It’s still our Winter Break, but I’m here with a recap of our last event, THE LONG NIGHT! The goal of these Story Recap posts is to help fill in the blanks for those that might have missed an important mod, been at NPC camp or even sleeping, or simply were not able to attend the game. These are major points of continuity that might be important as our season continues, and I hope this will help with the FOMO feels.
This was our annual Premiere game, which is simply a special game where we can up the stakes, let players buy additional XP for their characters, and produce an even more special event. We had dozens of players from abroad travel down as part of an “invasion” event and we even ran special Zip Line passes for the event that were part of the Monolith experience. We also had members of the National Team including Kyle Elliot and Jeff Dahl at the event as well. This was also the largest live game run since the pandemic started, and we’re kinda proud and grateful to so many folks for attending. If you were not able to attend this time, we hope you will be able to join us in February.
There were a few major developments during the LONG NIGHT event. This was our mid-season closer, so it’s a bit of a read but I hope it’s worth it.
THE MONOLITH
At the end of the last game, a terrible MONOLITH emerged near the edge of town. It started to cause cold weather and attracted one of the largest zombie hordes since the Hiway War. The zed seemed hellbent on destroying the Monolith, and were held back by the combined efforts of the Tribes Disparate and the Grave Council until further help could arrive. When the players arrived to town, there had been sightings of terrible frozen zombies known as RIMEBOUND in the Horde, even more deadly than previous encounters with the frosty zed. These frozen enemies exploded into icy shrapnel once their outer armor was broken, but fire was a sure way to kill them without them exploding.
Players took turns “delving” into the interior of the Monolith with the aid of several Graverobbers from the Grave Council, but had to time their entrances to match the deaths of other people in town. The Monolith had become an impromptu Morgue, a place where the dead emerge from the Mortis Amaranthine. Inside, there were reports of a strange ancient Facility from before the fall filled with personalities bent on containing some kind of creature inside. It appeared as if the Monolith was like a wound inside the Grave Mind, causing an “infection” like it was some kind of weird splinter. The zed attacking the site must have been part of the response to whatever was inside.
The first to die reported their minds lost to memories of the past, as they took upon roles of the researchers in the facility called CRADLE. They talked about an Overseer, a Scientist, and government funding. They talked about a “Department of Future and Progress”, but every story inside repeated itself in a twisted loop describing the downfall of this facility. At some point far, far, far in the past, the researchers here had tried (and failed) to contain an entity from beyond our world, an outsider known to our current world as an ARCHON. Every story ended the same - the Archon was trapped inside by the efforts of the scientists, but only after a great sacrifice. The creature must have been the source of the “splinter” that caused the abscess to form around it, the wound that became the MONOLITH. Something must have awoken the MONOLITH, perhaps the tampering of the GRAVE BELL by the villainous Dr. Nichols during the last game.
ARCHON ASSAULT
The first teams inside found an unthinkable horror trapped inside - a creature from outside of our reality, known by some as an ARCHON. The entity was awoken by the first delve and escaped into the world outside to wreck havoc on the town. It’s screeching otherworldly cry was answered by another, as a second ARCHON emerged into our reality to lay waste to the Survivors in the town. Together, the two ARCHONS seemed to be focused on freeing a third ARCHON trapped within the Monolith.
The entities were unstoppable. They were impervious to any weapons used against them, and their hideous claws were capable of rending through armor and flesh alike. They could snuff out the life force of anyone around them, ending the bleed out of anyone that had fallen to their claws. They could even devour the very Imprint of a Survivor, sundering all of their Resolve in one swing. They leaked radiation in the area around them and were capable of stepping through reality into any place that had electricity, even past closed doors or barricades. They could even drag a helpless survivor with them into an ABYSSAL RIFT straight into the Mortis Amaranthine. Countless survivors died the first night, caught off guard by the terror of the Archons.
The last time a trio of these creatures emerged in Essex, it took the combined force of a runaway Oxline, a bottomless pit filled with Zed, and a psionic weapon that rewrote reality to deal with them. Unfortunately for Bravado, no such weapons of overwhelming force were available so the town would have to find their own way to make the creatures vulnerable. Luckily, the town was up to the task and begin an arduous process to uncover a way to keep the creatures in our reality long enough so they could be killed.
A special ST note here - “Archons” are a National level Threat, and only encountered at specific events that involve the Mortis Amaranthine with National approval, like our Premiere event. They first appeared during the Greenhouse online event, and have been sighted at a few events since then. They continue to be a serious threat from somewhere beyond death and it’s possible you might see one again if you choose to travel up to a National event. There are even a few Blueprints that deal with these threats.
