I'm running Tanelorn Wargames Club's 2017 Necromunda campaign. I've some experience of running a basic campaign (i.e. no real background, maps or special rules) and have decided to throw everything at it this time.
It all started with the setting. I had this idea to call the location of the campaign Angel Falls. One sleepless, jet lagged night, I asked myself why is it called that? Also, on the spur of the moment when I created the campaign manager on Yaktribe I named the campaign A Sump Runs Through It. Are those things related? And then everything started clicking together. I spent the next day feverishly writing up descriptions of the locales in the dome and trying to draw a passable map with nothing more than Powerpoint. That's where we'll start with this post.
In the course of all this I was greatly inspired by (and in fact stole entire paragraphs from) the Storey 456 Campaign & Map by @Toffer.
I've also been binge watching Black Sails recently so... yeah.
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THE HISTORY OF ANGEL FALLS
Angel Heights, as it was known before it became Angel Falls, was an unremarkable dome with an Administratum based economy whose greatest claim to fame was the large sump river winding majestically through it on its way down hive to the sump. That would all change with the coming of the Great Quake.
The Great Quake
“Hive quakes” are common in the Underhive thanks to the ancient and decaying domes and the incalculable stresses placed on the structure by its vast height and mass. While such quakes can be devastating most quakes are localised and relatively harmless in the grand scheme of things – a sector dropped into a sinkhole or torn apart by the shockwaves of a quake can be entered dutifully into the Administratum annuls for the dome but otherwise is of little note. Occasionally however a much bigger hive quake strikes a dome.
Nobody in Angel Falls remembers exactly when the Great Quake happened but common wisdom places it at a couple of hundred years ago. At this time a hive quake of such magnitude struck that a fault line was opened that split the floor of the dome entirely in two, a jagged rip across the hive floor that caused one half of the dome to collapse completely into the dome below. Hab districts along the fault line were thrown into ruin, and the sump river winding its way through the dome, once a stately canal, suddenly terminated in a huge waterfall cascading over and down the new precipice edge into the dome below. It wasn’t long before
The Dome Below
As devastating as the Great Quake was, it also opened up countless opportunities for adventurers and gangs. The entire dome below was a previously lost one, full of the promise of lost archaetoech, vast stores of loot and warehouses full of valuable equipment and weaponry. The quake had also rent a vast cliff face providing access into long buried foundations, caves and tunnels systems below Angel Falls. This was a time where vast fortunes were made, remembered in the Underhive as one of the greatest Dome Rushes of all time. Gangs that got in early and were lucky, brutal or cunning enough to survive quickly laid claim to the riches revealed by the Quake and retired uphive wealthy beyond their wildest dreams.
The Rising
As the sump river continued to pour over the precipice it slowly filled up the dome below with its toxic sludge and waste liquids. This time is remembered as The Rising. Latecomers to Angel Falls watched in anguish as imagined lucrative discoveries were gradually sunk below the inexorably rising sludge sea over the course of months and years. At the start of the Great Quake the dome floor below was believed to be several hundred feet below the precipice. By the time the Sludge Sea found its level and stopped rising, it was just 100 feet below the edge of the precipice, leaving only the tips of the very highest spires of the dome floor below above the surface.
But for those gangs willing to put in the effort, Angel Falls still holds buried treasures and occasionally new sub domes, sectors, caves and tunnels systems are discovered offering a glimpse of what life was like in the old Dome Rush days. Meanwhile a thriving economy has sprung up across the precipice and across the surface of the Sludge Sea.
REGIONS OF ANGEL FALLS
Most of the regions described here function purely as background information about Angel Falls and serve to justify why certain territories exist and explain their proximity to each other. Indeed, many of the “better” districts and quarters are to most intents and purposes completely closed off to gang activity (at least as the campaign begins).
However, some regions do have some special rules that dictate the use of Treacherous Conditions and affect the likelihood of your gang being outlawed, and some powerful monopoly effects that kick in when a single gang controls an entire sector or industry. I'll reserve these rules for another post.
1. Adminstratum Quarter
The Administratum is a gargantuan bureaucratic institution spanning the Imperium from Terra to the Outlying systems. It controls all aspects of life in the Imperium from birth registrations to the designated amount of water in a standard cup of recaf. The Administratum requires countless workers and entire districts on Necromunda are routinely designated as Administratum Quarters. Such is the case in Angel Falls, where a swathe of the northern end of the Dome is given over to the daily running of the Imperium, dominated by a vast Bibliocathedra at the heart of the district.
