Location: Dayglow

A short write-up for the town of Dayglow. Dayglow is an existing location is Fallout lore, but nothing is known about it.

To the north and west of The Glow lies the NCR state of Dayglow. The town of Dayglow proper, the state's capital, is an unassuming settlement of some six thousand inhabitants, with above average living conditions and affordable public services, which serve the inhabitants of the smaller towns in the area as well. Thus the town serves as the administrative, agricultural and economic center of the NCR territories south and south east of The Hub. Dayglow has a modest yet adequately equipped hospital, modern hydroponics facilities and produces several goods for export in small scale manufactories. Of particular note are the three larger, partially automated textile factories, which supply a great many smaller NCR towns with cheap cotton clothing. The factories and the rich merchant families behind them have been steadily gaining in importance, as Dayglow's former source of fame and riches, the scavenging operation led by the Ellis & Wilson Reclamation Co. has hit a slump in the last few years. Spearheaded by Ghouls out of Necropolis some seventy years ago, the Reclamation Co. quickly took to organizing scavenging expeditions into the ruins of the former West Tek Research Facility, which was reduced to the infamous radioactive hotspot dubbed The Glow by the direct impact of a nuclear warhead. Those first few years the Reclamation Co. made stacks of money, selling their finds indiscriminately to whoever could shell out enough caps, pressuring a lot of the smaller scavenging groups out of business. But over the years most of the easily reachable loot was recovered, and the resources of The Glow began to run dry. After a botched expedition into the lowermost levels of the facility became fatal for the entire party of eight scavengers, the Reclamation Co. saw itself forced to start considering other potential targets for exploitation, so far with little success or profit. Now the once illustrious Ellis & Wilson Reclamation Co. is but a shadow of its former self, its decline dragging many with it, not the least of which the many families who depended on the scavenging operations for their livelihood. Being the last major NCR population center on the way to the southern border, a military base and Ranger compound have been established not too far from town. The area is patrolled extensively by Ranger units, even more so as brutal attacks from raider and slaver groups crossing the border have been increasing as of late. Little is known of the situation down south, but rumour has it an exceptionally violent and barbaric warlord has united the streetgangs in the crumbling ruins of old San Diego.
Points of interest and story hooks
*Town center: nestled around Union Square the old town area of Dayglow is located, with many shops, bars and inns both small and large, a few restaurants, town hall, the governor's house and sundry offices housing the state's administrative and legal bodies. Some of the older warehouses and manufactories are also to be found in this part of town.
Police station: trouble seems to be brewing in Dayglow, as certain areas of Oldtown are quickly becoming no-go zones as a gang of toughs calling themselves "The Shiv" moved in and now controls the streets at night. Any undercover officers the police sends to investigate are soon discovered however. Captain Baldwinson will ask the party to find out more about the situation. Chief of police Maxwell expresses his concern about the increased activity of the Rangers near the border and the situation south of it. After some infiltration and investigation the players can uncover that The Shiv is actually an early scouting sent by Barbatus, the new lord of SD. Also can be discovered that The Shiv are bribing one of the police inspectors to reveal their undercover agents, either feeding them falso or trivial info or making them disappear.
*Factory district: colloquially referred to as "the Grounds", this quarter houses the more recent manufactories, workshops and accompanying warehouses that have sprung up in the last few decades. The grounds' industrial complex is now one of the main sources of income for Dayglow. The area now has neatly structured rows of houses for the factory laborers, after the old housing had to be razed out of health and safety concerns following the outbreak of an unidentified, contagious illness.
The three families owning the large textile factories, the Millers, Brandfords and Hustons have brokered a fragile trade agreement and control much of the production and export in Dayglow. Some smaller competitors have bounded together in protest, trying to put an end to the goodwill and cooperation between the families, by any means necessary. The group has forged a ledger incriminating the Millers of selling over the agreed-on volume, which is to be brought to the attention of the Hustons, their biggest erstwhile rival.
*Uptown: Uptown, with its many pleasant little plazas and broad streets, make for a spacious and agreeable residential area where many of the merchant families and well-to-do live. Tandi Memorial Hospital is located in Uptown, next to the small, well-kept park with fountain dedicated to her name, courtesy of the industrialists of Dayglow.
Hospital: Tandi Memorial Hospital offers valuable services, such as radiation purge treatment, through which radiation poisoning accumulated in short, recent periods can be expelled; unfortunately this therapy seems to have no effect on years of slowly accumulated background radiation and such. Things are more hectic as usual at the hospital, and the party can learn that there’s been a steady increase in the number of patients, as raider attacks are becoming more frequent and more severe, and the badly wounded or injured townsfolk have to make the trek from the southern parts of Dayglow state to the hospital as their own facilities are inadequate. If the party informs if they can help, chief of staff Dalmeyer will ask them to deliver emergence supplies of antibiotics and antiseptics to doctor Palmerton in Hidden Valley.
*Midtown: the majority of Dayglow's inhabitants live in the part of town wedged between the historic town center and the fancier Uptown neighbourhood. Apart from some stores and bars, it holds little of interest for the non-resident.
*Oldtown: Oldtown was once the vibrant commercial center of Dayglow, but production and trade have since shifted to the Grounds when its manufactories slowly but surely became more profitable. Oldtown has been reduced to the poorest neighbourhood of Dayglow, with most families making a living by working on the fields or at the nearby hydroponics farm. The streets of Oldtown now present an at best lackluster, at worst squalid sight. The elegant façades of the old brick houses have fallen into disrepair, the impressive post-war warehouses have been repurposed as living space by penniless families, squatters or immigrants. Oldtown also houses the equally declined Reclamation Co. headquarters, half of the building now boarded up and no longer used.

Reclamation Co. HQ: Carl and Henley, the two Ghoulish founders and still current owners of the Reclamation Co. are at each other’s throat. Each blames the other for the decline of the company’s fortunes. Fortunately, they both have a plan to turn the tide, and they’ll ask the party’s assistance in their schemes. Carl recently came into possession of an electronic keycard for the West Tek complex, salvaged in an outside operation many years ago. He believes it will unlock the security doors to the experimental research labs on level -7, where plenty of valuable pre-war tech should still be up for grabs. Henley on the other hand believes The Glow has been picked bare already and that to survive they need to find another rich site. Recovered logs show that shortly before the war, an important experiment was moved from West Tek to an unknown military location (Mariposa). Henley asks the party to check if the old mainframe computer, ZAX 1.2, is still operational, and to try and find any information on this base. There’s still a few capable scavengers around who will join the party for a share of the findings.