Welcome to Season Four!

It’s Jonathan here again and it’s been a long summer, but it’s finally that time! It’s time for the start of our official SEASON FOUR, and that means a return of the weekly Rules Rambles you know and love. Finally, something to read on Wednesdays again!

Each week, I’ll introduce a topic that will be important in an upcoming game, explain some new mechanic or system for DR:TX, or discuss a particular rule from the DR Corebook. In each ramble, I’ll focus on explaining that topic in more detail than the book alone can provide and help provide one place to reference all the various errata or rulings that might be relevant. Sometimes I’ll even drop a few Story Teasers or provide a summary of the last game in a Game Recap.

Today’s blog post will touch on a bit of things to keep in mind as we start our new season.

The Valley of Fear & The necrophage: PYroclasm

First off, tickets for our Season Opener just went on sale on MONDAY!

You can purchase your tickets for the event on our website or at the gate, but we’ve also got tickets for the NATIONAL EVENT after that one on sale too! You can also purchase your Advanced Memberships and even check out the Widow’s Fund if the summer has made attendance this season a bit harder.

We haven’t talked much about the Valley of Fear other than a few cryptic quotes we shared in an earlier post, so here’s a sneak peak of what to expect in our first game of Season 4:

The Valley of Fear

Before the Burning Season forced the San Saba into hibernation for the summer, dramatic changes to law and order in the wastes took root thanks to the work of the citizens of the tiny town of Bravado. A new law banning the sale and trafficking of Crystal Candy, new faces and new voting members on the San Saba Board, a mysterious accident in the floating city of Waking, and now — a missing Warden.

Tabitha St. Mercy - hounded, hunted, betrayed - caught off guard by enterprising people in Bravado, has disappeared from Prudence Penitentiary. In her place, a new Warden has taken control. Adam Moriarty, former Lifer, has stepped out from the shadows and the effects have rippled across the San Saba Territories. While major changes have been occurring at the prison commonly called “Killhouse”, life in the San Saba Territories has grown more dangerous.

People have gone missing. Roving bands of Vigilantes, often called “puppies” in a deriding fashion by some, try and help the Law Dogs. Their goal is to help enforce the newest laws, especially against Crystal Candy, and if a few skulls get broken, such is the way of things in the wastes. The Justices of Sin are more prevalent than ever, under the orders of Moriarty to help quickly pass judgement so that the Law Dogs can continue their crusade. Moriarty has even helped Wyatt break the backs of the Rotgut Family, former purveyors of the largest Crystal Candy pipeline in the San Saba and now they too sit in Prudence Penitentiary.

Despite the Board’s bold action against the drug trade of the San Saba, a prophecy of trouble has come true. Crystal Candy is still in abundance, and new pipelines are sprouting like weeds. There are even rumors of new and more addictive variations making their way to the marketplace.

And then there is Bravado - breeding ground for Saints and Miscreants - stuck in the middle of these wars between law and order, in a valley of fear…

We’ll go into more detail in the weeks to come about some of the story threads, characters of note, and plots you can expect for Season 4, so stay tuned and get your tickets locked in for our first event of Season 4!

Action Requests, Plot Requests, & PFAs

A new season means it’s time for a few pre-game activities. A few of these need to be submitted ASAP, so make sure you don’t wait until the last minute!

Action Requests

First up, if you have any Action Requests (pg. 13) like Master Criminal Influence, Hunting, Sailing, or Financial Influence it’s time to submit those requests! These need to be submitted BEFORE the game you attend, so you are already on the clock.

If you don’t know quite what these skills do, I wrote a whole blog post about them last season:

Every game, our talented STs will work on making sure we have content for the major Action Request items but you might have a neat item or another reason to submit a request. We are hard at work on some upgrades to our boat mods for Season 4, and we have brand new STs this year to include into the machinations of designing devious Criminal Influence heists, or challenging hunts of a San Saba predator (this might apply to the Red Ledger too, now that I think about it)…

Remember, we won’t take Action Requests that are submitted the week of the game, so make sure you get these in ASAP! Don’t miss out on those Master Skill Mods and your rewards!

Character Backgrounds

It’s a new season, and I know a few of you have some new characters planned for Season 4. That means it’s time to submit a CHARACTER BACKGROUND, so we can know all the places to twist the knife and maybe even include something personal into our story lines for the season. What better way to help us understand your motivations and interests than literally telling us what makes your character tick?

You can include things like important Supporting Characters (SCs or NPCs) in your background and their name, such as family members, best friends, or mentors. Maybe you have some other Background Ties with other player characters that are tied to your story. What about an Important Location or some settlements and cities has your character visited previously?

Remember, please be brief, submit in bullet points or key notation format, stay local, keep any NPC Groups in your background as small as possible, double check your submission, be patient, be willing to answer questions or adjust your background as needed. Be open to suggestions to change locations, names, and events to have more relevant links to our story!

personal plot requests

Maybe you picked up some fancy new skills by attending travel games over the summer? Maybe you got a new Social Influence skill or you want to submit a few new rumors yourself. Maybe you want to share that fun story that happened over the Burning Season. Remember, you can spend those hard-earned CAPS to create some Rumors & Gossip with a PERSONAL PLOT REQUEST in addition to fun things like Mind refresh meals and custom Zones of Mechanics.

You might even have a neat idea for a Personal Plot Request in the form of a custom mod or story written by our talented Storytellers. For a mere 200 CAPs, you can submit your request for the new season. Our STs need some time to write these, so the sooner you submit the request the more likely it is that we can include it during our games! Don’t wait until the last minute!

Remember, we won’t take Personal Plot Requests that are submitted the week of the game, so make sure you get these in ASAP! Our STs need some time to write these, so the sooner you submit the request the more likely it is that we can include it during our games!

Profession Focus Achievements (PFAs)

Maybe you want to use some of that XP you earned over the summer to purchase a new Profession Focus Achievement? Well, it’s easy enough to submit a Personal Plot Request, which is a require of the PFA process via our website, but I want to remind folks of a special DR:TX rule on PFAs:

In DR:TX you can have a PLAYER teach you a relevant PFA, but it still needs to be submitted as a Personal Plot Request so we can update your sheet and meet the rules in the book. We can still help with ST-led PFA mods, but we will only have a few spots each game to facilitate those requests. For instance, finding another player to teach you how to be a Graverobber can be a faster way to earn the PFA, and provide you neat roleplay and character ties at the same time!

Just like the other requests, we won’t take PFA Requests that are submitted the week of the game, so make sure you get these in ASAP!

wrap up

It’s great to be writing these blog posts again, and I have some plans for the upcoming weeks before the VALLEY OF FEAR! We have some exciting new changes this season, from new Work Orders, new Faction Buy Lists, a few location changes on our site, and more. We have a brand new team of Settings & Props folks working on ways to make our site and crafting areas more immersive, and maybe even a few new threats to hunt you in the moonlit darkness at Camp Kachina.

Next week, we will talk about some of the stories you should know, NPCs you might see, and important plot points that will be relevant throughout Season 4. After that, we’ll cover some of the changes in mechanics for Season 4, and as always, I’ll reserve a place for those last minute Mechanics You Need to Know the week of game. It’s coming up soon, and I hope you are ready!

The Wastelander

Fresh off the presses in Essex, here’s the latest issue of “The Wastelander”! We’ve shown you a few front page articles but here’s an entire issue! This is the premiere news source in the largest city in the San Saba Territories so you can count on all the news that’s fit to print!

Special thanks to Merp Tastic for the gracious use of their character Milo for these issues, as these are based off an in-game paper they wrote and screen printed during our first seasons.

This is an in-game teaser for our upcoming season, so pay close attention to the happenings in the Wastes, and let us know what part you liked most!

DR:TX Season Four And The Sudden, Surprising Death of Your Ego

Howdy! It’s Amber with an update from the DR:TX Admin Team!