2. The Cupola Annex
The Cupola is a part of the hive that reaches up the outside of Hive Primus’ northern wall. A long elongated dome that was once the domed roof of a cathedral or government centre. Much of it has been built over and built upon over the centuries. Here and there you can still see it’s outline and the name has stuck. This part of storey 456 sits atop the dome and is made up of minor warehousing districts for the adjacent wharf and housing and retail districts.
3. Orpheus Wharf
A standard Imperial pattern airway docking wharf-side area. The whole region is given over to looking after various types and sizes of air and space vehicles. Not the largest on Necromunda but capable of dealing with most small to medium sized bulk transports,be they military or civilian in nature. It can also be used as a staging post for transport vessels to move back and forth between the planet and orbital ships stations. The wharf also supports more localised transports such as the ubiquitous Arvus lighter that will often act as an exterior taxi service to other parts of the Hive.
4. Main Support Stanchion
Hive Primus is a feat of engineering that is madness and majesty in equal measure. Over the millennia buildings have been built upon buildings, tower blocks and spires become foundations, walkways and support struts for further development. Historically when a dome became too full to cram any further development in it was closed off and a new dome built on top. This ever-growing structure necessitated a network of vast stanchions to support the hive.
Nowadays most domes have at least one Main Support Stanchion, a vast plasteel column hundreds of meters in diameter, the reinforced walls of which enclose the main power, transport, water, heat and air conduits that keep the hive ticking. Near the bottom of the Stanchion there are heavily defended controlled entry points into the lift chutes and airways that lubricate trade and the movement of cargo in the hive and maintenance ports and substations for critical life support and power systems. Above this habs are built in rings around the Stanchion, with the most expensive hab blocks occupying a point with views across Angel Falls but before the air becomes too hot or toxic to scrub effectively. Still higher, the Main Support Stanchion branches into a series of massive support struts in the sky above Angel Falls.
Smooth operation of the Stanchion is critical to the operation of the hive, so it is controlled directly by the Guild and the law is enforced by the Arbites, making it largely off limits to the underhive gangs and above the pay grade of the Angel Falls Enforcer Precinct. However among other things its position above the settlement makes it a useful ingress into the dome’s ventilation system while the joints and platforms of the support struts are for the most part home to some of the dome’s vagrant population as the intense heat and toxic atmosphere of the dome top tend to be shunned by everyone else.
5. Peach Tree Habs
This is a standard Necromundan Habitation area filled with STC accommodation buildings and is by far the largest hab sector in Angel Falls. Some buildings have spaces large enough for just one person to live while others allow more room so a whole family can live together. These habs have undergone some renovation recently and are considered a ‘better’ standard of living than most habs in Hive Primaris and are certainly among the best in Angel Falls. The residents are almost all Administratum workers, and security is tight; historically gangs have moved in to Peach Tree but their residence has never lasted long. Still, the relative wealth of the sector makes Peach Tree a compelling opportunity for any gang willing to risk the increased chance of being run out of town.
6. Hab Ward 456 Peripheral
Like Peach Tree Habs this is a hab sector built from STC habitation units. Unlike Peach Tree the hab units are cramped, much of the sector is in a state of disrepair, and security is correspondingly lower. Most of the workers in the nearby Manufactorum and the residents of Silvertown live here.
7. Priory canton
The Adeptus Ministorum has a presence in many areas of Hive Primus and Angel Falls is no different. The Canton is built around the Temple of Saint Celestine, perched on a flight of 101 steps with a commanding view across Angel Falls. Since the Great Quake the Temple has become a minor destination for Pilgryms who are routinely seen ascending the steps, which it is customary to do on bare elbows and knees, a bloody affair that demonstrates the Pilgrym’s dedication to the Imperial Creed. The Temple is surrounded by a broad boulevards and minor chapels, alms houses and other Ecclesiarchy buildings. In times of danger the Ministorum can call upon a large Frateris Militia meaning this sector is largely unscathed by gang activity.
8. Imperial Manufactorum
The manufactorum was sited primarily for the convenience of the sump river and the precipice, providing ease of access for huge cargo barges to deliver raw materials to the manufactorum, a ready source of coolant fluid in the form of the sump waters, and a convenient dumping ground for waste byproducts, effluent and excess goods produced as a result of mistakes in the manufacturing quotas dictated by the Administratum.
