The Industrial Zone

The noise of heavy machinery and the wafts of chemical fumes welcome you to this district of workshops and light industry. Here you’ll find small factories, warehouses, and ample empty derelict buildings with office space to rent. Forlorn diners and laborers’ pubs stand empty most of the time, except for a precious few hours before and after work and during breaks. The nights are silent and tense, and underneath the sullen backstreets all manners of illegal entertainment can be found.

Sometimes, you can hear unusual grating and screeching coming from the machinery, as if the engines were speaking to each other, or far away laughter in another factory; but then you think it’s probably just the wind caught in the empty silos. Or your eyes follow a wolfish silhouette running on the rooftops only to see a drunk fellow stepping out from behind the dumpster where the beast landed just a moment ago.

The authorities almost never bother themselves with this district, since it has almost no formal residents (i.e., voters), so Rifts treat this place as a free-for-all zone, especially at night. Entire blocks are claimed by one legend or another, transformed into whatever most pleases them, be it the dank dwelling of the Spider Queen or the luscious hallucination of the Endless Green Meadow. Any Sleeper who accidentally stumbles across them may never see the light of day again...

Places of Interest:

• The Warehouse -  The warehouse is a must-have location for every operation, mundane or legendary. Whether you are a smuggler trafficking arms, a cartel manufacturing drugs, or a sorcerous Rift torturing your enemies, everybody needs a workspace. Amid crates with strange labels and dormant heavy machinery, one can set up a workshop, a lab, a training center, or even a labyrinthine complex of rooms, each with its own deathtrap for one’s unwelcomed visitors.
  
  
• The Underground Club - This is where you want to go to blow off some steam. Set up in decommissioned industrial facilities these are spaces of exposed concrete, obscure graffiti, and dark corridors that reek of piss and chemicals. Some clubs sport a chain-link fence ring or a fighting pit where combatants – canine, human, or something else – rip each other to shreds or beat each other to a pulp to the roaring cheers of drunk spectators. Others are nefarious drug dens, where the air is laced with smoke and hallucinogens, connected to chill out zones or thudding dance clubs via hidden underground passages. This is where the lowest of lowlifes congregate, criminals of any sort and kind, who use these clubs for recreation as well as for networking. Here, with the right connections, one can buy black market goods, hire a hitman, or send a message to an obscure underworld leader.
  
  

Locals:

• Eddie Dreamtime / Aboriginal Dreamtime
  Eddie Dreamtime is the big kahuna at the “Bowl” club. A middle-aged veteran of the Rift underworld of the Industrial Zone. He wants Rifts to have a place where they can be themselves without having to hold back or apologize for their abilities, not even to each other. He believes all Rifts are reality benders and that they are limited only by their modern conditioning and indoctrination. According to Eddie, Rifts are meant to shape reality and partake in the recreation of the world. For now, he is content to run the club and give his fellow Rifts a neutral place to blow off steam.
  
  
• Lisa Monroe / The Big Bad Wolf
  Lisa Monroe is hungry. A forewoman in one of the district’s largest food factories, she has been battling her drive to devour everything edible in sight for over a year now. At some point, she couldn’t resist any longer and ambushed a fellow worker late at night, by the grain silos. Once she tasted blood and the thrill of a kill, the battle was lost. Lisa gave in to the wolf and, with her newfound sense of smell, she caught a whiff of something she craved even more: Rifts.
  
  
• Colm “Spider” Jameson / Spider Grandmother
  Colm "Spider" Jameson is a bounty hunter who specializes in bringing in wanted Rifts. A little rough around the edges, Spider initially comes across as a brute, which often leads his targets to think they could outsmart him. His biker look, his tattoos, and the sawed-off shotgun he carries around only reinforce this perception. But nothing could be further from the truth. Spider works with alarming cleverness and precision, closing in on his mark in an inward spiral that eventually leaves them nowhere to run.