#dehqevent

✱ DEHQ EVENT 005 : HELL FREEZES OVER 

If there was anything to be said about weather after global wars and environmental destruction, it’s that mother nature is here to fight back in every way she can and more often than not, she succeeds. Meteorologists and storm trackers do their best to alert people of the incoming dangers but their resources are much more limited than they were pre-apocalypse. While things are improving every day, there is still a long way to go. This storm came with little warning but as they learned information it was broadcast across all television access channels and radio stations.

The storm started in the mountains in the early morning hours and spread fast, by nightfall a size two avalanche had slipped down from the peak closest to Mothman Ranch. It took out a large part of the fencing and damaged a few of the smaller homes located on the property. Leaving in small units of six to ten, the members of the eclipse made their way out of the ranch to find safety. The night mother and a few members of her guard were the last to leave the property. 

When the first snowflake fell to the ground in Devil’s Elbow, there was no time to prepare for the blizzard that followed. The fog rolled out of the trees and off the mountain, the wind howled through the city, and soon the snow got heavier, mixing together to cause low visibility and difficult transportation. By noon on December 2nd, the power grid was disrupted by a transformer blowing. Rolling blackouts began, and eventually fixing the power became too dangerous and people were advised to seek shelter at the compound or the newly renovated community center, which peacekeepers assisted by EAA soldiers helped people get to if they were able. 

For those living in rural Devil’s Elbow or stuck in the elements, they were fast diverted to Bunker 7. They were able to get the generator up and running at half-capacity but no one knows for how long and resources are limited there. There are, however, plenty of rooms and beds available while the group figures out how to get out of there and get back home. Meanwhile, there is still a beast that some have rumored to be Deathknell Bear, still roaming around in the area. Last spotted near the Afterglow Compound, though no confirmations as to what it actually is have been made. Residents have been warned for weeks to only leave protected areas at their own risk. Updates are still being communicated on WDER when they’re able to get a signal from within the Community Center. Stay tuned for more updates.

Below is the list of locations and the characters stuck at them : 

✱ DEHQ EVENT 003 : EXODUS

In the weeks following the arrival of an antidote to the cicada toxin and the removal of five members of the Children of Mothman from the gates into the city, a fragile sense of calm seems to have settled over Devil’s Elbow. Storefronts are rebuilt, supplies are replenished, and it appears, if only for a moment, as if Burnington might finally be on the mend. Of course, nothing good ever lasts forever, does it?

Over the course of a week at the beginning of August, people begin to go missing. It’s a quiet affair—there does not seem to be any violence, any evidence that it is an act of organized crime. It would appear as if people simply up and abandoned their homes. To go where? It’s unclear. But as more and more people begin to go missing, the peacekeepers tasked with taking the reports and finding the citizens quickly become overwhelmed. 

Any suspicion that their vanishing is a result of gang activity is seemingly quashed by the inexplicably equalizing nature of the disappearances. Every community in Burnington seems to be affected, from regular citizens to Jackals and Shamrocks, even the militia and family of Governance officials. (In fact, it’s been said that the peacekeepers only got involved once the Governance was affected.) There’s not a person in Burnington who does not know someone who’s gone missing, and with tensions high between all factions trying to survive in the town, rumors of who—or what—is behind the disappearances run abound. 

The Daily Burn and WDER, in an attempt to give the people a voice, have opened up their lines to the public. Whether you’re calling or writing in, citizens are encouraged to reach out and share their opinions and theories as well as offer support to each other in these trying times. During this time, we ask that players submit anything from thoughts to rumors to @wderdailyburn—no matter how outrageous, your opinions deserve to be heard. Do you have thoughts on what might have happened to the missing people? Or perhaps you think you’ve got a hot lead on how Afterglow is behind it all. Whatever it is, we want to hear from you, Devil’s Elbow. 

Your uncensored submissions will be published for all listeners and readers on this side of the East Atlantic, so keep WDER close, stay hydrated and stay safe, survivors.

MISSING ! if you have any information about these individuals, please let peacekeepers know.

