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Crowmere Station

Design and Layout Greg Saunders

Art Tithi Luadthong

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 Crowmere Station
W hen the Sea of Leaves came, it was destructively superimposed
over everything that had existed before it, destroying the ordered
structures of mankind in an instant. Overnight, the landscape of the
world appeared to have ceased to exist, overgrown with what appeared to
be centuries of growth although the fabric of buildings appeared unaged.
Nowhere is such destruction more noticeable than in the cities, now lost
relics of what they once were. But for those that survived the first days of
the Call, the loss was most keenly felt in the destroyed infrastructure that
instantly ended to dominance of man.

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Crowmere Statioin

rowmere Station is an example of damaged infrastructure, a ruined

decommissioned power plant that once supplied energy to several
nearby cities. Despite the destruction, much of the plant remains intact,
and has drawn survivors looking to escape the dangers of the Sea of
Leaves. Little do they know of the danger they face, Crowmere was a
nuclear power plant and breached containers of deadly contaminated
material remain on site.

Overview
C rowmere Station is composed of around thirty buildings scattered
across a fairly large area, once enclosed by wire fencing and walls.
Although decommissioned before the coming of the Sea of Leaves, the
site was well-maintained. The main reactor is housed in a large building
which dominates the area, poking out of the Sea of Leaves like a vast
brooding ship on an ocean. Many of the smaller buildings have collapsed
or at least been heavily compromised by the arrival of the forest, but a
good proportion of the larger buildings including the storage areas are
still intact. In one particularly overgrown section of the site a set of steps
inside a ruined building mark the entrance to a large storage silo. This
area has been ignored by the new inhabitants of the site, and they remain
unaware of the contaminated material that is leaching into the soil from
the root-cracked silo structure.

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 Members - Around One
Hundred
T he larger structures of Crowmere Station although pierced by trees
and roots remain intact, built as they were on an industrial scale to
resist damage from accidents during the operation of the plant. After the
arrival of the Sea of Leaves people initially avoided the plant, concerned
as they were about possible damage to a known nuclear power station, but
slowly people migrating from the cities gravitated to the area, unaware of
the plants original function and drawn to the large structure protruding
from the forest which appeared to be relatively intact. Now around a
hundred people live in the area of the plant, and Crowmere Station has

Crowmere Statioin
become a recognized community.

Location: A Ruined Building

T he community of Crowmere Station have made their home within
two of the larger warehouses within the site, which although
pierced with trees survived the arrival of the forest relatively intact.
Erecting barricades to protect open areas and constructing a village of
makeshift tents among the trees within the warehouses, the members
of the community have tried their best to make a home of the damaged
industrial landscape they now occupy.

Resources: Small Scale Farming

T he people of Crowmere Station have one key resource – when the
first people arrived, they found a small herd of pigs near to the plant
still fenced in despite the appearance of the forest. Perfectly adapted to
subsistence in the undergrowth, the community has harness and bred the
pigs for food, maintaining their herd and supplementing them with some
grown crops and scavenged foods from the nearby town of Wilderhope.
The leader of the community, Sarah Reid, was once an amateur farmer and
her ability to maintain the herd has secured the immediate future of the
community and her position as its de facto head.

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 Attitude: Cautious
T he people of Crowmere Station are willing to treat with outsiders
– most recognize that they came to the plant after the arrival
of the Sea of Leaves, they were not here beforehand. But at the same
time there is a realization that the herd of animals they raise are a real
resource in the forest, and that now, a ready supply of food is something
that others would fight and maybe even die for. So they carefully guard
what they have, and barricade weak spots allowing entry into their
community, stripping building materials that can easily be transported
from the surrounding buildings. Drifters that arrive at the community are
not turned away, but they aren’t exactly welcomed either – they have to
earn the respect of the community.
Crowmere Statioin

Leadership: Meritocracy
I n Crowmere Station, it is what you know that makes the difference.
Sarah Reid is nominally in charge because her ability to maintain
the herd of pigs that are the principle source of food is recognized as
invaluable to the community. Similarly, Robert Shay, a retired police officer
with many years of experience is the best person to lead the defense of
the community, and is rightly respected. Most of the population are
happy with these almost unconscious arrangements – those best suited to
lead do so. However, there is a so-far silent minority that feel envious of
those ‘in power’. Foremost amongst these is Sabine Herzmann, a student
in Wilderhope who made her way to Crowmere after the arrival of the
Sea of Leaves. Her activities are stirring up the community more than
anything else that has happened in recent times.

Bizarre Practices Involve: The

Dead
T he growing community at Crowmere Station requires an ever
increasing herd of pigs, and pigs need food. Finding enough for
them to eat has been a constant strain on Sarah Reid, and she’ll looks to
any way to feed her animals. When one of the hunters out in the forest
came to her and told her that he’d killed one of the Wild, she had an idea.
At night, the body was brought to the Station and fed to the pigs. Sarah
said to herself that was a one off, but since then the hunter, Jim Tucker,
4 has killed three others and she’s fed them to her herd. None of the rest
of the community know about this, and the pigs are healthy and thriving.
 Noted Individuals
S arah Reid is a hard, practical woman, well aware of her responsibilities.
A short, stocky woman in her mid-thirties, Sarah is a lady of few
words and a decisive, analytical mind. Her background is in farming and
animal husbandry, and so it was only natural that when someone was
needed to look after the animals on which the community depends, she
was first choice. Since then the whole of Crowmere Station has looked to
her as a leader, something she accepts stoically. The idea of feeding the
Wild that Jim Tucker brought her to the pigs was a spur of the moment
thought, but it seems to have affected her, driving her to consider the

Crowmere Statioin
welfare of the animals as even more her responsibility and this new source
of food for them as something she’d be a fool to ignore. Driven and hard,
Sarah is not a person to cross.

