The Ork Underground
The Ork Underground has roots dating back to Seattle’s ancient history. After the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, they decreed that new buildings must be made of fire-resistant material rather than wood. Since the city was built on a floodplain, which often, you know, flooded, they decided to lift everything by two stories as well. The lower levels of older buildings were used mostly for storage, and eventually they were just sealed off and ignored. In the late twentieth century, there was some interest in exploring them again, revealing that in the years between the undercity had been expanded by bootleggers and red-light workers, then expanded again by the city for underground transit. Some areas were refurbished and cleaned up for tourism, while most were left untouched.
In the face of a common threat— the society in the upper world— most of the residents of the Ork Underground get along fairly well. There are many thieves down there, but they don’t often steal from the poorer residents: in the surface world, there’s plenty of space to run in, and such thieves abound, but the Underground is more constrained.
> The underground was initially sealed off due to fear of disease back in 1907. > NephrineWhen Mt. Rainier shook Seattle in 2011, the underground was closed off again for fear of collapse and poison gas pockets (poison is far more dangerous than lava in an eruption, but lava gets all the airtime). Desperate people gradually opened small pathways down below— first the homeless, then the goblinized— as society turned a blind eye. “Out of sight, out of mind,” after all. In 2039, Governor Victor Allenson rounded up every metahuman in Seattle and concentrated them into camps in the warehouse districts of Tacoma and downtown. On February 7, those warehouses all went up in flame. Thankfully, the goblins down below had already opened some passages for smuggling supplies up; those passages were then used to get thousands of people to safety. Not every-one, but a great many. If you ever wonder who’s getting burned in effigy during the Night of Rage remembrances, it’s Allenson.
> Rotting in Hell’s too good for him. > ButchThe city woke up from the madness, and most of the metahumans were brought back into society, but many couldn’t overcome the betrayal. They stayed below. Goblins and dwarfs worked together to expand the underground tunnels, shore them up, and establish places both large enough for a community to thrive and small enough to provide hiding places should they ever be needed again. They further discovered many tunnels created in the aftermath of the volcanic eruptions; science can’t explain how they came to be, but to the creators of the underground, they were a blessing no matter the source. In the mid ’40s, there was a big falling out between the ork and dwarf communities. There’d been many arguments in the past, but the trolls had always managed to keep the peace, but this time? It was too much. The dwarfs, who’d had the majority of engineering lore and college education, gathered up for a mass exodus, turning the Seattle Underground into the Ork Underground. Details are sketchy about what caused it, but the dwarfs have carried a grudge about it ever since.
In the face of a common threat— the society in the upper world— most of the residents of the Ork Underground get along fairly well. There are many thieves down there, but they don’t often steal from the poorer residents: in the surface world, there’s plenty of space to run in, and such thieves abound, but the Underground is more constrained.
Defences
The Trogs, looking dangerous in their red and black, are the gang that claims the Underground as territory, and they often serve as a de facto police force that discourages people from criminal activities they don’t profit from. They have recently instituted formal accounting procedures for customers paying protection money, and serve as a broker of jobs— targeting people who don’t pay— to thieves.
The Underground attracts many beings that are not comfortable in sunlight: ghouls, wendigos, vampires, and dzoo-noo-qua. (The creatures bearing HMHVV have to watch their steps: most Trolls have an intense dislike for the dzoo-noo-qua that they could potentially become, and of the vampires and wendigo that could render them into such beasts.) Ghouls are occasionally tolerated, though they seldom survive being caught eating residents of the Underground or their friends.
The Underground attracts many beings that are not comfortable in sunlight: ghouls, wendigos, vampires, and dzoo-noo-qua. (The creatures bearing HMHVV have to watch their steps: most Trolls have an intense dislike for the dzoo-noo-qua that they could potentially become, and of the vampires and wendigo that could render them into such beasts.) Ghouls are occasionally tolerated, though they seldom survive being caught eating residents of the Underground or their friends.