We’ve been very quiet on the blog front this summer, but that’s been because we have been working on two important things. The first and most important thing was that we allowed ourselves to take a ‘break’, and while we still were working; we let ourselves experience the relief of going slower and having no deadlines. That time is coming to an end for us and now we’re happy to show the second thing we have been working on:

Our entire season line up!

Before you eagerly scroll to get your hype up; we want to talk about some very cool things happening in Season 4!

Last year, Shan and Jonathan wrote the entire season overarc and got input from the Storytellers (our Ops Guides) on each episode, and while that method allowed us to have a successful season that completed laying the baseline of our 3.0 setting – it did not leave room for the talent of our Storytelling Senate to make new stories!

So this year, we are trying a new system and allowing the Storytellers to execute their own story overarcs. September, November, January, February, March, April, and May will all have their main plot points written and directed by our Storytellers. We believe that ownership over the monthly events will allow for better collaboration with other Storytellers and you will see even more interconnectivity and cohesion between stories you have bought into. We’re super excited about this and we hope you are too. So, if you see your pal running an episode hype them up; cause we certainly will be!

Without further ado, have some cryptic, evocative hype for Season 4 to which you will apply no suspicions at all.

Zero.

DR:TX Season 4

Valley of Fear (S4, E1)

September 16-18th, by Ted LeBeau

“Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.” - Doyle 
“The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.”― Friedrich Nietzsche

The Necrophage: Pyroclasm (S4, E2)

 October 14-16, by DR:TX Team [NATIONAL EVENT]

“Every lover is a soldier”- Ovid, Amores

Find out more about our linked National Event: THE NECROPHAGE

Imprint by Design (S4, E3)

November 11-13, by Brett Pittman & Mae Wilder

“A man's mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions.”- Oliver Wendell Holmes

The Emerald Gala (S4, e4)

December 9-11, by: DR:TX Team [PREMIERE EVENT]

“We fly to beauty as an asylum from the terrors of finite nature”. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Crisis of Faith (S4, e5)

February 10-12, by Chase Lira & Stephanie Patrick-Munoz

"The unreal is more powerful than the real. Because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it. Because it's only intangibles, ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last.”   — Chuck Palahniuk

The Rage That Fills Her Sails (S4, e6)

March 10-12, by Ed Sampson & Joel Vold

“For I have dipped my hand in Muddied Waters, and, withdrawing them, find ‘tis better to be a commander than a common man!” - Bartholomew Roberts 

Hells of The San Saba (S4, e7)

April 7-9, by Ren Lewis & Andrew Harper & Ash Sexton

"Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts." - C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

Vox Populi (S4, e8)

May 12-14, by Heather Halstead

"Instead of the cross, the Albatross about my neck was hung." - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

That’s it for today! See you next week Vados!

Augments & You!

It’s time for our next Summer Break Edition of the Rules Ramble with Jonathan! Each week or so, I’ll introduce a topic in the DR Rulebook in a deep dive that focuses on explaining it in more detail than the book alone can provide. Today’s blog post will touch on a bit of things concerning AUGMENTS and how you can interact with these new items in Dystopia Rising. This is a rule change that was added AFTER our last game of Season 3, so if you haven’t attended a travel game over the summer this may be new information for you. We have 79 new Augment blueprints that entered play and there’s a few things you need to know first!

Necrophage Announcements

Shameless plug time. :)

You might have noticed we just announced THE NECROPHAGE, with a fancy new website. We still have some fun stuff planned for the leadup to our September game, but ticket sales for the National event started on August 1st.

We hope you can attend, as it will be our first Texas National live game since UPRISE so many years ago in 2.0, and it’s our first linked event with another chapter with our friends at DR: Connecticut. We have some familiar faces you’ll see during the event, and you can attend the linked DR:CT virtual event to start off the story with STORMWALL before you head to the PYROCLASM to deal with the machinations of Grandfather Nichols once and for all!

Plus, each event lets you buy up to 10 additional XP, so it’s a great way to save up for that PFA or Skill you need to use your new Augments!

Augments in DYStopia Rising

At the start of July, National released 79 new blueprints for a new type of item called an AUGMENT. That’s a LOT of new prints. (There’s also two new Artisan items out there now, along with five different injectable brew prints..)

Augments aren’t an entirely new item as we’ve had a few seasonal blueprint Augments in play already, with the Shredzilla Grind Gears, OOPH Bullet Plates, Dead Man’s Hand, and the Royal Flush rounding out the list. So really, there’s kinda EIGHTY THREE (83) different Augment prints in play right now. (If you want to get technical, there’s probably a few other Seasonal Prints that should be Augments but don’t have that specific language, but this is just counting the ones that literally say Augment. We will probably see some changes to Seasonal Prints soon too, so some of these may change or go away…)

We will have several ways for these new blueprints to enter play in Bravado during our September event, so don’t worry too much if you missed out on collecting the one that most interested you during the Summer. You’ll get your chance with the REDFIELD INVENTION EXCHANGE, the Red Ledger buy list, our new Work Orders, and more…

Let’s talk about how we actually use these new prints, then we’ll cover some FAQs and common questions on Augments.

Augment basics

You can find the specific rules on Augments in a couple of places, but it’s a little bit scattered to be honest.

The best source is probably the DR Lexicon, as it had a few other updates of note in July as well. There’s even been a few blueprint updates to the Augments recently, based on feedback from players in other games that you can find on the Blueprint Change Log. There is also a FAQ Thread on the community forums, but I don’t expect y’all to have to read that. There’s even been discussions on the Dystopia Rising Discord, but I’ll try to summarize the key points about Augments here for you.

I’ve included the core Augment rules from the Lexicon here (emphasis mine):

Augment

An Augment is an item that does nothing on its own but can be attached to another item (as specified in the Augment's description) to either add a new ability or modify the item's existing effects. To attach an augment to an item, the player must spend two minutes of full engagement roleplay with both the intended item and Augment; if interrupted, the item and augment are not destroyed but the process must be started over.

After successful attachment, have Logistics mark the Augment card to indicate which item it’s attached to. The same process will remove an Augment, but destroys it in the process. Unless otherwise indicated, an item can only have one Augment attached. Upon removal - or when the Augment expires - the card is expended and should be destroyed. The effects of Augments do not stack with each other or trigger off each other's effects unless specifically stated in the Augment's description.

Let’s break down that wall of text and discuss the important bits with our own wall of text:

What can an Augment Do?

  • Augments are fun new Artisan items that allow you to customize your equipment with new and fun abilities.

  • Augments can ADD a new ability to an existing item or MODIFY an existing ability. They can affect the mind or resolve cost of a skill, change the damage type of a weapon strike, or allow you to use an entirely new ability!

How many types of Augments are there?

  • There are six different types of Augments, including Armor, Gizmo, Room Augment, Shield, Vehicle, and Weapon. Yes, that means you can have a “Room Augment Augment”.

  • There are a total of 79 new Augment blueprints. You can find a summary of the items that were added here:

How do I use an Augment?

  • Augments are attached to an existing item card, but simply attaching the Augment doesn’t require a Skill to do so. Anyone can attach an Augment!

  • Currently, Augments will be written on a GIZMO item card, but they are NOT Gizmos. There may eventually be an Augment item card type released in the future, but most importantly this means that Augments can’t be modified by things that would effect Gizmos.

  • Some Augments might have an additional Skill requirement to use them, but most simply go off whatever Skill was needed to use the base item.

    • For instance, if a Weapon Augment makes the Proficient ability of a Toothpiq Chopper cheaper to activate, you still need to need to have Proficient Melee Standard to use it.

How do I attach an Augment?

  • It takes TWO minutes of Full Engagement Roleplay to attach the item, followed by a trip to the Post Office. This doesn’t require any particular Crafting Zone to complete.

