TribeMeet 2020 is a gathering of nerds and enthusiasts of all things Necromunda for a weekend of action-packed gaming among friends (11th&12th September 2021)! The campaign will accommodate both the Community Edition (NCE) and Newcromunda (N18) rules, so bring whichever gang strikes your fancy. The story follows on from the massive success of TribeMeet 2019, this time at a bigger and better venue at the Newark Showground, NG24 2NY, UK.
All pertinent details here.
Welcome to the Buildup & Story thread!
Post snippets of fluff about your gangs, their stories so far, whatever takes your fancy!
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The air was warm and stifling up at the top of the dome. The fumes of what passed for civilisation below prickled at the skin and made unprotected eyes water.
Guild of Sanitation Ninth Technician Yussuf Backvalve slowly picked his way along a suspended gantry, slick with the red-brown algae which always thrived in these dark and damp places behind the lighting rigs. He was approaching a section where the lighting rig below had either fallen or been removed long ago, so beneath the gantry was nothing but a several hundred metre drop into Fury's Rest.
The gantry swayed and groaned as he reached the edge. Closing his eyes tightly, he removed his foggy googles and, without looking, deftly splashed a little water from his canteen into the lenses and swilled them out before putting the goggles back on. That was better. He peered over the edge at the factories, hab blocks and streets far below, savouring the small surge of adrenaline he always got when he reached these points.
Not bothering to clip onto the corroded safety wire, he strode out over the gap, the gantry groaning under his weight. He could see his objective just ahead. A two metre diameter pipe, jutting vertically down from the gently curved dome roof beside the gantry. There was a steady drip-drip-drip falling from the attachment point on the end. Yussuf took a second to remember the telltale marks and shape of that particular model. It was am STC MkXXIV potable water attachment. It would either have been part of an ancient fire supression sprinkler system, artifical rain matrix or a drinking water supply. This far up, it would be the fire supression system - he doubted a dome like Fury's Rest had ever warranted a rain system. In the gloom he couldn't see any trace of the MkXI-44 flow distribution hub or the mountings for the associated MkMCCCXII sprinkler system itself. Perhaps it had never even been fitted all those years ago.
As he reached it, he scrubbed his thick rubber gloves over the lock on the control panel cover, scraping away half an inch of the algae. Above the lock was stamped the legend FR-9651646546AB6164F6. From his belt pouch, careful not to drop it, he pulled a key with a long metal tag wired to one end, stamped FR-9651646546AB6164E6. He read it again, then the lock again. He had, as usual, been issued the wrong key - though he noted that it was at least very, very close this time. What key E6 was for he couldn't possibly know - as the number suggested, the Guild of Sanitation held billions upon billions of keys in the Library of Locks and with the best will in the world they had inevitably become mullded over the millennia. Thankfully, everyone "in the field" already knew this, and went prepared.
Yussuf tucked the key back into his pouch - his life would not be worth living if he didn't return it and fill out the ridiculous eight-page misallocation report, to put with all the other hundreds of thousands of misallocation reports, never to be checked.
He then took out his "other key" from the opposite side of his belt - a heavy crow bar with a force amplifier node patched to the end. Crude but effective. Jamming it between the lip of the cover and the pipe, he thumbed the node on with a hum and pushed. With a bang the lock shattered and the cover popped open, and Yussuf just managed not to drop his power-bar over the side of the gantry.
The control panel inside was clean and dry, but also fried. He's been told a signal had been sent for this pipe to open as part of a "Scheduled Cleaning Routine", and the pipe had not opened. He'd never known a Scheduled Cleaning Routine of these pipes. He wondered breifly exactly how irregular something needed to be to still be considered Scheduled. By the look of it, it had never opened since the day it was installed, so he was not in the least surprised to find the signal had just fried the panel and resulted in a very slow drip. He was also not in the least surprised to find the pipe not connected to anything, or that he had been given an order that would flood part of the dome below. Such was the power of beuarocracy.
He moved futher along the gantry to a larger cover. Not even bothering to check the lock, he popped it with the power-bar. Inside was a shiny red manual override wheel, still with a little wax seal supporting a small vellum tag on the side lock. Whatever had been written on the tag had faded to illegibility, and when Yussuf touched it it crumbled to dust.
Shrugging, he wrenched the lock off cracking the ancient wax. It came away easily. Grabbing the 1 metre diameter wheel, he put all his effort into giving it half a turn. Nothing changed from the pipe flow - still just a drip-drip-drip. He gave it another turn - easier this time. Drip-drip-drip. Another - the drip became a trickle. Another and the trickle thickened. He thought by now the pipe valve flaps should have opened fully, and indeed he couldn't turn the wheel any futher. He gave the pipe a whack with the power bar and with a thundering whoosh the valves thumped open. The whole world vibrated and the gantry gave a tortured scream. Algae and sludge was sucked free as the water pulled a powerful air current down with it.
Yussuf looked over the edge through the misting water. He hoped nobody was directly below. He'd carried out his order anyway - the valve was open.
