D20 SYSTEM✦ Normal

The Gilded Heresy of Dawn Temple

# Construct# Intrigue# Dungeon# Investigation

Dawn Temple, a bastion of Lathander's light, is now a cage of gilded madness. Its divine protectors, the Clockwork Goldfinches, have turned on their creators, slaughtering clerics in a frenzy of spring-loaded talons. The faithful are dead, but the truth is worse: Prelate Alaric, desperate to fund a war against a spreading shadow blight, secretly replaced the sacred arcane oil with a cheap, corruptive substitute. Now the automatons are poisoned, their logic circuits screaming with agony, lashing out at all warm flesh. Veteran players must navigate the smoldering ruins, uncover the conspiracy, and decide which sin is greater: the Prelate's desperate pragmatism or the Order's blind faith in flawless machinery.

Chronicle Prelude

The Ashen Courtyard, a scorched and silent plaza before the shattered main gates of Dawn Temple. The air stinks of ozone and cooked metal. Gilded finch parts litter the ground like broken toys. A single, twitching automaton lies pinned by rubble, its crystal eyes flickering with agonized light, whispering fragmented prayers to a god that cannot hear.

Environmental Traits

The divine sanctuary is a labyrinth of malfunctioning clockwork traps and insane automatons. The 'shadow blight'—a creeping corruption from a rift in the Astral Plane—is gnawing at the temple's foundations. The ultimate goal is to reach the Sanctum Solaris and stop the central Clockwork Conductor, whose escalating harmonic frequency threatens to overload and detonate the entire temple's soul-forge, causing a catastrophic arcane explosion that would turn the valley into a glassed wasteland.

Legendary Archetypes

Rayan

HP:45

STR:16

WIS: 12

CHA:11

Key Factions & Autonomous Nodes (8)

Prelate Alaric
A gaunt, weary human man in ornate but soiled robes of office. His eyes are sunken with guilt and lack of sleep, but they hold a fierce, desperate conviction. The sigil of the Prelacy is branded on his forehead, but it looks more like a mark of shame than authority.
High Confessor Mirael
An imposing woman in immaculate white-and-gold robes, her face set in an expression of serene, absolute judgment. Her eyes burn with cold, purified light, and she carries a staff topped with a gear-shaped sunburst that glows with cleansing energy.
Engineer Kaelen
A young, terrified human artificer trapped under a fallen girder in the Hall of Gears. His leg is pinned, and his toolkit is scattered around him. He wears the grease-stained uniform of a junior temple engineer.
Malfunctioning Finch Automaton
A small, bird-like clockwork construct, its copper and brass plating scorched and cracked. One of its wings sparks erratically. It hops in frantic circles, letting out high-pitched, distorted chirps that sound more like shrieks of pain than communication.
Remnant Guard Captain
A middle-aged human soldier in battered, mismatched armor that blends Order finery with practical, scavenged pieces. He stands guard near a collapsed bookshelf, but his posture is weary, and he frequently glances at a sealed door behind him.
Shadow Blight Mephit
A swirling vortex of pure shadow and corrosive negative energy, vaguely humanoid in shape. It coalesces near the Soulforge Chasm, and its presence causes nearby metal to tarnish and organic matter to wither. It is a physical manifestation of the external blight.
Orrery Warden
A massive, humanoid clockwork construct that serves as the central pivot and guardian of the Rotating Orrery Bridge. It is covered in dials and lenses, and its movements are precise but jerky. It emits a loud, rhythmic ticking that syncs with the bridge's rotation.
Corpse of High Artificer Theron
The body of an elderly human man in fine, oil-stained robes, slumped over a complex control console in the Prelate's Vault. He holds a spent potion vial (of self-inflicted poison). His face is frozen in an expression of horror and resignation.

Chronicle Prelude

Environmental Traits

Legendary Archetypes

✦ Related Cases ✦

The Clockwork Goldfinch Assaults of Dawn Temple

The Goblin Plight of Rivervale and the Cryptic Mine