D20 SYSTEM✦ Normal

Aetherforgeworks: The Foreman's Gambit

# Magitech# Investigation# Construct

The air in the Gear District tastes of ozone and desperation. The great Aetherforgeworks, a city-spanning complex of steam pipes and grinding pistons, is failing. Its mechanical guardians—the Clockwork Hounds—have begun to maul workers on the streets, their safety fuses mysteriously short-circuited. You are drawn into the conflict between the idealistic Workshop Union, who believe in the machines' potential for good, and the pragmatic Safety Directorate, who see the hounds as a plague to be purged. The truth lies buried in the grease and steel, and the Foreman holds the key to the catastrophe. But whose side will you take when both have blood on their hands?

Chronicle Prelude

The Gear District's 'Copper Flask' tavern, a neutral ground where the scent of machine oil mingles with cheap ale. Dejected union mechanics and grim-faced Directorate enforcers drink at separate tables, casting wary glances at each other. The distant, rhythmic clang of the Aetherforgeworks' heart-pistons provides a constant, ominous beat.

Environmental Traits

A city-wide industrial crisis. The Aetherforgeworks is bleeding aetheric energy, causing its automated defenses to malfunction violently. The Clockwork Hounds are maiming civilians, and a full-scale riot between the Workshop Union and the Safety Directorate is imminent. The players must uncover the sabotage, navigate the moral quagmire, and decide the fate of the district before the heart-piston explodes or the streets run red with civil war.

Legendary Archetypes

Rayan

HP:45

STR:16

WIS: 12

CHA:11

Key Factions & Autonomous Nodes (8)

Union Foreman Gareth
A middle-aged human man with calloused hands, oil-stained overalls, and weary eyes. He wears a brass Union pin on his collar. He moves with a father's concern for his 'workshop'.
Directorate Director Vesta
A stern human woman in a crisp, dark grey uniform adorned with the Safety Directorate's shield-and-sword emblem. Her posture is rigid, her expression one of controlled urgency. A faint scar runs along her jawline.
Foreman Kallus
A partially mechanized human. His left arm is a piston-driven prosthetic, and one eye glows with a faint aetheric light. He wears a soot-stained foreman's coat over a harness of wires and gears. He stands amidst the humming heart-piston controls.
Scrap Dealer Ripp
A wiry goblin with sharp eyes and grease-stained fingers, wearing a vest made of stitched-together metal plates. He operates from a makeshift stall amidst mountains of scrap, his gaze constantly calculating profit.
Clockwork Hound Pack Leader
A larger, more heavily armored version of the malfunctioning Hounds. Its chassis is scarred, and its optical sensors glow with erratic, angry red light. It patrols the access tunnel to the heart-piston, emitting low, distorted growls of static.
Directorate Spy Mira
A nondescript human woman in worn worker's clothes, blending into the crowds of the Gear District. A subtle, almost invisible Directorate pin is fastened inside her collar. She watches from the shadows, her expression tense.
Union Mechanic 'Whispers'
A thin, nervous human mechanic with darting eyes, constantly wiping his hands on a rag. He wears a Union apron but avoids eye contact with his colleagues. He frequents the tavern's darker corners.
Aether Weaver Elder
An ancient, robed figure of indeterminate race, their face hidden by deep shadow. They are adorned with glowing crystals and humming aether coils. They stand near a strange, resonant structure deep in the scrapyard, seemingly unaffected by the chaos.

Chronicle Prelude

Environmental Traits

Legendary Archetypes

✦ Related Cases ✦

The Reignited Forge: A Crisis of Iron and Will

The Cog-Sprung Howl of Gearford