He hadn't been ordered to close it again.
Yussuf made his way back along the vibrating gantry to the circular exit point, sealing the heavy hatch securely behind himself.
All pertinent details here.
Welcome to the Buildup & Story thread!
Post snippets of fluff about your gangs, their stories so far, whatever takes your fancy!
************************************************
The air was warm and stifling up at the top of the dome. The fumes of what passed for civilisation below prickled at the skin and made unprotected eyes water.
Guild of Sanitation Ninth Technician Yussuf Backvalve slowly picked his way along a suspended gantry, slick with the red-brown algae which always thrived in these dark and damp places behind the lighting rigs. He was approaching a section where the lighting rig below had either fallen or been removed long ago, so beneath the gantry was nothing but a several hundred metre drop into Fury's Rest.
The gantry swayed and groaned as he reached the edge. Closing his eyes tightly, he removed his foggy googles and, without looking, deftly splashed a little water from his canteen into the lenses and swilled them out before putting the goggles back on. That was better. He peered over the edge at the factories, hab blocks and streets far below, savouring the small surge of adrenaline he always got when he reached these points.
Not bothering to clip onto the corroded safety wire, he strode out over the gap, the gantry groaning under his weight. He could see his objective just ahead. A two metre diameter pipe, jutting vertically down from the gently curved dome roof beside the gantry. There was a steady drip-drip-drip falling from the attachment point on the end. Yussuf took a second to remember the telltale marks and shape of that particular model. It was am STC MkXXIV potable water attachment. It would either have been part of an ancient fire supression sprinkler system, artifical rain matrix or a drinking water supply. This far up, it would be the fire supression system - he doubted a dome like Fury's Rest had ever warranted a rain system. In the gloom he couldn't see any trace of the MkXI-44 flow distribution hub or the mountings for the associated MkMCCCXII sprinkler system itself. Perhaps it had never even been fitted all those years ago.
As he reached it, he scrubbed his thick rubber gloves over the lock on the control panel cover, scraping away half an inch of the algae. Above the lock was stamped the legend FR-9651646546AB6164F6. From his belt pouch, careful not to drop it, he pulled a key with a long metal tag wired to one end, stamped FR-9651646546AB6164E6. He read it again, then the lock again. He had, as usual, been issued the wrong key - though he noted that it was at least very, very close this time. What key E6 was for he couldn't possibly know - as the number suggested, the Guild of Sanitation held billions upon billions of keys in the Library of Locks and with the best will in the world they had inevitably become mullded over the millennia. Thankfully, everyone "in the field" already knew this, and went prepared.
Yussuf tucked the key back into his pouch - his life would not be worth living if he didn't return it and fill out the ridiculous eight-page misallocation report, to put with all the other hundreds of thousands of misallocation reports, never to be checked.
He then took out his "other key" from the opposite side of his belt - a heavy crow bar with a force amplifier node patched to the end. Crude but effective. Jamming it between the lip of the cover and the pipe, he thumbed the node on with a hum and pushed. With a bang the lock shattered and the cover popped open, and Yussuf just managed not to drop his power-bar over the side of the gantry.
The control panel inside was clean and dry, but also fried. He's been told a signal had been sent for this pipe to open as part of a "Scheduled Cleaning Routine", and the pipe had not opened. He'd never known a Scheduled Cleaning Routine of these pipes. He wondered breifly exactly how irregular something needed to be to still be considered Scheduled. By the look of it, it had never opened since the day it was installed, so he was not in the least surprised to find the signal had just fried the panel and resulted in a very slow drip. He was also not in the least surprised to find the pipe not connected to anything, or that he had been given an order that would flood part of the dome below. Such was the power of beuarocracy.
He moved futher along the gantry to a larger cover. Not even bothering to check the lock, he popped it with the power-bar. Inside was a shiny red manual override wheel, still with a little wax seal supporting a small vellum tag on the side lock. Whatever had been written on the tag had faded to illegibility, and when Yussuf touched it it crumbled to dust.
Shrugging, he wrenched the lock off cracking the ancient wax. It came away easily. Grabbing the 1 metre diameter wheel, he put all his effort into giving it half a turn. Nothing changed from the pipe flow - still just a drip-drip-drip. He gave it another turn - easier this time. Drip-drip-drip. Another - the drip became a trickle. Another and the trickle thickened. He thought by now the pipe valve flaps should have opened fully, and indeed he couldn't turn the wheel any futher. He gave the pipe a whack with the power bar and with a thundering whoosh the valves thumped open. The whole world vibrated and the gantry gave a tortured scream. Algae and sludge was sucked free as the water pulled a powerful air current down with it.
Yussuf looked over the edge through the misting water. He hoped nobody was directly below. He'd carried out his order anyway - the valve was open.
He hadn't been ordered to close it again.
Yussuf made his way back along the vibrating gantry to the circular exit point, sealing the heavy hatch securely behind himself.
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