9. Silvertown
This district thrives on sump river based trade and industry. The hive generates all sorts of liquid waste and river borne flotsam - some of it useful, most of it not – and a large industry has grown up here with operations ranging from lone prospectors panning the sump for saleable wares, to gang and corporation run chem pits and sluiceworks dedicated to separating useful chemicals from the sump. Silvertown also acts as the primary dockyard for the Sump Traders that ply the river and Trawler operations that routinely dredge the river bottom in search of archaeotech, and contains Angel Falls’ main toll bridge across the sump river. Silvertown workers are a course lot and the docks are full of illicit drinking holes, brothels, fighting pits and gambling dens. On the whole the local Guilders and Enforcers turn a blind eye to the goings on in Silvertown, provided the inhabitants keep their activities contained.
10. Precipice view
After the Great Quake an uphive conglomerate known as the OmniLight Combine purchased a swathe of land on the newly created precipice with the intention of developing a luxury hab complex to take advantage of the sensational views across the vast sludge sea below. However, for reasons that never became clear to the inhabitants of Angel Falls the OmniLight Combine was dissolved and Precipice View was abandoned half way through construction, leaving behind little but the hulking plasteel skeletons of the planned district. Largely uninhabitable by your average imperial citizen, these digs are nevertheless relatively luxurious by the standards of most gangs while still being beyond the interest of The Guilders, making Precipice View among the most desired areas of Angel Falls for the gangs.
11. The Edge
Extending from the Manufactorum zone to Angel Falls itself, The Edge was once an extensive area of low class habitation blocks. This district suffered badly in the Great Quake and most of its habs, transport arteries, trading districts and utilities were destroyed leaving little but a large swathe of ruins. As the Edge exists under a permanent pall of toxic smog from the nearby Manufactorum nobody has yet seen fit to redevelop the district making the ruins a traditional hive of gang activity in Angel Falls. Recently, The Edge has been earmarked for future development leading to its addition to the patrol routes of the local Enforcers Precinct.
12. The Falls
At The Falls themselves two industries on opposite ends of the spectrum have sprung up. News of the Great Quake and the falls spread far and wide in Hive Primus and the edge of The Falls encompasses a viewing complex, platform and virtual Falls & Sludge Sea tour operated by the Guilders, reserved for moneyed underhive tourists and visiting dignitaries.
Below The Falls an altogether less salubrious existence is scrubbed out by the gangs and other low lives of Angel Falls. At the area of The Falls the precipice face is vertical or indeed inverse at some points, and a network of precarious ladders and rope bridges connects a series of cantilevered platforms and dwellings. Collapses of this structure are common. This is a treacherous place and the primary means of scraping a living is homespun industry powered by makeshift water wheels, and giant sieve like nets rigged to catch detritus from The Falls. As almost everything of value has already been stripped from the sump by the upriver trawlers and panners of Silvertown this is a meagre existence indeed, but the settlement continues to grow downwards from the top of The Falls, fuelled mainly by the hope of discovering access points to new domes, spore caves and archaeotech hordes.
13. The Precipice
The rest of the precipice face exposed by the Great Quake is more developed than the area near The Falls and provides more ready access to the foundations, tunnels and caves exposed under Angel Falls (though consequently most of the easy finds have of course been discovered and looted). The presence of Paradise Beach and Boardwalk Empire below means the settlements across the face here are more wealthy and more advanced construction is necessitated by the need to ferry people and goods up and down the face, leading to various lift systems ranging from extensive networks of switchback gangways and grox powered rope winches to fully mechanised platforms running on salvaged rails. Control of the various lifts across the cliff face is hotly contested by the gangs in the area as they are a great money spinner.
Despite the relative development, cantilevered platforms and dwellings still pepper the face of the precipice much like near The Falls themselves and death by falling or collapsing structures is not uncommon.
14. Paradise Beach
At the foot of the Precipice lies a narrow strip of land known as Paradise Beach that borders the Sludge Sea. Paradise Beach is formed primarily from the remains of a semi intact causeway. Over time this causeway has been added to with wharves, jettys and warehouses, a place where the denizens of Angel Falls proper mingle freely and safely with the gangs of The Edge and Precipice and those who make their living on the Sludge Sea, thanks to the tacit authorisation and protection of the Guilders which has allowed the Baordwalk Empire trading post to establish itself.
While the western stretch of Paradise Beach is centred on the Boardwalk Empire, the eastern end of is dominated by mountainous slag heaps hundreds of feet high created by the piped effluent and dumped byproduct from the Imperial Manufactorum on the precipice above.
