The Benediction of the Reborn

It’s Jonathan here again with another Rules Ramble! 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.

As we get ready for our next event, CRISIS OF FAITH, I'm going to be covering a bit about the Benediction of the Reborn, a tool that will be used violently against the townsfolk in Bravado during our next event. The Cult of the Reborn isn’t worried about the sincerity of your faith in their cause, just that they can count you for the census.

TICKETS ARE ON SALE FOR CRISIS OF FAITH UNTIL FRIDAY, February 3rD! DON’T MISS OUT ON THE NEXT chapter in our DR:TX season 4 story!

We also released an excellent video put together from our last event, THE EMERALD GALA, on both our YouTube channel and our Facebook. There’s even a few easter eggs from Barogue in there for those that pay attention!

• Watch the newest video for the EMERALD GALA on YouTube!

Photo credits in this post are from Max Pohlmeier, Lainey Weiss, Sydney Betzina, and Noah Goodman.

The Benediction of the Reborn

During our upcoming event CRISIS OF FAITH, your characters will be dealing with the antagonistic Cult of the Reborn. We will be covering a bit more of the lore about the Cult next week, but for now let’s talk about a key Threat Skill we want to share with you in advance - The Benediction of the Reborn. This is a new Skill that Cultist NPCs will be able to use against your characters.

These rules will be posted on our website as of today and in game at the General Store in case you forget what it does, but this is probably the biggest new mechanic of the weekend.

tl;dr, this skill is similar in use to the CANNIBALIZE skill used by Zombies and raiders. you get knocked down and a bad effect happens.

Let’s look at the specific mechanics of this Threat Skill:

BENEDICTION OF THE REBORN (Threat Skill)

The NPC spends 10 seconds roleplaying the ritual conversion and then gives a Subdued or willing target the REBORN or HERETIC keyword.  Call “Benediction of the Reborn: Inflict [REBORN/HERETIC] Keyword, Red Star Immune”.

Characters Baptized into a Faith may spend 1 Resolve to declare “No Effect!”

If a character is Faithless or cannot spend Resolve, they cannot resist.

Characters of the Red Star Strain are IMMUNE to this Skill and it has no effect.

Keywords remain on the victim until specifically removed by another plot effect.

So let’s break this attack down, Rules Ramble style:

The skill takes some time to use. The NPC will be spending time roleplaying the conversion, and it’ll be similar to the Cannibalize skill. It will be telegraphed what is happening, and it’s not something that can really happen as a “gottcha!”. You’ll know exactly what is about to happen. Since it takes 10 seconds to use, your friends will have time to use Enhanced Movement to rescue you, or to simply fight off the cultists.

You get a new Keyword, whether you like it or not. Keywords are outlined in the Lexicon on the DR National website. We also have a list of DR:TX specific keywords listed on our Local Rules page. These are simply a single word or phrase that makes you targetable by certain Skills and abilities. Keywords are things like “Diesel Jock”, or “Aberrant”, or “Undead”.

Keywords normally do nothing by themselves. This attack doesn’t deal damage, but it does make you vulnerable to other abilities. However, these particular Keywords of REBORN and HERETIC have some additional effects we will discuss below. Monsters in this game might say something like “All REBORN, Heal 10 Body!” If you have the matching keyword, the effect will work on you. Not all the effects will be helpful, and some of them WILL inflict damage. But you gotta get the Keyword FIRST!

The Skill requires you to be helpless or SUBDUED to be affected. If you are knocked into Bleed Out, Unconscious, tied up, or otherwise Subdued (p. 107), you will be vulnerable to this skill. That means if you don’t let them capture you or surround you while you are in Bleed Out, they can’t use this Skill on you. Using an Injectable would be a good idea if you don’t want to be force-converted.

You can volunteer to get this effect. It’s a bit weird, but you can purposefully CHOOSE to gain these Keywords. You don’t have to spend a Resolve to resist the skill, and you can even volunteer to be chosen by the Cult of the Reborn. I can’t really say this is a GOOD choice and it will likely involve CVC, but I’ve been an ST long enough to recognize that our players will often choose the unexpected path. You know who you are.

The Skill can be RESISTED, except by Faithless. Any character that is Baptized (Lexicon) with the Anomaly Skill Basic Faithful Patterns can spend 1 Resolve to resist this effect. This means that those characters that have not been inducted into an in-game Faith are particularly vulnerable to this skill. However, if you ever hit ZERO Resolve during a game, you can longer spend Resolve for anything, including resisting this Threat Skill. Eventually, the Cult can wear down even the most Faithful. Don’t give them that many opportunities to convert you, cause eventually they will win. Be warned!

Red Star are completely IMMUNE. Members of this Strain are curiously unaffected by the Cult of the Reborn. The same ability that makes them unable to be Baptized also protects them from the Benediction of the Reborn. This does mean that Red Star will not be able to interact with anything that requires the REBORN or HERETIC keywords, like Zones of Mechanics, Research, or other effects.

Keywords don’t go away. This ability gives you a new Keyword that functions like others in the game, like your <Lineage> or the <Aberrant> keyword. You can only remove this Keyword tag in a very specific way. This will be uncovered during the CRISIS OF FAITH, so that will need to be something you discover during the event.

Remember, you can also use the OK Check-In System to opt out of this mechanic as well.

Now, the skill is pretty straight forward. Let’s talk about what the new Keywords do:

New Keyword - Reborn

Like I mentioned above, Keywords normally don’t do anything by themselves, but there are some exceptions. Let’s talk about what each Keyword does for the CRISIS OF FAITH event.

REBORN (Keyword Effect)

Character is now a converted member of the Cult of the Reborn and part of their Great Miracle.   Phys Rep: Marked by a Bloody Thumbprint on forehead. 

Characters are now Baptized into the <Cult of the Reborn>.  Characters with this Keyword cannot be Baptized into any other faith.  Any call or ability that targets Reborn now applies and cannot be resisted.

During this event, the Cult of the Reborn will be trying to convert AS MANY people as they can. They WANT you to have the REBORN keyword. What happens if they convert the whole town? Probably something bad. Let’s find out together.

So this mechanics on this one is pretty easy:

If you are REBORN, you are vulnerable to any effect that targets the Cult of the Reborn. Some of the Cultists might have some mostly helpful things for their allies, like a healing word or even an Upsurge. Regardless of the effect, you won’t be able to resist the abilities because you’ve been marked as one of the flock.

However, you CANNOT be Baptized into another faith. As long as you have this Keyword, you can’t return to your old Faith, or choose to be Faithless. You’ve chosen a side, whether you like it or not. This means that the nefarious plans of the Cult of the Reborn will probably involve you and that’s probably bad for Bravado.

The Reborn keyword is initially visible thanks to a thumbprint mark. The NPCs that give out this Keyword will have a bit of makeup you can apply to your forehead to represent the ubiquitous thumbprint of the Tiny God cult, and you can always stop by Ops to reapply the makeup, or you can even decline the physical mark if you are allergic or don’t want the makeup phys rep. However, if you want to wipe it off or hide the mark that you’ve been converted you are free to do so.

But who would hide something terrible that risks turning you into an enemy, like a zombie bite? What is this, some kind of zombie movie? I’m sure none of you will do that. probably.

New Keyword - HERETIC

Let’s talk about the more dangerous of the Keyword Effects during CRISIS OF FAITH — the Mark of the HERETIC. If you’ve been identified as an ENEMY of the Cult of the Reborn, they have a different fate in mind for you. This is an effect that might be given to particularly important Faithful leaders, opposition fighters, or even just those pesky folks that keep resisting their attempts to bring them into the REBORN.

The frightening potency of their faith in their crusade is capable of a dangerous effect. You see, the Cult of the Reborn believes SO much in their cause that when they decide you are no longer worthy of their faith, they will make sure you can’t have ANY faith.

Faith is powerful in the Dystopia Rising universe. It can literally change reality, and when you believe strongly enough, your faith can bless your allies, strike down your enemies, or bring back the dead. Remember the words of the Prince Undying, that Imprint is Matter, and Matter is Imprint. We’ve shown time and time again that if you believe in something enough it can change the world.

If you oppose the Cult (and they catch you to use the Benediction of the Reborn), you could be marked as a HERETIC.

And that has a cost.

HERETIC (Keyword Effect)

Character has denied the blessings of the Cult of the Reborn and cannot access their own faithful gifts.  Phys Rep: Marked by an Ashen Thumbprint on forehead.

Characters lose any existing Baptism and cannot be Baptized into another faith, cannot use ANY Anomaly Skills, and cannot use any Psionic or Faithful Items while they have this keyword.  They can still be targeted and affected by Anomaly skills used by others.  Any call or ability that targets Heretics now applies and cannot be resisted.

That’s right.

If you get marked as a HERETIC, you are completely cut off from faith and psionics. Ouch.

Let’s break that down a bit more.

You lose your Baptism. If you were formerly Baptized into the Light of Hedon, you are now Faithless. This means that you will no longer be targetable by Faithful Skills like Faithful Patterns, Faithful Miracles, or the like, since you won’t be a King’s Court, or a Final Knight anymore (mechanically, at least).

You can’t regain your Baptism. The Cult has cut you off from your faith and branded you a heretic. You can’t simply get a different priest to induct you again. You’ll need to deal with the Cult of the Reborn before you can regain your faith. But, if you were wanting a chance to try a different faith, this might give you a chance at a fresh start. You’ll need to get rid of this Keyword first, though!

You cannot use ANY Anomaly Skills. Period. That means you can’t use Biogenetics, Pyrokinetics, Faithful Spirit, nothing. The Cult of the Reborn has completely separated you from your faith, and you lack the ability to summon your powers. This is a terrifying ability, but you will be able to overcome this effect during the event. But it won’t be easy.

You can still be affected by Anomaly skills used by others. While you can’t muster the psionic energy to use Necrokinetics or the like, others can still step in to save you. You can still be healed by positive effects like Biogen as long as someone else uses it on you, and you can still be targeted by dangerous psionic effects from folks like the Cult of the Reborn.

You can’t use Psionic or Faithful items. This means you can’t use that Crystalline Biological Enhancer to control that Raider, you can’t use that Incineration Engine to burn your enemies, and you can’t save your friend from the Grave Mind with that O Faithful Bulwark. You can’t use Benedictions of your own, like the Ritual of Consecration.

Clearly, this is something you will want to fix. The Cult of the Reborn is a dangerous threat to Bravado and the San Saba, and it’ll be up to your characters to decide how they deal with the Benediction of the Reborn during their CRISIS OF FAITH in February!

WRAP UP

That’s it for today Vados!

We will be taking a detour next week to explore a bit of the history of the Cult of the Reborn and some interesting backstory on the Characters of Note and the specific events that led to the rise of the Cult and their machinations for CRISIS OF FAITH.

Tickets are ON SALE now for CRISIS OF FAITH! Get your ticket today!

Don’t miss out on your character to test what your character believes and how faith can affect reality in the world of Dystopia Rising. See you soon Vados!

Welcome to "Crisis of Faith"

It’s Jonathan here with our first weekly blog post for the upcoming event, CRISIS OF FAITH!

We are finally back from the winter break we take each year during January, and we have some cool stuff to share! This is leadup for our February DR:TX event written by our Overarc STs, Stephanie Patrick-Muñoz and Chase Lira. Today we will talk a bit about some story teasers, some core mechanics and concepts for the event, and a reminder of some of the benefits of pre-registration for one of our events. We will also reveal the details of one of the key threats for the weekend, the CULT OF THE REBORN.

We’ve ran a few social media events of note over the break:

• This very next weekend, on January 21st, is the first run of our new limited ticket series, Lone Star Skies Vignettes, IN THE WOODS! Our director Shan will be running a unique online story experience detailing a murder mystery set in the homelands of the Lovelace Family. We even posted a raffle today for the last remaining ticket to the event that was donated by a generous player at DR:TX!

• We have also featured our new Buyback Campaign online on Facebook, and we can help if you’ve been wanting just a few more XP to get that tasty PFA. In the loosely paraphrased words of our newest member of the Admin team, Kiara: “Make sure to get your buyback so we can spook you with shit. Then buy your tickets to CRISIS OF FAITH and get ready to question everything you and your character believes about faith, the world, your place in it, and what it means to be reborn. Buckle up fuckers!”

Tickets for CRISIS OF FAITH will go on sale January 23rd at 1:00 PM, CST. bookmark the link so you don’t miss out!!!

This post will discuss a few light STORY SPOILERS for our next event, so we hope you enjoy what we have in store!

Our artwork in this post is from an excellent comic by Beau Lee and Shan Lind we used during our online game, GALATEA.

Let’s talk a little bit about the story of the next event…

The Cult of the Tiny God approaches the Fountainhead in Essex, PHW 04

teaser FOR CRISIS OF FAITH

And now an excerpt from a recent sermon heard in the streets of Essex about the Prophet Reborn:

"What is the Final Death? Ask any handful of folks and you'll get a handful of answers 'Death is the wheel's final turning, the coda of the song, the final lesson on suffering' and before now, one might have thought any or all of them right. But after the past year, many of you now see none of these answers quite grasp the truth, not fully.  They brush over its surface, skim and probe and flirt but never truly embrace the truth.

Yes, yes! 'Imprint is Matter, Matter is Imprint, ' I hear some of you murmur, this at the core of it. For you see, Death is Power; death is Energy. As we live we build up that energy and in death that energy is released and played out into the world according to… according to our Imprint, yes well said. But what is the Imprint? Is it immutable? This framework that burns our energy and births us again and again until our energy is expended… are we doomed to follow it, forever unchanging?

I say no!

It CAN be changed. And the answer is so gleamingly, beautifully simple. Belief. Belief is the tool that shapes the Imprint. We saw the truth of it in Essex, where for a glorious, shining moment, the whole WORLD changed! Our glorious Prophet saw the signs and led us to the path of truth. We have watched for her signs ever since. My friends, my brethren, I have listened and I have seen, and despite my doubts and denials the signs called out louder and more harmoniously until I could no longer deny the glorious truth. What is this wondrous news? I tell you, through me: our Prophet has been Reborn! They will say it is impossible, but just last year I would have told you that stemming the cycle of death and return would have been impossible, and yet here we stand, on the other side of a terrible Miracle that shook the San Saba to the Core. Those in Bravado serve as a great example. Time and again they have accomplished fantastic feats… but only because they believed they could…. 

