The Slums

“If it ain’t Downtown, it’s the Slums.”

This quaint aphorism succinctly expresses the feelings shared by the residents of the City’s Slums. City dwellers unable to afford the high rents, or who lack the influential friends to “pull a few strings” (that is, the bulk of its residents) live outside 0. To be Organised/Malifaux’s Downtown in what is collectively referred to as the Slums. Even the well-to-do find themselves leaving the Slums as their forwarding address when the scrip runs out and they are no longer welcome in their well-appointed apartment suites Downtown.

Spreading out from Downtown like a grimy blanket, the Slums extends to the south across the River, the Industrial Zone to the east, and running into the Quarantine Zone on every side. Because Guild patrols sweep through the Slums with less frequency than Downtown, and because significant portions of the Slums have yet to be thoroughly explored, only a fool walks the streets unarmed.

Where Downtown provides its exclusive residents a few of the creature comforts left Earthside, the Slums offers shelter in the form of crumbling stone and brick houses, clusters of shantytown lean-tos, and even less stable structures cobbled together from scraps scavenged from deeper parts of the City. Where Downtown hosts exclusive restaurants and theatres to entertain Guild administrators and affluent visitors, the Slums entertains its residents with plank bars, opium dens, brothels, and gambling houses where the games are as crooked as a bolt of Badlands lightning.

A few points of interest do draw Downtowners into the Slums for more than a quick, dangerous thrill. The Eternal Chapel stands along the riverfront, its lone sealed door standing mute sentinel as the River flows by. The Blood Fountain weeps its crimson tears just outside Downtown, artists and scholars visiting regularly to capture and analyse its liquid, neither able to truly explain its origin or purpose. Likewise, despite their tumbledown appearance, the Slums contains several excellent examples of 0. To be Organised/Malifaux’s unique architectural style. Many of the Downtown structures have been reworked or reinforced by the Guild, while the Slum’s buildings remain in the state they were found when the Breach reopened.

The Slums also serves as an excellent retreat for individuals with ‘questionable’ criminal records, where fugitives can find plenty of nooks and crannies in which to wait out whomever – or whatever – may be hunting them. It is common knowledge that Guild spies work their back room intrigues in the Slum’s bars, and only the same fool who would walk the streets unarmed would talk in public without being careful who was listening. The Guild spends many a cold morning pulling those same fools from the River when they finally float to the surface.