needed. Here we have lawyer's offices, financial institutions, notaries and many other buissness offices from the town. These two towers couln't be more centered since this and Barby's Biergarten is really THE Center of town.

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It was finally finished last weekend, the Townhall is ready to receive the council and mayor. Mayor Bartlett and the town's counselors couldn't be happier to move in and receive the citizens in their monthly meetings, now with much more room. The building is almost built with the financial help of 40% of the town's richer Sims. It was well planned and looks "sharp" as the mayor indicated at his opening speech. Right in front of Barby's Biergarten, it is also in the real center of town. A parking will be build in the near future on the Gabber Park's land, now that the soccerfield has moved to the southend of town.

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Everybody knew andd hoped that one day a McDonald's would arrive in town, so it happened last month. The restaurant was built on a former residential lot, that was sold for a high prize, something that happens all the time now in the center of town, looking for costly commercial space. The residential lots nearby already have received similar offers from buissnesses that would like to own a place in downtown, but some Sims want to wait to get even better offers before they give in and sell. For example: the house just in the backyard of McDonald's was offered some 10,000§ for it's lot and building, which is actually 3.5 times the municipal tax's value and that is a lot!
The Resto was really appreciated by the younger generation of the town, but also by the folks that think to gain more time in a fast food place like this. " The best thing that could happen" some Sims said on an official survey of the restaurants of town.

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Here is an overview picture of downtown with some of the most important "landmarks". It will help us to locate the new and older structures. On the bottom right you can see the where the the older industries used to be and now giving place to residentials.
William Jacobs' home which is about on the right of the Gabber Park is btw the home of the richest man in Access at this moment. He is the owner of most appartment buildings in the west of town.

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Not everything that is good has changed in Access, but also the drugdealing has become more intensified in the lesser "shiny" parts of the town. One man taking a lot of profit lately is  our Johnny B. Badd. He has been making himself a name in the darker corners of town and also making some big amounts of §. So far, he is not suspected by the police, although the former Police chief is more than certain that he is the main man of the region. Johnny did something like this before, where he came from, but somehow it became too "hot" for him and moving here to Access, gives him more liberty and more space to expand his buissness of illegal drugs.
This is Mainstreet of the west of town and some demonstrators have been announcing themselves lately to get better services for the less fortunate Sims of Access, which seem to have been neglected by the administrtaion of the town.

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The small lot that Harry Wormwood bought about 4 months ago has become alive. Harry moved to Access with his wife and his new son and finally opened his car dealership of used cars. He has big plans and his wish is to become as big a cardealer than his former boss in Sandom. We will have a closer look on him in the future.

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Here it is, the new acquisition of Mr Nethaniel Wellington. The first foodstore outlet in the region. Bake n' Sale has doubled in size, now offering a fresh food store chain. The superstore opened last week and made an excellent impression on the citizens. Of course, being the first store of this sort it is massively appreciated by the population and therefore to become the most important foodstore in Access is almost assured. Mr Wellington is more than happy to have found out within a week of its existance that Sims are litterally invading his new foodstore.

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And here is one last picture of the whole area we talked about today.

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I will be back later this week with some info of our known folks of Access and the other parts of the town. Have a nice week.

Fred

[KoV Liberty]

Very good job! I can't wait for the character's info.

Alex

[Cyclone1001]

...and the airstrip is still just as small. That seems like it would be a problem, to me at least.

[Cidwm]

I like this MD. great job on building up your region.

[canyonjumper]

Very nice Fred! All these things are finally getting done, and more stuff is happening

                          -Jordan

[nedalezz]

I heard Johnny B. Badd is turning himself quite a profit these days - I wonder when he will buy himself an upgrade in terms of living conditions

Another fantastic update - I love getting to know Access, and the tour around town was very entertaining.

[frostwolf]

Access is rapidly turning into a sprawling metropolis.

The military is going to start having problems keeping a lid on whatever's happening at their base with all these people running around. There's a reason top secret projects usually end up in the desert far from civilization.

