Cursed City Resident RPG

THE CURSED CITY

The Cursed City had once been an ordinary metropolis, a place alive with families, workers, and dreamers going about their routines. That changed when disaster struck.

A classified government experiment had gone catastrophically wrong. An unknown energy—perhaps extradimensional, perhaps eldritch—leaked uncontrollably into the streets. Reality itself began to fray: electronics sparked and died, physics warped in impossible ways, and the people... changed.

Panic spread as citizens tried to flee, only to be blocked by an ironclad military quarantine. The government, desperate to contain the catastrophe and erase all evidence, abandoned those trapped inside. No rescue arrived. No aid followed. Silence fell, and the city became a tomb.

Over time, the survivors mutated. Flesh twisted, minds warped, humanity eroded—but intelligence and memory endured. They became something other: grotesque, powerful, and immortal in ways no human could be. With that power came revulsion—a deep, instinctive loathing for the unaltered humans, those still living as “The Before.” The changed called themselves the Abnormals, and the city became their domain, their cursed kingdom, their hunting ground.

Years later, four human factions breached the quarantine, each pursuing its own agenda. The ruins became a multi-sided warzone, where the Abnormals and humans clashed relentlessly, and rival factions turned the city into a battlefield.

LAYOUT / STRUCTURE

The Cursed City sprawls across a vast, quarantined urban expanse—once a thriving metropolis of millions, now a labyrinthine ruin reshaped by the curse. Roughly 20–30 square miles of concrete, steel, and mutated matter are encircled by an impenetrable military blockade: razor wire, watchtowers, minefields, and naval patrols on the surrounding bay and river. Perpetual overcast skies and a clinging Mist create dim, twilight conditions year-round, occasionally illuminated by unnatural auroras flickering overhead.

The city is divided into irregular districts warped by the curse. Some areas have collapsed into craters, others fused into grotesque mega-structures, while the Labyrinth constantly rearranges streets, bridges, and buildings. Navigation relies on instinct, landmarks, or the guidance of entities like the Labyrinth or the Crows. Faction strongholds are scattered across the map, often clashing in contested border zones.

KEY DISTRICTS & AREAS

Downtown Core / The Spire District The former financial heart, where towering skyscrapers lean at impossible angles, many fused together by Ooze or overgrown with Blackflowers. The tallest structure—the old stock exchange, now called the Broken Spire—serves as a vantage point for aerial threats such as the BQZ Trio.

•	High-value finds: Abandoned luxury offices hold rare pre-curse tech (drones, encrypted servers), experimental military gear, and scattered reality-anchor fragments (PTF salvage).
•	Hazards: Heavy Shadow Hand presence, frequent Statue clusters on rooftops, and Dream Eaters in darkened penthouses.
•	Blackflowers: Uncommon, mostly in upper floors and cracked executive suites where sunlight once reached.

Industrial Zone / The Forges A sprawling belt of factories, warehouses, and rail yards along the eastern edge. Smokestacks belch unnatural fumes, and conveyor belts creak under the slow advance of the Ooze.

•	Resources: Abundant scrap metal, chemicals (useful for Ruinok-style experiments), heavy machinery, and military vehicle graveyards—some still functional. Medicine caches exist in old worker clinics or hazmat storage.
•	Hazards: Ooze dominates low-lying areas; Eviscerators and Abominations roam open lots; artillery barrages from abandoned military posts are frequent.
•	Blackflowers: Grow in polluted drainage ditches and chemical spills—easier to harvest but riskier due to proximity to Ooze.

Residential Sprawl / The Warrens Endless rows of apartment blocks, suburbs, and row houses in the southern quadrants. Many buildings are hollowed out or connected by tunnels dug by Controllers or Children.

•	Resources: Scavenged household medicine in pharmacies and abandoned homes; survivor caches in basements; Blackflowers thrive in overgrown backyards and community gardens.
•	Hazards: Dense Children packs play deadly games; Singers echo through the streets; the Labyrinth shifts unpredictably, with streets vanishing overnight.
•	Blackflowers: Most common here—clusters appear in neglected parks, cracked sidewalks, and rooftop planters.