15. Sludge Sea
Nowadays the Sludge Sea supports a thriving maritime economy in Angel Falls. Large flotillas of ships ranging from cobbled together rafts and dinghies to chemical powered paddle steamers ply the stagnant water along shipping lanes established between outposts tethered to the hive buildings below or built on the few spires that still protrude from the surface of the sea. These towers have often retained much of their environmental seal, meaning they can still be descended, in some cases to ground level, hundreds of feet below the surface. Such “sunken towers” can be a rich source of scavenged equipment and loot, and have the feel of raiding a sunken ship from ages past.
What were once enclosed plexiglass walkways and atriums that soared among the heights of Angel falls now form a network of creaking, leaking undersea tunnels. Cast in a permanent green half-light, these tunnels provide an eerie window into the depths under the sea surface for anyone willing to brave the pressure exerted on the tunnels by the surrounding sea (at least they do where they aren’t coated with a film of slime or sump algae). Ruins of towers, cathedra and manufactora loom from the darkness below, while the sea is punctuated by the occasional sight of some drifting archaeotech, the detritus of everyday life and bizarre sludge borne predators.
Meanwhile on the surface some previously airborne gantries now form causeways at or slightly above the water level.
Whether by boat, tunnel or causeway, the Sludge Sea is eminently navigable by gangs looking to make their fortune out in the Angel Falls equivalent of The Wastes.
16. Stanchion Island
The Great Quake severed one of the main stanchions supporting the hive clean in two. In the early years this stanchion towered hundreds of feet above the hive floor, acting as useful navigational aid to the prospectors and gangs exploring the shattered domes below. But in time, as the Sludge Sea rose inexorably, the twisted and broken wreckage of the stanchion cross section became the largest and most distinct island in the Sea, it’s surface mere feet above the water level. The numerous power, waste and transport conduits built into the stanchion made it a natural locus of Sludge Sea activity as enterprising underhivers quickly set up power taps and used them to power thriving holesteads and small trading posts. What became known as Stanchion Island now forms the biggest and most organised Outlaw Trading Post in Angel Falls and an illicit entry point into the settlement for downhivers willing to brave the decaying transport chutes in the Stanchion and wealthy enough to pay the entry taxes levied by the gangs that run the makeshift “immigration centres” on the island. Trade on Stanchion Island is controlled by a conglomerate of gangs, pirates and traders who all have an interest in the smooth running of the Outpost and if there is anything that passes as order in the Sludge Sea it exists on Stanchion Island.
17. The Bad Zone
The dregs, twists and outlaws of Angel Falls make a living of sorts in the Bad Zone, beyond the light of the Precipice, a life lived in eternal gloom. Collectively known as Outlanders, for many of these underhive inhabitants the idea of dry land remains a distant dream – driven from the precipice, their lives are often lived entirely at sea, itinerant nomads forced to scrape a living among makeshift flotillas anchored unsteadily to the hive buildings below the surface and rubbish patches formed by the currents of the sea, their lives at constant risk from bands of marauding pirates and the dangers of the sludge sea itself.
This far from the Precipice the light of the underhive settlements rapidly dims to nothing, forcing the outlanders to navigate and live by torchlight and jury rigged lanterns. Many of the longer term inhabitants have evolved into blind, pallid creatures with enhanced senses of smell and hearing to compensate. Barely human, they make their snivelling way in the dark, preying on unwary travellers, mutant fish, and other unsavoury creatures of the sump.
18. Dry Land/World’s Edge
For many inhabitants of the Bad Zone the idea of dry land has passed into myth. Maps of the Bad Zone routinely feature the location of a rumoured “Dry Land”, full of mineral wealth, across the sludge sea from the precipice, beyond the point where the dark sky and sludge sea meet to form the horizon. Given the morals of your average Bad Zone inhabitant few really believe the veracity of such maps. But Outlanders have no hope of being accepted into life on the Precipice or even on Stanchion Island and it’s surrounds and are often driven halfway to madness by a life spent entirely at sea, so the maps can fetch significant sums and change hands dozens of times - especially when an adventurer appears at a trading post with apparent material evidence of Dry Land, fuelling fevered dreams of a fresh start to the human mind bereft of solid ground.
Perhaps equally as likely are rumours of the Worlds Edge, a vast abyss where the Sludge Sea finds its level cascading to the depths below. It’s rare to find someone claiming to have witnessed the Worlds Edge and survived, but nobody has ever proferred a better explanation for why the Sludge Sea has a barely perceptible but persistent current that slowly drags unwary boats away from the Precipice.