I especially like the sports stadium.

[mrbisonm]

KoV Liberty , coming up in the next update, maybe this weekend, Alex is still somewhat slightly disturbed from that adventure in West River, but he just finished both bridges in Phlox.

[quote author=Cyclone1001 link=topic=7189.msg324651#msg324651 date=1273490491]
...and the airstrip is still just as small. That seems like it would be a problem, to me at least.
[/quote]
Not only to you, but to me and the mayor, the strip is way too short. That too is coming up in the next update.

Cidwm , Thanks and welcome to the WRP (Winding River Project).


canyonjumper , more stuff is happeneing...hey, wait 'till you see what's up in the 4th next upcoming update.....panic in the region! 

nedalezz,...I think Johnny B.Bad is planning something more serious, now he's got some §§'s.

frostwolf, if you like to have the soccerfield, tell me so, I'll upload it somewhere with a link right here.

I hope that I will have the time to bring the next update this weekend (probably do). As I said before, the next three updates we will talk about our heroes and then it's a mess in the region, some heavy duty events make difficult decisions and hard changes.

Fred

[MattyFo]

Nice work Fred!!  Do you plan on integrating the new Tuleps and NWM into your Access?


-Matt

[mrbisonm]

Nice work Fred!!  Do you plan on integrating the new Tuleps and NWM into your Access?


-Matt

lol....Maybe, if I knew what *Tuleps* means, please explain.....
I downloaded the new NAM, the new Real Highway Mod and the NWM though this week, but haven't yet figured out how to use them....lol .

Fred

[danielcote]

nice job on the update! 

[Cidwm]

New modular Turning Lanes = TuLEPs adds turning lanes.

Still figuring out the new NAM my self so i'm not the best source for information.

[frostwolf]

The soccerfield is very shiny, but at the moment, my old eMac is starting to give up the ghost. I can't play Simcity on it very well, so I shouldn't download anything new for the game until I get a new computer.

And if I was to want anything, it would by that shiny lumber mill.

-FW

[mrbisonm]

Update 53       June 29th, 1965

This is part 1 of 3, where we concentrate ourselves on our Winding River's characters.

It is early Summer now in the Winding River Region and all Sims are enjoying the wonderful months coming up. First time wearing only a T-Shirt this year, John Gabber walked into Barby's Biergarten, greeting the boss herself and asking how her Lakehotel construction was doing. Then he sat beside the pilot, Steve Gibson, and looked at all the people present greeting them all. Mike of course was there, along with John's father Henry Gabber and Slye.
««"Where the heck is Alex, he's usually the first one here with his friday afternoon beer?" he asked looking at everyone.
"Alex ain't coming today, he's having a slight burn out he says, working too hard to get the bridges done in Sterling/Stoke. He's taking the weekend off and visit his parents. He says his plans don't really work overthere in Stoke and it's giving him headaches." Slye said, confirming that he saw and talked to Alex late last night at the Phlox's gazstation on his way home.
"I was in Stoke on Monday and saw what Alex means," Henry dropped into the conversation, "and to tell you the truth, I'm freaking glad not to have his job myself."
What do you mean Pa," John asked.
" It's the unstable sandy terrain and the swampy grounds that keep on putting an X on his plans. If I were him, which gladly I'm not, I'd go see my boss and throw my plans at him." and he looked directly at his son John, who is Alex's boss.
"C'mon Dad, what is it now again?" John asked looking discouraging at his father.
"Well, if you weren't so darn money grabby, then you would have let him work around those swamps for a few miles, which doesn't look that difficult. You probably would have saved a lot of money anyways, because now it'll cost you an arm to tear those sunken pillars down and start all over."
"That bad?" John said ,now really looking seriously discouraged. "I better have a look at this myself on Monday"......and after a few sips of his beer he continued, looking at Gibson this time with a big smile..."So, did you get over the West River story yet?"
Steve answered, "No, not yet...." but continued quickly, " Of course I did. By the way, I met this soldier the other day when I stopped on the side of the road near Slye's mill to buy some fresh veggies he sells and we talked a lot about all kind of things for quite awhile, when I asked him if he had access to the base and knew what's going on there and if the rumours of that poisonous gaz is that real....ha...you wouldn't believe what he said," and Steve stopped right there in the middle of his phrase as if he was waiting for an answer from anyone.
" What?.....Go on" Henry tried to push him.
"Well, he said that he wasn't allowed to say anything, something to do with him being a soldier or what, but he mentioned that there's no gaz there at all and scientists are putting Darwin's theory under question."
"Darwin's.... theory.... what?" Slye looked totally lost. "What do you mean by putting it under question?...What theory?"
Henry opened his eyes and couldn't wait for the answer.
"I don't know myself, Terry," Gibson said with holding back his shoulders, "That is all that the soldier said about it, ask him for yourself , you can find him every afternoon at his small kiosk in Phlox where he sells small fruits and veggies, his name is Badger, sorry forgot his first name."
Now, what's Darwin got to do with the West River? Ridiculous!!." said Slye without wanting to know more.»»»

