D20 SYSTEM✦ Normal

The Rusting of the Iron Woods

# Wilderness# Dungeon# Intrigue

The Rusted Iron Woods were once a verdant forest, now petrified into a grotesque monument of oxidized metal. Ancient, sapient Rust Monsters, the Ferrovores, have awakened, drawn to a cataclysmic pulse from the Buried Armory below. Two factions clash in the twilight of this dying landscape: one seeks to seal the Armory forever to contain the metallic plague, while the other believes the Armory holds the only key to reversing the curse and saving their homeland from a greater, encroaching doom. The players, caught in the middle, must navigate a forest that devours their gear, uncover buried truths, and make a choice that will decide the fate of a world turning to rust.

Chronicle Prelude

The players arrive at the last untouched settlement, the fortified timber village of Ferrohaven, built on the only patch of non-metallic earth. The air smells of ozone and decay. The ground is a lattice of rusted roots and petrified iron bark. NPCs argue in hushed, desperate tones about the 'Great Oxidation' and the monsters that stalk the woods.

Environmental Traits

The Buried Ancient Armory, a pre-cataclysm war vault, is emitting a growing wave of 'Rust Pulse' energy. This pulse is accelerating the transformation of the woods, turning living wood to rusted iron and awakening dormant Ferrovores. If not stopped, the pulse will eventually reach the capital, turning the entire kingdom to brittle, red dust.

Legendary Archetypes

Rayan

HP:45

STR:16

WIS: 12

CHA:11

Key Factions & Autonomous Nodes (6)

Kaelen Stern
A weathered human man in his late 40s, with close-cropped grey hair and a deep scar running from his temple to his jaw. He wears practical, stained leather armor bearing the gear-and-anvil symbol of the Crucible Collective. His movements are precise, his gaze hard and calculating.
Lira Voss
A human woman in her 30s with alchemical stains on her fingers and wide, desperate eyes. Her clothes are patched, and a fine dusting of metalite powder seems to cling to her. She wears a bandolier of vials and carries the scent of ozone and wet metal.
Druid Yngra
A wood elf with skin the color of birch bark and hair like dried leaves. Her eyes are a deep, sad green. She moves with a silent grace, but her touch lingers on the few living plants left, a gesture of sorrow. Rust seems to avoid her immediate vicinity.
Ferrovore Queen
This massive Rust Monster is twice the size of her workers, her carapace a twisted mosaic of iridescent, corroded plates that glow with a faint internal light. Tendrils of rust-energy arc between her antennae. Her movements are agitated, protective, and pained. She guards the entrance to the deeper hive, her chittering a complex mix of threat and alarm.
Armory Sentinel
A hulking, humanoid warforged construct, its bronze and iron body streaked with verdigris and deep rust-pitting. One of its optical sensors is dark, the other glows a steady, warning red. It stands motionless before the massive sealed vault door, its posture one of eternal, unwavering vigilance. The air around it hums with latent energy and the smell of ozone.
Specter of Keeper Maren
A translucent, shimmering figure of a woman in archaic technician's garb. She is perpetually covered in a cascade of falling, spectral rust flakes. Her form flickers, and her expression is one of eternal sorrow and confusion. She is bound to the Purification Core Chamber, fading in and out of visibility near its humming mechanisms.

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