Port & Waterfront / The Drowned Quarter The western harbor area is half-submerged due to rising curse-waters and Huttrisia’s influence. Docks, shipyards, and flooded streets form a maze of canals and sunken freighters.

•	Resources: Marine salvage (fishing gear, boats, waterproof containers), rare pre-curse medicine shipments, Shadow Hand smuggling caches.
•	Hazards: Controllers dominate the water; frequent floods summoned by Huttrisia; PTF reality anchors stabilize crossings on piers.
•	Blackflowers: Rare, growing on rotting piers and in brackish tidal pools.

University & Research Park / The Ivory Ruins The northern academic district, once home to colleges, labs, and hospitals, now overrun with anomalous growths.

•	Resources: Advanced medicine (experimental drugs, surgical tools, gene-editing kits), scientific equipment useful against PTF tech, Blackflowers in overgrown botanical gardens and greenhouses.
•	Hazards: PTF forward bases with heavy anchor deployment; Dream Eaters in dormitories; Unravelers warp lecture halls into dead ends.
•	Blackflowers: Moderately common in abandoned arboretums and research plots.

Central Park / The Overgrown Heart (Contested Neutral Zone) A massive, warped green space at the city’s approximate center, now a jungle of carnivorous plants, Blackflower fields, and Labyrinth-altered paths.

•	Resources: Highest concentration of Blackflowers; wild herbs and improvised medicines from mutated flora.
•	Hazards: Multi-faction patrols clash constantly; Soon Mother hides in dense thickets; Mist thickens, tendrils reaching everywhere.
•	Blackflowers: Abundant, with entire clearings dedicated to harvesting.

The Periphery / Quarantine Fringe Outer rings near the blockade, consisting of barricaded highways, suburbs-turned-kill-zones, and military no-man’s-land.

•	Resources: Fresh military drops (ammo, rations, medicine), Shadow Hand black-market stashes.
•	Hazards: Heavy military presence, PTF containment teams, survivor escape tunnels.
•	Blackflowers: Scarce, mostly trampled or cleared by human forces.

GENERAL NOTES ON RESOURCES

•	Medicine: Concentrated in hospitals (Ivory Ruins), pharmacies (Residential Sprawl), and abandoned ambulances or military medevac sites. Survivor groups hoard the best stocks.
•	Equipment: Tech and weapons found in Downtown (corporate vaults), Industrial (factories), and the Periphery (military wrecks).
•	Blackflowers: Most reliable in Residential and Central Park districts; rarer in industrial or port areas due to pollution or clearing. They regrow slowly but can be transplanted.

The city is alive and hostile. Every district can shift overnight under the Labyrinth’s whim, the creeping Ooze, or faction warfare. Abnormals may claim favored hunting grounds, but true dominance requires controlling chokepoints, resource nodes, and alliances with the city’s monstrous denizens.

———

FACTIONS

Across the shattered city, five major factions vie for control: the Paranormal Task Force, the Military, the Shadow Hand, the Survivors, and the Abnormals themselves. Though the humans nominally oppose the monsters, their conflicting goals breed constant betrayal and violence.

THE PARANORMAL TASK FORCE (PTF)

The PTF is a secretive, highly trained organization dedicated to containment and study. They view Abnormals not as enemies to exterminate, but as specimens to capture, catalog, and lock away in reinforced cells far from the public eye—safe from rival groups and from escape.

Their signature tools are massive, torpedo-shaped reality anchors—devices driven deep into the ground that stabilize local physics and suppress anomalous abilities. In their presence your powers weaken, falter, or fail entirely.

Veterans of countless otherworldly incursions, the PTF moves with deliberate caution: slow, methodical sweeps; layered traps; overwhelming containment protocols. Underestimate their experience at your peril.

BEHAVIOR

The PTF operates like a surgical strike team crossed with a research expedition. They prioritize capture over kill, using non-lethal suppressants, containment fields, and coordinated takedowns. Grunts establish perimeters while specialists deploy anchors and tranq-darts laced with reality-stabilizing compounds. They rarely pursue into deep Abnormal territory without heavy prep, preferring to lure targets into kill-zones. Ruthless efficiency masks their clinical detachment—failure means quarantine failure, and they will sacrifice squads to secure a high-value specimen.

