Odrun Fell

The Spine Verge is a volatile boundary chamber near the breach site of an old Promissory smuggling tunnel. Five years ago, smugglers attempted to bore through a resin-veined section of the club to build a shortcut beneath the Hilt—but struck into an active colony of Spinewasps. The wasps nested deep into marrow vents where rare alchemical vapors seep from heated mineral pockets, forming a perfect incubator for their kind. The breach was sealed, but the Verge became a pressure chamber. The Promissory still denies its role, but the Cudgel maintains a light blockade near the edges and has red-zoned the area. Spinewasp chitin is prized for its electric conductivity, and reckless delvers often sneak in to harvest the dead, despite the growing hum that now echoes all the way to the Hilt’s lower hallways.

The Verge pulses with golden haze and low, bone-vibrating hums. The tunnel ceiling arches high like a cathedral ribcage, thick with waxen, honeycomb-like growths that drip amber ichor down onto the slick wooden floor. Clusters of Spinewasp brood hang in fleshy sacs, each one twitching with larval motion. Scorch marks from past electrical discharges arc across resin-soaked planks, some still faintly smoking. The air smells of burnt sugar and venom. Bloated Spinewasps hover between comb-nests and stinger perches, their wings emitting a harmonic thrum that shifts as they move, like tuning forks dipped in thunder. Near the breach, a collapsed tunnel glows faintly from within, where some say a Spine-Queen now nests in silence.