J im Tucker hates the Wild, the Lost, and anything else in the forest.
Nursing a silent rage at the Event that stole his family from him,
Tucker takes his gun out beneath the canopy to vent his feeling of
helplessness at whatever he can see through his gun sight. The first
human, or at least ‘once-human’ as he would have it that he killed was one
of the Wild and that was in self-defense. The second may have been one
of the Lost. The third was most probably a Drifter. Jim doesn’t care – all
of these things are just extensions of the hated forest that stole his family
away and wrecked his life. Tall, athletic and handsome, Jim’s hate is well-
hidden behind a calm façade.

R obert Shay is the calming voice in the community, and ex-policeman

who is used to refusing situations and getting the best from people.
In his late sixties and suffering from an early onset of cancer, Shay knowns
in himself that something is wrong and he doesn’t have much time left.
He’s made it his goal to ensure the safety of the community, and to work
with the people to make Crowmere Station a strong place safe from the
Wild and whatever other dangers the forest presents. He knows that Jim
Tucker isn’t as calm and reasonable as he looks, and has promised himself
to keep an eye on the hunter, but he’s now too ill to leave the community.

S abine Herzmann is one of the younger members of the community,

and one of the most recent arrivals. Since her appearance, tensions
have risen in Crowmere Station, as she is one of the few who will openly
challenge the status quo. In Sabine’s mind just because Twilllings can raise
pigs doesn’t mean she should be in control, and Sabine seeks to undermine
Reid at every turn. So far she hasn’t done much more than stir up the rest 5
 of the community, but Sarah has noticed that now when Sabine speaks,
some people are beginning to nod their heads in agreement. Sarah has
now begun to consider the unthinkable – perhaps she needs to see if Jim
Tucker can help her with the ‘problem’. Sabine is short and stocky with a
spiky, disruptive nature and an air of arrogance that many find unbearable.

T o the west of the community lives a Gerald Weir, a brilliant scientist

now reduced to a unhinged hermit by the arrival of the forest.
Weir’s analytical mind couldn’t cope with the impossibility of the forest’s
appearance, and he cracked under the strain. He now lives in a makeshift,
tumbledown encampment, with just a tarpaulin for shelter against the
weather. Most surprisingly, Weir hasn’t succumbed to the Wild or the
creatures that call the forest their home – instead he seems to have been
left alone. This is a result of the unnatural bear that seems to have found
Crowmere Statioin

a companion in Weir. This large, silent creature roams about the camp,
keeping intruders away, and sometimes enters Weir’s home, sitting down
and watching him as he works at the carvings that are now the focus of his
energy. Whenever Weir finishes a carving, the bear gathers it up and take
it away. Weir seems not to notice the loss or indeed the bear – it is the act
of creation that keeps his mind focused.

Adventure Hook - The

Poisoned
U nknown to the community at Crowmere Station, when the station
was decommissioned not all of the contaminated material on-site
was removed. Some was stored in a large underground structure, stabilized
against damage from seismic events. However, the coming of the Sea of
Leaves was not something the original builders considered, and the storage
unit was cracked by the roots of trees. Now contaminated material has
been leaching from the wound, and has entered into the drinking water
supply that the community is using.

T he pigs show the first signs of poisoning – they have been falling
ill, and have been losing weight despite what Sarah has been feeding
them. An air of depression has fallen over the community, as their food
supply ails, and now some of the older members of the Station have
started feeling ill as well. People are looking to Sarah for leadership but at
the moment she’s at a loss. The only person that knows what the problem
8 might be is Gerald Weir, once a scientist that worked in the plant, now
a hermit living by himself in a tarpaulin encampment to the west of
Crowmere. Deluded and somewhat unhinged, Weir knows what’s on the
site and could be persuaded to tell what he knows, providing someone can
convince him.

Adventure Hook - A
New Home
T he community of Crowmere have discovered something – their

Crowmere Statioin
home is contaminated with nuclear waste from a breached storage
silo. Now only death waits for them if they remain in their homes. They
need to find a new place to live, and quickly. But the community is shattered
by the news, and factions have arisen that threaten to derail any attempt to
find a new place to live. Sarah Reid refuses to move, willfully ignoring the
threat of nuclear contamination, stating that there is no way to move the
herd and that is the pigs fail, everyone dies. Herzmann is all for relocation,
and has been vociferously fighting Reid, gathering around a third of the
population to her cause of leaving the station and scouting the forest.
Unknown to her, Reid has persuaded Jim Tucker that Herzmann is too
dangerous to the community to allow her to continue her activities, and
the hunter has a new task. How the situation will be resolved is difficult to
guess.

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