Budoh (0502, E530310-3)
A planet nearly entirely abandoned after centuries of relative affluence. The previous government, a fair-minded representative democracy, gradually sold off every natural resource available to them in an effort to maintain their own quality of life—the atmosphere, the oceans, and eventually the planet itself. Now Trisonic Ltd owns the planet, and serves as it's de facto government. Trisonic would prefer the last 6,700 residents just moved off-planet like the rest of them, even going so far as to offer cash incentives to emigrants, but those left seem content to die here, protected by a hard-won grandfather clause in the sales contract. There is not one of them remaining under the age of 55. Their children all found opportunities elsewhere.
Locals get by mostly hunting the last of the collapsing ecology of megafauna: the Budoh Land Whale. They weigh hundreds of tons, and have fins and no legs—a vestige of their time in the now-disappeared oceans—so they flail and flop across land instead. Whalers shoot them with gigantic ballistas loaded with rope-laden harpoons, hack them into manageable pieces over several days, and drag them home by hand. Every piece of them is useful: blubber for fuel, flesh for food, bones and cartilage for crafting materials. Even their acidic blood is useful for making soap and tanning their hide into leather.
Patrons
- Oakes Bassett, whaler.
Seventy-two years old, stooped but spry, Bassett is sure this will be his last season. His two friends are gone: Hans left for Vondera (0501) three months back, Edgar fell on a rock and died before that. His children left years ago, and his wife went with them. There's no one left to help him with the hunt.
He asks for your help to bring in one more whale—he won't beg. In return, he offers to leave you, in his will, everything he owns: an insulated house on twenty hectares, a small collection of harpoon guns, a wheeled ballista and an ATV to pull it, a 30-caliber rifle with 400 rounds, and 15,000 credits in savings.
If you successfully help him bring back his last whale, he declares you as his sole heirs and benefactors, and dies in his sleep after 2D months pass. You inherit his estate exactly as he described it, with one exception: his savings totalled 150,000 credits. 1D days after the funds enter your account, his wife and children call looking for the inheritance they feel they're owed. They are quite persistent.
- Leslie Stirling, Trisonic liaison.
Tall and bird-like, her only job is getting residents off of this planet. It is not going well. She is eager to explain the program to anyone who is kind enough to listen: residents qualify for land repurchase at 1,000 credits per hectare, a middle-passage ticket for each party involved, as well as a battery of cash incentives amounting to 60,000 credits, if they're willing to relocate off-planet. A resident is any person who owns land here on Budoh.
She leans in conspiratorily and adds, "Some folks have had some success buying land from the locals and reselling it to me at a profit."
"They're sweet, but most of them won't even talk to me, so they don't know how generous the program is. Maybe you'll have better luck."