The time for the Great Miracle has come. If you still doubt my words, look no further than the contemptible figures of the San Saba Board of Directors. They have brought a damnable Law, all in the name of ‘protecting’ us. They say it is to curb the sinful acts of vile criminals who would take advantage of the Aberrant. All noble goals, to be sure, but the real sinister truth of it is that they are afraid. Yes my Brethren, they have seen what the wild, directionless Beliefs of a few misguided souls could wreak and they FEAR! Fear that we shall no longer place our Belief in them! Fear that we shall take our DEATH and use it to power OUR Great Miracle instead of their SELFISH, worldly designs! FEAR WE WILL NO LONGER SLEEP, AS OUR GOD SLEEPS IN THE GARDEN OF THEIR CRAVEN CORE, CLINGING TO CONTINUANCE!

The Tiny God has pointed me in the direction we must go. Many will try to stop us, but we must be strong in our Beliefs, and by our Faith be strengthened. Trust that the Prophet stands by your side. Soon they shall see the ultimate beauty of our truth. Yes, I Believe they will see my Brethren…

For you will MAKE them see.”

— Sister Greywand, Essex, PHW 06

The Lost Prophet, Pfilomena Lovelace, addresses her flock shortly before her death, PHW 04

That’s a bit ominous. Let’s chat about what it might mean for the future.

The Cult of the Tiny God, REBORN

Way back during our Online Season, we ran a series of events in Essex, the City of Light and Sound. This is the beating heart of the San Saba Territories — one of the largest cities in the area, a fortified city of thousands to the southwest of our sleepy town of Bravado. The city is often mentioned in our live games as being “off camera” of sorts, but it’s a frequent location of note in our setting.

Our Essex online game series was a trio of online events, loosely dubbed “The Fountainhead Trilogy”, as each story built on events of the last. From the celebrations of the first Festival of Light and Sound, to the story of the first Archon Incursion in the San Saba, and the emergence of the new Morgue in Essex known as the Fountainhead, we explored a new area of our setting and introduced some casted characters that have even made appearances in our live games.

One group that has made a few visits to Bravado over the past few events is a group we first debuted during the game GALATEA — The Cult of the Tiny God. We’ll be going into more detail about these folks and how they’ve changed in the years following the Fountainhead Incident in a future blog post before CRISIS OF FAITH. For now, let’s cover the basics.

When the Fountainhead emerged in the heart of Essex, the lives of its people were collectively turned on their heads;  The Cult is the natural extrapolation of a fearful population being shown what, to them, looks fundamentally like miracles.  After the Fountainhead, supposedly, consumed the Archon that terrorized the city at the climax of that year’s Festival of Light and Sound, a fanatic group of cultists began to worship at the feet of the monolith.  They believed the Fountainhead to be the closest thing to a god that could exist, and ached for the beautiful world they saw in their dreams.

The Cult of the Tiny God has reared its head periodically over the last few months, surfacing in portions of the cult that worshipped the Archons during the EMERALD GALA, appearing in several mods during our national event, DEAD MAN’S HAND, and even has made some appearances on Sundays over the last few live events in DR:TX.

You can read a bit more about the lengths they went to prove their faith a reality, including the sacrifice of their leader, Pfilomena Lovelace, who walked willingly into the destructive force of the Fountainhead. Her body and even her very Imprint was completely annihilated, destroyed in the strange Abyssal energies of the proto-morgue.

Read the comic: Galatea: Commit

In the wake of Pfilomena’s death, the Cult was lost and without purpose. The lies of their Cult were made obvious and many of their number scattered and left the faith entirely. Even Pfilomena’s son, Caleb Lovelace, was a skeptic after his mother’s pointless death. But a few kept their hopes tied into their delusions and prayed for the return of their LOST PROPHET, believing that somehow Pfilomena would be reborn and returned to them to lead them once more.

For years, this has been a fantasy, but this Cult of the Tiny God’s delusion has emerged within a new and dangerous threat to the San Saba — THE CULT OF THE REBORN.

The Cult of the Reborn

Formed from the former members of the Cult of the Tiny God, and even adopting their familiar white and grey robes and ashen thumbprint marks on their forehead, the Cult has found new focus under the leadership of a new and powerful demagogue. Someone claiming to be the PROPHET REBORN has stepped into the leadership of the faith in the recent months, and their presence is about to be felt across the San Saba.

The Cult is formed out of the common people of Essex and the San Saba Territories as a whole, much like their predecessors. They are Lineages and people just like your characters, but they have been twisted by delusion and grief. In the wake of the destruction of recent Archon incursions (most recently in Bravado), and a general sense of fear and existential crises about the unknown, folks have sought to find answers. Something happened with the Fountainhead and the Archon Incursions that the common person cannot explain, and they have decided to create a story that helps them rationalize away the things they cannot understand. Rather than address something real, the new Cult of the Reborn represents the ability of the masses to seek an answer to the unexplainable mysteries by finding conspiracy and pattern in everything they see.

And now they have a plan to restore their founder, the Lost Prophet, and conduct a grand ritual known as the GREAT MIRACLE. Their plans are still a bit mysterious, but anyone in the San Saba that has eyes can tell that the Cult is actively recruiting and building their numbers towards some nefarious purpose. The San Saba Board has even requested Strikers from the RED LEDGER to take up arms against the cultists in Essex, scattering them from street corners and makeshift sermons in the dark alleys of the City of Light and Sound.

Whether the Cult of the Reborn is successful in their plans will be up to your characters and the choices they make in February. We will cover a bit more of their details in a few weeks, but for now know that the Cult of the Reborn is a threat that must be answered.

ooc IMPORTANT NOTE: The Cult is fundamentally WRONG about what happened in Essex.  Every behavior of the Fountainhead was the function of the Mortis Amaranthine reacting to the deaths of so many victims at one moment.  Whatever the cult interprets as a “god” is most assuredly NOT any form of a god or deity.

The Lost Prophet approaches oblivion, PHW 04

content warnings - Religious Conflict

You can always find our list of Content Warnings on the Bravado website, and in our tradition of radical trust, we want to also trust in each player that attends our game to know their own limits and be able to choose to avoid topics and situations that make them uncomfortable.

So now that we understand the cast of characters we will deal with, let’s talk about some Content Warnings for CRISIS OF FAITH, particularly the following:

• Religious conflict, religious-related death, corruption, and abuses of power (only in-game faiths - not real faiths)

• Simulated psychological role play

• Death, mourning, death rituals, and the potential loss of life and harm to self or others due to character choices.

For this event, we are dealing with a dangerous cult of fanatics that are out to CONVERT others into their own in-game faith by any means necessary, including trickery, intimidation, and even force. This will test characters in new ways, as they will find their faith challenged, their sense of identity and belief in that faith questioned, and it should provide some deep roleplaying opportunities to decide what your character’s in-game faith REALLY means to them.

You can even join the cultist’s side on purpose, particularly if you find their cause compelling or interesting or you just want to avoid death at the hands of a violent cultist. Maybe you join the Cult of the Reborn because you just want to seek out that religious conflict in your roleplay or you want to sneak into the cult’s inner power structure to destabilize it from within. Regardless of your reasoning, FAITH and the role it plays for your character is a big part of this upcoming event.

We understand that not every person has a great relationship with the concept of organized religion, cults, churches, or even faith in real-life. It’s not for everyone, and everyone’s experience is unique. However, this concept of IN-GAME Religious Conflict will be a BIG part of the story for our February event. While we will have many ways for characters to Opt Out and resist the forced conversion, it will still be present in ways you may not always be able to avoid.

To be very clear, this type of religious roleplay and conflict isn’t really anything NEW to Dystopia Rising, or DR:TX.

You can find the following discussion about Faiths in the Postapocalyptic Wasteland on page. 69 in the DR Corebook:

“In the world of Dystopia Rising, no real-world faiths are used, out of sensitivity toward players who practice these real faiths and a recognition that something that is acceptable to one person may be offensive to someone else. Because of this, the Dystopia Rising universe includes a number of fictional faiths. All players are asked to be respectful of real faiths and not use them as content within this fictional world.

The postapocalyptic faiths each have various and sometimes conflicting views. They’ve spread out across the world, with some of them splintering into new denominations. These faiths help bring people together as a whole, forming groups that have learned to survive in the world in which they now live.

Unlike more fantasy focused genres, in Dystopia Rising religion itself does not provide supernatual powers from outside the individual. Powers associated with faith are instead generated from within, using the medium of faith as a means to activate harder to access abberant abilities. The faith that comes with devotion to a religion can open abberant abilities and biological enhancements that are latent within most Strains.

In the end it is important to remember that religion in the Dystopia Rising universe serves the same purpose as it does in some modern societies. Religion can shape the customs, traditions, morals, and to a degree the behavior of a person or group of people. Religion can provide community and give a sense of belonging and purpose. Religion can encouage people to raise one another to a higher level, or it can be a tool for horrible purposes when directed by destructive people.”

We will have many opportunities to opt out of these mechanics during the event in case this still isn’t something you want to participate in. There will still be zombies and raiders to run away from in the darkness, scrap to salvage, herb to farm, and blueprints to copy. We hope you will be excited to join us for this story, but we will have many other stories to enjoy in the future.

Remember, you can always use the OK Check-In System to “thumbs down” any interaction you don’t feel comfortable with, even CVC!

The Lost Prophet being consumed by the Fountainhead, PHW 04

wrap up

That’s it for today, Vados! We have some more content for the lead up to this event coming your way soon, and we can’t wait to share what’s in store.

Next week, we will cover the BENEDICTION OF THE REBORN and the specific mechanics about how the Cult will be forcefully indoctrinating their victims to aid the Great Miracle. I’ll reveal the specific details about the mechanics so you will be able to make informed choices about seeking out this plot during our event.

After that, we will discuss a few more of the Characters of Note within the CULT OF THE REBORN and their opponents, the RED LEDGER. We will talk about Caleb, the Mad Prophet, Sister Greywand, and even the mysterious Inquisitor of the Red Ledger. This will focus on lore and stuff that your characters might know about the Cult before you enter play in February.

Lastly, I’ll cover Rules You Should Know the week before the game, covering the unique Faith-based powers you’ll need to watch out for, and some of the specific tricks the Cult of the Reborn can use against you.

Remember, tickets go on sale on January 23rd at 1:00 pm CST! See you soon Vados!

Story Recap: Imprint by Design

Good morning! It’s Jonathan here with a STORY RECAP for the November 2022 event, IMPRINT BY DESIGN ®. 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 throughout the season, and I hope this will help with the FOMO feels or answer some questions you had about what happened.

Photo credits in this post are from Max Pohlmeier, Lainey Weiss, Francine Ilac, Crystal Louise Remy, and Noah Goodman.

This was our second ST Overarc of the season, led by the very talented Brett Pittman. This was a smaller, more intimate event coming off the gargantuan story of the National Event the month previous. The focus of this event was on Roleplay and allowed players to explore the miracle of a STRAIN CHANGE. This event was kicked off by a questionnaire that players could fill out to opt into the dramatic changes to their character, but players that showed up later were able to participate as well. We also teased a bit of this story at the end of our National Event when the main NPC of this game showed up on Sunday to talk about some exciting new research.

The lead-up to this event also featured a deep dive into a few mechanics:

• The Strain change process required players to undergo a Roleplay Burden, a unique DR:TX rule found on our Local Mechanics page. We introduced this concept during VALLEY OF FEAR, but this was a different take on a similar mechanic.

• We also dug into the rules for Lineages and Strains in a Rules Ramble before the event.

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

• Season 4, Episode 1: THE VALLEY OF FEAR

• Season 4, Episode 2: PYROCLASM

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

Premise of Imprint By Design ®

Grandfather Nichols has breathed his last, and that black heart pumped out the last of his ichor-like vitality upon the shores of Lake Bravado.  But in the wake of his final death, the impact of his Grand Finale is still being felt across the San Saba.  Dr. I.E. Esgrove, a visitor to Bravado that was shocked by the ravages of the Necrophage, has been spurred to pursue funding from one Felicity Redfield regarding a new revelation.  Esgrove has found the waste of the Necrophage and its cure clinging to the Infection of individuals across the San Saba, and realized the new potential it can offer for change and restoration.

With the new blessing of the RRC, Dr. Esgrove has been working around the clock delving deep into the Facility underneath Bravado to fuel their machine, a device he calls the T.I.T.A.N Processor.  Escrow has declared the next trade to be the great unveiling of his creation, and there is a call out to the wastes for the brightest, driven, and best – gearheads, scientists, and tinkerers alike to come and join in the culmination.  Miss Felicity Redfield has even graciously volunteered to display her trust in Bravado and Esgrove by being the first test subject.  

The T.I.T.A.N. Processor has been set up on the edge of the Facility, just a short trek from Downtown Bravado, for all to come see the flash of great brilliance when the switches are thrown.  Come one, come all, to witness a new miracle of science!

An Exodus from Waking

Over the past several months, the capital of Waking Prime has been experiencing problems that are either catastrophic or very minor irritations depending on which person you talk to. This floating city is a wonder of oldcestor technology, kept afloat by the mysterious Capacity Engine and the constant tinkering of the RRC’s brightest minds. While some of the muckrakers and opponents of the opulence of the floating city have suggested that they are simply delaying an inevitable doom, others still have sought out additional resources and support for aiding the ailing airship’s engines.

Near the end of the Burning Season, a sudden loss of altitude caused by a failed surface engine caused the city to tilt off course and damaged several key structures built on top of the capital ship. When those buildings were damaged, it inspired several scientists in the city to either pursue a career in a safer environment, or perhaps even some were left go from contracts as funding dried up. Regardless of the truth of the danger to Waking, none can deny that the population of the city continues to shrink as the challenges to the city grow more dire.

One such brilliant mind that had left the city of Waking Prime to seek out his prospects elsewhere was a scientist by the name of I.E. Esgrove. When the city’s problems began, it activated a clause in his contract with Waking and left him in Bravado at the end of the Necrophage crisis as a free agent. He had been hired on originally as part of Research & Development, a sub-sect of the RRC, and had been a man of science since he was old enough to understand it.

Esgrove saw the devastation wrought at the hands of Nichols and vowed to help, being rapidly recruited by Felicity Redfield, the CEO of the RRC. The scientists’ specialty was in math, advanced harmonics, and electrical manipulation of radiation. He was a brilliant man, but he was driven to help others in a way he had been unable to during his tenure in Waking. After discovering that Bravado seemed to be ground zero for Nichol’s machinations and the site of his last stand, he realized he needed a direct connection with the people of the town to continue his research.

Shortly before Esgrove’s exodus from Waking, he had stumbled into a unique side effect of the deadly Necrophage disease that had been spread in the past few weeks. Each of those affected by the disease had a unique marker in their blood and biomass that had mutated the very building blocks of their IMPRINT into a state of instability. While radiation often provoked mutations in Strains, this unstable condition could be manipulated with the right application of science and electricity. The very blueprint of what made a Strain a Strain had become… mutable.

