Melting Moments

My journal through Borderlands! You can follow the rest of the story here!

The vision of that woman appeared to me again, telling me of a challenge that awaited me at the Trash Coast. Not sure why I listen to her, or why I'm seeing her to begin with but I just feel compelled to do so. The area is devoid of vehicles and home to large colonies of spiderants, scythids, and purple lobsters as well as a small bandit camp. Travelling on foot is so much more dangerous with all the burrowing scum but I eventually reach the "challenge" the woman spoke of.

A Rakk Hive. Funny to think that all these giant birds live in a giant four eyed bovine. I took great delight in slaughtering it and taking another artifact piece from it. Decided to complete my other tasks here before leaving too, including slaying a scythid boss bug called Bleeder, rescuing Earl's best friend Skrappy (which turned out to be a skag) and luring spiderants onto the bandit base.

With that done I returned to Dr. Tannis and gave her the next piece. She informed me that the final one was with the bandit lord Baron Flynt. First I needed to rescue her claptrap from Old Haven to open the gate. This turned out to be much easier this time around since I had found an autopistol that fired corrosive ammunition. The Crimson Lance soldiers were literally melting before me, and it wasn't long before I not only saved Patricia's claptrap but also saved another damaged one I came across.

I turned them into these.

Sherrif of the Wastes

My journal through Borderlands! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Back in New Haven I picked up more jobs, one from the bus driver/gun smuggler Marcus who is upset the bandits aren't purchasing his wares! Well, I decided to help him since Taylor's "reward" for me was just a crate full of murderers. Mayor Helena wants me to go remove him now too since he poses a threat to the town, as well as a fella named One-Eyed Jack who seems to be the reason Marcus' goods aren't moving anywhere. Taylor was only a little more dangerous than his brother, having a stronger gang, stronger gun, and emplaced turrets to defend him but I still put an explosive round in his face.

As for One-Eyed Jack, he didn't see me coming when I ran him over with my vehicle for an instant kill. I followed this up by heading over to Treachers Landing to collect some freshly dynamited fish and to sink three bandit barges there before checking into a new arena in the Rust Commons East that I had missed, run by the brother of the other arena owner.

Or maybe it's the same guy.

I was expecting spiderants or scythids to be his "pets" but it turns out each round was filled with psychos and bandits. After three rounds I had killed so many of them that he no longer wanted my participation in his ring. I had half a mind to shoot the man but if he manages to lock those scum up somehow he must be doing something right.

A Lance of Crimson

My journal through Borderlands! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Since I was nearby, I decided to investigate smoke signals coming from the nearby settlement of Old Haven. What I found wasn't pretty. It was a trap set by the Crimson Lance (the local military) to lure and eliminate the bandit scum in the area and from the number of bodies it was very effective. Still, I had to shut these signals off incase some hapless non-bandit wandered in (as rare as they are) and as expected these well armed and armored soldiers were much more dangerous than the crazies outside.

Like this, just more red and less Japanese.

None of my weapons had an easy time getting past their armor so it was a case of accuracy for headshots or spraying and praying half the time. Worse still, their numbers seemed limitless! After many close calls I managed to disable all the smoke stacks though then hurriedly made my escape with a backpack FULL of loot. Seriously the profits in this region are insanely high, especially compared to the cold forests nearer the zone.

Anyway, nearby I met the bandit Taylor Kobb who lowered the bridges for Tannis. In exchange he wants me to ice his brother Jaynis who controls a nearby town. After fighting the Crimson Lance this is a cake walk and after clearing the town of all hostiles and a side trip to eliminate the scythid Slither whom the religious nutjobs were worshiping, I return to New Haven to collect my reward from Taylor's contact there.

How to deal with Scum

My journal through Borderlands! You can follow the rest of the story here!

On my quest to get the artifact back I drove through the middle of nowhere, burning some scriptures the bandits were preaching on the way. I prefer psychos over zealots any day. Eventually I reached Krom's Canyon, fighting past some pretty tough defenses at it's mouth. Took a slight detour once inside to raid their food stores and kill another wanted felon called Reaver first before going after Krom himself.

Turns out it was pretty easy to kill him, I just sniped him from far far away before he could hit me. In fact getting to him to retrieve the artifact was more challenging (and it wasn't really). Upon returning to Dr. Tannis she found the pieces fit like a puzzle. She also told me where I might be able to find the next piece to it, and had made a bargain with some criminal scum to lower the drawbridges on the East side of the Rust Commons.

More tasks had opened up too, so I figured I'd do those on the way - investigating more heathens and taking plant samples from spiderant infested zones. The car really is the best weapon against them as it makes a satisfying splat when you run them over. Only two instances where this wasn't true, one where there were simply too many spiderants to crush - leaving me on foot to fight my way out and another where I rammed a giant boss spiderant. Fortunately it was so badly hurt, that I still managed to finish it off lying on my back.

Don't try running over it with your car!

What's up DAHL?

My journal through Borderlands! You can follow the rest of the story here!

With things quiet now at New Haven I pushed on into the Rust Commons zone which is so large it is actually split up into two maps. Not far into it I'm attacked by yet another giant fire breathing rakk, this one more dangerous than the last since it liked to strafe low (the previous one stayed high) but this also meant I could target him with my rockets and in short order he was gibbed into tiny pieces.

Deeper in, at another dig site I met the researcher Patricia Tannis who seems to be going crazy from loneliness. Like me, she is looking for "the vault" and seems to have proof that it can only be opened every 200 years (which happens to be soon). I also learn from her that a the large DAHL corporation had previously been looking into this too, with their cheap workforce of convicts. They gave up and left all the scum in this region which explains why there are so many nut jobs around.

Anyway, Dr. Tannis sends me to fetch an artifact she had left with Crazy Earl for safekeeping. Leaving anything for safekeeping with someone whose first name is "crazy" doesn't sound wise to me, but I go to his scrapyard anyway and after killing him some bandits and skags and bribing him with lots of booze he informs me that artifact he was "holding on to" was taken by a bandit named Krom.