After a gruesome attack by the Reeve on Mourning Glory in June, rumors abounded in the Lakelands that the Reeve was sailing back to Bad Axe, a rowdy pirate port town. Even worse, the Dominion navy was said to be gathering their forces to join her there. This presented an opportunity to those opposing the Dominion though-- wipe out their forces here, and remove their stranglehold on the Lakesea.
Mourners flocked to Bad Axe, where they found a loud and lawless town featuring a large tavern and casino, a tattoo shop, a seemingly haunted lighthouse, and many townsfolk following old gods and sea-related superstitions. Friday night gave these weary travelers a moment to adjust to their new surroundings and acquaint themselves with new- and old- faces. A few met Juno in her tattoo shop, as well as Hal in their noodle nook. As the time grew close to midnight, however, a psionic pall fell over the city, and with it, the warning chime of a deep and onerous bell. The Dominion fleet and the Death Knell had settled not far off-shore, demanding that Bad Axe surrender the Reeve’s sister, Silk– and exchange, they’d only reap “the guilty among you.”
Saturday proved to be a flurry of piratical preparations. One group of wastelanders met the “ghost” of the lighthouse, and with her information rescued Minister General No.Vi from the Dominion. Other groups set sail with the Radiant Company to take the fight straight to the Dominion. And still others pulled off raids to secure and destroy the two halves of Captain Davey’s contract, freeing her crew from their obligations to the Dominion. Even more occurred, from shady meat deliveries to Old God rituals, and investigations into an underwater Dead Zone.
All the while, more and more residents of Bad Axe were turning up cursed with the Reeve’s Black Mark. Those afflicted secretly gathered in a safe house with Silk, under the hopes she could cure the curse, or at least smuggle them to safety before the Reeve made land. Mourners who’d managed to find this safe house worked with Silk to hatch a plan– due to years of exposure to an Old God relic, the Reeve was beyond reasoning with. But perhaps other members of her crew were not out of reach.
All of this led up to the final battle. One team held the battlements of Bad Axe against the encroaching Dominion fleet. Using the battlement’s cannons, their ships were sunk and any foes that tried to scale the walls were dispatched. The brave folks holding the wall even eliminated multiple Predators, the fully-grown form of those pesky parasitic worms. A close call nearly cost the life of one brave scout, but they were saved by their stand-in scoutmaster and the fast thinking of the nearby medics. This team won the night, buying time for a small squad of infiltrators to take the fight directly to the Reeve.
Those courageous souls snuck a small ship close enough to climb aboard the Death Knell, a metal monster of a ship resurrected from wars waged long ago. Making their way successfully through the lower decks, they located the First Mate, Vito Vanta, and appealed to his duty as a faith leader and follower of the Code. Though it pained him to admit that his long-time captain was finally at her wit’s end, he agreed to lead the assassins above deck and hold back the crew so that they could face the Reeve alone. The following fight was brutal, with the Reeve enduring her assailant’s battery through sheer inhuman determination. In her last moments of anguish, she sent out a wave of psionic power capable of killing those unable to swiftly shield their mind. Luckily, a local was able to move their anti-aberrant field in a show of great will, and no casualties but the Reeve were had.
The next day, the Mourners surveyed the damage and packed up their things. The Dominion now has no navy, no general, no curie, and no hope of winning this war. It’s time for their extreme beliefs, and the violence that follows, to stop. It’s time for the Dominion War to end.