    • This means you can’t really swap out an Augment in the field. If you want different weapon Augments, you’ll need to have multiple weapons.

  • Augment item cards MUST have the item it is attached to listed on the card. You can’t swap an Augment to a different qualifying item — it’s literally attached!

  • Remember, Full Engagement Roleplay (p. 103) means you can’t use Skills and the action can be interrupted. However, Augments are unique in the fact that if you get interrupted, you don’t lose the item like in crafting, but simply have to start the two minute role play again.

What are the limitations of an Augment?

  • You can only have ONE Augment attached to an item, unless something specifically says you can. Currently, nothing allows multiple Augments.

  • You cannot STACK Augment effects, and they do not trigger off the use of another Augment.

    • One Augment ability at a time, please!

  • You can only use ONE Augment ability at a time. If you had two Augmented items that changed how your Mental Endurance skill worked, you would need to choose which of the abilities you were using at that moment.

  • Most Augments expire in three months. This means it can be expensive to keep more than a few Augments up to date on your gear.

  • Since Augments are NOT Gizmos, they cannot be BROKEN with the Break skill.

Are there any items I cannot use an Augment with?

  • Some items like the Striker’s Coat, or Skill Buy List items like the Merchant’s Shotty specifically state that they cannot be Augmented.

  • Starter Equipment may not be augmented. In the DR Corebook, page 100 states that starter equipment has no other mechanical benefits other than damage, so that means it can’t have an Augment attached.

How do I remove or replace an Augment?

  • Augments can be replaced by simply attaching a different Augment, but doing so DESTROYS the existing Augment.

  • Augments can be removed in the same way as attaching, but it DESTROYS the Augment being removed.

  • When an Augment is removed or replaced, it doesn’t damage the item that it was attached to.

Why are they being added?

  • First, Augments allow for greater customization. Even two different characters with the same item could end up with totally different specializations based on which Augment they attach to their items. This can give you a neat thing to show in your phys rep to make your fancy sword stand out and look nifty for photos!

  • Augments will stimulate the in-game economy. Since they expire in 3 months, that means you’ll need a crafter to build a new one for you, or you’ll need to find folks to help you forage or scavenge for the scrap and herbs to build your favorite Augment.

Jonathan’s Augment Recommendations

There’s a lot of new Augment prints, so I think there are a few that immediately jump out to me as really neat. I encourage you to pick out your own favorites, but here’s a few Augments to watch out for in September!

Armor augments

The new Armor Augments finally present a solid option to NOT simply wear a Striker’s Coat all the time. Since the Striker’s Coat can’t be augmented, there’s a good reason to use other types of Armor now since they can now get special abilities in addition to Armor Points.

  • Bigol Overlapping Plates - This augment allows BODY damage to hit your armor first! If you don’t have a ton of Body, this can be a great way to make you more resilient in the face of those armor piercing monsters.

  • Bloody Vestments - This powerful Faith augment allows you to spend Body instead of Resolve once per event to use Master Faithful Miracles. You can literally die to save your friends, for those of y’all that are suffer puppets.

  • Incineration Engine - This is an amazing psionic augment we previewed last year, and lets you use Pyrokinetics in a way that feels useful in a fight. Each Basic use turns into FIVE uses, and each Proficient use turns into TWO uses. But you gotta be careful not to let the armor break or else you could EXPLODE!

  • Faraday Wrapping - This lets you use the Mind Killer ability of the Paradigm Enhancer every 2 minutes. I know a certain masked Nemesis that is real excited about this Augment. 👀

Gizmo Augments

There are lots of new Trap and Larceny related Augments in this batch that make using Traps to protect your gear actually possible.

  • Angry Anchor Securebox Wiring - This is a neat add on that allows you and some friends to open a container WITHOUT setting off all the traps you’ve carefully installed.

  • EZ Access Code - This can be added to a Trap to allow it be disarmed if you know the code. Handy for setting up an ambush!

  • Freeiron Nurse’s Tools - We demoed this item last year, but it remains a valuable add on for the Sawbones Bag. When you spend Mind to heal someone, another character assisting you can duplicate that heal without spending Mind. Very efficient!

‘Room Augment’ augments

There are a number of powerful choices here. If you’ve taken the time to set up a neat Room Augment in your cabin or camp area, make sure to check out what is available.

Shield augments

It’s no real secret that Shield augments are my favorite, hands down. The new options present a REAL hard choice for Bravado on what they should use as the best shield augment.

  • OOPH Bullet Plates - This remains my favorite Shield augment, since guns can be so devastating. This item lets you call “OOPH, Blocked!” and spend 1 mind to negate a ranged attack that hits your shield. Bulletproof indeed!

  • Meatier Shield - This is a classic of 2.0, but this augment lets you “heal” your shield using Medical to repair it instead of Artisan. Handy for those doctors out there that don’t mind a shield covered in viscera and skin.

  • Shield Master’s Grip - If you don’t care about blocking bullets, this is the premiere Augment in my mind. This lets you activate your shield abilities for ONE Mind point every five minutes. That’s pretty amazing when you pair it with an unbreakable Daline Buckler that lasts for 5 minutes. Never worry about a Break again!

Vehicle augments

There are some sexy new Augments here, and for all those Junkerpunks and DJs out there you’ll quickly find your favorite.

  • O Faithful Security Compartment - Want to do your best Han Solo impression? This Vehicle Augment lets the Wasteland Hauler double your uses of Criminal Influence buy lists. This is a handy thing for all the criminal folks in our game, especially now that Crystal Candy is outlawed.

  • Amity Safety Harness - Tired of getting knocked off the boat during a Sailing Mod? You can now literally tie yourself to the boat. Why didn’t we think of this earlier, Nemo?

Weapon augments

This is the largest category of new prints. Every single weapon category gets some powerful and unique abilities and these will probably be the most used Augments. Shredzilla Grind Gears remain a solid Melee Standard Augment, but it has some competition now:

  • Crossroads Guard - This is one of the first items that lets you modify the use of INTERFERE. Normally you can’t reduce the damage you you take, but this augment lets you reduce the damage by 2 points per 1 Mind you spend. This is pretty insane.

  • Crusader’s Carvings - This one adds <FAITH BANE> to your weapon ability uses. Need to hunt down that Nemesis that killed your entire family including the Matriarch? Time for some “TV BANE”!

  • Flower Scented Paint Rounds - This Mountain Rifle augment lets a Master Hunter use NO ESCAPE on a target as a Line of Sight attack. This is the first really repeatable way to add No Escape to a weapon outside of poisons.

  • Hold the Door Extender - This Two Handed Melee Augment allows you to counter a use of Enhanced Movement. This is a great way to stop those pesky Gore Hounds from running off with your friends in the middle of a fight. HODOR!

  • Nasty Spiked Handguard - the premiere Florentine augment finally offers a way to use the FEAR skill as a player. This is a very nice way to control a fight by crowd controlling a dangerous enemy.

  • Toothpiq Pigsticker Barbs - Turn those throwing weapons into a source of NAIL. This is probably my favorite weapon augment overall. Very useful, and makes the drawbacks of carrying throwing weapons around worth it.

  • Helscape 13th Story Quarrels - This is a powerful Bow augment that turns your Helscape Arbalest into a Piercing Strike machine. You can call “5 Body!” for only 1 Mind at ranged. This is gonna be great versus those NPCs with heavy armor.

  • Slappi Knucklehead Lead Weights - My pick for Knucks, these let you call a “Knockback. 3 paces!” for only 1 Mind point. This is great for creating some distance with an opponent so you can move in for a flanking maneuver.

  • Superior Weapon Balancing - This is the all around champion for Weapon augments. It lets you use the Proficient ability of a weapon for only 1 Mind. This is crazy with some of the Small weapon abilities and it can be attached to any Small or Standard weapon.

