“They used to come here to scrub off the blood. Now it just clings tighter.”
Established: Circa 1880s, during the first major Stockyard expansions
Access: Abandoned, partially collapsed, but unsealed
Connected Factions: Uncle Carm’s crew (ritual drop site), Fear Crew (initiation ground), CPD Arcane Division (marked as soft boil)
Description - Exterior
The building squats behind a chain-link fence lined with razorvine and rusted signs that read "DANGER – STEAM LINES." Brick walls sag with moisture, their mortar blackened and bleeding in the rain. Steel exhaust stacks jut from the roof like broken spears. A weathered sign still clings to the front archway: BATH & BARRACKS – YARDS DISTRICT A. The windows are either shattered or weeping condensation. Moss creeps along the walls like it’s watching.Description - Interior
Inside, the bathhouse smells of mold, metal, and long-decayed soap. White tile is cracked and yellowed, and every mirror is warped or spiderwebbed. The showers still drip, and when the steam rolls in, it’s red-tinged and warm—even with no power running. Beyond the bathing hall, long dorm-style sleeping rows stretch into shadow, each cot frame tagged with stamped metal numbers. Rats avoid the boiler room. The lockers at the far end rattle sometimes when no one’s touched them.Public Face
Abandoned. Most locals believe it was condemned in the late ‘40s after multiple fatal accidents and complaints of scalding pipes. It isn’t patrolled, and no demolition has been scheduled.What's Really Going On
The bathhouse serves as a liminal chamber—where the boundaries between body and spirit blur. Carm’s crew uses it to “wash” Veil-affected items before they hit the black market. The Fear Crew runs initiates through here blindfolded, daring them to find the warmest faucet. Some rooms trap echoes—walk in alone, and you might hear yourself scream before you open your mouth.Notables
Carmine “Uncle Carm” Lucchesi – Claims the building “wants to be useful,” but won’t say for what.Richie “Mans” Mancuso – Uses the site for quiet disposal, both mystical and otherwise.
Sister Arnette (Arcane Division Field Witch) – Logged three breaches here. Refuses to return.
Marta Dell – An unlisted cleaner seen humming in the steam, vanishes when followed.
Rumors & Hooks:
The Seven Spirits
Back in the 1910s, when the stockyards were still roaring, the barracks were used to house transient workers—mostly men, mostly forgotten. One night, a young girl—some say no older than twelve—was brought in by a group of seven men. They beat her, used her, and strangled her before hiding her body in a shipping trunk in the basement bathhouse. They planned to dispose of her come nightfall. Only when they came back, the trunk was empty. And so were their beds. The girl didn’t call the police. She called something else. Each of the seven was found in pieces over the next week—guts stuffed into steam pipes, faces boiled off in tubs, one drowned in water black with hair. The coroner’s notes were shredded before they could be filed. The building was quietly closed, but it never emptied. The seven men—or what’s left of them—still haunt the halls. Their spirits scream, rage, rattle the pipes, beg for forgiveness they’ll never earn. They tear at walls, slam doors, crush rats with bare ghost hands just to feel something give way. As for the girl? No one knows. Some say she passed on. Others say she still watches, still waits. Some nights, in the bathhouse mirror, folks swear they’ve seen her reflection standing behind them—wet hair, eyes full of smoke, face too still to be anything but patient. And if the water runs by itself, don’t try to shut it off. That’sThe Boiler Tooth
They say it was found next to the third of the seven bodies—the one they barely recognized. A jagged chunk of iron, ripped straight from the old bathhouse boiler, still warm to the touch and slick with blood. Whatever did the killing used it to beat the man’s head into a flat mess of mush. But the thing was humming. Vibrating, like it had fused with something it wasn’t meant to—something Veil-touched. Word is, it reacts to sorcery. Buzzes near spells, rattles in pockets during rituals. A piece like that could be carved into a charm or an amulet—maybe even something stronger—if you’re willing to pay the price. But no one keeps it long. Every time someone walks it out of the barracks, within a week it shows back up. Same spot. Same dark stain. Like it's waiting for the next head to cave in.The Lost Ledger
Rumors swirl that hidden somewhere in the old barracks or behind the pipes in the bathhouse is a ledger. They say it is a stockyard payroll book containing names, payments, bribes, and untraceable arcane transactions from the early days of Veil-touched labor. It's not just valuable to the right buyer—it could ruin half the ward or buy out the rest. But the ink bleeds if anyone with guilt handles it.Hooks
- Some claim the steam itself is sentient—wrapping around trespassers like fingers and whispering names in Polish and Latin.
- One of the locker doors won’t open unless you’re bleeding. Inside? Nobody knows.
- Fear Crew says anyone who lasts an hour alone in the east shower hall dreams of the Stockyards as they were—only everyone’s faces are wrong.
- On cold mornings, the windows fog in the shape of old union symbols—ones long outlawed.
- Three bathhouse deaths were ruled accidental scaldings, but no burns were found on the bodies—only frostbite.
- A boiler deep in the sub-basement whistles jazz when no one's down there. Always the same song.
- The PCs are asked to retrieve a charm box hidden here in 1942—but it may have “grown.”
- A young Hooded Lad claims he saw his own corpse floating in the main shower drain.
- CPD offers hazard pay to anyone who can install a functioning Veil monitor in the locker corridor. No one’s made it more than halfway.
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