➥ joey heart ・ meat clerk at the peppered pig (neutral) ➥ kristine neely ・ tailor at the sewing room (neutral) ➥ brigid sheppard ・ bartender at the mad scientist (neutral) ➥ marco morandi ・ ranch hand at tatum dairy farm (jackals member) ➥ gladys ford ・ central market vendor (neutral) ➥ juniper driscoll ・ bartender at the sound factory (neutral) ➥ libby mcdevitt ・ central market vendor (children of mothman initiate) ➥ evan wilton ・ alchemist at remedy roots (neutral) ➥ joseph levitt ・ mortician at moore funeral home (neutral) ➥ luinda york ・ tattoo artist at the fishery (neutral) ➥ gerardo de fiore ・ maintenance worker at the crow's nest motel (neutral) ➥ laila hughes ・ distiller at big mama mabel's (children of mothman neophyte) ➥ ethan tatum ・ tatum dairy farm (silver lining soldier / jackals prospect) ➥ bairre o’brien ・ broker at hell's gate (shamrocks capo) ➥ mirabelle mckenna ・ community worker (east atlantic governance) ➥ priyanka singh ・ headquarters official (afterglow research solutions) ➥ ximena muñoz  ・ host at red line diner (silver lining soldier) ➥ ace ingram ・ reporter at the daily burn (neutral) ➥ melvyn dwerryhouse ・ chief peace officer (east atlantic governance) ➥ laureen macfarland ・ cashier at barley & rye (neutral)

OOC :

✱ DEHQ EVENT 004 : HARVEST FESTIVAL

Over the past several months, the citizens of Devil’s Elbow have been subject to a series of tragedies and devastating losses, each impossibly worse than the last. Members of the civic council have been working overtime to try and hear out the concerns of the community, but what started as only a handful of disgruntled town residents showing up to be heard by the governance has recently turned into a full house each time there is a council meeting, city hall packed beyond capacity with citizens who are upset and angry and who come not only from Burnington but all of Devil’s Elbow to voice their complaints. Trying to find even a shred of positive feedback at these meetings is like trying to locate a needle in a haystack, and the council decides unanimously that something must be done to boost the morale of the community before it breaks entirely under the weight of grief and outrage.

After several weeks of planning, the civic council in conjunction with the east atlantic governance, is able to secure funding from a variety of sponsors and, after reaching out to several local business owners and organizations offering an opportunity to participate and contribute, they’re proud to announce Burnington’s very own — and very first! — Harvest Festival. The festival will be running for the entire month of October, featuring an assortment of different autumnal events and activities to draw in a crowd of all ages! Details on what’s happening at the harvest festival will be reported twice weekly in The Daily Burn and broadcast on WDER throughout the month, so tune in to your favorite host to catch all the latest updates, changes, and additions to the jam-packed schedule of fun happening at Devil’s Elbow fairgrounds and beyond. 

What can you expect at the Harvest Festival? It’d be easier to ask what you can’t! The community truly pulled out all of the steps to create an exciting experience for all. The old Appalachian fair runners are happy to lend their carnival equipment to stir up a bit of nostalgia for the past, and they’ve assured that all rides are operating just as safe and smooth as always. (As it’s always best to be prepared, there are engineers on standby for the duration of the event to ensure the safety and peace of mind of all festival-goers.) There will be a tilt-a-whirl and a scrambler, a carousel and an illuminated ferris wheel with twenty brightly-colored gondolas. 

Try your hand at one of many classic carnival games to see if you can win a prize, or visit the freakshow if the souvenir you really want to take home is a sight you can’t unsee! There will be plenty of live music from local artists as organized by The Sound Factory, and with a variety of food stalls and liquor provided by Big Mama Mabel and Frankie Desta of Mad Scientist, you’ll find anything you want to satisfy your cravings, from apple pie moonshine and spiked cider to funnel cakes and hand-piped churros. There are countless merchant stalls set up throughout the fairground featuring local businesses and vendors from Central Market and even a booth set up for tarot reading courtesy of The Broom Closet if you’re seeking out your fortune or a glimpse of the future. 

Nearby at Silva Farm & Stables, thanks to the generosity of Sofia Silva, the pumpkin patch provides family-friendly, fall-themed fun for folks of all ages. In addition to offering up a quality selection of gourds ripe for the carving, you’ll find hay rides and tractor swings; animal lovers will enjoy the petting zoo and daily duck races; artists can put their creativity to the test with weekly pumpkin-carving competitions and anyone simply looking to look their best can visit one of the many fall-themed photo-ops to snap a few pictures. You might even spot one of the newspaper’s photographers there taking a few shots! Thanks to a fruitful season at the orchard at Clary Farm, local produce farmer Beau Clary has set up an apple bobbing stall with an assortment of prizes, but if you’d rather sip your apples than dunk your head for them, there is plenty of cider to go around. 

Out at the old Blackwater Falls Resort & Campground, their annual haunted house is back with not one or two but five different themed attractions that promise to thrill and terrify even the bravest of those who enter. Details about all five attractions can be found in their  Daily Burn ad or on their Glownet page. For those looking for an extra frightful feature, there are limited spots available for an overnight stay at the house — but act quick, an eerie evening like this only happens a few nights a year, so the guest list fills up fast. All attendees of the Blackwater Falls haunted house are asked to please stay clear of the widow’s peak over Old Blackstone Gorge. Anyone who approaches the peak is reminded that they do so at their own risk and any illegal cliff-jumpers will be removed from the premises and immediately reported to local peacekeepers. 