Wrap up

That’s it for today!

In a few weeks, we start our lead up to our September game, so stay tuned for some important story updates that you’ll want to know before the game begins, including an update on that pesky problem that Waking Prime is having! The San Saba officials assure me that the majestic floating city is still flying, and that any rumors to the contrary are definitely exaggerated. We will also have some new updates to our Faction Buy Lists, Work Orders, and some of the common Zone of Mechanics you’ll see around town this season, and I can’t wait to share what we’ve come up with.

See you next time Vados!

Story Recap: The Cicatrix

Good morning! It’s Jonathan here with a STORY RECAP for the recent event, THE CICATRIX. 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, sleeping, or simply were not able to attend the game. These are major points of continuity that might be important next season, and I hope this will help with the FOMO feels, or answer some questions you had about what happened.

We are hard at work on our next season, and we appreciate each and everyone one of you that attended a game during our last season. Our new ST team is working on finishing out our schedule of events for Season 4 and we will have a few more announcements of episode titles, teasers, and more very very soon.

Photo credits in this post are from Harlow Ulmer, Sydney Betzina, and Earlena Soukup.

You can also find our other game recaps from this season here:

So once you’ve been caught up, let’s refresh our memories about the premise behind the event…

The Cicatrix Premise

The morgues in Bravado have stopped working. The dead have not returned for the better part of a month. Small shrines to the missing dot the long roads between settlements and the aberrant population reports that the wails of the dead, so often cacophonous in the psionically demented mind, are silent. 

Takheeta Firstborn has been killed, cut low at the penultimate moment of her triumph, and transfigured into a Gravemind Shard; a kind of semi sentient intelligence that occupies a greater portion of the gestalt that is the local “Gravemind” itself. Her death has made way for General Rampart, new leader of the Grave Council, to impart policy. But, in evoking the Cantankerous Matrix to heal the Morgues across the San Saba, instead the Grave Council has metastasized a fatal threat to the Lonestar, and the Infectious Cycle itself. Over the past several weeks, tumorous protrusions have formed like a layer of scar tissue, cutting off the exit for the newly returned from the Grave. 

Now, General Rampart has formulated a scheme to re-open the morgues across the Lonestar Wastes, not by punching through the thick layer of cutaneous tissue that has formed like a plug over every morgue the entire municipality over, but instead by treating the aberrance from the inside; by delving into the abyssal depths of the Mortis, through layers of skin and skein, to where the heart of the cancer pulses in darkness and filth.

In the midst of this emerging crisis, the politics of the San Saba Board still looms. The annual Stakeholder’s Meeting is scheduled for May, despite the threat of the broken morgues. During the Meeting, each of the contracted members of the various factions get to weigh in on the upcoming changes to the San Saba Charter, though some chafe against the law and protest the carnival of capitalism. Surrounded by machinations and manipulations, conspiracy and chicanery, wheeling and dealing, politics and persuasion. the leaders of the Board and their many plots stirs something dark beneath the ground.

Deep below New Bravado, and deeper still than the thin layer of biomass where the Gravemind, and The Eightfold Mother supposedly lurk; against resonant and bloodghast, recollection and reaver, the denizens of Bravado will need to combat the lurking memories that have pooled beneath the morgues like so much sump dump, and press upwards towards the surface until the scab breaks, and the biomass and blood may cleanly osmote between reality, and the Grave.

Death, suspended

From the first moments of Friday night, the sense of danger was heightened. If you were to die to the various threats of the wastes, you would be trapped in the Near Death, unable to return to life. A thick cutaneous layer of biomass had formed on every Morgue exit, and created an impenetrable seal that trapped the recently dead within. Any attempts to cut through the mass would be stymied, as the biomass healed the damage as fast as it was inflicted. The effect was more pronounced the closer you got to Bravado.

For nearly a month, the list of missing had been growing, including Felicity Redfield, Boss Wyatt, and several of the local Vados as well. With the rumors of Nemesis on the prowl on the fabled Friday the 13th, the risk of the upcoming weekend was never higher. As the sun set, each of the survivors had to grapple with the upcoming threat of simply existing in Bravado on a trade weekend where you could not die...

One thing was immediately clear — while the immediate threat was more from their own than from the environment, such as the faceless assassins of Murder Inc, or simply other survivors taking advantage of trapping an enemy in the Mortis, the environment was also adapting to the changes. The closing of the morgues had an effect on the various creatures that haunt the wastes.

  • Zombies were virtually non-existent, as the same effect that sealed the morgues were responsible for stopping the various hordes from emerging from the orifices of the Mortis Amaranthine. However, some reports from Waking talked about the pressure within the Near Death building into explosions from below that still rarely released a small horde into the world. If you saw a zombie, it was almost certainly related to one of these RUPTURES.

  • Raiders too had become scarce. While Raiders don’t normally get stuck for long in the Grave Mind, as they are outside the cycle of death, they were still effected by the strange trapping effect of the closed morgues. While at first the Raiders were the traditional threat they always were, their numbers dwindled over the weeks since the crisis, but it only served to eliminate the weakest of their kind, and the Raider hunting packs were filled with the meanest, toughest variants as each Raider clan trimmed off the fat and became even more deadly. The risk was now not from more Raider attacks from the faceless and endless hordes of Headhunter Raiders, but rather the elite and deadly Warpath Raiders and Gravehead Raiders.

  • In direct opposition to the other threats of the wastes, Critters had actually grown MORE dangerous. The ubiquitous MURDER GOAT DEER, a mutated deer-like creature that preyed on zombie flesh were being driven to hunger frenzies after being deprived their normal feeding grounds. However, the Murder Goat Deer are truly omnivorous, and survivor flesh would suffice — they aren’t that picky when they are ravenous. Coupled with the continued pollution in the lake, the Murder Goat Deer had continued their strange mutations, growing larger and more grotesque with the passing day. Each MGD was a terror, driven to hunt and eat survivors instead of their usual prey.

Bracing for the threat, the town set to work on the task of finding a solution to the closed morgues and how to rescue their friends from the Near Death.

help from the grave council

Early in the weekend, Grave Council stakeholders received a letter from General Rampart of the Grave Council. In the letter, he explained the efforts the rest of the group had been working on over the last few weeks, along with research material to guide a plan to resolve the morgue crisis for good. In addition, he promised additional assistance from an unlikely ally to the north - the Sequoia Wastes! The Grave Council had also erected a strange structure at the Cross Roads, a building called a “proto-morgue”.

In the past few weeks, the Grave Council tried several things to fix the morgues, using all manners of tools, machinery, or procedures to access the Morgue. They tried several fixes and experiments in advance, to try to narrow the focus for a fix for the sealed morgue. Mundane efforts like the Pallor Mortis, the Abyssal Stitch procedure, or other ways to normally access the Near Death failed. Psions could not detect people on the other side, and even uses of Necrokinetics were useless to contact the dead. However, the RUPTURES of the undead emerging periodically cued them to a potential solution.

Each time zombies returned, an opening was made in the Mortis Amaranthine so they could “vent” the pressure off the Grave Mind. If you were quick enough, it was possible to catch the opening and keep it from healing. Much like a STENT would be used to insert into a blood vessel to keep it open during a surgery, the Council believed that these wounds could create temporary openings to the Near Death. Rampart described several people being able to be withdrawn from the Mortis, though the process was incredibly taxing on the Graverobber during the procedure. Each time would completely exhaust the person’s effort of Resolve and Mind, so it was not a real solution to the problem.