GRUNTS

PTF field operatives wear matte-black tactical gear reinforced with ablative plating and embedded micro-anchors for personal reality stabilization. Helmets feature full-face visors with augmented overlays for threat detection and anomaly signatures. Standard loadout includes suppressed rifles firing specialized rounds (tranq, EMP-disruptor, or anchor-tether projectiles), reality-dampening grenades, and portable anchor stakes.

WEAPONRY/ABILITIES

Primary: Containment rifles (variable ammo: suppressants, tethers, disruptors). Secondary: Reality anchors (personal-scale versions reduce nearby Abnormal regeneration/healing). Team tactics emphasize suppression fields that stack to nullify powers in a radius. Experienced squads carry psychic dampeners to counter mental attacks.

NOTABLE FIGURES

Director Elias Voss is the iron-willed commander of PTF operations within the Cursed City quarantine zone. A veteran of pre-event anomalous incidents, he was hand-picked for his unyielding commitment to containment doctrine and his willingness to make hard calls.

APPEARANCE

Voss is a tall, gaunt man in his late 50s with sharp features, close-cropped gray hair, and a perpetual five-o’clock shadow. He wears a modified black command coat over tactical armor, adorned with subtle rank insignia and multiple anchor deployment badges. His left eye is a cybernetic implant glowing faint blue, used for real-time anomaly analysis.

PERSONALITY

Coldly professional and calculating, Voss views Abnormals as puzzles to be solved and threats to be neutralized for the greater good. He shows no personal hatred—only clinical disdain for chaos. Ruthless when necessary, he will order retreats or sacrifices without hesitation if it preserves the mission. Beneath the stoicism lies a deep-seated belief that unchecked anomalies could end humanity; he rarely speaks of his family lost in the initial breach.

——

Dr. Sophia Lang, lead field researcher and chief architect of the PTF’s containment protocols in the city. She designed many of the current reality-anchor variants and often accompanies high-risk capture teams.

APPEARANCE

Lang is a slender woman in her early 40s with wire-rimmed glasses, auburn hair pulled into a tight ponytail, and constant dark circles under her eyes from sleepless nights analyzing specimens. She wears a reinforced lab coat over tactical gear, pockets bulging with data slates, sample vials, and mini-anchor prototypes.

PERSONALITY

Brilliant and obsessively curious, Lang treats every Abnormal encounter as a breakthrough opportunity. She is detached from the human cost, viewing lives (including her own team’s) as acceptable variables in the equation of understanding the curse. Empathetic in theory but ruthless in practice, she pushes ethical boundaries to advance containment science and harbors a private fear that the anomaly is evolving faster than they can adapt.

———

THE MILITARY

The government that created this nightmare now sends in waves of soldiers to clean up the mess. Their standing orders: eliminate any threat too dangerous to control, and capture anything useful as living weapons—biological assets to be dissected, weaponized, and turned against future enemies.

They deploy the heaviest firepower: armored convoys, artillery barrages, airstrikes, and sheer numbers. Overrunning a position means facing endless reinforcements. Respect their ordnance; a single misstep can reduce even the mightiest Abnormal to smoking ruin.

BEHAVIOR

The Military favors overwhelming force and scorched-earth tactics. They establish firebases, call in drone strikes, and advance in armored columns, treating the city as a conventional warzone despite the supernatural elements. Grunts hold lines while heavy units and capture teams move in. They show little restraint—collateral damage is acceptable if it thins Abnormal numbers.

GRUNTS

Standard infantry wear urban camouflage fatigues under heavy ballistic armor, with gas masks and night-vision helmets. Squads include riflemen, grenadiers, and anti-material specialists. Vehicles range from up-armored Humvees to main battle tanks retrofitted with anti-anomaly countermeasures.

