Red Road Caravan is a small trading company formed in 2196 that spread across the South in the 2200s.
History[]
Planning & Founding[]
During the year 2193, Leroy Johnson was a small time trader who’d travel from West Mississippi to East Louisiana to trade only with a pre-war shopping cart full of scrap scavenged by his wife, Leslie Johnson. He’d cover highways to make it to his destination, only to come back with a handful of Pre-War Bank Notes, specifically 40 dollars. One day, he arrived in the settlement of New Cameron to trade only to arrive in disappointed to the fact that the village had been burned down by either raiders or klansmen. Leroy, having the wastelander instinct, instantly began scavenging off the wreckage. While doing so, he heard a cough, then several more. It turns out that someone survived and was trapped underneath the fallen walls. With a heartbeat matching his panic and Leroy being the human he was, attempted to carry the wall to let the man crawl out, in which he did, but not entirely intact. He could barely walk and had his eye pierced with part of the scrap metal wall. "Are you okay? Is there anything I could do to help?" asked Leroy. The man nodded and requested that he be brought back home with Leroy and nursed back to health. Although he agreed, by the time he reached home, his wife did not, but helped anyway.
The man would be given a stimpak every time Leslie found one and although Leroy was running out of Bank Notes, he stayed at home to make sure the man was still alive, making hot soup every now and then to satisfy the man’s hunger and boiling rain to satisfy the man’s thirst. The man appreciated all of this, but then started to fear that there would be a price to all this. In the end, when the man had recovered, he thanked Leroy and asked him if there was anything he could do in return. Leroy shook his head side to side and said that saying thank you was enough. The man nodded and thanked him again before putting a hat on and leaving the small shack.
Since then, Leroy continued to work and started traveling to East Louisiana through and although there is a higher chance of getting raided, Leroy now and then visits Central Mississippi through Klan territory for a higher sum of Bank Notes brought back. By 2194, he was more successful than ever with more than double the amount of Bank Notes brought back per journey. One day, his luck extended further.
Leroy Johnson - The man who's death lead to the creation of Red Road Caravan
The man he nursed back to health came back, this time with a Brahmin Cart. He mentioned his name was Roland Black and that he wanted to travel with Leroy to make a living, remembering his kindness and wanting to make it up for him. Leroy agreed and within the shortest of time, the two became best friends. The two started to hire prospectors, letting Leslie rest and become a normal housewife. Leroy and Roland made their first thousand Bank Notes within three months. On the winter of 2195, the cart was ambushed and Leroy was killed while the contents stolen and the cart burned down along with the Brahmin. Roland was the only survivor and was to turn back to make a route for Leroy’s shack to give Leroy’s wife the bad news. However, he returned to Leroy’s shack, he arriving to find out that the shack was too burned to the ground. He felt he had nothing left, and that was when he found out that he had a wallet full of Bank Notes and decided it was time to start over. He remembered Leroy had the idea of a caravan, and wanted to name it the ‘Red Road Caravan’. Although Roland disagreed with the idea and name and wanted to stay a small time trader with Leroy, he feels that he should become the first owner of a possibly large caravan.
While traveling, he prospected with Leroy’s shopping trolley before hiring prospectors and buying another Brahmin Cart, then hiring guards, getting employees to a number of ten before going on to do his first trade in Texas. He earned his first thousand in one and a half months and used an abandoned building in the ruins of Jackson as a base of operations before buying another Brahmin Cart and hiring more traders to occupy them. In August 2196, Red Road Caravan was established and Roland Black became the first owner of Red Road Caravan. He hired a manager for his caravan in 2198 and by 2199, the caravan had six Brahmin Carts, thirty four employees and was recognized in East and Central Louisiana as an official caravan.
First Golden Age[]
Red Road Caravan's first Golden Age was a series of events that happened in between 2209 and 2218, beginning after Roland Black's death and when Audrey Collins took over as the new owner of the caravan, ending in 2218, the fall starting before and ending after her death.
A Red Road Caravan Image used as Guard Hiring Propaganda featuring Audrey Collins.
The reason it is known to most members in the present as the first 'Golden Age' is because of the vast expansion that occurred during Collins' reign as owner of the trading company, which almost immediately fell after a single expedition failure.
In 2218, a Red Road Caravan of twenty-one people and two brahmin was attacked by raiders. That attack combined with the growth of the Klansmen Confederacy made the Red Road Caravans' business steeply decline. Audrey Collins struggled to keep the caravan together and fell into depression.
Dark Days[]
After the attack in 2218, the Red Road Caravan continued struggling to get by. As the Klansmen Confederacy expanded, it became increasingly more difficult for the Red Road Caravan to pass through West and Central Mississippi without being raided. In 2220, Audrey Collins hanged herself in her office in Jackson. Roland Black's inexperienced son Kelly Black took over as manager of the Caravan, and it seemed as if Red Roads Caravan was done for at last. The Caravan dragged its feet for the next five years and just got by.
However, everything changed in 2223 when a man in a suit walked into Red Road Caravan's headquarters in the ruins of Jackson. This man was Nathan Royce, and he needed Red Road Caravan's help in creating a caravan coalition to boost the economy of the Klansmen Confederacy. Kelly Black, amazed by the offer, readily accepted Royce's offer to the alarm of some of the other members of Red Road Caravan.
Second Golden Age[]
Now with the protection of the UCK, Red Road Caravan cooperated with other caravans to form Southern Caravans, a conglomerate with access to Klan territory. This benefitted Red Road Caravan money wise but many in the Caravan feared that Black was falling under the influence of the Klansmen Confederacy.
Red Roads Caravan would go on for years afterwards making a square profit, but losing more and more veteran members over the years.
Crucifix War[]
In 2270, the Brethren of the Shroud went to war with the Klansmen Confederacy and struck deep into Klan territory, namely the ruins of Jackson. As a Klan sympathizer, Kelly Black was killed by Brethren and Red Roads Caravan's headquarters was seized and used as a fortification.
Leslie Marvin was elected as leader and manager of the Red Road Caravan and relocated north to wait out the war.
Decline[]
After the Crucifix War ended, Red Road Caravan moved back to the Jackson ruins and back into their war torn headquarters. Since then, Red Road Caravan has been scraping by and quietly declining in business as bigger caravans overtake them in the Southern Caravan conglomerate. However, Leslie Martin remains optimistic about the Caravan's future and has put a lot of time into the company.
A Red Road Caravan Brahmin Cart during an expansion expedition in a Newspaper Article.
Membership[]
Membership to Red Road Caravan is not exclusive but usually requires some knowledge of the area the Caravan trades in. Also, white unmutated men are preferred for jobs within the Klansmen Confederacy.
Activites & Interests[]
Red Roads Caravan trades goods all around the Gulf Commonwealth. The goods they sell varies from year to year.
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