In addition, it was evident the longer a person was trapped in the Near Death, the more their IMPRINT itself would be combined with the other people within. While the Plague of the Unfinished was truly cured by Takheeta’s failed ritual, this new condition caused the people to emerge fractured and virtually unable to function. Brews and meals would not heal them, their wounds could not be healed, and the madness could not be soothed. It was clear something else would need to be done, but the Ruptures were clearly the key to a fix. If the Grave Council could find a permanent solution to the overhealing effect of the CANTANKEROUS MATRIX, it would likely return the morgues to their normal function prior to the Hiway War.

A seed from the Sequoia Wastes

Rampart’s letter also detailed instructions to meet the Grave Council at the docks of the lake early on Friday for a shipment from the north. Several months back, agents of the CLOSED CASKET COMMISSION, or CCC, were sent down to Bravado to serve as interns to the mighty Grave Council. These groundskeepers and graverobbers had been working for several months, and even had a hand in helping with the MONOLITH last December. From their homeland, a key to the crisis was discovered.

The tiny town of GREENWATER, near the more famous settlement of the VERDIGRIFT GARDENS, held a particular importance to the inhabitants of Bravado. The town of Greenwater was of two worlds, one above the waves, and one below. The Saltwise graverobbers of the town nurtured strange growths of the Mortis Amaranthine, products of the underwater morgue that they used to return the recently deceased. These MORGUE SEEDS could even be used to grow a new morgue. In fact, one had already been used to create the new morgue of Drywater, so it would be trivial to ship one to Bravado to aid in their research.

Using the MORGUE SEED, it would be possible to create a temporary morgue. This proto-morgue could be connected to one of the Grave Ruptures, and it could be possible to keep an opening in the biomass from resealing. It would require talented Graverobbers and medics to perform such a unique procedure, but it could be a way to return the dead back to the world of the living intact. Rampart sent instructions for the process to each of the Trustees of the Grave Council, but it would require their efforts locally to place the seed in fertile ground.

When Captain Nemo and the other nautical pioneers of Bravado went to meet the shipment from the Sequoia, they arrived just in time to aid a ship in distress. A clan of Drowned One raiders had waylaid the shipment and would need to be liberated from their new prize. Luckily, the Vados were able to answer the call and brave Midnight Jellyfish, a few juvenile Leviathans, while fending off the attacks of the submerged Raiders. Pistol shots from crude rifles rang out as the Vados fended off the strange raiders, drawn for some reason to the peculiar cargo. The sharp ring of blade on blade boarding attacks rang out across the still lake as the raiders attacked relentlessly. The attackers seemed intent on rescuing the Morgue Seed from the crew, and it was only the timely intervention of the reinforcements that saved the Seed in time.

With their prize in hand, the ‘Vados brought the Morgue Seed to the site of the Grave Council’s preparations at the Cross Roads, a new synthetic morgue.

the return of Boss Wyatt

One of the first individuals to not return from the Morgue was the leader of the Law Dog Union, the Reclaimer cowboy, Boss Wyatt. During Collection Day, they were poisoned and killed after drinking a tainted beverage, and had not emerged from the Mortis before Takheeta’s ill-destined ritual began. Realizing that the Law Dog was most at risk from imprint decay, they would need to be the first person pulled from the new proto-morgue. Something was wrong, and even a few of Wyatt’s friends were experiencing strange dreams about him struggling in the Near Death. If the reports from Essex were to be believed, it would be a difficult and challenging process to retrieved someone that had died and they would need to focus their will and efforts on the very Imprint of Boss Wyatt.

Under the guidance of Slink and her newly minted Graverobber student Ies, the graveheads and their friends set out to bring back the Law Dog Sheriff. Using radioactive metal formed into crude tools, the ritual would use the natural opponent of Infection to carve into to the cutaneous tissue of biomass before it could seal again. A truth of grave science, radiation is so dangerous to survivors because it breaks down the genetic bonds of the Infection itself. It would be the perfect tool to cut into the healed over growths created by the Cantankerous Matrix. If they could implant the Morgue Seed in the rupture in time, they could create a limited exit from the Mortis Amaranthine for Boss Wyatt to escape.

In order to begin the procedure, they would also need to wait for a Grave Rupture to occur. However, almost as soon as the Morgue Seed was brought to the Cross Road by Captain Nemo and the others, they were met with a eerie and recently unheard sound — the guttural moans of the dead. As if reacting to the presence of the peculiar biomass seed brought from abroad, the dead rose up to interrupt the Graverobber procedure. Rushing to the rupture, the defenders tried to buy Slink and the others time while the explosion from the Mortis forced more of the strange broken and unformed zed, the Unfinished, into their line with a force like a tidal wave.

The Stygian Scar left by the rupture was difficult to hold open, but the radioactive metal was as effective as predicted. It enabled them to hold back the healing of the Matrix for a time, long enough to create the temporary stent, using the seed to trick the wound into healing around it instead of sealing the rupture entirely. However, once implanted, the seed would need time to form roots and complete its ersatz repose, but it would be enough to reach within the Near Death and pull out their target.

The procedure itself was incredibly taxing. To prepare the ruptured wounds, the townsfolk poured gallons of their own blood into the seeping wounds, feeding the sores with their bodies. Using the grave vents, they connected tubing and electrical wiring back to the Morgue seed to create stimulated roots of the synthetic morgue. They focused their minds on the imprint of Boss Wyatt, remembering the subtle smell of the leather they wore, the color of the hair, the sound of his voice, each memory solidifying a call into the Mortis for the lost Law Dog. With their voices pleading for Wyatt to return, they reached into the stent and found an answering hand.

the release of the gutmother

Climbing through the slimy orifice, the reconstituted body of Boss Wyatt crawled out aiding by the graverobbers to the moonlit night above. Panting and heaving, covered in viscera, blood, biomass, and rot, Wyatt struggled to form words in their newly formed body. Each gasp of new air in new lungs was a staccato rhythm of recovery. He finally spoke, with an ominous whisper, “I held her back as long as I could…”

Beneath Bravado, something shuddered. The infernal engine of change that was the Mortis Amaranthine did not turn over but some other, smaller mechanism began to squeal in its place. High pitched and distant, like a bug in another room, the Synthetic Morgue came to life with all the fanfare of a bowel movement. A semi-functional morgue, returned to service — exactly what the town needed. No fanfare, no accompanying horde. Just a serviceable stent into the Mortis so they could get their friends out. 

At least, they’d hoped that.

A high pitched howl of rage pierced the sky, followed by a…. stirring… beneath the ground.

Some huge shape heaved below the ground, rippling out from the morgue in a shock wave, as that which was trapped was unbound from their cage.

A rusted cage.

A psychic pulse suddenly crippled the townsfolk surrounding the morgue as the GUTMOTHER emerged from the Mortis, followed by a horde of twisted abominations and zed. Trapped in a cage by the Grave Council months before, at the end of the last burning season in September, the RAIDER QUEEN escaped her prison.

Her pent up rage was a physical presence, rippling from her as it was answered by something gargantuan in the earth below. Foul tentacles of some creature emerged, from the greater body trapped just below the surface, still partially within the Near Death and partially formed into the rotting carcass of the Mortis Amaranthine. The corpse of the massive GRAVE LEVIATHAN, thought killed when it emerged from beyond the horizon, answered the call of the Gutmother.

The line broke immediately. All thoughts of trying to forge a perimeter were lost as a frantic battle emerged at the Cross Roads. Answering call to arms, townsfolk rushed from the Depot and the General Store to repel the Raider Queen, trying desperately to gather some form of order in the wake of the psychic shock wave that wrecked those that were defending the procedure. Blow after blow struck into the Gutmother, but each healed almost as fast as it was dealt. Her long capture had given her regenerative abilities time to supercharge, and each time she should have been struck dead, the Gutmother screamed and came back even stronger.

She would not be caged again.

As the Vados restored some measure of organization to their defense, reinforcements and other shields and guns arriving to lay waste to the zed that followed the Gutmother, turning their weapons to try to suppress the Raider Queen. With a wordless screech, she turned and fled into the darkness, refusing to give the town a chance to capture her. In the chaos of the Leviathan below rising again, the Gutmother escaped and the night quickly stilled once more.

