HALE & HOOK OUTFITTERS

• Location: Public Services Ring, Morningstar
• Address: NE Public Services Ring Road 1
• Business Model: Wholesale supply depot with a public trade counter, repair workshop, special commissions, and a network of independent road sellers

Originally opened in late 2626 by Orin Hale’s younger cousin, Garrick Hale, Hale & Hook Outfitters supplied the roughneck frontier class with the essentials for hunting, trapping, and river-fishing in the fog-veiled woodlands and quick-flowing streams of the Atrana Range. Founded as a frontier shop, the business soon grew into the Free State's principal hunting-supply depot and wholesale house. Under the slogan GOOD STUFF FOR HUNTERS, Garrick bought, repaired, commissioned, and distributed everything from Windstrike Rifles to homemade snares repurposed from shuttle scrap. Alongside its public trade counter, Hale & Hook supplied a loose network of contracted road sellers who collected tagged consignments in Morningstar and carried them to settlements, markets, taverns, and work camps throughout the Free State. Garrick himself — a former trapper and the only known ExoHuman to have brought down a Glaciok alone — designed most traps and tools by hand and oversaw repairs and special commissions with relentless dedication.

Following the end of the Great War and the founding of the Federal Confederation in 2631, the shop was shuttered as part of the wider social restructuring under Communardism. In line with the Peace Treaty’s environmental clauses, hunting and fishing by ExoHumans were banned across all reservations. Additionally, the Confederation’s commitment to vegetarianism made Hale & Hook’s offerings obsolete overnight. The remaining inventory was seized and redistributed by the Federal Allotment Agency, and the building itself was later repurposed into a communal tool depot in the Gamma Age.

• Construction Material: Pressure-treated wood logs harvested from the nearby Fogwood; windows and select interior panels fitted with security glass salvaged from the Last Frontier.
• Floors: 1
• Façade: Hammered copper signage with a crossed rifle and fishhook motif; display windows made from anti-shatter shuttle canopy glass, showcasing gear in all weather. Above the entrance, a preserved Glaciok paw looms as both a trophy and a warning — proof of Garrick’s most infamous hunt.
• Design Purpose: Rugged and functional — built to resist fog corrosion and sudden temperature drops, with reinforced shutters and a locking security hatch for high-value stock

Trade Floor, Dispatch Area and Repair Bay

• Main Counter: Reinforced steel table with embedded vise clamp, maintenance tools, trade ledgers, and commission forms
• Dispatch Racks: Reinforced crates, hide bales, and tagged route lots arranged for contracted sellers traveling to settlements across the Free State
• Weapon Wall: Custom rack housing Windstrike Rifles, crossbows, and melee weapons like machetes and gutting knives
• Trap Corner: Net shelves and pegs with handmade traps (spring jaws, snare wires, hook-set cages) fashioned from shuttle gear and steel cable
• Fishing Nook: Pegboards with simple rods, cork reels, spools, bait jars, and telescopic landing nets
• Workbench: Garrick’s personal corner with worn-out stool, spare trigger assemblies, and etched sketches of trap designs
• Restroom: Small utility stall, featuring the AuroraSan System behind the curtain near the exit

Exterior Grounds

• Backyard Target Lane: Enclosed short-range firing lane behind the building, with log butts and rusted scoring boards for sighting in rifles and crossbows (supervised use only)
• Mount Post: Iron-reinforced timber post near the porch with braided tether lines for visiting patrons' Hoos
• Private Stall: Simple wood-and-canvas lean-to at the side of the building where Garrick housed his own Hoo, complete with feed trough and patchy rain tarp

The air inside Hale & Hook always carried the scent of cold iron, wood oil, and leather — mixed with just a hint of singed cordite and cured bait. Dim amber lanterns hung from braided steel cords, casting flickering shadows across racks of polished rifles and glinting trap jaws. The wooden floor was grooved by years of muddy boots and drag marks from heavy gear crates, and the counter bore knife scars and solder burns from countless repairs. Route crates marked in chalk for Hope, Firetown, Arla Town, and New Kourou gave one side of the room the appearance of a freight office rather than an ordinary shop.

There was no music, only the creak of shifting wood, the occasional click of a trap resetting, and Garrick’s gravel-voiced mutterings as he sharpened a blade or adjusted a sighting pin. Customers spoke quietly here, as if the tools around them demanded respect. Every item had a story, and every scratch on the walls a silent echo of the wilds beyond Morningstar.

