Deep within Merkadome lies an underground fortress called the Gateway, where the shadowy vigilantes of the Undergroud Department (UD Undergroud Department) guard the entrance to the labyrinth of subterranean galleries filled with threats that secretly stalk the settlement.
Description
Beneath the bowels of Merkadome lies a vast network of tunnels that combine parking lots, basements, warehouses, maintenance corridors, subway lines, and natural chasms, spanning an area that’s difficult to calculate, perhaps even impossible. Many of these places are flooded, crumbling, unstable, infested with who-knows-what, all of it dangerous, very dangerous. This subterranean underworld is known simply as “the depths,” since giving it a more personal name would make the carefree inhabitants of Merkadome aware of the powder keg they live on.
But this subterranean world, with its mysteries, terrors, and limitless opportunities, has a plug, a fortified access that prevents any threat or abomination from emerging, and prevents any but its owners from accessing its resources—not for free. Down there, in the fortress known as the Gateway, is where the Merkadome dumps its misfits and dangerous criminals, some willingly, some not. Should they survive their training and indoctrination, the members of the UD (Undergroud Department) are considered dead men, having been buried alive beneath the Merkadome’s foundations, rarely to see the light of day again.
The Gateway owes its importance to the restored freight elevator that connects to the old hyperloop line and is now the only safe method of descending into the tunnels, around which the UD Bunker was fortified, a very small section in the still habitable depths of Merkadome, the smallest department, since there is hardly any population, it is more of an operations base around the hyperloop, of “department” it only has the name and independence from the other mascas, becoming more of a small garrison and fortification in the lower corridors and rooms of the settlement, which delimits with the mysterious depths that lie below.
The members of the UD (or Watchmen, or Buried Ones, as they are often known) form a semi-penal organization of hunters, explorers, and sappers who roam the tunnels to loot and monitor for subterranean threats that may emerge from the depths, patrolling and guarding the tunnels on dangerous and long expeditions that also seek to exploit the still-untouched resources of these forgotten tunnels. This group of desperate volunteers condemned to service form a very secretive corps of underground vigilantes noted for their great dedication and sectarianism. They are also known for charging exorbitant prices for access to these tunnels to fortune hunters, as well as offering expensive but indispensable escort and guide services. A mix of hunter-trackers, speleologists, and even sappers who repair or seal the most vulnerable areas of the subsoil, even beneath flooded areas. Therefore, they have several functions for the settlement (apart from being occasional thugs to take out a few bullets when off duty):
-They control a lift in the old hyperloop, which is the best and safest (not the only one, but take your chances) method of going down to the lower tunnels (for a fee). Fees are offered for escorts and guides.
They recover, monitor, and explore the tunnels. They monitor threats, hunt dangerous predators, and recover technology or resources (either to sell, supply local scavengers, or provision themselves).
-They map the tunnels as best they can, sell those plans and information to suicides and scouts.
-They seal off areas of the underground that are too dangerous to keep open (and some that they don’t want anyone else to see) with their own doors and locks.
-Although they do not form a religious cult, they do share customs, secrets and a “professional folklore”, although they have a strong hierarchy and discipline, and are deeply hermetic and superstitious to the point of sectarianism.
Masca
Kobalto, the Lord of the bunker and leader of the vigilantes.
Sly leader and founder of the organization called UD (Undergroud Department) that controls the bunker’s stronghold under martial law. Seasoned, secretive, conspiratorial and paranoid, a tough bastard for his age, already relatively advanced, who has achieved a relevant position in Merkadome directing the Portal as a personal fiefdom away from the eyes of the other mascas.
Other personalities
Rebeca Hunter “Huntress”: Second-in-command and head of the scouts. Kobalt’s protégé and his enforcer. Sober and brutal, she leads and trains the rangers since Kobalt settled down with age. She stays away from politics due to her brutal and excessive way of exercising diplomacy.