So went by this friday afternoon meeting and they left each on their turn.
True, in Sterling/ Stoke it is difficult to get around these swampy terrains without draining the whole are, which is not allowed by the federal government. Alex says that a bridge, no matter how hard he tries, will not last more than 15 to 20 years on these grounds. The best idea was to buy the land necessary, or rent it for 50 years or so, and build on Sterling's land. (shown in 2 blue lines on pic1) But it seemed to be too expensive for Gabber and which he totally refused, I heard.

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The town of Phlox on both citytiles, have grown to more than 200 citizens in the last year. Here the Minister of Civil Expansion (MCE) has decided to build a full sized town which should have reached a 25,000 population within the next 5 years. This project is financially supported by the federal Government to encourage new simfamilies to settle down in the valley.
The project started in 1960, was carefully thought over and finally has reached the point where they have asked a professional to present his plan or plans. It was Riichirou Takahaschi, who was recommended by John Gabber's brother, Gary Gabber, who has close contacts within the Simland Governments.
Mr Takahaschi, who was about to leave the country to find himself a job, was very happy to get this job of planning the future town of Phlox. He was not only hired for the plans but also to supervise the whole project during its construction, meaning for the next five years.
Now that the Government has his plans, it will decide in the next months. Several other engineers were asked to supply their plans also.

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On the eastern part of Phlox the town already grows from one week to another, now that the bridge will soon be publically opened and T.S. Slye has built his first train station of the region, the only place where a train will stop in the valley at this moment. This will of course be excellent for this municipality. Already some farmers have approached  Slye to consider a co-operation with the station and allow them to build grainsilos so that they will be able to ship grains and other agricultural products through his station. And this also will create more jobs, which bring in more Sims as settlers.

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Mr Alex Puto finally made it with this big project of the two bridges over the mighty Winding River and he finished it with only 3 months of delay. Now Alex will be able to fully work on the problems in Sterling lake. The bridges are already fully functional, but the second smaller bridge will only be officially opened next month to give time to the highway workers to attach their asphalt.
Here we can also see that harbour lot on Phlox Island (renamed from Sterling Island) that was sold to a certain Miss Panskyy.

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It is already partially functional since almost a month, the new and first trainstation in the valley. T.S. Slye opened its doors and started shipping his goods 3 weeks ago. Although its capacity is not fully reached yet, finished lumber is leaving these docks twice a week, which doubles the shipping of the mill already. Another 50 fulltime jobs were created by Slye, who slowly is becoming famous as one of the main supplier of steady jobs in the region. Terry, only in his mid twenties, is thinking big again and already managing himself to find another project very soon. He is about to make some add-ons for his station, something to satisfy the agricultural needs....and this is getting very big, because farms have been increasing lately in the region.
Slye even has his own mill office staff now, a Manager, directors, salesmen, secretaries, log buyers and several foremen.
He is now taking more time for his favourite sports that he has abandonned in the last five years. Golf in Frampton, tennis in Grasslake with John Gabber and Mike Allheimer, biking near the Fingerlake in Access and surfing in Bluebay. Of course he goes golfing with Steve Gibson, the pilot who now has become a good friend of his. Both dislike the idea of not having a golfcourse in the Winding River region, although there is more land than needed available, some with very scenic terrains.