Industry & Trade
The Ork Underground has a strong economy of barter, flavored with tokens from the Give Us Your Quarters laundromat. Money comes in from the outside through the shops that tourists visit in the Mall, the money of topside trogs who like to shop among their own kind, and the salaries of the few who live in the Ork Underground and work in the surface world.
Tourism
The Ork Underground connects with the outside world through pedestrian entrances and ventilation shafts. (There are a number of buildings in Seattle providing discreet ventilation access, and establishing these is a way of currying favor with the folks underground.) There are very few vehicle entrances: internal combustion engines are frowned upon in the Ork Underground, and the usual transport down there is the occasional electric trolley that used to be some other sort of vehicle. (One of the entrances is in an underground parking garage on the outskirts of the downtown area, and there are folks who live in the Underground and have permanent parking passes for this garage.) The pumps— the only thing keeping the Ork Underground from flooding from the regular rains in Seattle— are almost as important as the ventilation fans. Some of the areas in the Underground actually have streams flowing through them on their way out to the Sound.
There are still tour spots in the Underground where it’s relatively safe for an unaccompanied Human, Elf, or Dwarf to wander around. Those wandering outside such trading areas have to be ready to demonstrate their own toughness. (Those who do so on a regular basis can gain a grudging acceptance— though they’ll be tested occasionally by those who won’t believe without personal experience.)
There are 22 known public entrances to the Underground, and the number of miscellaneous ventilation shafts, private entrances, power conduits, sewer and storm drain portals, and similar such accesses are probably not known by anyone. The official tour entrances are inside the Big Rhino (in the basement of the Seattle Utilities Building at Seneca and First streets) and the basement of Lordstrung’s Department Store (at Fifth and Pine): this area is called the Mall, and is the most well-lit area (and safest for breeders, keebs, and halfers). It functions as a bazaar— one of the best black markets in the Sprawl— with a number of permanent shops working out of renovated 19th century storefronts, dating back to the old Seattle before the streets were covered over. It sports many garish murals and contorted statues for tourists to gawk at, and any number of trashy carvings, cheap trinkets, and brightly colored souvenirs are available here.
Further away from the Mall, there are ornate friezes and filigreed arches, many of which date back to the time of Dwarfs living in the Underground; some are the work of current residents showing their civic pride.
There is very little Matrix service in the Ork Underground, and few places have cellphone repeaters installed. (The Bazaar is one exception.)
There are still tour spots in the Underground where it’s relatively safe for an unaccompanied Human, Elf, or Dwarf to wander around. Those wandering outside such trading areas have to be ready to demonstrate their own toughness. (Those who do so on a regular basis can gain a grudging acceptance— though they’ll be tested occasionally by those who won’t believe without personal experience.)
There are 22 known public entrances to the Underground, and the number of miscellaneous ventilation shafts, private entrances, power conduits, sewer and storm drain portals, and similar such accesses are probably not known by anyone. The official tour entrances are inside the Big Rhino (in the basement of the Seattle Utilities Building at Seneca and First streets) and the basement of Lordstrung’s Department Store (at Fifth and Pine): this area is called the Mall, and is the most well-lit area (and safest for breeders, keebs, and halfers). It functions as a bazaar— one of the best black markets in the Sprawl— with a number of permanent shops working out of renovated 19th century storefronts, dating back to the old Seattle before the streets were covered over. It sports many garish murals and contorted statues for tourists to gawk at, and any number of trashy carvings, cheap trinkets, and brightly colored souvenirs are available here.
Further away from the Mall, there are ornate friezes and filigreed arches, many of which date back to the time of Dwarfs living in the Underground; some are the work of current residents showing their civic pride.
There is very little Matrix service in the Ork Underground, and few places have cellphone repeaters installed. (The Bazaar is one exception.)
Type
District
Population
40,000 Human: 4% Dwarf: 5% Elf: 1% Ork: 82% Troll: 7% Other: 1%
Location under
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