Under the Dome: Getting Together — Trust in a World That Forgot How
Most adventuring parties meet in a tavern.
Under the Dome, meeting in a tavern is one of the fastest ways to get robbed, stabbed, conscripted, or eaten.
Trust is rare under the Dome. Scarcity erodes it. Hunger kills it. Chaos warps it.
But connection—real connection—is still possible. And when it happens, it feels like a miracle.
This is a world where the storms have taken everything.
Everything except the people who refuse to survive alone.
Here’s how to bring those people together.
🌫️ 1. The Pressure-Cooker Start: “We Shouldn’t Be Alive”
When the chaos storm hit, nobody was supposed to make it out.
Maybe you were trapped in:
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a failing storm shelter
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a derailed wasteland convoy
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a crumbling dome segment during maintenance collapse
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a chaos event that ripped a hole in the local infrastructure
You survived. Together.
Even if you didn’t know each other then, you each saw the others do something that mattered—shield a child, hold a barrier lever, drag someone bleeding through the dust.
You don’t trust each other. But you respect each other.
And in the Dome, that’s practically marriage.
DM twist: Each character secretly believes they saw something different during the chaos event—something impossible. Let them compare notes slowly and figure out what’s real.
🏚️ 2. The Grind Debt: “You Owe the Same Wrong Person”
Sometimes it just takes one bad deal.
Maybe all of you:
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owe grind to the same cruel broker
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accidentally interfered with the same gang
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were blacklisted from the same supply market
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got caught up in the same “favor” owed to a Spire noble
You may not have chosen each other—but now your names are tied together in someone’s ledger.
You’ll stay together because the alternative is worse:
Punishment.
Exile.
Or the kind of disappearance people whisper about in alleys.
DM twist: The person you owe grind to disappears. Everyone assumes you are responsible. Congratulations—you’re bonded by manhunt.
📡 3. The Flickering Transmission: “A Signal Only You Heard”
Across the Dome’s static-heavy comm nets, a message pulsed for just a moment before vanishing again.
It said:
“If you can hear this… I need help. Bring the others. Bring everyone.”
Somehow, every PC received the transmission simultaneously.
You all traced it to the same ruined comm shack, the same underground maintenance hall, or the same off-grid shelter.
But when you got there, the sender was gone.
All that remained was:
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a broken broadcasting rig
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scribbled notes
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a map pinned to the wall
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a strange crystalline shard humming with chaotic resonance
And now you all share one question:
Who sent the message—and why you?
DM twist: The message may have been from the future. Or from someone who has never existed.
🧬 4. The Chaos Scar: “Marked by the Same Event”
Chaos storms change things—people, places, memories.
When the storm washed over your district, each of you walked away with:
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the same glowing mark
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the same new ability
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the same missing memory
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the same dream that now won’t leave you
When you meet, you feel it.
A pull. A recognition. A wrongness that fits perfectly.
Maybe fate is a lie under the Dome.
But chaos? Chaos loves patterns.
DM twist: The marks sync when the party is together—unlocking powers that don’t function when they split up.
🚨 5. The Emergency Lockdown: “All Doors Close”
A breach alarm hits the dome. Emergency shutters slam down, sealing a section of the city.
You and the others are trapped inside:
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a cargo elevator
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a ration line
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a flooded tunnel
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a collapsible market district
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a tiny dome annex full of panicking citizens
When the shutters rise again, you’re the only ones who walked out.
People stare. Whisper. Step back.
The Dome registered something about you during lockdown.
You’re connected now—whether you want to be or not.
DM twist: Footage of what happened inside the lockdown zone is corrupted… except one file that shows all of you, staring up at something that’s not in frame.
🔧 6. The Broken Job: “A Heist Gone Wrong”
Whether your group is made of criminals, salvagers, mercenaries, or just desperate folks trying to pay rent, you all signed onto the same job:
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retrieve a lost cargo crate
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clear a corridor of mutants
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escort someone through the Brocks
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help repair a failing sub-grid
And it went wrong.
Spectacularly wrong.
Now you’re the only survivors—or the only witnesses.
Either way, staying together increases the odds of making it out alive.
DM twist: The job wasn’t supposed to fail. Someone engineered it to bring your PCs together.
🔦 7. The “We’re All That’s Left” Start: A Classic, But Dome-Twisted
Not in a tavern—but in:
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a ration kitchen
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a crumbling shelter
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a repair bay during dome maintenance
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a quiet rooftop overlooking the flickering lights
The party forms organically because everyone else is afraid to leave, too injured to move, or simply gone.
The world is ending.
What’s wrong with clinging to the only familiar faces left?
🕯️ Closing Thought
Getting together is easy in most worlds.
Under the Dome, it’s a miracle.
Your party didn’t find each other by chance.
You’re connected by something stronger than circumstance:
Necessity.
Fear.
Hope.
Or the kind of bond that chaos itself whispers into being.
Once you’re together, the question becomes:
What are you willing to do to stay together?
Thanks for reading. Until Next Time, Stay Nerdy!!
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