D20 SYSTEM✦ Normal

The Scrambled Gears of Gond

# Dark Fantasy# Construct# Dungeon

Beneath the crumbling aqueducts of the old Mechanist's Workshop, a network of lethal, automated chariot tracks lies dormant—until now. Something has scrambled the timing gears, causing ancient traps to trigger in erratic, unpredictable patterns. Two desperate factions clash over access to the workshop's core: the Order of the Resolute Cog, who believe the Mechanist's lost automaton can save their plague-ridden city, and the Silent Tines, a cult that sees the scrambled chaos as a divine sign that the old world's machines must be destroyed to prevent a greater cataclysm. You have been drawn into this mechanical hell, not to choose a side, but to survive the gears and decide which future is less doomed.

Chronicle Prelude

The Rust-Harrowed Market: A grim, rain-slicked plaza built within the shadow of a colossal, inert crane. Scavengers trade in scrap metal and whisper of the 'Track-Runners' who enter the tunnels below and never return. The air smells of ozone and old oil.

Environmental Traits

The Mechanist's Workshop is reactivating. The central 'Chrono-Cogitator' is destabilizing, causing the chariot track-traps to fire in cascading sequences that are sealing off the outer districts and threatening to collapse the entire subterranean complex. If the core is not stabilized or destroyed within a tenday, the resulting seismic event will level the city above.

Legendary Archetypes

Rayan

HP:45

STR:16

WIS: 12

CHA:11

Key Factions & Autonomous Nodes (8)

Elara Gristle-Hand
A middle-aged woman with grease-stained overalls and a prosthetic left hand of whirring cogs and pistons. Her eyes are sharp but haunted, and she carries a heavy toolkit at her hip. She wears the Order's emblem—a cog encircling a hammer—on her breast.
Silent Vex
A gaunt figure in tattered, hooded robes, their face obscured by a metal grille that covers the mouth and jaw. They communicate by holding up small, slate boards on which they scrawl messages in chalk. Their eyes burn with fanatical conviction.
Griddlejack
A wiry, one-eyed scavenger with oil-slicked skin and a perpetual grin that shows more gaps than teeth. He wears a necklace of old machine parts and carries a bulging satchel. His single, good eye constantly darts about, assessing everything for its scrap value.
The Track-Minder
A spidery, multi-limbed maintenance automaton the size of a warhorse. Its central body is a scarred steel drum bristling with welding torches, wrenches, and a central, glowing optic. It moves with a skittering, mechanical precision on six piston-driven legs, leaving sparks in its wake.
The Corrosive Conglomerate
A massive, amorphous blob of iridescent, bubbling ooze the size of a small room. It oozes across the catwalks and vats, absorbing and neutralizing stray toxins with a low, gurgling hum. Its 'skin' shimmers with a chemical rainbow, and it leaves a trail of clean, wet metal.
Kael
A young man, barely out of his teens, huddled in rags. His skin is pallid and clammy, and his breathing is a shallow, wheezing rattle—the tell-tale sign of the Iron-Lung Blight. He clutches a faded letter to his chest and looks around the market with desperate, fever-bright eyes.
The Mechanist's Echo
A fragmented, flickering holographic projection of a bearded man in a heavy leather apron. The image stutters and glitches, casting ghostly blue light across the Chrono-Cogitator Chamber. He gestures at the massive, spinning gear assembly with a mixture of pride and profound regret.
Phase-Stuttering Mastiff
A large, mangy hound that flickers in and out of visibility, its body phasing between solid and translucent. Its movements are jerky and unpredictable, and it snarls with a sound like tearing static. It is a clear, violent symptom of the Reality Fluctuation Field's destabilizing effect.

Chronicle Prelude

Environmental Traits

Legendary Archetypes

✦ Related Cases ✦

The Ashen Peaks and the Gargoyle Swarm

The Upheaval of the Clockwork Hound