It all started with the setting. I had this idea to call the location of the campaign Angel Falls. One sleepless, jet lagged night, I asked myself why is it called that? Also, on the spur of the moment when I created the campaign manager on Yaktribe I named the campaign A Sump Runs Through It. Are those things related? And then everything started clicking together. I spent the next day feverishly writing up descriptions of the locales in the dome and trying to draw a passable map with nothing more than Powerpoint. That's where we'll start with this post.
In the course of all this I was greatly inspired by (and in fact stole entire paragraphs from) the Storey 456 Campaign & Map by @Toffer.
I've also been binge watching Black Sails recently so... yeah.
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THE HISTORY OF ANGEL FALLS
Angel Heights, as it was known before it became Angel Falls, was an unremarkable dome with an Administratum based economy whose greatest claim to fame was the large sump river winding majestically through it on its way down hive to the sump. That would all change with the coming of the Great Quake.
The Great Quake
“Hive quakes” are common in the Underhive thanks to the ancient and decaying domes and the incalculable stresses placed on the structure by its vast height and mass. While such quakes can be devastating most quakes are localised and relatively harmless in the grand scheme of things – a sector dropped into a sinkhole or torn apart by the shockwaves of a quake can be entered dutifully into the Administratum annuls for the dome but otherwise is of little note. Occasionally however a much bigger hive quake strikes a dome.
Nobody in Angel Falls remembers exactly when the Great Quake happened but common wisdom places it at a couple of hundred years ago. At this time a hive quake of such magnitude struck that a fault line was opened that split the floor of the dome entirely in two, a jagged rip across the hive floor that caused one half of the dome to collapse completely into the dome below. Hab districts along the fault line were thrown into ruin, and the sump river winding its way through the dome, once a stately canal, suddenly terminated in a huge waterfall cascading over and down the new precipice edge into the dome below. It wasn’t long before
The Dome Below
As devastating as the Great Quake was, it also opened up countless opportunities for adventurers and gangs. The entire dome below was a previously lost one, full of the promise of lost archaetoech, vast stores of loot and warehouses full of valuable equipment and weaponry. The quake had also rent a vast cliff face providing access into long buried foundations, caves and tunnels systems below Angel Falls. This was a time where vast fortunes were made, remembered in the Underhive as one of the greatest Dome Rushes of all time. Gangs that got in early and were lucky, brutal or cunning enough to survive quickly laid claim to the riches revealed by the Quake and retired uphive wealthy beyond their wildest dreams.
The Rising
As the sump river continued to pour over the precipice it slowly filled up the dome below with its toxic sludge and waste liquids. This time is remembered as The Rising. Latecomers to Angel Falls watched in anguish as imagined lucrative discoveries were gradually sunk below the inexorably rising sludge sea over the course of months and years. At the start of the Great Quake the dome floor below was believed to be several hundred feet below the precipice. By the time the Sludge Sea found its level and stopped rising, it was just 100 feet below the edge of the precipice, leaving only the tips of the very highest spires of the dome floor below above the surface.
But for those gangs willing to put in the effort, Angel Falls still holds buried treasures and occasionally new sub domes, sectors, caves and tunnels systems are discovered offering a glimpse of what life was like in the old Dome Rush days. Meanwhile a thriving economy has sprung up across the precipice and across the surface of the Sludge Sea.
REGIONS OF ANGEL FALLS
Most of the regions described here function purely as background information about Angel Falls and serve to justify why certain territories exist and explain their proximity to each other. Indeed, many of the “better” districts and quarters are to most intents and purposes completely closed off to gang activity (at least as the campaign begins).
However, some regions do have some special rules that dictate the use of Treacherous Conditions and affect the likelihood of your gang being outlawed, and some powerful monopoly effects that kick in when a single gang controls an entire sector or industry. I'll reserve these rules for another post.
1. Adminstratum Quarter
The Administratum is a gargantuan bureaucratic institution spanning the Imperium from Terra to the Outlying systems. It controls all aspects of life in the Imperium from birth registrations to the designated amount of water in a standard cup of recaf. The Administratum requires countless workers and entire districts on Necromunda are routinely designated as Administratum Quarters. Such is the case in Angel Falls, where a swathe of the northern end of the Dome is given over to the daily running of the Imperium, dominated by a vast Bibliocathedra at the heart of the district.