Throughout Burnington, local businesses are also getting in on the fun of the Harvest Festival! The community center is offering fall baking, cooking, and craft classes all month long. The library is hosting Spooky Story Time with lighthearted, spooktacular stories and several vendors at Central Market will be hosting a trick-or-treat scavenger hunt for the kids. On the 13th, there will be a coffin race up the side of the mountain — anyone interested is encouraged to sign up! Prizes will be sponsored by Moore Funeral Home. As always, stay tuned into WDER because all of the events and activities cropping up at the Harvest Festival are sure to make you shiver with antici…pation!

✱ OOC :

✱ DEHQ EVENT 001 : SPRING EQUINOX

the spring equinox is upon us and while that may not matter to many in the devil’s elbow, there is one faction that holds the date with high importance. the children of mothman used to travel to point pleasant during each equinox. there they would hold a two or more week ceremony in honor of the dread father, filled with many festivities and opportunities to get close to, or lay eyes onto the wise mothman himself. unfortunately, this tradition has come to almost a complete halt in the past twenty or thirty years due to the growing levels of radiation and toxicity in the town. there was a reason they relocated the museum and the artifacts inside. still, a small eclipse ventured back there each year in fear of losing touch, however, the risk was becoming too great as they were sure to lose at least one member if not the entire venturing party. in perfect moth-like fashion, a member held up a metaphorical lightbulb of an idea that the rest of the children flocked to. why not hold it there in devil’s elbow? this was just as much holy land, if not more so and the population there desperately needed to be awoken to the light and the way of the woods. from early evening on march 20th on, ritual pyres will be erected throughout the region with a heavy focus on mountainous and wooded areas. new totems, shrines, and troughs of blood, nectar, and rotting fruit can be found scattered in plain sight and bright beams of light are projected into the sky like beacons. rituals will be held hourly by robed figures with what looks like antennae on their head. glowing red eyes can be seen in every dark corner and it’s hard to tell which ones are real and which are not. up on the mountains and outside the borders of burnington, large aerosolizers normally meant to filter toxicity from the air have been filled with vision dust and decorated with depictions of the wise winged one and his wife, along with feathers, and, more importantly, stranglethorn vines and an assortment of dangerous obstacles that can range from booby traps to contained infected. all of this, an effort to stop dim ones from stopping the awakening efforts. inside burnington, members have hidden rotting fruit and nectar troughs to lure all moths and winged ones out. outside the museum a large throne is being built in preparation for the holy one’s arrival. 

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✱ DEHQ EVENT 002 : THE SWARM

When the brood of cicadas arrives in Burnington, it appears to be all at once — a plague of biblical proportions, some might say. Almost like clockwork, hundreds of insects descend upon Central Market, a dark, ever-droning cloud that quickly swallows up the bustling bazaar. Those who have been around long enough to remember the last time a brood emerged begin seeking shelter the moment they hear the familiar, heavy buzz of wings on the air like an omen, but too few realize what’s coming before it’s too late. What must be hundreds of cicadas, some up to nearly eight inches in length with a wingspan of over a foot, swarm the market late in the morning on June 1st, when the street of stalls is at its busiest. It happens in a matter of moments. 

The sweet scent of honey is a marked improvement from the irradiated sap dripping from the trees near where they emerged and Tadhg Flanagan’s display of golden jars and bottles swiftly lures in a starving swarm. The beekeeper tries to swat them away but his stall is quickly consumed by the persistent insects and he sustains several injuries in the process. Jerico Leeds and Scarlett Hulley are standing nearby when the stall is hit and are swallowed up by the swarm; several of the cicadas manage to land on Scarlett before Jerico pulls her out of the swarm. They both sustain injuries, though Scarlett’s are much more severe. Kitty O’Brien, seeking shelter from the swarm, ducks under Tadhg’s stall to wait out the cicadas; their trill is deafening and causes Kitty temporary hearing loss. 

Beau Clary is also at the market and happens to be standing in the wrong place at the wrong time when a cluster of cicadas fly past him in search of the residual rotting fruit left over from the Children of Mothman; several of them land on him and he sustains severe injuries as a result. Nearby, under order of the Governance, Malaric Motti is overseeing the cleaning and removal of the fruit troughs scattered through town. When the swarm finds Malaric, two neophytes he’d been overseeing immediately jump to protect him; covered in the rotting fruit that is attracting them, the neophytes sustain fatal injuries from the cicadas, and though they manage to protect their listener from the same fate, Malaric still sustains severe injuries from the swarm.

