go below

go below (October 2024 Premiere)

Throughout the Broken Bones Necropolis, the organization known as Resurrection had set off batches of zombie attractant to provide a short-term path of safety through to the fungal-overgrown ruins of Booming Bay. The survivors of the Anvil, backed up by support caravans from the Hammer Inlet Coalition, forged ahead to reach the haunted place that was once home to merry sea shanties, drinking, and laughter. Their goal - to discover what was forcing the necropolis to continue to grow and put an end to it, and perhaps in the doing find redemption for their part in the disaster. 

Harried by hunters and worse in the night, they fought their way into Booming Bay and reached the old tavern. The representative of Resurrection gathered some of the newer residents to help attune a necrological device - the Oculus Tempesatis Mortuae - while juggernauts battered down the doors and boomer zombies threw themselves at the survivors like living grenades. Once properly attuned, the strange organic machine pushed forth a wave of biokinetic energies to push the majority of the zombies back beyond the borders of the town center. It would need fuel, however, and while some of the town aided by the Citadel  performed a Benediction of the Wailing Abyss to provide the survivors with a functioning morgue, the others discovered a source of fuel in the old morgue of Booming Bay.

It was very clear that this ‘Festering Morgue’ was the epicenter of the Booming Bay Incident, and was the cause of the necropolis’s ceaseless growth. If they had any hope of keeping their home from being overwhelmed, they needed to somehow negate or destroy it. Three groups offered the town plans – the Marauders recommended a KATU Explosive Charge to demolish it, the Atomic Priesthood suggested irradiating it with a Demon Core to burn away the corrupted infection, and Resurrection suggested necrological procedures and rituals to reverse whatever had been done in the first place. Others, unaffiliated, suggested dismantling the Festering Morgue and simply taking it - an idea that clearly displeased all three of the other factions present.

While the survivors debated on a solution, another issue reared its head - they were not alone. Vivian DuMorte, former head of the ‘Graveheads’ gang and architect of the Booming Bay Incident, was still active in the area - and had gathered cultists from the Gravis Immortum-infected residents of the town who hadn’t yet died. They harried the survivors constantly, with the late-night hours proving especially deadly for those who wandered alone.

Rumors of some terrible ‘Beast of Booming Bay’ began to circulate on Friday, with some claiming to have seen this towering horror, an amalgam of bear and stag but rotting and decayed. It was discovered as well that the serial killer known as the Hollow Man had followed the survivors as well, setting up a terrifying trial of puzzles and traps to be navigated. The threats were beginning to pile up, but nobody had claimed that this would be an easy journey.

In this place of tragedy and death, however, the survivors looked to the future and new growth - the first elections held in the Anvil were completed Friday night, with a new governor and council elected for the burgeoning settlement of Ember’s Forge.Shortly after, this new government was tested as chanting from the area of the Festering Morgue alerted the survivors that Vivian duMorte was on the move. She was confronted in the midst of her ritual, and despite merging with what appeared to be a Mass Grave, was finally defeated, Last Danced, and killed for the final time. The one most responsible for the creation of the necropolis was dead, but the threat remained, and they still had to come to a decision.

At first leaning towards their own plan of disassembling the morgue, the survivors shifted gears and decided to go with Resurrection’s plan. Throughout Saturday, they gathered materials and tools that were necessary for this plan. Targets of opportunity continued to arise, and the survivors sent to their rest several of the most dangerous zombies that had risen from the late residents of Booming Bay – including taking to boat in the hazardous waters near the ruins to put an end to the terrifying zombie kraken that had been preying on the Kingfishers’ ships in the inlet.

At last, all the tools gathered, John of Resurrection arrived in town to help direct the gathered survivors. As they headed down to the Festering Morgue, what lurched from the shadows wasn’t only the undead – but the horror of the Beast of Booming Bay itself. It pursued them all the way to the old morgue, where they held a standoff against the Beast and the undead around it while others began the procedures necessary to end the incessant growth of the necropolis. At the culmination of this, everyone within the Festering Morgue was drawn into the Mortis Amaranthine – and whatever happened there, they found success.

A rogue remnant of Vivian’s cult continued to hound the survivors throughout the night, who plotted a gambit to ambush these murderers in the night. After killing for several days, they were finally sent to the grave at a high cost, including the life of one of the townspeople willingly sacrificed.

As dawn struck, the realization came that the Oculus Tempesatis Mortuae no longer had a source of fuel– and the survivors hastened to depart with a horde of zombies at their heels, heading back in the direction of the Anvil.

They had secured their borders, made up for their sins, and the time was coming to forge a new future for themselves.