2. The Cupola Annex
The Cupola is a part of the hive that reaches up the outside of Hive Primus’ northern wall. A long elongated dome that was once the domed roof of a cathedral or government centre. Much of it has been built over and built upon over the centuries. Here and there you can still see it’s outline and the name has stuck. This part of storey 456 sits atop the dome and is made up of minor warehousing districts for the adjacent wharf and housing and retail districts.
3. Orpheus Wharf
A standard Imperial pattern airway docking wharf-side area. The whole region is given over to looking after various types and sizes of air and space vehicles. Not the largest on Necromunda but capable of dealing with most small to medium sized bulk transports,be they military or civilian in nature. It can also be used as a staging post for transport vessels to move back and forth between the planet and orbital ships stations. The wharf also supports more localised transports such as the ubiquitous Arvus lighter that will often act as an exterior taxi service to other parts of the Hive.
4. Main Support Stanchion
Hive Primus is a feat of engineering that is madness and majesty in equal measure. Over the millennia buildings have been built upon buildings, tower blocks and spires become foundations, walkways and support struts for further development. Historically when a dome became too full to cram any further development in it was closed off and a new dome built on top. This ever-growing structure necessitated a network of vast stanchions to support the hive.
Nowadays most domes have at least one Main Support Stanchion, a vast plasteel column hundreds of meters in diameter, the reinforced walls of which enclose the main power, transport, water, heat and air conduits that keep the hive ticking. Near the bottom of the Stanchion there are heavily defended controlled entry points into the lift chutes and airways that lubricate trade and the movement of cargo in the hive and maintenance ports and substations for critical life support and power systems. Above this habs are built in rings around the Stanchion, with the most expensive hab blocks occupying a point with views across Angel Falls but before the air becomes too hot or toxic to scrub effectively. Still higher, the Main Support Stanchion branches into a series of massive support struts in the sky above Angel Falls.
Smooth operation of the Stanchion is critical to the operation of the hive, so it is controlled directly by the Guild and the law is enforced by the Arbites, making it largely off limits to the underhive gangs and above the pay grade of the Angel Falls Enforcer Precinct. However among other things its position above the settlement makes it a useful ingress into the dome’s ventilation system while the joints and platforms of the support struts are for the most part home to some of the dome’s vagrant population as the intense heat and toxic atmosphere of the dome top tend to be shunned by everyone else.
5. Peach Tree Habs
This is a standard Necromundan Habitation area filled with STC accommodation buildings and is by far the largest hab sector in Angel Falls. Some buildings have spaces large enough for just one person to live while others allow more room so a whole family can live together. These habs have undergone some renovation recently and are considered a ‘better’ standard of living than most habs in Hive Primaris and are certainly among the best in Angel Falls. The residents are almost all Administratum workers, and security is tight; historically gangs have moved in to Peach Tree but their residence has never lasted long. Still, the relative wealth of the sector makes Peach Tree a compelling opportunity for any gang willing to risk the increased chance of being run out of town.
6. Hab Ward 456 Peripheral
Like Peach Tree Habs this is a hab sector built from STC habitation units. Unlike Peach Tree the hab units are cramped, much of the sector is in a state of disrepair, and security is correspondingly lower. Most of the workers in the nearby Manufactorum and the residents of Silvertown live here.
7. Priory canton
The Adeptus Ministorum has a presence in many areas of Hive Primus and Angel Falls is no different. The Canton is built around the Temple of Saint Celestine, perched on a flight of 101 steps with a commanding view across Angel Falls. Since the Great Quake the Temple has become a minor destination for Pilgryms who are routinely seen ascending the steps, which it is customary to do on bare elbows and knees, a bloody affair that demonstrates the Pilgrym’s dedication to the Imperial Creed. The Temple is surrounded by a broad boulevards and minor chapels, alms houses and other Ecclesiarchy buildings. In times of danger the Ministorum can call upon a large Frateris Militia meaning this sector is largely unscathed by gang activity.
8. Imperial Manufactorum
The manufactorum was sited primarily for the convenience of the sump river and the precipice, providing ease of access for huge cargo barges to deliver raw materials to the manufactorum, a ready source of coolant fluid in the form of the sump waters, and a convenient dumping ground for waste byproducts, effluent and excess goods produced as a result of mistakes in the manufacturing quotas dictated by the Administratum.