A Mutated Imprint

While this new condition of IMPRINT DISSONANCE might eventually be repaired over time, the symptoms of the condition were spreading. Some of the earliest affected had started reporting strange quirks of behavior and temporary mutations that resembled those of other Strains. A pacifist Unborn might suddenly seem to distance themselves from their Gravemind worship and fall into a rage of the Tainted strain. A rambunctious Diesel Jock might suddenly manifest the signs of an Accensorite accension, or a Baywalker might find themselves suddenly glowing red as if they were an Iron. A friendly Remnant might suddenly grow fangs and begin to thirst for the blood of the living, or a Pureblood might suddenly have become the black sheep of the family when they gained the rot of a Retrograde.

Like oldcestor diseases before it, it seemed like the Necrophage would have serious long term effects for some of its victims, but it also presented a unique opportunity. If the Imprint itself was mutable, then it might be possible to realize one of Esgrove’s dreams — the mutation of a Strain into a completely different Strain.

There had some limited successes before, to be fair. Juliet Butcher, the Butcher of Killhouse, had successfully pioneered a process she called Project Lurid to convert a strain into an Unstable. She had performed the procedure on herself, but she had also transmogrified the psychotic killer known as Eyeless Jack from his former Quiet Folk strain. However, while the Butcher’s process seemed to embrace the chaotic instability to force someone into a permanent Unstable mutation, it seemed to work only one way. A scientist from Hayven named Mica Snow had also pioneered a procedure to “cure” Bad Brain by converting a victim into what became known more commonly as the Tainted. Like the Butcher’s process, this was also limited to a one-way change.

There had of course been the strangeness from after the Hiway War when a number of folks had spontaneously changed their Strains, but that was widely considered to be part of the instability that had occurred when the long dead returned to life and the Grave Mind seemed to regurgitate those that had been lost. However, this phenomenon was short-lived and ended almost 4 years ago and no one had successfully replicated what had happened.

The taint of the Necrophage could be a catalyst that could be used to achieve the unthinkable, but it would need a significant power source to enact Esgrove’s experiment.

The TITAN Processor

Esgrove’s masterpiece was a massive machine filled with wires, electrodes, aether tubing, capacitors, and transformer-generators. Dubbed the TITAN Processor, Esgrove claimed this machine was capable of the Transfer of Imprint, Thoughts, And Neuropathways between two patients. By the use of carefully targeted blasts of radiation, alteration of harmonic frequencies, and the unique instability of the Imprint created by the Necrophage, Esgrove was sure he could create a stable Strain change thanks to his research. The machine could even effectively “copy” the unique signatures of one person to another, provided both hosts were willing and similar enough in Strain and Lineage. If someone had transformed into a different Strain, it would be capable of returning them to their original Strain or stabilizing the Imprint to make their new Strain permanent.

While he had been able to smuggle most of the resources out of Waking with his new benefactor’s help, one thing that Felicity could not help Esgrove immediately obtain was a stable power supply. While the city of Waking was a technological marvel in itself, the presence of the lightning storm generators and the Capacity Engine meant that scientists never wanted for lack of electricity or power for projects. In order to power the TITAN Processor, they would need a replacement for the extreme power demands of the conversion process.

Felicity Redfield once again came through with a solution. Underneath the town of Bravado lurked a massive oldcestor complex, known to some as C.R.A.D.L.E. but to most simply as the “Facility” — a source of metal, wiring, and artifacts that drove delvers and fortune seekers to the tiny town off the Oxline. The deepest parts of the facility sometimes still held dormant devices that brimmed with power, and they could tap into the Facility itself as a source for the TITAN Processor. With Felicity’s help and the RRC’s resources, they would be able to complete the first test of the device.

Calling his fellow scientists of R&D and the brightest minds of the San Saba to Bravado, Esgrove hoped to show off the power of his new device and provide a tangible way for the citizens of the area to recover from the Imprint-warping effects of the Necrophage. For once, he would be able to do some good with his creations, and help those that were either suffering from a lost Strain or those who sought a change to what they desired to become.

the First Test

Early Friday evening, I.E. Esgrove arrived back in Bravado with the first candidate of the TITAN Process, the CEO of the Railroad Conglomerate: Felicity Redfield. As part of her agreement to fund Esgrove’s project, Felicity was to be the first focus of the new experiment. A sitting board member on the San Saba Board and the executive leader of the RRC being willing to be a guinea pig was a major vote of confidence in Esgrove’s project.

As Esgrove finished the last-minute calculations, Felicity assured those gathered to watch the experiment of her confidence in the TITAN Process and how they would use the machine to help those that needed it. The Strain changes were still spreading, and more townsfolk were exhibiting changes. For some, Strain was a part of their identity, and they were eager to return back to the form they were most comfortable in. Some embraced the change, hoping that the TITAN Process could help them become this new form of what they were meant to be. And others still were still on the fence, clearly not completely satisfied with the change but reluctant to make such a big decision without time and contemplation.

Esgrove had large cables and wiring running into an exposed hatch that led into one of the sub-levels of the Facility near the Maw. According to Felicity, the area was a redundant system that could be used to power the device and it should have no ill effect on the town. While most of the Facility lacked power, those isolated pockets that retained some form of energy could be tapped into with the RRC’s patented electrical converters. Lights lit up the night around the TITAN Processor, makeshift engines whirred to life, and fluid processors bubbled with kinetic energy as the machine was turned towards its first test.

Felicity Redfield stepped into one of the Titan chambers, eager to prove her investment successful, trusting that she was perfect as is and needed no major changes from the device. Instead, for this first test they would just be solidifying her Imprint and preventing the decay that was affecting other Strains. If this worked, they could proceed to a more robust plan of altering Strains on a purposeful and profitable basis. It could allow them to sell an elective strain change to any that wanted to invest in the project, offering a future where they could truly offer an Imprint by Design ® service.

With a click and a hum, the machine was spun up, and the TITAN Process began.

Sweat broke out on Esgrove’s face as a sudden strange ticking and beeping came from the device. Smoke poured from the machine as he frantically moved levers and knobs across his device from within his control booth. As he calibrated and adjusted the machine in the way that only he had mastered, it was clear something was wrong.

A failed Experiment

Esgrove began a system shutdown, hoping that Felicity had not been injured or even killed by the device. The TITAN Processor screeched and hissed as if complaining about the aborted procedure, lights flaring and sirens buzzing in protest. Esgrove moved with a fever, trying his best to contain the sudden release of energy from the device. The process had been halted, but the TITAN machine had stored too much power to stop so abruptly. With a reluctant switch, he forced the power flow back into the Facility to avoid a critical failure.

The emergency protocols locked into place, the great whirring sounds of the TITAN Processor slowed and came to a jarring halt. With a giant blast of steam and the peculiar buzzing in the night of ionized air escaping from vents, the chamber opened once more.

Felicity emerged cautiously, still unaware of the problems that Esgrove was trying to contain. As she asked for a mirror, she was horrified. Instead of the face she expected to see in the mirror, she had been transformed. Felicity now had strange psionic growths emerging from all over her body. A ridge of crystals across her face dimly glowed in the moonlight, and at any place where the skin was tougher like a knee or elbow had suddenly grew crystalline formations. However, despite the dramatic and obvious change, she was still alive!

After a quick check over by Esgrove with the help of the town’s doctors, it became clear that while something had changed, she had survived a dose of lethal radiation that should have killed her. The reason why Felicity was still alive was surprising to most of the town — Felicity was not a Pureblood as folks had assumed, but she was secretly a Remnant!

Had the machine worked as intended during the abrupt stop, Esgrove explained, it would have likely melted her to a pool of biomass and radioactive sludge. The lie that Felicity had maintained for so long had worked in her favor. Her bright red curly hair was simply a wig, and carefully concealed beneath her finery she normally had rough patches of skin and the scaly hide of the Mutant lineage. Felicity had always wanted to be able to claim the birthright of the Elitariats and be accepted amongst her peers in the RRC and Waking, and something as simple as being the wrong Strain wasn’t something that would prevent her from her rise to power in the RRC.

The device had worked, but it had supercharged her Remnant strain. The new mutations were clearly a side effect of the math of the process being unbalanced and incomplete, but in some ways, it was still a successful result. Felicity had stayed a Remnant. Esgrove would need to run some more tests, but it should still be possible to successfully change the Strain of someone suffering from the strange Imprint Dissonance. Despite the first test failing, it was simply a matter of balancing the equation and discovering the right combination of factors to control the TITAN process.

But a sudden rumble beneath their feet brought an end to the relief of Felicity’s survival…

THE WEEPING

It had been quiet so far in the evening, almost eerily so. Few zed and raiders had made it past patrols, and it seemed as if the night was holding its breath for something to happen. The town’s population was focused on the reveal of Esgrove’s machine, so it was immediately obvious that something was wrong so close to the Maw.

A rumble under the ground grew and grew as it built into an earthquake. The ground rent open in places, and in some holes were opened up into places deeper underground. The ionic charge in the air sparked in the night, resembling a thunderstorm building as ball lightning danced across the sky. Areas near the lake collapsed into dangerous quicksand pits, and chasms opened up across the town.

The power rerouted back into the Facility had done something. Some previously unknown section of the Facility must have been affected by the power draw of the TITAN Processor. And deep in the tunnels below Bravado, something answered.

The town had long dealt with the peculiar undead threats of the Facility. Previous explorers had discovered several rooms full of Semper Mort patients, dead in cryogenic tubes and rotting in their prisons separated from the Grave Mind. This half-death led to the things known as BLOOD GHASTS becoming a threat. If the tubes were broken, the things that escaped resembled undead Semper Morts with a hunger for flesh borne of a millennium of starvation. They were dangerous enough enemies, but their numbers were rarely more than a handful released at once.

But now an earthquake inside the Facility had changed all that.

Bloodghasts could feed on survivors and mutate at an accelerated rate, advancing into more and more dangerous forms of the undead. The Bloodghasts had always been unstable creatures, and even the dangerous Bloodghast Alphas were nothing compared to a new threat that emerged from below - the WEEPING.

The first encounters with the Weeping happened as a swarm of the Bloodghasts escaped from a cavernous rent in the group in the forest. First named for the black ichor dripping from their eyes that appeared to be hideous tears, the Weeping were dangerous. Somehow impacted by the radiation of the TITAN Processor, the creatures had evolved even past what was thought possible for a Bloodghast, but they were just as feral, vicious, and HUNGRY. They had become stronger, smarter, more deadly, and possessed new and dangerous abilities to cause immense pain and agony in a target with a strike or to even hyper adapt a defense to those that tried to kill them.

The Weeping would adapt to whatever threat they faced, growing rock-like scales in a moment to resist the crushing blow of a hammer, bone-like plating that reflected bullets, or strange crystalline growths that resisted the strongest psionic flame. The adaptation was quick and rendered them nearly immune to repeated forms of the same attacks. A clever survivor took advantage of the response to make one of the Weeping immune to his gunfire while his friends hacked it to pieces up close.

It was possible to kill the Weeping, but one shuddered to think of a horde of the creatures. It took an entire organized group of the Fallow Hope to put down one of the creatures, much less an entire wave of the things. Whatever was causing this new form of Bloodghast to evolve in the depths of the Facility needed to be dealt with quickly.

Restless Dreams

After a harrowing night evading attacks from Bloodghasts and the Weeping, some of the Strain changes were worsening. The mutation was evolving at a rapid pace for some, and the changes were becoming more dangerous. A person might suddenly mutate through multiple Accensorite ascensions, or the hunger for meat might drive a new Lascarian to kill. Without a lifetime of living as that Strain, minor inconveniences that others had learned to live with became crippling hindrances in the newly changed.

Esgrove returned in the morning, haggard and restless, having spent the previous night trying to understand the mistakes that had been made the night before. He was full of ideas and looking for research assistants to help him fix the TITAN Processor, hoping to bring some relief to those that were undergoing the growing pains of their new Strain. With their help, they could research new equations to balance the chemical mutations of the machine and restore functionality to the process.

The TITAN machine was built around two large chambers, originally powered by a tap into the primary power systems of the Facility. Esgrove’s vision was that the first chamber would collect data from the background radiation of the world to offer a clear and untainted blueprint of that subject. From there, they could apply that template to a subject in the second chamber to force a similar mutation to match, or to stabilize the Imprint in the subject back to its original form.

When Esgrove had performed the procedure on Felicity, they had done so without a donor on the other end, so the effect on her Imprint had been random and not deliberate. If the equation was balanced, it might be possible to predict and manipulate how that mutation of the Imprint resolved. With these variables uncovered, they would simply need to account for the various specific quirks of the Imprint in various subjects of all Strains. Simple blood tests and math could help isolate these genetic differences between the Strains so they could adapt the compounds used in the machine to match.

In addition to finding a new equation for his process, Esgrove identified a way to safely power the machine by using subsystems in the Facility instead. The first attempt had attempted to tap into a main line, and it overloaded the process or perhaps whatever system it had been connected to. The recent earthquakes and release of the Weeping were likely related to that system, so they could not risk further damage by using the same source of power as before.

However, the surge of energy from the machine had activated new mechanical readouts and gauges that had not worked for generations and opened doors and chambers that had yet to be explored. A map of sorts was now lit within one of the hub rooms of the facility, offering new insight into how the Facility was organized. They now had more information into the mysterious function of the Facility than they had ever had before, and Felicity’s delvers were already planning eager expeditions into newly unlocked tunnels.

Esgrove’s theory was that if they could tap into a smaller system instead, they could drain the batteries of that system and keep the process contained. It would disable the subsystem they used, but it would provide enough power to keep the TITAN Processor active for hours at a time. With some coordination and a bit of luck, they could process dozens of patients at once and offer a cure to the Imprint Dissonance plaguing the town.

The RRC scientist had located eight sub systems that he believed could “safely” supply power to the machine, but they would have unknowable effects on the Facility itself when they were disabled. He would need the town to help make a decision about what systems to use to power the TITAN engine, as they would deal with the consequences in the future.

Powering the TITAN Processor

Deciphering the archaic text of the Facility was no easy task, but the researchers believed they had identified functions of several eligible subsystems. By cannibalizing power, they could help solve the problem facing Bravado, but each risked causing long term complications. Without more info, even the information they could find was simply a guess. Any systems that remained could perhaps even be accessed later, and would be a resource they could use in the future once the crisis passed.

