D20 SYSTEM✦ Normal

The Scalding Truth of Hotspring Inn

# Wilderness# Intrigue# Dungeon# Investigation# Beast

The famed healing waters of Hotspring Inn have turned lethal. Guests are found boiled in their tubs, their flesh sloughing off in gelatinous sheets, while the proprietor insists it's a minor, fixable 'mineral imbalance.' Veteran adventurers know that when an innkeeper starts drilling into deep magma veins, the resulting 'bathhouse outpourings' are not a spa treatment, but a slow-motion catastrophe. The question is not *if* the inn will explode, but who profits from the delay, and what ancient, territorial horror now stirs in the superheated depths.

Chronicle Prelude

The public facade of Hotspring Inn is deceptively serene. Wood-paneled rooms steam gently, the air smells of sulfur and lavender, and the proprietor offers complimentary towels and a worried smile. The 'closed for renovation' signs on the private baths hint at something more sinister. Rumors in the nearby village speak of missing workers and strange, bubbling sounds from the earth at night.

Environmental Traits

The High-Pressure Magma Veins beneath the inn have been illegally breached, creating unstable geothermal vents and spawning corrosive Magma Slimes. The entire region is on the brink of a catastrophic phreatic explosion that will scorch the valley. The immediate crisis must be resolved: either the breach must be sealed (permanently shutting down the inn's source of wealth and healing) or the slimes must be contained long enough for the proprietor to execute a dangerous, profit-driven extraction plan before evacuating.

Legendary Archetypes

Rayan

HP:45

STR:16

WIS: 12

CHA:11

Key Factions & Autonomous Nodes (8)

Proprietor Aldric Velmont
A gaunt man in his late sixties, with deep-set, weary eyes and a once-fine waistcoat now stained with ink and ash. His hands are perpetually trembling. He wears a pin shaped like a miniature, bubbling geyser—the symbol of the Consortium.
Elder Ashara of the Geyserfolk
An old woman with skin like cracked leather and eyes that seem to hold the deep, green glow of submerged moss. Her arms and face are covered in ritual scarification patterns that mimic steam vents and mineral deposits. She carries a gnarled staff of petrified wood.
Guard Captain Roark
A thick-set man in chainmail bearing the Consortium's geyser sigil. His face is weathered and stern, but his eyes constantly dart towards the unstable shafts and the distant rumbling. He carries a well-maintained spear and a heavy shield.
Foreman Kragg
A towering, muscular man covered in soot and old burn scars. He wears a heavy leather apron and wields a massive, industrial pickaxe like a weapon. His eyes are small and mean, fixed on profit and progress above all else. He oversees a crew of nervous miners at the edge of the great shaft.
Miner Silas
A wiry, unremarkable man in miner's garb, his face perpetually smudged with grease and dust. He blends in with the other laborers, but his eyes are unusually sharp and watchful. He tends to a steam vent's valve mechanism near the edge of the Consortium's camp.
Magma Slime Swarm
A quivering, multicolored mass of lesser magma slimes, each the size of a fist, that have coalesced into a larger, aggressive agglomeration. They glow with internal heat, leaving a corrosive, sizzling trail as they ooze across surfaces. They react mindlessly to movement and vibration.
The Injured Earth Elemental
A colossal, humanoid form of living basalt and crystal, easily thirty feet tall, but slumped and cracked. Its body is partially fused with the cavern wall, forming a living dam over a glowing magma breach. Great fissures across its torso weep luminous, superheated fluid and emit waves of psychic distress. Its movements are slow, pained tremors that shake the entire sanctum.
Mayor Hestia
A stout, practical woman in her fifties, wearing a clean but simple wool dress. Her expression is one of permanent worry. She wears the mayor's medallion, but clutches it like a talisman. She can often be found in the inn's common room, listening to worried villagers.

Chronicle Prelude

Environmental Traits

Legendary Archetypes

✦ Related Cases ✦

The Goblin Plight of Rivervale and the Cryptic Mine

The Reckoning of the Blood-Soaked Bracers