D20 SYSTEM✦ Normal

The Corroded Ward: Flames and Acid in the Shallows Port

# Investigation# Intrigue# Wilderness# Urban

The Shallows Port Emporium, a sprawling district of trade and illicit deals, is burning. The ancient Magical Warding Wall, a protective barrier of fire and force that has sealed off the cursed 'Undertow' district for a century, has catastrophically ruptured. Simultaneously, the intricate cooling water pipes that mitigate the city's volcanic heat have been sabotaged with a virulent alchemical acid, flooding the streets with corrosive steam and death. Veteran adventurers are called not to save a kingdom, but to salvage a city district from two simultaneous, conflicting disasters, navigating a web of desperation where the victims and the perpetrators may be one and the same.

Chronicle Prelude

The party arrives at the Shallows Port Emporium's outer docks, now a chaotic triage camp. The air is thick with acrid smoke and the smell of burned magic. Injured merchants, displaced refugees, and grim-faced city guards mill about. The Emporium itself is a warren of crumbling tenements and grand, now-scorched market halls, partitioned by the shattered, flickering remnants of the Warding Wall. To the south, the 'Undertow'—a sunken, flooded district—is now accessible, its dark waters churning with a strange, unnatural heat and the glow of exposed, ruptured arcane conduits.

Environmental Traits

The twin crises are linked. The Warding Wall's breach is releasing dangerous, mutated magical creatures and raw planar energy from the Undertow. The acid sabotage of the cooling pipes is causing the city's geothermal foundations to overheat, threatening a massive volcanic eruption that would bury the entire port. The players must stop both, but the resources and methods to do so are controlled by two desperate factions with diametrically opposed solutions.

Legendary Archetypes

Rayan

HP:45

STR:16

WIS: 12

CHA:11

Key Factions & Autonomous Nodes (8)

High Warden Ignis
An elderly human male with a stooped posture, his robes bearing the faded sigil of a burning seal. His eyes are weary but hold a desperate, burning conviction. He moves with the weight of generations of duty.
Coil Foreman Brakka
A stout, scarred human woman in practical, heat-stained work gear. A pair of heavy goggles rests on her forehead, and her arms are corded with muscle. She carries the smell of oil and ozone.
Emissary Lira
A human woman in the uniform of the City Watch, though her insignia is partially obscured by a grimy cloth. She has a map case slung over her shoulder and a constant, tense look of someone caught in a crossfire.
Mutated Scavenger Gritch
A gaunt, humanoid figure with patches of greenish, scale-like skin and eyes that reflect light like a cat's. It moves with a jittery, feral grace, clad in tattered rags stitched together from salvage.
Warden Construct Sentinel
A towering humanoid figure made of dark, polished stone and brass fittings, etched with glowing orange runes of containment. It moves with a grinding, deliberate gait, its featureless head scanning for unauthorized life.
Coil Alchemist Vex
A thin, nervous-looking human male wearing a soot-stained lab coat and thick leather gloves. His fingers are stained with a rainbow of chemical residues, and he constantly adjusts a pair of brass spectacles.
Undertow Refugee Matriarch
An elderly woman with skin that has a faint, chalky pallor, as if never touched by the sun. She wears layered, patched clothing and carries a staff made from salvaged piping. Her eyes hold a deep, weary wisdom.
Acid Thief Kren
A wiry, feral human with wild eyes and skin mottled with chemical burns. He wears scavenged Coil armor painted with crude, angry symbols. He moves with a twitchy, aggressive energy.

Chronicle Prelude

Environmental Traits

Legendary Archetypes

✦ Related Cases ✦

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