There were eight systems that had enough power to function for the TITAN Processor’s needs:

Life Support 

• This gargantuan, pythonic coil of rubber and insulation extended down deep into The Facility. Of the subsystems, this one easily carried the most power and disseminated it the furthest. Water, electricity, and a kind of osseous and generic slurry that resembled something between hot cereal and cement, flowed through those isolated rivers of caloric density and power deep into the fathomless depths of the Facility. Whatever was being fueled by the water and slurry of Life Support would be left to die once the system lost power, lost to a makeshift tomb in the tunnels below.

Hydroponics Bay 

• The electricity required to keep the artificial sunlight on in rooms so deep underground they have never seen the real thing, was laughably negligible. Still, it was enough to get the job done. The surprising readout on this system was that this section of the Facility had never lost power. It is very possible, in fact, that whatever biome survived inside the Hydroponics Bay could represent one of the last contained, uninfluenced ecosystems, since the Fall. Untouched, the RRC could perhaps even discover new herbs, medicines, and plants from before the Fall if they could access the chamber.

Containment Maglocks 

• The complicated and ancient mechanical blueprint of the Facility that was their reference indicated the existence of magnetically locking doors throughout its deep structures. These doors were currently powered and sealed. Unlocking the Containment Maglocks would mean access to the titanic amounts of electricity that kept them shut, but whatever the doors contained might be released. With the recent release of the Weeping, one shuddered to think what might still lurk below.

Resonance Lab

• When they first spliced into the wires that were labeled [RESONANCE LAB], the material inside them appeared at first fiber optic, possessing a crystalline structure and the ability to transmit light along its length purely by being exposed to it. The makeshift voltage tester they used clearly indicated a strong current moving through the substance and it would easily function as the power source they required. Still, when one survivor wrapped his palm around the wires, he felt a vaguely unpleasant tingle in his arm, almost like a very sour electrocution. The power here in the Resonance Lab could be more easily tapped for later use if they didn’t use it to power the TITAN machine. A readily accessible electrical source in the Facility would be a boon to future exploration below Bravado.

Virology 

• This thick bundle of wires terminated in a fuse box not far beneath the San Saba Soil labeled Virology. The complicated mechanisms being powered in this system ranged from “decontamination” to what appeared to be a weekly cycle of radiation that was applied beyond the bounds of the read-out’s date calculation. Despite the wear and tear of millennia, protection from the elements had mostly kept this system up and running since the Fall. Whatever viral samples kept suspended in the subsystem would risk new plagues and outbreaks to rival that of the Necrophage, but could offer new insight into the diseases of the wastelands.

Water Treatment

• The pile of tubing and purification infrastructure known as Water Treatment was powered by an enormous cable that reached up and towards Lake Bravado like a tentacle of some insidious beast. This seemed to be connected to the monolith of stone in the lake that was first revealed in the explosion that destroyed Old Bravo years ago. The treatment system matched the edifice of white stone and black metal that had first drawn the RRC to Bravado to delve into the mysteries of the Facility. It had power, though it seemed the system was hardly functional after eons of exposure. It would be a useful tool to process the tainted lake water, if they could keep it operational.

Acoustic Dampers 

• These heavy-duty power cables seemed attached directly to a series of enormous underground plates at the very bottom of the Facility core, if the schematics were to be believed. With cable shielding made of lead, or some similar substance, the best guess was that this system was crucial to make underground tectonic platters tilt and shift according to some ancient design. The Acoustic Dampers required an enormous amount of energy, second only to Life Support. If they disabled these systems, it would likely aggravate and accelerate the tectonic activity that had occurred when the TITAN machine first turned on the night before.

The Stitch 

• This cable was singular, and kept inside a plexiglass tube for its entire, unfathomable length. Bright orange, though faded with the eons, it read [THE STITCH] in red letters outlined in black. Whenever this place was built, the designer took pains to keep this particular system completely isolated from the rest of the Facility’s inner workings. It was not listed on any blueprints and was omitted from the mechanical maps they had uncovered. But it was clear that The Stitch was routed through every section of the Facility to its deepest, most chasmic and charnel laboratories.

Each of the subsystems represented a dangerous choice, but the town needed to bring the TITAN Processor back online if they hoped to find some cure to the Imprint Dissonance.

The TITAN Process Restored

Once the TITAN Processor was ready, Esgrove was ready to try the first mass test of the machine. With the help of a fellow operator, Esgrove could lead a group of survivors into the test chambers and help them prepare for the transformation. He had built an elaborate mechanism for the machine that would only respond to him, to keep potential martyrs in the town from trying anything catastrophic.

Esgrove was slightly more harried and was struggling. The effort to reconfigure the machine was no easy task, and he had barely slept the night before. By his best calculations they would have enough power to try several times, but he had no idea how long the energy surge that powered the Facility below would last, so they had to act quickly. It was an endeavor to wrangle the townsfolk of Bravado, but they found their first test subjects willing to risk the process to either lock in their transformation or return their Imprint to its original state.

The key to the process would be having the correct donor and recipient. The previous mistake had been trying to convert Felicity alone. If they could provide the machine with another person to stand in as a source of the Imprint, he could effectively “copy” the Imprint onto the other patient, returning them to a stable condition, free of the Imprint Dissonance. As long as the patients were close to the desired Strain, they would have a chance. It would still be dangerous and exhausting, and if they survived, they would need immediate medical attention.

The town split into several groups. The size of the machine limited access to a few dozen patients at a time, and they would need a second assistant to help Esgrove outside, as well as doctors to assist. Moreover, they would need to make sure they had compatible pairs of patients to fix the condition. It was a logistical nightmare, but it would be worth the risk.

With a now-familiar whir, the TITAN Processor was brought online for the first successful test.

Correcting the Imprint

From the outside, the process seemed mostly mundane. A lot of smoke, lights, sounds, and such, but it was effectively watching Esgrove move back and forth flipping switches inside the operations chamber he used to monitor the process. It was somewhat anticlimactic for onlookers, but Esgrove assured them that this time it would work. He had routed power from the Water Treatment subsystem for their first attempt, hoping that the system’s supply of electricity would be enough.

The chambers were bathed with a soft glow, and a sweet-smelling gas was piped into the chambers. Those inside drifted into a dreamless sleep, cradled in the oblong depressions in the chamber. Once conscious faded, what the survivors experienced inside was entirely different.

They awoke to a pseudo-landscape of Bravado, an eerily familiar forest without the gargantuan machinery of the TITAN machine where they stood, but something else. The fog of sleep gave way to the cool mist of the forest floor.

Out of that primordial fog stumbled a smoked-glass reflection of the Imprint they were not saddled with but had chosen. Each of the survivors seemed to be connected to them and could hear their thoughts as your own. Each heartbeat in time with their IMPRINT-SHADE, their doppelgänger face resembling the donor in the other chamber, but almost as if someone else was wrapped up in their skin too. 

It seemed like the sleepless realm was something close to the Near Death. This couldn’t be though, as it would be impossible to be that deep in the Mortis. In fact, above them they could see the sky filtering through the Amaranthine-like sunlight layer. The Imprints around them seemed malleable, and impermanent. How easy it would be for all of this to go terribly wrong.

At the edge of their vision, they could each perceive a Threshold, almost as if a glowing doorway was beckoning them across. But in their way stood the Imprint-Shade, mirroring each of their movements and preventing them from drawing closer. One by one, each patient attempted to escape the strange dreamscape, but each time they were confronted by the Shade. Some described the Shade asking questions, while others described quick and cutting blows seeking their flesh.

Frustrated, the first of survivors simply pushed their way not past the Shade, but instead THROUGH it. It was a struggle, almost as if they were slipping into a compressed tube, squeezing themselves in an impossible way to fit into the reflection of what they desired to be. The words of ancient Barogue filtered through their head — “Imprint is Matter, and Matter is Imprint”. The machine was simply a catalyst for the choice ahead. It would be their belief that made a change reality and permanent, not the pseudo-science of the TITAN Process.

Esgrove had simply opened a door across the threshold and made the change possible. They would still need to walk through, if they could.

It was a deeply personal experience for each. The challenge of the Imprint-Shade was only a task they could complete if they were willing. It was not something to be fought against, but rather accepted. As they each stepped into the shadow of the Imprint as if it was their own shadow, they felt fire in their blood and a blinding light as they crossed the Threshold back into reality.

group processing

After about an hour in the strange machine, the survivors emerged from the TITAN Processor. Bleeding and coughing, covered in a strange byproduct of fluid and biomass, they each emerged liked newborns into the chill afternoon. Smiles and thanks were quick to follow, as each of the patients discovered that they had emerged changed by the experience. For those matched with the donor of their original Strain, the Dissonance had faded back into their former Strains. For those that found the change something they actively sought instead, they found themselves in new bodies, transmogrified by the TITAN Process into the Strain that matched their desired outcome.

The first group had been a success, so all that remained was to organize the rest of the town and have folks decided how they would choose to resolve the Imprint Dissonance.

Each successive group chose a new subsystem to cannibalize for the process. While the first group has disabled the easiest system, Water Purification, the others were left with more difficult choices. The second group settled on disabling the Acoustic Dampers, fueling the machine once more to complete the harrowing transformation of the TITAN Process. No one felt comfortable disabling the ominous system marked only as the Stitch, fearing some terrible threat from beyond death.

Throughout the afternoon, the symptoms plaguing the town grew worse. The assaults of Bloodghasts and the Weeping threatened survivors across Bravado, as new crevices and chasms opened into the Facility below. Early delving teams from the RRC reported radioactive water flowing once more from the Facility back into the lake, a consequence of the failed Water Purification system. The earthquakes and quicksand pits continued as well, provoked by the loss of the Acoustic Dampers.

Esgrove worked with a stoic and focused determination through each group, despite the danger. Each time a new group was ready, he would descend into the tunnels of the Facility to complete the final connections to the power supplies inside. Each time, he emerged more worn and haggard, sometimes beaten and bloody by the treacherous descent. One by one, the town disabled the Hydroponics Lab and Life Support and rushed to find anyone that was willing to endure the process to stabilize their Imprint. Travelers from nearby Essex had arrived throughout the afternoon, seeking out the opportunity to embrace a new life, change by the life-altering powers of Esgrove’s masterpiece. Hours stretched by as dozens of those inflicted by Imprint Dissonance chose to brave the TITAN machine under Esgrove’s careful operation.

While the town was dealing with the struggle of powering the TITAN Processor for what might be its final process, they discovered that two of the powered subsystems had been shut down during the early evening - the Containment Maglocks and the Resonance Lab. Why the Facility suddenly lost power is unknown, but the timing was very suspicious. Thankfully, the power loss did not affect the The Stitch, but it still forced a harder decision on the town. It’s possible that someone could have tampered with the connections, but who would have had the knowledge and equipment to do such sabotage?

The Final Price

When Esgrove emerged from the Facility after completing the next connection, he reported back on what they had feared. This would be the last time the TITAN Process would have enough power to operate. The Facility was becoming more dangerous and the power overload was reaching a critical point. If they kept pushing and cannibalizing the systems of the Facility, they could risk a colossal failure of every system still active in the Facility. It wasn’t something Esgrove was willing to do, no matter the cost. But another complication made sure this was to be the last song of the TITAN machine.

Esgrove was dying.

The constant descents into the Facility to connected exposed wiring, or perhaps the flood of radiation from countless procedures that bathed the unshield control bay of the machine with lethal doses had been too much. There was no way to save him at this point. He had given his all to try to leave a lasting legacy of his invention. With skin flaking off, his hair shedding, and his muscles literally eating themselves, he steeled himself for the final task at hand. He would spend his dying breath making sure that his dream was made reality.

Perhaps his notes would be enough for the RRC to replicate the process in the future. Some of the townsfolk had refused the treatment, choosing instead to find alternate ways to cure the Imprint Dissonance. Some simply couldn’t make such a monumental decision in a night, no matter the risk of death they faced. Even his patron had made a choice.

Despite the years of lies, the manuevering and dreams of a life as a Pureblood, Felicity Redfield had entered the chambers of the TITAN machine with a soft smile for Esgrove and a determination in her stride that had made her famously successful. At her side was another Remnant, a purposeful choice to keep her original Strain intact instead of pursuing the life she had pretended to want. She was perfect as she was, after all, just like she had said that first night. It had been only with the help of the townsfolk, and the example of Esgrove’s sacrifice that she had realized the truth.

The final TITAN Process went as flawlessly as his first attempt that afternoon. The survivors emerged, either returned or transformed, the perfect result of the process that Esgrove had perfected at the cost of his own life.

As the light faded, and the starry Lonestar skies shone above, the town sat in contemplation, mourning the loss of the strange scientist. While Imprint by Design ® might have been his goal, the echoes of the decisions made by Bravado would carry them into a hopeful future.

Threads of Note from IMPRINT BY DESIGN ®

• Fear Eaters - On Friday night, a strange creature was spotted in Bravado. It seemed to be some kind of psionic Raider, already a rarity in the familiar threat to the wastelands. Strange geometric crystals were growing from its eyes and body, similar to the creatures that were first encountered in the vaulted halls of lost Barogue. Is it possible that the Resonant raiders have escaped the lost city and spread throughout the San Saba, or were these raiders coming from somewhere else?

• All of My Sins Remembered - A familiar face of the Reckoners of the Grave Council, Solomon was rescued from the morgue thanks to the efforts of the Vados. The skull-faced Retrograde had been targeted by someone called the “Memory Thief” and had lost several crucial memories of his past and was heavily fractured after his trip through the Mortis Amaranthine. With the town’s help, they delved into the story of Solomon’s past and his unique connection with Grandfather Nichols and helped him deal with the lost memories.

• The Accountant - An official from the Railroad Conglomerate came into Bravado offering a unique service to exchange currencies from around the wastes. You could trade in your smaller Brass notes to trade up to easier-to-carry Lead or Tin. You could even purchase other currencies that were in the Accountant’s binder for a direct 1:1 exchange. Many survivors make a collection of the various currencies used around the wasteland, and this was an excellent opportunity to add some rare choices to their collection. Unfortunately, the Accountant’s trip was cut short when a group of thieves activated a personal Shredder Bomb that wiped out the thieves and the collection in an explosive blast. Ooof!

Wrap Up

That’s it for today Vados! We still have one more recap to go to finish up our story for the first half of Season 4. We will be ramping up our production for the next episode, CRISIS OF FAITH, very soon. Regular content will resume the week of January 18th, but we have a pretty neat side project with an online game series we are calling “Lonestar Skies Virtual Events”.

