Today in the CBO
Settlements Today
by Nat Wright-Kowalski
28 April 2296 - The Slog
Each Tuesday for the upcoming weeks through the playoffs, we will feature one of the settlements, teams, and owners of the Commonwealth Baseball Organization. This is meant to tell you more about life in the Commonwealth, as well as give you more information about the teams and their owners.
In our third installment of "Settlement Today," I took a tour of The Slog, our second ghoul-run location. As opposed to Goodneighbor, this settlement is all about hard work and tarberries, the delicious little fruits which grow on water. The Slog is the only settlement where tarberries are cultivated, so it is the richest and greatest tarberry-producing location in the Commonwealth. Otherwise, people need to find wild tarberries in ponds and abandoned swimming pools.
The Slog - 2287
According to the intranet (real-life
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/The_Slog so as not to plagiarize),
"Once the Middlesex Country public swimming pool, the Slog is the best (and only) tarberry bog in the Commonwealth. The name 'the Slog' only came about recently after a heavy rainstorm and a trader had to 'slog' through all the mud to get a shipment of tarberries, but it was worth it. Even more unique, the settlement is run entirely by ghouls, who formed it after Mayor McDonough exiled them from Diamond City. The way Wiseman sees it, if the Slog could be more than simply a refuge for outcast ghouls and seen as an example of what can be achieved when a collective put their minds to something and cooperate, perhaps the stereotypes about ghouls being monsters might fade."
In 2296, Wiseman proved to be wise, as The Slog is a well-reputed land with ghouls who benefit the Commonwealth rather than terrorize it. At first, The Slog was a ghouls-only settlement, but in time non-ghouls moved in and peace thrived, as well as the caps. Today, the tight-knit community continues its tarberry production and shares the nearby Saugus Ironworks facilities to repair and maintain farming equipment and settlement improvements.
The Slog - 2296. Parsons State Insane Asylum, the prison for the criminally insane, can be seen in the background.
Owner - Wiseman
One of three ghoul owners in the CBO, Wiseman is in his place in life because of ghoul discrimination. Now an advocate for ghoul rights and equality, Wiseman feels the Commonwealth is a thousand times better than what it was 10 years ago.
According to the intranet, Slog is a "soft-spoken and friendly man" willing to speak "about his past and the community he founded upon first discovering the Slog. Wiseman fled from Diamond City following a decree by Mayor McDonough exiling all ghouls from the community. Instead of traveling to Goodneighbor along with the majority of the ghoul population, he instead founded 'the Slog' within an old public swimming pool. Intending the establishment to be a safe haven for persecuted ghouls, it eventually grew into a tarberry farm - one of the sole producers of the fruit in the Commonwealth."
The Slog and Tarberries
According to terminals around the Wasteland, "Tarberries are small, purple berries of the tarberry plant, itself a water-grown crop ostensibly similar to cranberries.
"Tarberries can only be farmed at the Slog. A swimming pool containing nine farmed tarberry plants, which can normally be harvested once a day.
Most people "will comment on the ingenuity of farming tarberry in a former swimming pool, alluding to the general Commonwealth knowledge that tarberries are rare and difficult to cultivate commercially. The ghouls at the Slog say that they have the best tarberries in the Commonwealth, but truthfully, they have the only cultivated tarberries in the Commonwealth."