WEAPONRY/ABILITIES

Primary: Assault rifles, machine guns, rocket launchers, and flamethrowers adapted for close-quarters monster fighting. Heavy support: mortars, autocannons, and experimental anti-regeneration rounds (depleted uranium laced with suppressants). Capture teams use electrified nets, harpoon guns, and mobile containment cages.

NOTABLE FIGURES

Colonel Mara Kane leads the primary strike battalion, a battle-hardened officer who views the Cursed City as her personal proving ground.

APPEARANCE

Kane is a muscular woman in her early 40s with cropped black hair streaked gray, a jagged scar across her left cheek, and piercing green eyes. She wears a custom officer’s coat over reinforced combat armor, sidearm holstered prominently, and always carries a battered field radio.

PERSONALITY

Direct, no-nonsense, and fiercely patriotic, Kane believes the Abnormals are abominations born of government failure—and that reclaiming control through superior firepower is the only redemption. She drives her troops hard but leads from the front, inspiring loyalty through shared risk. Quick to anger at incompetence, she rarely shows mercy to threats but respects worthy foes.

——

Sergeant Major Reyes “Reaper” Torres, the grizzled commander of the elite “Reclamation” capture squads specializing in live Abnormal extractions for weaponization programs.

APPEARANCE

Torres is a broad-shouldered man in his mid-40s with a shaved head, multiple burn scars across his neck and arms, and a perpetual scowl. He wears heavy assault armor painted in faded camo, with trophy Abnormal claws and teeth affixed as kill markers on his pauldrons.

PERSONALITY

Gruff, pragmatic, and unflinchingly loyal to the chain of command, Torres sees the city as a meat grinder where only the strong survive. He has little patience for politics or hesitation, preferring brutal efficiency. Haunted by losses under his command, he channels guilt into relentless aggression but quietly mentors promising recruits, hoping to give them better odds than he had.

———

THE SHADOW HAND

A ruthless paramilitary syndicate driven by profit, the Shadow Hand captures Abnormals alive to sell to the highest bidders—private collectors, rogue states, and black-market researchers. To them, Abnormals are merchandise, commodities to be harvested.

Their greatest strength lies in an extensive network of psychics capable of assaulting the mind directly: inducing crippling seizures, paralyzing limbs, flooding senses with agony, or—in rare cases—attempting outright domination of will.

While they lack the institutional depth of the PTF, their operatives are hardened, observant, and quick to adapt. Their greed makes them dangerous, and underestimating their vigilance is a fatal mistake.

BEHAVIOR

The Shadow Hand excels at hit-and-run raids, ambushes, and black-market deals. They use stealth, bribes, and psychic interference to isolate targets, preferring to disable rather than destroy value. Operatives are opportunistic—quick to retreat if the risk outweighs profit, but relentless when a high-value Abnormal is in sight.

GRUNTS

Hand operatives favor dark tactical gear with modular pouches for restraints and sedatives. Many wear psychic dampening hoods or visors to protect against counter-mental attacks. Loadouts mix conventional firearms with exotic tools like neural stunners and containment collars.

WEAPONRY/ABILITIES

Primary: Suppressed SMGs, tranquilizer rifles, and psychic amplifiers (boost team mental attacks). Psychics deploy mind-probes, illusion veils, or domination attempts. Gear includes tracking implants, cloaking drones, and buyer-specific containment pods.

NOTABLE FIGURES

Madame Valeria Crowe, the enigmatic broker who runs Shadow Hand field operations in the city, is a former black-ops psychic turned syndicate queenpin.

APPEARANCE

Crowe is a striking woman in her mid-30s with pale skin, long raven hair tied in a severe bun, and violet-tinted contact lenses that hide her naturally glowing eyes. She dresses in tailored black suits with subtle armored lining, always wearing a silver pendant that channels her psychic focus.

PERSONALITY

Cunning, charismatic, and utterly self-serving, Crowe treats everything as a transaction. She delights in psychological games, using charm or terror as needed. Loyal only to profit, she betrays allies without remorse but rewards competence handsomely. Her psychic scars make her wary of direct confrontation, preferring manipulation.

