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TRADE CARAVANS

The lifeblood of commerce in the Desolation, trade caravans connect isolated settlements across treacherous wastes like fragile threads in a torn web. These mobile marketplaces vary widely in size and composition - from small groups travelling on foot with large backpacks to massive convoys of heavily modified vehicles stretching over a mile long. The most successful caravans develop specialized routes and relationships, carrying metal from Kiruna to the factory districts of Praga, trading Praga-manufactured weapons for Medha's water purification technology, or exchanging preserved meats from Beast Clan territories for medicines produced in hidden Geneticist compounds. Caravan guards - typically a mix of clone veterans, cybernetically enhanced mercenaries, and local guides - constantly scan the horizons for threats both human and mutant. The trade masters who lead these ventures are often among the wealthiest individuals in the Desolation, their caravans functioning as traveling communities with their own internal laws and customs. For isolated settlements, the arrival of a caravan brings not just essential supplies but news from distant regions, opportunities for young people to seek employment elsewhere, and brief windows for cultural exchange. Despite the constant dangers - ambushes by scavenger bands, attacks from mutant predators, and the simple treachery of terrain - caravans continue the ancient practice of connecting civilisations, their survival an act of defiance against the fractured isolation of the post-Collapse world.