These one-day stories will feature some areas of the San Saba we can’t explore directly and will offer a unique online DR:TX experience. Our first Lonestar Skies Event is called IN THE WOODS and will be run by the peerless Shan on Saturday, January 21st.

Lonestar Skies: In the Woods

Good morning Vados!

The last sun has set over the San Saba Territories, and the night ahead looms large and long. Our upcoming vignette event, ”In The Woods” is four (1.5 hour) mods long and lasts from 11am to about 8pm on Saturday January 21st 2023.

Check out the mod descriptions below for each act of this event. Each module has 5 seats, and each attendee may register for a seat on 2 of the 4 mods overall. During the 2 mods that you’re not a featured character in, your LC may still influence the resolution of the module by participating in the b-plot.

Tickets for ”In The Woods” go live January 1st 2023 at 1pm on the DR:TX Website https://www.idratherbeinbravo.com/register

Story Recap: Pyroclasm

Good morning! It’s Jonathan here with a STORY RECAP for our last National event, THE NECROPHAGE: PYROCLASM. 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 throughout the season, and I hope this will help with the FOMO feels or answer some questions you had about what happened.

Photo credits in this post are from Max Pohlmeier, Lainey Weiss, Crystal Louise Remy, and Noah Goodman.

This was our first live National Event of 3.0, and it was preceded by the online event STORM WALL, ran by our friends at DR: Connecticut. This event featured several characters online that were later introduced in person during the PYROCLASM.

We released several teasers for this event including a very fun text adventure written by Shan Lind.

• Characters of Note for Season 4

• The Consternation of Doctor Nichols (Text Adventure)

• Killhouse Has Fallen (Teaser)

• The Necrophage: Pyroclasm Website

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

• Season 4, Episode 1: THE VALLEY OF FEAR

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

The Premise of The Necrophage: Pyroclasm

Something wicked this way comes...

Grandfather Nichols and the evil forces of Killhouse Prison’s extended network of murderers, candymen, maniacs and machinators, have come home to roost in the Lonestar at last.  From the necrotic swamps of the Wailing Shores, the mad Nemesis doctor brings with him The Necrophage, a powerful mutagenic disease that turns anyone who breathes it into pliant super soldiers and eventually, living bombs.  Nichols seeks to destroy the system that betrayed him twice, by immolating the San Saba Territories with the very brains of the people who committed each layer of badly broken faith. 

Nichols sieges Killhouse Prison; lair to the most foul and murderous personalities in the Lonestar Wastes, recruiting an army from within. The Necrophage spreads out before him like a black carpet, but in his way is the township of New Bravado, where the Oxline pulls into station. When Nichols steps off the train, with his newly Necrophage-infused soldiers in tow, it will be with the intention to complete the genocide of the San Saba people, a feat denied to him one year ago. With the successful test of his mutagen on Bravado, Nichols will be able to market The Necrophage to tyrants and warmongers across the Greater Wastes as a tool to create armies from enemies. 

As the Necrophage creeps across the Blastlands, rendering common strains into vicious and merciless killers, it must be to be the will of the Survivors that rise up to meet the ardent monsters who stride across the San Saba unshackled. Left unchecked, The Necrophage will first infect everyone in the San Saba and then beyond.  In an act of ironic Indulgence, the Survivors must team up with the new Warden of Killhouse Prison one last time to cleanse the waste of criminal filth once contained within, and thereafter choose the ultimate fate of the unlawful in the San Saba. 

A cell, or a coffin.

The Prelude to Necrophage: The Storm wall

From the bustling metroplex of Essex to the distant islands of the Wailing Shores, the Oxline traveled north before its return journey back home to Bravado with a dangerous cargo - the Nemesis Mastermind known as Grandfather Nichols. Storm clouds darkened the horizon, a foul omen of the danger to come. A deal was struck between two powerful families to return an enemy of Bravado and the San Saba Territories back to where he can finally answer for the many crimes he has committed.

Dr. Hannibal Nichols-Lovelace, sometimes known as “Grandfather”, is a talented Quiet Folk doctor that has spent his life perfecting the art of disease manipulation. He moonlights as a member of the Nemesis Cult, following a persona of his own devising that he refers to as the “Plague Doctor”, combining the menace of the Hannibal Lector, Springheeled Jack, Dr. Moriarty, Dr. Moreau, and other various evil doctors in the lore of the murderous cult. He has recruited a cult of Nemesis worshipers known as the “Acolytes of Eyeless Jack”, using the population of Lifers of Killhouse Prison to build a cult of personality around his family, and his son, Eyeless Jack, who has followed in his footsteps as a Nemesis. Grandfather Nichols was responsible for the slaughter of the Lovelace Family matriarch, the assassination of Holy Mother Queen Jasper, and the release of a terrible weaponized plague known as Gutscourge last year.

When a record storm threatened to wipe out Brownstone Island in the Wailing Shores, several survivors from Bravado and beyond were able to question the Nemesis Plague Doctor from inside his prison cell underneath the Lighthouse. Like his namesake “Hannibal”, the crazed doctor gave cryptic answers and taunted his captors from the safety of his cell while promising of his impending escape. Nichols spoke of a plan to return back to Bravado with a black miasma of his revenge made manifest, and of a new disease he had crafted to enact his plan - THE NECROPHAGE.

Strange creatures emerged from the sea to assail the storm walls of the island, mutated Necrophage Mutants and Necrotitans, abominations created by the early experiments of the disease. Nearly invulnerable, the creatures exploded in a blast of psionic fire when they died, the pyroclastic bombardment of the disease that ravaged their bodies. These creatures were strangely reminiscent of the Butchered, the strange creations of Juliet Butcher during the events of VALLEY OF FEAR. Though the storm and the undead assault threatened to release the prisoners, the survivors of the town managed to shore up the defenses of the island and its storm wall, uncover a murderous plot by the Lighthouse Keeper and return her to a cell of her own, and stop several dangerous criminals from escaping.

As the storm waned, the Oxline was loaded with Grandfather Nichols and several of his cellmates from the dungeons underneath the Lighthouse. Part of a prisoner transfer with the Brownstone Island leadership, the Oxline carried a number of dangerous prisoners from the north including the serial killer Knife-Tooth Jack, and Charlie Dales, the Lighthouse Keeper and crazed cultist of the Voiceless Deep. Thanks to the efforts of the survivors during the storm, they released the maniacal Glassmaker from his imprisonment, preventing him from making the journey to Bravado with Nichols and his allies.

However, in the chaos of the storm, the Oxline had been loaded with an another passenger — the disease known as the Necrophage.

The Necrophage, a perfect weapon

Barrels and barrels of the foul black substance known as the Necrophage Catalyst accompanied the prisoners from the Wailing Shores. This chemical was highly infectious, capable of spreading a new compounded disease crafted by Grandfather Nichols, with the assistance of the necro-scientists of Brownstone Island. Combining elements of several dangerous diseases, including Bad Brain, Gutscourge, the Plague of the Unfinished, and Black Fungal Disease, the Necrophage was capable of converting any exposed to the compound into obedient soldiers while giving them an incredible resistance to damage and an unquenchable thirst for violence and blood.

The disease was subtle at first, lying dormant in the host but beginning a terrible process. While the infected suffered no obvious symptoms other than a inflamed wound in the shape of an “X” at the injection site, they were helpless to resist the psionic commands of the disease’s creator. His insidious compulsions created sleeper agents that helped him enact his terrible plans wherever he went. These unwilling agents of his revenge would open the doors to his cell, bring him the supplies he needed for his research, and load the Ox with barrels of his foul plague and train cars filled with his crazed Necrophage Mutants.

Once exposed to the airborne Necrophage toxins he brought with him from the Wailing Shores, the disease would activate in the infected, reaching a maturity and pushing the infected towards a terrible fate. Once activated, the grand disease of Nichols was capable of removing the infected from the INFECTIOUS CYCLE itself. While those that would die would normally follow the cycle of life and death known throughout the wastes, the Necrophage disease pulled the host forcibly from this cycle.

If the disease ran its course, the infected would burn through their own biomass as a personal morgue, fueling a new cycle that made them invulnerable soldiers capable of absorbing the imprints of those they killed to fuel their primordial siphon. The amaranthine armor that regenerated their wounds as fast as they were dealt could be eventually worn down with overwhelming trauma through gunfire or blade, but it simply activated the last poison pill hidden within the disease. When the diseased finally died a final death, they would not enter the Mortis Amaranthine, but rather die a final death in a massive explosion of psionic energy — THE PYROCLASM.

Separated from the infectious cycle, the disease created a unique side effect in the newly deceased. In the wake of this pyroclastic explosion was left a corpse. The last time a corpse was left behind was before the infectious cycle started with the fall of mankind, and it presented new and curious challenges. Filled to the brim with the infectious plague of the Necrophage, these corpses threatened to provoke a new mutation and outbreak of the already dangerous disease. If enough people were to fall to the Necrophage, the waves of plague would spread across every being in the wastes.

Nichol’s perfect revenge. A world ending plague. An end to all stories.

The Fall of Killhouse

The fortress-prison of Prudence Penitentiary stands north of the tiny town of Bravado, an imposing edifice of justice and sin. Nicknamed “Killhouse” after a terrible massacre that occurred in the early days after the Hiway War, the prison was home to the worst criminals in the San Saba. It was also soon to be the new home of Grandfather Nichols. It would be a homecoming of sorts, uniting Nichols with his son, the Nemesis killer known as Eyeless Jack, as well as throngs of the orange-clad LIFERS, the permanent inhabitants of the prison. Too dangerous to kill, but too dangerous to let leave, the prison would be a final destination for the mad doctor.

A place to contain his danger and madness, safe from the world at large.

However, unknown to the new Warden, during the weeks prior to the arrival of Grandfather Nichols, his advance agents were hard at work spreading the tendrils of his disease throughout the guards and inhabitants of the prison. From Essex to the Clutch, there were reports of midnight abductions and forced injections with a strange black chemical, but the lack of obvious symptoms hid the menace that lied dormant. The disease was already infecting a number of key linchpins, waiting for the honeyed words of Grandfather Nichols to enact his master plan.

When the Oxline arrived at Killhouse, it did not take long for Nichols to conquer. Rather than being escorted to a cell, Nichol’s manacles were removed and he was set free with the Penitentiary. With a quick command, the guards were turned to his employ and led their new leader through the prison. At each cell block, Nichols spread the foul poison of the Necrophage, turning each of the Lifers into a new army of NECRO-SOLDIERS, or converting those that were previously infected.

In a matter of hours, the disease had ravaged the prison, converting almost all of the inhabitants into slaves of Nichol’s mania. At his side, stood the LIFER PRIMES, those specific agents that were allowed more autonomy than the common Necro-Soldier. The halls of the prison were emptied, leaving the vacant cells of Killhouse a vacant tomb, with only the voices of dead remaining. Before they could be claimed as new servants of Nichols, the Warden and his allies fled the prison, carrying a dire message of warning to the next stop on the Oxline..

Bravado Station.

The Heralds of Grandfather Nichols

Juliet Butcher, the Unstable head Surgeon of Killhouse, arrived in town first. Despite being captured one month previously for her role in creating a terrible Crystal Candy Manufactorum, she was once again free and curiously eager to assist the town of Bravado. She brought with her information that the town could use to protect themselves from the plague. The Butcher had turned against her former ally, and provided reams of notes from the Nemesis Plague Doctor detailing his research into the cruel disease of Necrophage. Provided they could decipher the strange ciphers, the materials could help them understand what was happening.

The town was not defenseless, even in spite of a strange new disease. The plague had been built on the scaffolding of diseases before it, so the doctors of Bravado already had the ability to employ inoculations, disease kits, and strange Grave-Bell Shards provided by the RRC and the scientist known as the Architect. While the disease was something new, it might be possible to find a cure given enough time.

But time was not on their side.

The wail of the Oxline approaching, a once welcome sound, rang eerily in the night as the last train from Killhouse arrived at the station. Pouring from the holds of the train came the foul mutants, early experiments of the disease and hordes of the LIFERS, the infected soldiers of Grandfather Nichols, and the heralds of this arrival. The assault was brutal and quick, and the survivors of the initial attack fled into town pursued by the strange creatures. Upgraded forms of the BUTCHERED they encountered in September, the Necrophage Mutants were simply the first wave of the attack.

As they spread the terror of the night, Grandfather Nichols arrived, accompanied by his chosen Lifer Primes, the most dangerous and deadly of his followers recruited from with the prisons of the Wailing Shores and Killhouse. With him was a riotous host of criminals and villains, those worthy of carrying his message of destruction to the town. Including the likes of Eyeless Jack, his protege and son, the former Lighthouse Keeper of Brownstone Island, Charlie Dales, the murderous drug dealer known as Sugargums, the duplicitous Knife-Tooth Jack, it was clear that the Nemesis doctor had a rogue’s gallery of assistance in his plot.

As the noose tightened, residents that attempted to find safety on the Ox found the cargo holds trapped and filled with explosives, locking down the primary escape by land from the town. Other attempts to flee to Anyport or Lake Bravado were met by Lifers and Necro-Soldiers cutting off escape by water. The trap was set, and the town was at the mercy of the invading forces of the Necrophage-infused killers, just in time for the INDULGENCE.

The Last indulgence

The Indulgence was a heretical Hedon ritual, celebrating an annual October release of prisoners from Killhouse, but it was canceled by the new Warden Moriarty starting this year. For the past three years, it had supposedly marked a reason for the Prison to exist, as long as you ignored how easily the prisoners were released into the Lone Star. Founded by the former Warden, Tabitha St. Mercy, the ritual was a night of macabre violence and murder that ignored the laws of the San Saba in favor of holy gluttony and wrath. After her removal from the role, it was thought that the “holiday” could be redeemed, and the night of death ended once and for all.

Besieging the town, Nichols declared that tonight would be the LAST INDULGENCE, a night of murder and terror where anyone that was not on his side would instead be a victim of the Necrophage. He spoke as if presenting to a stage, using the Tellingvisonary language of screen and movie to monologue his intent to the town. With him he carried dozens of vials of the Necrophage plague. With each vial, he would infect a new army to march with him to the homelands of the Lovelace Family, his hated enemy.

Nichols and his army swept across Bravado. Each time they found a resident of the town, they pounced on them with a vim and vigor of the zealot, knocking them into bleed out and vulnerable to the forced injections of the Necrophage. Survivor after survivor was dosed with the virulent plague, drug from their homes and tents to be subjected to the dangerous disease. A last stand of sorts took place at the Swaying Anker, the light of the Hedon bar standing as a last bastion of defense against the hordes of Lifers.