For now, the morgue was barely functional, the procedure to place the Morgue Seed was complete. But in doing so, they had released the Gutmother once more to plague Bravado.

a Grave Leviathan

Despite the threat of the Gutmother’s return, the morgues had been returned to some measure of function. However, each time someone emerged from the new proto-morgue, they came out with four debilitating CURSES. General Rampart suggested there was a scientific explanation for the maladies, but it didn’t stop the Mystagogues and grave heads from applying a bit of their own mysticism to the conditions. Regardless of the origin or name, each of the Curses left the newly returned crippled and vulnerable for a significant amount of time. Coupled with the weakness, the very act of bringing a person across the threshold exhausted rare materials and the person’s very Resolve.

A secondary consequence of the ritual the night before was the release of a monstrous GRAVE LEVIATHAN. Formed from the corpse of the Leviathan that was slain last year, the zombie remains of the creature were trying to escape the Near Death but stopped by their sheer size. However, Grave Ruptures provided a method for the tentacled maws of the creature to escape, and the massive bulk of the creature created tectonic quakes in its near vicinity. Any time the creature approached, the ground itself rippled like the waves of the lake, casting zed and survivor alike off their feet.

As long as the massive undead creature was stuck within the Near Death, any attempt to correct or fix the wound would be vulnerable to a large attack from the Mortis itself. There was definitely a tie between the release of the Grave Leviathan and the escape of the Gutmother, and the town realized that would need to prepare to deal with both the Gutmother and the Leviathan if a confrontation could be created.

Polling the Electorate

The morning after the Gutmother’s return was met with a surprising amount of normalcy. Several of the members of the San Saba Board arrived in town early Saturday to meet with constituents before retiring to Eureka Tower for the Stakeholder’s Meeting. Boss Debs, General Rampart, Felicity Redfield, Sinker Swim, Dr. Stewart, and even Tabitha St. Mercy convened for an impromptu Board meeting in the Depot, hearing citizen requests for new proposals and listening to the townsfolk about the upcoming votes.

This was the first time that the Board was provided options to amend and change the Charter of the San Saba, and the prospect of having a say in the law was sure to get people interested in politics. In addition, the Board was recognizing smaller factions publicly based on a petition basis, provided members of that town faction could get sponsorship from a Board member present. Lastly, if someone could collect 100 signatures from stakeholders, the Board would add an item to the agenda to vote on based on the popular will of the people.

Three major votes were being suggested for a vote by the San Saba Board:

  • The first vote was written to make the sale and trafficking of Crystal Candy illegal throughout the San Saba. The anti-drug law was met by broad support of the Board and many citizens in the town. The loss of Boss Wyatt, and the loss of Infection from several Law Dogs that died raiding a Crystal Candy Shoppe were fresh on the minds of many voters, though a few folks were worried about the seemingly broad language of the law. According to the opponents of the law, in some interpretations it could imply that the very act of being a psion was illegal, not just the menace of Crystal Candy.

  • The second vote concerned ratifying the temporary seat given to the Junkerpunks, currently held by Admiral Sinker Swim, an official seat on the Board. Despite the veto of the Junkerpunks joining the board two years ago by the Chair, their plucky perseverance was paying off. While the Board members were in town, several impassioned pleas were presented from the town in support of this vote, particularly the efforts of Tink, a local DJ legend. If the vote passed, it would mean the Board would have SIX seats instead of five, and the Chair’s voice would become more necessary in the case of tiebreaker votes.

  • The final vote, and perhaps most contentious, was the blatant attempt by Tabitha St. Mercy of claiming power over the Law Dogs in the absence of Boss Wyatt. With Wyatt still too weak from the various Curses inflicted by passing through the Cicatrix, the Board was split over the proposal. Some were worried about recent riots in Essex, the successful assassination attempts against Takheeta, Felicity, and Boss Wyatt, and even an attempted assassination against General Rampart that very morning! The would-be assassins attempt against Rampart solidified the Grave Council vote in favor of law and order, and Rampart spoke in favor of making sure a clear chain of command was available should the leadership of the Law Dogs be absent once more.

Several new vote petitions were circulating through the town, but when the Board retired from the Depot for the trip back to Waking, none had gathered enough support to earn an immediate vote.

a gauntlet to remember

At the Gauntlet for Abe Callaghan, Postman, events suddenly escalated when Boss Wyatt of the Law Dog Union confronted Warden Tabitha St. Mercy about her documented unlawful behavior. As grumbles rose from the gathered townsfolk, Boss Wyatt pushed against Tabitha’s authority as a Justice of Sin, claiming to have proof of her misdeeds. The Warden denounced these accusations, saying that her power derived from the authority given her by the San Saba Board, and any attempt to obstruct her justice would itself be a crime against the San Saba.

Tensions quickly skyrocketed, as Tabitha haughtily dared Wyatt to try and stop her, placing her blade at the throat of Abe Callaghan, a Breacher awaiting sentencing. As the town surged forward, Tabitha attempted to retreat, taking Abe as a hostage with her. Despite a number of masked guards at her back, the mob broke her legs and wrenched Abe from her grasp. That was not the final say in the matter however. Raising her gun in her red-gloved hand, psionic power burst forward from the Justice, towards a fleeing Abe. Two individuals threw themselves in the path of this deadly projectile, and instantly died as guards bearing the symbol of an animal skull on their armor dragged a wounded Tabitha St. Mercy away, to an unknown location.

Despite the obvious assault on law and order during the Gauntlet, the trial of Abe Callaghan was not over. General Rampart stepped up to demand that the trial continue, despite the obvious lawlessness of the attack on St. Mercy. As the continued trial threatened to descend into violence once more, one of the Law Dogs, Jasper Kline stepped up to intervene and suggested a minor fine for Abe. Rampart refused to allow Jasper to simply apply a minor punishment and reminded him that the law said a Justice of Sin would administer the punishment — and Jasper was a Law Dog, not a Justice.

Slim Straightedge, one of the trustees of the Railroad Conglomerate, stepped up to remind the General that he was actually a part-time Justice of Sin and could fulfill the role as long as Rampart would be willing to accept that outcome. After checking his contract to find the Merican was surprisingly correct, the General demanded that some form of actual punishment be applied to the errant Postman for the destruction of the Grave Ledger. Rampart suggested stripping the title of Postwalker from Abe Callaghan, so that the punishment would remind them of their misdeeds in the way that a slap on the wrist would not. He was clear he wasn’t seeking the death of Abe, but Slim and Jasper finally came up with an alternative solution to appease the Grave Council leader.

Abe would spend their heart and soul retrieving others from the Morgue until they could do no more. It was a punishment in that the taxing behavior of effort and will in using the proto-Morgue would make Abe vulnerable to later challenges, but aided the Grave Council and the town through community service of retrieving the recently deceased. Disgruntled but sensing that other actions would earn him the same fate as Tabitha, General Rampart relented to the punishment suggested by Slim and a Gauntlet to Remember was finally ended.

healing what was broken

With renewed instruction from Rampart on how to better use the proto-Morgue, the town set out to retrieving those that had died the night before. While a normal morgue would require the talents of a Graverobber or Grave Attuned to work, this functional creation of the Grave Council and the morgue seed from the Sequoia Wastes allowed anyone with a strong back and strong mind to aid in the retrieval. The example of Abe Callaghan’s labor created a sudden call for the Vados to the proto-morgue to assist.

With a significant effort of Resolve and Mind, a person could be removed from the Morgue more intact than the night previous. However, the strange maladies known by the superstitious as "curses” continued, if in a slightly more manageable state. Those returned came out with less of the debilitating conditions, but it was proof that the Morgue could be improved and fixed. Research and investigation continued into the new entrance to the Mortis Amaranthine, trying to find a solution to the over-healing of the Cantankerous Matrix.

