D20 SYSTEM✦ Normal

The Lightning Squirrel Catwalk-Destructions of Stormcliff and the Spent Static Discharged from the Overloaded Dwarven Power Foundry

# Dungeon# Magitech# Fey# Wilderness

The great Dwarven Power Foundry of Stormcliff, a monument to arcane engineering, has catastrophically overloaded. Its spent static discharge, a torrent of raw, uncontrolled magical lightning, has saturated the surrounding highlands. This has warped the local fauna, creating terrifying 'Lightning Squirrels' that now swarm the ruined catwalks and superstructures, a living storm of crackling fur and teeth. But the overload was no accident. A desperate choice was made, and now two groups fight for control of the ruin's heart, each blaming the other for the cataclysm. The players arrive as mercenaries or investigators, only to find themselves caught in a deadly triangle of accusation, survival, and the looming threat of a second, world-shattering discharge.

Chronicle Prelude

You stand at the rusted, humming gates of the Stormcliff Foundry's outer yard. The air smells of ozone and scorched metal. Distant, frantic chittering echoes from the skeletal catwalks above, punctuated by flashes of blue-white light. Two hastily fortified camps face each other across the debris field: one of grim, soot-stained Dwarven engineers in salvage rigs, the other of ethereal, cloaked figures surrounded by crackling, erratically behaving arcane constructs. Both watch the entrance, and you, with equal parts suspicion and hope.

Environmental Traits

A second, catastrophic discharge is building within the Foundry's core. The Dwarven Engineers (Faction A) believe the Fey-Touched Artificers (Faction B) sabotaged their life's work. The Fey-Touched believe the Dwarves' reckless drilling into a ley-line nexus caused the initial breach. Both are partially right. The truth lies deeper, in a core chamber where a conscious, pain-wracked entity—a Warped Storm Elemental—is being used as a living battery. Players must navigate the infested ruins, uncover the truth, and decide whose vision for the Foundry's future—or its destruction—to support before the next discharge annihilates the region.

Legendary Archetypes

Rayan

HP:45

STR:16

WIS: 12

CHA:11

Key Factions & Autonomous Nodes (9)

Foreman Grundig Ironfist
A powerfully built Dwarven woman with a braided, smoke-stained beard and a mechanical left arm that hisses steam. Her leather apron is scorched, and she carries a heavy wrench like a weapon. She eyes outsiders with deep, pragmatic suspicion.
Herald Vaelia of the Verdant Spark
A tall, gaunt human woman with crackling green eyes and intricate, fern-like patterns of Fey energy visibly pulsing beneath the skin of her arms. She moves with a serene, unsettling grace, and the air around her smells of petrichor and ozone.
Tinkmaster Fizzlewick
A terrified Gnome trapped inside a cracked, transparent salvage pod. His clothes are sooty, and his wild hair stands on end from residual static. He bangs frantically on the pod's thick glass when he sees you.
Briar the Squirrel Whisperer
A wild-eyed human hermit draped in cloaks of woven squirrel fur and living vines. Small, crackling Lightning Squirrels perch on her shoulders, chittering softly. She smells of damp earth and ozone.
Engineer Dorin Stonebraid
A Dwarven engineer with a nervous tic and a uniform that is too clean for the environment. He carries tools of unusually high quality, and his eyes dart constantly, as if checking for observers. He smiles a little too readily.
Swarm of Giggling Glimmer Sprites
A small cloud of tiny, luminous fey beings that flit about in a chaotic cluster, leaving trails of sparkling dust. Their giggles sound like wind chimes in a storm, and their forms constantly shift between human-like and insectoid.
The Warped Storm Elemental
A massive, humanoid shape of writhing lightning, crackling storm clouds, and lashing tendrils of raw magical energy, suspended within a glowing, spider-web-like containment lattice of dwarven engineering. Its 'face' is a constantly shifting vortex of agony, emitting psychic pulses of pain and confusion.
Warden Automaton MK-IV
A towering, 8-foot-tall humanoid construct of pitted iron and brass. One of its arms is a massive, sparking pincer, the other a rotating array of tools and drills. Its single, cyclopean eye glows a steady, ominous red. It moves with a ponderous, unstoppable gait.
Enraged Lightning Squirrel
A fist-sized rodent with fur that stands on end, crackling with visible arcs of static electricity. Its eyes glow with a feral, electric blue light, and it chitters aggressively, baring tiny, sharp teeth.

Chronicle Prelude

Environmental Traits

Legendary Archetypes

✦ Related Cases ✦

The Lost Workshop: Heart of a Raging Core

The Crystalline Scorpion Frenzy