The Spunker

Durable, portable, and cheap, Magkery's Basic Core Sampler allows even the least-dextrous of prospectors to rapidly survey soil at depths of up to two rods. These core samplers were mass-produced during a period of metabolic crisis, when shipments of agricultural fertilizer shuddered to a halt during the Freight Wars. Discovery of FN-87 ("spunk") in shallow soil fractured the Earlie Blockade from within, enriching prospectors (who could identify the signature blue-green deposits without need for chemical analysis), smugglers (who lumbered bricks of FN-87 and profiteered in the way they always do), and Magkery himself. The coring implements were sold at a loss to drifters, who would locate concentrations of spunk that Magkery could then seize and monopolize. A paper presented at a meeting of the Beshtala-Chanko Society of Agronomists estimates that 74-77% of all FN-87 sold during the Blockade passed through Magkery hands.