“The Cartographer”: A mysterious mutard with a strange connection to the tunnels, the being known as “The Cartographer” is a mysterious cassock-clad figure who lurks within the sanctum sanctorum of the Portico, from where he guides a strange tunnel cult, advises and indoctrinates the wardens, and maps strange plans of the depths, which he also tattoos onto the skin of the Portico members.
Burk “Gray Rat”: Veteran sewer explorer who has discovered the most tunnels. A fierce hunter and virtuoso explorer, strong and skilled, he can disappear underground for long periods of time, so that if he were to come across someone else, he would be presumed dead. He is skilled and capable, but also an uncontrollable storm, partying and destructive during his leave from the nearest Merkadome cantina.
Roxanne “the apparition”: Roxanne’s childlike laughter is the last thing anyone going down the tunnels expects to hear. There, in the menacing, deep darkness, it’s the most disturbing, even terrifying thing you’ll ever hear. A carefree and eccentric orphan who spends more time in the tunnels than up there, she knows much more than she lets on. Albino and strange, she looks like an apparition, but she likes to help and joke with travelers and guards.
“Half-Alive”: Former scrap metal dealer. Burly, dark-skinned, tall, one-armed, and one-eyed. Grumpy but cunning. Maintains the Gateway elevator and manages the workshop foremen. Barry Sanders is vital to the watchmen’s work, as he is in charge of maintaining the machinery, weapons, and tunnel-sealing mechanisms they use. According to his colleagues, he’s “a big-muscled nerd,” but he owes his name to the mutilations he suffered in an accident during the robbery of the Sherif’s treasure, the same robbery that led him to the Gateway.
Main locations
Places of interest:
Undergound Department Barracks:
–House of Chains: Prison in the maintenance tunnels where those who have committed infractions in the tunnels, against the guards, and guards who have attempted to escape or violated the organization’s ordinances are held. Needless to say, it’s not a pleasant place.
–The blind channel: A long section of the depths very close to the elevator that has been flooded by leaks from the dam. Nauseating and toxic, the route is used by the guards via a pair of barges and zip lines that they use as the central artery of their underground expeditions.
– Hunters’ Hall: Hyperloop access gallery where the UD hunting trophies have been placed to celebrate the glory and skill of the explorers, filled with skulls, skins, and remains of unclassifiable beasts.
Garitos:
-The Reclaimer’s Forge: Former boiler and storage rooms, converted into a workshop, storage room, and small forge. Everyone can access the tunnels for resources. All resources found by patrols end up in this workshop.
-Sanctuary of maps of the “Cartographer”: This strange place, a mixture of a cave full of mural paintings reminiscent of an illegible map and a scroll shop, is inhabited only by a few small children, silent and cautious, who attend the enigmatic figure of the “Cartographer”, whose face no one has ever seen… Here, explorers can buy maps of the tunnels while UD guards are tattooed with the maps of the tunnels they have explored.
-The Elevator: The Portal’s main resource, source of its power, influence, and bullets. It is an old freight elevator that connected the lower floors of the mall with the Underground Hyperloop. It still works and with little maintenance and with the electricity from the Sherife, it is the only safe passage to reach the tunnels and galleries below. The freight elevator had and still has a series of impassable security doors and adjoining rooms that form the bastion of the Portal. The access, heavily guarded, is in itself a customs and a fortress that controls and collects safe passage.
Resources
The Portal, or rather the UD, controls a small area in practice, but benefits from a vast expanse of tunnels and galleries that it not only monitors but also exploits with a monopoly. With this as its axis, the UD offers several services and resources to Merkadome:
-It monitors the tunnels and keeps the settlement safe from numerous underground threats by patrolling, exploring, and controlling (or sealing off) the most dangerous areas.
-Sells resources recovered from the tunnels: scrap metal, remnants of damaged technology, edible mushrooms, beast meat, and materials. They also sell what they themselves process and restore in their salvage forges.
-They create a penal solution for criminals and a reintegration solution for misfits that helps Merkadome directly and indirectly.
-It provides equipment and maps, as well as offers escorts and guides at very abusive prices to those who want to explore, recover resources, or smuggle contraband through distant access points via its tunnels, for which they also rip you off.
