Far to the southwest of Hive Primus, as the Spider Points gives way to the Great Equatorial Wastes, the desert turns to burnt glass and chemical lakes. Here in the shadow of the Ashen Barrens lie the shattered remains of Hive Secundus. Around the xenos-ravaged hive stretch thousands of miles of fortifications, manned by hundreds of militia regiments – this is the Dust Wall.
The Fate of Secundus
Over its long history, Necromunda has been the subject of planetary invasions, rebel uprisings and alien incursions. Since coming under the control of the Imperium some 10,000 years ago, the world has, for the most part, remained in human hands. There remain, however, places where the scars of these attacks remain open and festering. One such blight is Hive Secundus. Once it was known as the second city of Necromunda, a place of architectural and arboreal beauty among the drab unending horror of its neighbours. Then in 879.M41, an alien cult rose to power in its underhive, before spilling out to take over the upper levels. For over twenty years, war raged throughout Secundus – Palanite Enforcers, House gangs, guilders and planetary militia regiments sold their lives to contain the threat. Lord Kael Helmawr prepared for the worst – work was begun on a massive series of fortifications around Secundus to ensure nothing escaped.
Dubbed the Dust Wall, the finest military minds of Necromunda, counselled by agents of the Munitorum, the Adeptus Terra and the Adeptus Astartes of the Imperial Fists, devised its construction. When at last the fortification neared completion the hive was cut off, the regiments and gangs fighting in its nightmare domes abandoned, and the whole site cleansed with nuclear fire. A thousand square miles were blasted from orbit, the hive broke, and its spire fell across the ash wastes. And yet, despite the might of the Imperium unleashed upon it, the alien cult and its monstrosities endured beneath the radioactive ruins.
Life on the Wall
In the century since the fall of Hive Secundus, the Dust Wall has changed. While guardsmen of the Necromundan Planetary Militia still watch the ash cloaked horizon beyond their gun pits and trench lines, hundreds of settlements now dot the wastes around them. When a hive falls, even under such perilous circumstances, there are those who see not danger, but rather a rich scavenging ground just waiting to be looted. Towns were built to service the soldiers of the walls, and those travellers who came to glimpse the ruins of Secundus through the ashen fog. Some of these settlements are little more than specks on the map, like Bane Town. Built in and around the hulls of a company of destroyed Baneblade tanks, it straddles the wall – each tank now a dust bar, scrap merchant or slop house. Others, like the Crater, which nestles in a pit left by a stray apocalypse missile, is a teeming settlement home to almost three thousand souls. The largest by far, however, is Ashgrad. Part of a tank refitting and repair complex, Ashgrad was abandoned by the militia not long after the war, when the precious Necromundan armoured divisions were withdrawn and replaced with static fortress battalions. House Orlock and the Guild of Coin were the first to move in, but since then, the Clan Houses and guilds have all staked a claim.
Ashgrad survives off the soldiers who frequent its drinking holes and gambling houses, and the scrappers who venture out into the no man’s land beyond the wall to loot in the shadow of Secundus. In Scavenger’s Row, gangs and wasters buy and sell all manner of things dug up from the ash deserts, from genuine xenos skulls to strange literature.* Meanwhile in the Busted Skull, an old command bunker, travellers can try Ashgrad’s infamous Gunshine Snakebite – made from real gunpowder (and snakes**) – that even glows in the dark! All in all, Ashgrad is a place for gangs to try their luck in the wastes, sell their finds, and maybe even live to make the long trek back to civilisation.
Horrors Beneath the Dust
Of course, gangs don’t come to Ashgrad just for the Gunshine, or the view. The militia tolerates gangers and wasters sneaking off into no man’s land to loot wrecks and ancient bodies, provided they don’t stray too far, bring anything living back with them or fail to pay their bribes.*** Such ash runs are, of course, only lucrative for a gang up to a point – years of scavenging have left the area near the wall almost devoid of good loot. For a real score, a gang needs to venture out deeper into the exclusion zone surrounding the ruined hive city. Crossing the open wastes, by day or night, is practically suicide for a man or woman on foot, regardless of their personal protection. Fortunately for scavengers, thousands of tunnels run under the Dust Wall, part of the old mag-lev and under-road network that connected Secundus to the rest of the world. Dome Runners, cold traders, mutie guides and ex-militia guardsmen will all guide fighters through these tunnels – for a price.
Most of the tunnels were caved in or walled up when Secundus fell, but there remain pathways out under no man’s land. If a gang is willing to risk run-ins with radioactive ash rippers, cannibal waster tribes, and xenos abominations, then they might be able to return with something of real value plundered from ancient vaults containing the remnants of Secondus' once peerless culture. For the bravest gangs, some tunnels even run all the way to Secundus and offer the chance to loot the fallen spire. Of course, actually entering the ruins of Hive Secundus is something else entirely…
If you want to re-enact what happens when something escapes from Hive Secundus, you can download rules for using Genestealer Cults in Necromunda. Meanwhile, if you’ve converted any radioactive ash rippers, cannibal waster tribes or Necromundan Planetary Militia, make sure that you share them with us on the Necromunda Facebook page.
* They usually don’t know what the words mean, but they like the pictures.
** As no one in Ashgrad has ever seen a real snake – Gunshine brewers tend to attribute the name to anything vaguely ‘eatable’.
*** The Militia also reserve the right to shoot anyone on the wrong side of the wall, even if it is just for fun.