D20 SYSTEM✦ Normal

The Jammed Valve and the Sovereign Glue

# Dungeon# Wilderness# Intrigue# Economic

Deep beneath the earth, the ancient Troglodyte Tunnels are choked by a malfunctioning poison-gas valve, sealed with an unbreakable Sovereign Glue. Two desperate factions war over the means to either open the valve—unleashing a toxic miasma onto the surface world—or seal it permanently, trapping the gas and the creatures within forever. There are no heroes here, only survivors with wrenching choices.

Chronicle Prelude

The players emerge into the Rusthaven Outpost, a grimy, lamp-lit trading post built in a massive cavern. It is the last bastion of organized civilization before the lawless expanse of the Troglodyte Tunnels, populated by desperate miners, exiled scholars, and mercenaries. The air is thick with the smell of rust and unwashed bodies.

Environmental Traits

A catastrophic failure in a dwarven-built gas containment system has sealed a lethal pocket of subterranean poison. The valve is jammed, and the Sovereign Glue applied to its mechanisms is nearly impossible to remove. The region is a powder keg: one faction believes the gas is a vital resource to be harvested, the other sees it as a doomsday weapon to be contained. The players must navigate the treacherous tunnels to reach the valve and decide the fate of thousands.

Legendary Archetypes

Rayan

HP:45

STR:16

WIS: 12

CHA:11

Key Factions & Autonomous Nodes (8)

Krigga 'Iron-Vein' Bronzehand
A stocky, scarred dwarven woman with a braided beard clasped with iron rivets. Her left hand is a complex prosthetic of gears and brass, and her leather armor is stained with chemical burns and rock dust. She carries the scent of sulfur and stale ale.
Sylas Mossveil
An elderly elf with skin like weathered bark and hair like hanging lichen. His robes are woven from living moss and fungal threads, and his eyes glow with a soft, phosphorescent green. He moves with an unnatural silence, as if part of the cavern itself.
Tink 'One-Arm' Greaves
A wiry, one-armed gnome with wild, greasy hair and magnifying goggles permanently perched on his forehead. His remaining hand is perpetually stained with grease, and he wears a vest covered in dozens of small pockets, each bulging with tools, parts, and secrets. He flinches at sudden movements and loud noises.
The Glue Golem
A horrifying, shambling mass of hardened Sovereign Glue, broken dwarven machinery, and the petrified remains of various creatures—a goblin's arm, a rat's skull, a section of dwarven armor—all fused together into a vaguely humanoid shape. It moves with a slow, sticky, grinding motion, leaving a glistening trail. It has no discernible face, only a cluster of dull, amber light where a head might be.
Mira 'Patchwork' Cogwright
A nervous human woman in her thirties, her Prospector uniform ill-fitting and stained. Her eyes dart constantly, and she clutches a satchel to her chest. Her hands are steady, the hands of an engineer, but her face is pale with fear. She has a prosthetic leg made of scrap metal and leather.
Gloomcrawler Alpha
A massive, fungal creature resembling a hybrid of a giant spider and a mantis, its carapace covered in glowing, pulsating bioluminescent fungi. It moves with terrifying speed and silence for its size. Its multiple eyes glow with a dull, intelligent light, and it communicates with its kin through clicks and pheromone bursts.
Broken Calculus
A dwarven calculation golem, now deranged. Its brass and iron body is dented and leaking oil. One of its three optical lenses is cracked, spilling a faint light. It twitches erratically, and its internal gears grind loudly. It constantly mutters streams of nonsensical numbers and theorems.
Old Soot
A gaunt, half-mad human hermit draped in rags and soot-stained blankets. He lives in a large, rusted pipe junction in the Pump Station. His eyes are wide and wild, and he speaks in a rapid, conspiratorial whisper. He is covered in scratches and chemical stains.

Chronicle Prelude

Environmental Traits

Legendary Archetypes

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