stories of a city & other places

Author: BlackmouthChronicler

Beneath Cold Boughs

Beneath cold boughs, cold deeds are done
Beneath cold boughs, innocence is hung

19th century children’s rhyme, origin unknown

Beneath Cold Boughs is an ongoing chronicle set in Blackmouth, currently on hodl due to the COVID pandemic of 2020-. It follows the story of three once-ordinary people as they try to survive the dangers of their own monstrous Hungers as well as the vast and lethal mysteries lurking in the shadows of the world.

Dramatis Personae

Diana Graves: A domineering social climber and corporate predator, the owner of Condor Acquisitions with a grand plans to bring the entire city into her grasp and remake it in her terrible image.

Jane Barrows: A student psychologist turned corporate aide, wrestling with her urges to hurt those most deserving of it and trying to keep a balance between the turbulent personalities of her kin.

Morris Mayfair: A small businessman who has fallen in with the Irish Mob, his monstrous strength and penchant for extreme violence with the slightest provocation has helped him on his path into the underworld but made enemies and alienated friends and family.

Chapters

  • Things Fall Apart – Strange happenings in Willowgate Arcade lead three souls down a very dark path. [This was the first arc of Beneath Cold Boughs, completed before session records were written so is recorded here as a single entry].
  • In Bloom – Four weeks have passed since the incident with the Tree, those involved have tried to forget and get on with their lives but nothing is that easy.
  • Down Among the Worms – Diana and Jane encounter someone who may actually know what has happened to them, and Condor Acquisitions gains a new contract as a first step toward Empire.
  • Seeping Through the Skin – Morris trails the Tree and bites off more than he can chew as things begin to spin out of control.
  • The Upside Down – Diana and Jane deal with the aftermath of Morris’ rampage and find more layers to the mysteries and strangeness of the world they have descended into.
  • Intrusions and Invitations – Repercussions continue, accidents happen and an invitation behind the curtain is recieved.
  • At the Court of the Rose and Cross – The Children meet Lane and her Court and deals are struck.
  • Ripples on the Pond – Diana and Jane have a quiet week while Morris recuperates, but peace and quiet can only last a short while before breaking.
  • The Fire and the Fury – An attack on one of the Children is an attack on all of them, and revenge is wrought in fire, blood and pain.
  • In the Ashes – The aftermath of a night’s violence and Diana closes her grip on Presidents Row.
  • Stepping Inside – Condor Acquisitions joins the Ormwood Development family.
  • Conversations With Friends – Diana has a night at the opera she will not forget, and Morris finds himself the target of police investigations.
  • Ex Post Facto – The firebombing of Morris’ home leads Det. Mayou to begin digging deeper into the shady details of his life.
  • Escalation – The feud with the Aryan Legion deepens as Morris’ family is kidnapped.
  • Through the Caul – Jane sees another side to the world in Ashton Park, while Morris throws himself into work to hide the hole where his family should be.
  • Blood Will Out – Morris finds purpose in brutality, and answers in the dark beneath an archway in dreams.
  • Negotiation – The Children escape a botched ambush with materiel and a hostage to interrogate.
  • Knowest Thou – Morris begins to carve his mark into Ormwood while Jane and Diana prepare to meet SGSS.
  • Answers and Questions – Contact is made with SGSS, and answers are obtained along with a lot more questions.
  • Ignition – Morris and Jane begin working down The List of possible AL informants.
  • Iron and Blood – Jane pursues the Cranemaker intent on both answers and justice, and gains a little of each.
  • By Fire Unbound – Morris and Price pursue Eddie Carter and face more than they can handle.
  • Charlie Foxtrot
  • The Offered Hand

Welcome to Blackmouth

The City of Arches, The Free City
Motto: Et sta super omnes nos (And above all we stand)

Blackmouth is the most populous city in the state of New Hampshire and one of the oldest cities in the United States. It is the seat of Saul County, although the county government was disbanded in 1975. The city is the heart of the greater Blackmouth metropolitan area, home to an estimated 2.1 million people in 2016.

Blackmouth was founded in 1643 on the southern side of the Black River around the military fort of Harton’s Knobbe. The city prospered as a trading port during the colonial era, fed by influxes of settlers who could not find home among the Puritan-dominated colonies of Massachusetts Bay, including Anglicans, Catholics and Jews. The city was the site of one of the first English-speaking Catholic churches in the Americas and has a large Catholic population even today.

Unlike its southern neighbour of Boston, Blackmouth saw no action during the Revolutionary War but was raided and burned by British forces during the War of 1812. Rebuilding began soon after under the guidance of visionary architect Victor Herbert Crane, following a grand plan intended to capture the zeitgeist of the new America he called ‘The Rebirth’. The city also began to industrialise, the culverting of the rivers and burying the ruins of its colonial past under grand avenues, monumental stonework and new railroads.

The city began to decline in the 20th century as local resources began to run dry and industry moved westward. Lend lease, war production and the Marshall Plan bought a few more decades of life but it was not enough. By the end of the 20th Century, Blackmouth suffered the same problems as New York and Chicago, urban deterioration as heavy industry moves abroad. Swathes of what was once the industrial heart of the city moulders unused, warehouses and docks half empty and rusting into the ground.

Today, Blackmouth is bloodied by unbowed. Hollingworth University remains one of the great institutions of the Ivy League, though nearby Boston still steals away the city’s best and brightest. Tourists come to gawk and stare at the city’s monumental architecture and enjoy the casinos of Dover Island, one of the only locations in New Hampshire that allow commercial gambling. Visitors to Blackmouth should take care, for Blackmouth is also the missing persons capital of the US, with more people going missing there each year than the entire state of Arizona.

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