Eyeless Jack and his father swept the darkness, killing those that were strangely immune to his disease, and infecting others. With a sinuous command, Nichols drew out the defenders that succumbed to his strange compulsions one by one, executing them in front of the resistance at the Swaying Anker. The hoots and hollers of the Lifers echoed in the moonlit night, as the armies of Grandfather Nichols swept through the town virtually unopposed.

Those that fought back noticed a few of the Lifers stabilizing the victims of the assault. Some even strangely saved a few victims, subtly defying Nichols commands to execute the resistance. According to those subjected to the black ichor of the Necrophage, the disease needed time to settle int their systems before they could be turned once and for all into new Necro-Soldiers.

Eventually, the defense at the bar broke, and the few remaining survivors escaped into the darkness to try and survive the Last Indulgence. Nichols gathered a handful of survivors inside to preach his insane plan, describing the next steps of his plot like only a villainous madman could. It was “good TV” as he described it. Nichols insisted he would return in the morning, once the plague had had time to ravage their systems and render them ready for the black clouds of his Necrophage canisters and activating compounds.

As the screams of the dying were abruptly cut short across the town, the night quickly grew silent.

Understanding the Disease

In the early morning, after weathering the deadly nighttime assault from Killhouse, the town set itself to understanding more about the Necrophage.

The Necrophage Virus had incorporated elements carefully isolated and combined through a combination of mad genius, oldcestor technology, and the unique mutations of the Infection itself. The Necrophage was not a naturally occurring plague and incorporated elements of each of the unique diseases it mutates from. Each one added a trait to the disease that made it deadly than the original diseases.

From Bad Brain, the disease had gained control over the target's emotions and actions. With the base of Bloodscourge, a local plague contained within the strange undead hybrids that lurked in the tunnels underneath Bravado, added the ability for the disease to feed off the biomass of the victim, devouring their body from within. The mutation of Gutmother Bad Brain local to Bravado added a susceptibility to psionic compulsion, and the ability to effect the change between the Infectious Cycle and something else. Gutscourge's impact on the endocrine system created a way to sustain the disease on the body, bolstering the host with renewed vigor and near invulnerability. The final puzzle piece of Black Fungal Disease added the ability to hide the disease at early stages and used its violent reaction to air, using modified fungal spores to deploy the disease.

Underneath all of the diseases though was something else. Each time someone died of the Necrophage, something was changing in the world. The body was removed from the Infectious Cycle, and this transformation was powered by something not natural and something not quite a disease. The tie to Nichols was a pervasive and unique connection to something specific about the doctor’s bloodline. He had been PATIENT ZERO, purposefully infecting himself with the disease to cultivate it into his weapon. This tie that enabled the doctor to control his victims was tied to something deeper, something beyond death itself — some plan the town could not yet understand.

The miasma Spreads

True to his word, Grandfather Nichols returned to Bravado in the morning. This time the good doctor brought a new weapon with him - Necrophage Canisters, filled with the toxic black gas, a miasma of disease that activated the compound they had spread the night before. This new compound created an immediate response in those that had been infected during the assaults of that night and previous attacks by his advanced agents. The gas awoke something deeper in the victim, pushing them away from the cycle of life and death into a violence-fueled haze.

The rampage of Dr. Nichols started innocuously at first, but quickly grew violent. The doctor and his chief ally in the north, Charlie Dales, came into town with a small force of the Lifers of Killhouse. They worked meticulously, moving from building to building spreading the disease throughout the town. Resistance was met with extreme prejudice, as Nichols gave mocking smiles as he slit throats and killed the residents of Bravado. In his wake, a horde of zombies emerged from the morgues, as if in response to the sudden arrival of the Necrophage.

Nichols was attacked at the crossroads, but as one Tenderhorn drew his sights on the doctor, a honeyed word asked a favor. “Could I see your gun for a moment?” seemed like an innocent enough request, but the compulsion was not something he could resist. Looking over the rifle he claimed from the young man, Nichols grinned and thanked him for the new gift. For you see, Nichols was not only a talented graverobber and chemist, but he had portrayed a particular role as a Nemesis once before — the lone gunman, the Professional. With a single well placed shot, he had slain the Queen of the Tribes Disparate, and he was quite skilled with firearms.

The weapon he stole from the young man was of fine make. The master-crafted Mountain Rifle proved deadly in the hands of Nichols, as his talents as a Marksman were brought to bear on his enemies. The crack of a rifle shot rang out across the fields near the General Store as he opened fire, cutting down those that were fleeing with a well-placed shot into their backs. Each time he fired, a Vado fell bleeding, helpless as he approached. With a quick cut of his blade, their cries for help were cut short, even if they cursed his name as they died.

In his wake, were left bodies.

Violent Ends for Violent Delights

The next stage of Dr. Nichol’s attack manifested in an unexpected way. in addition to the threat of the bodies left behind by his rampage in the morning, new bodies began to appear. The infected bodies of those killed under the effects of Necrophage were used as viral weapons, deadly traps left behind to infect others. From over the tree lines could be heard the loud thumps of cannon fire from the direction of the lake. With sickening splats, the makeshift payloads of artillery delivered dead corpses into the town, each wrapped in blood-soaked rags. Perhaps they were the victims of the recent Killhouse attack brought with them, or the former residents of Drywater that had been caught by their wide-reaching attacks across the San Saba.

Regardless of WHO they were, the corpses presented a new challenge. Each was filled to the brim with the Necrophage, and even simply moving or investigating the bodies without proper protection was enough to infect someone with the disease. The cannon fire continued throughout the morning and afternoon, spreading the disease ridden bodies throughout the town. Fire proved somewhat useful to burn the bodies, but the smoke created by the burning threatened to spread the disease further. The protection of a Helscape suit was sometimes enough, but only if the doctor was careful not to make direct contact with the bodily fluids of the corpse.

Each person that died of the Necrophage would continue to spread the plague. Spread across a more densely packed population like Essex, these makeshift viral bombs would be deadly. Clearly, Nichols was deploying the corpses of purpose, to continue the assault on the town that he hated.Even worse, the local zed and wildlife began encountering the corpses if they were not caught by the residents of Bravado first.

Once the dangerous Murder Goat Deer, Armordillos, and even the Leviathans within the lake consumed the poisonous bags of flesh and blood, the disease mutated further to begin infecting new creatures and enemies. Soon, scouts in the forests reported an encounter with a massive Necrophage-crazed critter, equally invulnerable as it tore apart several hunters. Several Leviathan whelps exhibited the strange cannibalistic tendencies of the Necrophage, feeding on a sailor that had been caught off guard. There were even isolated reports of plant growths near the lake, with spreading purple-black veins of fungus growing across them.

In the wake of the bombardment, a particularly brave Tellingvisionary named Doc Thomas managed to catch attention of Grandfather Nichols. Appealing to his vanity and faith, Thomas challenged the madman to explain his plan through a monologue, as the old scriptures foretold.

And Nichols obliged.

VILLAINS LOVE A GOOD MONOLOGUE

Lured into talking by Doc Thomas, Grandfather Nichols laid out a chilling certainty to a group of survivors that gathered to hear his plan. As an acolyte of the Late-Late Show, the Nemesis was honor bound to explain his plan to those that politely asked. Nichols explained that during his capture of Killhouse, they had employed a unique side effect of the Necrophage. While he had managed to turn a number of guards and Lifers in the prison, there wasn’t nearly enough time to infect each single resident with the inject-able versions of the plague. However, an experiment in the Brownstone Islands had revealed that when exposed to the toxic fumes of the Necrophage Canisters for a long enough period, ANYONE could be infected by the disease.

With enough of his chemical, he could simply blanket the town in the miasma and fog of the Necrophage and even those that had manifested a resistance to the disease would be turned into loyal soldiers. During the fall of Killhouse, they had simply pumped the chemical into the ancient air circulation systems and spread the black clouds of gas through out the entire prison. While he had been enjoying the random murders of the morning, he was simply biding his time.

His son and the other Lifer Primes were working to bring in a vast quantity of the Necrophage compound to Bravado by the lake, using ships they captured in the Junkerpunk port of Drywater. The canisters used a similar reaction as sodium chloride, and when exposed to water it created an immediate reaction that converted the concentrated chemical into the gaseous form they had been using throughout the morning. Once the compound was in place, they would simply use the LAKE itself to create enough of the Necrophage to infect the entire town of Bravado.

Nichol’s master plan was to END the cycle of life itself. As he explained to Thomas, once the “story” of this world was brought to an end, the god of the Tellingvisionaries known as the SIGNAL would be able to finally begin again. All good stories must end, he claimed. If he could not get the revenge he sought on the Lovelace family this time, he would simply end the lives of every single person in this world. Once the last breath was a distant memory, his plan would be complete. Even his death would be a meager price to pay to enact the will of the Signal to begin again.

When challenged, Nichols was unconcerned about their threats to stop his plan. Nothing they did to stop the Necrophage would rob him of his triumph, as his plan had layers they did not understand. Thomas pressed further, picking at the threads of the disease to understand more about Nichol’s plan. He asked Nichols to explain the various components of the disease, digging into the connection between the disease and something beyond.

With a cruel smile, Nichols explained his “Plan B”. Each time someone died of the Necrophage, there was a strange thing that happened. In the moments before their death, the energies of the Necrophage connected to something, or somewhere, else. The surge of energy that exploded from the infected in their final throes was powered by something darker, something connected to a place beyond death, to the Abyss itself. Each death fueled a new ABYSSAL RIFT. These tears in reality had become more commonplace since the Archon incursion at the Greenhouse, but there had never been as many concentrated in one place before. This connection to a place beyond would attract a hunger from beyond our world to consume everything. All Dr. Nichols had to do was infect enough targets with the Necrophage, and the scales would be tipped towards chaos. If he could not kill everyone with the Necrophage, the beings from beyond, the OUTSIDERS, would finish the job for him.

Maybe he was just mad. Maybe not.

But the Vados couldn’t risk finding out. They needed a plan to stop him. And thanks to the boasts of Nichols, they now knew he planned on enacting his plan at midnight, so the clock was ticking.

The Clock Starts Ticking

Still reeling from the constant assault on the town, a few of the residents of Bravado began trying to evacuate a few of the wounded and helpless citizens out of the town. With the trap quickly closing on the town, anyone that could not easily defend themselves would become a liability if left to succumb to Nichol’s plague. Gathering a number of farmers, they made for the Ox, left curiously abandoned at the Terminal Station Depot after the arrival of Nichols and his army the night before.

They soon found out why the Ox had been left alone.

Inside the rail cars were once was secured a vast number of barrels, leaking the noxious black liquid of the Necrophage was a final gift left behind by Grandfather Nichols. Connected to one of the cargo cars was a massive series of bombs, secured by the mad doctor’s agents the night before, all tied into a massive corpse of some strange beast. The burden of the beast, a contagious corpse was rigged to explode, would be more than capable of activating the chemicals in the train and removing a route of escape from the town. Once Nichol’s final plan was put into motion, they would be trapped in the town unless they could disarm the pyroclastic bomb.

A group of Vados set to removing wires, draining canisters, and dismantling the corpse. The process was as dangerous as it was delicate. Complicating things further, a crowd of onlookers had gathered to see the spectacle of the trap on the Ox. If they failed to disarm the bomb, there would be a new wave of Necro-soldiers recruited to Doc Nichol’s cause.

A shout rose from within the crowd, as a Law Dog confronted a citizen within the throng. There was a flash of metal as the Law Dog went down in a bloody spray, the concealed Lifer Prime attacking from his hidden position. With a battle cry, he charged at the technicians working to try to disarm the deadly bomb. Thanks to the quick thinking of one of the Vados, who used their shield to knock the Lifer off his feet, the attempt to disrupt the disarming was delayed, and they closed ranks to protect from any other hidden agents in the crowd.

The Law Dogs spread out, questioning the populace. One by one, the agents of chaos were identified and drove out of the Depot. Despite their Necrophage-infused strength, the collective might of the resistance was enough to drive them back. Their friends frantically cut wires and severed tendons of the corpse to shut off the bomb before any fail safe was activated. The minutes drug on under the assault on the Ox, but a final cheer arose from the defenders as the bomb was finally defeated and deactivated. The few remaining Necrophage soldiers escaped, frustrated by the defense of the Oxline, but they were clearly headed back to Nichols.

While the bomb had been defused, the Oxline was once again operational, but it would take time to evacuate the town. Time they didn’t have unless they found a way to counteract the Necrophage.

Bring out the Big Guns

The constant thump of mortars from near the lake presented the next target for the Vados to fight back against the invading army of Necro-soldiers. Gathering some of their best fighters, they would assault a fortified position near the lake and attempt to silence Nichol’s weapons. While one group attacked on the land, another would take a small boat to infiltrate the captured Junkerpunk ship that was preparing to dump vast quantities of the Necrophage into the lake.

The land team quietly moved into a position to attack the Necro-soldiers that were busy unloading a new shipment of the Necrophage compound near Punkerport. The Lifers had cannibalized a new RRC mass irrigation system to use to spread the Necrophage. The system was designed to evaporate water from the lake for improving farming yields, but it was being adapted to catalyze the Necrophage into the aerosol gases that Nichols would use to blanket Bravado with the infectious compounds.

At their lead of the mercenaries was one of the Lifer Primes, the Necrophage-infested shock troopers already progressed into the disease. At their side were several of the Butchered, the Necro-mutants that Juliet Butcher had released after the fall of the Manufactorum the month prior. The Vados attacked with a ferocity borne of desperation and anger, eager to strike back at the foes that had run roughshod over the town throughout the evening and morning.

The Lifer Primes were dangerous enemies, capable of withstanding a massive amount of trauma and damage. However, they were still people and still mostly in charge of their own faculties, unlike the more common Necro-soldier. They responded to taunts, and their confidence in their new abilities could be used against them. They were tough, but they could only be in one place at a time. By diverting their attention, a group of the quicker Vados could sneak past the main fighting to get to the mortars.

Nichols’ soldiers were using large bore mortars, most likely stolen from Drywater or RRC stores and had been modified to propel the infectious remains of a pyroclastic necro-soldier. The soldiers operating the cannons were surrounded and cut down before they could use the strange black syringes to advance their own disease. In the chaos of the attack, the Lifer Primes had not yet realized the Vados had achieved their goal.

