The Midnight Hands

CWs: cults; necromancy.

Toxic background counts are being found in previously safe regions of the OU. Rumour on the street is that people are disappearing again - More than usual. There've been sightings of zombies, but the awakened of the OU report they aren't shedim - rather, they're corpse cadavers. And every corpse is tattooed with the same thing:

A black hand, with a white pentagram in its center, located on the palm.

Some of these corpses are the ones who disappeared.

In the religious centers - churches, temples, shrines, so on - there are mutterings about a woman who claims to be an avatar of death. An Aztlanner named la Sedienta. There are claims that she rules over death itself. She's decried by any religious leader - heretical, monstrous, so on - but that doesn't stop the desperate from clinging to her coattails.

Any good conspiracist could guess this is all related, but how? Who? Where and why? These remain mysteries.

Factions

Skraacha

Unsurprisingly, anything that indiscriminately threatens the people of the Ork Underground is going to get their attention quick. So far, though, there's nothing for them to act on - only sightings, rumors, and other leads.

The Midnight Hands

A group that seems to be related to the symbol found on corpses. Details so far are sparse, and often conflicting. It's unclear who or where they are - and entirely possible it's simply a name and symbol claimed by one of multiple gangs. Still, whoever is behind this definitely wants their icon known...

Aztechnology

There's no real evidence linking them to any of this, but Aztechnology is always on the mind when something is done by an Aztlanner. They like to let some rumors persist unconfirmed to take advantage of through implication, too, so even a failure to deny it wouldn't make anything certain. And if they are really involved... is it to quietly re-leash an asset before it makes itself too much of an embarrassment? Or is there something about this they're sponsoring?