9. Silvertown
This district thrives on sump river based trade and industry. The hive generates all sorts of liquid waste and river borne flotsam - some of it useful, most of it not – and a large industry has grown up here with operations ranging from lone prospectors panning the sump for saleable wares, to gang and corporation run chem pits and sluiceworks dedicated to separating useful chemicals from the sump. Silvertown also acts as the primary dockyard for the Sump Traders that ply the river and Trawler operations that routinely dredge the river bottom in search of archaeotech, and contains Angel Falls’ main toll bridge across the sump river. Silvertown workers are a course lot and the docks are full of illicit drinking holes, brothels, fighting pits and gambling dens. On the whole the local Guilders and Enforcers turn a blind eye to the goings on in Silvertown, provided the inhabitants keep their activities contained.
10. Precipice view
After the Great Quake an uphive conglomerate known as the OmniLight Combine purchased a swathe of land on the newly created precipice with the intention of developing a luxury hab complex to take advantage of the sensational views across the vast sludge sea below. However, for reasons that never became clear to the inhabitants of Angel Falls the OmniLight Combine was dissolved and Precipice View was abandoned half way through construction, leaving behind little but the hulking plasteel skeletons of the planned district. Largely uninhabitable by your average imperial citizen, these digs are nevertheless relatively luxurious by the standards of most gangs while still being beyond the interest of The Guilders, making Precipice View among the most desired areas of Angel Falls for the gangs.
11. The Edge
Extending from the Manufactorum zone to Angel Falls itself, The Edge was once an extensive area of low class habitation blocks. This district suffered badly in the Great Quake and most of its habs, transport arteries, trading districts and utilities were destroyed leaving little but a large swathe of ruins. As the Edge exists under a permanent pall of toxic smog from the nearby Manufactorum nobody has yet seen fit to redevelop the district making the ruins a traditional hive of gang activity in Angel Falls. Recently, The Edge has been earmarked for future development leading to its addition to the patrol routes of the local Enforcers Precinct.
12. The Falls
At The Falls themselves two industries on opposite ends of the spectrum have sprung up. News of the Great Quake and the falls spread far and wide in Hive Primus and the edge of The Falls encompasses a viewing complex, platform and virtual Falls & Sludge Sea tour operated by the Guilders, reserved for moneyed underhive tourists and visiting dignitaries.
Below The Falls an altogether less salubrious existence is scrubbed out by the gangs and other low lives of Angel Falls. At the area of The Falls the precipice face is vertical or indeed inverse at some points, and a network of precarious ladders and rope bridges connects a series of cantilevered platforms and dwellings. Collapses of this structure are common. This is a treacherous place and the primary means of scraping a living is homespun industry powered by makeshift water wheels, and giant sieve like nets rigged to catch detritus from The Falls. As almost everything of value has already been stripped from the sump by the upriver trawlers and panners of Silvertown this is a meagre existence indeed, but the settlement continues to grow downwards from the top of The Falls, fuelled mainly by the hope of discovering access points to new domes, spore caves and archaeotech hordes.
13. The Precipice
The rest of the precipice face exposed by the Great Quake is more developed than the area near The Falls and provides more ready access to the foundations, tunnels and caves exposed under Angel Falls (though consequently most of the easy finds have of course been discovered and looted). The presence of Paradise Beach and Boardwalk Empire below means the settlements across the face here are more wealthy and more advanced construction is necessitated by the need to ferry people and goods up and down the face, leading to various lift systems ranging from extensive networks of switchback gangways and grox powered rope winches to fully mechanised platforms running on salvaged rails. Control of the various lifts across the cliff face is hotly contested by the gangs in the area as they are a great money spinner.
Despite the relative development, cantilevered platforms and dwellings still pepper the face of the precipice much like near The Falls themselves and death by falling or collapsing structures is not uncommon.
14. Paradise Beach
At the foot of the Precipice lies a narrow strip of land known as Paradise Beach that borders the Sludge Sea. Paradise Beach is formed primarily from the remains of a semi intact causeway. Over time this causeway has been added to with wharves, jettys and warehouses, a place where the denizens of Angel Falls proper mingle freely and safely with the gangs of The Edge and Precipice and those who make their living on the Sludge Sea, thanks to the tacit authorisation and protection of the Guilders which has allowed the Baordwalk Empire trading post to establish itself.
While the western stretch of Paradise Beach is centred on the Boardwalk Empire, the eastern end of is dominated by mountainous slag heaps hundreds of feet high created by the piped effluent and dumped byproduct from the Imperial Manufactorum on the precipice above.