The key to the puzzle would be the GUTMOTHER herself. However, the last she had been seen in town was in the direction of a pack of the notorious Murder Goat Deer. The terrifying creatures were well known in the area and at the height of their mating season. In addition, the pollution in the lake was continuing to cause rampant mutation in the local creatures and the MGD were getting bigger and meaner by the week. One of the largest of their kind, the mighty Slaughter Goat Deer had been tracked by a few foolhardy hunters to a lair near the lake. Eager to find where the Gutmother was hiding, a team of survivors was dispatched to deal with the MGD and to try to scare the Raider Queen out of hiding.

While within arms reach of the MGD lair, the Aberrant hunters in the party began to feel the pervasive and oppressive cries of the Mortis blurring the lines between themselves and their surroundings. This lair had been formed on the ground used some many months ago as the final resting place of the Gutmother, an entrance into the RUSTED CAGE of her year long imprisonment.

They knew in that instant, without a shadow of a doubt that the Gut Mother was alive, present, and communing with the Murder Goat-Deer of the Den, somehow controlling them. More concerning, it felt like her consciousness had merged with the grave Leviathan as well! In some way, the Gutmother’s psionic resonance was like a twisted manifestation of Faith in its own right, causing both zed and critter alike to follow her will. But, if she could control the MGD, then perhaps it could be disrupted in a similar manner as a forced crisis of faith...

The hunters were acutely aware that, as the Gut Mother’s making and unmaking permeated the very soil and mycelium around her once-cage, it had positively desecrated the Den with malice and madness. Like an unholy venom bled into and sucked out of the Imprint of the land itself, the Cicatrix scar they found in the lair felt rotten and ugly and somehow under their very skin. They could feel more than hear the screams of madness and the crackling howls of a rabid wildness, beckoning them towards bloodshed and sacrifice.

Heart of Darkness

The battle was fierce, but brief. The Murder Goat Deer hiding in the warren charged into the line of the hunters, seeking to gore their flesh with hardened antlers and rending teeth. Prepared for the assault, they began separating the Slaughter Goat Deer from the pack, searching out for their true prey - the Gutmother. Even the smallest MGD was a threat, and as one of the baby fawns stabbed its horn through the heart of a hunter, his friends quickly drug him away from the rampaging beast before it could finish the murderous blow.

The faithful of the hunting group reached out to the scar on the top of the Mortis Amaranthine wound in the lair, gathering their thoughts and emotions into a shield of faith. Reaching through the protective the lens of Faith and into the shattered physical and psionic imprint of the Rusted Cage, they could feel the ground falling from beneath their feet. Their minds were shredded and remade, shredded and remade, spreading into a terrifying awareness of every wet, heaving breath lurching through their chests. The beat of hooves, the flow of dirt like water around them, and the roar of blood rushing through their veins with the deafening, primal hunger of a rabid dog unleashed after what feels like an eternity of restraint.

Pushing through the resistance of the Gutmother, feeling her IMPRINT nearby but so far away, they dug deeper into the cyst, searching for the answer. The danger was impending, alive and intoxicating, an unburdened cacophony of crowing laughter and violence that threatened to drag them under its swell -- until it stopped short, suddenly, like a bowstring pulled too-taught and refusing to snap. Or, more aptly, like a cruel tether binding the last vestiges of captivity - and mortality - in place. Even so, the cacophony of that place threatened to bleed into their minds, slithering into the psyche, threatening to ooze and coat their own Imprint in its virulent whispers until some part of their overwhelmed mind recognized the danger.

With a shout, they severed the link all at once.

For a brief, glorious moment, they were aware of it all, interconnected like a zealous hive -- and then it was too much and the connection was broken from under the crushing weight of the Gutmother’s malice...

But in their gore-covered filthy hands they clutched an imprint crystal, brimming with the memory of the Gutmother, of a single, perfect death. Without a shadow of a doubt, the power that made the Gutmother seem indefeatable was tied to this tiny fragment of a crystal. Her Imprint had merged with that of her Rusted Cage, but part of it was trapped in the palm of their hands.

Inside, the memory of a perfect death, the key to the Gutmother’s defeat. With the words of ancient Barogue burned into her mind during her first imprisonment, the chants of “Imprint is Matter, Matter is Imprint” sealing the bolts of her prison was an opportunity to use that power against her once more. As long as the final killing blow could take place near their entrance to the Mortis — the proto-morgue at the center of the crossroads, the limitless life of the Gutmother could be halted for good.

sonata of the cyst

The attack on the Murder Goat Deer den has awakened the Gutmother to the threat that the survivors had uncovered.

Answering a call that was felt, and not heard, the dead began to stir in the Mortis. Trapped within the liminal space between primordial Death and infinite Rebirth, the Imprint of the Gutmother had tied her power to all of those shattered imprints that lurked in the shadows, hungry and unmade. Like the most fetid rise of a symphony of the dead, a grave rupture burst open, spilling forth the undead monstrosities into the town.

One cyst burst, then another, then another, as wave after wave of the most potent undead seen in weeks sprang into being in Bravado. The same cystic void they felt at the Den spread out from the Crossroads, blurring the lines between the thoughts of aberrants nearby and their immediate surroundings. Focusing on psionic abilities became near impossible, as the cruel symphony played from within the Mortis itself.

The vile refrain of putrescence sang through the town, the undead screaming and throwing themselves at the townsfolk that struggled to weather the waves of rot and terror that spread from each of the undead abominations. The creatures were impacted imprint, thoughts and dreams of countless lost souls forced into one shell. Some had extra arms, others grotesque protrusions sprouting from their wounds. Each was a fragmented dead, like those they had faced the night of Takheeta’s failed ritual a month prior, each an infected wound trapped with the Gravemind by the healing power of the Cantankerous Matrix.

However, the work of the Grave Council, the graverobbers, and every citizen like Abe Callaghan that had poured their will into the proto-morgue was working.

The wave of putrescence was contained in a way. Like setting their own time to the monstrous melody, the survivors had changed the tempo. The construction at the crossroads created a single exit for the infection, and like expelling pus from an infected pimple, the dead were emerging at a predictable place. The preparations of the morgue was allowing the trapped rot to escape and to provide an outlet to express the cyst that was trapped below, created by the ravages of the Rusted Cage.

Once, this cage held the Gutmother, but now it was open.

All of the pent up biomass was being released, the coming surge of zed causing a spectral and haunting whistling to emerge from the site of the Gutmother’s original breach the night before. Like too much air being forced through a pin hole, the sonata of the cyst wailed a mournful tune into the night sky of Bravado.

In order to destroy the cage for good and banish the Gutmother, they would need to bring her to the site of her imprisonment and apply the Imprint of Perfect Death as they incapacitated the Raider Queen. Unmaking the weave of decay that bound her to the cyst, they could render her mortal once more. From there, they could re-bind the threads that were unmade that night so long ago, ripping out the Gutmother’s connection to the Cantankerous Matrix, and severing the cord.

The waves of undead were fought back, at first monstrous Abominations, Tanks, and worse. Each time, the Gutmother wailed her song, her sword flicking left and right at the throats of the survivors, evading each attempt to draw her close to the morgue. It was as if she sensed what they were trying to do, bleeding out the cyst and luring her into the trap. As the cyst pulsed again, expelling fresh horrors from the Gravemind, the creatures were different with each successive wave.

The crest of the cyst was foul and terrible, but like an infected wound the worse was trapped just beneath the surface. The other built up pus and bile was no less foul, but it was perhaps less potent. The impacted memories of those that had died were trapped near the surface, and as those creatures were slain, the ones that followed were slightly less fractured, less unmade, and more “normal”. What was once a mutated Tank was now a multi-limbed Burster, as it melted away to the lowly Shambler.