——

“Ghost” Harlan Vos (no relation to Director Voss), the Shadow Hand’s top acquisition specialist—a stealth operative renowned for snatching high-value Abnormals from under rival noses.

APPEARANCE

Harlan is a lean, wiry man in his late 20s with hooded gray eyes, short ash-blond hair, and faint surgical scars along his jawline from neural implants. He wears adaptive camouflage fatigues that shift colors subtly, a hooded cloak lined with psychic dampeners, and lightweight gear for silent movement.

PERSONALITY

Quiet, observant, and coldly efficient, Harlan speaks little and trusts even less. He views Abnormals as challenging prey rather than monsters, deriving professional satisfaction from outmaneuvering them. Detached from morality, he follows orders for the payday but harbors a private code against needless cruelty—though he’ll break it if the contract demands.

———

THE SURVIVORS

Unlike the invading factions, these individuals are members of the city’s original inhabitants—or their descendants—who survived the initial catastrophe and have clung to life in the shadows ever since. Now, they seek only one goal: escape—a way out of the quarantine, a path to freedom beyond the blockade.

If they succeed, they will draw massive outside attention, potentially dooming the city and every Abnormal within it. They must be stopped at all costs.

These Before have endured years among monsters. They know the Abnormals’ patterns, habits, and weaknesses better than any invading force. Led by cunning, battle-hardened survivors, they set every ambush, play every dirty trick, and exploit every vulnerability with desperate ingenuity. They are never helpless prey.

BEHAVIOR

Survivors are guerrilla fighters—hit-and-fade, traps, sabotage, and evasion. They scavenge, fortify hidden routes, and coordinate via encrypted radios. Every move aims toward extraction points; they will sacrifice anything (even each other) for a chance at freedom.

GRUNTS

Ragged but resourceful, Survivors wear patched civilian clothes layered with scavenged armor plates, hoods, and improvised masks. Weapons are mix-matched: hunting rifles, shotguns, pipe bombs, and jury-rigged explosives.

WEAPONRY/ABILITIES

Primary: Scavenged firearms, traps (spikes, tripwires, collapsing structures), and knowledge-based tactics (lures into Abnormal territory to pit enemies against each other). Some carry smuggled PTF suppressants or Military-grade gear stolen in raids.

NOTABLE FIGURES

Captain Lena Reyes is the de facto leader of the largest Survivor coalition, a former police officer who rallied the remnants after the blockade fell.

APPEARANCE

Reyes is a wiry woman in her late 30s with short-cropped dark hair, numerous scars across her arms and face, and sharp brown eyes that miss nothing. She wears a weathered leather jacket over tactical vest, always with a utility belt of tools and a faded police badge pinned inside.

PERSONALITY

Steadfast, resourceful, and fiercely protective of her people, Reyes is driven by hope of escape and guilt over those left behind. Pragmatic to a fault, she makes tough calls but never loses her moral core. Distrustful of outsiders, she forms bonds slowly but fights like a cornered animal when cornered.

——

Dr. Marcus Hale, the coalition’s chief medic and inventor—once a surgeon before the curse, now the man who keeps Survivors alive with scavenged tech and improvised treatments.

APPEARANCE

Hale is a lanky man in his early 50s with thinning salt-and-pepper hair, thick glasses taped at the bridge, and hands perpetually stained with blood or grease. He wears a patched doctor’s coat over scavenged armor, laden with medical pouches, tools, and a jury-rigged diagnostic scanner.

PERSONALITY

Compassionate yet weary, Hale clings to his Hippocratic oath even in hell, treating anyone who isn’t actively hostile—including the occasional wounded Abnormal if it buys information or mercy. Intelligent and inventive, he tinkers constantly to create better traps, meds, and escape tools. His optimism is fading, replaced by grim determination to get as many people out as possible before he breaks.

———

THE ABNORMALS

The Abnormals are the twisted remnants of the city’s population, empowered by the curse that destroyed the old world. No longer human, yet still retaining fragments of memory and sapience, they are bound by an instinctive hatred for The Before—symbols of weakness, abandonment, and everything lost. That hatred fuels constant hunting, territorial conflict, and ruthless self-evolution.

