Spire Island set the fires near Crystal Creek, but it ended up spreading beyond everyone’s control. Rad-fire is what people were calling it. The fires burned so hot that they burned the air inside your lungs if it got too close. 

Warpath Raiders were the last warning that people had before the fires got too close, the last living thing that fled the flames and so the last thing many people saw, those who waited too long.

And if you tried to follow behind the fire the radioactive ash melted any skin it touched and even protective gear couldn’t keep it from melting your internal organs. Then the wind picked up and carried the fire and ash, spreading the blight and pushing more people and animals out into the wastes.

The War with Spire Island was done, and the survivors looked to their futures. Some took to the seas and others looked for places on land to find places to hang their hats and call home, all the while waiting for news that they could return to Crystal Creek.

That first year was tough, the war having already made life hard for those whose homes weren’t destroyed - and they weren’t always in the mood to share. Still, useful hands were never turned away and people began building new lives.

Almost a year after the end of the war, everything changed and the world got shaken up again. This time literally as an earthquake ripped apart the land, towns, homes and families. What the original earthquake didn’t destroy the aftershocks and desperate people did. It wasn’t long after that the first geyser went off - spraying a nearby encampment with highly irradiated water. 

Those who didn’t die in the first spray soon found themselves sickening with radiation poisoning as the fallout storms rolled through the area. It took a long time for scientists and travelers to accomplish, but eventually they were able to map the geysers and how frequent they erupted and plan routes around them.

Scouts reported that the radiation levels around Crystal Creek and the nearby woods were dying down as new growth emerged from the ashes. Small groups of farmers, creators, scientists, and their protectors ventured back and started by husbanding the solution to most of their problems - kudzu. It wouldn’t grow anywhere else but it was too valuable for the region to just hope that enough would grow in the wild.

It took almost a full year, but eventually the kudzu ringed the outer edges of what was once known as Crystal Creek and so the small group put out the word, calling everyone else to come home and rebuild.