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A lot of changes can be seen here in the eastern part of Phlox, namely that Gregory Badger's home is gone. The rails needed the location to connect to the main rails. The land was purchased from Badger, but Greg kept his kiosk, where he sells his vegetables and small fruits.
Welder's lodge used to be in the middle of a dense forest, today it is surrounded by construction and will never be the same. The town of Phlox is getting closer too.

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After the "expulsion" from his land near the sawmill, Gregory Badger needed land to continue his gardens and he found this little home with a barn and some acres of land on Phlox island for rent. He couldn't buy much with what he received from Slye for his little home, but renting was a good option that he seriously considered with an opportunity to buy it one day. So Greg sat on his tractor and plowed everything that was plowable on that small farm and planted whatever he was able to, hoping that it wasn't too late in the season to be able to harvest a good crop this fall.

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Another one who had the idea to rent a farm or home was the Writer from Bergen Island in Bluebay, Charles M. Johnson. He had to get closer to Access, since he works now almost fulltime for Joe Bean from the Access Tribune. Charles now writes the weekly reports of the highway construction and daily lifes of Access' citizens, which of course he finds very boring, but the pay is good and living out here on Lake Valmore gives him the privacy and silence to maybe start a good novel that he is thinking about since a few months.

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Now back to Access Center where Racsan is building his private raceway. This is costing Guy Racsan a little fortune and we all hope for him that it will be worth it. Some rumours say that he is going into automobile productions, maybe producing his own cars one day and that this will be the testing ring. Sofar we know that most of the adhering land was bought by Racsan in the last months and that it will be used for his jetengin manufacturing and also for a new building, of which we have no idea yet.

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A newcomer to Access is the fastfood restaurant chain from Frampton, Mr Burger, founded and owned by Michael Truex, who has promissed to deliver the best burgers on the market. He already signed several contracts already with local beef farmers, vegetable growers such as Gregory Badger and bakeries. Truex, only 30 years old, is originally from Tuscon, Arizona in the US. He moved to Frampton awhile ago to work for several fastfood restaurants before he started his own buissness there. Mr Hamburger is his Company called, that only has four other subsidaries in Frampton sofar, but Truex is far from the ordinary buissnessman and he promissed to settle into the Region and become the Nr 1 Fastfood King one day, being very competitional.

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At 1:00 Pm precisely (13:00 hrs) a siren could be heard in Access Center from far away. The hydrodam area was closed to the public.
Although the rainy season is usually in late fall and we are only in June, rains up in the mountains have been receiving record levels this spring, never seen and measured before. All creeks and brooks running into the Fingerlake are overfilled with water, some of them with brownish colours indicating that erosion is busy somewhere ont he way up. Filling the lake since a few weeks it has now become a small danger of being too stressful for the dam.
The water is at the same height as the streetlevel and that is what decided to shut off the access. No one is allowed near or on the dam itself, all lower building were evacuated and are closed until further notice. Also all the overflow valves were opened to the maximum to release the pressure on the dam itself. Since the river below dam does not go through any habited areas, no danger of a major damaging flood downstream is awaited.
A lot of citizens didn't even know that the Access hydrodam had a siren and some folks even panicked and thought the war has started again. The Police Chief Kyle Roberts had to calm down the population and block off several roads leading to the dam from to those curious Sims that wanted to see the danger themselves.
If the dam breaks it will be fatal to the lower forests and possibly also to some weekend homes on the Valmore lake that will considerably raise its level. Even the Army was alarmed, since the discharge of the Valmore lake is the West River which goes right through the federal reserved area.

