Ivy

Proprietor of Ivy's Mercy. The price is never named.

Recorded history

Ivy was born under a tin roof in southern Alabama and raised to smile sweet and hide sharper truths.

Before the world fell she ran a roadside bar. When the grids failed and the coastlines drowned she did not leave it. She fortified it. That decision is the entire reason the Wasteland has somewhere to sit down.

Now her saloon, Ivy's Mercy, glows lantern-lit in the ruins. Survivors come for cards, rumours and the hum of a generator nobody has ever seen her fuel.

The house

Once the sun starts to set and the Wasteland goes quiet, Ivy's Mercy is where the region ends up. There is somewhere to rest, something hot or cold to drink, and card games running most of the night: a decent way to earn a few caps if you are good, and a reliable way to lose them if you believe you are.

Ivy deals with a lazy drawl and a razor mind, reading tells like scripture. She does not cheat. The archive records this as verified rather than claimed, and notes the more useful observation: she does not need to.

Her real power is behind the bar. She brews strange concoctions from scavenged spirits and wild herbs, and every game ends the same way, with a glass slid across scarred wood.

Take a sip. Might be you leave richer.

The reward could be bullets, a map, safe passage, or nothing at all. With Ivy the price is never named. It is also never small.

Assessment

All are welcome at Ivy's Mercy, including parties who spent the daylight hours shooting at each other. The house holds because Ivy holds it, and because everyone involved understands what the alternative would cost them.

If you decide trouble is on the menu, she will show what little mercy she has remaining. The archive advises taking the warning at face value. It is not decoration, and the saloon's continued existence in a region under occupation is evidence of a capacity that its regulars have mostly chosen not to test.

Archive notes

• Held and fortified her pre-Fall bar rather than abandoning it.
• Her account of the coastlines drowning is corroborated by the Low Harbour ballad.
• Ivy's Mercy operates as neutral ground; the neutrality is enforced by the house.
• Deals straight at cards. Verified, repeatedly, by people hoping otherwise.
• Brews from scavenged spirits and wild herbs; effects are inconsistent and intentional.