Thorneford

We Don't Go To Thorneford

Thorneford is a now abandoned settlement within the Echidnian wilderness, situated over the Caelus rifts that sprawl from the New Cali epicenter. Once home to sixty thousand residents eager to exploit the freshly unveiled ocean floor, the ghost town now serves as a grave reminder to CETA - we don't go to Thorneford.
  When the New Cali Rift detonated in 2239, the Central American Wasteland came to fruition as the ocean floor anomalously dried around the vicinity of the explosion. This opened up new opportunities to exploit the land to greedy CETA corporations, and one company decided to be the first in the rush to the freshly created land. Haron-Yoitsu LLC is no stranger to business opportunities in a bear market, placing its stake with the formation of an outpost dubbed Thorneford. It was here that operations to excavate the dried seabed had begun. With an outpost far from their headquarters, Haron-Yoitsu contractors quickly found themselves lacking basic necessities that one would require while out in the field. This drew ire from the press and families of afflicted loved ones, resulting in the corporation bending the knee and offering incentives for moving to Thorneford to the common citizen. Depending on one's profession and talents, one could earn as much as paid housing on top of a comfortable six figure sign on bonus.
  Life in the town nestled over the seabed went as smoothly as it could go for the next thirty years. Save for the rare work related incident while excavating for riches, the dwellers of Thorneford lived a relatively normal life in the budding city. However, reports had begun to crop up regarding the surging presence of Caelus Abberrations originating from the rifts surrounding the town. Eyewitnesses recount these beasts as luminescent silhouettes stitched from glass and bone, immune to bullets. Slowly but surely, panic had begun to take grip of the settlers as the beasts from the New Cali Rift encroached on Thorneford's residents in isolated incidents. Many had begun to preemptively move out, breaching their contracts with the Haron-Yoitsu corporation as the risk of an attack was not worth their lives.
  These attacks from Caelus Aberrations only grew in frequency, until the town devolved into chaos. Lacking proper law enforcement beyond contracted security, theft and murder became rampant in the town's final days. Inevitably, the city lost contact with the outer world as the anomalous effects of the creatures had dampened all communications. As most of the beasts were impervious to physical means of attack, the residents of Thorneford were left defenseless as they lacked Caelus mages to aid in their plight. Most of the city's populace were slaughtered the same night after a violent storm had wrecked the town's foundation, leaving many without a home to seek refuge in during the full moon in which the beasts of the Echidnian wilderness were left to ransack the town.
  Haron-Yoitsu faced insurmountable scrutiny for their greedy blunder that was Thorneford, owing debt to thousands of disgruntled families who had lost loved ones in the incident. A law was made disallowing any civilian operations in Echidna's Womb, the territory deemed far too dangerous as seen in the now desolate town. This ban on travel doesn't stop eager looters from trying their luck within the desert however, many referring to Thorneford as a modern day Atlantis.