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It was also yesterday when the first official monthly council meeting was held in the new Townhall. Mr Slye and Mr Gibson, the pilot, were present this time, mentioning to make it possible to free some land for a golfcourse, which is badly wanted by many citizens of Access and that it could only have a positive effect to the town. Mayor Bartlett answered by saying that it will be seriously considered by the council this week. Of course having an important regional employer and the only bushpilot of the region filing in that public demand makes all the difference.
Other subjects talked about in this historical first new townhall meeting were the fact that the town now urgently needs a better used water treatment plant, bigger and more efficient, also a library would help the education of the citizens, the rebuilding of Gabberpark, the construction on the airport and the creating of a small historical museum for the town. Many other subjects were approached, more or less important, which kept the council busy for the rest of the day.

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At the airport work has started on the extension of the landing strip in the west. A lot of digging into the hill was needed to bring the ground to a level point. A small farm now sits on top of a hill, where it used to be almost on level grounds before. This part of the landing strip should be finished by fall, they say, but the eastern part planned will only start next year.
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The land needed has already been bought out by the town and the plans are also finished for the eastern extension of the airport. The project will be costly, therefore only started next year or even the year after, they say. There will be two tunnels under the landingstrip, one for the road and one for the rails. It was the only way to plan their new directions without making miles of detouring. We can see the tunnels in white lines while the blue indicates the future road. Inside the yellow lines the landing strip will be lenghtened to offer better and safer landings to all kinds of aircrafts.This multi-million §§ project should be finished within 3 years.

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If you were outside on last sunday morning anywhere in the Access town area, you probably would have seen a black smoke column in the western part of town raising to the skies. A smaller habitation caught on fire. Someone doing some home welding in his small garage attached to the house wasn't too careful with his sprakles and soon the tires in his garage caught on fire, making a lot of smoke and fire. Some chemical products inside the garage exploded also and fire was thrown to the neighbor's lawn....and within only a few minute fire was all over the place it seemed. Luckily for Access' new firehouse and firefighter team, it took them less than 10 minutes to get there and control the fires. The garage and house were only heavily smoked out and with some minor repair and cleaning it could be rehabited in a week or so. For the neighbor's lawn, the fire was deadly though, causing a certain death to the grass. Mayor Bartlett himself went to thank the firefighters who did an excellent job. Citizens of Access Center are impressed by the new fireprotection services.

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And finally some news about the bad luck that Welligton had last week. Less than a week after his official openeing the ceiling of the building came raining down. Light paperfoam ceilingtiles that probably weren't attached properly fell on top of the customers creating more fear and fright than harm. No one was hurt, except for the pride of Nethaniel Wellington who was about to explode in his own way. Neverless, the store was closed for renovations, it said on the windows outside and Wellington will indeed bring this to court and ask for reimbursement of his losses.

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Well, that was it again, quite an update, a lot of work in that one, finding the right lots and Bats and make the right pictures. Hope you liked it again. The next time we will hear about another group of our characters, some changes and also some new lots. It will be Part 2 of 3.
I will be gone for the weekend, gone fishing. Have a nice weekend ya all also.

Fred

[frostwolf]

Looks like Sgt. Badger is getting tired of keeping his mouth shut. I do hope he's careful; an honorable discharge is much better than a couple of years in the brig for revealing state secrets.

Too bad about that little farm of his. That was a nice little piece of property.I'm sure his next place that he owns will be nice too.

And what does "putting Darwin to the test" mean? As a guy who likes Dean Koontz, that sounds pretty ominous.

[Shadow Assassin]

First time wearing only a T-Shirt this year, John Gabber walked into Barby's Biergarten

I hope he was actually wearing pants too 

In any case it's nice to see the Winding River repmgion growing quite quickly... hopefully it all goes well. Also, hopefully this doesn't go the same way Nexis of Genesis did... you've got the story growing nicely. As for the inhabitants themselves... any surprises at all coming up for them?