At the depot’s entrance, the preserved Glaciok paw loomed beneath a haze of mist-filtered light, casting a jagged silhouette over the copper sign. In the muted twilight of Morningstar, it served as a quiet warning — and a fading tribute to a time when survival depended on tooth, trap, and tenacity.

• Garrick Hale (Founder, Master Outfitter & Depot Manager): Trap designer, weapon repairman, and instructor in skinning and snaring; managed wholesale accounts, outside suppliers, special commissions, and the road-seller network
• Apprentice Mechanic (1): Part-time smith-in-training who handled minor repairs, bolt replacements, and the packing of outgoing consignments
• Contracted Road Sellers (Variable): Independent traveling salespeople who collected tagged stock on commission and sold it throughout the Free State. They were not permanent employees. The Kettler Twins were among the best-known pairs operating from the Morningstar depot
• Cleaning Bot (1): The Cleaning Bot was programmed to sweep sawdust, clean boot mud, and polish display cases.

• Public Access: The front trade counter was open to all settlers. Individual purchases were limited to available floor stock, while wholesale lots, route collections, and special commissions were handled through Garrick
• Opening Hours: Open every day except 2nd Solsday (weekly rest day); 09:00 to 18:00
• Operational Rhythm: Mornings brought contracted road sellers collecting consignments and placing route orders; later hours brought hunters, trappers, and fishers seeking repairs, ammunition, or individual equipment

The prices below represent typical Beta Age counter prices. Road sellers received tagged stock on commission, while specialist goods retained the producer’s assigned price. Custom work required a deposit and remained subject to the producer’s acceptance.

• Security bars: on the windows
• Lockable Storage Crates: Behind-counter crates with padlock slots and reinforced hinges
• Mounted Crossbow Trap: Used to deter break-ins
• Garrick Hale: A security measure in his own right — always armed to the bone, carrying at least a sidearm, boot blade, and often his custom snare-hook tool. Garrick also always carried a piercing whistle to signal trouble — three blasts for help, one for celebration
• Guarding Trooper Patrols: The Public Services Ring Road, was part of a regular beat for the Guarding Troopers of Morningstar

• Buy available floor stock or place a bulk order or special commission
• Collect an assigned route consignment or seek work as a contracted road seller
• Ask Garrick for local hunting or fishing tips
• Train survival skills or learn how to field-strip a rifle
• Rent test lane to practice marksmanship

• Smuggle banned poisons in false-bottom trap crates
• Use shop rear door to meet beast part smugglers
• Bribe Garrick to sell forged Beast Hunting Clearance
• Steal ancient shuttle component blueprints from Garrick’s sketchbook

Hale & Hook is a supply-chain hub as well as a location for preparation and shady deals. Its manifests, tagged goods, and road sellers can connect characters to distant hunters, craftsmen, settlements, or suppliers who never appear at the depot themselves. Garrick protects commercial secrets because the network depends on trust; useful information should normally require a credible order, leverage, payment, or the careful comparison of physical clues.

The J.W. Supply Thread: During the late Beta Age, regular consignments of high-grade Veyra garments arrived already tagged and priced by a supplier known only as J.W. Garrick accepted deposits and forwarded commission requests but claimed never to have met the supplier. The Kettler Twins and other road sellers merely collected the finished stock and knew neither its place of manufacture nor J.W.’s identity. Investigators can therefore trace the handwriting and goods to Hale & Hook without immediately proving that the company knowingly participated in the attack on Ezrah’s office.

• “The Mountain King”: Garrick Hale offers the players 2,500 Kourou to hunt and deliver the hide of a legendary Zapor known as the Mountain King — a massive, antler-split male said to roam near the peak of the Atrana Mountains. The request comes from a wealthy recluse in New Kourou whose father was killed by the beast six months ago. Garrick provides a reinforced snare trap but refuses to reveal the client’s name. The Zapor is known to be highly aggressive toward ExoHumans, having mauled three settlers in recent month. Either way, the players are heading into dangerous, fog-choked territory with only steel, instinct, and grit to rely on …

• Beta Age
• Free State of Settlers
• Atrana Mountains
• Morningstar
• Garrick Hale (NPC)
• Kettler Twins
• Jareth Wyrick
• Windstrike Rifle
• Exohuman Weapons in the Beta Age