The Dells
No one went to the Dells. No one started settlements in the Dells. No one wanted anything to do with the Dells. During the Ironworks era, the abandoned pre-fall amusement park and its surrounding township in Wischigan were one of the most feared locations in the entire Ironworks, avoided by caravans, trains, and settlements alike. A deliberate radius surrounded the area, charted officially on maps, and every route through the territory curved carefully around the exclusion zone.
The amusement park had dried-out waterslides and irradiated wave pools. The surrounding main street was lined with dilapidated buildings and cracked asphalt. By day, the Dells looked like any other ruin in the wasteland. At night, the place came alive with things that had no explanation.
Lights flickered on and off. Music from the rides drifted to surrounding areas. The laughter of children could be heard. People reported seeing children through gated fences, staring outward. Others saw rides functioning from a distance and heard splashing in the wave pool. A sphere of dulling silence spread outward from the park. Some believed a psionic pulse warned people away before they got too close.
Caravans that once cut through the Dells as a shortcut to the Great Lake often never arrived at their destinations. The legend grew so great that the Ironworks officially charted the exclusion zone, and the empire's overlords decided that some places were simply not worth the fight. Whether ghosts, psionic effects, or something else entirely, the Dells remained one of the genuine mysteries of the Ironworks, a place where even the zed and raiders seemed unwilling to go.
The amusement park had dried-out waterslides and irradiated wave pools. The surrounding main street was lined with dilapidated buildings and cracked asphalt. By day, the Dells looked like any other ruin in the wasteland. At night, the place came alive with things that had no explanation.
Lights flickered on and off. Music from the rides drifted to surrounding areas. The laughter of children could be heard. People reported seeing children through gated fences, staring outward. Others saw rides functioning from a distance and heard splashing in the wave pool. A sphere of dulling silence spread outward from the park. Some believed a psionic pulse warned people away before they got too close.
Caravans that once cut through the Dells as a shortcut to the Great Lake often never arrived at their destinations. The legend grew so great that the Ironworks officially charted the exclusion zone, and the empire's overlords decided that some places were simply not worth the fight. Whether ghosts, psionic effects, or something else entirely, the Dells remained one of the genuine mysteries of the Ironworks, a place where even the zed and raiders seemed unwilling to go.