They exist as lone apex predators, territorial packs, symbiotic horrors, and unstable monster societies that claim ruined districts as domains. Some seek dominion over the entire city; others merely wish to feed and grow without interference. To them, the city is theirs by right of transformation. All outsiders are trespassers. The night belongs to the Abnormal.

BEHAVIOR

Abnormals hunt with predatory instinct sharpened by lingering intelligence. Ambushes, deception, pack tactics, and territorial displays are common. Alliances are temporary and transactional; betrayal for dominance is expected. The curse amplifies emotion, turning violence into ritualized vengeance rather than simple survival.

THE CURSE ENTITIES (“MONSTERS”)

The city continuously spawns lesser and specialized entities that function as natural allies or environmental extensions of Abnormal dominance. These creatures instinctively loathe The Before and often behave with eerie affection toward Abnormals.

•	The Mist: A city-wide haze lethal to humans but comforting to Abnormals, parting around them and occasionally behaving with animal-like fondness.
•	The Ooze: A district-devouring mass immune to conventional weapons; digests humans but never Abnormals.
•	The Labyrinth: Living architecture that traps humans while creating shortcuts and advantages for Abnormals.
•	The Crows: Omnipresent scouts that relay movement and ambush opportunities.
•	Dream Eaters: Entities that devour sleeping minds, crippling squads without open combat.
•	The Children: Deceptive lures that weaponize innocence to immobilize prey.
•	The Statues: Explosive ambush predators disguised as inert art.
•	Abominations: Fast pursuit hunters that bleed targets dry.
•	Singers: Living sirens whose songs rot humans from within.
•	Unravelers: Reality-warping tacticians that isolate and disorient enemies.
•	Controllers: Aquatic puppeteers that enslave victims as spies.
•	Eviscerators: Reliable frontline brutes built for direct slaughter.

NOTABLE ABNORMALS

Ruinok – A fragile surgeon-artist who captures humans alive and reconstructs them into loyal hybrids. Avoids direct combat, instead empowering allies with chemical augmentation. Obsessed with his craft, cautious with threats, and fiercely protective of collaborators. Unique Weakness: Entranced by live human music.

SlaughTra – A hyperactive, pint-sized close-quarters killer built for speed and cruelty. Treats combat as a game and victims as toys. Deadly but easily distracted. Unique Weakness: Cannot resist prolonging suffering.

Crawly Larry – A shadow-bound trickster who paralyzes victims with personalized hallucinations before vanishing. Thrives on mischief and approval. Unique Weakness: Must return daily to a lightless “home” to rest.

The Soon Mother – A colossal, immobile brood-matriarch incubating devastating offspring. Immensely protective and possessive, reliant on others for defense and feeding. Unique Weakness: Enters daily dormancy while nourishing eggs.

The Slime Fiend – A massive corrosive entity immune to weapons, dissolving anything he touches. Slow but unstoppable when prey is driven toward him. Theatrical and jovial. Unique Weakness: Soothed and slowed by live music.

She Who Exterminates – A self-proclaimed queen wielding catastrophic extradimensional power. Enslaves those who surrender and rules through fear and spectacle. Unique Weakness: Genuine symbols of her former faith fracture her composure.

The Trio (Bernal, Oernal, Zernal) – Three fused siblings forming a single aerial plasma-breathing predator. Devastating from above but fragile up close. Unique Weakness: Childlike cruelty causes fixation on wounded prey.

Huttrisia – Mistress of flooded zones and storm drains, manipulating water with precision. Fiercely loyal but unstable outside aquatic environments. Unique Weakness: Requires daily submersion dormancy.

UNIVERSAL WEAKNESSES

Blackflowers: Rare blossoms whose scent overwhelms Abnormal instincts, forcing fixation and vulnerability.

Light Sensitivity: Sustained artificial light disorients and slows Abnormals, enabling counterattacks.

Chosen Ones: Certain humans possess an aura that dulls Abnormal lethality, requiring extreme effort to kill.