D20 SYSTEM✦ Normal

The Crumbling Pass: Siege of Broken-Bridge Station

# Wilderness# Intrigue# Dungeon

You are trapped in the mountain pass of Broken-Bridge Station. The only bridge across the Sorrow's Gulch has collapsed, and the region is now infested with colossal, camouflaged rock crabs whose shells mimic the very stones of the ruins. A ruthless bandit gang, the Gulch Runners, has been using potent lures to herd the crabs and control the passage. But a desperate faction of stranded refugees, the Bridge Wardens, believes the crabs are sacred guardians whose slaughter will unleash a greater geological curse. Both sides will use you. Neither side tells the whole truth.

Chronicle Prelude

You stand in the ruins of Broken-Bridge Station, a crumbling outpost on the edge of a deep gulch. The air is thick with dust and the distant, grinding sounds of stone on stone. Half-collapsed buildings offer meager shelter, and the only path forward is a shattered bridge, now an impassable chasm. Figures watch from the shadows.

Environmental Traits

The region is geologically unstable. The massive rock crabs, when agitated or killed en masse, cause seismic tremors that threaten to collapse the entire mountain pass. The ultimate crisis is a looming catastrophic landslide that will bury the station and all within it unless the delicate balance between the crabs, the bandits, and the refugees is understood and navigated.

Legendary Archetypes

Rayan

HP:45

STR:16

WIS: 12

CHA:11

Key Factions & Autonomous Nodes (8)

Silas Grit
A middle-aged human with a face like cracked leather, a prominent scar running from his temple to his jaw, and the practical, worn clothing of a former miner. He carries a modified pickaxe and moves with a tired, determined gait.
Mira Stonehand
An elderly human woman with serene, white hair braided with small crystals and shells. Her robes are woven with crab-shell patterns, and she carries a staff topped with a large, polished geode. Her expression is one of calm, unwavering faith.
Kael 'the Screech'
A wiry, nervous human with wide eyes that constantly dart to the shadows. His clothes are patched with camouflage netting and crab-shell fragments, and he carries a set of tuning forks and resonance tubes.
Old Varek
An elderly, blind human male dressed in the faded, layered robes of a Bridge Warden. He sits amidst the damp stones of the aqueduct, his head tilted as if listening intently to the water and rock around him.
The Crab Matriarch
A colossal, ancient rock crab the size of a house. Its carapace is a rugged landscape of stone and crystal, with the original bridge's keystone fragment visibly fused into its central shell. Its many eyes glow with a faint, geothermal light, and its movements cause localized tremors.
Holt, the Runners' Engineer
A stocky, soot-stained human with a mechanical prosthetic replacing his left hand. He is surrounded by tools, scrap metal, and the components of half-finished explosive devices.
Elara, Doubtful Ritualist
A young human woman in Bridge Warden vestments that look too large for her. Her hands fidget with a small totem, and her eyes are downcast, betraying deep anxiety.
Spectral Miner
A translucent, flickering apparition of a man in archaic mining gear. It wanders a specific section of the aqueduct, repeating a desperate, silent digging motion before dissolving and reforming.

Chronicle Prelude

Environmental Traits

Legendary Archetypes

✦ Related Cases ✦

The Goblin Plight of Rivervale and the Cryptic Mine

The Lost Workshop: Heart of a Raging Core