Iron Hills Wasteland
Stand fast wanderer, for you face the 9th company of the Brotherhood of Steel. If you have ill intentions for this settlement, then you will have to answer to our justice. - Paladin Dominus
Geography
The hills of the KOP Wasteland north of the 422 are owned and patrolled by the brotherhood of Steel and their vertibirds. These hills are spotted with small settlements and mining outposts built into the scattered remnants of pre-war towns, but the vast dominant majority of this region is covered in densely wooded hills and mountains. Atop many of these mountains are the brotherhood's lookout towers, small fortresses that act as radio connectors for the brotherhood's forces and also garrison stations for patrols that go out into the wider wasteland. The hills are also marked by many valleys and marshes that popped up following the Great War due to the increase in water level from the Schuylkill River, these valleys and bogs have given rise to many different settlements and farmsteads which help to feed Iron City and the many military installations of the wasteland.
The wilderness surrounding the Iron City is largely blasted to pieces due to the shockwave from the blast of the bombs dropped on the pre-war city. This landscape is marked with many deep fissures and open mouthed caves that can hide all manner of dangerous and highly irradiated creature. Past the limits of the Iron City is a stretch of hills and mountains that act as a natural barrier for the city, from any invading ground force that could come up from the south.
Many caves and abandoned bunkers and even vaults dot the wilderness of the Iron Hills, acting as hiding places and even the structure for bases of operation for many raider organizations.
Ecosystem
The wilderness of the Iron Hills supports many forms of life both big and small, the trees are largely barren, with many being long dormant or dead. Those trees that remain are warped and twisted by radiation and some groves have evolved a hivemind sentience that allows them to protect sources of radiation and water which further mutates the trees into nightmarish abominations that walk and hunt the wilderness like any other animal. The Treemen, as some hunters of called them, are the apex of this mutation they dwell within the oldest of the sentient groves and shepherd the groves to ensure their survival and further evolution.
Due to the larger portion of human settlers within the Iron Hills and state forest, many of the more dangerous wildlife have been driven out of the KOP and into the Philadelphia Dark Zone. Still, there are some small pack of deathclaws that hunt the deeper reaches of the Iron Hills, typically making their nests deep within the Uranium mines within the Northwestern hills. The hills support the typical wildlife that would have been found within the woods pre-war, though these species have since been irradiated and mutated by the Great War.
Ecosystem Cycles
The forested and hilly landscape of the Iron Hills allow for the wasteland to have some level of stable climate and seasonal cycle. Though due to the high levels of irradiation from the trees within the woodland, these cycles also include seasonal radiation storms that sweep across the landscape and further mutate and in some instances aggravate the wildlife of the wilderness. The Iron Hills go through their winter and summer months, marked by irradiated snow and rain respectively, the region also suffers from nuclear winters due to the fallout from the great war. These winters happen every decade or so and tend to last for a few years before dispersing, these winters are marked with dramatically lowered temperatures during the entirety of the year and increased snow fall within the winter months.
Localized Phenomena
The Red Wolves are the descendants of an ancient Native Tribe that was once found within the Keystone Commonwealth, these natives used to tell stories of creatures called Wendigoes, monsters that could mimic the voices of those they devoured in order to lure in further prey. The natives called them evil spirits spawned from those who allowed their animal spirit to take over their body and mind, the Enclave has a record of these creatures appearing sometime during a nuclear winter roughly 75 years ago. Not much is known about these creatures, but what is known is that both the brotherhood and the Enclave have had their patrols disappear into the woodlands because of these monsters.
Fauna & Flora
The Iron Hills supports the same wildlife as the rest of the Keystone Commonwealth, with a range of rad stag, brahmin, mutated insect, and predatory species.
Herbivorous mammals that dwell within the Iron Hills include, rad stag, brahmin, gazelles, rad squirrels, rabbits, beavers and mega sloths. These animals can be found all across the hills and the rest of the KOP, but mega sloths tend to be more commonly found within the higher irradiated lowlands of the Iron Hills, particularly within the Manatawny Bog Lands.
The predatory species of the Iron Hills include, mongrels, wolves, foxes, mole rats, rad rats, yao-guai, radtoads, sheepsquatches and even some small packs of deathclaws. These beasts hunt anything that they can kill, it is not uncommon for areas to be marked as off limits to both caravans and settlers due to the presence of larger and more aggressive packs of either mongrels or wolves. Yao-guai caves dot the surrounding hills nearby Iron City and sometimes within the quarries just north of the 422.
Insects like in the rest of the United States, pose as an ever present pest. The Iron Hills is home to a great number of these insects who have mutated greatly from their pre-war counter parts. Giant Ants, bloatflies, bloodbugs, cave crickets, fireflies, radroaches, radscorpions, stingwings and ticks are all commonplace within the wilderness of the KOP.
Type
Forest, Temperate (Seasonal)
Location under
Included Locations
Owning Organization
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