J.E. Sawyer 7/8/2011 Page 1 of 28 11 Burham Springs Version 567 Interplay: Confidential 1111 BBUURRHHAAMM SSPPRRIINNGGSS Version 1.0 7/8/2011 1:55:00 PM "But fix thine eyes below; for draweth near The river of blood, within which boiling is Whoe'er by violence doth injure others. O blind cupidity, O wrath insane, That spurs us onward so in our short life, And in the eternal then so badly steeps us!" Dante Alighieri, The Inferno Canto XII, The Violent Against NeighborsJ.E. Sawyer 7/8/2011 Page 2 of 28 11 Burham Springs Version 567 Interplay: Confidential OOVVEERRVVIIEEWW Burham Springs is a horrible wreck of a pre-war mining community that has been burning for decades. Only a tiny handful of people continue to linger in the dreadful place. The constant threat of death by fire, smoke, radiation, and horrible monstrosities keep the rest of the world away. The smoldering coal mines contain a wealth of technology, but the risk is too great for most people to bother. The area consists of three maps: AR0001 Burham Springs (simple), AR000101 Burham Mines (complex), and AR000102 Toxic Caves (complex). MAP AREA TRANSITION MAP NAME MAP SIZE COMPLEXITY 1: Burham Springs Full Party AR0001 Small Desert Plain and Cliffs, 3-6 Buildings 2: Burham Mines Full Party AR000101 Medium Basic Mines 3: Toxic Caves Full Party AR000102 Medium Basic Caverns, Mines, and Vault AR0001 is the exterior town map for Burham Springs. It is fairly small, consisting of only three standing buildings and six other burned down building foundations. The ground is cracked and/or blackened almost everywhere. Smoke issues forth in several places and small flames continue to burst forth at haphazard locations across the map. All three of the building interiors are single story. The west and south edges of the map take the player to the World Map (party required). At the northeast corner of the town in a cliff face is the entrance to AR000101 Burham Mines (party required). AR0000101 is a maze of mining tunnels with collapsed dead ends, lingering fires, and a constant haze of smoke. Horrible creatures called gehennas roam the corridors in search of prey and flammable items. A number of ladders lead down to the toxic caves (party required) and an exit in the west leads back to AR0001 Burham Springs. AR0000102 contains fewer mine corridors and more open caverns. Unfortunately, it is chock-full of radioactive material and even more gehennas. The southeast section of the map contains a lowered basin that can be drained for access to a robot laboratory (same map, no transition required). Several ladders lead up to AR000101 Burham Mines (party required), but there are no other exits from the map. Though the geometry on these maps does not necessarily change, the dynamic "water" in the Toxic Caves will need to be lowered so the player can access the AGRICOLA lab. If/when the fires at Burham Springs are extinguished, the flames and smoke will mostly disappear from the exterior maps. This may change overall lighting of several levels, but dynamic lights and/or fakey sprite lighting could simply be removed to achieve the same overall effect. The overall goals in the area include: exploration of the mines, the destruction of all gehenna mutations, and either the destruction of all AGRICOLA robots or their employment in the extinguishing of Burham Springs. Unless the player chooses to engage the three squatters "living" in town, the only foes he or she faces here are gehenna mutants and AGRICOLA robots. Between exploring the mines, dealing with the NPCs on the surface, and figuring out the AGRICOLA lab, the player should spend between 2 and 4 hours at this location.J.E. Sawyer 7/8/2011 Page 3 of 28 11 Burham Springs Version 567 Interplay: Confidential AARREEAA BBAACCKKGGRROOUUNNDD The town of Burham Springs was established fifteen years ago by Trent Burham, a wealthy NCR mine merchant. The community was given a charter by Lt. Gov. Dodge to excavate the existing mines in the region for the production of valuable coal resources. Burham's men and women struck black gold, NCR tea. A small community quickly grew up around the mines in the shells of the old mining town. With the NCR railroad project moving through the area, everything was safe and secure. The NCR ignored the lower caves, as pre-war toxic waste had been dumped here by the government. Everything went well at Burham Springs until the NCR presence pulled out. The railways were completed, and civil discontent was brewing back west. NCR recommended that the citizens of Burham Springs pack up their things and return with them. Many of the stubborn miners refused to give up what had become a very profitable and familiar way of life. Several were ex-criminals, or "integrated" tribals with no future in the rest of NCR. With no one to protect the community, it became vulnerable to attack by the powder gangs of the wasteland (the powder gangs were old railway workers left jobless and helpless by NCR). After a powder gang attack between Burham Springs and Hoover Dam left several important NCR political figures dead, the 5th Engineering Company was deployed to track down the responsible gang. The gang, finally afraid of NCR's focused might, retreated to Burham Springs. The NCR's firepower forced the gang to retreat into the mines. The commanding NCR officer, Maj. Robert "Border" Briggs, hastily ordered his men to plant explosives around the mine and detonate them. The massive explosions reached all the way down the mineshafts and hit the powder stockpiles of the gang. A chain reaction occurred. Flames erupted from every mineshaft that didn't collapse. The oil and coal dust on top of the local creek and pond were lit ablaze. A number of partially-tapped veins of coal also ignited, starting an unstoppable blaze that burns and smolders to this day. To make matters worse, the explosion didn't kill everyone. At least a few dozen townsfolk and power gang members were horribly burned and exposed to the radiation leaking from the ruptured containment barrels in the lower caverns. Through mysterious 50s sci-fi-esque pseudo-science, the anthracite coal, fire, and radioactive elements combined to create a bizarre mutated monstrosity that the nearby Canaanites call "Gehennas".J.E. Sawyer 7/8/2011 Page 4 of 28 11 Burham Springs Version 567 Interplay: Confidential Though a few extraordinarily hardy miners