Ashton Ryder is near the produce stall watching Maisie O’Halloran try to barter with river rocks for fruit when he notices the brood of cicadas swarming the market. Instantly jumping to action, Ashton begins trying to lead and direct people out of the market, but the crowd is in pandemonium as the massive insects descend on the stalls, and he’s injured by a few aggressive patrons trying to make a hasty escape. Small and swift, Maisie manages to dodge most of the people, but they’re dive bombed by a cicada en route to exit the market and sustain contact when they knock it out of the way. Maisie manages to escape, but they send the cicada flying into nearby Valeria Muñoz. Valeria also manages to bat away the cicada, but not without touching the insect with bare palms. The blisters show up within minutes.

Shannon Williams and Serafina Muñoz are both busy perusing the wares at Evelyn Dawson’s stall when the swarm hits and, thanks to the jars of honey and baskets of fruit that cover their display, the stall is swiftly swallowed up by cicadas. Shannon and Serafina both manage to escape the swarm with minimal injury, though Serafina does come in contact with a few more of the insects as she tries to help out those nearby. Evelyn manages to find relative safety by ducking under their stall until the worst of the swarm passes, sustaining only minor injuries as well but suffering temporary hearing loss from the sheer decibel of the cicada wings. Sawyer Desta does not have the same fortunate fate — he is standing nearby when the swarm hits Evelyn’s stall, but there is nowhere to escape, and he can still feel their prickly legs crawling on him as he sprints from the market.

Throngs of survivors stumble and shove past each other in a desperate bid to get to safety, and Darach O’Brien and Peregrine Kraven are among those who get dragged into the crowd of panicked vendors and traders. Darach is swiftly knocked over and trampled in the chaos, sustaining several injuries in the process, but thanks to a cocktail of substances, he doesn’t even realize and moves to walk it off. Peregrine is not so lucky, having stumbled straight from a swarm of cicadas and into a fear-aggressed crowd. He sustains several injuries and could have very easily met a worse fate if it weren’t for his dog, Bustopher Jones, barking at passersby in an attempt to alert someone to the state of his companion. Inés Tejada notices the canine and tries to help, at very least getting Peregrine to their feet, but she herself is injured in the process.

AFTER CENTRAL MARKET...

Within twenty-four hours of the Central Market incident occuring, protests start popping up outside of the Afterglow Compound. Citizens that already feel wronged after discovering that Afterglow held the antidote to the vision dust, collect outside of the compound demanding answers, an antidote to the vicious cicada toxin that, by all accounts, Afterglow has had seventeen years to develop. The protests are peaceful at first, but the longer Afterglow goes without providing a solution, the more restless crowds get. A day after the protests begin, the Governance requests the presence of peacekeepers and reinforcements from the East Atlantic Army to ensure the safety of the employees and residents of the compound.  As a direct result of the military intervention, the Silver Lining Militia establishes a presence near the entrance to the compound both in an attempt to ensure that the protests remain peaceful and that, in the event the East Atlantic Army decides to use force against those gathered outside the compound, that the citizens of Burnington are well-protected and defended. Silver Lining commanders Dante Winters and Lindsay O’Halloran attempt to maintain order, and though not entirely intentional, frustrations against Afterglow and the Governance begin to stir interest in the rebellion amongst the crowds.  As it stands, the researchers in Afterglow laboratories are working around the clock in a desperate attempt to derive an antidote to the cicada toxin. Afterglow CMO Dr. Felix Estrada has been leading a team of the absolute best minds in the East Atlantic, and they’re hoping to start administering the first human trials of an antidote in the very near future. Those that work or reside on the compound have effectively been sealed inside as a result of the human barricades formed by protestors. Exit is possible but incredibly difficult, and the entry gates are being monitored by armed EAA officials.  Burnington is in a state of chaos. Cicadas still swarm the streets and, with them, hordes of bald-faced hornets. The plague has become a great equalizer — no one, be they Governance or Afterglow, Jackal or Shamrock, is safe from the wrath of mother nature. The Afterglow Clinic in town is overrun with sick citizens in desperate need of medical attention, but there aren’t enough staff or supplies to go around. Stretchers line the halls and the ill line the sidewalks outside the building. The Silver Lining rallies their medics and anyone else in their ranks with medical training to provide what aid they can to those too sick to make it to the clinic or those who couldn’t make it in. All over the city, their insignia begins popping up on walls, on bridges and overpasses: a simple cloud and monogram reading SLM. And they’re easy to spot — all you need to do is look up. 

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