Depriving the horde of the more powerful shock troops, the defenders began to cut off the paths of escape for the Gutmother. The phalanx pressed against the dead, while skirmishers flitted about in the darkness at the edge of the woods, driving her back into the waiting swords and axes of their friends. It was a slow slog, chopping through what seemed like endless shamblers, the wave of foulness unending. It was not about a quick and fast tactical fight, but a battle of will and endurance, each survivor needing to conserve their defenses and energy to stave off weariness and exhaustion.

Finally, like a clarion call at the climax of the symphony, the Gutmother’s screaming and twisting form was dragged to the cyst at the crossroads. Focusing their faith, will, and hate into the Imprint Crystal of Perfect Death, several weapons descending in concert, a stunning percussive thump as the Gutmother’s head was severed from her body a final time.

She was mortal, and she was dead.

The whistling from the cyst has quieted. There were a few scattered shouts and clangs of metal slicing into undead flesh as the last of the horde was repelled, but the sonata of the cyst was over. The wound had been cleansed of the infection, and the pulsing psionic energy of the Cantankerous Matrix sealed the wound as it was intended. Instead of building up scar tissue by trying to fight against the impacted cyst, the healing was the vision that Takheeta had promised when she started her great work. The morgue was healed, and the cycle of death was restored once more.

This time for good.

other threads of note during THE CICATRIX

  • Local entrepreneurs Candy and Donny set up shop outside of the Anyport Pool, newly opened for the start of the Burning Season. Saltwise and Semper Mort alike got to enjoy fun in the sun, splashing with their friends in a diversion from all the chaos of the weekend. Drinks with fancy umbrellas and treats were enjoyed by the pool during the siesta by all.

  • A group of Lovelace entrepreneurs came to town to recruit teams for SNAIL RACING. Using the monstrous house-sized snails native to the Widow’s Peak, the Lovelace’s envisioned a months-long race of the Snails across the San Saba and were looking for early investors into the new sport. A few of the townsfolk eagerly bought into the scheme, including the Road Royals, the Lucky Seven, the Shields of the Lonestar, and even Felicity Redfield herself. Stay tuned for more from the GREAT SNAIL RACE.

  • Something happened late Friday night that had a legion of masked assassins leaving town to an unknown destination. Rumor has it there was some kind of shakeup in Murder Inc., as a challenge to the authority of the leadership was made. The details are hidden and secret, and far too many knives directed against those with prying questions to speak further..

  • A pair of whimsical ne’er-do-wells accosted strangers on the road to the lake. Dressed in fancy masks, hats, and elaborate capes, they pillaged and rampaged while the town was distracted by the diversion of the water and sun.

  • Friday night was particularly deadly, as the visiting Nemesis of Luxury, Leslie of Standards and Practices, was in town for the titular Friday the 13th. The story of Jason Vorhees was shared in the dark of the night, a repeated refrain of breathing marking the arrival of the terrifying Nemesis. While some were attacked and killed by the Vorhees, the primary motivation seemed to be to show the local TV the ropes, explaining the different techniques and practices of the haunt that marked their faith. Some say Leslie found some VERY interested students to carry on his message for the future…

  • While many folks in the town were enjoying the luxuries of the pool party and Candy Heart’s hospitality, the King’s & Queen’s Court of Bravado were having their own moment to the side. A lone traveler, weary from the road and the journey brought to their hands an ancient relic of the Courtiers, an intact record, preserved from the ages in a vinyl sleeve. The traveler promised other relics could be found, provided the faithful were willing to put themselves to the search…

  • The Rook, a mishapen psion that is known as an enemy of confectioners across the San Saba was seen around town trying to find clues about a new Crystal Candy Shoppe on the outskirts. Rumors has it that they were trying to find some information about who might have been behind the attack on the Law Dog raid last month, but their contact ended up dead before they could find the proof. How convenient…

Votes of Consequence, and the power of the people

In the morning after the final death of the Gutmother, the town breathed a heavy sigh. The scar tissue of the morgues seemed to be receding and early telegrams from Essex held promising news of the effect spreading out from the locus of Bravado. While the Cantankerous Matrix was still trapped within the Mortis Amaranthine, it’s strange healing was no longer closing off access to Morgues around the San Saba. Within a few days, it was likely that most every effected settlement would be cured.

In a last ditch effort, a group of concerned citizens circulated one last petition to take to the Board before their final vote in Waking that afternoon. While many of the lesser petitions to add new laws or amendments to the charter had failed to earn enough interest, one particular vote of consequence sparked a passion from nearly the entire town of Bravado.

An amendment to remove Tabitha St. Mercy as Warden of Prudence Penitentiary.

It was a powerful statement of agency.

The mysterious Devil Dogs that had captured Tabitha the day before spoke of an agreement with Tabitha herself, that they believed Tabitha would accept the vote provided enough signatures were gathered. Some suggested that the Board would never remove a sitting board member, that the town’s very attack at the Gauntlet was a threat to the powerful in a way that they could not entertain. A few spoke out against the idea of removing Tabitha from power, for fear of someone worse taking her place, but the near riotous pack of Vados were unified in their vision. The first blow against the evil of Tabitha St. Mercy would be struck.

With names collected on an oily piece of parchment, written front and back was 142 signatures.

The rules of the Stakeholder’s Meeting required at least 100 signatures to add a new vote in front of the Chair. Each name was a vote behind the mysterious trustee that submitted the proposition. The proposal would require consideration by the mighty San Saba Board, using the very letter of the law. The voices of the people were united in one cause, and emboldened by the attack on Tabitha during the Gauntlet the night before, the final stamp was placed on the signatures by the Post Office, ratifying their effort and proving the power of the people.

There was a thrill in the air, and even as the trains arrived to take the Vados to places abroad to weather the upcoming Burning Season in safety, there was a sense of accomplishment. The Plague of the Unfinished was cured. The Cantankerous Matrix was safe. The Gutmother was slain. The strange cysts stopping the cycle of death were healing. Tabitha could even lose her seat on the San Saba Board.

It would be a new and fabulous day. As each survivor looked up into the deep blue of the LONESTAR SKIES, even the impending heat of the Burning Season couldn’t get them down…

Wrap up — what’s next?

That wraps up our Season 3 narrative, gang. Sorry this took a bit to get to you, but I was enjoying my summer break. You might have seen a particuar teaser shared on Facebook, of a certain problem brewing for the capital of the San Saba, the flying city of Waking Prime.

EXTRA, EXTRA: WAKING FALLS FROM THE SKY!

The city of Waking Prime, capital of the San Saba Territories is FALLING FROM THE SKY! Our exclusive source reveals that the famous CAPACITY ENGINE, the powerful oldcestor technology that allows the floating sky palace to move is FAILING. Last week, the San Saba Protectorate reported over 100 casualties as the port engine briefly stopped functioning. The gargantuan airship listed to one side, pitching scientists and politicians off their feet and even a few OVERBOARD!! Damage reports are still coming in, but several buildings have been damaged by the sudden upheaval, including one ancillary research structure that collapsed entirely. Construction crews are being dispatched from Essex to repair what damage they can, but the ancient oldcestor airship engine defies even the understanding of the Cult of Savannah’s Light. If the CAPACITY ENGINE cannot be repaired or replaced, WAKING PRIME is DOOMED!

Exclusive Story Continues on Page 2.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks as we begin our ramp up to Season Four. We have some amazing stories planned, our first live National Event in October, a Premiere Event in December, and a brand new team of guides and STs ready to continue making Texas the best damn chapter in the network.

Thank you for your trust, your support, and thank you for your interest in our humble stories. We are so excited for our next season and can’t want to welcome you back home to Bravado.

See you soon, Vados!