FUN FACT: The Archon is the only creature in the Threat Book to be classified as an “Apocalyptic Threat”.
THE LONG NIGHT & LONGWALKERS
As if rampaging Archons were not enough, the town was also dealing with another force of nature that had emerged from the darkness, known to the Quiet Folk of Widow’s Peak as the LONGWALKERS. The cold of the MONOLITH had awoken the LONG NIGHT, a time of frozen, terrible darkness that spreads across the land during the deepest Winter months (also conveniently during our Winter Break in January). The legends of the Lovelace clan tells of chasing away the Longwalkers with candlelight, but the town soon found out that they were not simply legends to scare children.
Terrible creatures prowled the night, including the Nowhere Man, the Midnight Gardener, the owl-like Lechuza, and more. From three-headed abominations to mesmerizing glowing Jellyfish-like creatures, once the sun set the things began to hunt in the darkness. Much like the Archons, no weapon could harm the Longwalkers, and the only solution to their threat was to run or hide. A few survivors swore that they survived an encounter with a Longwalker, but each seemed to be deadly if you kept their attention for long.
In the midst of this, the supernatural cold of the Monolith and the Long Night began to create other problems. The Rimebound dead were emerging from the Mortis, the crops were withering and dying, and even the buildings themselves needed to be winterized against the cold. Some took the opportunity to flee the town while others turned their attention to surviving the Long Night.
Thanks to the hard efforts of the survivors, they managed to winterize each building in Bravado, deal with a blockade of mines in the lake that prevented trade via the rivers, evade the Longwalkers, and even created a technological marvel to protect the farmland from the cold. If the town could come up with a solution to the Archons and the Monolith, they would be able to weather the Long Night intact.
THE END OF THE MONOLITH
Repeated delves into the strange MONOLITH uncovered bits and fragments of how the original scientists of the facility were able to trap the original Archons. However, it appeared that the Archon trapped within was actually the Archon that was thought destroyed during the Fountainhead Incident in Essex last year. When it tried to escape from Essex via electrical lines, it’s escape was cut short by a breach in the line, near where the Monolith emerged.
The town discovered a means to build an sonic amplifier from pieces scavenged from the Monolith, shards of icy armor from slain Rimebound, and the strange Imprint Crystals found within the outskirts of the Monolith. Together, the brightest minds of the town pooled their resources to create a psionic device capable of temporarily stunning the Archons. While stunned, they would be trapped in our reality for a moment, about 15 seconds, and they could not simply ignore the weapons and firearms of the town. However, the town had to gather every able bodied fighter they could to lure the Archons near to the Monolith so they could be confronted.
After a moonlit walk down the quiet, dark paths of Bravado, seemingly escorted to the fields near the Monolith by the Longwalkers, the survivors set their trap. With a terrible scream, the two Archons descended into the fray to assault the living. Alongside the Archon attack, the zed breached the perimeter of the town, with Rimebound dead emerging into the fields by the hundreds. Caught between two unstoppable forces, the Survivors braced for a long fight.
After a few failed attempts to wound the Archons, it was eventually apparent that not only could the Archons snuff out the life force of any of the dying near them they could absorb any psionic energy near them to heal their wounds. With the help of a few stalwart shield walls and coordination to prevent unnecessary healing of the Archons, the fight became a race to deal enough damage to the Archons in the brief windows of vulnerability while surviving the constant assault of the zed and even a few of the Longwalkers that drew too close. It was a chaotic mess of a fight, but with a earth rending screech, the first of the Archons fell to the ground followed by its partner moments after.
An unthinkable feat had been achieved. Two Archons were slain in battle, and the imprint of the third Archon was consumed by the strange sonic device in it’s last moments. The wound that was sustaining the strange Monolith was gone, and the walls of the Monolith began to crumble. As if some hidden signal went out, the assault of the dead on the town began to wane and the forces of the Tribes Disparate, led by Queen Jaspar and the Antler Tribe, the Reckoners of the Grave Council, and the mercenaries of the RRC were able to push back the horde. With a moment to catch their breath, the Monolith was destroyed, the zed horde was dissipating, and the Archons were no more.
The Aftermath
While the Long Night looms on the horizon, the town weathered an apocalyptic threat and managed to create some measure of protection against the cold and merciless winter. Bravado will survive the Long Night intact, instead of taking a step back to repair the damage of the winter. Several survivors took the advantage of the treaty with ANTON ANASTASIA of REQUIEM to travel North away from the cold, while others settled in for a long winter break. In a few months, the cold will pass, the Oxline will start fresh, and the town of Bravado will prepare for the Spring.
That’s it for the story this time, and we’ll be back in February with our next event! Stay tuned!