D20 SYSTEM✦ Normal

The Chain-Breaks of Blackrock Keep

# Dark Fantasy# Intrigue# Beast# Social

In the shadow of the volcanic spires of Blackrock, the Keep's famous warg breeding program is failing. The beasts, once loyal war-mounts, are turning feral, attacking handlers and breaking their chains. The Grooms, desperate and blamed for the 'fading spirit' of the pack, have turned to a cheap, alchemical hallucinogen—'Glimmerdust Straw'—to keep the wargs sedate and manageable for the nobility's parades. The Wargmaster and his loyalists see this as a profound corruption, a betrayal of the sacred bond between rider and beast. You are outsiders, hired to investigate the 'sickness,' but will find yourselves caught in a desperate struggle for the Keep's soul, where both sides believe they are saving the wargs from the other.

Chronicle Prelude

The Outer Ward of Blackrock Keep: a bustling, soot-stained courtyard where armored riders drill with mechanical precision and handlers in patched leathers argue in hushed, anxious tones. The air smells of ash, beast musk, and a faint, sweet, chemical odor that seems out of place.

Environmental Traits

The region is on the brink of collapse. The nobility demands their spectacle, the military needs its mounts, and the wargs themselves are suffering. The true crisis is not a beast plague, but a crisis of purpose and exploitation. The players must navigate the crumbling hierarchy to prevent the entire pack from being culled or driven mad.

Legendary Archetypes

Rayan

HP:45

STR:16

WIS: 12

CHA:11

Key Factions & Autonomous Nodes (8)

Wargmaster Kaelen
A tall, gaunt man in his late fifties with a face mapped by old scars and a permanent, stern frown. He wears practical, worn leather armor bearing the wolf's-head emblem of the Purists. His movements are precise and economical.
Head Groom Brenn
A middle-aged man with flour-dusted robes stained with chemical spills. His eyes are bloodshot from lack of sleep, and he has a nervous, hunched posture. He smells of alchemical reagents and desperation.
Alpha Warg Gorehowl
A massive, ancient warg the size of a draft horse. Its fur is matted and patchy, revealing scarred skin. Its eyes glow with a feverish, erratic light, and it drools a thick, chemical-tainted saliva. It paces its cage with a broken, repetitive rhythm.
Senior Groom Mira
A young woman with a kind but weary face, her hands calloused from work. She wears the stained apron of a groom but moves with a quiet compassion when near the wargs' pens.
Purist Scout Vargus
A lean, hard-eyed man in camouflage leathers, bearing the wolf's-head emblem of the Purists. He moves silently through the Fens, his crossbow ready.
Lady Arvanna
An impeccably dressed noblewoman in her forties, draped in expensive furs. Her expression is one of perpetual boredom and faint disdain for her surroundings.
Kennel Chef Otto
A stout, bald man perpetually stained with soot and animal feed. He works over a large, bubbling cauldron of warg mash.
Drugged Warg Escort
A medium-sized warg with glazed, dilated pupils. It growls intermittently at shadows and its own tail, its movements jittery and unpredictable. It is clearly under the heavy influence of Glimmerdust.

Chronicle Prelude

Environmental Traits

Legendary Archetypes

✦ Related Cases ✦

The Gravel Route Gambit

The Groom's Gambit: Chains of the Blackrock Wardens