Over two hundred survivors descended upon the town of Requiem, as the Families observed their annual tradition of Honor’s Fall. While murder and death cast a shadow on the event, there were also fortunes found in the Hot Zone, revelry at the Bacchanal, and a very special concert. Here’s what you encountered this past weekend.
Food, Merch and Music
Honor’s Fall kicked off with the Bacchanal, where residents and visitors alike saw the best entertainment Requiem had to offer. Vendors filled tables with weapons, gear, and mementos, as others sold food as varied as pho and pizza. The entertainment for the night included an original dance, “The Honor’s Fall Le Ballet,” followed by burlesque dancing from our own Asriel Graves. Then, the electric guitar duo Asmodeus and Rev put on a five song set of metal and hard rock to set the mood and prep us for the main event. Finally, at the end of the Bacchanal, The Mary Lous played a full set of original and cover songs, capped off by a fireworks display. Of course, the fireworks drew a giant horde, but six or seven deaths were a small price to pay for such fine entertainment.
The Hot Zone
Throughout the weekend, survivors climbed to the far reaches of the Fold to explore the Hot Zone, a nuclear, chemical, and biological hazard site under the auspices of the SLOSHA - Slaghound Occupational Safety and Health Agency. In truth, the “agency” was actually Slaghound Salvage, an opportunistic group of scavengers, who took over the site from a group of actual scientists and were grifting visitors into doing the dangerous salvage for them. Despite the unsavory situation, those who entered the Hot Zone found all sorts of valuable items, ranging from cooking components to radioactive metal to all sorts of usable poisons. However, by far the most valuable were the festering crystals that brave and sharp-eyed survivors managed to take home.
Careful investigations revealed someone had deliberately caused the spill by setting up explosives and sabotaging containment doors at an NBC disposal site. Some of the survivors engaged in a late night mission to disarm more bombs and fix the control panel at the site, and researchers managed to find a cure for the disease caused by exposure to the wastes. However, research into who made the bombs is inconclusive so far…
WARPATH LIVE!
Saturday morning, those attending Honor’s Fall received a surprise concert hosted by a raider clan who somehow learned to thrash. WARPATH LIVE continued their tour through the Fold with a return to Requiem. Fans subsequently lost their figurative minds (while seven lost their literal heads) and the band promises it will return one day.
Honor’s Fall
Of course, the most important event was Honor’s Fall itself, from sunset on Saturday to sunrise on Sunday. The violence began in earnest, and the Boone-Helm were quickly repulsed by the Devils, who took Polaris’ head as the first trophy of the night. The death peaked when the Zodiac Order made their way through town, turning half of the population into the undead and controlling them to take part in their necromantic experimentation. After that, Family heads rolled throughout the night, until there was but one left: Anton Anastasia. As the Families gathered in the Wilted Rose at sunrise, they affirmed the Patron Family status of the Devils and Lonely Streetz, and welcomed four new into their number: the Anderson-Ambrosios, the Blood Wraiths, the Stevensons and the Tarrarians. However, Honor’s Fall was not complete, as just when it seemed to be over, Anton Anastasia surrendered his own head to his second, Essex, who then claimed the title of High Lord Executioner.
For the record, as per Essex Anastasia, here are the Thirteen Families of Requiem:
The Anastasia Dynasty
The Anderson-Ambrosios Family
The Blood Wraiths
The Boone-Helm Collective
The Brokentooth Clan
The Devils
The Lonely Streetz
The Molon Collective
The Stevenson Family
The Tarrarian Party
The Volkov
The Warren Collective
The Zodiac Order