As the Prime reached a transition, with the Necrophage rewriting his body into a personal morgue and making immune to any wound for a short time, the Vados moved into position to protect those escaping with the mortars. While the Lifer Prime was caught in the frenzy of blood lust from the disease, they pressed the attack. Blow and blow rained down on the Lifer, forcing him once more into the personal morgue. It was an arduous process, but the Lifer did not have the same dangerous skills as Grandfather Nichols. With clever tactics and shields to deflect their attacks, they could prevent the Lifer from begin able to focus their attacks on any one Vado, thus robbing them of the wounded to feed the furnace burning them from the inside out.

The purple veins on the Lifer grew more prominent each time the Necrophage devoured his very Infection to fuel its unholy processes. There was a chill in the air not quite the result of the breeze across the lake, but it culminated in a terrible revelation. The Lifer’s eyes grew black, as he entered the personal morgue a final time. The Necrophage bled through his eyes, his ears, as his tongue swelled in his mouth. A crackle of psionic energy was building, and the Lifer realized pitifully the cost he was about to pay. With a crack of thunder, the abyssal energies poured from the Lifer in a massive explosion, leveling the remaining Necro-soldiers and Vado alike.

In the eerie silence and vacuum after the deadly explosion, the Vados administered injectable brews to quickly recover from the blast and began dispatching the remaining soldiers before they could recover themselves. The battle was won, but the cost of defeating even one Lifer was massive. If they had to deal with a dozen of these monstrosities at once, no one would survive the massacre.

A vision of the future

While the Lifer Prime was engaged on the ground, a second team had committed to an assault on a captured vessel across the lake. Some sailors had spotted Necrophage soldiers and Mercenaries transporting odd equipment and supplies all around the lake. The bulk of Nichol’s mind-controlled army was using the port at Drywater to enable their assault. While the Junkerpunks were still fighting against the Necrosoldiers, they had lost several vessels to the sudden attack and the port was in the hands of the Lifers. Each Necrosoldier was a serious threat and there were far too many to deal with at once. The attack on Drywater also served as a way to prevent escape from Bravado by the water, as they could easily assault any fleeing vessels trying to escape Nichol’s revenge.

One of the captured transport ships had moved from the more protected landing at Drywater and was moving towards Bravado. This was the target of the small band of Bluejackets and privateers, eager to strike back at those that attacked their friends at Drywater. The ominous vessel moved closer, and it was clear that it was loaded with the ichorous black plague of Necrophage. Like the decrepit vessel that Nichol’s had landed at Brownstone Island, the ship was sparsely manned, but the dangerous necro-soldiers were no easy target.

The waters of Lake Bravado are treacherous in the best of conditions. From oil-slick sinuous Leviathan whelps, to the teeming masses of the undead, simply navigating across the lake was task that challenged the most skilled sailor. The pollution in the lake had even led to some monstrous mutations of the Leviathan spawn left behind after the death of the Grave Leviathan last year. The captain of the vessel barked orders to the crew, as they evaded boarding zed and sandbars that would slow their vessel down long enough for the Leviathans to sink them.

Trusting to the skill of the Bluejackets, each time the ship was assaulted, they moved as one to balance the ship and repel the grasping hands of the undead. If they encountered a sand bar, they quickly pushed back against the obstruction, freeing their vessel before the tentacles of the Leviathan could catch them. Once they had drawn close enough to the commandeered Junkerpunk hauler, they grabbed mooring lines to clamber up the side of the ship.

The ambush on the ship was over quickly, thanks to the skill of the sailors involved. The soldiers on the ship had not yet gained the complete protection of the Necrophage, as they had been chosen to haul the infectious cargo because of their limited exposure to the compound. Lining up a few of the surviving mercenary crew that were incapacitated by their surprise attack, the Bluejackets questioned them about what they knew about Nichol’s plot to poison the lake. The mercenaries were addled by the strange compulsions of the Nemesis doctor, but they confirmed the worst fears of the Vados. Once enough of the compound was in place, they would dump the poisonous chemical into the waters of Lake Bravado at midnight, creating a massive cloud of the infectious black Necrophage smoke that would blanket the town and convert anyone for miles into the unwilling thralls of the Nemesis.

The team also implemented the first test of a potential cure for Necrophage. The canisters of the plague were concentrated bits of the compound, but the scientists and doctors in town had discovered a curious reaction of the Necrophage solutions to the mysterious ore known as Amaranthite. The purplish ore was thought to be some kind of precipitate of the Grave Mind, created by the radiation of morgues, particularly those close to Bravado. The crystalline ore had been collected by miners under the morgue, but the theory was that since the Necrophage removed the victims from the Infectious Cycle, something so inherently tied to the Grave Mind and the Cycle like Amaranthite would be able to counteract the poison.

The ore was placed into the vats of the toxin, and the reaction was immediate. The foul smoke they expected from the Necrophage was non-existent as the mysterious ore seemed to absorb and neutralize the chemical. Placing handfuls of the Amaranthite into the dangerous cargo, they were able to remove the threat of the chemicals on board, but as they peered across the lake they could see countless more ships being loaded with the plague at Drywater. The small amount of the ore was sufficient for the task at hand, but if they were to neutralize the threat of Necrophage they would need considerably more.

One of the Vados applying the Amaranthite to the Necrophage canisters suddenly went still and began mumbling to themselves as if talking to a ghost or some specter that the others could not see. The Amaranthite in their hands seemed to glow of its own accord, and they awoke from their trance with a sudden gasp. They spoke of a young man named Eight who had appeared to them, a shadow of the Grave Mind shard that made up the Eightfold Mother. The vision spoke of a dire future, a PYROCLASM of destruction that was building because of Nichol’s plan. If they couldn’t stop the mad doctor, the Eightfold Mother foretold a future where town after town vanished in a pillar of black smoke, the endless churning forces of Nichols building into an unstoppable wave across the wastes.

But the Amaranthite was the key. It had worked. It was the weapon they needed.

The Tide Turns

The success of their first attack at the lake had not only secured new weapons to use against Nichols and his Lifers but had also revealed the power of the mysterious ore known as Amaranthite. With some effort (and safety first, of course) the mortars they captured could be repurposed for a mode of personal locomotion and possible projectile battering ram. The newfangled Morgue metal might make major munitions modifications possible too.

The Techno Savants and artisans of the town set to work trying to devise weaponry to use against Nichols. While Amaranthite was in short supply, the first issue was trying to find some way to shape the mysterious ore into something more usable. The Mortis crystals were harder than most metal alloys and equally challenging to work at a forge. They would need some heat source greater than they had access to metal the precipitate into something that could coat weapons and artillery shells.

While the town was focused on the threat of the Necro-soldiers, there were still many other dangerous things in the wastes, including spider raiders, zed, and other monsters. One of the Sweetwater scouts of the San Saba Republic had reported a crashed Stormchaser Raider ship on the outskirts of Bravado that might be the solution they needed. The airborne Raider clan were pests that threatened the flying city of Waking Prime and other airship traffic near Essex, and they utilized strange storm engines that propelled their ramshackle vessels towards their targets. Part oldcestor technology scavenged from Waking and part raider engineering that somehow managed to function, the storm engines produced a vast output of heat and electrical energy, so much that no intelligent crew would never risk the radiation and burns from the engines to use themselves. But a crashed ship would do just fine as a makeshift forge to heat up the Amaranthite.

When a team of Vados went after the storm engines, the scent of ozone, hot metal, and the odd scent of burning spoiled meat permeated the air at the crash site. An engine from a Stormchaser Raider rudimentary airship was sparking at random intervals and spewing large clouds of smoke that could be seen for miles. A sizeable number of the strange Raiders was gathered, caught in some ecstatic worship of the “storm forge”, or perhaps they were simply protecting the fallen ship until their clan could arrive. Eager for a fight with an enemy not so resistant to their assault, the Vados fell on the Stormchasers and routed the Raiders with overwhelming force. They fought back against the scraptionist-minded raiders and secured the crash site after a short fight. With the heat of the storm engine, they could smelt and weld the Amaranthite into coatings for weapons and bullets alike. Given the effect the ore had on the Necrophage itself, it would be a valuable asset for the upcoming confrontation with Nichols.

A few of the doctors in town had also successfully tested using Amaranthite in poultices and healing brews to treat Necrophage affected patients. The mysterious ore could be crushed into fragments and had some curative properties that halted the spread of the disease in a victim. While it could not cure it due to some resistance of the plague, it was a step in the right direction. Based on their research, it was probable that the disease was tied to both Grandfather Nichols and his Lifer Primes. When he had previously spread the disease known as Gutscourge in Bravado, the disease was perpetuated by some peculiar trait of his blood and the sonic vibrations of the Gravebells he had used. It was likely that any cure for Necrophage would be ineffective until they could stop Nichols once and for all.

One of the last new weapons in the fight against Nichols came from a madcap idea to protect the users of the Mortars they had stolen. By using the Amaranthite to harden an artillery shell, they could effectively “launch” a living survivor in the air instead of a Necrophage corpse. The Original Sweetwater Hurt-less Amaranthite Hard Hat could enable them to bombard the Lifers with deadly Amaranthite shells and deliver their own people into the fray. The human projectile would likely survive the impact (hopefully) but there was no shortage of Vados willing to risk the process for the thrill of discovery and the rush of a new experience.

First Blood

The ingenuity of the survivors in Bravado was beginning to offer a glimmer of hope in the face of the continual assaults of Lifers and Doc Nichols. However, in order to stop the plan to release the Necrophage at midnight, they would need a LOT more of the mysterious ore to fuel their resistance. A telegram to Felicity Redfield offered a potential balm for the problem. The San Saba Board had also been collecting the Amaranthite ore from other sites throughout the region, and they were going to send back a large amount of the priceless ore when the Ox returned for the next load of evacuees.

However, it was certain that Nichols would try to intercept the Oxline once it got near Bravado. He was still intent on preventing escape from the Necrophage at midnight, and it would be important for him to attempt to control the Oxline to cut off their evacuation attempts. When the ore arrived, they would need to ready for an attack by Nichols himself and his Lifer Primes. If they could beat Nichols to the ore, they would have enough to neutralize any Necrophage the Lifers brought via the lake as well as equip their stolen Mortars with Amaranthite-infused ammunition.

Gathering the few Amaranthine weapons they had created, they decided to set a trap for Nichols at the Depot. When he arrived, they would find the Vados armed with a surprise of their own. Once the team had been assembled, they gathered their brews, their augments, doctors and priests alike, and laid in wait. After several minutes passed, long after when the train should have arrived, they realized something was wrong. A lonesome wail of the Oxline siren rang through the air, but instead of the familiar welcoming sound pulling into the station, it was some distance away up the rail-line towards Essex. The train had been intercepted just outside of Bravado.

Nichols had beaten them to their prize!

Racing to the station on the outskirts of town, the Vados found the villainous Nemesis and his cadre of Lifer Primes in wait, busy unloading the shipment of Amaranthite from Essex. The Lifers had secured the cargo first, and there was no sign of the RRC employees they were supposed to meet, likely slain during the makeshift train robbery. Cackling, Dr. Nichols turned his attention to the Vados who were scattered and winded by the race to the station. He ordered his Lifers to guard the shipment while he dealt with the interlopers personally.

Counting on the doctor taking things into his own hands, the Vados intercepted him at the train platform while a group of stealthier survivors blended into the shadows and moved towards the crates of ore stacked on near the tracks. Nichols and his Lifers charged into the line of Vados, cutting down anyone in his path. They stayed just out of the reach of the Nemesis, luring him away from the precious ore while trying to keep his attention. One by one, the Lifers guarding the ore started to notice that a box of mysterious ore was missing. When they turned to face a flanker that rushed the line, one of the hidden townsfolk darted forward and claimed another crate of the Amaranthite.

A few of the Vados with Amaranthine weapons focused on the Lifer Prime with Nichols, their newly empowered swords cutting through the abyssal armor offered by the disease. Even in the midst of the personal morgue, the Necro-soldiers were vulnerable to the peculiar Mortis metal. Each strike cut into them and hastened the process towards the eventual pyroclastic explosion as the last of his infection was consumed by the Necrophage. There was a crack of explosion, but the Vados fell back before any of their number were felled by the blast, leaving a furious and shocked Nichols behind.

One of the Vados named Ash was caught as the townsfolk fell back, fleeing back towards Bravado. Nichols was furious, and drug her into town to demand answers. It wasn’t “good TV” to simply execute her in the darkness of the train station. Someone had to see her die. As he carried her to the Sin Sa Bar, Ash could tell that Nichol’s mind was racing. He was panicked. Perhaps even scared. For once during the invasion, Nichols had been caught off guard by their resistance. The Amaranthite weapons were capable of harming him and stopping his Necro-soldiers. Once at the bar, Nichols wasted no time in slitting Ash’s throat, sending the few Vados there in a panicked run back to town to find a Lifebinder.

The Nemesis fled into the night, now more determined than ever to finish what he had started before the town was able to stop him.

The march to lake bravado

The hour was drawing close and despite the win at the train station, the town was still bracing for the final assault of the Lifers and Grandfather Nichols. Scouts had reported his remaining Lifers and Necro-soldiers were massing on the shores of Lake Bravado. They would need to stop them from spreading their plague into the waters of the lake, but they would also need to deal with the Lifer Primes. Even if their weapons managed to pierce the amaranthine armor of the disease, the pyroclastic explosions would decimate both sides. Those protected by the curious advantages of the disease might survive the blast, but that would leave many of their friends vulnerable to a quick end at the hands of the Nemesis doctor.

More so, while Nichols has been harmed by the Amaranthine weapons they deployed at the train station, he was still protected by his disease. While he noticed the attacks, he healed as fast as he was injured. Something was regenerating him and keeping from fearing a true death. Research provided by the Butcher suggested that the key to defeating the disease was dealing with both Nichols AND his followers. As long as a Lifer Prime remained, they would be unable to seriously injure Nichols. Thus, the doctors of Bravado developed a new tool in their arsenal.

It would be battlefield medicine at its worst, but with a slapdash application of Amaranthite and the right finesse a single person sized triage area could be set up to force a Lifer to be healed of the Necrophage. It wouldn’t be pretty, or clean, but it would provide them room to work even in the midst of the assault at the lake, provided they could incapacitate one of the Lifer Primes. However, they would need to deal with the pyroclastic brain tumor in their head. Previous attempts to heal someone of the Necrophage had resulted in the tumor exploding prematurely with violent psionic energy. They could mute the detonation by focusing biokinetic energy into the triage area, but it would be challenging to complete the procedure in the middle of the upcoming fight.

They would also need to deal with the strange contraptions they had once again brought to the shores of Lake Bravado. While the sophisticated machines were capable of turning the Necrophage catalyst into the infectious black clouds of smoke, they were delicate devices. And what are ‘Vados better at than breaking stuff? According to the the brave few that scouted ahead of the Bravado mob, the machines had a bunch of spindly bits, whirring bits, and tube-y bits that would be prime targets to be busted the fuck up.