15. Sludge Sea
Nowadays the Sludge Sea supports a thriving maritime economy in Angel Falls. Large flotillas of ships ranging from cobbled together rafts and dinghies to chemical powered paddle steamers ply the stagnant water along shipping lanes established between outposts tethered to the hive buildings below or built on the few spires that still protrude from the surface of the sea. These towers have often retained much of their environmental seal, meaning they can still be descended, in some cases to ground level, hundreds of feet below the surface. Such “sunken towers” can be a rich source of scavenged equipment and loot, and have the feel of raiding a sunken ship from ages past.
What were once enclosed plexiglass walkways and atriums that soared among the heights of Angel falls now form a network of creaking, leaking undersea tunnels. Cast in a permanent green half-light, these tunnels provide an eerie window into the depths under the sea surface for anyone willing to brave the pressure exerted on the tunnels by the surrounding sea (at least they do where they aren’t coated with a film of slime or sump algae). Ruins of towers, cathedra and manufactora loom from the darkness below, while the sea is punctuated by the occasional sight of some drifting archaeotech, the detritus of everyday life and bizarre sludge borne predators.
Meanwhile on the surface some previously airborne gantries now form causeways at or slightly above the water level.
Whether by boat, tunnel or causeway, the Sludge Sea is eminently navigable by gangs looking to make their fortune out in the Angel Falls equivalent of The Wastes.
16. Stanchion Island
The Great Quake severed one of the main stanchions supporting the hive clean in two. In the early years this stanchion towered hundreds of feet above the hive floor, acting as useful navigational aid to the prospectors and gangs exploring the shattered domes below. But in time, as the Sludge Sea rose inexorably, the twisted and broken wreckage of the stanchion cross section became the largest and most distinct island in the Sea, it’s surface mere feet above the water level. The numerous power, waste and transport conduits built into the stanchion made it a natural locus of Sludge Sea activity as enterprising underhivers quickly set up power taps and used them to power thriving holesteads and small trading posts. What became known as Stanchion Island now forms the biggest and most organised Outlaw Trading Post in Angel Falls and an illicit entry point into the settlement for downhivers willing to brave the decaying transport chutes in the Stanchion and wealthy enough to pay the entry taxes levied by the gangs that run the makeshift “immigration centres” on the island. Trade on Stanchion Island is controlled by a conglomerate of gangs, pirates and traders who all have an interest in the smooth running of the Outpost and if there is anything that passes as order in the Sludge Sea it exists on Stanchion Island.
17. The Bad Zone
The dregs, twists and outlaws of Angel Falls make a living of sorts in the Bad Zone, beyond the light of the Precipice, a life lived in eternal gloom. Collectively known as Outlanders, for many of these underhive inhabitants the idea of dry land remains a distant dream – driven from the precipice, their lives are often lived entirely at sea, itinerant nomads forced to scrape a living among makeshift flotillas anchored unsteadily to the hive buildings below the surface and rubbish patches formed by the currents of the sea, their lives at constant risk from bands of marauding pirates and the dangers of the sludge sea itself.
This far from the Precipice the light of the underhive settlements rapidly dims to nothing, forcing the outlanders to navigate and live by torchlight and jury rigged lanterns. Many of the longer term inhabitants have evolved into blind, pallid creatures with enhanced senses of smell and hearing to compensate. Barely human, they make their snivelling way in the dark, preying on unwary travellers, mutant fish, and other unsavoury creatures of the sump.
18. Dry Land/World’s Edge
For many inhabitants of the Bad Zone the idea of dry land has passed into myth. Maps of the Bad Zone routinely feature the location of a rumoured “Dry Land”, full of mineral wealth, across the sludge sea from the precipice, beyond the point where the dark sky and sludge sea meet to form the horizon. Given the morals of your average Bad Zone inhabitant few really believe the veracity of such maps. But Outlanders have no hope of being accepted into life on the Precipice or even on Stanchion Island and it’s surrounds and are often driven halfway to madness by a life spent entirely at sea, so the maps can fetch significant sums and change hands dozens of times - especially when an adventurer appears at a trading post with apparent material evidence of Dry Land, fuelling fevered dreams of a fresh start to the human mind bereft of solid ground.
Perhaps equally as likely are rumours of the Worlds Edge, a vast abyss where the Sludge Sea finds its level cascading to the depths below. It’s rare to find someone claiming to have witnessed the Worlds Edge and survived, but nobody has ever proferred a better explanation for why the Sludge Sea has a barely perceptible but persistent current that slowly drags unwary boats away from the Precipice.
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