Crossroads world illustration - Urban Fantasy theme
Urban Fantasy

Crossroads

G
Grue

A post-apocalyptic cyber-fantasy noir where magic, cybernetics, and crime rule a shattered NYC.


Author's Note: The year is 2155. New York City, once a beacon of human ambition, is now a fractured ruin—a war-torn battleground where magic, cybernetics, and psionic power collide. The Riftstorm was no accident. It was the result of humanity’s reckless ambition, an experiment meant to breach the walls of reality itself. But instead of unlocking the secrets of existence, the experiment tore open the fabric of the world, unleashing raw magical forces, shattering the laws of physics, and summoning entities that should never have existed. Rifts erupted across the globe, merging technology with sorcery, flesh with machine, past with future. Civilization crumbled overnight as monsters from forgotten myths walked among men, psychic abilities awoke in the minds of the desperate, and entire cities were twisted into nightmares of shifting reality. The world plunged into darkness, and billions perished. Now, from the ruins, new powers emerge. Survivors scavenge, rebuild, and fight for control of a city where science and legend now entwine. Magic surges through the streets, flowing through awakened ley lines, while salvaged cybernetics hum with unstable energy. Warlords rule over shattered districts, enforcing their will with enchanted firearms, biomechanical abominations, and psionic enforcers who bend minds to their cause. Artificial intelligences, once shackled to human command, now preach their own gospel, twisting reality to their unknowable ends. New York is no longer a city—it is a crossroads, where time and space fracture, where the forgotten gods of old battle the neon-lit ghosts of humanity’s past, and where survival is a daily struggle. Morality is an illusion, and power belongs only to those bold enough to seize it from the chaos. And beyond the rifts, something watches. Waiting. Hunger beyond hunger. A force beyond reason. The experiment may have failed, but the consequences are far from over.
Played40 times
Cloned5 times
Created
78 days ago
Last Updated
24 days ago
VisibilityPublic
The Dead Subway
The Dead Subway
Point of Interest
Details
Coordinates(-5536, 5095)
Description

Beneath Upper Manhattan lies The Forgotten Arteries of Crossroads, an abandoned subway system severed from Grand Central long ago. Collapsed tunnels, rusted train cars, and Rift-corrupted passageways stretch into the dark, their original purpose lost to time. Faint echoes of old train announcements mix with whispers that shouldn’t exist, and some claim the tunnels shift, loop, and lead to places beyond reality. Rift anomalies pulse through the depths, warping gravity, fusing metal with flesh, and leaving phantom passengers trapped in time. Smugglers and fugitives use these tunnels at their own risk, dodging rail-walking husks, rogue AI security, and the ghostly hum of an automated train with no conductor. Those who stay too long disappear—or return changed. Whether a graveyard of lost history or a gateway to something worse, the Forgotten Arteries remain untouched, waiting for the next traveler foolish enough to enter.

Appearance

The tunnels are dimly lit by bioluminescent fungi, with rusting train cars half-buried in debris. The air is thick with the scent of mold and decay, and the walls pulse with an eerie energy, hinting at the Rift's influence.

This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 (“SRD 5.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC . The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
We are not affiliated with Dungeons & Dragons or Wizards of The Coast in any way.
© 2025 Friends & Fables
Privacy PolicyTerms of Service