They had also crafted a dozen of the Amaranthite OSHA suits to propel someone into the fight, and dozens of the Amaranthite-infused blades and cudgels. With careful targeting, the blast would be capable of stunning one of the Lifers. The shells would let them capture the Lifers and secure them for the battlefield triage. If they could keep Nichols busy, they could eliminate the Lifers one by one until they could deal with the Nemesis himself.

The Vados would also weaponize the disease itself against Nichols. While the Necrophage hastened the demise of the victims, it would also provide that same invulnerability to those that rode the edge of oblivion. As long as they dealt with Nichols and made a cure possible, those infected could exploit the abilities of the disease to their own advantaged, provided they didn’t burn through their own Infection too quickly. Several of the townsfolk purposefully advanced their disease, turning themselves into a powerful counter to the Lifer Primes.

With artillery support of their own, the largest shield wall the town had seen since the fall of Old Bravo, the citizens of Bravado and the greater wastes marched down the long path to Lake Bravado.

With research, new weapons, dedication, and a significant amount of overconfidence, it was time to live the plan of “Fuck Around and Find Out” to the fullest. One way or another, it would be a massacre.

the Midnight Massacre

As the citizens of Bravado marched to down the long lake path towards Lake Bravado, they were surprised to find that Grandfather Nichols had set the stage for the final confrontation.

Literally.

Whether it was through some trick of faith or something else entirely, the field of battle was as brightly lit as if it was some oldcestor television production. Somehow lights backlit the makeshift “stage” of the open field a Punkerport as the town descended the slope to the lake. Spotlights shone on a lone figure standing at the waterline, his bowler hat casting a large shadow towards the approaching force of Vados. The stage was set, and the villain was ready for his monologue.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the studio audience, boys and girls, it’s time for the finale, the main event! Our story tonight is how the tiny town of Bravado tried its best to fight fate…”

Even in the dark, you could see the gleam behind the mad Nemesis’ eyes. His mirrored spectacles somehow shone in the dark, the white of his crisply pressed shirt gleaming in the moonlight.

“… and failed. Come one, come all to witness the doom of Bravado, the last gasps of a people that just. will. not. die.”

Nichols gave a shout, and from the shadows at the edge of the lake emerged his perfect army of Necrophage-ridden soldiers. The last of the inhabitants of Killhouse drafted into his service to commit a holy massacre in the name of the Nemesis’ perverted faith. They had completely abandoned their foothold in Drywater to commit to one last attack. Within the horde of Lifers shone the sickly glow of his Lifer Primes, six of his most ruthless killers gathered to lead the forces into battle. They were gleaming in the darkness with the pallid energy of the Necrophage, the purple veins crawling along their body like a living thing.

At his side was also one of their own. Tenacity Lovelace, one of the few surviving members of the Lovelace Family in town was growling and pacing at the side of the Nemesis. Green and purple veins crawled up her neck, the evidence of the Necrophage robbing her of her free will and driving her to aid the slayer of her family. She was compelled to fight alongside Nichols, though her sobs could not be contained. She was an unwilling pawn, but just as deadly as any of the Lifer Primes, because many of the Vados could not bring themselves to attack her for fear of killing her.

As the Lifers charged across the field, the boom of the artillery sounded the opening salvo of the attack. Propelled by the makeshift cannons, a few foolhardy Vados launched themselves into the battle as the shield wall of Bravado advanced grimly forward. Sword clashed against shield as the two opposing forces met in the field, blood soaking the grass as the first of the Necro-soldiers reached the line of Vados.

Grandfather Nichols was a holy terror, propelled forward by his faith. Every swing dropped an enemy, his wide arcing piercing strikes cutting through armor and flesh alike. Bullets ricocheted off of him as if hitting steel, and blows glanced off him like he was covered in the finest armor known to the wastes. He was an unstoppable juggernaut, carving into his hated foes with a scalpel like precision. He stalked menacingly through the fray, cutting down anyone in his way, friend or foe. A group of the Necrophage infected Vados met him, turning his own disease into a potent weapon to distract him while the rest of the town went to work on the plan. Nichols was desperate, but it was the desperation of a caged tiger, eager to feed.

The Amaranthite weapons worked as intended, the Mortis ore cutting through the defenses of the Lifer Primes and the Necro-soldier alike. While the weapons seemed to harm Nichols at first, any time someone fell in the fight, he was there like a vulture, hacking into their flesh, the primordial siphon consuming their very imprint. With each consumption, his wounds were healed, his vigor restored, and he was as refreshed as if the battle has just begun.

The medics set up the temporary triage bays along the sloping road, using the wall of shields in front of them to offer some protection from the ravaging hordes. The artillery shots sniped out one Lifer Prime at a time, as a team of Vados circled the wounded foe with Amaranthite cleavers and took them down. Once they were helpless, they drug the captured Lifer back to the doctors to be forcibly healed of the Necrophage running through their veins. The captured Lifers cried out to Nichols for help, and as he realized what the Vados were doing, the Nemesis strode through the shield wall like it was not there and into the back line of medics. It was brutal, as Nichols carved into the defenders, murdering the wounded and medics alike.

They needed a distraction.

A shaky but committed voice rose out of the brutal combat, a challenge to Nichols to turn and fight by Mikhail, the Red Star. The Red Star had led to his capture during his last crusade against Bravado, but this time he would not be so lucky, each strike from Nichols cutting through his armor and shield like butter. As the Nemesis was drawn away by the rival, the medics set back to work, frantically trying to finish their work before he could return for another murderous pass. One by one, the pallid glow of the Lifer Primes were snuffed out. Nichols was unstoppable, but he was caught in a rage and easily distractable. As long as the townsfolk could stay out of the reach of his long arms and piercing blade, they could draw him back and forth across the field while their peers focused on his lieutenants. A cry went up from near the waterline as the stealthiest of the Vados finished their work disabling the machines that Nichols had planned to use to disperse the chemicals into the lake. Brute force against the delicate machinery worked exactly as they hoped.

As the Lifer Primes were sedated and killed by the process of the Amaranthine cure, the tide of the battle seemed to shift. With each death of a Lifer, it seemed like Nichols was slowing. Even the death of Tenacity, gently held down as the cure took her last breath and sent her to the Grave Mind, was like a hammer to the Nemesis. When the last of the Lifer Primes was dispatched, Nichols began more targeted strikes on his attackers. He aimed for weak points, for the wounded, drawing from their deaths to fuel his massacre. The mortar fire began dialing in on the Nemesis’s position, raining shells against him as he stood firm against the assault. But then his eyes grew wide as he took in the state of the battle. All around him lay the slain Necro-soldiers, the torn apart corpses of the Butchered mutants, and many more angry Vados than the remaining Lifers. And he was bleeding.

The blades of the Vados focused on Nichols. As he finally began to reach a state of the personal morgue, the disease ravaging his body turning inwards at last to feast on his Infection. Each time his body re-knit it self, he exploded with an abyssal force, each lost Infection striking with the force of a small bomb in the area around him. Each time he ruptured, the Necrophage-protected Vados screamed in defiance, driving him back. He began shouting “NO! THIS CANNOT BE HAPPENING!” as the enormity of his failure began to set in on the Nemesis.

He fell to one knee, then rose once more with the reciprocal force of the disease temporarily driving back the Vados. He struck blindly, trying to take someone down so he could feed on their imprint, but he was surrounded by shields and the Vados’ own Necro-soldiers. He fell once more, the blows of the townsfolk raining down on him, tearing into his flesh, cutting through the diamond-hard protection of the Necrophage. His eyes went wide as the the purple veins of the Necrophage began creeping up his neck, choking him of oxygen, devouring the biomass, and reaching for his brain. Nichols screamed in frustration, in bitter rage, before he suddenly threw his head back in a wordless, dying scream of agony.

The world went white as Dr. Hannibal Nichols-Lovelace exploded one last time in a titanic abyssal pulse.

With a Whimper, not a Bang

The silence of the lake was deafening.

The Nemesis was down for good. A smoking ruin of a corpse was all that remained, his grey beard all that was recognizable amid the swollen and desiccated body. His corpse lay trapped in a final scream, a scar on the ground left by the tear in reality as he died. The massive pulse of abyssal energies had laid low the entire battlefield, and brought a resolute finish to the fighting.

With the defeat of Doc Nichols, the remaining Lifers that could walk either fled in terror or were hunted down as they bled to death. Whatever will they had to fight faded after seeing their leader die, the unnatural compulsion ending upon Nichols drawing his last breath. The strange power of Nichol’s Tellingvisionary faith that kept the stage lit for the finale faded to nothing, and the night was dark once more. The threatened black clouds of his revenge had not manifested, as the contaminating agents of the plague had been neutralized before they could be spread into the water of Lake Bravado.

Some of the survivors took the quiet moment to heal their wounds and take stock of the dead. Dozens had died in the combat, cut down by Nichols and his Lifer Primes but they had managed to kill and stop each of the Lifers that were assisting the Nemesis with his plan. Others still took advantage of an Daline Osteotome to draw out a few last questions from the corpse of Hannibal Nichols, hoping that there was enough spark left in his brain to answer the graverobber’s questions.

Doc Thomas and the others asked three questions of the dead Nemesis, prodding into the quickly decaying brain for answers. They asked about his remaining family, his employers, and who had helped him with his plot. The corpse rasped out cryptic answers to their requests, but after the procedure was done the body seemed to suddenly move. Like his previous encounter with death in Bravado, Nichols had one last trick up his sleeve - a Nemesis Surprise. Like the horror movie icons he worshiped, Nichols drew one last breath long enough to reach out and slay one last victim with his dying act, even when he appeared dead and gone. The screams of surprise as the supposedly dead Nemesis mimicked the last vestiges of life echoed in the darkness, but it was as over as quickly as it started. Luckily, the twisted protection of the Necrophage stopped Wicker, a Natural One from the Sequoia Wastes, from meeting an untimely end. It was an ironic escape, as the stoic natural one sat stunned by the force of his final strike. His defense of using the doctor’s own disease to stop his final, spiteful attack was the only thing that saved him.

With a rasping last breath the doctor was well and truly dead. One last phrase escaped his rotting lips as his corpse rapidly began to fall apart into purplish fungus and rotting tissues. It was a chilling prophecy, perhaps speaking of what he saw before he died a final death. His eyes glazed over for a final time, as the words he spoke brought contemplative and terrifying silence to the masses gathered over his corpse.

“THEY ARE COMING…”

The crowd returned to town, somewhat uncertain in their victory. A few brave souls claimed trophies of Doc Nichols, with his hat, his weapons, and the contents of his pockets quickly being hidden into pockets and supply bags.

Questions still remained, though.

Had the doctor’s death attracted the attention of beings beyond death? Who was his last words referring to? Who exactly on the San Saba Board had funded the research into the plague of the Necrophage, and secured the Nemesis’ release from the prisons of Brownstone Island? Did they destroy all of the Necrophage catalyst, or did Nichols secret away some stockpile for later? What did his last words mean? The Pyroclasm foretold by the Grave Mind had been averted for now, but was the threat truly over?

The body of Doctor Hannibal Nichols-Lovelace was left rotting at the lake, the disease managed, his revenge once again stopped, and the final scene of his masterpiece concluded. They would return in the morning to burn the corpse, but for the moment, they could look up and enjoy a moment of peace under the stars of the Lonestar Skies…

Other Threads of Notes - The Pyroclasm

• The Queen Emerges - Even with the Necrophage on everyone’s mind, other threats still stalk the dark corners of Bravado. Dangerous Recluse Nest Raiders, spider-loving raiders that coated their weapons in poison and built nests of webbing in the trees, had been harassing Bravado since the end of the Burning Season. The Raiders were hunting for people to bring back to their nest and they even managed to capture a few of the errant Necro-soldiers during the invasion. With the necrotic bodies of the soldiers threatening to infect anyone they caught, they posed a menace that had to be burned out. There were even scattered reports of a mutated Raider with the features of a spider, her claws coated in poison and a stinger that could fell even the toughest combatant. While the nests were destroyed, it is not known what exactly happened to this strange Raider Queen.

• Pages of Pallid Glory - Despite the threat of Nichols, a local RRC archeologist arrived into town with a strange artifact they planned to dedicate to the library in town. After being accosted by Headhunter raiders as they arrived, the Archeologist escaped with their life but not their ancient Barogian artifacts. The strange stone tablet had the script of the Prince Undying, the last survivor of old Barogue, carved into the surface and it radiated a haunting power to those that were faithful. One must wonder who else might be interested in obtaining these relics and artifacts of the lost city of Barogue.

• The Prophet of Cutthroat Alley - In the aftermath of the Necrophage massacre, the Prophet of Cutthroat Alley; a mutated psion named Caleb Lovelace, visited Bravado on a mission of mercy. Caleb was known for a prominent psionic crystal growth on his face and body and being the son of the late Pfilomena Lovelace, the former leader of a Grave Mind cult in Essex He brought a number of supplies from Essex to help the town recover and heal the wounded, along with two of the strange cultists that had worshiped the Grave Mind during the Fountainhead Incident. These attendants spoke of a great resurrection, when the former leader of the Cult of the Tiny God would return once more to save the San Saba. Their faith was unquestionable, though they spoke of another cultist named Sister Greywand as the source of the prophecy.

• The Butcher & New Employment - After the fall of Killhouse, the Lifers were either drafted into Nichol’s army of Necro-soldiers or killed in the resistance. With Adam Moriarty, the Warden of Killhouse, thought dead or missing, it was curious to see that Juliet Butcher was unconcerned about her future employment. The mad scientist clearly already had new employers, though no one would speak of the exact details of her arrangement outside of a few hushed warnings to not inquire further.

• The Betrayal of Eyeless Jack - The son of Grandfather Nichols had made a friend in town, the postwalker named Abe Callaghan. After meeting him on the deserted road in the middle of the night, Jack murdered the poor young man after an argument, leaving him to die in the road before his friends could reach him. The unstable Nemesis was clearly torn by the murder of the Baywalker and left town shortly after. Jack was not seen at the massacre at the lake that next night and when asked about his absence, Nichols has described that his son was a traitor that had abandoned his family. The spawn of Nichols is still at large, as he escaped the fate of the other Lifers that were killed in the finale.

Wrap Up

That’s it for today Vados! Thank you for reading my narrative about our National Event. It was truly a blessing to have some many amazing players attend our event, and I hope you enjoyed the show. Remember, we will be returning with our regular content in January!